Character education: themes and researches. An academic literature review

Character education is both a rooted and developing discipline. Even though there is no consensual definition, it can be widely described as a schoolbased process to promote personal development in youth, through the development of virtue, moral values, and moral agency. Starting from the growing interest about this theme in recent years, this article aims at using the \u201ccharacter education\u201d analysis category to conduct an exploratory research on the main tendencies in the international literature, defining which are the main topics, exploring the way these topics develop in terms of theory and empirical research and analyzing how they relate to each other. In view of this goal, titles and abstracts of 261 articles published in 145 peer-reviewed academic journals over the period 2005-2014 were selected from Education Source, ERIC, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection and SocINDEX databases. Articles\u2019 titles and abstract were analyzed through the T-Lab software, using different content analysis techniques. Although many ambivalences and ambiguities affect the meaning attributed to the character education, some key trends emerge from this literature review and the considered studies seem to agree that character education can play an important role in the construction of children and adolescents\u2019 identity and can be a distinctive intervention for youth education and socialization

New Media & Youth Identity. Issues and Research Pathways

Media have held a considerable and growing place in the social environment of industrial society in recent decades, transforming the perception that a people have of their place in the world and of their memberships and belonging, creating new paths for social relations, affecting lifestyles, socialization, and communication processes, and the construction of identity itself. The relationship between young people (especially teenagers and adolescents) and new media shows some peculiarities which are worth further reflection to understand the extent and outcomes of these social changes. This article aims to investigate the discourse on youth identity and new media in the social science literature, determining which are the key trends and exploring the more relevant research questions about this theme and the way these topics relate to one another. Titles and abstracts of articles published during the period 2004 \u2013 2013 were selected from the Scopus social sciences database and they were analysed using different content analysis techniques supported by the T-Lab software. The international literature on these topics presents a certain liveliness and heterogeneity in themes and its perspectives on theoretical and empirical research. Nevertheless, it has been possible to identify some key trends, focusing mainly on the idea of active identity construction by new media

Media(ting) Between Generations: Common Sense and Perceptions of New Media by Young People and Teachers

The wide spread of mobile communication devices, the expansion of social media and participatory media platforms, the ease to edit, share and produce media content, indicate a trend of change in the media system that influences the production and consumption of knowledge and generates new paths for the young\u2019s identity construction. This raises necessary questions about the ways not only young, but also the education agencies \u2013 school in particular \u2013 relate to these transformations, starting from taking into account the production of common sense on the use, risks and opportunities of the media. Based on these considerations, in this paper, we will discuss the results of a qualitative case study carried out in the Veneto Region (Italy) on upper secondary school students and teachers in order to detect and compare the perception that young and educators have of the media, trying to identify boundaries or land on which to build exchange opportunities for dialogue between the generations

Consumption in action. Mapping consumerism in international academic literature

The consumer-citizen and more generally, the emergence of active forms of citizenship mediated by consumption point to a change in the relations of production, consumption and distribution. These forms of citizenship come to encompass opposite poles of consumption such as hedonism and social responsibility. When consumption choices are associated with the social and environmental issues connected to manufacturing and distribution processes, the space claimed by the active consumer comes to represents a form of social identity recognition. This \u2018political\u2019 sphere, made up of individual and/or collective claims mediated by consumer society comes in the wake of a long period of market de-politicization. On the basis of these assumptions, this article surveys and evaluates the topics related to critical consumption that are most discussed in the social sciences. Such forms of socially oriented consumption \u2013 enacted in the form of individual or collective consumer choices \u2013 represent a new form of political participation and are understood as practices of active-citizenship promotion. The findings of this article are based on data gathered from 478 peer-reviewed articles published between 2004 and 2013. The articles were selected from Scopus on the basis of their broad connection to critical consumerism and forms of socially oriented consumerism. A software-based content analysis run through T-Lab software was used to generate an analytical model of the main research axis of the most recent international literature on these arguments. The heterogeneous body of scholarly literature on socially oriented consumption reflects the rich diversity of perspectives adopted to understand the political and ethical role of consumers in contemporary societies

Introduzione: il lavoro di comunit\ue0 in ambito interculturale, tra il dire e il fare

Il lavoro introduce i contenuti del volume, ponendo le premesse per il ragionamento che far\ue0 da file rouge tra i diversi capitoli, ossia quello del lavoro sociale con i migranti e la comunit\ue0 locale, attraverso una lettura teorica e la presentazione di alcune esperienze di ricerca condotte nel territorio veneto

