bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A New Hybrid Short Term Solar Irradiation Forecasting Method Based on CEEMDAN Decomposition Approach and BiLSTM Deep Learning Network with Grid Search Algorithm
Authors: Gupta Anuj , Sharma Sharad , Saroha Sumit
Published: May 2023

An accurate and efficient forecasting of solar energy is necessary for managing the electricity generation and distribution in today’s electricity supply system. However, due to its random character in its time series, accurate forecasting of solar irradiation is a difficult task; but it is important for grid management, scheduling and its balancing. To fully utilize the solar energy in order to balance the generation and consumption, this paper proposed an ensemble approach using CEEMDAN-BiLSTM combination to forecast short term solar irradiation. In this, Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) extract the inherent characteristics of time series data by decomposing it into low and high frequency Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF’s) and Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (BiLSTM) used as a forecasting tool to forecast the solar Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI). Furthermore, using extensive experimental analysis, the research minimizes the number of IMF’s by integrating the CEEMDAN decomposed component (IMF1–IMF14) in order to increase the prediction accuracy. Then, for each IMF subseries, the trained standalone BiLSTM network are assigned to carry out the forecasting. In last stage, the forecasted results of each BiLSTM network are aggregate to compile final results. Two year data (2012–13) of Delhi, India from National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) has been used for training while one year data (2014) used for testing purpose for the same location. The proposed model performance is measured in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), Correlation coefficient (R22) and forecast skill (FS). For the comparative analysis of proposed model, several others models: persistence model, unidirectional deep learning models: long short term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit (GRU), BiLSTM and two CEEMDAN based BiLSTM models are developed. The proposed model achieved lowest annual average RMSE (18.86 W/m22, 22.24 W/m22, 26.25 W/m22) and MAPE (2.19%, 4.81%, 6.77%) among the other developed models for 1-hr, 2-hr and 3-hr ahead solar GHI forecasting respectively. The maximum correlation coefficient (R22) obtained by the proposed model is 96.4 for 1-hr ahead respectively; on the other hand, forecast skill (%) of 89% with reference to benchmark model. Various test such as: Diebold Mariano Hypothesis test (DMH) and directional change in forecasting (DC) are used to analyze the sensitivity with reference to the difference in forecasted and observed value.
Stability Improvement of Wind Farm by Utilising SMES and STATCOM Coupled System
Authors: Dhiman Sonia , Dahiya Anil Kumar
Published: May 2023

The rising number of intermittent wind energy-based generation systems in power systems affects the grid system’s stability and reliability. These wind generators reduce the inertia of the system, thus making the system sensitive to grid disturbances. Due to their unique features, the Doubly Fed Induction Generators (DFIG) wind generators are being connected at a large scale. The Energy Storage Device (ESD) offers a viable solution to the integration issues caused by variable-natured renewable energy sources. In this work, the Static Compensator (STATCOM) is attached to the Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) technology to strengthen the wind farm integrated grid system for better performance. The SMES is interlinked with the grid system via a power electronic interface (PEI) and chopper for the energy exchange. This work examines the functioning of the proposed STATCOM as PEI and three-level chopper control circuit based on fuzzy logic for the SMES system. The fuzzy logic based SMES with STATCOM (STAT-SMES) is proposed for a DFIG-based integrated system under different fault conditions. This coupled controller can compensate for both real and reactive powers, improve voltage stability, and can damp power oscillations at a fast rate. The results have been compared without any controller, with STATCOM only, and with the proposed, fuzzy based SMES coupled to STATCOM using MATLAB. The simulation outcomes prove that coupling SMES to STATCOM is effective in handling wind farm integration issues in a better way than STATCOM.
Torque Ripple Minimization Technique of Position Sensorless BLDC Motor for Variable Speed Drives
Authors: Mahalingam Karthika , Ramji Nisha Kandencheri Chellaiah
Published: May 2023

Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors are advantageous because of their higher efficiency, higher speed operations and higher power density. Industrial applications demand BLDC motors free from torque ripple. The torque ripple is due to the unequal commutation period between the energised phase and unenergized phase current. It is a perilous problem in sensorless BLDC drive as it leads to speed oscillations, acoustic noise, serious faults, and vibration in machines. The torque ripple can be reduced either by improving motor design parameter or by improving the motor control strategy. This paper proposes a Proportional Integral (PI) controller-based control scheme for a cuk converter driven sensorless BLDC motor to reduce the torque ripple. The proposed scheme invokes Zero Crossing Point (ZCP) detection with back emf sensing approach. The presence of inductor reduces the ripple in the input and output currents. The performance of the strategy is verified using MATLAB R2018a Simulink for different operating conditions of a BLDC drive and the results prove that the recommended scheme decreases the torque ripple compared to the conventional scheme.
Vliv použití výstražného trojúhelníku za snížené viditelnosti na rychlost projíždějících vozidel
Authors: Rak Martin , Tmejová Tereza , Bilík Tomáš , Jelínek David , Bradáč Albert , Nouzovský Luboš
Published: May 2023

