Back Home Research Articles

Education as the revolving door into the streets and back home among street-involved children in Harare, Zimbabwe

This article explores the roles of education in driving children onto the streets and facilitating reunification with family. These roles are discussed in terms of how they contribute to street childhood and how they become part of a reintegration package. Against this background, education is considered a social vaccine against risky behaviours among children. The data were collected using a qualitative research approach, employing semi-structured interviews with street-involved children and key informants. The study purposively sampled 18 participants, including 10 street-involved children, eight informants from the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Non-Governmental Organisation staff, guardians and former street-involved children. Of the 10 street-involved children, five were females and the other five were males. Data analysis revealed that these children faced education-related risk factors such as material poverty, differential treatment, adverse childhood experiences, truancy, stigma, and peer influence. The children employed resilience pathways like reunification support and putting personal effort into their schooling. The article recommends the government ensure that children from poor, blended and at-risk families receive mental health and financial support to continue attending school. Street-involved and at-risk children require comprehensive schooling support, family strengthening and protection from abuse to ensure their well-being and safety.

The Acceptance and Use of Digital Technologies for Self-Reporting Medication Safety Events After Care Transitions to Home in Patients With Cancer: Survey Study.

Actively engaging patients with cancer and their families in monitoring and reporting medication safety events during care transitions is indispensable for achieving optimal patient safety outcomes. However, existing patient self-reporting systems often cannot address patients' various experiences and concerns regarding medication safety over time. In addition, these systems are usually not designed for patients' just-in-time reporting. There is a significant knowledge gap in understanding the nature, scope, and causes of medication safety events after patients' transition back home because of a lack of patient engagement in self-monitoring and reporting of safety events. The challenges for patients with cancer in adopting digital technologies and engaging in self-reporting medication safety events during transitions of care have not been fully understood. We aim to assess oncology patients' perceptions of medication and communication safety during care transitions and their willingness to use digital technologies for self-reporting medication safety events and to identify factors associated with their technology acceptance. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted with adult patients with breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer (N=204) who had experienced care transitions from hospitals or clinics to home in the past 1 year. Surveys were conducted via phone, the internet, or email between December 2021 and August 2022. Participants' perceptions of medication and communication safety and perceived usefulness, ease of use, attitude toward use, and intention to use a technology system to report their medication safety events from home were assessed as outcomes. Potential personal, clinical, and psychosocial factors were analyzed for their associations with participants' technology acceptance through bivariate correlation analyses and multiple logistic regressions. Participants reported strong perceptions of medication and communication safety, positively correlated with medication self-management ability and patient activation. Although most participants perceived a medication safety self-reporting system as useful (158/204, 77.5%) and easy to use (157/204, 77%), had a positive attitude toward use (162/204, 79.4%), and were willing to use such a system (129/204, 63.2%), their technology acceptance was associated with their activation levels (odds ratio [OR] 1.83, 95% CI 1.12-2.98), their perceptions of communication safety (OR 1.64, 95% CI 1.08-2.47), and whether they could receive feedback after self-reporting (OR 3.27, 95% CI 1.37-7.78). In general, oncology patients were willing to use digital technologies to report their medication events after care transitions back home because of their high concerns regarding medication safety. As informed and activated patients are more likely to have the knowledge and capability to initiate and engage in self-reporting, developing a patient-centered reporting system to empower patients and their families and facilitate safety health communications will help oncology patients in addressing their medication safety concerns, meeting their care needs, and holding promise to improve the quality of cancer care.

Public transport crowdshipping: moving shipments among parcel lockers located at public transport stations

AbstractIn view of success stories of unicorn startups from the sharing and gig economy such as Airbnb, DiDi, or Uber, it is not surprising that postal service providers try to transfer the sharing idea toward their last-mile delivery services: owners of under-used assets (here private crowdshippers traveling anyway) are connected with users willing to pay for the use of these assets (here postal service providers having to deliver parcels). In this paper, we consider a special form of crowdshipping where public transport users, steered by a smartphone app, pick up parcels from parcel lockers, take these shipments with them on their subway rides, and deposit these parcels into other lockers. Finally, the actual recipients can pick up their shipments from their most convenient parcel lockers, e.g., on their own way back home from work. We formulate the optimization problem that matches crowdshipping demand and supply and determines the routes along lockers and crowdshippers each parcel takes. Specifically, we allow that each parcel is moved by multiple cooperating crowdshippers and solve this problem with different objective functions capturing the individual aims of the main stakeholders: shippers, crowdshippers, recipients, and the platform provider. We evaluate the relationship of these objectives and quantify the efficiency loss of a more restricted matching policy, where only a single crowdshipper can be assigned to each parcel’s complete path between origin and destination. Finally, we also explore the impact of delays and investigate whether specific objectives protect against unforeseen events.

