Lack Of Social Mobility Research Articles

Young Gamers Outside Education, Employment or Training: Translating Computer Gaming Skills to Job Relevant Competencies

9.5 per cent of people aged between 15 and 29 in Norway are ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET) (Statistisk sentralbyrå, 2022). NEET status is generally associated with several negative factors, such as lack of social mobility, poverty, negative socioeconomic status and persistent exclusion from education and work life (Wrigley, 2017). Work exclusion represents a significant challenge on both a macroeconomic level and for the individuals who experience work exclusion. The perspective of computer games as learning tools has resulted in an increased interest in how games can generate positive changes in the player (Gee, 2007; McGonigal, 2012). From the perspective of career guidance, it is central to look at whether the positive changes and the learning such change implies can be used to develop career competencies and skills that are attractive for the world of work. This paper reports on a project to develop, conduct, study and evaluate an occupational training program for 15 young gamers between the ages of 18 and 30 classified as NEET. The research question for the project is how participants in a work preparation course experience computer gaming as an arena for developing career competencies and skills and how these skills and competencies may contribute to the participants’ employability

County-Level Income Inequality, Social Mobility, and Deaths of Despair in the US, 2000-2019

Increasing mortality from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related liver disease (collectively referred to as deaths of despair) is a critical public health crisis. Income inequality and social mobility have been separately associated with all-cause mortality; however, no studies have examined their interaction with these preventable deaths. To assess the interaction between income inequality and social mobility with deaths of despair among working-age Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White populations. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention WONDER (Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research) database on county-level deaths of despair from 2000 to 2019 across racial and ethnic groups. Statistical analysis was performed from January 8 to May 20, 2023. The primary exposure of interest was county-level income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient. Another exposure was race- and ethnicity-specific absolute social mobility. Tertiles for the Gini coefficient and social mobility were created to evaluate the dose-response association. The main outcomes were adjusted risk ratios (RRs) of deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholic liver disease. The interaction between income inequality and social mobility was formally tested on both the additive and multiplicative scales. The sample included 788 counties for Hispanic populations, 1050 counties for non-Hispanic Black populations, and 2942 counties for non-Hispanic White populations. Over the study period, 152 350, 149 589, and 1 250 156 deaths of despair were recorded for working-age Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White populations, respectively. Compared with the reference group (counties with low income inequality and high social mobility), counties with greater income inequality (high inequality: RR, 1.26 [95% CI, 1.24-1.29] for Hispanic populations; RR, 1.18 [95% CI, 1.15-1.20] for non-Hispanic Black populations; and RR, 1.22 [95% CI, 1.21-1.23] for non-Hispanic White populations) or less social mobility (low mobility: RR, 1.79 [95% CI, 1.76-1.82] for Hispanic populations; RR, 1.64 [95% CI, 1.61-1.67] for non-Hispanic Black populations; and RR, 1.38 [95% CI, 1.38-1.39] for non-Hispanic White populations) had higher RRs for deaths of despair. In counties with high income inequality and low social mobility, positive interactions were observed on the additive scale for Hispanic populations (relative excess risk due to interaction [RERI], 0.27 [95% CI, 0.17-0.37]), non-Hispanic Black populations (RERI, 0.36 [95% CI, 0.30-0.42]), and non-Hispanic White populations (RERI, 0.10 [95% CI, 0.09-0.12]). In contrast, positive interactions on the multiplicative scale were found only for non-Hispanic Black populations (ratio of RRs, 1.24 [95% CI, 1.18-1.31]) and non-Hispanic White populations (ratio of RRs, 1.03 [95% CI, 1.02-1.05]), but not for Hispanic populations (ratio of RRs, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.93-1.04]). In the sensitivity analyses using continuous Gini coefficient and social mobility, a positive interaction was observed between higher income inequality and lower social mobility with deaths of despair on both the additive and multiplicative scales for all 3 racial and ethnic groups. This cross-sectional study found that the joint exposure of unequal income distribution and lack of social mobility was associated with additional risks for deaths of despair, suggesting that addressing the underlying social and economic conditions is crucial in responding to the epidemic of deaths of despair.

School as Soil: Pedagogies of Care for Alternative Future Imaginaries

In the majority of Brazilian public schools, poverty and social injustice prevail. Most students come from disadvantaged realities, and their future seems to be already defined by a lack of social mobility, exclusion from civil rights, and violence—a situation that has worsened with the global pandemic. Rooted in ethnographic research in public schools in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, this paper explores the role of pedagogies of care in creating alternative, possible, and preferable narratives about the future of these students. By using the metaphor of “school as soil”, the study identifies care in four dimensions: time, heterogeneity, mattering, and fertility. It draws on 12 semi-structured interviews with teachers from eight different public schools that were part of a larger doctoral project. By researching school as soil, we examine how pedagogies of care encourage teachers’ speculation about preferable imaginaries for the future of their students. Results show that despite precarious resources and scarce institutional support, pedagogies of care appear in multiple reported situations, aiming to inspire learning processes, give voice and agency to the socially marginalized, and allow for ways of thinking that offer alternatives to the seemingly ubiquitous oppressive relations.

