Youth Studies, Housing Transitions and the ‘Missing Middle’: Time for a Rethink?

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Roberts

A recent but growing trend in studies of young people's lives has been to highlight that there is a ‘missing middle’ in the youth studies research agenda. It has been argued that much youth research focuses on either successful or very troubled transitions to adulthood, with the lives of those who might simply be ‘getting by’ representing an empirical absence. Building on previous work that has addressed how such a missing middle can add to our understanding of educational experience and attainment, labour market engagement and participation, and issues of identity, this paper pays attention to the housing transitions, careers and aspirations of a group of ‘ordinary’ and apparently unproblematic working class young men. Because they do not represent groups that have been of especial interest in youth studies to date, their experiences problematize the on-going utility of dominant conceptual frameworks used to explain housing transitions. In addition to their ‘lack of fit’ with ideal type typologies, the young men also reveal the shifting nature of attitudes towards communal living ‘which is traditionally associated with middle class students’ in combination with the continuing role of social resources as a determining factor in their housing transition.

Author(s):  
Will Smiley

This chapter explores captives’ fates after their capture, all along the Ottoman land and maritime frontiers, arguing that this was largely determined by individuals’ value for ransom or sale. First this was a matter of localized customary law; then it became a matter of inter-imperial rules, the “Law of Ransom.” The chapter discusses the nature of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, emphasizing the role of elite households, and the varying prices for captives based on their individual characteristics. It shows that the Ottoman state participated in ransoming, buying, exploiting, and sometimes selling both female and male captives. The state particularly needed young men to row on its galleys, but this changed in the late eighteenth century as the fleet moved from oars to sails. The chapter then turns to ransom, showing that a captive’s ability to be ransomed, and value, depended on a variety of individualized factors.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Sari Mansour ◽  
Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay

Abstract This study investigates whether the perceived opportunity to craft (POC) is related to job crafting (JC) strategies and whether these strategies are related to thriving at work, in terms of both vitality and learning. It aims to verify the mediating role of JC between POC and thriving. Data were collected from 424 accounting professionals in Canada. The structural equation modeling based on bootstrap analysis was used to test mediation. The results indicate that POC is positively related to increasing structural and social resources and challenging job demands and negatively to decreasing hindering job demands. They reveal that increasing structural and social resources enhances learning and mediates the relation between POC and vitality and learning, as do challenging job demands, whereas decreasing hindering job demands does not. This study is one of the first to confirm that POC influences vitality and learning via JC behaviors as mediators.


Africa ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Newell

AbstractColonial Onitsha provided the stage for John Moray Stuart-Young (1881–1939), a Manchester trader and poet, to perform the role of an educated gentleman. In his autobiographical writing, Stuart-Young created a host of famous metropolitan friends and constructed for himself a past through which he invited African readers to remember him. The extent to which Onitsha citizens accepted his version of his life is explored in this article, for during the period of Stuart-Young's residence in town, from approximately 1909 until his death in 1939, different sectors of Igbo society observed him closely, read his publications, worked with him and witnessed his patronage of young men. Local people, including the children, studied his behaviour over time and produced a range of African names and watchwords by which they remembered his life.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 801-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel D. Williams ◽  
Rebekah Willett

This article explores public librarians’ performance of boundary work in relation to teaching and learning in library makerspaces. Boundary work occurs when individuals delineate their domain of knowledge. We use interviews with 23 library staff to analyze the forms and characteristics of boundary work connected with the role of libraries and librarians in makerspace programming. Our findings show that public librarians perform boundary work in relation to the roles of (1) libraries as spaces for book-based and maker-based experiences, (2) librarians as information specialists and educators, and (3) libraries as spaces to access individual and social resources for learning. The forms and characteristics of boundary work include coordination, identification, justification, reflection, and change.


2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Ilott

This article uses readings of Mark Mylod’s Ali G Indahouse, Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, and Chris Morris’s Four Lions to argue against a political trend for laying the blame for the purported failure of British multiculturalism at the hands of individual communities. Through my readings of these comic films, I suggest that popular constructions of “community” based on assumptions about cultural and religious homogeneity are rightly challenged, and new communities are created through shared laughter. Comedy’s structural engagement with taboo means that stereotypes which have gained currency through media and political discourse that seeks to demonize particular groups of young men (Muslims and gang members, for example) are foregrounded. By being brought to the forefront and exposed, these stereotypes can be engaged with and challenged through ridicule and demonstrations of incongruity. Furthermore, I suggest that power relations are made explicit through joking structures that work to include or exclude, meaning that the comedies can draw and redraw communities of laughter in a manner that effectively challenges notions of communities as discrete, homogeneous, and closely connected to cultural heritage. The article works against constructions of British Muslims as the problem community par excellence by using multicultural discourse to contextualize the representation of British Muslims and demonstrate how the discourse has repressed the role of political, social, and economic structures in a focus on “self-segregating” communities.


1996 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique B. Ferraz ◽  
Luiz A. F. Andrade ◽  
Vítor Tumas ◽  
Leandro C. Calia ◽  
Vanderci Borges

Although the precise etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) is as yet unknown, it appears that certain environmental factors are involved. Prior living in a rural area has been implicated as a possible risk factor for PD, particularly in the early onset type. We evaluated the role of previous living conditions in the clinical correlates and outcome characteristics of 118 PD patients. All of them were seen from January 1987 to October 1992. The Rural Group (RG) comprised 71 patients (60.2%) who had lived in the rural area for at least 10 years (mainly in early phase of life) and the Urban Group (UG) consisted of 47 patients (39.8%) who had lived their entire life in an urban environment. The average age at the beginning of the symptoms was 58.8 in the RG and 54.1 in the UG. The mixed form of the disease (tremor, rigidity and akinesia) was the most frequent in both groups. A minimum 6-month follow-up period was undertaken with 63 patients (average 20 months) and no difference in response to treatment or in progression of the illness was detected between the two groups. Our data show that the previous living environment does not appear to be a determining factor in either the clinical or outcome characteristics of PD.


2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas M. Gibler ◽  
Jamil A. Sewell

This article examines the role of NATO in aiding democratic transitions and survival in the former Soviet republics. The authors argue that the level of external threat is a determining factor in centralization, militarization, and ultimately regime type. States tend to be democratic or are likely to make the transition toward democracy when threat levels are low, while autocracies are more likely to be found in states targeted by higher levels of threat. Building on recent findings examining the link between democracies and alliance, the authors demonstrate that NATO has been an effective guarantor of territorial sovereignty and independence in the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Moldova, reducing the level of threat experienced by each state, thus assuring the survival of decentralized and democratic governments. Former Soviet republics targeted by high levels of threat have reverted to or maintained centralized, autocratic forms of government.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig A. Harms ◽  
Lynne Cohen ◽  
Julie Ann Pooley ◽  
Suzanne K. Chambers ◽  
Daniel A. Galvão ◽  
...  

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