Mood profile in men and women of all ages is improved by leisure-time physical activity rather than work-related physical activity

BackgroundThe aim of our study was to determine how six mood indicators (vigour, fatigue, depression, anger, confusion, tension) depend on moderate to vigorous physical activity, walking time and sedentary time at work, after working hours and during leisure time, in men and women of different age groups.MethodsA total of 1,140 individuals aged 18 to 64 years participated in the study. The participants were enrolled in this cross-sectional survey using a snowball sampling method. An online questionnaire was shared through popular social networks and emails within the period October 2019 to June 2020. Mood responses were assessed using The Brunel Mood Scale-LTU. Physical activity was assessed using the long International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, a two-way analysis of variance, and linear regression analysis were used to interpret the data.ResultsThe survey results showed that vigour and fatigue correlated significantly only with leisure-time moderate to vigorous physical activity. The present results show a significant positive correlation between women and men moods and leisure-time moderate to vigorous physical activity, the length of time walking to work and back home, and negative correlation between moods and leisure-time sedentary behaviour. However, there was no significant correlation between moods and work-related moderate to vigorous physical activity and household moderate to vigorous physical activity, walking at work, and sitting duration at work.ConclusionsThis study provides theoretical implications of the physical activity paradox, justifying the benefits of moderate to vigorous physical activity practiced in different circumstances. According to the regression analysis, exercising men in all age groups moved the most (had a higher moderate to vigorous physical activity level) during leisure time, the highest work-related moderate to vigorous physical activity was observed in men and women with lower education, and the highest household moderate to vigorous physical activity was observed in older age men and women living in rural areas. Clinicians and leaders at all levels of health care should consider the greater importance of leisure-time physical activity for mental health when choosing the most targeted physical activity recommendations for mood profile improvement in men and women of different age groups.

Time

Time My index finger was reaching for the up button on the elevator when the voice sounded above, Code Blue Tower 8. Code Blue Tower 8. I broke for the stairs. They were getting the paddles in place; the First Year with the floppy hair, Ethan, pumping the chest; the Night Float, Emily, manning an Ambu-Bag; Jamie, the Resident, running the code. I dared a look at the face – Ken, with whom I’d traded jokes for twenty years – Ken, whom I’d told yesterday his time was coming – he’d be back home, maybe two days. Clear! barked Jamie. Hands backed away, motion suspended. A very long second. The shape on the bed gave a shudder. Then Jamie’s voice: Excellent, a rhythm. A rhythm – but no pulse. Hands were pumping again, counting, squeezing in air. The spark was there on the screen – life, dancing across it – but none of the tiny muscles in the heart were listening. Epi. Atropine. Thirty minutes. Ethan looked up at Jamie, she shot a glance at me. Someone had to say it – and first right of refusal to the guy with gray hair. A power none of us wished for – a power none of us have – but the world pretends. I felt my head move up and down. Jamie’s eyes found the clock – 7:44 AM, she said. Time.

"We Need to Go Back Home (to) the Philippines Healthy": An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Migrant Domestic Workers' Experiences of Having Breast Cancer in Hong Kong.

Diagnoses of breast cancer are continuing to increase in the Philippines, but little is known about incidence rates among the significant number of Filipino women working abroad as migrant domestic workers (MDWs). These women are often the main income providers for their families, and their ability to work depends upon their physical health and strength. In this article, we use interpretive phenomenological analysis to explore the experiences of 10 MDWs from the Philippines who were diagnosed with breast cancer during a period of employment in Hong Kong. Analysis of these narratives revealed numerous points at which their status as temporary, transnational migrant workers intersected with their experiences of breast cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment. We argue that these women's experiences of breast cancer were shaped by the structures of migration that link the Philippines with host destinations like Hong Kong. These structures create a unique context in which these women had to constantly renegotiate their identities as migrants, financial providers, and breast cancer patients.

