How to avoid cooling out? Experiences of young people in their transitions to work across Europe

In this working paper the authors investigate the active engagement of young women and men in shaping their transitions from school to work. How do they navigate through increasingly flexible and risk-laden transition systems? What strategies do they apply to develop and maintain learning motivation or to cope with de-motivation? The research was conducted with funding from the EUs Fifth Framework Programme and involves research teams from Denmark, East and West Germany, Great Britain (Northern Ireland), Ireland (Republic), Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Under the title "Youth Policy and Participation. Potentials of Participation and Informal Learning for Young People\u27s Transitions to the Labour Market" it investigates how young people use programmes and training measures which define active participation and the involvement of participants as essential for their approach towards young people. (Author)In diesem Arbeitspapier untersuchen die AutorInnen das aktive Engagement junger Frauen und Männer in der Gestaltung ihrer Übergänge von der Schule in den Beruf. Wie navigieren sie durch zunehmen flexibilisierte und risikobehaftete Übergangssysteme? Welche Strategien wenden sie an, um Lernmotivation zu entwickeln und aufrechtzuerhalten? Und wie gehen sie mit demotivierenden Erfahrungen um? Das zugrundeliegende Forschungsprojekt wurde finanziert mit Mitteln aus dem 5. Rahmenforschungsprogramm der EU. Beteiligt waren Forschungsteams aus Dänemark, Deutschland (Ost und West), Großbritannien (Nordirland), Irland, Italien, den Niederlanden, Portugal, Rumänien und Spanien. Unter dem Titel "Jugendpolitik und Partizipation. Potenziale von Partizipation und informellem Lernen für die Übergänge junger Menschen in den Arbeitsmarkt" untersucht das Projekt, wie Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene Unterstützungs- und Trainingsmaßnahmen nutzen, die aktive Beteiligung und Mitbestimmung der TeilnehmerInnen zum zentralen Bestandteil ihres Arbeitskonzeptes machen. (Autor

"You can't be up there" - youth cultural participation and appropriation of space

This article investigates the relationship between youth cultural practices and young people's spatial appropriation. For this purpose, we analyse case studies into groups of young people involved in two forms of practices that are marked by particular perceptions of the (urban) space: two Parkour groups and a Scouts group. The questions we are dealing with concern the way to which young members of these groups are appropriating ‘free space’ through participating in activities like the Scouts or Parkour. Furthermore, this article also explores important questions concerning processes of how young people’s participation in urban areas should be understood and what consequences this understanding has for youth policy.Dieser Artikel untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen jugendkulturellen Praktiken und Raumaneignung junger Menschen. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Fallstudien zu zwei unterschiedlichen Formen der Wahrnehmung (städtischen) Raums: zwei organisierte Parkour-Gruppen und eine Pfadfindergruppe. Die Autor*innen beschäftigen sich mit der Frage nach Formen der Aneignung von ,freien Räumen‘ im Rahmen organisierter Aktivitäten wie den Pfadfindern und Parkour. Darüber hinaus untersucht dieser Artikel wichtige Fragen in Bezug auf das Verständnis von Prozessen der Beteiligung junger Menschen in urbanen Gebieten und welche Konsequenzen dieses Verständnis für die Jugendpolitik hat

Ecosystem services in smallholder coffee farming systems: a case study in Uganda using chemical soil indicators

Farmers in coffee producing countries may not be aware of the economic, social and ecological benefits available through organic agriculture. At a local, regional and global scale, smallholder coffee farmers can discover that organic production methods are linked to provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services. It is assumed that organic agriculture has a significant influence on soil parameters, and by association, on ecosystem services. Differences between farming systems in soil chemical properties reveal advantages for coffee farmers and shows the ecosystem services derived through organic agriculture at a local level. Benefits discovered in organic coffee systems are higher inputs of organic matter, higher biodiversity of soil microorganisms, less soil erosion, and the potential for higher aggregate stability and superior nutrient circulation

Induction Mapping of the 3D-Modulated Spin Texture of Skyrmions in Thin Helimagnets

