Housing Challenges and Needs of Migrants in Ireland

Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right. Yet, several vulnerable groups, including people with a migrant background, often face significant barriers in finding a home. They experience exclusion through discrimination in the access to housing, the consumption of poorer quality housing and the high cost of housing relative to income. This study investigates the relationship between access to housing for migrants, their specific housing needs, and the barriers to access to decent and affordable housing in the Private Rented Sector (PRS) in Ireland. Drawing on applied social science research methods, this research applies a qualitative research approach and policy document analysis to explore access to housing among migrant communities in Ireland, at this critical juncture of the post- global pandemic and the widespread housing affordability crisis. This research highlights that the migrant housing experience is significantly impacted by a complex blend of discrimination, practical challenges, and aspirational goals. The analysis of the data identifies three main elements shaping this experience: housing discrimination, strategies for overcoming challenges, and housing future aspirations. Firstly, housing discrimination poses a major barrier for migrants, making it difficult for them to secure accommodation. Secondly, migrants face multiple challenges in obtaining housing, such as navigating intricate processes, dealing with financial limitations, and securing mortgages, but they utilize various strategies to manage these difficulties. Lastly, despite these obstacles, migrants have clear aspirations for their housing future, including a strong desire for homeownership and specific housing preferences often associated with their sociocultural backgrounds. Ultimately, the research results provide a foundation to inform future research and policy, offering evidence-based recommendations and insights for overcoming disadvantages in migrant housing and supporting more equitable housing outcomes

Towards the adaptive use of indigenous cultural heritage: Muchongoyo music and dance as a means of sustainability among the Ndau people in Zimbabwe

This ethnomusicological study develops an interdisciplinary approach to muchongoyo music and dance heritage in the lives of the Ndau people in Zimbabwe, and investigates ways that this heritage can be safeguarded, adapted and combined with other Indigenous economic activities for sustainability. The study brings together a wide range of secondary sources to present an original history of Zimbabwean music and dance. Its theoretical framework draws on recent interactive directions in ethnomusicology that seek to engage culture bearers as collaborators in ethnographic fieldwork. It builds an original hybrid methodology that combines complementary approaches, perspectives, methods and procedures of conventional ethnography and applied ethnography with Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. A conventional ethnography is first carried out, providing a thick description of muchongoyo as mutambe (social event). Following this, applied ethnography is advanced by developing a concentric model of festivalisation based on the practice of nhimbe (collaborative work) as an element of ubuntu/unthu (communitarianism). This model is developed and adopted to adapt muchongoyo and other aspects of Ndau culture, notably, Indigenous medicines, traditional beer, local agricultural products and cuisines, for community development through cultural festival tourism. The applied ethnography leads to the implementation of a novel intervention: a multi-faceted muchongoyo cultural festival. This festival, designed to empower participants with critical capacities of self-reliance, identifies a crucial role for culture-bearers in sustaining Ndau heritage for sustainable development. Overall findings of the study highlight the dynamic role of living heritage in promoting sustainability and contribute to hybrid methodological approaches in applied ethnomusicology. Critically, they propose concrete ways of addressing UNESCO goals for the promotion of sustainable development and safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage

Towards an intersectional justice approach to carbon taxation: Energy poverty, vulnerable households, and revenue recycling in Ireland

This article adopts an intersectional lens as an analytical framework to examine how overlapping demographic dimensions, such as age, ability, ethnicity, geography, gender, and home ownership status, shape the diverse experiences of energy poverty among low-income households in Ireland. Despite extensive research on the vertical impacts of carbon taxes across income groups, scholarship examining horizontal impacts on non-income groups remains limited, with few studies employing qualitative methods to investigate intersectional justice implications. Addressing this gap, our study conducted twenty-one semi-structured interviews with key informants to identify vulnerabilities often overlooked in conventional economic analyses. Our findings reveal that while Ireland's carbon tax policy has implemented progressive revenue recycling measures that benefit households in the bottom five income deciles, certain vulnerable groups, particularly renters, Travellers, and disabled persons, are not fully recognised in both policy design and economic modelling. The study demonstrates that qualitative research methods can complement quantitative approaches by uncovering vulnerabilities that are statistically difficult to capture in econometric studies due to data limitations or small sample sizes. We argue that carbon tax policies informed by intersectional analysis can more accurately mitigate adverse impacts on vulnerable populations and foster more equitable transitions to a low-carbon economy. Potentially, this can also improve public acceptability of carbon taxes. This research contributes to the emerging literature on horizontal impacts of carbon pricing and offers insights for policymakers seeking to design more inclusive climate policies that address the complex interplay between carbon pricing and non-income vulnerabilities