Abstract TP88: The Role of Tele-Occupational Therapy to Facilitate Occupational Performance in Stroke Survivors Selected by Patient Reported Outcomes

After a stroke, coming back home is difficult for most stroke patients. Occupational Therapy (OT) promotes coping with this situation, but in-home intervention is scarce. Through patient reported outcomes (PROMs), an OT can detect possible needs in the areas of occupational performance (OP), and then provide the appropriate tools to facilitate occupation in areas of self-care, productivity and leisure. We aimed to evaluate a tele-OT intervention through a holistic app to provide OT after discharge from a comprehensive stroke center. Methods: Consecutive stroke patients discharged home were included in a multimodal digital follow-up program (NORA) through a mobile application validated for communication, education, adherence, risk factors control and PROMs/PREMs recollection. Patients with OT needs are offered a telematic visit to solve stroke-related doubts, everyday activities, home modifications promoting patient’s autonomy and self-care. A tele-OT satisfaction questionnaire (teleOT-PREM) was recollected. Results: Over two years, 993 patients were included in NORA follow-up and reported PROMs at 7-30 days. 147 (14.8%) patients presented OT needs and were included in our tele-OT intervention. Sixty-one were men, with a mean age of 68.5y and a median mRS of 2 at hospital discharge. Tele-OT patients reported worse PROMs than the global series: in HADS, 40.8% anxiety and 34.2% depression and in PROMIS-10 89.3% altered mental health and 82.1% altered physical health, as compared with 13.1%, 17.7%, 64.7%, and 54.8% respectively (p<0.001) 108 patients answered the teleOT-PREM. The median usefulness of intervention (in a scale from 0-10) was 8.2 and 65% reported being “very satisfied” with the visit. Conclusion: Stroke has a direct impact on a person’s occupational performance. Follow-up by an expert of the occupation (OT) could help to identify the post-stroke patient’s needs and poor PROMs can be used as a selection tool. Tele-OT intervention may promote a better OP, facilitating the daily life activities and improving the quality of life. Tele-OT intervention was feasible and considered useful for most of our stroke patients with OT requirements.

Retaining the repatriate by organisation in developing countries (in Africa): understanding the decision-making point (stay or leave) of the expatriate

PurposeDespite the high rates of repatriate attrition, organisations in developing countries continue to send some of their employees to study in tertiary institutions in developed countries to acquire and build competencies that are deemed strategically important for contemporary work. Although several studies have been conducted on expatriate experience and challenges, those relating repatriation experiences are limited, particularly those concerning organisationally assigned scholars (employees who are sponsored to study overseas). Consequently, the present study explored the intention to stay or leave of organisationally assigned Ghanaian scholars who pursued higher degrees in Australia.Design/methodology/approachTo understand the decision of organisationally assigned sponsored scholars to either stay in or leave the host-organisation upon their return, a phenomenological methodology was adopted to explore the lived experiences of organisation assigned scholars (OAS) from Ghana, studying in Australia. The face-to-face interview approach was used to interview 20 Ghanaians who pursued their further studies in Australia. The interviewees consisted of six females and 14 males.FindingsThe results reveal that for expatriate’s in this study, the decision to stay or leave the organisation upon repatriation was made mid-way through the expatriation process in the host county. Hence, organisations intending on retaining their OAS when they return home must focus their support and engagement efforts during this crucial period.Practical implicationsAlthough they are away on further studies, OAS are still active members of the organisation. Therefore, organisations need to maintain contact with them (OAS), constantly check progress of their study and provide some support, as they might motivate them to want to return and work with the organisation. Consequently, more effective strategies (those for managing them while they are away and those for managing them when they return) should be deployed to incentivise their expatriate to return home.Originality/valueThe study explored an important yet understudied research questions in the repatriation literature. By studying the decision of OASs to either return and stay in or leave an organisation back home contributes uniquely to the existing literature, as studies focusing on that population (i.e. OAS’s) are scarce.

