Possible futures for science and engineering education

Publisher versionFrom Introduction: The understanding that the science, engineering, technology and mathematics disciplines (STEM) have a significant and directly causal role to play in economic productivity and innovation has driven an increased focus on these fields in higher education. Innovation in this context is a shorthand for the harnessing of the knowledge economy and the provision of products with novel significant ‘added value’. The assumption in both developed and developing economies alike is that STEM will drive national growth (World Bank 2002; UNESCO 2009), and this impacts on demands that universities provide competent graduates in sufficient numbers. However, exactly what ‘competency’ might mean in this context is open to debate

‘Sicherheit’: examining residents’ perceptions of community safety in working-class residential areas undergoing regeneration in Limerick City, Ireland

This paper examines the perceptions of residents’ in two housing estates in Limerick, a peripheral Irish city, on how (un)safety effects their day-to-day lives and is an intrinsic element in the production and reproduction of their urban territories. In focusing on these areas which are currently ‘undergoing’ the largest urban regeneration project in the history of the Irish State, our analysis provides new insights into the intersections between regeneration processes and (un)sicherheit. Significantly, our findings demonstrate that regeneration processes, often billed as enhancing community safety, can in fact contribute to destabilising the triumvirate of safety, certainty and security

Participatory health research in South Africa

While 1994 marked the official end of institutionalized apartheid rule in South Africa, the effects of decades of racism and economic disparity continue to reverberate to this day. Historically, medical and behavioural research was seen as the domain of the ruling class, steeped in power dynamics and reflective of the limited voice of the majority and most marginalized. If research was even conducted in underserved and under-resourced communities, it was certainly done using a top-down approach to identifying and solving problems. South Africa witnessed an overwhelmingly successful grassroots movement to eliminate racial inequalities and end apartheid. This intensive, grassroots cross-sector movement for racial justice has significantly informed the approaches and strategies necessarily required for conducting social and behavioural research within the South African context. Perhaps because of the many years of “research neglect”, or research logjam, grassroots research engagement specifically focused on social and behavioural research in post-transitional South Africa is not as copious as one might think, and much of the research is necessarily population-based

Neighborhood Cohesion, Perceptions of Disorder, and the Geography of Women’s Fear of Crime in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract Fear of crime is more pervasive and harder to address than crime itself and can cause physical and psychological health complications, particularly for women. Fear of crime is not always grounded in direct exposure to crime. Instead, it may be more directly linked to social cohesion and/or perceptions of neighborhood disorder, but little is known about these associations in informal settlements. This paper sought to explore these relationships in Mathare—a large informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Using responses from surveys with 550 women in Mathare, we conducted regression, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses to investigate relationships between neighborhood disorder, fear of crime, and neighborhood cohesion and explore how these associations vary across geographic spaces (villages). Findings suggest that women’s perceptions of neighborhood disorder are associated with fear of crime; neighborhood cohesion partially mediates the relationship between perceptions of neighborhood disorder and fear of crime; women’s fear of crime varies by village; and the mediating role of neighborhood cohesion also varies by village. Efforts to build and strengthen social cohesion in informal settlements may help to reduce women’s fear of crime, but more research is needed to explore under what conditions and in what spaces interventions are the most effective. , Highlights Women’s perceptions of neighborhood disorder are linked to fear of crime in informal settlements Cohesion partially mediates the relationship between perceptions of disorder and fear of crime Fear of crime and the role of neighborhood cohesion vary across geographic spaces in settlements Efforts to build and strengthen cohesion in informal settlements may help to reduce fear of crime But, heterogeneity in spaces and women’s perceptions, experiences, and fears should be considere