Tento článek se zabývá vlivem použití výstražného trojúhelníku v reálné dopravní situaci za snížené viditelnosti tmou. Předmětem zkoumání je změna rychlosti projíždějících vozidel v souvislosti s touto nestandartní situací. Pro vyhodnocení a popis chování řidičů byla využita metodika koeficientu nebezpečnosti. V rámci tohoto výzkumu byly uvažovány různé možnosti odvrácení střetu nebo jeho následků v uvažovaném rozmezí vzdáleností 30 až 50m mezi výstražným trojúhelníkem a pomyslnou překážkou.
Introduction
Authors: Dwyer Peter , Scullion Lisa , Jones Katy , McNeill Jenny , Stewart Alasdair B.R.
Published: May 2023

This chapter initially defines the concept of welfare conditionality within a discussion of the competing principles and normative positions used to justify, or oppose, the provision of collectivised welfare provisions. It argues that the ascendency and consolidation of the principle and practices of welfare conditionality, internationally, is linked to the foregrounding of contractualism and activation inherent in ongoing reforms in many diverse, contemporary national welfare states. It is concluded that welfare conditionality reconfigures and diminishes the notion of social citizenship.
Welfare conditionality and problematic or antisocial behaviour
Authors: Dwyer Peter , Scullion Lisa , Jones Katy , McNeill Jenny , Stewart Alasdair B.R.
Published: May 2023

Chapter 5 begins by focusing on the tensions between care and control that are inherent within highly conditional welfare interventions. Presenting analysis of further longitudinal case studies this chapter explores the efficacy and impacts of welfare conditionality in addressing antisocial behaviour among vulnerable people with complex/multiple issues (for example, impairment, substance addiction and homelessness). The differential outcomes of family intervention policies are also considered. The notion of ‘compound conditionality’ is then defined. Discussions here focus on how welfare conditionality, when implemented separately within distinct policy areas (for example, social security benefits, antisocial behaviour interventions, social housing policy), often intersect to impact negatively on individuals who are simultaneously subject to behavioural requirements in more than one aspect of their lives.
Conclusions
Authors: Dwyer Peter , Scullion Lisa , Jones Katy , McNeill Jenny , Stewart Alasdair B.R.
Published: May 2023

Chapter 8 draws together the evidence and discussions presented in the preceding chapters. It is concluded that the imposition of behavioural conditionality as the preferred solution to complex social issues deflects our gaze away from the ideological and structural factors that are fundamental to understanding and responding to the poverty and other inequalities that continue to blight societies. Welfare conditionality is punitive, undermines the promise of social citizenship, sets vulnerable people up to fail and serves individuals with multiple and complex needs particularly badly. Furthermore, it is counterproductive, ineffective and unethical. It is therefore time to end the misguided obsession with behaviour change and focus on promoting meaningful employment support, genuine social security and greater equality.
Civil society and the governance of city region economic development
Authors: Beel David , Jones Martin , Jones Ian Rees
Published: May 2023

This chapter addresses the (re-)positioning of civil society within new structures of city region governance. Based on stakeholder mapping and semi-structured interviews with key actors operating across each city region, the chapter illustrates how this has created several significant tensions as well as opportunities for civil society actors. The chapter draws from four UK case study city regions and specifically looks at the ways city and devolution deals have impacted upon the positioning of civil society actors. Chapter 3 provides new insights into how civil society organisations have been seeking to respond to this overtly economic focus around the development of city regions that, to a certain extent, leaves such actors on the outside looking in. Beel et al’s new analysis shows how the institutional mechanisms associated with city regions are dominated by business interests and those that are already elected officials, thereby marginalising civil society. In this way the new governance arrangements are narrowing the interests of the local state towards more market-led interests and largely ignoring issues that are more community oriented and concerned with the social reproduction of the city region.
Civil society, pandemic and the crisis of welfare: exploring mixed economy models of welfare in domiciliary adult social care in a devolved UK
Authors: Chaney Paul , Sophocleous Christala
Published: May 2023

