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Volunteering plays a central role in cultural and arts education in rural areas in Germany. However, a decrease in the number of volunteers in structurally weak regions can be observed in recent years. This poses existential challenges for cultural and arts education. The promotion of social networks and regional cooperation, as well as a sense of place, can counteract this decline. This article aims to explore how sense of place influence cooperation and thus social networks between actors of different institutions in the context of cultural and arts education in rural areas. A total of 34 interviews and egocentric network maps were conducted with different local actors (e.g., volunteers in the theatre association, mayors, etc.) in four municipalities. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Our results show that, through active participation in cultural events and associations, new cooperation is created and maintained, which also expands the social network. This active participation can be positively influenced by the existing attachment to the region and cultural places.

AbstractThe World Report on Disability addresses the education of students with disabilities and recommends that institutional transformation is needed to facilitate inclusive education. The success of inclusive education depends largely on a country's commitment to adopting appropriate legislation, developing policies, and providing adequate funding for implementation. The Republic of Ghana's policies include children with "nonsevere special education needs" in mainstream schools. The authors examine the definition of disability employed in Ghana's policies to assess whether students with intellectual and developmental disabilities are eligible to benefit from these provisions. Ghanaian government and relevant disability‐based organizations' documents related to disability and education were identified and examined as to how the policies support inclusion. The definitions were reviewed via the use of a biomedical or social perspective of disability. Of seven policy documents reviewed, three defined disability and the definitions reflected the biomedical perspective of disability. In the absence of definitions of disability in the majority of the Ghanaian policy documents reviewed, it is difficult to determine which children and with what types of disability will qualify to benefit from their provisions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness across the globe of how constitutions respond to crisis. Typically, countries, and their constitutions, have provisions that enable governments to respond to these crises rapidly through forms of exceptional powers which suspend usual constitutional norms. These powers are often invoked after declaring a 'state of emergency', a constitutional clause that has strict stipulations and requirements. Certain regimes, however, have been known to abuse these exceptional powers and to use them in times of normalcy (non-crisis). This paper examines how Bahrain has used exceptional measures to confront COVID-19, within the context of its past use of such powers, and suggests that Bahrain is not in a state of emergency, but is now operating in what Giorgio Agamben has labelled 'a state of exception'.

A new research brief from the Urban Institute outlines perspectives by nationally respected scholars and experts regarding some of the most critical issues in higher education, along with recommendations on evidence-based policy solutions. The goal of the report is to offer a framework for what it calls a principled approach to the federal role in higher education. ; Urban Institute

Purpose: This paper concerns public sub-sector branding within the higher education (HE) system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how public sub-sector branding within HE is organized and how it is influenced by the use of national values, traits and characteristics. Design/methodology/approach: The study relies on two data sources: first, the paper benefits from a data set of one-stop web-portals for HE from the 23 countries listed in Times Higher Education's top-60 universities ranking. Second, it builds on a sample and brief overview of Norway's sub-sector branding of its HE sector. Findings: Expert authorities within the HE sector are legally and organizationally responsible for sub-sector branding, and they establish coordinated and coherent web-portals. In practice, however, nation-branding concerns are influencing on how the HE sub-sector is branded. The paper concludes with a discussion of democratic implications, and points to paradoxes arising from the use of national clichés and characteristics in this highly international sub-sector of the public realm. Originality/value: The paper informs discussions about public sub-sector branding within HE, a phenomenon that thus far has not been systematically studied. The practical applications of such a study are evident, as branding is becoming more important in the public sector in general, and in HE in particular.