Macro-level Structures Research Articles

Conceptualising collaboration for educational change: the role of leadership and governance

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the concept of collaboration, and how it can be mobilised in policy and practice in the pursuit of educational change in the context of the Scottish education system. Policy analysis and interviews with primary school headteachers highlighted the lack of definitional agreement but common conceptual characteristics of collaboration, and the implications of this for how it is led and governed in the pursuit of change. Highlighted in this paper is the complex interplay between forms of, influences on, and drivers of collaboration and how this results in varied outcomes of it. It is argued that collaboration across systems should be focused, purposeful, and supported with high levels of trust from those involved or enabling it to happen, and meso- and macro-level structures which are flexible to enable diverse forms of collaboration to emerge. This paper presents a framework for collaboration that supports the complex consideration of the interrelated domains of forms, influences, and drivers of collaboration, and the leadership practices and governance arrangements necessary for collaboration to lead to improvement and change.

How do labour market conditions explain the development of mental health over the life-course? A conceptual integration of the ecological model with life-course epidemiology in an integrative review of results from the Northern Swedish Cohort

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to contribute to the theoretical development within the field of labour market effects on mental health during life by integrating Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model with mainly earlier theoretical work on life-course theory.MethodsAn integrative review was performed of all 52 publications about labour market conditions in relation to mental health from the longitudinal Northern Swedish Cohort study. Inductive and deductive qualitative content analysis were performed in relation to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework combined with life-course theories.ResultsThe following nine themes were identified: 1. Macroeconomic recession impairs mental health among young people. 2. The mental health effects on individuals of youth unemployment seem rather insensitive to recession. 3. Small but consistent negative effect of neighbourhood unemployment and other work-related disadvantaged on individuals’ mental health over life. 4. Youth unemployment becomes embodied as scars of mental ill-health over life. 5. Weak labour market attachment impairs mental health over life. 6. Bidirectional relations between health and weak labour market attachment over life. 7. Macrolevel structures are of importance for how labour market position cause poor health. 8. Unequal gender relations at work impacts negatively on mental health. 9. The agency to improve health over life in dyadic relations. Unemployment in society permeates from the macrolevel into the exolevel, defined by Bronfenbrenner as for example the labour market of parents or partners or the neighbourhood into the settings closest to the individual (the micro- and mesolevel) and affects the relations between the work, family, and leisure spheres of the individual. Neighbourhood unemployment leads to poor health among those who live there, independent of their employment status. Individuals’ exposure to unemployment and temporary employment leads to poorer mental health over the life-course. Temporal dimensions were identified and combined with Bronfenbrenner levels into a contextual life-course modelConclusionCombining the ecosocial theory with life-course theories provides a framework for understanding the embodiment of work-related mental health over life. The labour market conditions surrounding the individual are of crucial importance for the embodiment of mental health over life, at the same time as individual agency can be health promoting. Mental health can be improved by societal efforts in regulations of the labour market.

A Socio-Ecological Exploration of Sub-Saharan Migrant Students in Moroccan Public Schools

Education and migration intertwine as complex issues, impacting historical, social, cultural, economic, and political domains. While migration studies in the global north have extensively explored education trends among migrants, research in the global south, particularly in Morocco, where public schools host a significant number of Sub-Saharan migrant students, remains scarce. This study seeks to delve into the experiences of four Sub-Saharan students in Moroccan public schools, examining how they navigate the educational environment and the multifaceted impacts it generates. The study gathered data through in-depth, individual interviews with these migrant students. Utilizing a qualitative approach and drawing on the theory of social ecology of human development, the analysis reveals that despite a strong self-awareness, these minority students have unmet academic and non-academic needs. Their development is notably influenced by the diverse structures within their environment. Additionally, the study highlights how the interplay between conflicting microsystems, such as the school and the family, alongside broader macro-level structures like culture and belief systems, hampers the progress and education of these individuals. However, their personal attributes and support from key figures, notably teachers, play a pivotal role in assisting them in overcoming challenges within and outside the school environment. Consequently, the presence of cultural and religious minority students in Moroccan public schools represents a growing trend requiring thoughtful planning and targeted interventions.