Students Learning With Communities Programme Evaluation

This report outlines findings from a qualitative evaluation of the Students Learning with Communities (SLWC) programme at Technological University (TU) Dublin, undertaken by the evaluation, quality and inspection (EQI) research team at Dublin City University (DCU) in Spring 2024. The evaluation team were tasked with answering the following research questions: ● What facilitates and hinders responsiveness with regard to the university’s engagement with communities? ● What lessons can TU Dublin use to develop new supports for community engaged research outside the curriculum, seeking to sustain best practices and build on what worked well, to develop new, more effective supports? ● What challenges and enablers did participants encounter in programme delivery? Data gathered from focus groups and one-to-one interviews held with key stakeholders who had direct involvement with the SLWC programme team revealed numerous enablers to successful programme delivery, including: ● support with administrative and logistical tasks, ● staff/student recognition and awards, ● effective establishment of projects, ● facilitation of connections and collaborations, and ● practical workshops and training. Having acknowledged these successes and their desire for the project to be strengthened in the future, the participants in the research were keen to identify specific areas that should be addressed to increase the project’s effectiveness. This included elements such as ongoing communication and engagement between key stakeholders after projects had been established, timing and scheduling issues, resource constraints, continuity and sustainability of the programme, and continued recognition and visibility of programme successes. It is evident that these key areas need to be addressed to sustain and strengthen the structures allowing for successful delivery of future impactful, collaborative projects. The EQI team provided a set of robust recommendations across six key areas, namely: 1. Enhancing communication and promotion of the programme. 2. Ensuring appropriate resource allocation and support. 3. Embedding inclusivity and accessibility. 4. Enhancing experiential learning and student development. 5. Ensuring integration and formalisation of the programme. 6. Highlighting the significance of evaluation

Investigating perspectives on the role of visual arts education in children’s inventive development

The very evolution of art is not driven by creativity alone. It is also shaped by groundbreaking inventions that have transformed the way artists express, create and curate their work. This research was motivated by personal professional observations and experiences as a primary school teacher regarding the varying quality of children’s art-making experiences from an inventive perspective. Consequently, the primary purpose of this research is to examine perspectives regarding the potential role visual arts education plays in terms of developing children’s inventiveness at a time of significant change in the Irish primary school curriculum. Following a review of relevant literature concerning what is known about visual arts, inventive development and how perspectives shape teaching practice, two key research methods were employed. This includes a deductive thematic analysis of visual arts curriculum documents from 1999, 2023, and 2024, and semi-structured interviews with primary school teachers. Findings reveal a striking difference between the 1999, 2023 and 2024 curriculum documents regarding the role of inventiveness in visual arts education. While the 2024 curriculum promotes creativity, it lacks explicit reference to "invention," unlike the 1999 curriculum, which often linked visual arts to inventive development. This omission raises concerns about how effectively the new curriculum supports inventiveness. The teacher interviews reveal that teachers value the link between visual arts and inventiveness. They believe creating a supportive, playful environment that encourages creative freedom is key to fostering inventive development. However, challenges such as time constraints, lack of student confidence, and inconsistent teaching practices, along with insufficient resources and technology, hinder this process. The study concludes by recommending a re-evaluation of how inventiveness is recognised in visual arts education. It stresses the need for clearer guidance in the curriculum and increased support for teachers to cultivate artistic inventiveness, ensuring that visual arts can nurture inventive play and development effectively

L-shell Photoionisation Cross Sections in the S +, S 2+, S 3+ Isonuclear Sequence

We present absolute L-shell photoionisation cross sections for the S+, S2+, S3+ ions. The cross sections were obtained using the monochromatised photon beam delivered by the SOLEIL syn- chrotron source coupled with an ion beam extracted from an electron cyclotron resonance source (ECRIS) in the merged dual-beam configuration. The cross sections for single, double and triple ionisation were measured and combined to generate total photoionisation cross sections. For each of the S+, S2+ and S3+ ions, the photon energy regions corresponding to the excitation and ionisation of a 2p or a 2s electron (∼175-230 eV) were investigated. The experimental results are interpreted with the help of multiconfigurational Dirac-Fock (MCDF) and Breit-Pauli R-Matrix (BPRM) or Dirac R-Matrix (DARC) theoretical calculations. The former generates photoabsorption cross sec- tions from eigenenergies and eigenfunctions obtained by solving variationally the multiconfiguration Dirac Hamiltonian while the latter calculate cross sections for photon scattering by atoms. The cross sectional spectra feature rich resonance structures with narrow natural widths (typically ≤100 meV) due to 2p →nd excitations below and up to the 2p thresholds. This behaviour is consistent with the large number of inner-shell states based on correlation and spin-orbit mixed configurations having three open subshells. Strong and wide (typically∼1 eV) Rydberg series of resonances due to 2s →np excitations dominate above the 2p threshold

#SeAcabó: how a mass-mediated “social drama” made visible and confronted (subjective and objective) violence in women’s football in Spain

