Students' views of higher education in their transitions to work in Portugal

Higher education has grown to mass proportions in the past two decades in Portugal, with the\ud political expectation that it will contribute to the knowledge economy and social change.\ud However, the predominantly low skilled productive system has led to increasing graduate\ud unemployment and underemployment. The central question in this research is what higher\ud education signifies for students and graduates in this context.\ud Higher education has the potential to change students' relationship with knowledge, developing\ud critical thinking, autonomy and character (Barnett 1990). However, this potential for change\ud depends on how individuals engage in it, according to their values and perspectives (Bloomer\ud 2001). Moreover, knowledge is constructed contextually (Lave and Wenger 1991), and its\ud relevance is not always clear when graduates start work. This longitudinal research therefore\ud consisted of in-depth interviews with graduates to ascertain the meanings and values they\ud attribute to higher education and how this changes in the transition to work.\ud In this study, participants' view of higher education was narrow, focussing on how it affected\ud their labour market opportunities, rather than as a place for personal development, gaining\ud generic skills and critical engagement. This affected how they acted on their educational\ud opportunities and the criteria by which they measured the validity of higher education after their\ud transition to work. Moreover, labour market limitations meant that graduates who did not find\ud work in areas directly related to their degree devalued their education. This study concluded\ud that individual paths from education to work are affected by social networks, resources and\ud significant others, but there are no deterministic effects of social class, gender or field of study.\ud A key finding was that in contrast to Bloomer's concept of learning careers (1997), graduates'\ud embedded knowledge was insufficient for their new work contexts; instead they needed to\ud reconstruct their knowledge according to their socio-cultural resources, and membership of\ud multiple communities. This has significance internationally for research into transitions to work.\ud In general, broader perspectives of higher education by students and employers, greater\ud support for the transition and greater labour market opportunities, would be beneficial for both\ud graduates' self-realization and how mass higher education can affect the knowledge economy

An international study of social media and its role within journalism and the journalist - PR practitioner relationship

Many public relations texts acknowledge that the journalist-public relations practitioner is an important and inter-dependent one and has therefore long been a source of interest and investigation (e.g. Sallot and Johnson 2006). With a changing media and online communications environment, traditional PR practices are increasingly including social media to enhance their media relations. This study compares and contrasts patterns of social media use by journalists in eight countries and their communication methods with PR practitioners. Findings indicate widespread and growing use of social media by international journalists for a range of professional tasks

Assessing the costs and benefits of agricultural production using an ecosystem approach

Integrated Farm Management (IFM) is seen as one way for agriculture to contribute towards the UKs challenging national targets for climate change, pollution, biodiversity and other environmental factors. Whilst it is clear that IFM and associated assurance schemes have a role in food quality and enhancement of the environment, they fail to address a number of issues. In particular, they fail to take sufficient account of ‘impact’ and ‘outcome’. In contrast, the relatively new concept of an ecosystem approach does consider these and there is extensive synergy between this approach and IFM. This is pertinent because the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is taking steps to embed an ecosystem approach in policy-making and delivery. This paper sets out to explore the links between IFM and an ecosystem approach and introduces a simple matrix to show how an ecosystem approach might be used to assess the outcome of IFM practices. Limited use of an ecosystem approach suggests that this type of methodology could deliver useful results for IFM. However, it should be used as a decision-support tool rather than a decision-maker. The advantage of using an ecosystem approach for assessing the impact of IFM is that it provides a holistic assessment of land management strategies, rather than focusing on either cropping, or environmental management, alone. However, the values assigned to individual parameters are generally based on expert opinion and, as such, are open to interpretation. Indeed, an ecosystem approach should be interdisciplinary, utilising the knowledge and expertise of a range of stakeholders. Whilst the development of an ecosystem approach for use within an agricultural setting shows promise, it is still in its infancy. There is a need for much discussion, between many disciplines, before it becomes accepted practice

Picture this: researching child workers

Visual methods such as photography are under-used in the active process of sociological research. As rare as visual methods are, it is even rarer for the resultant images to be made by rather than of research participants. Primarily, the paper explores the challenges and contradictions of using photography within a multi-method approach. We consider processes for analysing visual data, different ways of utilising visual methods in sociological research, and the use of primary and secondary data, or, simple illustration versus active visual exploration of the social. The question of triangulation of visual data against text and testimony versus a stand-alone approach is explored in depth

The many faces of the COVID-19 mask in Eastern DRC

The introduction of the mask during the COVID-19 outbreak changed daily life in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and took many faces. From state repression in the city of Goma, to fear of the unknown in rural areas, the mask in the region generated both suspicion and humour. Christian Pole Pole Bazuzi, a researcher and one of the founding members and co-directors of Marakuja Kivu Research, shares his thoughts on the imposition of masks, which changed daily life in the provincial capital and the Kivus region more broadly

UK bloggers survey 2017

Blogging is now a well-established media for consumers who turn to their favourite writers for what tends to be specialist advice on a particular topic or theme. This survey was conducted following the successful launch of the Vuelio blogger awards in November 2015 (now the Annual UK Blogger Awards) and builds on the same survey conducted in 2016 to gain a greater understanding of bloggers and how they write and work with PR professionals. This report therefore provides a snapshot of the blogger sector and maps some of the changes in their work, behaviour, attitudes and opinions since last year

Social media and journalism study 2013 - Sweden

This report is part of the wider 2013 social journalism study and reports specifically on Sweden. It suggests that journalists in Sweden are a moderately high user of social media, using it regularly for their work particularly for sourcing stories. Using cluster analysis the largest group is the Architects suggesting that journalism in Sweden is dominated by active social media users