Intersectional highlighting in queer immigrants’ English learning through dating: Dominant ideologies, individual agency, and implications for second language education

Drawing on a combined framework of raciolinguistics, imagined community, and language learner agency, this article presents an ethnographic case study exploring two Chinese queer immigrants’ English learning experiences embedded in dating relationships in Canada. Applying the theoretical construct of “intersectional highlighting”, I scrutinize critical events in which racial hierarchy intersects with gendered sexual values in key participants’ dating stories and further investigate how language leaner agency plays a key role in overcoming ideological constraints in English learning processes. Findings reflect performativity in language learning, highlighting the interplay between micro-level semiotic practices of learners’ doing and talking of identities and macro-level social structures of racial, gender, and sexual ideologies circulated in Canadian society. Further, I argue for a race-centered decolonial approach in the study of racialized queer immigrants’ English learning and propose pedagogical strategies to stimulate language learner agency assisting marginalized learners navigate disadvantageous discourses in and beyond second language classrooms.

Women’s discursive agency in transitional justice policy-making: A feminist institutionalist approach

AbstractScholars have studied how women’s domestic and transnational civil society activism addresses the gendered nature of transitional justice. In contrast, they have paid scant attention to women’s impact on transitional justice policy-making in institutions. We leverage the feminist institutionalist perspective that makes visible gendered norms, rules, and discourses in institutions. Homing in on women’s influence in parliaments where women are outnumbered by men and marginalised by adversarial discourse, we develop a conceptualisation of women’s discursive agency. Foregrounding discourse in women’s ability to drive change, women’s agency is enacted through their linguistic communication style and substantive normative positions that constitute micro- and macro-level structures of domination. Quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis is applied to a corpus of parliamentary questions about transitional justice in the Croatian parliament from 2004 to 2020. Our results show that women adopt the adversarial style of questioning, which they use to broaden the scope of entitlements and press for reparations for female and male victims. They overcome constraints posed by partisanship and ideology, while constraints of nationalism are less easily broken. The article advances feminist transitional justice by demonstrating how women’s language contributes to dismantling men’s policy domination in institutions, with implications for mixed-sex interactions in non-institutional domains.

The public sphere as a dynamic network

Abstract This article proposes to conceptualize the public sphere as a dynamic network of actors and contents that are linked with each other by communicative actions. This perspective allows us to theoretically derive and empirically describe the entire range of small to large network structures and their evolution over time. First, we will define the elements of these networks, which include the actors, content, communicative actions, and content relations. Based on these entities, four communicative roles (producer, recipient, curator, isolate) will be distinguished. Second, we will summarize how these actors perceive the communicative situation and how they select from behavioral options. Third, we will show how this combines with the network dynamics and outcomes that are discussed in the different lines of research. This provides not only the basis for understanding the link between the communicative actions on the micro-level and macro-level structures, but also new avenues for normative discussions.

A Descriptve Discourse Analysis of Online News On The Quality Of Foreign Language Education In Türkiye

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes expressed in the news regarding foreign language education, especially English as a foreign language in Türkiye. In the data analysis, the descriptive discourse analysis method was applied to online news about the quality of foreign language education in Türkiye. The study attempts to trace how micro- and macro-level structures were used in the news to construct images of foreign language education. In this study, online news was chosen as the location of the study as a branch of mass media and an important venue for educational discussions. As a result of the analysis, the findings showed that foreign language education practises were heavily criticised in the data, and the key elements widely accused being foreign language education programs and their components involving grammar-oriented teaching approaches, curricula and assessment styles along with the so-called low language proficiency of foreign language teachers in Türkiye.

