Towards a Critique of Methodological Presentism in Migration Research:A Focus on Denmark

This book investigates the benefits of integrating history, sociology, and ethnography to better understand migration and its consequences, using Denmark’s history of migration as a case study.Although migration research is an interdisciplinary field, much research on migration still occurs in disciplinary containers. The field is not least affected by a methodological presentism: a scholarly and societal tendency to understand social phenomena within a limited contemporary framework, neglecting possible effects and similarities embedded in and established through human history. This book builds upon previous research underscoring the importance of examining migration from a longer, diachronic, and genealogical viewpoint, and it is among the first to advocate for a more profound methodological discussion regarding how, why, and when this should be addressed. This book’s analysis draws on empirical examples from Denmark, a Northern European country where the impact of migration is currently hotly debated, yet the history of migration is frequently overlooked. Specific themes examined in the book range from demography/immigrant statistics to the understanding of “the ghetto,” the implications of discussions around “Danishness,” and how migration has influenced and molded a particular neighborhood in Copenhagen (Nørrebro) over time.This volume is innovative and pertinent for an international audience of researchers and students interested in the genealogies of migration and eager to explore new pathways for pursuing this research interest.This book investigates the benefits of integrating history, sociology, and ethnography to better understand migration and its consequences, using Denmark’s history of migration as a case study.Although migration research is an interdisciplinary field, much research on migration still occurs in disciplinary containers. The field is not least affected by a methodological presentism: a scholarly and societal tendency to understand social phenomena within a limited contemporary framework, neglecting possible effects and similarities embedded in and established through human history. This book builds upon previous research underscoring the importance of examining migration from a longer, diachronic, and genealogical viewpoint, and it is among the first to advocate for a more profound methodological discussion regarding how, why, and when this should be addressed. This book’s analysis draws on empirical examples from Denmark, a Northern European country where the impact of migration is currently hotly debated, yet the history of migration is frequently overlooked. Specific themes examined in the book range from demography/immigrant statistics to the understanding of “the ghetto,” the implications of discussions around “Danishness,” and how migration has influenced and molded a particular neighborhood in Copenhagen (Nørrebro) over time.This volume is innovative and pertinent for an international audience of researchers and students interested in the genealogies of migration and eager to explore new pathways for pursuing this research interest

Ethics and Professional Identity in Welfare work:A socio-material and psycho-societal approach

Denne bogs samlede tema er etik i velfærdsprofessionelt arbejde. Begrebet etik er filosofisk og betegner overvejelser over tilstræbelsesværdige handlinger og konkrete forskrifter for hvordan man skal forholde sig til andre mennesker, med relevans for individuelle handlinger og relationer. Det forekommer indlysende at konkret professionelt arbejde giver anledning til denne type overvejelser. Professionelt arbejde er arbejde med konsekvenser for andre mennesker og et ansvar for arbejdets faglige kvalitet. Bestræbelsen er derfor at udvikle en materialistisk forståelse af etiske spørgsmål ved at betragte dem som dimensioner i professionelt arbejde snarere end som udefra begrundede forskrifter for det. Teoretisk og metodologisk anlægges en psyko-social begrebslig ramme som gør det muligt at undersøge hvilke etiske overvejelser der faktisk er er til stede i det professionelle velfærdsarbejde, hvoraf de kommer, og hvilken betydning de har for arbejdets retning og kvalitet. For at forstå oprindelsen til konkrete praktikeres tanker og følelser om deres arbejde må vi anskue disse orienteringer i forhold til deres livshistoriske erfaringer og i forhold de samfundsmæssige og historiske rammer for arbejdet

Green and sustainable?:Unmaking the Anglocentrism of global environmental discourse

This chapter provides an analysis of “the new green language” which has emerged in the era of climate destruction and global warming. It is argued that the keywords of the new green language are Anglocentric in nature, and at the same time, somewhat paradoxically, steeped in anti-language ideologies. This chapter asks whether the new green language is exercising a form of discursive and conceptual colonialism and provides in-depth analysis of the words “green” and “sustainable”. Drawing on research in environmental semantics and postcolonial semantics, this chapter proposes a “linguistics for the earth” which is prepared to unthink and unmake the centrisms of global discourse, and at the same time provides an aspirational and hopeful framework for the study of words and the world

