Intergenerational Transmission of Education: An Alert to Empirical Implementation

The intergenerational transmission of education is certainly a problem that continues to challenge most countries. The level of education that an individual rises to is linked to the education level(s) of her/his parents. This note serves as an alert to researchers undertaking empirical investigation into how the parents' education should be considered with regard to the child's. Using Portuguese data we conclude that the parents should be viewed as a unit (i.e. as a couple), and we should examine all of the different education combinations, avoiding the temptation to aggregate them in larger categories.transmission of education, human capital, parent’s education

WILDCOMS

Disease and contaminants can both pose major risks to wildlife and human populations. Disease is a natural driver regulating the dynamics of wildlife populations, but some diseases warrant particular attention because they (i) cause major mortalities that lead to population crashes, (eg., VHD in rabbits), (ii) threaten wildlife species of high conservation concern (for example squirrelpox virus in red squirrels), or (iii) pose a potential threat to Man (eg., rabies, avian influenza). The wildlife Disease & Contaminant Monoitoring and Surveillance (WILDCOMS) Network is a collaborative project among the major disease and contaminant monitoring schemes for vertebrate wildlife that operate in the United Kingdom. These schemes are run by various government agencies and laboratories, research centres, institutes, and academia. The overall aim is to establish a network which will foster and facilitate knowledge exchange, harmonisation towards best practice, and productive collaboration between: (i) partner organisations; (ii) surveillance schemes and end-users. It will aim to provide end-users with an integrated overview of environmental disease and contaminant risk. The specific objectives will be to develop the network and use it to address common challenges, specifically maximising dissemination of information to stakeholders and harmonisation towards common operational procedures to facilitate interaction and collaboration

The Contribution of Vocational Training to Employment, Job-Related Skills and Productivity: Evidence from Madeira Island

In this paper, we analyze the transition to the labour market of participants in vocational training in Madeira Island. In a first stage, we investigate how the employment status at different dates (one month, one year, and two years after the completion of the training program) depends on relevant variables, such as age, gender, education and the content and duration of the training. In a second stage, we use the individuals’ self-assessment regarding the effectiveness of the training program along three dimensions: employment, job-related skills and productivity. We find that respondents score training activities high in every dimension. Moreover, we find that training is more effective among the educated, indicating that vocational training is far from being remedial. We also find that long training programs and training in the area of tourism are particularly effective.job-related skills, productivity, employment, training, ordered logit

Designing transformative spaces for sustainability in social-ecological systems

Transformations toward sustainability have recently gained traction, triggered in part by a growing recognition of the dramatic socio-cultural, political, economic, and technological changes required to move societies toward more desirable futures in the Anthropocene. However, there is a dearth of literature that emphasizes the crucial aspects of sustainability transformations in the diverse contexts of the Global South. Contributors to this Special Feature aim to address this gap by weaving together a series of case studies that together form an important navigational tool on the “how to” as well as the “what” and the “where to” of sustainability transformations across diverse challenges, sectors, and geographies. They propose the term “transformative space” as a “safe-enough” collaborative process whereby actors invested in sustainability transformations can experiment with new mental models, ideas, and practices that can help shift social-ecological systems onto more desirable pathways. The authors also highlight the challenges posed to researchers as they become “transformative space-makers,” navigating the power dynamics inherent in these processes. Because researchers and practitioners alike are challenged to provide answers to complex and often ambiguous or incomplete questions around sustainability, the ideas, reflections and learning gathered in this Special Feature provide some guidance on new ways of engaging with the world