“We won't go back home!” Women's Experiences with Deindustrialization and Unemployment at Fiat and LIP, a Comparative Perspective

AbstractThis article stems from a project aiming to investigate women's unemployment in the phase of deindustrialization that affected Western European countries from the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. Countries such as Italy and France, with both a strong working-class movement and a vibrant feminist movement, have had to face economic crises since the mid-seventies and from the eighties have witnessed how neoliberal capitalism started to heavily reshape the global labor market. The old stereotype of female salary as ‘pin money’ within the household budget was again publicly put forth. How did women experience unemployment? What did it mean in terms of their social status, economic independence, sense of self, relationship to the home? To answer these questions and to understand the reconfiguration of class and gender identities, I focus on two milestone cases of labour struggles that are recognized as turning points in the history of the affirmation of neoliberal dynamics: the crisis of FIAT in Italy and of LIP in France. Despite their being at the center of many academic investigations as fundamental sites of resistance, their outcomes in terms of unemployment and particularly the gender dimension of this phenomenon have been largely overlooked so far. I will delineate a comparison between the two cases by drawing on my past research about trade union feminism in the two countries, on archival sources, published accounts and oral histories of two key activists in these struggles. Key factors that will be analysed are: women's participation in the collective mobilisations in the face of unemployment, their relation to the domestic sphere and to care work, their ability to build female networks within their wounded communities.

A Trip Back Home: Resistance to Herbivores of Native and Non-Native Plant Populations of Datura stramonium.

When colonizing new ranges, plant populations may benefit from the absence of the checks imposed by the enemies, herbivores, and pathogens that regulated their numbers in their original range. Therefore, rates of plant damage or infestation by natural enemies are expected to be lower in the new range. Exposing both non-native and native plant populations in the native range, where native herbivores are present, can be used to test whether resistance mechanisms have diverged between populations. Datura stramonium is native to the Americas but widely distributed in Spain, where populations show lower herbivore damage than populations in the native range. We established experiments in two localities in the native range (Mexico), exposing two native and two non-native D. stramonium populations to natural herbivores. Plant performance differed between the localities, as did the abundance of the main specialist herbivore, Lema daturaphila. In Teotihuacán, where L. daturaphila is common, native plants had significantly more adult beetles and herbivore damage than non-native plants. The degree of infestation by the specialist seed predator Trichobaris soror differed among populations and between sites, but the native Ticumán population always had the lowest level of infestation. The Ticumán population also had the highest concentration of the alkaloid scopolamine. Scopolamine was negatively related to the number of eggs deposited by L. daturaphila in Teotihuacán. There was among-family variation in herbivore damage (resistance), alkaloid content (scopolamine), and infestation by L. daturaphila and T. soror, indicating genetic variation and potential for further evolution. Although native and non-native D. stramonium populations have not yet diverged in plant resistance/constitutive defense, the differences between ranges (and the two experimental sites) in the type and abundance of herbivores suggest that further research is needed on the role of resource availability and adaptive plasticity, specialized metabolites (induced, constitutive), and the relationship between genealogical origin and plant defense in both ranges.

Examining the Care Transition Experiences of Home Care Clients Using Journey Mapping

As a priority area of the Canadian government, home care is heavily relied on to support an integrated, accessible, and sustainable health system. VHA Home Healthcare is a large home care agency in Ontario, Canada. Home care provides services that span personal support, nursing, physical and occupational therapy and more to assist people in remaining in their homes and community. Although home care is associated with delayed and reduced hospital use, some home care recipients will require hospital admission. Unplanned hospital admissions in Ontario account for CAD 1.2 billion in healthcare spending. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the unique needs of clients receiving home care and experiencing a transition to and from the hospital. The proposed study aimed to answer the following research questions:
 1)What is the experience of home care clients transitioning from home to hospital and back home and having their home care services resumed?
 2)What are opportunities and recommendations to better support home care clients transitioning to and from the hospital?
 Our study used a descriptive qualitative design by conducting individual interviews and applying a patient journey mapping approach. Patient journey mapping involved identifying the clients’ experience, their touch points across the system, pain points and facilitators. A total of 7 clients and caregivers participated in 12 interviews across two phases. We analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis, and aggregated findings visually depicted the journey on a map. Our results demonstrated that participants experienced hospital admissions as challenging, whether planned or unplanned. Pain points involved having an adverse outcome while in the hospital, including missed or delayed care, attempting to seek additional information to fill knowledge gaps, and sensing not being listened to. Once discharged, clients reported managing multiple service providers and agencies for exacerbated care needs and receiving inconsistent and limited information when in the community. Participants described the system and individual facilitators that mitigated the pain points. These involved having consistent and supportive coordinators and providers in the community before and after the discharge home, having a discharge plan, and accessing an interprofessional team when hospitalized. At a personal level, many participants relied on past professional and personal experience when advocating and navigating the health care system. Self-advocacy skills were essential to ensure that participants had a quality care transition. Our study has several important implications. Notably, patient journey mapping is an effective tool to diagram the home care client journey. Findings also indicate that clients and caregivers often mitigate poor outcomes using advocacy skills and personal and professional experiences. To this end, we can learn from client journeys and leverage clients’ lived experiences to design interventions targeting pain points during care transitions.