The victory of the Spanish national women’s football team at the 2023 FIFA World Cup was marred by the mass-mediated non-consensual kiss on midfielder, Jennifer Hermoso, by Luis Rubiales, then President of the Royal Spanish Football National Federation. The kiss sparked general outrage worldwide and led to the prosecution of Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion. Drawing on the concepts of “moral shock” and “social drama,” this article explores how this widely disseminated episode of “subjective violence” resulted in a shock capable of mobilising and politicising different agents. It does so through qualitative analysis of official statements and vernacular online discussions. The article makes the case that the unfolding of this social drama enabled more subtle (objective) violence, long endured by female athletes, to be brought into public discourse debate. In so doing, it boosted demands for social change. But such demands were also contested, in that the structured social drama resulted in an online “reactionary moral shock” characterised by anti-feminist and misogynistic discourses. Significantly, our analysis of these discourses reveals a shift in male victimisation narratives and strategies to disempower women and maintain sexual inequality. These include the denial of gender-based violence and the banalisation of sexual abuse

An exploration of domain generalisation through vision benchmarking, masking, and pruning

There are many computer vision applications including object segmentation, classification, object detection, and reconstruction for which Machine Learning (ML) shows state-of-the-art performance. Nowadays, we can build ML tools for such applications with real-world accuracy. However, each tool works well within the domain in which it has been trained and developed. Often, when we train a model on a dataset in one specific domain and test on another unseen domain known as an Out-of-Distribution (OOD) dataset, models or ML tools show a decrease in performance. Previously, in the literature different solutions have been proposed to tackle with Domain Shifting problem which occurs during the inference of models, like adversarial training, feature alignment, learning distribution invariant features, meta learn- ing and many more. Similarly, to understand the behaviour of ML models for serious challenges of Domain Generalisation (DG), Domain Adaptation (DA), and Domain Shifting, in summary, this thesis presents novel work at the intersection of vision-based technologies for domain-specific and domain-generalised methods, vision transformers for DG, synthetic data generation for OOD data with detailed analysis, and the effects of pruning on DG. The underlying hypothesis is that to solve complex challenges like DG and DA, “it is possible to say that domain-generalised learning which can refer to dynamic learning could be better than domain-specific learning which can refer to static learning”. It means that under domain shifting, dynamic learning can also have better, reliable, and faster adaptation than static learning. Some initial experiments are conducted on two popular vision-based benchmarks, PACS and Office Home and we introduce an implementation pipeline for domain generalisation methods and conventional deep learning models. The results illustrates that domain generalised models have better accuracy than domain specific methods for these chosen benchmarks. Since domain generalisation involves pooling knowledge from source domain(s) into a single model that can generalise to unseen target domain(s), recent trends motivate us to conduct an investigation into the factors which could affect the DG ability of a model and this inspired us to explore vision transformers. Initially, we examined four vision transformer architectures namely ViT, LeViT, DeiT, and BEIT on out-of-distribution data. Due to advantages like self-attention, self-supervised fine-tuning, and mask image modeling, we use the BEIT architecture for further experiments on three benchmarks PACS, Home Office, and DomainNet. In summary, under few conditions and selected measurement metrics, our experiments demonstrate that it is true to say domain generalised learning provides better solutions than domain specific learning

Delay-Reliability Aware Optimal Downlink Scheduling for Extended Reality Applications in 6G

Extended Reality (XR) stands at the forefront of enabling the Metaverse, promising transformative advancements in human-machine and interpersonal interactions. Achieving seamless XR experiences, however, requires the capabilities of 6G networks, as current 5G solutions fall short of addressing XR’s dual demands for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). Bridging this gap calls for innovative scheduling frameworks tailored to XR’s stringent requirements. This paper introduces a delay-reliabilityaware optimal downlink scheduling framework for XR services in 6G networks. The proposed approach integrates a novel delay tracking mechanism to optimize the scheduling process, ensuring that a maximum number of XR users meet stringent delay and reliability criteria. Simulation results demonstrate substantial performance gains, with the proposed framework significantly outperforming conventional scheduling techniques, making it a compelling 6G scheduling solution for XR application

Family-driven innovation: A multilevel investigation of contingency factors for innovation strategy

This paper explores the drivers of innovation in family firms. Using contingency theory as our theoretical lens, we investigate how contingency factors (‘where’, ‘how’, and ‘what’) relate to the development of innovation strategies, and how family firm idiosyncrasies affect the development of these innovation strategies. Using four multi-generational family firm case studies, the data collection consisted of 21 interviews and 1,496 items of archival data. We identify five specific elements of family firm innovation strategies (vision and culture alignment, generational approaches, change strategy, future orientation, and shared decision-making). We show how innovation strategy in family firms is contingent on three factors: ‘Where’: willingness to innovate; ‘How’: structures and processes needed to innovate; and ‘What’: capabilities and resources needed to innovate, and that these are influenced by idiosyncratic characteristics of family firms (familiness, founder influence, and succession)