Social innovations for social cohesion in Western Europe: success dimensions for lifelong learning and education

YesIn addressing the EU2020 goals, skills shortage combined with increasing unemployment rates is to be primarily tackled in Western Europe; the common factor here is education. Education and lifelong learning (LL) are the key strands governing employability in the European labour market. Overarching concepts capable of addressing social challenges within education and LL that contribute towards better practices are seen as social innovations (SI). While SI in education is well founded in the developing countries, Europe is still in the process of gaining progressive momentum in this direction. In addressing various societal challenges, this study looks at observable trends in SI for education across Western Europe. About 30 innovations have been recorded across 11 countries that are essentially focussed on: social integration, alternative/new forms of education, digital learning, new learning arrangements, new LL strategies, early career planning, youth employment, quality improvements and new education standards, transition management, and entrepreneurial education.European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration [grant number 612870]

Population policies and education: exploring the contradictions of neo-liberal globalisation

The world is increasingly characterised by profound income, health and social inequalities (Appadurai, 2000). In recent decades development initiatives aimed at reducing these inequalities have been situated in a context of increasing globalisation with a dominant neo-liberal economic orthodoxy. This paper argues that neo-liberal globalisation contains inherent contradictions regarding choice and uniformity. This is illustrated in this paper through an exploration of the impact of neo-liberal globalisation on population policies and programmes. The dominant neo-liberal economic ideology that has influenced development over the last few decades has often led to alternative global visions being overlooked. Many current population and development debates are characterised by polarised arguments with strongly opposing aims and views. This raises the challenge of finding alternatives situated in more middle ground that both identify and promote the socially positive elements of neo-liberalism and state intervention, but also to limit their worst excesses within the population field and more broadly. This paper concludes with a discussion outling the positive nature of middle ground and other possible alternatives

Conceptualizing pathways linking women's empowerment and prematurity in developing countries.

BackgroundGlobally, prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5. Many efforts have focused on clinical approaches to improve the survival of premature babies. There is a need, however, to explore psychosocial, sociocultural, economic, and other factors as potential mechanisms to reduce the burden of prematurity. Women's empowerment may be a catalyst for moving the needle in this direction. The goal of this paper is to examine links between women's empowerment and prematurity in developing settings. We propose a conceptual model that shows pathways by which women's empowerment can affect prematurity and review and summarize the literature supporting the relationships we posit. We also suggest future directions for research on women's empowerment and prematurity.MethodsThe key words we used for empowerment in the search were "empowerment," "women's status," "autonomy," and "decision-making," and for prematurity we used "preterm," "premature," and "prematurity." We did not use date, language, and regional restrictions. The search was done in PubMed, Population Information Online (POPLINE), and Web of Science. We selected intervening factors-factors that could potentially mediate the relationship between empowerment and prematurity-based on reviews of the risk factors and interventions to address prematurity and the determinants of those factors.ResultsThere is limited evidence supporting a direct link between women's empowerment and prematurity. However, there is evidence linking several dimensions of empowerment to factors known to be associated with prematurity and outcomes for premature babies. Our review of the literature shows that women's empowerment may reduce prematurity by (1) preventing early marriage and promoting family planning, which will delay age at first pregnancy and increase interpregnancy intervals; (2) improving women's nutritional status; (3) reducing domestic violence and other stressors to improve psychological health; and (4) improving access to and receipt of recommended health services during pregnancy and delivery to help prevent prematurity and improve survival of premature babies.ConclusionsWomen's empowerment is an important distal factor that affects prematurity through several intervening factors. Improving women's empowerment will help prevent prematurity and improve survival of preterm babies. Research to empirically show the links between women's empowerment and prematurity is however needed

Critical agency and development: applying Freire and Sen to ICT4D in Zambia and Brazil

This paper draws upon critical theories and the capability approach. It argues for a conceptualization of development as a process designed to enable people to free themselves from structural disadvantage. Amartya Sen has argued that people’s “critical-agency” to question and reject unjust social norms is “pivotal” to human development and important for tackling inequalities of any kind. Freire’s critical pedagogy, and critical feminism, go further by providing disadvantaged people with the practical means to do this; to identify the structural root causes of unjust social norms and the critical-agency to challenge and change them. Two empirical case studies of ICT4D are presented, from Zambia and Brazil, which draw upon these critical approaches but use them in different ways. The paper argues that ICT4D must go beyond addressing people’s immediate practical needs for access to ICT tools and skills, to also address their strategic interest in identifying and tackling the root causes of disadvantage

Women, literacy and health: comparing health and education sectoral approaches in Nepal

Functional adult literacy interventions have been regarded for many decades by policy makers as an effective way of imparting health knowledge. Supported by research on the statistical relationships between women’s literacy rates and health indicators, this dominant policy discourse is based on assumptions that non-literate women lack understanding and confidence, and that formal programmes and institutions constitute the main sites of learning. Proposing a broader conceptualisation of literacy as a social practice and of health as connected with social justice, this article draws on policy analysis and the authors’ earlier research in Nepal to re-examine the relationship between gender, literacy and health. By comparing health and literacy approaches used within the education and health sectors and taking account of new and indigenous informal learning practices, the article points to ways of investigating the complex interaction of factors that influence inequalities in gender and health at community level