Describing the scope of practice of patient navigators for older adult patients with complex care needs

Introduction: Transitions in care (e.g., discharge to home) are stressful for patients, especially for older adults living with complex conditions. To bridge the care gap and improve the continuity of care across care transitions, a new model of care was introduced at a large metropolitan hospital in partnership with a community agency that uses patient navigators which are embedded in the hospital’s care teams, including emergency, acute, and rehabilitative care. Patient Navigators are regulated healthcare professionals with experience in care coordination to assist with care planning during a patient's hospital stay, and to support patients/families in their care journey to their home for up to 90 days. There is qualitative evidence demonstrating that patient navigators have increased patient/caregiver satisfaction at the hospital but further evidence is required to characterize the scope of practice of navigators to better understand how they are integrating with the larger clinical team. 
 Aim∕Objectives∕Theories∕Methods: The purpose of this study was to characterize the scope of practice of patient navigators. The objectives were to identify the characteristics of patients who have been supported by a navigator and to determine the reasons for referral and intervention, service length, and post-discharge location. To accomplish this aim, a cohort observational study design approach was used, which included using clinical notes collected by the patient navigator as well as hospital decision-support chart data between November 2019 to November 2021. Frequencies and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.
 Highlights∕Results∕Key Findings: Of the 176 cases referred to the patient navigator, 28 were deemed not appropriate for the service, 53 received consults (3 days or less of support), and 90 were assigned to the navigator caseload. Of the 90 on the navigator caseload, the average age was 78.9 (SD=9.9) and 44 had a caregiver present to support them. The top reasons were: 1) service connection to community service; 2) housing related; 3) discharge planning, and 4) provider connection. The average service days was 74 days (Median=49 days). The post-discharge location were: home (66%), rehab/reactivation (15%), palliative/deceased (13%), long-term care (3%), acute care (1%), or unknown (2%).
 Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first Canadian study to describe a patient navigator program for older adults with complex care needs in a hospital setting. The finding suggest that patient navigators are playing an active role in helping older adult patients by linking them to appropriate services while also supporting patients and caregivers. The data illustrates that it is a high resource service, with clients receiving supports over a 74 day period, but led to a large proportion of clients being returned back home. Since this is a novel care model, the findings will help provide the evidence needed to make a case for implementing patient navigators.
 Implications: The Patient Navigator played an important role in advocacy liaising with health and social care providers in the community, and a critical role in discharge planning in the hospital providing follow-up support to patients/families while they transitioned back home for up to 90 days.

Objective and subjective difficulties in returning to the country of origin in case of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, under the prism of different periods of time

Integration and social inclusion policy appear to face various difficulties, in case of migrants, refugees, other forcibly displaced persons. It usually depends on various social, national, cultural and religious biases, prejudices, personal or interpersonal limitations that are shared either in the frame of receiving society or in one of the refuge seekers. Moreover, because of aforementioned features the integration policy works either properly and successfully or fails. Therefore, we can see brilliantly integrated individuals, who restore their level of personal, financial and social independence even while being a refugee and ones, who suffer from not being able to do this even after a long period of time. Anyway, the refuge seekers are legally treated as individuals, who will potentially stay on the territory of the receiving country during a limited period of time (thus, the necessary time, until the optimal conditions of well-being and welfare in their country of origin will not be properly restored). However, as the time passes by, the primary desire to be back home and reintegrate to the primary society decreases until the full elimination. And this tendency appear not be anyhow dependent both on difficulties that the refuge seekers face during integration and social inclusion periods and other factors as well. In our current research we have postulated objective and subjective difficulties of the fact, why the tendency of returning to the home land decreases with the time, and how the integration policy shall be changed to allow the most optimal level of social inclusion of new comers who potentially will become permanent foreign nationals staying abroad.

Back home again: Does returning to live with your parents make the transition to adulthood more complicated?

Back home again: Does returning to live with your parents make the transition to adulthood more complicated?