This chapter explores emerging evidence as to whether, in contrast to statist and market-based ‘for profit’ service delivery, civil society is the answer to meeting modern welfare needs. It examines one of the most pressing welfare challenges of the twenty-first century: adult social care (ASC). Underlining this volume’s central theme of the uncertainties of the age, it examines the evidence on ASC delivery in the UK before and during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–21. It uses a comparative case study approach focusing on policy and practice in the four nations of the UK. The dataset comprises over one hundred interviews with civil society policy actors and other stakeholders, complemented by analysis of parliamentary proceeding, policy documents and the ‘grey’ literature of civil society organisations. The core research questions are: according to the views of key stakeholders, how do the different territorial welfare mixes on ASC in the four nations of the UK compare in their effectiveness? Did the four mixed economy models provide an effective response to ASC delivery in the pandemic? Does the evidence presented in the chapter exacerbate civil inequalities and social stratification? Last, can non-governmental organisations beneficially replace or complement the work of state ASC providers?
Digital threat or opportunity? Local civil society in an age of global inter-connectivity
Authors: Woods Michael , Guma Taulant , Yarker Sophie
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines the challenges and opportunities for local civil society posed by digital technologies, especially social media. Drawing upon case studies of local civil society groups in three localities in Wales – Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Swansea – they explored the dynamics of reconfiguration of local civil society and how the new digital technologies have created a new universal space of social consciousness, identity, belonging and collective action. These are underpinned by a growth in global consciousness and values, mediated by transnational institutions and NGOs. A key issue is whether this presents an existential threat to local civil society, with the global and the local pitted against each other in a zero-sum game, or whether more sophisticated processes are at work. The analysis showed that the social dynamics and civil society structures in the three case study localities have evolved with the deepening of globalisation and other socio-economic changes. The chapter discusses how digital technologies have had both positive and negative impacts. For example, digital technologies afford opportunities to rebuild local community identities through hyper-local platforms, providing new ways of connecting neighbours and new vehicles for civil society action.
Democratic decline? Civil society and trust in government
Authors: Cole Alistair , Stafford Ian , Heinz Dominic
Published: May 2023

This chapter considers the contemporary decline of political trust and the potential existential threat that it poses to democracy. Drawing on comparative analysis from the UK, France and Germany it examines governance-trust configurations and their likely propensity to foster co-production and co-creation between state and civil society. A key finding is the extent to which the development of trust within civil society varies as much within as between states. The analysis also highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the erosion of trust. The study argues that potential solutions for restoring political trust and reversing the perceived decline of democracy have civil society at their heart and include the adoption of more diverse and effective forms of citizen engagement. Yet the discussion also warns that this is fraught with difficulties. Notably, the adoption of co-creation or co-production to build trust with civil society actors is likely to be most challenging in new governance regions where a shared history or identity is largely absent.
Introduction
Authors: Tholen Gerbrand
Published: May 2023

This chapter introduces the book. It outlines the key objective, which is to explain how the understanding of work and the labour market actively shaped the arguments used to support marketisation in England. It also provides a policy context in which marketisation has taken place. The chapter ends by setting out the structure of the rest of the book.
Dimensions of marketisation
Authors: Tholen Gerbrand
Published: May 2023

This chapter provides the context for the analysis. It explains how marketisation has penetrated the modern higher education (HE) system. It distinguishes three key dimensions of marketisation that are particularly relevant for the book. These are user-pay finance, managerialism and commodification. It demonstrates how these processes increased the role of markets, choice and competition in the provision of HE. It also elucidates the role of the state in marketisation.
Earnings
Authors: Tholen Gerbrand
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines graduate earnings. It highlights the unequal earning distribution within the graduate labour market and challenges the idea that earnings accurately reflect human capital investment or even perceived productivity. Here it expands on some non-educational factors that fundamentally shape earnings within the graduate labour market.
Ageing context
Authors: Clark Sam
Published: May 2023

Chapter 1 contextualises the actors storied within this volume, specifically baby boomer characters ‘Matthew’ and ‘Eileen’ storied within Chapter 3, and ‘Rose’ the ‘vulnerable friend’ storied within Chapter 4. Taking a popular perspective, these characters occupy a common phase of life – retirement – albeit separated by over two decades, with Matthew and Eileen being recent retirees, and Rose a generation ahead. They are also considered outwith the target market for the villa product presented within Chapter 5; Matthew and Eileen being ‘too young’ or ‘not ready’, and Rose being ‘too dependent’ or ‘too late’ for a retirement apartment. This chapter uses gerontological literature to locate these ‘known’ individuals within a theoretical population or spectrum of older persons. It explores key terms used to describe life course stages, such as ‘third age’ (Matthew/Eileen) and ‘fourth age’ (Rose), and associated degrees of independence and how these translate to housing needs. Thus this chapter offers readers a theoretical primer and backdrop for the cast of actors storied in this book.
Developer director
Authors: Clark Sam
Published: May 2023