Professional Ethics in Welfare Work and Education:Nordic Perspectives

This anthology illuminates current research on professional ethics in the education and working life of welfare professionals. Professionalism, values and ethical perception within social education, teaching and healthcare are the core of the welfare societies. Welfare professionals’ capability to navigate within the complex political and institutional frameworks surrounding their work environments and their competence to act with strong critical ethical awareness and integrity is the subject matter of the eighteen chapters of the anthology. The authors provide research-based perspectives on the education of welfare professionals towards a complex work life where the dichotomy between ethical standards and realities of practice can lead to ethical pressure and moral distress. The anthology is structured in three parts: 1) Professional ethics in education and practice, 2) Competencies and values in working life, and 3) Ethics, care and welfare – each presenting novel empirical research results combined with critical theoretical perspectives on professionalism within a prism of political structures and societal challenges

The disenchanted fairy godmother:Comparing how and why evidence-based management and public service professionals influenced policy performance in public school and active labour market policy in Denmark

Background:The aspiration to use evidence to enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of policies is widely shared but often falls short. A common explanation for failure is the presence of barriers to utilising evidence or the inadequacies of the evidence available to policy makers.Aims and objectives:The article examines how and why evidence-based policies sometimes fail to enhance policy performance, through a comparative analysis of evidence-based management in Danish public school and active labour market policies after 2000. The two cases are characterised by similar policy performance problems but vary in terms of evidence-based management styles and responses from public service professionals.Methods:The article relies on document analysis and expert interviews with civil servants and key stakeholders to explain how and why evidence-based policies fail to improve policy performance in the two cases.Findings:We find that evidence-based policy making did not resolve performance problems in either case, though for different reasons. In public school policy, conflict over the 2014 Public School Reform impacted negatively on its implementation despite efforts to incorporate evidence in its design. In active labour market policy, evidence-based policies were imposed on job centres and institutionalised in key performance indicators, but over time critique of processual requirements and indignified casework accumulated and contributed towards a political decision to reform job centres.Discussion and conclusion:We advocate for setting realistic expectations about the potential of evidence in resolving policy performance problems and caution against overstating the ‘dream’ of evidence-based policy making

Developing innovation practices of nature tourism entrepreneurs

Innovation programmes support rural and nature-based tourism entrepreneurs in revitalising areas affected by recession. However, scant research exists on the outcomes of such schemes. This article presents a case study examining how an innovation programme aimed at nature tourism entrepreneurs led to new innovation practices. The analysis relies on practice theory, suggesting that constellations of entrepreneurial motives, resources, expertise, and contexts explain the uptake of innovation practices. It shows how the programme strengthened existing bricolage, intuition, and network-based practices, as well as small-step innovations, by improving reflexive thinking, social networks, a local narrative, and embeddedness in the destination. The development of strategy-based innovation practices and more significant innovations was less evident. This requires the development of new constellations of entrepreneurial motives, resources, expertise, and contexts, and thus more holistic innovation support schemes. By applying practice theory, the article advances tourism innovation research, provides new insights into the benefits of tourism innovation programmes, explores tourism entrepreneurs’ innovation practices, and complements existing practice-based tourism research

Exploring the Potential of Telepresence Robots for Individuals Living Abroad and Their Families:A Qualitative Approach

The emergence of telepresence robots (TPRs) as mobile tools that can enable remote presence and interaction has been the focus of many endeavors that have provided insights on TPRs’ application in research, educational contexts, professional training, social inclusion and sense of embodiment. In this paper we have conducted semi-structured interviews with five individuals living abroad and one family member of a person living abroad to explore how TPRs can be employed to strengthen family ties and enhance the sense of presence in order to alleviate the emotional struggle that is often reported in these groups. Based on the participants’ responses we have showcased the relation between different technological features and communication, addressed concerns regarding the use of TPRs, and recognized activities that can be recreated remotely with the use of a TPR to potentially create an enhanced feeling of connection. The analysis presented could be the premise for subsequent implementation of TPRs in a way that is considered meaningful by people living in distance from their families

Market failure in a universal welfare state?:Ownership, quality, and regulation in Danish social services