Between War, Politics, and “Something Nice Back Home”: Uncovering the First Mozambican Experiences within the “World Music” Market (1987–1994)

AbstractThis article analyzes the internationalization of Mozambican music within the “World Music” market during the country’s transitional period from a single-party socialist-led system to a multiparty, liberal one (1987–1994) in relation to the country’s nation-building process. The comparative examination of three cases—Orchestra Marrabenta Star de Moçambique, the song “Baila Maria” by Grupo RM (Amoya), and Real World Records’ albums by Eyuphuro and Ghorwane—shows that the “World Music” market not only served as an escape valve from the country’s lethargic phonographic industry but also emerged as a privileged channel to promote Mozambique’s official musical policy abroad during a crucial civil war-torn period.

Care pathways of sepsis survivors: sequelae, mortality and use of healthcare services in France, 2015–2018

BackgroundIndividuals who survive sepsis are at high risk of chronic sequelae, resulting in significant health-economic costs. Several studies have focused on aspects of healthcare pathways of sepsis survivors but comprehensive, longitudinal overview of their pathways of care are scarce. The aim of this retrospective, longitudinal cohort study is to identify sepsis survivor profiles based on their healthcare pathways and describe their healthcare consumption and costs over the 3 years following their index hospitalization.MethodsThe data were extracted from the French National Hospital Discharge Database. The study population included all patients above 15 years old, with bacterial sepsis, who survived an incident hospitalization in an acute care facility in 2015. To identify survivor profiles, state sequence and clustering analyses were conducted over the year following the index hospitalization. For each profile, patient characteristics and their index hospital stay and sequelae were described, as well as use of care and its associated monetary costs, both pre- and post-sepsis.ResultsNew medical (79.2%), psychological (26.9%) and cognitive (18.5%) impairments were identified post-sepsis, and 65.3% of survivors were rehospitalized in acute care. Cumulative mortality reached 36.6% by 3 years post-sepsis. The total medical cost increased by 856 million € in the year post-sepsis. Five patient clusters were identified: home (65.6% of patients), early death (12.9%), late death (6.8%), short-term rehabilitation (11.3%) and long-term rehabilitation (3.3%). Survivors with early and late death clusters had high rates of cancer and primary bacteremia and experienced more hospital-at-home care post-sepsis. Survivors in short- or long-term rehabilitation clusters were older, with higher percentage of septic shock than those coming back home, and had high rates of multiple site infections and higher rates of new psychological and cognitive impairment.ConclusionsOver three years post-sepsis, different profiles of sepsis survivors were identified with different mortality rates, sequels and healthcare services usage and cost. This study confirmed the importance of sepsis burden and suggests that strategies of post-discharge care, in accordance with patient profile, should be further tested in order to reduce sepsis burden.

The birth of noise in modern China: Radio, amateur engineering, and the sonic network

This article argues that noise was born in modern China with the advent of radio and radio broadcasting. On the one hand, the media specificity of radio required that any radio listener must be an acoustic engineer to some extent, dealing with ‘noise current’, ‘tunable hum’, and ‘interference’, among other audible yet undecipherable electromagnetic signals before tuning into the desired radio program. This novel experience of listening as engineering gave rise to a new conceptualization of noise not merely as unpleasant sounds, but in terms of modern information technology. On the other hand, the affordable radio sets and the public-oriented radio broadcasting together constituted an unprecedented sonic network, one that was able to transmit heterogenous sounds from all over the world back home and at the same time deprived of any individual’s agency in deciding what to listen to. Living in this sonic network, one’s body had to function as if it were a radio set, exposed to overwhelming information streams and trying to tune into the useful while filtering out the noise. Radio noise therefore is symptomatic of the most fundamental dilemma that China was facing in an era of global modernity, national crisis, and information explosion.

Women's entrepreneurial resistance to the COVID-19 pandemic inside handloom family enterprises: a case study of West Bengal, India