Chapter 6 asks readers to consider the position of a property developer within the UK volume housebuilding sector. It contains a tripartite story that portrays a company director based on documentary analysis and real events, including everyday interactions and observations from industry. Part A examines common perceptions of property developers within popular culture and the architectural profession especially. Part B presents ‘George’, a composite character based on members of a fictional board of directors at development company ‘Pink & Knight’. The story then shifts from a narration of George, as character, to George as narrator. Part C presents George’s thinking around a staff symposium called ‘Back-To-Basics’, which is used by the author to roll-call Pink & Knight directors, as well as unpack everyday operational challenges and business decisions, including investment in product review and exploring design ‘tweaks’. The story extends empathy towards an actor rarely captured by research and invites readers to look beyond popular stereotypes that cast developers as villains. Here the developer is presented as a built environment professional and visionary change-maker; one committed to developing a ‘needs oriented’ retirement-living product, while keeping a close eye on build cost, profit margins and sustaining livelihoods.
Villa manager
Authors: Clark Sam
Published: May 2023

Chapter 8 reflects on the position of wardens and scheme managers – specifically villa managers – as personnel responsible for providing a concierge service to residents, and a facilities management service to property developers. The chapter provides background information on this group of workers and an exploration of the villa manager’s job description, including their role in the promotion and maintenance of the social architecture of the villa. Here the story proper takes the form of a ‘day in the life’ of Lindsey in her workplace, providing an account of the social world she helps to support and sustain. The story reflects upon the villa manager’s shifting position, necessitated by engagement with an array of stakeholders, ranging from employers to customers and visiting others. The story highlights the concerns of the villa manager, including ‘grey’ areas between customer expectations and customer care. It also portrays something of the challenges presented by an ageing cohort of residents with collective ambitions to reshape the villa environment – the shared lounge especially – and the villa manager’s potential to contribute towards design review of this setting. Thus this chapter shines a light on personnel that are expert in the maintenance of retirement living; an expertise that appears largely untapped.
Company architect
Authors: Clark Sam
Published: May 2023

Chapter 11 reports from the professional context of the architect working within a property development company specialising in retirement housing. Here poetic expression is used to capture the values of the company architect and cultural environment in which they perform their professional work. Five short poems represent key ‘encounters’ with in-house architectural staff met within the research field. They include observations of professional preparedness and expertise in designing for older people, as well as identifying limitations to professional agency. The chapter serves to isolate the practices of – and give voice to – the architect working within a property development company, as opposed to independent architectural practice. In doing so the author reviews the position of co-professionals operating within the ‘other’ workplace – business office rather than design studio. Readers will observe a difference in how retirement housing is considered by alternate architectural professionals; a difference typified by casting the design object as either ‘project’ or ‘product’ – the latter maximising the repeatability and scalability of housing. In this context company architects are found to be like design custodians; persons entrusted with guarding or maintaining a set of design patterns that are shaped or tweaked to fit specific development sites and settings.
Design tweaks
Authors: Clark Sam
Published: May 2023

Chapter 13 contains a reflective account that acknowledges the author’s agency as researcher and creative practitioner. It is the meta narrative that relates to and connects the other research stories within the volume. It also offers a less censored designer perspective that speaks more directly to the experience of architectural practitioners and those engaged in practice-led research. In particular this chapter reflects on the theme of design research for change, and seeks to answer three questions: (i) who decided what to change, (ii) who activated the change and (iii) who has been affected by the change? Here ‘change’ is defined as revised or tweaked design patterns for an established housing product – the retirement villa. A case study is used to demonstrate how small changes can positively affect the experiences of residents and their visitors while occupying communal spaces within residential developments. It explores the process of ‘tweaking’ the design template for a shared lounge, to include an open-plan coffee bar that gives the space a distinct character and relatable programme. The chapter thus explores architectural agency through micro design changes that have the potential to impact a population of older people, particularly when replicated across an expanding portfolio of retirement villas.
Retirement reviewed
Authors: Clark Sam
Published: May 2023

Chapter 14 draws together the research stories contained within this volume, presenting them as an anthology that captures multiple cultures connected to British retirement housing, while highlighting key areas of significance and contribution to environmental gerontology. It also presents a reminder to readers that the retirement-living products at the centre of this book represent just one accommodation solution or typology – retirement blocks – that serve a niche segment of the UK population and contribute a relatively small volume of for-sale properties to overall housing stock. This chapter also calls to mind the wider social purpose of housing and the inherent risk in pursuing the commodification of residential ‘units’ or ‘rooms’ and financialisation of housing generally. Here readers are invited to reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the significance of good-quality homes, especially during periods of lockdown, which revealed great disparity of experience due to housing inequality, particularly in relation to dwelling size, proximity to outdoor space, and environmental performance (heating and cooling). Volume housing, especially apartment blocks, must be considered first and foremost as homes and places for dwelling, with potential to meet the changing needs of occupants over the long term, including those ageing in place.
Working for social justice through community development in Nigeria
Authors: Halliru Samir
Published: May 2023

The chapter critically discusses the Nigerian context, the nature of violent conflicts and their impact on communities. It also explores the ways which have been tried to mitigate the eruption or escalation of violent conflicts in Nigeria. It looks at centre-outward initiatives and suggests that where they have not worked or have had limited effect, the limited role given to community development has been a factor in their failures. Then it goes on to look at initiatives which have had a community development dimension.
It is argued that community development to promote social justice for the victims of poverty, displacement and violent conflict in Nigeria can reduce these threats to wellbeing. This chapter maintains that a peacebuilding process to create social justice and liberation for the victims of poverty, displacement and violent conflict needs to get closer to the poor and marginalised by engaging them in the process.
Memory, truth and hope: long journeys of justice in Eastern Sri Lanka
Authors: Emmanuel Sarala , Gowthaman P.B.
Published: May 2023

This chapter places the community-based work described in the context of civil war in Sri Lanka, focusing on 2002–9, a period that saw a fragile ceasefire agreement signed between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government of Sri Lanka, but also witnessed the recommencement of armed conflict in 2006. Describing the challenges faced by communities in East Sri Lanka, that were directly affected by the violence, the authors describe building/developing clusters of grassroots level organisations and collectives based on community development approaches. The chapter describes how the development of sustainable economic activities had to be negotiated in conflict-affected areas as well as examining how the war disrupted gender roles, resulting in community leadership roles being held by women. Finally, the authors share their personal reflections on both the community resilience demonstrated, but also the challenges that remain.
The authors are both writing from the grounded experience of being activist/practitioners – one that worked in a mainstream international development organisation, supporting community-based partner organisations, and the other working with local feminist organisations over the past two decades.
Researching with Care
Authors: Brannelly Tula , Barnes Marian
Published: May 2023

Researching with Care applies feminist care ethics to reimagine research as a caring practice. If we care about what we research, do we recognise that others care in different ways and for different reasons? What does this mean for the way we research, who we research with and what we seek to achieve as a result? Drawing on their own and others’ direct experiences of undertaking participatory research in particular, the authors consider all stages of research, from inception–how we think about research questions, through the ways we work with collaborators and those we are researching–to impact–what legacy do we seek to leave behind us? Applying Fisher and Tronto’s definition of caring they consider research as one of the ‘things we do’ to help us live in the world as well as possible. Thus, they argue for research to be conducted in a way that enables the pursuit of justice and wellbeing. This means recognising the injustices arising from research that does not acknowledge different types and sources of knowledge, and the harms done when researchers do not care about ‘research subjects’. The authors adopt a multi-and post-disciplinary approach and explore the contribution of indigenous scholars and people with lived experience in developing caring research practices.
The radicalisation of middle-class activism: a theoretical overview
Authors: Siza Remo
Published: May 2023

This chapter sums up the public and academic debate on the recent activism of the middle class and on the role played by the unequal distribution of wealth and income on living standards or, alternatively, by the profound cultural changes in social values in many Western European nations. This research has produced contrasting evidence for both economic and cultural causes and has generated an intense academic and public debate. Much of the research highlights single deprivations or conflicts appearing within the process of the decline of the middle class, failing to recognise both the critical role played by the context in which the economic and cultural dynamics develop and the agency of social actors that mediates the effects of economic and cultural dynamics We need to understand the context in which the dynamics of deprivation and cultural changes happen and which other causal relationships exist and could interfere with the causal power of these dynamics. These interactions offer a more productive understanding of the recent activism of the middle class and its shifting relations with the welfare state.
A long-lasting transition
Authors: Siza Remo
Published: May 2023

