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This paper provides a critical assessment of academic and policy approaches to population ageing with an emphasis on the baby boomer cohort and constructions of late‐life identity. It is suggested that policy towards an ageing population has shifted in focus, away from particular social hazards and towards an attempt to re‐engineer the meaning of legitimate ageing and social participation in later life. Three themes are identified: constructing the baby boomers as a force for social change, a downward drift of the age associated with ‘older people’ and a shift away from defining ageing identities through consumption, back towards work and production. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for future social and public policy.

The ‘baby‐boom’ generation has emerged as a significant group in debates focusing on population change. The demographic context concerns the increase in the birth rate across industrialised countries from the mid‐1940s through to the mid‐1960s. From a sociological perspective, boomers have been viewed as a group with distinctive experiences that set them apart from previous generations. In the UK context, however, there have been relatively few detailed studies of the characteristics of the boomer generation and, in particular, that of first‐wave boomers (born between 1945 and 1954) now entering retirement. This article draws on a research project exploring changes in consumption and identity affecting this cohort. The paper reviews some of the key social and demographic changes affecting this group, highlighting a mixture of continuities and discontinuities over previous cohorts. The article concludes with an assessment of the value of sociological research for furthering understanding of the baby‐boomer generation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how an Higher Education Institution’s (HEI) choice of undergoing a voluntary reorganisation, motivated by its own interest of increasing its autonomy, whilst also having to satisfy the government in order to maintain the level of public funding, impacts on the HEI’s accounting.

The paper draws on the institutional logics perspective to present a single case study of a German HEI that chose to be reorganised from a public into a foundation university. Data were obtained using multiple data collection methods.

The findings suggest that organisational characteristics, which act as filters for institutional logics, play an important role for HEIs’ ability to increase not only their de jure, but also their de facto autonomy through self-motivated, rather than government imposed, reform processes.

The paper is based on a single case study in a country-specific context, limiting the empirical generalisability of the findings.

Germany is not only one of the main nations exporting higher education, but its economy has also been recognised for its stability and development over the last decades. Nevertheless, Germany struggles in its transition to become a knowledge-based economy. Yet, research has so far tended to neglect educational reforms in Continental European countries, such as Germany. By addressing this gap in the literature, this paper is among the first to explore how reform processes shape accounting in German HEIs.

To properly address complex sustainability issues, higher education institutes (HEIs), such as universities, need to implement innovative educational programmes that adhere to transdisciplinary principles. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how to do so across and beyond a university.

This study presents a module comprising two courses, the first of which centres on the identification of sustainability issues in student-led multi-actor dialogue sessions and the second on addressing those sustainability issues through interdisciplinary collaboration among master’s students who are at the same time also working on their own thesis. The authors conducted continuous evaluations during the first two pilot years, including community (partners), faculty and student perspectives.

The authors found that the module was successful in training students for inter- and transdisciplinarity. Moreover, high levels of commitment were observed from a diverse range of students and faculty across one HEI as well as positive responses from the community (partners) involved in the module. Further improvements of the module rely on active buy-in from programme directors and ensuring continuous collaboration throughout the co-creation process by streamlining the translation of the issues into manageable research projects with specific research questions.

This study provides inspiration and lessons on how to implement university-wide inter- and transdisciplinary module into higher education.

The module is innovative in combining university-wide and interdisciplinary learning with and transdisciplinary learning through long-term, co-creational collaboration within and beyond the university.

This paper aims to shed light on the complex multiplicity of domestic violence interagency work. It proposes a new conceptualisation that reflects the entangled nature of professional practice and learning.

The research on which this paper draws is an ethnographic study of practice in an integrated local domestic violence initiative. Data include focussed workplace observations, semi-structured interviews and key documents. The study draws on practice-based sociomaterial approaches and the conceptual framework, and methodology is informed by actor-network theory, in particular, the work of Annemarie Mol.

Findings suggest that interagency work that starts from the victim and traces threads of connection outwards is able to “hang together” as “practice multiple” in integrated service provision. I argue that the learning that happens in these circumstances is a relational effect and depends on who and what is assembled in the actor-network.

The research has significant implications for framing understandings of domestic violence interagency work, as it firmly anchors “working together” to victims. Findings are expected to be of interest not only to practitioners, educators and researchers but also to policymakers.

The paper addresses a current gap in the literature, applies a novel research approach and proposes a new conceptualisation of domestic violence interagency work.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) has emerged as a leading pedagogy that blends theory with application. In recent years, policymakers, educators and practitioners have called for a significant expansion of WIL, one which would enable every undergraduate student has at least one WIL experience during their program of study. Despite these appeals, there remains a significant divide between the aspiration of universality and the realities. Consequently, the study asks the following question: How can post-secondary institutions expand their WIL initiatives to universal levels that deliver transformative learning?

In this exploratory study, the authors leverage research from entrepreneurship and management to develop a conceptual model of universal work-integrated learning (UWIL). Entrepreneurship and management research is relevant in this context, as the rapid introduction of a UWIL has transformative implications at the level of the individual (e.g. students, faculty), organization (e.g. processes) and the learning ecosystem (e.g. partners, policymakers) — issues at the core of research in entrepreneurship and management over the past two decades.

At the core of the authors’ proposal is the contention that the high-impact talent challenge and the delivery of UWIL must be reframed as not simply a challenge facing educators, but as a challenge facing the broader ecosystem of the workforce and the larger community. The authors propose the implementation of UWIL through an open innovation framework based on five strategic pillars.