Intentionality, not just agency: bringing intended meaning back into the micro–macro institutionalization processes

ABSTRACT Organization theory and organizational institutionalism have moved toward a more generative understanding of agency to better account for the relation between the microfoundations and macrofoundations of institutions. Central to such an understanding is an overlooked construct: intentionality, defined as actors’ consciousness directed at or about something, the content of which is actors’ intended meaning. Intentionality and intended meaning have three dimensions: prior intentionality, intentionality in action, and posterior intentionality. I propose that intentionality and collective intentionality mediate between macro-level structures and micro-level actions. This model allows for a more fluid conception of intended meaning before, during, and after an action, and thus facilitates a more fine-grained understanding of (1) how the macro is instantiated in the micro and how the micro transforms into the macro, (2) multiple pathways of institutional maintenance and change, and (3) the complexity of decoupling at both the micro and the macro levels.

The Structural Sources of Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health: A Cross-National Perspective

This article investigates how macro-level structures condition the sources of socioeconomic inequalities in health. Drawing on multiple social science disciplines, the authors develop theoretically grounded propositions about how different types of welfare states, varieties of capitalism, and social structures give rise to cross-national variations in the sources of health inequalities. They consider how these macro-level structures affect the distribution of five key resources important to health, estimate the relative contribution that each resource makes to health inequalities, and compare those contributions in 21 developed democracies. Moving beyond a current literature focused on welfare states, the authors show how different types of political economies and social structures also condition the health gradient. This research carries implications for policy and suggests agendas for further investigation into the relationship between macro-level structures and inequalities in health.

Supercomputer multiscale modeling of composite structures strength

A method for multiscale supercomputer calculations of the composite structures strength has been developed. A feature of the proposed methodology is of division of the solution algorithm into 2 parts: solving problems at the micro level (in turn, these problems can consist of several sub-levels of calculation) and solving the problem at the macro level. Such a division, in which the solution of some problems is the input to problems at a higher level, helps to significantly reduce the consumption of computing resources. When solving problems, curvilinear anisotropy is taken into account at the macro level (structures), as well as at the micro level (composite material). The 3D finite element method was used for the numerical solution. To take into account curvilinear anisotropy, a special assembly algorithm is used, which requires the construction of anisotropy blocks (cells). A method is proposed for taking into account integral boundary conditions when solving problems of the linear theory of elasticity. A finite element modeling of the stress-strain state and damageability of a cylindrical structure with power ring elements has been carried out. As an example, textile composite materials (CM) with carbon and glass fibers are considered.

A macro analysis of gender segregation and job quality in Latin America

Latin America has seen vast improvements in gender educational and health equality. Favorable supply-side conditions, however, have not translated into greater gender economic equality, a process that also depends on structural economic change and global macroeconomic conditions. In this paper, we assess the role of a variety of macro-level policies and structures in influencing trends in women’s access to high-quality jobs for a sample of 15 countries in Latin America over the period 1990–2018. Using micro-level data, we first evaluate women’s relative share of good jobs, defined in terms of women’s weekly earnings in an industry or occupation relative to the national median wage. Further, we econometrically estimate the association between a variety of macro-level variables and the relative quality of women’s jobs. Results indicate that the most significant and robust positive correlate of women’s relative access to good jobs is public social spending as a share of GDP. Other important macro-covariates include measures of labor market regulation, monetary and fiscal policy, and macroeconomic structure and global orientation, including financial openness. The results suggest that macro-level structures and policies related to globalization that hamper the achievement of greater gender equality can be offset by appropriately targeted government policies.

SHORT-TERM WEALTH CHANGES AND SUBSEQUENT COGNITIVE HEALTH AMONG OLDER ADULTS IN CHINA, ENGLAND, MEXICO, AND THE US

Abstract Household wealth is positively associated with later-life cognitive health, but little is known about the effects of changes in wealth over time and whether they differ across populations. In this study, we evaluated the within- and between-country relationships between short-term changes in household wealth and subsequent cognitive function among adults aged ≥65 years in China, England, Mexico, and the US. We used sampling-weighted, multivariable-adjusted linear models to estimate the relationships between household wealth change over 3- to 4-year periods and subsequent harmonized general cognitive performance factor scores using HCAP measures. We found that short-term decreases in household wealth were associated with poor subsequent cognitive health in the US and China, but not in England or Mexico. The observed associations were weaker in Mexico than in the US. In summary, macro-level social and economic structures may modify the association between wealth changes and cognitive health, although further investigation is needed.

