Frontiers in Sociology最新文献

{"title":"Parenting support in ECEC services: the views of practitioners implementing a model in the Irish context about parents' engagement and associated outcomes.","authors":"Catarina Leitão, Jefrey Shumba","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1489477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1489477","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Providing parenting support in combination with Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) can positively impact children's and families' wellbeing. This study aimed to explore factors potentially affecting parents' engagement in a parenting support model in ECEC services and associated outcomes. This model involves a professional role dedicated to working with parents, the Parent Carer Facilitator (PCF).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Eight PCFs and seven managers of ECEC services in Ireland implementing this model were interviewed. Data were analysed through thematic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Four themes were generated: factors related to parents' engagement, approaches to promoting engagement and responsiveness to families' needs, implementation drivers and relevance of the model.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Findings indicated that a professional role dedicated to supporting parents within ECEC services, focusing on establishing trusting relationships and tailoring support according to families' needs, can foster parents' engagement in the support offered and positive outcomes regarding parenting and parents-ECEC service relationship.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1489477"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12061993/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144037404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How is gender-specific vulnerability understood and assessed in SAPCC?","authors":"Madhuri","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1517390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1517390","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate action is only truly possible by incorporating gender-specific vulnerabilities and adaptation measures. National Action Plans for Climate Change (NAPCC) and State Action Plans for Climate Change (SAPCCs) seek to mainstream vulnerable communities, such as women, at the national and state levels. It is uncertain how these plans incorporate gender-specific vulnerabilities and equip women with adequate measures to deal with climate impacts. This paper employs content analysis method to analyze a total of 33 action plans for climate change (APCC); out of 33 APCCs, 28 are SAPCCs, five are union territories action plans for climate change mainly through three themes- gendered vulnerability, gender-disaggregated data, gender capacity-building policies, and adaptation measures. The research delves into the nexus of gender-focused climate action and adaptation policy within India's climate policy. Based on the findings, the study classifies states as highly gender-responsive, moderately gender-responsive, and gender-blind. The gender responsiveness of the state is different due to differences in women's agricultural participation, political commitment to gender equality, and cultural norms regarding gender roles. The research identifies a necessity of enhancing gender mainstreaming in climate policy to ensure that women's vulnerability is effectively addressed.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1517390"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12060190/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144001402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The utilization of the concept of profession to understand social problems: sharing preliminary results from systematic review.","authors":"Angelique Wildschut, Nomkhosi A Mbatha, Tamlynne Meyer","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1515427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1515427","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The nature of work has experienced steady shifts that have accelerated over the last three decades, raising important sociological questions; for instance, what does this mean for individuals and groups, and their relation to society, markets and the political systems that contextualize attempts and opportunities for different forms of livelihood? The concept of profession has been a key construct for sociological analysis to understand, study and theorise the implications of such shifts in different countries, workplaces and even particular occupational groups. Studies of professions have thus contributed to knowledge in many ways, not only by highlighting the implications for individuals and groups within work contexts but also illustrating importantly how this relates or not to wider societal phenomena. However, there are strong contentions that because its function as a mechanism of social structure formation has weakened significantly over time, as a sociological category and construct, the concept of profession is no longer relevant in contemporary times. This paper shares preliminary results from a systematic review of literature on the application and conceptualisation of the term profession between 2022 and 2023 to start engaging with the question of whether it has exhausted its sociological relevance. The findings suggest firstly that while there has been an overall decline in the utilization of profession-related terms, a slight increase in the utilization of profession is apparent. Secondly, in the reviewed papers, limited engagement with the conceptual underpinning of the construct exists. Finally, while critical engagement with the concept is not always apparent, most papers recognize a clear link between social phenomena and the role of the profession/s toward maintaining or dismantling such challenges in society.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1515427"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12060731/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143988347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How the care workforce navigates the digital 'skills gap': problems and opportunities from policy to practice.","authors":"Grace Whitfield, Erika Kispeter, Kate Hamblin, Diane Burns","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1552672","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1552672","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Care systems and services across the globe are under pressure, with challenges related to the recruitment and retention of the care workforce identified as a particular issue. In England, digital technologies are presented in policy discourse and strategy as a potential way to navigate these complexities by delivering faster, cheaper and better care. The workforce, meanwhile, tends to be defined as requiring better digital skills to enable the full potential of digital technologies to be realised.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We carried out qualitative case study research of seven social care provider organisations, involving interviews with a total of 62 people from a range of roles across the care workforce and observations of work-based practices. Drawing on this data, we explore in-depth the workforce's experiences of and perspectives on using new technologies, and the requisite skills.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results show how the issue of maximising the adoption of technologies is (1) affected less by a deficit in worker skills, and more by the type of digital technologies in use, the job role of the worker, and the type of care provider, (2) can be facilitated by a supportive learning environment, and (3) can be impeded by issues in the functionality of systems and devices.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>We show a disconnect between the assumptions made in policy discourse and the practicalities and variations in how workers adapt, apply, and develop skills. We also explore the importance of peer support, albeit hindered by time constraints and sometimes overly relying on individual workers. In addition, the paper highlights the importance of understanding how new technology adoption can be stymied by the design of the technology itself, rather than the result of the workforce's lack of digital skills <i>per se</i>. An unintended consequence of defining the problem as a skills mismatch and the solution as skilling the workforce is that the abilities of the workforce to creatively and flexibly manage the short-comings of digital devices and systems are overlooked and under-utilised - reflecting a wider failure to acknowledge and compensate care workers' skills.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1552672"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12058752/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144047077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What does good look like? Officers' perception of the ideal law enforcer.","authors":"Stephen W Bell, Jennifer L Cliff","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1568487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1568487","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how law enforcement officers describe the attributes, characteristics, and qualities that combine to form the archetype of the ideal law enforcer. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 22 law enforcement officers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and thematically analyzed. While the participating officers were candid about the traits they perceived to be ideal among law enforcers, interestingly, these officers tended to avoid topics of physicality. The bulk of the coded data revealed themes that related to personality characteristics. Findings revealed that law enforcement officers categorized their self-described ideal traits of other officers into three primary themes: (1) Humanity and Emotional Intelligence, (2) Moral Courage, and (3) Resilience and Occupational Effectiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1568487"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12060170/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144031030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How perceptions of labor market opportunities predict happiness: evidence from natural field experiments.","authors":"Roger Fernandez-Urbano","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1527125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1527125","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Subjective variables related to the labor market have long been recognized to be strongly associated with individuals' happiness. However, most existing research relied on correlational analyses, which have been insufficient in establishing causation. Establishing causal links is crucial for disentangling reverse causality as well as addressing order-of-effect and omitted variable biases, thereby determining whether and how subjective labor market perceptions directly impact happiness. Moreover, prior studies have primarily focused on personal labor market concerns, largely overlooking perceptions of labor market opportunities at the macro level. Recognizing these broader perceptions is vital for understanding behavioral outcomes at both individual and societal levels, and for understanding persistent levels of structural unemployment and particular policy preferences.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study addresses these gaps by conducting harmonized natural field experiments in Pennsylvania, U.S., and Barcelona, Spain, to examine how perceptions of macro-level labor market opportunities impact happiness.</p><p><strong>Results and discussion: </strong>The results reveal that in Barcelona only positive perceptions have an effect and increase happiness, whereas in Pennsylvania only negative perceptions impact happiness and do so detrimentally. This discrepancy is attributed to subtle, experimentally induced ships in the framing of truthful macroeconomic information. The discussion proposes a cultural bias mechanism to account for these differences. Heterogeneous effects of the treatments in terms of social background and subjective health are also discussed. The findings hold significant implications for policymaking and organizational strategies, underscoring the importance of understanding how perceived macro-labor market opportunities shape happiness.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1527125"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12061025/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144051734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"[T]he most precise and thorough understanding of the situation we are struggling to change\": re-capturing emancipatory disability research.","authors":"Luke Beesley","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1562498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1562498","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article seeks to contribute to a refoundation of the analytic, qualitative and quantitative methods associated with Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR)-an episto-political approach to disability research which places lay disabled people in positions of authority over research design, operation, and analysis of projects undertaken by professional academics. The argument of this article is that a significant reason for EDR's meager impact on political practice, the burnout and disillusionment of some of its most talented proponents, and its failure to develop beyond limited applications in sociology and disability studies lies in the disjointed and asymmetrical development of its aims and methods. I indicate, particularly, that the core evaluation signifiers for EDR's success (that disabled people concretely benefit from the research, and control both its future direction and the uses made of it) rested on an initial demand from disabled activists for scientific rigor and a realist ontology in research which were subsequently rejected by EDR's academic advocates. Without a grounding in the scientific method, a meta-theory of subject-object relations and knowledge, or an evaluative framework for the objective accuracy of input concepts; EDR's research framework prevented practitioners from producing outputs for which there was a demonstrable demand, while promising forms of research for which there was not.