Envisaged applications of skyrmions in magnetic memory and logic devices crucially depend on the stability and mobility of these topologically non-trivial magnetic textures in thin films. We present for the first time quantitative maps of the magnetic induction that provide evidence for a 3D modulation of the skyrmionic spin texture. The projected in-plane magnetic induction maps as determined from in-line and off-axis electron holography carry the clear signature of Bloch skyrmions. However, the magnitude of this induction is much smaller than the values expected for homogeneous Bloch skyrmions that extend throughout the thickness of the film. This finding can only be understood, if the underlying spin textures are modulated along the out-of-plane z direction. The projection of (the in-plane magnetic induction of) helices is further found to exhibit thickness-dependent lateral shifts, which show that this z modulation is accompanied by an (in-plane) modulation along the x and y directions

Who knows? Youth work and the mise-en-scene: reframing pedagogies of youth participation

Drawing on the PARTISPACE research (www.partispace.eu) and particularly on findings from three of eight European cities included in the study, this article brings to the surface the dramatic and theatrical practices underlying the metaphor of performance in order to contribute to a better understanding of youth work and youth participation. It considers the spaces, temporalities, actors and audiences, and atmospheres of youth participation projects. Youth workers and young people in these space/times can be seen as actors in the drama of participation; cast in their roles and caught up in power play, both small scale and sometimes on a larger political stage. The micropolitics of group inclusions and exclusions which are pushed beyond the boundary in Youth Council spaces take centre stage in the drama of the Youth Club. Attention to ambivalence in the work of youth workers leads to a discussion of the needs of such pedagogues

Direct Observation of Plasmon Band Formation and Delocalization in Quasi-Infinite Nanoparticle Chains

Chains of metallic nanoparticles sustain strongly confined surface plasmons with relatively low dielectric losses. To exploit these properties in applications,such as waveguides, the fabrication of long chains of low disorder and a thorough understanding of the plasmon-mode properties, such as dispersion relations, are indispensable. Here, we use a wrinkled template for directed self-assembly to assemble chains of gold nanoparticles. With this up-scalable method, chain lengths from two particles (140 nm) to 20 particles (1500 nm) and beyond can be fabricated. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy supported by boundary element simulations, finite-difference time-domain, and a simplified dipole coupling model reveal the evolution of a band of plasmonic waveguide modes from degenerated single-particle modes in detail. In striking difference from plasmonic rod-like structures, the plasmon band is confined in excitation energy, which allows light manipulations below the diffraction limit. The non-degenerated surface plasmon modes show suppressed radiative losses for efficient energy propagation over a distance of 1500 nm

Generalized abstraction-refinement for game-based CTL lifted model checking

cation areas ranging from embedded system domains to system-level software and communication protocols. Software Product Line methods and architectures allow effective building many custom variants of a software system in these domains. In many of the applications, their rigorous verification and quality assurance are of paramount importance. Lifted model checking for system families is capable of verifying all their variants simultaneously in a single run by exploiting the similarities between the variants. The computational cost of lifted model checking still greatly depends on the number of variants (the size of configuration space), which is often huge. Variability abstractions have successfully addressed this configuration space explosion problem, giving rise to smaller abstract variability models with fewer abstract configurations. Abstract variability models are given as modal transition systems, which contain may (over-approximating) and must (under-approximating) transitions. Thus, they preserve both universal and existential CTL properties. In this work, we bring two main contributions. First, we define a novel game-based approach for variability-specific abstraction and refinement for lifted model checking of the full CTL, interpreted over 3-valued semantics. We propose a direct algorithm for solving a 3-valued (abstract) lifted model checking game. In case the result of model checking an abstract variability model is indefinite, we suggest a new notion of refinement, which eliminates indefinite results. This provides an iterative incremental variability-specific abstraction and refinement framework, where refinement is applied only where indefinite results exist and definite results from previous iterations are reused. Second, we propose a new generalized definition of abstract variability models, given as so-called generalized modal transition systems, by introducing the notion of (must) hyper-transitions. This results in more precise abstract models in which more CTL formulae can be proved or disproved. We integrate the newly defined generalized abstract variability models in the existing abstraction-refinement framework for game-based lifted model checking of CTL. Finally, we evaluate the practicality of this approach on several system families