SOCIAL RESEARCH ON MANIPULATIVE MANIFESTATIONS IN INTER-SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SCHOOLCHILDREN

The author devotes attention to the problem of communicative manipulation in the educational process and tries to investigate the attitude to the problem of manipulation of information of schoolchildren. In addition, the author analyzes the feasibility of using manipulation in the educational sphere, examines different scientific points of view, and considers the attitude of school students to the implementation of manipulative influence. The aim of the research was to find out the social and psychological reasons for education teachers' attitude to manipulation; to analyze the mechanisms of protection against manipulation; to systematize the methods of prevention and prevention of manipulation in education. The growing interest to the problem of manipulative influence in social activity is due to the desire of scientists to analyze the issues related to the admissibility of manipulative influence on participants in the educational process, as well as to find ways to prevent and protect against manipulation. School practice shows that older pupils often use manipulative strategies in interpersonal communication. Destructive ways of manipulation are aimed at exerting external influence, rigidly structuring pupils' behaviors and disrupting the inner freedom of the pre-adolescent child.
 From a socio-pedagogical point of view, the consolidation of manipulation as the main communicative influence as a way to build inter-relationships among children of adolescence is not a favorable option for the development of inter-relationships. In the first case, children may develop a lack of trust and confidence, a lack of social mobility, and a lack of adequate self-presentation in the educational environment. In the other case, rationalism, cynicism, covetousness, non-naturalness in relations may be initiated. In the author's opinion, under conditions of dynamical changes in today's educational environment negatively spun manifestations of manipulative communication are inadequate and maladaptive in the students' team. The students' understanding of the essence of the strategy of manipulation and the formation of a protective mechanism against such a way of interaction is an urgent problem of the holistic social and pedagogical process of the secondary (vocational) school.

Adolescents' own and parental expectations for cross-group friendship in the context of societal inequalities.

This study investigated adolescents' own and parental expectations about cross-group friendships between peers from different socio-economic status (SES). Nepalese adolescents (N = 389, M age = 14.08; grades: 7-10) evaluated an ambiguous peer encounter between a low and a high SES peer. Overall, adolescents attributed negative intentions to high-SES more than to low-SES peers. Most adolescents expected that high- and low-SES targets could not be friends, that parents of high-SES targets would disapprove of cross-group friendships, referencing social hierarchies and reputation, and that parents of low-SES targets would support friendship citing moral concerns and social mobility. Most adolescents were aware of systemic reasons that underlie SES biases. Given that low SES adolescents often suffer when excluded from peer experiences, these findings indicate that parental socialization strategies should focus not only on protecting children from experiences of discrimination but also from experiences related to social inequalities and a lack of social mobility.

Onward migration: An introduction

Onward migration: An introduction

The internet is leading the world towards forms of totalitarianism: How to fix the problem

It is difficult to imagine intelligence studies as separate from information technology as we enter thethird decade of the 21st century. The current issue of JISIB bears witness to this integration with a strongfocus on big data applications.Hardly anyone today would or could do without the internet, but the project that started with USgovernment financing in the 1960s, with packet switching, and in the 1970s with ARPANET and sawcommercial light in the 1990s is helping countries turn into totalitarian systems where totalitarianism isdefined by a high degree of control over public and private life.Public life is influenced by hacking, troll factories, fake news/propaganda, and interference inelections. Private life is influenced by massive surveillance. To borrow the title of the book by Zuboff(2019) we now live in “the age of surveillance capitalism”. Business intelligence systems lie at the heartof this transformation, but so do artificial intelligence and robotics. And the trend is global.In the West the suppressors are mostly private monopolies (e.g. Google, Facebook), while in the Eastit is primarily the government that is snooping (e.g. China’s Social Credit System). Face recognition islikely to become as popular in the West as it is in the East. It is also easily forgotten that no city wasbetter surveilled than London, which started to build its CCTV technology in the 1960s. The system isnow being updated with facial recognition, just like the one we are criticizing the Chinese for having.Some forms of surveillance may also lead to great advances in our societies, like access to governmentforms and statements electronically and a non-anonymous Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), whichpromises to reduce corruption and tax fraud, and could be used for easy distribution of universal basicincome (UBI) . Fintech promises to be highly disruptive.We are moving into an Orwellian world of surveillance more or less voluntarily, often applauding it.“I have nothing to hide” the young man says, but then he later becomes a minister and starts to worryabout the traces he has left on keyboards. The Five Eyes intelligence alliance, or any other major service,can pull out extensive analyses of behavior and personality on most of us now as we continue to exchangeour personal data for access to searches and social media, but also subscription-based services. MostChinese think that the social credit system is a good thing. This is for much of the same reason: theybelieve it will not be used against them and think that they will do well. We all tend to be overoptimisticabout our abilities and opportunities. It’s not before we fail that the full implications of the system arefelt: lack of access, credit, housing, and no more preferential treatments. The result threatens to worsenthe lack of social mobility and increase the growing conflict between the super-rich and those hundredsof millions who risk slipping from the middle class to being counted among the poor, many of whom livein the Western world.