Prospettive migranti sull\u2019accoglienza di richiedenti asilo e rifugiati

Se, a partire dall\u2019ultimo decennio del Novecento, l\u2019obiettivo degli assistenti sociali in ambito migratorio \ue8 stato soprattutto quello di facilitare l\u2019accesso degli stranieri ai servizi del welfare pubblico e privato, si rende invece oggi sempre pi\uf9 necessario \u2013 in una prospettiva che miri allo sviluppo della comunit\ue0 \u2013 guardare a tutti i cittadini, autoctoni e migranti, non solo come beneficiari degli interventi, ma anche come protagonisti attivi del proprio e dell\u2019altrui cambiamento. A partire da questa premessa, il capitolo presenta una ricerca che, tramite lo strumento dell\u2019intervista, esplora la possibilit\ue0 di rendere concreti questi aspetti in relazione ad un tema specifico, quello dei richiedenti asilo e rifugiati. Attraverso la raccolta delle opinioni di venti cittadini appartenenti ad una comunit\ue0 ghanese residente nel vicentino, si ragiona quindi sulla costruzione di reti sociali alternative capaci di realizzare un benessere comunitario, che passi attraverso una migliore integrazione di tutte le sue parti. Le conclusioni avanzano uno spunto di riflessione nella considerazione degli stranieri non solo come fruitori dei servizi, ma come possibili risorse per il lavoro nella e con la comunit\ue0

Reti, Comune, comunit\ue0: le sfide quotidiane del lavoro sociale con i migranti

Il capitolo approfondisce le dimensioni (intese in termini di continuit\ue0) del lavoro di rete e di comunit\ue0 con i migranti attraverso l\u2019analisi delle opinioni e delle rappresentazioni degli assistenti sociali che operano in ambito comunale. Attraverso l\u2019utilizzo di un\u2019intervista sottoposta a 30 professionisti del territorio veneto, la ricerca indaga come avvenga il lavoro di rete con l\u2019utenza straniera, quali siano le potenzialit\ue0, i limiti e le difficolt\ue0 e quali possibilit\ue0 si prospettano per un lavoro di comunit\ue0 in grado di sviluppare processi di reale inclusione. Dai risultati, si evince l\u2019importanza della collaborazione con il terzo settore e la difficolt\ue0 e fragilit\ue0 dell\u2019attuale sistema di welfare che, tuttavia, viene compensato dal ruolo strategico degli assistenti sociali che riescono a mettersi in rete con il territorio e a diventare interlocutori privilegiati nel trovare soluzioni inedite per affrontare la complessit\ue0 del fenomeno migratorio. La dimensione del lavoro di comunit\ue0 emerge chiaramente dai racconti degli intervistati. Se, da un lato, pi\uf9 che una prassi consolidata di intervento, questo approccio sembra essere un modello ideale di lavoro a cui tendere, dall\u2019altro ne viene fortemente riconosciuta la necessit\ue0 per produrre coesione tra le diverse componenti della popolazione

Le sfide dell\u2019aiuto. Proposte operative e fabbisogni formativi

Il capitolo analizza le prospettive e le strategie che i 60 assistenti sociali intervistati intravedono per far fronte alle nuove dinamiche, alle potenzialit\ue0 e alle problematiche con cui le migrazioni li chiamano a confrontarsi nella quotidianit\ue0 del loro lavoro. A questo proposito, viene inoltre data voce ai fabbisogni formativi che i professionisti esprimono per poter implementare competenze e strumenti che consentano loro di rispondere nel modo pi\uf9 adeguato e consapevole possibile alle sfide dell\u2019aiuto che le migrazioni pongono all\u2019azione professionale e alla definizione del loro stesso ruolo in chiave interculturale

Biological, clinical and population relevance of 95 loci for blood lipids.

Plasma concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are among the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) and are targets for therapeutic intervention. We screened the genome for common variants associated with plasma lipids in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry. Here we report 95 significantly associated loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)), with 59 showing genome-wide significant association with lipid traits for the first time. The newly reported associations include single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near known lipid regulators (for example, CYP7A1, NPC1L1 and SCARB1) as well as in scores of loci not previously implicated in lipoprotein metabolism. The 95 loci contribute not only to normal variation in lipid traits but also to extreme lipid phenotypes and have an impact on lipid traits in three non-European populations (East Asians, South Asians and African Americans). Our results identify several novel loci associated with plasma lipids that are also associated with CAD. Finally, we validated three of the novel genes-GALNT2, PPP1R3B and TTC39B-with experiments in mouse models. Taken together, our findings provide the foundation to develop a broader biological understanding of lipoprotein metabolism and to identify new therapeutic opportunities for the prevention of CAD

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms