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Context: Vocational education and training (VET) plays a crucial role in the social inclusion of refugees. The aim of this paper is to examine how the VET systems of Austria, Denmark and Germany responded to the arrival of young refugees since 2015. VET in these countries are all categorised as systems of collective skill formation, which offer apprenticeships in addition to school-based training. The article examines and juxtaposes the legal rights, the actual opportunities and the barriers to refugees' participation in and completion of VET at upper secondary level in the three selected countries. Methods: The study is based on reviews of literature and an analysis of refugee policies in the three countries. The literature search used a snowballing strategy and included policy documents, research publications and grey literature from organisations of civil society. The literature review employed a narrative, issue-focused approach to explore and compare key categories relating to the research question. To elaborate, refine and structure the categories for each of the three countries we used an input-process-output model (Adams, 1993) and a combination of deductive and inductive analysis procedure. Findings: The findings of the study are divided into six categories that structure the analysis: admission requirements, validation of prior learning, vocational guidance, language training, social support measures and access to apprenticeships. The analysis finds that both asylum seekers and recognised refugees have more opportunities in Germany than in the other two countries regarding the key categories. The findings show no major differences in the posi-tion of the social partners in the three countries in relation to refugees' participation in VET, however the national governments reacted differently to the influx of refugees. In Austria and Denmark, new governments with strong anti-immigration agendas took office and reduced the access to and participation in VET for asylum seekers and refugees. At the same time, the German government introduced various integration measures for refugees in cooperation with employers with the aim of making VET more accessible to refugees. Conclusion: To access and complete VET, refugees depend on supporting measures to over-come a variety of barriers, e.g. regarding language training and access to apprenticeships. Overall, reforms in Germany demonstrate promising initiatives to overcome the barriers to the integration of refugees in VET, while reforms in Austria and Denmark have limited refugees' opportunities to access and complete VET. ; Context: Vocational education and training (VET) plays a crucial role in the social inclusion of refugees. The aim of this paper is to examine how the VET systems of Austria, Denmark and Germany responded to the arrival of young refugees since 2015. VET in these countries is categorised as system of collective skill formation, which offers apprenticeships in addition to school-based training. The article examines and juxtaposes the legal rights, the actual opportunities and the barriers to refugees' participation in and completion of VET at upper secondary level in the three selected countries. Methods: The study is based on reviews of literature and an analysis of refugee policies in the three countries. The literature search used a snowballing strategy and included policy documents, research publications and grey literature from organisations of civil society. The literature review employed a narrative, issue-focused approach to explore and compare key categories relating to the research question. To elaborate, refine and structure the categories for each of the three countries we used an input-process-output model and a combination of deductive and inductive analysis procedure. Findings: The findings of the study are divided into six categories that structure the analysis: Admission requirements, validation of prior learning, vocational guidance and preparation, language training, social support measures and access to apprenticeships. The analysis reveals that both asylum seekers and recognised refugees have more opportunities in Germany than in the other two countries regarding the key categories. The findings show no major differences in the position of the social partners in the three countries in relation to refugees' participation in VET, however the national governments reacted differently to the influx of refugees. In Austria and Denmark, governments with strong anti-immigration agendas took office and reduced the access to and participation in VET for asylum seekers and refugees. At the same time, the German government introduced various integration measures for refugees in cooperation with employers with the aim of making VET more accessible to refugees. Conclusion: To access and complete VET, refugees depend on supporting measures to overcome a variety of barriers, e.g. regarding language training and access to apprenticeships. Overall, reforms in Germany demonstrate promising initiatives to overcome the barriers to the integration of refugees in VET, while reforms in Austria and Denmark have limited refugees' opportunities to access and complete VET.

This article reflects on possible effects on income and earning capacity of creative workers of three measures that were recently introduced or that are being discussed to combat the vulnerability of non-standard working conditions in the cultural and creative sector in the Netherlands: the Balanced Labor Market Act, the Fair Practice Code for Culture, and a call for certain unified agreements, for instance in the form of minimum tariffs for self-employed workers. Each of these measures separately has its merits and the intention to improve working conditions. Therefore, the power lies in their joint introduction, which combines general legislation with a moral benchmark and subsector-specific solutions. However, in this combination several unintended consequences loom, such as the possible separation between professional and amateur creative workers, a higher threshold for talent to enter the sector, threats to artistic and aesthetic innovation, and the prioritization of fairness over equality.

A rapid increase in the prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been associated with various factors such as urbanization, lifestyle changes, adverse hyperglycemic intrauterine environment, and the resulting epigenetic changes. Despite this, the burden of GDM has not been well-assessed in Southeast Asia. We comprehensively reviewed published Southeast Asian studies to identify the current research trend in GDM in this region. Joanna Briggs Institute's methodology was used to guide the scoping review. The synthesis of literature findings demonstrates almost comparable clinical evidence in terms of risk factors and complications, challenges presented in diagnosing GDM, and its disease management, given the similarities of the underlying population characteristics in Southeast Asia. Evidence suggests that a large proportion of GDM risk in women may be preventable by lifestyle modifications. However, the GDM burden across countries is expected to rise, given the heterogeneity in screening approaches and diagnostic criteria, mainly influenced by economic status. There is an urgent need for concerted efforts by government and nongovernmental sectors to implement national programs to prevent, manage, and monitor the disease.

My project "Behind the Digital Image: Public Photographs on Community Platforms and Twitter as Repositories for Machine Learning and Journalistic Publications" investigates the specificities of social media and photo-sharing platforms as public image repositories, daily media practices and legal practices, and considers ethical questions relating to the digital image as both a research tool and a research object. I pursue two sub-projects, both of which are relevant to understanding the commodification and monetization of vernacular digital images. Nuclear investigations of these projects refer to the relationship of amateur photographers, also referred to as citizen photojournalists, para photojournalists or accidental journalists, and professional stakeholders within the global image market. Since the digital world is quickly changing, field work is needed to understand processes and procedures as they happen. Therefore, I use multidimensional methods, including media ethnography; digital methods; qualitative approaches, such as in-depths interviews and participatory observation, and social media analytic tools. This paper presents an overview of the proposed project and sheds light on both the preliminary results and possible areas of future research.

In Greenland, the universal parenting programme MANU was developed in 2016. After documenting the initial years of MANU's implementation, this study aimed to identify implementation determinants focusing on i) which context MANU was conceptualised in and how it was developed and ii) how MANU was implemented and initially received in the healthcare system. A qualitative in-depth implementation study was conducted: document analysis, 38 interviews, one focus group discussion, and observations at two trainings for professionals and four parent sessions. Participants included stakeholders from both the health and social sector and from management to practitioner level. MANU was conceptualised based on a political desire to ensure children's well-being by providing parents with the essential parenting skills, and a desire to create a programme for the Greenlandic context. Professionals welcomed the MANU materials, but anticipated or experienced barriers in implementing MANU. The first years of MANU focused on disseminating material and training professionals. Despite political support and financial security enabling implementation, an assessment of the implementation capacity from the very beginning could have prevented some of the implementation challenges identified. Insights on parents' perspectives and local implementation are lacking and need to be brought to the forefront of the implementation process.

Participatory Design (PD) – whose inclusive benefits are broadly recognised in design – can be very challenging, especially when involving children. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to further barriers to PD with such groups. One key barrier is the advent of social distancing and government-imposed social restrictions due to the additional risks posed for e.g. children and families vulnerable to COVID-19. This disrupts traditional in-person PD (which involves close socio-emotional and often physical collaboration between participants and researchers). However, alongside such barriers, we have identified opportunities for new and augmented approaches to PD across distributed geographies, backgrounds, ages and abilities. We examine Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) as a solution for overcoming these new barriers, during and after COVID-19. We offer new ways to think about DPD, and unpick some of its ambiguities. We do this through an examination of the results from an online Interaction Design and Children (IDC) 2020 workshop. The workshop included 24 researchers with experience in PD, in a range of forms, in the context of children. Initially designed to take place in-person and to include a design session with children in a school in London, the workshop was adjusted to an online format in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the adverse circumstances, we discovered that the unexpected change of the workshop style from in-person to online was an opportunity and an impetus for us to address the new PD challenges of the global pandemic. In this article we contribute seven themes which were revealed during our IDC workshop, providing guidance on important areas for consideration when planning and conducting PD in the context of a global pandemic. With a focus on the term 'distributed', we offer insights on how DPD can be applied and explored in these circumstances with child participants. We conclude with a number of lessons learned, highlighting the opportunities and challenges DPD offers to ...

This study explores how Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have leveraged civic data to facilitate democratic participatory structure for sustainability transitions around the case of bicycle counters in three US cities over a ten-year period (Seattle, San Francisco, Portland). We identified that CSOs have played crucial roles in public discourse by (1) sustaining long-term public issues through shaping affective as well as analytical discourses and (2) fostering citizens' sense of ownership and contributions toward sensor devices and the data they generate by contextualizing them through local civic life as well as connecting issues to actors in other cities.

Returning to work after large-scale traumatic events is desirable for employees, their organization, and society. The aim of the present study was to identify work-related factors that are perceived as important for work participation versus sick leave after a terrorist attack. We conducted in-depth interviews of 98 employees in the Norwegian governmental ministries that were the target of the 2011 Oslo bombing. Participants were randomly selected from 2519 employees who had responded to a web-based survey. We used a stratified sampling procedure to ensure inclusion of a wide range of experiences in terms of exposure and stress reactions. Participants were asked what, if any, factors contributed to work participation or sick leave, and which factors made a difference in how quickly people on sick leave returned to work. Thematic analyses provided three themes that stimulate work participation and prevent sick leave: supportive management, the ability of a leader to accept individual needs and help people cope with stress; sense of cohesion, feelings of being close, caring for each other, and working well together; and working as a coping strategy, basic assumptions that it is best to stick to work and familiar routines, or a strong belief in one's ability to master. A fourth theme, high demands and lack of acceptance, included experiences that promoted an absence from work, such as too much business as usual, management's lack of priorities for which tasks could be left out, or a lack of recognition of individual needs. The findings point to key factors that workers perceive as important for work participation in the aftermath of a disaster. We suggest that health and productivity benefits can be achieved by organizing work and the work environment in line with these experiences.

Roughly 2 decades ago, the Indonesian Decentralization Act 22/1999 (revised by Act 32/2004 and Act 23/2014) initiated a remarkable shift in the governance system for Indonesia: from a strongly hierarchical system to a further decentralized one. The shift has created fragmented governance for metropolitan transportation planning. Consequently, Indonesian metropolitan areas have experienced increasing transaction costs in policy coordination and difficulties in supplying sufficient transport infrastructures. Earlier research has pointed to a range of possible solutions, including strengthening local government capacity. This paper sets out to identify current perceptions regarding transaction costs in Indonesian metropolitan transportation planning. To what extent do high transaction costs create fragmented planning? Have planning actors' perceptions changed over time? Using Q-methodology and in-depth interviews, the research identifies significant changes in actors' perceptions, mainly towards the need to establish supraregional institutions and regional development priorities. The findings are critical for institutional reformulation to support comprehensive transportation planning at the metropolitan level.

Fiscal decentralization introduces the risk that subnational governments act fiscally irresponsible in the belief that a higher government will bail them out if they run into trouble. The economic literature therefore prescribes a strict no-bailout policy. We survey fiscal rules and fiscal policies concerning subnational governments in 20 European countries, and find wide discrepancies, both between theory and practice and between rules and actual policies. Countries with a no-bailout rule often do bail out subnational governments, sometimes on a large scale, while countries lacking such a rule sometimes do not, or only sparingly. Fiscally responsive behavior of subnational governments seems to depend on a balanced mix of policy measures, notably providing sufficient funding, adequate fiscal supervision, early intervention mechanisms and bailout rules that are sufficiently unattractive. A no-bailout rule is neither necessary nor sufficient.

It has long been speculated that banning parties from participation in elections may be counterproductive because it might provoke societal resistance. Using the European Social Survey (2002–2010; N = 195,405), our study suggests otherwise. We demonstrate that party bans enjoy the legitimacy of majority support. This holds true irrespective of countries' resilience to extremist influences (or lack thereof) resulting from "institutional intolerance," electoral entry barriers and authoritarian legacies. Individual orientations toward the democratic establishment do matter to a small extent: citizens with authoritarian tendencies and low system support are less supportive, while this is less so for citizens with extremist ideological orientations. Even though party bans entail significant democratic dilemmas, this study reveals societal resources supportive of repressive responses to extremist parties.

1978 marked the start of a new era in China's history - a period of new reforms and opening up with significant implications for both China and the world. In the past three decades, the country has experienced tremendous economic growth and transformation which was initially driven by manufacturing and China becoming the 'factory of the world' and the largest exporter of manufactured goods. However, China's ascendancy in global manufacturing is now coming under increased pressure. The array of drivers behind this drop-off is extensive and includes a domestic rise in labour costs, a deceleration in economic growth and an improvement in the supply base in low cost South East Asia economies and elsewhere. Furthermore, Chinese government policy incentives centred on innovation, competitiveness and strengthening of domestic brands have encouraged many Chinese companies to look at the opportunities that innovation offer. The vision of the Chinese Government is encapsulated in the words of president Xi Jin-ping, delivered at the 18th Meeting of the Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: 'Seeking innovation-driven development is a natural choice if we are to adopt to changing developmental conditions. We must seize the time, because wait-and-see produces nothing and imitation gets us nowhere.' (Xi 2017). What are the distinctive strategies that Chinese companies pursue when exploring innovation in general and in sectors where energy and sustainability issues particularly loom large? What are the implications of their efforts? How well are we equipped theoretically to understand and explain these processes? These are some of the questions that this chapter tackles. The study employs an in-depth single case study of Orient Sundar Group, a manufacturing company from Gaobeidian in China's Hebei province. The company, whose current activities are predicated on the slogan "Making building more energy efficient, making life better!", is at the centre of the Gaobeidian Passive House project. This project is one of the largest Passive House initiatives in the world. The project brings together technology and expertise from a range of best-in-class specialized suppliers from all over the world and helps to advance our understanding of how to scale energy efficient building. Our study chronicles the transition of the company from a low-cost manufacturer to an advanced Passive House system integrator and reveals new paths to innovation that are supported by the unique context of China's ecological modernization (Stubbs and Cocklin 2008; Bohnsack 2018). Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach and borrowing perspectives from business model innovation (Ches-brough 2010; Zott et al. 2011), global innovation networks (Dicken et al. 2001; Mudambi 2008; Haakonsson and Kirkegaard 2016) and sustainable development (Hart and Milstein 1999; Bansal and Roth 2000; Kirin et al. 2013; Yang and Jiang 2019), we investigate a case of local sustainability-driven innovation. This drive to innovate emerged in response to Chinese government policies for developing sustainable buildings and features business model innovation based on network orchestration capabilities. This chapter heeds the calls for new conceptual perspectives as well as more empirical cases on business models for sustainability (e.g. Schaltegger et al. 2016). The chapter comprises three main parts. First, the theoretical background section introduces the conceptual basis of the paper. Second, we examine empirical insights into the case study. Finally, we present an analysis and discussion, and conclude with the key lessons and implications for future research.