Generalized self-efficacy of youth in the new territories

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the generalized self-efficacy (GSE) of youth in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Youth issues have been at the forefront of political discourse in the region and often youth are presented in the media as having fundamental deficits, which are tied to growing inequality and lack of social mobility. This study offers more perspective of the characteristics of Hong Kong youth to contribute to the literature as well as influence the discourse on youth and youth issues. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a community survey of youth in the New Territories of Hong Kong with over 2000 respondents. The survey was based on a valid and reliable instrument on GSE to measure the GSE of youth in the region. GSE characteristics are analyzed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s α for internal consistency, factor analysis to verify the dimensional nature of the scale. The relationships between GSE and age and gender were analyzed using multiple linear regression model. Findings Findings indicated that despite a slightly higher, yet statistically significant GSE scores for females, and little impact of age on GSE, Hong Kong youth have normal levels of GSE. This finding offers a counter to the pathologizing of youth’s individual characteristics, and implies the need for a shift in discourse toward more targeted examination of the structural issues that act as barriers to social mobility of today’s young people in Hong Kong. Research limitations/implications The study focused on GSE, which is correlated with other constructs such as confidence, but not established in causal relationships with other variables. More research is needed to link GSE and confidence in these groups, as well as links to structural issues that may impact various youth characteristics. Practical implications The study offers insight, which could be used to inform Non-Governmental Organizations and educational programs targeting disadvantaged youth. Programs that pathologize youth characteristics may be able to employ the findings to shift approaches toward more targeted skills-building as well as programming addressing structural barriers. Social implications The study offers a counter-narrative to the contemporary deficit view of today’s youth in Hong Kong. This study provides basis for shifting the discourse away from situating social issues in Hong Kong at the individual level with youth, and toward structural, societal level influences on inequality and social mobility of younger generations. Originality/value Although GSE has been measured across the globe, this study sought to target the GSE of a group that has been framed in the media and political discourse as lacking in a variety of important characteristics. This study’s findings offer a counter-narrative to the generally negative attitudes toward youth as shy, lacking in confidence, antisocial and without a strong work ethic.

Cultivating new post-secular political space

The emergence of post-secular new political space is increasingly recognised as both urgent challenge and beckoning opportunity for innovative political intervention. The concept is framed around three defining characteristics. Firstly, it refers to socio-economic space vacated by government and demarcated by extremes of poverty and marginalisation requiring mitigation by charities, faith communities and the like. Secondly, it is evidenced in local contexts by an obvious lack of social mobility and blatant discrepancies in income, educational outcomes and life expectancy. Thirdly, it is ontological space. Arguably for the first time in a generation, the deep political structures are accessible to recognition and transformation. Fourthly, it is European space exemplified by the increasing challenge to the post-war European project and the burgeoning nationalism and xenophobia exacerbated at least in part by the influx of refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants. This special issue of Global Discourse assembles six articles and responses emanating from a desire to cultivate and not colonise this emerging space for overall well-being.

Impact and assessment of self-help groups in Amrvati division of Maharashtra

Comprehensive study on impact and assessment of self-help groups through problems faced by self-help groups and its members in Amravati Division of Maharashtra was carried out for year 2016-2017 for Amravati division. Study was undertaken in rural areas of Amravati division, 300 SHGs, which were engaged in selected agriculture based activities dairy, poultry, goatary, vermicompost, food processing and floriculture, olericulture and forest product. In order to analyse the objectives of the study primary data was collected with the help of personal interview of self-help groups. Those Self-help groups were selected for the study which should have an activity in existence of at least 10 years, collected data then tabulated according to need and purpose of study and calculated constraints and suggestions obtained from SHGs. The constraints analysis conclude that procurement of raw material was major constraints in production, the lack of social mobility. The major suggestion received from the SHG’s members were analysed and it is observed that most of the members are of the opinion that rate of interest should be minimum, improving market facilities and loan should be release earliest possible, availability or raw materials and infrastructure facilities required for running of SHG’s were the suggestion made by SHG’s members.

Educational Pathways to Remote Employment in Isolated Communities

Those who live in isolated communities often lack reliable, skilled employment opportunities, which fundamentally undermines their human security. For individuals who wish to remain in their isolated communities for family, religious, philosophical or other reasons, their attachment to their communities creates a disincentive for higher education. This promotes low educational achievement, which in turn results in low socioeconomic status, lack of social mobility, and a generational cycle of poverty. The human misery that results from such a feedback loop is observed in isolated communities throughout North America, including aboriginal communities in Canada. Fortunately, maturation of information and communication technologies now offers individuals the potential to gain high-skilled employment while living in an isolated community, using both (i) virtual work/remote work and (ii) remote training and education. To examine that potential, this study: 1) categorizes high-skill careers that demand a higher education and are widely viable for remote work, 2) examines options for obtaining the required education remotely, and 3) performs an economic analysis of investing in remote education, quantifying the results in return on investment. The results show that the Internet has now opened up the possibility of both remote education and remote work. Though the investment in college education is significant, there are loans available and the return on investment is generally far higher than the interest rate on the loans. The results identified several particularly promising majors and dozens of high-income careers. The ability to both obtain an education and employment remotely offers the potential to lift many people living in isolated communities out of poverty, reduce inequality overall, and provide those living in isolated communities with viable means of employment security, which not only allows personal sustainability, but also the potential for personal growth.

Perceptions of housing conditions among migrant farmworkers and their families: implications for health, safety and social policy

In the USA, migrant farmworkers are a vulnerable group due to their low socioeconomic status, risk of occupational exposures and injury, lack of social mobility, lack of adequate access to health services and dependency on employer for provided housing. Previous reports have documented migrant farmworker housing conditions to be variable, but poor overall. This paper explores the perceptions of housing conditions among migrant farmworkers in rural North Carolina, and develops an understanding of potential impacts of their housing on health and safety. This study used qualitative descriptive data and directed content analysis to analyse semi-structured interviews and photographs that were data elements of a larger community-based participatory research study designed to document housing quality and health among North Carolina farmworkers. Many of the study participants described poor housing conditions that were reflected in the photographic analysis of the houses and camps. Specific problems described by the participants include exposure to pesticides, safety issues, pests, water supply and air quality, temperature and moisture. This study describes migrant farmworkers' perceptions of housing quality and numerous potential impacts on health and safety. Research, social policy and practice-based implications derived from this research could serve to improve the health status of these individuals and their families. This study suggests there is much room for sustained advocacy and action, given that many of the farmworkers' descriptions and photographs depicted housing conditions below accepted standards of living. Access to adequate and safe employer-provided housing for migrant farmworkers should be considered a basic human right.

Hysterectomy in a Danish cohort. Prevalence, incidence and socio-demographic characteristics.

The aim has been to assess the frequency of hysterectomy in relation to sociodemographic characteristics. A cross-sectional survey of 2,403 women selected at random from the population in the western part of Copenhagen County. One thousand seven hundred and sixty-five Danish women (77%) filled in the questionnaire and took part in the interview. The cohort was followed for eight years through central registers to assess the incidence of hysterectomy. Logistic and Cox regression were used as main statistics. Life time prevalence of hysterectomy was 10.4%. In the prevalence study, hysterectomy on benign diagnoses (85%) was related to short schooling, lack of vocational education, and low social status personally as well as regards the family. In the multivariate analyses school education, vocational education, and ascending social status by marriage were independent explanatory variables. In the incidence study, the crude rate of hysterectomy on benign diagnoses was 3.4 pr. 1000 years, with the 40-year-old women having the highest rate (7.8 pr. 1000 years). Risk factors as regards hysterectomy due to bleeding disorders and uterine fibroids at ages <50 (premenopausal) were unemployment and lack of vocational education, only the latter reached significant level in the multivariate analysis. There are social inequalities regarding premenopausal hysterectomy on benign diagnoses, but the social-demographic indicators of interest have changed through the last decades. Short schooling and lack of social mobility by marriage were only associated with the hysterectomies performed before 1982, whereas lack of vocational education was related to hysterectomy independent of the calendar period involved. A woman without education has a relative risk of 2.2 (1.1-4.4) for hysterectomy compared to an educated woman.

Outline of a Typology of Adherence to Communism

An Italian scholar, Giorgio Braga, here presents a model by which to analyze Communistic expansion in industrialized and non-industrialized nations. He distinguishes between traumatic tensions, which result from unemployment and poverty, and "paretian" tensions, which arise from a lack of social mobility. There are various responses to trauma, e.g., submission, aggression and evasion. In these terms he discusses tensions in contemporary and historical societies, and considers the means by which Communism and other political and social movements try to resolve them. Natural and functional elites in working-class movements are analyzed, with special references to Communist elites.