Ultimately, the findings the authors present here can be leveraged by all members of the learning ecosystem, including administrators, faculty, policymakers, accreditation bodies and community partners, as a framework for operationalizing a UWIL strategy. The study’s model challenges all members of this learning ecosystem to operationalize a UWIL strategy. This entrepreneurial reframing introduces the potential for innovating the delivery of UWIL by leveraging the broader learning ecosystem to drive efficiencies and transformative learning.

This article compares the processes of community verification (CV) and user satisfaction surveys during the implementation of performance-based financing (PBF) in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The authors adopted a qualitative approach based on a multiple-case study design. Data were collected from August 10 to 25, 2017, in Mali, and from January to May 2016 in Burkina Faso. In Mali, 191 semi-structured interviews were conducted with investigators (people who collect information from health centre users in the communities, using survey tools), users, users' relatives, and health workers in three of the 10 health districts in the Koulikoro region. In Burkina Faso, 241 non-participatory observation sessions were recorded in a research diary, and 92 semi-structured interviews and informal discussions were conducted with investigators, community verifiers, users, PBF support staff at the national level, and administrative staff in one of the 15 health districts involved in PBF. The data were analysed inductively.

In both Mali and Burkina Faso, the delayed availability of survey forms led to a delay in starting the surveys. In Mali, to get off to a quick start, some investigators went to health centres to conduct the sampling with their supervisors. In both countries, investigators reported difficulties in finding certain users in the community due to incorrect spelling of names, lack of telephone details, incomplete information on the forms, common or similar sounding names within the community, and user mobility. There was little interference from health workers during user selection and surveys in both countries. In both countries, many surveys were conducted in the presence of the user's family (husband, father-in-law, brother, uncle, etc.) and the person accompanying the investigator. Also in both countries, some investigators filled in forms without investigating. They justified this data fabrication by the inadequate time available for the survey and the difficulty or impossibility of finding certain users. In both countries, the results were not communicated to health centre staff or users in either country.

CV and user satisfaction surveys are important components of PBF implementation. However, their implementation and evaluation remain complex. The instruments for CV and user satisfaction surveys for PBF need to be adapted and simplified to the local context. Emphasis should be placed on data analysis and the use of CV results.

There are similarities and differences in the CV process and user satisfaction surveys in Mali and Burkina Faso. In Mali, the data from the user satisfaction survey was not analyzed, while in Burkina Faso, the analysis did not allow for feedback. The local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that carried out the CV were pre-financed for 50% of the amount in Mali. In Burkina Faso, community-based organisations (CBOs) were not pre-financed. The lack of financing negatively impacted the conduction of the surveys. In Mali, fraudulent completion of survey forms by interviewers was more common in urban than in rural areas. In Burkina Faso, the frauds concerned consultations for children under five years of age. In Burkina Faso, the survey form was not adapted to collect data on the level of satisfaction of the indigent.

1. There were similarities and differences in the community verification (CV) processes in Mali and Burkina Faso.

2. In both Mali and Burkina Faso, tracing users within their community was difficult for several reasons, including incorrect or incomplete information on forms, common or similar names, and user mobility.

3. In both countries, there was no feedback on the results of the CV process to health centre staff or users.

4. Survey forms were falsified by investigators in both countries. In Mali, falsification was more common in urban than in rural areas. In Burkina Faso, falsification was more often observed for consultations for children under five years of age.

There were similarities and differences in the community verification (CV) processes in Mali and Burkina Faso.

In both Mali and Burkina Faso, tracing users within their community was difficult for several reasons, including incorrect or incomplete information on forms, common or similar names, and user mobility.

In both countries, there was no feedback on the results of the CV process to health centre staff or users.

Survey forms were falsified by investigators in both countries. In Mali, falsification was more common in urban than in rural areas. In Burkina Faso, falsification was more often observed for consultations for children under five years of age.

In this paper, I compare Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory, the existential phenomenology of Martin Heidegger upon whom Schatzki drew in its formation, and my own theory of institutional logics which I have sought to develop as a religious sociology of institution. I examine how Schatzki and I both differently locate our thinking at the level of practice. In this essay I also explore the possibility of appropriating Heidegger’s religious ontology of worldhood, which Schatzki rejects, in that project. My institutional logical position is an atheological religious one, poly-onto-teleological. Institutional logics are grounded in ultimate goods which are praiseworthy “objects” of striving and practice, signifieds to which elements of an institutional logic have a non-arbitrary relation, sources of and references for practical norms about how one should have, make, do or be that good, and a basis of knowing the world of practice as ordered around such goods. Institutional logics are constellations co-constituted by substances, not fields animated by values, interests or powers.

Because we are speaking against “values,” people are horrified at a philosophy that ostensibly dares to despise humanity’s best qualities. For what is more “logical” than that a thinking that denies values must necessarily pronounce everything valueless? Martin Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism” (2008a, p. 249).

Previous research has found that international students can experience poor mental health, low levels of life satisfaction, self-esteem and high levels of loneliness when studying in a foreign country. No study has directly compared these between international and home students studying in the UK. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A total of 247 students completed an online survey at the University of Bedfordshire.

The hypothesis that international students experience higher loneliness, lower self-esteem, lower life satisfaction and poorer general mental health than home students was rejected. Home students had significantly lower self-esteem, life satisfaction and general mental health scores. Black ethnicity and home student status significantly predicted general mental health and self-esteem in regression analyses. The predictive utility of home student status was maintained when other variables were controlled for in regression models.

This research suggests that the UK universities should ensure that both home and international students are adequately supported for their mental health.

Who knows what scholarly gems lie behind the iron doors of research library stacks in what used to be called “East” Germany? Today anyone with a network connection and a Web browser can know at least some of the answers, thanks to a major automation effort.