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1562498"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12055776/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144042370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Between normative universality and sharing embodied knowledge-exploring the (re-) definition of legitimate knowledge and knowers using the example of the German public media debate about racism.","authors":"Ana-Nzinga Weiß","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1536195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1536195","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article seeks to present a new approach to studying the dynamics of constructing legitimate knowledge and speaker positions in public media discourse that is characterized by a hybrid media system. The basic framework of this approach is built on the paradigm of social epistemology and the presumption that although knowledge can be shared, the conditions of sharing are subject to social power structures. By conceptualizing the media as part of social epistemological processes, I offer a conceptual innovation that allows for a nuanced and critical analysis of how inequalities can be (re)produced in media representation. Within the context of the German public debate about racism since the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, I analyzed talk shows on the topic of racism that aired on German public television, YouTube, and Instagram by means of a Critical Discourse Analysis as a means of illustrating analysis within this framework. My analysis revealed three patterns through which it was possible to construct legitimate knowledge and speaker positions about racism: (1) performances of a rational and equitable exchange of opposing epistemic positions, (2) performances of counter-hegemonic positionality in communal exchange, and (3) performances of a rational exchange of embodied knowledge. The results illustrate the delicate interplay of different power structures within the construction of knowledge regarding racism. I conclude with an emphasis on the need for a parrhesian praxis in social analysis in service of being constantly self-critical and, at the same time, critical of power.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1536195"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12055764/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144001395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Skill acquisition in TVET and access to employment in Nigeria: a gender perspective.","authors":"Immaculata E Emah, Philippe Doneys, Kyoko Kusakabe, Shubham Pathak","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1577765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1577765","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Gender roles define women's involvement in skilled labour, leaving women with low skills and income while responsible for devalued household work. This study sought to determine gender bias in skills acquired by TVET employees (graduates) and the impact of gender on employment opportunities of TVET graduates who are employees in TVET business organisations.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A construct of 5 hard skills and 7 soft skill sets was made from the literature to assess skill acquisition from employees in seven TVET fields: Business studies, radio, television, and electronics (RTE) repair, automobile vehicle repairs, block laying, bricklaying and concreting, electrical installation, hotel management and catering, and welding and fabrication.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Responses from a survey questionnaire and quantitative data analysis revealed no gender difference in the courses taken by TVET graduates (<i>χ</i> ² = 2.82; df = 6; <i>p</i> = 0.831). There was a gender bias (<i>p</i> < 0.05) in skills perceived to have been acquired by the TVET graduates. Gendered job descriptions defined the bias in skills such that women in hotel management/catering had the edge over men in all skills. In contrast, men in the fields of RTE, block laying, bricklaying and concreting, electrical installation welding and fabrication had the edge in some skills except for automobile vehicle repairs where female employees surprisingly held the edge with financial resource management skills. There was a significant gender difference (<i>p</i> < 0.05) in agreement to skills impacting TVET graduates' access to employment with division along gender job descriptions.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Gender gaps exist for skills in the various disciplines of TVET in tandem with gendered job descriptions, and employability in some fields does not solely depend on the applicant's skills. Key implications and recommendations are presented in the paper.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1577765"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12055814/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144044394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Emotionally entwined narratives: a polyphonic trialogue on learning disability history research.","authors":"Owen Barden, Rhiannon Currie, Ian Davies, Helena Gunnarsdóttir, Jónína Hjartardóttir, Nathaniel Lawford, Jonathon Lyons, Sólveig Ólafsdóttir, Emily Oldnall, Sarah Oldnall, Guðrún Valgerður Stefánsdóttir, Amber Tahir, Samantha Taylor, Liz Tilley, Katrín Tryggvadóttir, Steven J Walden, Heather Watts, Clare Wright, Christine Wright","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2025.1401521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1401521","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper offers a critical analysis of the concept of \"emotional community\" in the context of our research into histories of learning disability. Emotional communities are places where people feel, express and make sense of emotions. They help us to understand that emotions are something we experience socially and not just individually. The paper is presented in the form of a conversation between many researchers. This is what we mean by \"polyphonic,\" which translates as \"many voices.\" Some of us have learning disabilities, and some of us do not. Although there are many voices, the authors belong to teams who worked on three learning disability history projects. Each team comprises researchers and self-advocates with learning disabilities and academics without. We use the word \"trialogue\" to mean discussion involving the three teams. In the discussion, we first talk about what we mean by \"emotional community.\" Then we talk about the purpose of emotional communities, and their \"light\" (good) and \"dark\" (bad) aspects. We also talk about a process called \"commoning,\" which is working to understand what we have in common. This leads into a discussion of the ethics of emotional communities. We conclude by reflecting on some of the possibilities and problems we see with emotional communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"10 ","pages":"1401521"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12060435/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144037403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}