PurposeIn light of the COVID-19 pandemic's economic effects, this paper focuses on how home-based women artisans running their family businesses plan their operations to function in the “new normal” environment. The paper emphasises the adaptability and reorientation of business strategies displayed by women entrepreneurs in response to the changing work environment. The paper argues that the women's sense of agency after years of running the family business enables them to bargain and offer passive resistance to the family's power, with the latter aiming to curtail their entrepreneurial gains as the men return to their homes after losing their jobs with the onset of the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe research draws from a qualitative study that was conducted employing field surveys and in-depth interviews with the women entrepreneurs in four important handloom clusters in Nadia, West Bengal (India) in 2022. The empirical evidence is gathered from five months of extensive ethnographic study with 66 home-based women entrepreneurs belonging to 26 handloom family enterprises. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews and the following narrative analysis have been used to comprehend the complex and dynamic conception of female entrepreneurship and women's agency to pivot business strategies during the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsAs a result of the abrupt suspension of the textile industry and the partial or total closure of the traditional and contemporary markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, women from family handloom enterprises are taking steps to strengthen their entrepreneurial resistance. Although women entrepreneurs had spent years running the family business in the absence of their husbands, the pandemic exacerbated the deep-seated gender disparities within the family when social norms threatened to undo the hard-won progress made by them. However, their sense of agency enables them to plan well and resist the patriarchal onslaught with a variety of potentials, utilising tools of active and/or passive resistance within an environment of concrete limits and oppressions.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature on women's entrepreneurial capacity by focusing on how the COVID-19 crisis and changing market demands enable gendered reactions in family enterprises. While men, back home after losing their jobs, choose to strengthen their individual identities and power positions by trying to retain control over the family business, women contribute to collective actions for enhancing the resilience of the community by pivoting their business strategies and implementing new ideas to suit new market conditions. Women thus play a central role in fostering social cohesion, helping build and maintain relationships, promoting empathy, and creating a sense of belonging, which strengthen community bonds and cooperation. The paper shows how women's entrepreneurial resilience and responsibility provide an important basis for organizing sustainable collective action for the survival of the artisanal community during crisis situations.

Ricoeur between Ithaca and the isle of the Phaecians

The aim of this contribution is to critically engage with the ricoeurian reading of the topic of recognition in the Homeric poem Odyssey. The hypothesis presented here is that the ricoeurian reading shows only one side of the coin, since it is almost solely focused on the recognition received by Ulysses when he comes back to Ithaca incognito. Ricoeur stresses the unilaterality of recognition, which is only directed to re‑establish Ulysses’ power as king. Being recognized as the king of Ithaca does not imply, so Ricoeur’s argument goes, to recognize those who are subjected to him, and is a mere way of exhibiting power. But there is another possible reading of the scenes of recognition in the Odyssey, even if Ricoeur does not take them into account. Indeed, another moment of the recognition story can be found in the Isle of the Phaeacians, and it cannot be traced back to the “will to power”, but, rather, to Ulysses’s fragility. When Demodocus, the poet at the court of the king Alcinoos, starts singing the story of the famous hero Ulysses, who is there incognito, Ulysses cannot hold back his tears, and in the end he discloses his own identity. Here, Ulysses does not look for recognition, instead recognition is granted to him in an unexpected way. This act of recognition reveals all the fragility of the hero, who discovers himself in the words of others, and understands that he depends upon them to be, to exist, and, in the end, to come back home. This sort of “recognition by fragility” is possible due to a narrative dimension where Ulysses is hosted, and whose configurative and refigurative power makes the hero able to name his feeling as a feeling of “nostalgia”.

In two minds: The high-rise housing ambivalence of transnational migrants

Arriving migrants of middle-class backgrounds increasingly establish themselves in high-rise apartments of densifying cities of the Global North through the private rental market or first homeownership. From their transient and elevated homes, transnational migrants find themselves vacillating between a desire to perform the archetype of the successful migrant livelihood and the realities of metropolitan vertical living. Memories and narratives of life ‘back home’ shape practices and relationships that enable them to put down roots. Yet high-rise housing, with its socio-material implications, mediates migrants’ everyday experiences in unique ways. This article investigates transnational migrants’ ambivalent feelings of ‘home’ in two verticalising cities, London and Melbourne. Drawing on affect- and practice-theoretical approaches to emotions and on the geographies of home, I argue that ambivalence enables migrants to habituate to the transience of their high-rise housing situation. Through interviews with 42 transnational migrants of diverse nationalities and socio-economic backgrounds, I analyse two registers of ambivalence as they unfolded in migrants’ narratives of high-rise housing. In the apartment, migrants’ ambivalent sensations revealed the embodied transience of transnational homemaking. In the vertical development, migrant’s ambivalent attachments unveiled their negotiated and intermittent feelings of belonging. Given these differential registers of ambivalence, I demonstrate that migrants are unevenly positioned to adjust to their vertical homes. I conclude by suggesting that ambivalence helps in further conceptualising the lived experience of high-rise housing, and that a more nuanced understanding of emotions is needed to envisage prospects for migrants’ livelihoods in apartments in the contemporary city.