Reconsidering the Role of Conflict in the Lives of Refugees: The Case of Somalis in Europe

Based upon qualitative research with Somali refugees in two European host countries – the UK and the Netherlands - this paper explores the micro-level experiences and ongoing effects of the Somali conflict on their lives in exile. Challenging predominant macro-level framings of refugees in these settings, it supports a micro-level analysis of their experiences and lives. It analyses their ongoing connections with the conflict in Somalia, and reveals how this can affect aspects of their integration and emotional health while in exile, alongside social problems such as poverty, drug use and divorce.

Understanding Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Realist Abstraction

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper extends social entrepreneurship (SE) research by drawing upon a critical realist perspective to analyse dynamic structure/agency relations in SE opportunity emergence, illustrated by empirical evidence. Our findings demonstrate an agential aspect (opportunity actualisation following a path-dependent seeding-growing-shaping process) and a structural aspect (institutional, cognitive and embedded structures necessary for SE opportunity emergence) related to SE opportunities. These structures provide three boundary conditions for SE agency: institutional discrimination, an SE belief system and social feasibility. Within this paper, we develop a novel theoretical framework to analyse SE opportunities plus, an applicable tool to advance related empirical research

Advancing a Universally Designed (UD) Curriculum: How NH-ME LEND is Creating an Accessible Program for All

To meet the recent requirement for LEND programs to develop a Self-Advocacy Discipline, faculty and staff members of the NH-ME LEND Program established a workgroup to consider how best to support trainees and faculty, including those with disabilities. The focus of the group evolved to include universally designed (UD) principles into the curriculum to accommodate the wide range of learning styles of all NH-ME LEND trainees.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ccids_posters/1065/thumbnail.jp

Safe Spaces for Disruptive Learning in a North–South Research Partnership Context: International Mobility of Doctoral Students

This article spans issues of international student mobility, inequalities in higher education, and spaces for transformative learning for sustainable development. We tracked PhD alumni of an international Swiss research program in 2012 and 2017 and found that students from the global South experienced a significant, immediate career boost; most graduates decided to remain in or return to their country of origin after graduation (brain circulation). Career advancement among global North students took longer to develop. In-depth interviews with selected graduates gave students a voice: they felt empowered by networks, new friendships, and working relationships across disciplinary boundaries. The “safe spaces” or “Third Spaces” created in the program—encompassing inter- and transdisciplinary approaches, institutional and cultural diversity, and a real-world focus—were key for transformative learning, supported by an unconventional teaching and research strategy. To support disruptive learning leading to changes in mindsets and to reduce inequality in higher education, Western universities must question their own privileged position

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development Multilevel causal mechanisms in social entrepreneurship: the enabling role of social capital Multilevel causal mechanisms in social entrepreneurship: the enabling role of social capital

We take a new mechanism-based approach to explain how social entre-preneurship emerges from the interaction of multilevel elements, based on case study evidence from China. Informed by Coleman's 'boat model' of social mechanisms, social capital theory and a critical realist ontology, we highlight three mechanisms-the sparking, manifesting and scaling mechanisms-which collectively generate the social entrepreneurship phenomenon. When enabled by social capital, these mechanisms explain the causal relations between the multilevel elements of social entrepre-neurship: social needs, social entrepreneurial ideas and practice, market creation and social impact. This framework generates novel insights into the multilevel nature of social entrepreneurship, and the central role of social capital in enabling its underlying mechanisms. ARTICLE HISTOR