The central focus of the chapter is the crisis of the kind of individualism of people who compete in relatively ordered ways, abide by the rules and who contribute to creating these rules through their own personal commitment and autonomy (‘institutionalised individualism’). The chapter starts by analysing the impact of the processes of individualisation that are weakening traditional and new bonds and collective belonging. Main institutions encounter increasing difficulties in creating new forms of reintegration suitable for contemporary societies. On the one hand, a multitude of individual and collective subjects are continuously promoting new processes of the ‘disembedding’ of institutions, relations and values in endless initiatives of ‘detraditionalisation’. On the other hand, our societies do not find social resources, subjects, social groups or associations able to face these dynamics of ‘disembedding’. European societies are not able to build new integrative forces, institutional resources, new forms of sociality or belonging, which might help individuals to actively live in a highly individualised society.
Beyond the biomedical: HIV as a barrier to intimacy for older women living with HIV in the United Kingdom
Authors: Stevenson Jacqui , Dryden OmiSoore H.
Published: May 2023

As HIV treatment and prevention have advanced, the HIV response has become increasingly biomedicalised. However, biomedical solutions are insufficient to address the social, psychological and relational impacts of HIV. Drawing on a participatory qualitative study, this chapter discusses the views and experiences of older women living with HIV in the United Kingdom to explore the barriers HIV can pose for intimacy. Women living with HIV do not live single-issue lives, and different intersecting factors influence their experiences and views of sex and intimacy. These factors include ageism, sexism, anti-trans discrimination and past experiences of sexual and gender-based violence. Partners’ attitudes, wider society and diverse life experiences all influence sex and sexual behaviours in women ageing with HIV, indicating the limitations of an increasingly biomedicalised HIV response.
Present-time witches: media and the intersecting discourses of age, gender and mental health in Ghana
Authors: Wilińska Monika , Boateng Doris
Published: May 2023

In this chapter, the representation of older women with mental health problems in Ghanaian society is discussed. The focus is on the figure of a witch and the ways it is employed in everyday social and media discourses and the material consequences it produces.Technological advancement has enabled people to access information from different local and international sources. In Ghana, the past two decades have witnessed significant improvements in media access and usage. This presents concerns for the accurate and realistic representation of all sections of the population. At the same time, the Ghanaian population has been very active in creating and using media as yet another means of communication. While younger women appear in the media a lot, the same cannot be said for older women. Further, issues regarding mental health are largely silenced and this concerns people of all genders and ages. There is, however, one exception when mental health, old age and women are openly talked about in social spaces: in most instances, when older women have mental health problems, they are referred to as witches. The image of a witch is a joint creation of various sociocultural practices, religious beliefs, media and social norms.
Visual ageism on public organisations’ websites
Authors: Loos Eugène , Ivan Loredana , Sourbati Maria , Xu Wenqian , Christensen Christa Lykke , Ylänne Virpi
Published: May 2023

The visualisation of older people as a group in the media can play a role in stereotype formation and reinforce stereotypes. It can even negatively impact older people’s self-esteem, health status, physical wellbeing and cognitive performance. Although empirical studies have been conducted on such visual representation, only a limited number of studies have focused on the way public organisations visually represent older people in their digital communications. This chapter therefore first presents and discusses insights from the field of the visual representation of older people and the concept of ‘visual ageism’ – ‘the social practice of visually under-representing older people or misrepresenting them in a prejudiced way’ (Loos and Ivan, 2018, p 164). Then, a semiotic approach will be used to analyse how public organisations across a range of European countries use pictures about relevant products and services and represent older people on their websites. Finally, conclusions, limitations of the research and implications for future research will be presented.
Advertising old men: Swedish old men reflect on ‘seeing themselves’
Authors: Lövgren Karin , Sandberg Linn , Hearn Jeff
Published: May 2023

Adverts tell a story and comprise images that old men encounter in their everyday lives, and which provide popular scripts on ageing masculinity. This chapter focuses on old men’s own understandings of advertising and their depictions of old men. Focus group interviews with Swedish old men, aged between 65 and 92, were conducted, with commercial adverts featuring old men used as visual prompts to invite discussions on masculinity and ageing. The advertising shown reflects both negative and overtly ageist images, and images of the so-called successfully ageing old man; adverts appealing to identification and aspiration, adverts inciting laughter and appreciation, and adverts creating a sense of resistance or rejection. Different readings of the shown adverts emerged, which point to the polysemic nature of media texts. The chapter discusses prominent themes from the transcribed and coded focus group interviews, on embodied ageing, ageing in different stages of life, masculinity and societal changes in terms of gender equality and the role and status of old men.
Community building for and through sustainable food
Authors: Zimmermann Dominic
Published: May 2023

