Hopes and Fears: Community cohesion and the ‘White working class’ in one of the ‘failed spaces’ of multiculturalism

Since 2001, community cohesion has been an English policy concern, with accompanying media discourse portraying a supposed failure by Muslims to integrate. Latterly, academia has foregrounded White majority attitudes towards ethnic diversity, particularly those of the ‘White working class’. Whilst questioning this categorisation, we present data on attitudes towards diversity from low income, mainly White areas within Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, a town portrayed in media discourse as one of the ‘failed spaces’ of multiculturalism. Drawing on mixed methods research, we present and discuss data that provide a complex message, seemingly confirming pessimistic analyses around ethnic diversity and predominantly White neighbourhoods but also highlighting an appetite within the same communities for greater and more productive inter-ethnic contact. Furthermore, anxieties about diversity and integration have largely failed to coalesce into broad support for organised anti-minority politics manifest in groups such as the English Defence League

Muslim active citizenship in Australia: Socioeconomic challenges and the emergence of a Muslim elite

The most recent national Census demonstrated that Australian Muslims continue to occupy a socioeconomically disadvantaged position. On key indicators of unemployment rate, income, type of occupation and home ownership, Muslims consistently under-perform the national average. This pattern is evident in the last three Census data (2001, 2006 and 2011). Limited access to resources and a sense of marginalisation challenge full engagement with society and the natural growth of emotional affiliation with Australia. Muslim active citizenship is hampered by socioeconomic barriers. At the same time, an increasingly proactive class of educated Muslim elite has emerged to claim a voice for Muslims in Australia and promote citizenship rights and responsibilities. <br /

Legal Empowerment and Social Accountability: Complementary Strategies Toward Rights-based Development in Health?

Citizen-based accountability strategies to improve the lives of the poor and marginalized groups are increasingly being used in efforts to improve basic public services. The latest thinking suggests that broader, multi-pronged, multi-level, strategic approaches that may overcome the limitations of narrow, localized successes, hold more promise. This paper examines the challenges and opportunities, in theory and practice, posed by the integration of two such citizen-based accountability strategies—social accountability and legal empowerment. It traces the foundations of each of these approaches to highlight the potential benefits of integration. Consequently it examines whether these benefits have been realized in practice, by drawing upon five cases of organizations pursuing integration of social accountability and legal empowerment for health accountability in Macedonia, Guatemala, Uganda, and India. The cases highlight that while integration offers some promise in advancing the cause of social change, it also poses challenges for organizations in terms of strategies they pursue

CARITAS Model of Home Care for the Elderly

Summary of the CARTIAS model of home care for the elderly.International Labour Organizationunpublishe

Telecentre-Europe network strengthening project : final technical report

The Telecentre.Europe (TE) network is an initiative for enhancing knowledge sharing and collaboration among telecentre activities, and e-skills and employability programs in Europe. This report outlines the project background and an action plan for network strengthening

Poverty and Welfare of Roma in the Slovak Republic

Poverty among Roma is closely linked to four main factors: (i) regional economic conditions; (ii) the size and concentration of the Roma population in a settlement; (iii) the share of Roma in a settlement; and (iv) and the degree of geographic integration or segregation of the settlement and its proximity to a neighboring village or town. The situation of Roma in more economically developed regions is generally more favorable. Within regions, the level of poverty in a Roma settlement seems to be closely connected to the level of ethnic integration and segregation. Conditions in settlements which consist only of Roma are significantly worse off than more integrated communities. The most segregated and geographically isolated settlements are the most economically and socially disadvantaged. In almost all of the completely segregated settlements formal unemployment was close to 100 percent. This report aims to address the gaps in information on Roma in Slovakia by bringing together existing information on the living conditions and welfare of Roma and documenting the conditions of Roma living in settlements. It draws from quantitative data sources, including data on the labor market from the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs. In order to provide a more comprehensive picture of Roma living in settlements, a qualitative study of Roma was commissioned for this report. The report is intended to improve understanding of the situation of Roma in Slovakia and to facilitate the development of policies and programs to address their needs