Background: In Europe, the number of children born by non-Western immigrant women is rising and these women have an increased risk of negative pregnancy and birth outcomes, compared to the host populations. Several individual and system barriers are associated with immigrant women's access to maternity care. Scientific evaluations of interventions to enhance the health of immigrant women in the maternity setting are lacking, and there is a need for further development of the evidence base on how health care system initiatives may mitigate ethnic inequities in reproductive health. In Denmark, the MAMAACT intervention was developed to improve midwives' as well as non-Western immigrant women's response to pregnancy complications and to promote midwives' intercultural communication and cultural competence. The intervention included a training course for midwives as well as a leaflet and a mobile application. This study focuses on the significance of the antenatal care context surrounding the implementation of the MAMAACT intervention (Id. No: SUND-2018–01). Objectives: To explore the main organisational barriers, which impacted the intended mechanisms of the MAMAACT intervention in Danish antenatal care. Design: A qualitative study design was used for data collection and analysis. Setting: Midwifery visits at ten antenatal facilities affiliated to five Danish maternity wards formed the setting of the study. Participants and methods: Data consisted of nine focus group interviews with midwives (n = 27), twenty-one in-depth interviews with non-Western immigrant women, forty observations of midwifery visits, and informal conversations with midwives at antenatal care facilities (50 h). Data were initially analysed using systematic text condensation. The candidacy framework was applied for further interpretation of data. Results: Analysis of data revealed three main categories: 'Permeability of antenatal care services', 'The interpreter as an aid to candidacy´, and 'Local conditions influencing the production of candidacy'. Conclusions: Several organisational barriers impacted the intended mechanisms of the MAMAACT intervention. Major barriers were incomplete antenatal records, insufficient referrals to specialist care, inadequate interpreter assistance, and lack of local time resources for initiating a needs-based dialogue with the women. Immigrant targeted interventions must be understood as events within complex systems, and training midwives in intercultural communication and cultural competence cannot alone improve system responses to pregnancy complications among immigrant women. Changes in the legal, social, and political context of the health care system are needed to support organisational readiness for the MAMAACT intervention.

Expert scientific knowledge is fast becoming an integral part of disaster management, and, in the process, is changing the role of science for the reduction of disaster risks at the policy level. Yet science and policy operate in different domains between which there are often competing interests and modes of valuing knowledge. Based on research done as part of the research project Enhancing Synergies for Disaster Prevention in the European Union (ESPREssO), we discuss three major issues facing European Union member states with respect to the interface between science and policy for disaster risk reduction: knowledge transfer, disaster expertise, and risk awareness. In doing so, we hone in on three gaps: an epistemological gap, an institutional gap, and a strategic gap. We argue that these gaps can help explain underlying systematic challenges for the integration between science and policy for disaster risk reduction. These gaps need to be addressed by focusing on changes at the governance level.

There is considerable interest among European politicians and policymakers in how to integrate migrants in the local and national economy. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 owners of Sub-Saharan African migrant family businesses (SSAMBs) in the United Kingdom, this article critically examines why SSAMBs fail or underperform. This investigation draws upon three streams of literature – notably migrant business failure, institutional theory and family embeddedness. The findings highlight the challenges of doing business and the reasons for business failure among this group. These are different from other small businesses and include culture, family interference and ethnicity. The main contribution of the article lies in the development of a conceptual model that highlights the relationships between institutional contexts and migrant family business outcomes. The model proposes that institution and family embeddedness results in the enactment of ethnic behaviours that drive migrant businesses into cultural markets leading to business underperformance or failure.