Food is often present in practices of community development and community building. Here, it has often been approached as part of the experience of poverty or as the basis for community cohesion work. This chapter unfolds a different perspective: it is concerned with the role of food in community-building activities that aim at systemic changes in the food system. It focuses on discursive, socio-material and sensory aspects of food in the building of a more sustainable local and alternative food community. Focusing on the work of a group of young environmental activists from Zurich, Switzerland, the chapter shows that eating together can spark positive dynamics that can be harnessed for community building and lead to more empowered relationships with food. It recognises how prescriptions about what and how to eat, how to handle and how to talk about food become markers of social distinction and possibly discrimination. For more inclusive practices to develop, the chapter identifies that addressing hurtful food experiences such as lack of food or eating disorders is necessary. Furthermore, the inclusion and competences of marginalised groups in the politicisation of food and in activities of community-based food production becomes essential.
Enabling spaces for and with marginalised young people: the case of the Disha peer support and speak out group
Authors: Natu Sadhana
Published: May 2023

This chapter foregrounds the challenges first- and second-generation learners face in Indian higher education campuses by sharing insights gained through the work of Disha, a speak out and peer support group that has been functioning for the last 29 years. Established by the author Dr Sadhana Natu in 1992, Disha is a community-building project based in a psychology department. The chapter shows how thinking from psychology can inform community education processes and how community work can inform a democratic politics of mental health. A key aspect in Disha is the building of friendship and the consequent unlearning of privilege by those who inherit high caste status. The chapter speaks to many marginalised, as well as privileged youth elsewhere, whether subject to a caste system or other forms of oppressive social hierarchy.
They are not your warriors: intergenerational tensions and practices of hope in young people’s environmental activism
Authors: Arya Dena
Published: May 2023

This chapter contextualises some of the central themes of the book through an in-moment analysis of the Fridays For Future presence at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. It highlights the need for adults to be wary of creating heroic narratives of young people involved in environmental action. This chapter is a call to adults working with young people to support them by questioning their own role in reimagining the status quo. It argues that intergenerational solidarity for adults must entail using their knowledge and experience to bolster young people’s self-determination in reimagining the future.
Does school shape upper secondary educational transitions? Exploring the relationship between students’ trajectories and educational choices
Authors: Castejón Alba , Montes Alejandro , Manzano Martí
Published: May 2023

This chapter analyses young people’s upper secondary education transitions as intrinsically related to their previous school trajectories and experiences in lower secondary education. Drawing on quantitative data of students from Barcelona in their first year of upper secondary education, the chapter demonstrates the central role that schools play in the construction of educational opportunities. It specifically shows how certain institutional devices (mostly repetition, suspension and ability grouping), and also the subjective experience of them, facilitate or inhibit different upper secondary educational trajectories for different youth profiles. One of the most important contributions of the chapter is the construction of a typology of school trajectories – the ‘good students’, the ‘hard workers’, the ‘troublemakers’ and the ‘misfits’ – that, through the mediation of structural variables and particularly social class, deeply conditions the choice of upper secondary tracks.
Hermeneutical injustice in upper secondary educational transitions
Authors: Sánchez-Rojo Alberto , Prieto Miriam
Published: May 2023

This chapter analyses the ways in which young people’s discourses about their upper secondary educational transitions are representative of the hermeneutical injustice, understood as young people’s misunderstanding of their own social experiences. Based on rich qualitative narratives of students in Madrid, the chapter identifies the weight they attribute to structural factors and to their own agency in explaining their upper secondary choices. Results of the analysis demonstrate that, overall, young people’s discourses reflect the denial of any habitus and the understanding of their own choices and transitions as the result of their will and/or individual capability. The chapter contributes to the understanding of educational transitions showing the lack of young people’s awareness of the structural and institutional factors that condition their choices and trajectories. That denial condemns them to a disadvantageous position owing to their inability to deal with constraints that they don’t even identify.
Introduction
Authors: Gal John , Weiss-Gal Idit
Published: May 2023

This chapter provides an initial overview of the social work–social policy nexus and the past tendency to view social workers primarily as the implementors of social policies. It then offers a detailed description of more contemporary efforts to explore the policy engagement of social workers by reviewing major trends in research on this subject. The chapter identifies the cutting edge in this literature and underscores the potential contribution of the book to this growing field of research. It concludes with an initial presentation of the policy engagement conceptual framework, which seeks to explain social workers’ engagement in policy and the form that this takes.
On the social work–social policy interface
Authors: Gal John , Weiss-Gal Idit
Published: May 2023