Like many other countries, Denmark has recently seen a sharp increase in outsourced social service provision for children and adults. While quasi-market theory suggests that complex social services could be ill-suited to market provision, there has been little assessment of how ownership relates to service quality for welfare services due to fragmented data. This paper presents findings from a population-wide analysis of quality and inspection outcomes across public, non-profit, and for-profit providers in Denmark’s residential social services for children and working-age adults with support needs, including children’s homes and adult residential facilities (N=2375, 2020-2024). First, we document a 44.1% increase in for-profit providers over five years (2020-2024), while public and non-profit provision remained stable or declined. Second, for-profit providers were significantly more likely to receive regulatory sanctions including intensified monitoring and forced closure compared to other ownership types. Third, non-profit providers received higher quality ratings, while newer for-profit entrants underperformed relative to both public and older for-profit providers. Fourth, quality and regulatory differences were most pronounced between for-profit and not-for-profit providers rather than between public and private providers, indicating that ownership form and the profit-motive within the private sector matters more than the public-private distinction. These findings support theoretical claims that welfare markets for complex social services are prone to market failure due to information asymmetries, user complexity, and incomplete contracts. Finally, the findings have policy implications for market regulation, procurement and pricing strategies in terms of how to sustain high-performing providers in an increasingly marketised social service landscape

Air pollution, noise, greenspace and pneumonia, a nation-wide cohort study from Denmark

Ambient air pollution, traffic noise, and residential green space have each been linked to respiratory health, including pneumonia. Exposure correlation make mutual confounding a concern. We investigated long-term associations between these exposures and pneumonia incidence in a nationwide Danish cohort. We included all residents aged ≥35 years, without prior pneumonia, followed from 2010 to 2017. We estimated 5-year mean residential exposures to PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), elemental carbon (EC), ultrafine particles (UFP), road traffic noise, and percentage green space within 150m and 1000m of the home. Exposure-response relationships were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models, linearly and with natural cubic splines, adjusting for time-varying individual and area-level covariates and exposures. Among 2 418 958 individuals contributing 16.8 million person-years, 159 724 pneumonia cases occurred. In linear analysis Hazard ratios (HR) per interquartile range (IQR) were 1.22 (95 % confidence interval: 1.20–1.23) for PM2.5, 1.15 (1.14–1.16) for NO2, 1.13 (1.12–1.14) for UFP, and 1.04 (1.03–1.4) for EC. For all air pollutants spline analysis showed non-linear associations with strongest association per unit change at lower concentrations. Noise and reduced green space within 150 m showed weaker positive associations. Adjustment for air pollution attenuated the effects of noise and green space, while associations for PM2.5, NO2, and UFP were robust to adjustment for noise and green space but sensitive to adjustment for air pollutants. Our findings suggest that long-term exposure to PM2.5, NO2, and UFP may increases the risk of pneumonia, independent of traffic noise and green space, which may act as weaker, independent risk factors

Review of microplastics and chemical risk posed by plastic packaging on the marine environment to inform the Global Plastics Treaty

Plastic overproduction and the resulting increase in consumption has made plastic pollution ubiquitous in all ecosystems. Recognizing this, the United Nations (UN) has started negotiations to establish a global treaty to end plastic pollution, especially in the marine environment. The basis of the treaty has been formulated in terms of turning off the tap, signaling the will to prevent plastic pollution at its source. Based on the distribution of plastic production by sector, the plastic packaging sector consumes the most plastic. The volume and variety of chemicals used in plastic packaging, most of which is single-use, is a major concern. Single-use plastics including packaging is one of the most dominant sources of plastic pollution. Plastic waste causes pollution in water, air and soil by releasing harmful chemicals into the environment and can also lead to exposure through contamination of food with micro- and nano-plastic particles and chemicals through packaging. Marine life and humans alike face risks from plastic uptake through bioaccumulation and biomagnification. While the contribution of plastics ingested to chemical pollution is relatively minor in comparison to other pathways of exposure, the effect of plastic waste on marine life and human consumption of seafood is beyond question. To reduce the long-term impact of plastic, it is crucial to establish a global legally binding instrument to ensure the implementation of upstream rather than downstream solutions. This will help to mitigate the impact of both chemicals and microplastics, including from packaging, on the environment