REFRAME, REFORM, AND TRANSFORM: POLICY APPROACHES TO IMPROVE NURSING HOME QUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract Nursing homes (NHs) are one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States. However, concerns about quality of care remain, especially for more vulnerable residents, including those with dementia. Concerns only increased during recent natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. Community and industry advocates have suggested diverse reforms that prompted new federal policies. This study poses the following research questions: (1) How do federal policies compare with proposals by community (staff and patient advocates) and industry (NH) advocates to improve quality of care in NHs before and during the pandemic; and (2) How do federal policies address micro, mezzo, and macro level issues? To address these questions, this study employs a multi-level comparison case study design. Primary data includes systematically collected and analyzed federal bills, CMS regulations, and community and industry reports, press releases, and website data from 2018 through 2022. Findings revealed that policy proposals fell into three categories: reframe, reform, and transform. Reframe approaches included minimal transformation at the micro-level. Reform approaches involved more mezzo and macro-level changes. Transform approaches proposed significant structural changes at the macro-level. Community advocates presented far more transformative changes than industry advocates and federal policymakers. Federal policies focused on reframe and reform solutions at the micro level and rarely proposed transforming macro-level structures (e.g., workforce structural inequities). This study has important implications for research, policy, and practice by exposing limitations and strengths of proposed solutions for addressing resident care and concludes with suggestions for better aligning with community advocates.

Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea

Sociological and cultural research on market participation has been preoccupied with creative markets and traditional labor markets, overlooking alternate types of markets, particularly those of human goods which have proliferated in Asia. This article analyzes South Korea's cosmetic surgery market to examine how and why consumers participate in markets of human goods on the microlevel vis‐à‐vis macrolevel social structures in an advanced capitalist economy. This article theorizes two cognitive frames (normative conformity and competitive edge) that rationalize and motivate surgical modifications as an alternative vehicle for financial and marital stability in response to macrolevel economic challenges from the nation's developmental trajectory and cultural anxieties from its Confucian traditions about marriage.

Holding hope and mastering the possible: mapping resilient moves of asylum-seeking and refugee families post arrival

ABSTRACT Using in-depth interviews, this paper examines the performance of resilient practices by 17 asylum-seeking and refugee families (27 parents, 35 children) living in Belgium, and the ways in which such practices have been facilitated by social professionals (22) in various types of relationships to these families. Different from much research that studies how resilience can be ‘found’ through predictable relationships between pre-identified variables, the present research builds on a constructionist, emic approach that conceptualises resilience as a process that is perpetually unfinished and ‘made’ by negotiated relational practices or ‘resilient moves’. Moreover, although attention to refugee family resilience has recently increased, little empirical research exists that includes the voices of both parents and children of the same families, as well as the input from social professionals surrounding them. The findings suggest that refugee family resilience should be seen as relational behaviour between multiple agents in and surrounding these families. The research also underlines the importance of deconstructing the role of macro-level structures in facilitating or hindering resilient moves. Overall, the findings highlight that resilience is not opposed to vulnerability, but may exist next or through it. This suggests the need for a re-politicisation of resilience in social work.

Contextual understanding of care ethics in social entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to add a contextual understanding of care ethics to the nascent literature on ethics in social entrepreneurship. To this end, an interpretive study of social bricoleur entrepreneurs in rural India is presented and the constitutive effects of the enactment of care ethics are articulated. First, this enactment is examined as a relational practice between social entrepreneurs and local communities. Then, the notion of formative context is used to analyse how this enactment has expressions of human agency that constitute the societal context. Further, it is shown that context is not something that exists on its own but is instead enacted in the caring practices of social entrepreneurs. The micro-level practices of relating and the macro-level societal structures become malleable in the enactment of care ethics. This study has two major contributions. First, by departing from the notion of ethics as a characteristic of an individual, it shows how social entrepreneurs give and receive care through mutuality and human interaction. Second, by adding the analysis of sensemaking and formative context to care ethics, it deepens the understanding of context as conditions that facilitate the enactment of care ethics and is constituted by that enactment.