This chapter provides an infrastructure for understanding the social work–social policy interface and, in doing so, sets the stage for the following chapters, which explore components of the conceptual framework. It discusses the types of social policies that social workers are likely to interact with, the various policy arenas in which social policy is made and the modes of social policy relevant to the policy-related activities of social workers: displacement, layering and conversion. A final focus of the chapter is on the various policy routes that social workers can take to affect policies, two of which social workers engage in as citizens (voluntary political participation and elected offices) and four where they act in a professional capacity (street-level policy involvement; academic policy practice; policy practice; and policy practice through professional organisations). We then discuss the differences between the routes and the implications of these.
The environments
Authors: Gal John , Weiss-Gal Idit
Published: May 2023

This chapter discusses the context in which policy engagement on the part of social workers takes place. It identifies four distinctive environments that have been identified in the literature on the policy engagement of social workers. The claim is that these environments offer a necessary context within which policy engagement emerges and that they can enhance or impede the impact of the other types of factors discussed in the PE conceptual framework. The four environments examined in detail are: the welfare regime; policies and problems; the profession; and people (service users).
Motivation
Authors: Gal John , Weiss-Gal Idit
Published: May 2023

As individuals with agency in their role as either professionals or private citizens, the decision by social workers to engage in policy will inevitably be influenced by their motivation to do so. This understanding requires us to explore the factors that are associated with the motivation of individual social workers in different positions to engage in policy-related activities. The chapter looks at various facets of the motivation of social workers to engage in policy. These include the civic voluntarism model, motivation theory, personality traits, institutional motivation and gender and ethnicity.
So what is a ‘university’? Part 1: Architecture and academics
Authors: Thrift Nigel
Published: May 2023

This chapter considers some of the main actors that go to make up a university, concentrating on the roles of the built environment, academics, technicians, contract research staff, postgraduates and administrators. There is a substantial digression on the growing role of online teaching.
A new Robbins? Recent changes in British universities
Authors: Thrift Nigel
Published: May 2023

This chapter is concerned with the large number of changes that have happened in the university system since the 1990s. The chapter gives a brief account of the main events and the key issues animating the history of the expansion of the UK university sector over the last few decades, culminating in the current sort of market, sort of state, takeover. These issues include student numbers, numbers of universities, proliferation, managerialism, audit, research funding, the knowledge economy, internationalisation, Brexit and geopolitics. Hopefully, this chapter will serve to orient the reader in the contemporary university landscape.
On vice-chancelloring – a footnote
Authors: Thrift Nigel
Published: May 2023

This chapter is a brief description of what a vice-chancellor of a research university does, considering both the typical work pattern and the challenges of the job. It also explores what some of the ingredients of success may look like.
Shifting sands: challenges and opportunities for the voluntary sector during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Burchell Jon , Cook Joanne , Thiery Harriet , Ballantyne Erica , Walkley Fiona , Nikolova Silviya
Published: May 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable upheaval within the voluntary and community sector (VCS), presenting challenges and risks around funding and sustainability, as well as opportunities for more collaborative ways of working. The sector has worked with public sector partners to play an integral role in delivering fast-acting emergency support to people affected by the pandemic. This increase in cross-sectoral collaboration has led to suggestions of an evolution in local state–civil society organisation relations. The upsurge in informal community groups, such as mutual aid, has also been prominent, and has given rise to debate about the need to ‘rethink’ or ‘reimagine’ volunteering, with a renewed focus on creating space for informal volunteering. This chapter contributes to these debates, by drawing from data collected during the pandemic, including qualitative interviews and focus groups with local authorities, voluntary sector organisations and mutual aid groups across England, Scotland and Wales, as well as survey data. Two central themes are explored: 1) the shifting patterns of supply and demand for volunteers during the pandemic at both national and local levels, and 2) the evolving relationships with the local state in shaping community responses.
The experience of community-led businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Reid Sophie
Published: May 2023

Community-led businesses are voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) that are locally rooted, accountable to the local community and trading (or working towards trading) for community benefit. This chapter outlines the experience and response of community-led businesses during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. It draws on interviews, data gathered through online engagement techniques and survey findings from Power to Change, a charitable trust which supports community businesses to create better places. The findings provide insights into how these VSOs continued to provide services and activities for the betterment of their communities despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter discusses four key themes: resilience; changing workforce demands; support for community-led businesses; and collaboration, trust and reputation. The chapter concludes by looking at the future outlook for community-led business in light of the pandemic.