Creating conditions for social-emotional learning: An ecological framework

ABSTRACT This article examines the ways in which racist structures negatively affect students’ social and emotional development and how social-emotional learning (SEL) may be a useful tool to push against racist structures to develop students socially and emotionally. We propose an ecological framework to examine how micro-, meso-, and macro-level structures influence students’ social and emotional development. Our framework is anchored on the juxtaposition of learning versus schooling. We examine what it means to practice SEL versus social-emotional schooling (SES). We argue learning is a holistic process contingent upon centering identity and community. Conversely, schooling is a process that seeks to conform students to ways of understanding that reify the status quo and hinder critical thinking. We identify the practices of SEL and SES by analyzing them at the classroom (micro), school building (meso), and school district level (macro). We argue all 3 levels must be leveraged to create the conditions conducive for SEL to permeate the school and disrupt racism in schools.

Gender inequality and mammography screening: Does living with a partner improve women's mammography uptake?

Macrolevel gender inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of power and resources between men and women shaped by macrolevel social structures and institutions. An emerging line of health research is emphasising its negative consequences on women's health and healthcare access. The present study examines how gender inequality contexts affect women's mammography screening uptake. It adopts a macrosociological and institutionalist approach on preventive healthcare use and compares women who live with a partner with those who do not. This is the first study to test the effect of macrolevel gender inequality on mammography uptake across the 26 Swiss cantons (i.e. regions). The Swiss cantons' autonomy to manage their political and healthcare systems, as provided by the federal system, offers an ideal setting for the comparative analysis of macrolevel factors. Data on 9724 women aged 50–70 from the Swiss Health Interview Survey (waves 2007, 2012 and 2017) is analysed. Multilevel logistic models estimate two canton-level indicators of gender inequality, the gender gaps in time use and full-time employment, and their association with mammography uptake, controlling for women's socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, health status and healthcare use. Cross-level interactions assess how these indicators moderate the mammography uptake of women living with and without a partner. Results show that in cantons with higher gender inequality, women have a lower probability of mammography uptake. Women who live with a partner have a higher mammography uptake than those who do not. However, this advantage is moderated by canton-level gender inequality, namely, women who live with a partner in more gender unequal cantons have a lower mammography uptake than their counterparts who reside in more gender equal cantons. Results support the hypothesis that macrolevel gender inequality moderates women's preventive healthcare uptake, from an institutionalist approach.

Regional Cooperation in Waste Management: Examining Australia’s Experience with Inter-municipal Cooperative Partnerships

Effective governance and inter-organisational cooperation is key to progressing Australia’s journey toward the circular economy. At the local governance level, inter-municipal cooperative partnerships in waste management (‘IMC-WM’ partnerships) are a widespread phenomenon throughout Australia, and the world. This paper aims to analyse waste management in Australia through a governance perspective and inaugurate the scholarship on understanding the complex interactions between actors and institutions designed for regional cooperation. To this end, we explore the partnerships’ institutional characteristics, joint activity outputs and the internal relations observed between participants. Data were collected through a nationwide census survey of Australia’s IMC–WM partnerships and a short online questionnaire to the municipal policy actors (councillors, executives and council officers) who participate in them. The investigation observes that a diversity of innovative institutional responses has emerged in Australia. However, within these partnerships, a culture of competitiveness antithetical to sustainability is also detected. Despite competitive behaviours, the partnerships perform very well in cultivating goodwill, trust, reciprocity and other social capital values among their participants—as well as a strong appreciation of the complexity of municipal solid waste (MSW) policy and the virtues of regional cooperation. This dissonance in attitudes and engagement dynamics, it is suggested, can be explained by considering the cultural-cognitive influence of broader neoliberalist paradigms. As the first scholarly investigation into Australia’s experience with regional cooperation in waste management, this research reveals the macro-level structures and ascendent micro-institutional dynamics shaping the phenomenon.

COVID-19 through a cultural lens

COVID-19 through a cultural lens