Diane B. Mitschke, Erin Laney, Emily Costello and Mohamad Faizal
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt acutely by resettled refugee communities around the world. Adjusting to life in a new country typically presents a host of…
Abstract
Purpose
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt acutely by resettled refugee communities around the world. Adjusting to life in a new country typically presents a host of challenges that must be met by newly resettled refugees, and these challenges were no doubt compounded by the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of resettled Rohingyan refugees living in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a grounded theory approach to derive meaning from qualitative interviews conducted with 21 Rohingyan refugees. This study embodied an emic design by involving the community in the development, conduction and interpretation of the data, rooting itself in the recognition of Rohingyan expertise and understanding.
Findings
The data yielded three major themes: financial instability, disruptions in access to health care and mental health distress. In addition, two minor themes were established: disruptions to everyday life and impacts on religious practices.
Originality/value
Little is known about the resettlement experiences of the Rohingyan people, who are arguably some of the most marginalized among refugees. With no written language shared among Rohingyans, communication barriers exacerbate an already challenging resettlement trajectory. The insights provided through this study are key to understanding the unique needs and strengths of Rohingyan refugees and will be valuable in shaping interventions to support their successful resettlement.
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Xiaotong Du and Kaitlin Light Costello
This research aims to introduce the concept of information snowballing, which shows the process of how individuals with a specific interest in food sustainability acquire…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to introduce the concept of information snowballing, which shows the process of how individuals with a specific interest in food sustainability acquire information about and remain abreast of sustainability-related information in everyday life and food practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed constructivist grounded theory to investigate the information acquisition practices of consumers of sustainable food around topics related to sustainability. The author collected data through pre-screening phone calls, photo diaries and in-depth semi-structured interviews by using theoretical sampling with nine sustainable food consumers; analyzed data through constant comparison and memoing; and validated findings via methodological jotting, data triangulation and peer-debriefing throughout the process.
Findings
The findings identify three stages of information snowballing: (a) learning by lifelong exposure and serendipitous information encountering; (b) constructing information landscapes; and (c) snowballing or gradually accumulating information.
Practical implications
This concept advocates for spreading sustainability-related information and awareness outside the context of formal education.
Originality/value
This study originates the concept of “information snowballing,” which evolves from the idea of snowball sampling, a common strategy for participant recruitment. Both of these terms lean on the idea that a snowball rolling downhill picks up more and more momentum and more and more snow as it travels; recruitment and information gathering show the same process of accretion through building momentum. Information snowballing highlights the individual’s agency in seeking relevant information sources, expressing one’s interests, constructing information landscapes—all activities that precede the serendipitous encountering and snowballing of information based on a particular interest. It also connects everyday information practices to information landscapes within the context of everyday food practices.
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Emily F. Wood and Monica K. Miller
The number of immigrants in the USA has increased steadily in recent decades. Two studies investigated individual differences that relate to attitudes toward immigrants in student…
Abstract
Purpose
The number of immigrants in the USA has increased steadily in recent decades. Two studies investigated individual differences that relate to attitudes toward immigrants in student and community samples. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
US university students and a community sampler were surveyed.
Findings
In both samples, higher scores on attributional complexity were associated with more positive attitudes toward immigrants and individuals who make dispositional attributions for the causes of crime and/or who are higher in faith in intuition tended to have more negative attitudes. Political orientation was a significant predictor in both samples; being more liberal and identifying as a Democrat compared to a Republican was related to more positive attitudes. Higher need for cognition scores were associated with more positive attitudes and higher legal authoritarianism scores were associated with more negative attitudes; however these were only significant predictors in the community sample.
Originality/value
Prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants can have adverse effects on immigrants in the realms of the legal system, workplace, healthcare, and education.
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Zhengqi Guo, Matthew Hall and Leona Wiegmann
This study aims to examine whether and how voluntary accounting disclosures can repair individual donors’ trust in a charity after negative events.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether and how voluntary accounting disclosures can repair individual donors’ trust in a charity after negative events.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt a qualitative research approach and conduct 32 semi-structured interviews with active Australian individual donors, with a hypothetical vignette design. Hypothetical negative events and corresponding accounting disclosures are presented to participants during interviews.
Findings
Three types of individual donors are identified based on their decision-making patterns after negative events and primary trust relations with a charity-reasoned donor (giving-decision based on their analysis of the situation, competence-based trust), generalist donors (giving-decision based on trust in the charitable sector, institution-based trust) and emotional donors (giving-decision based on feelings and emotions about the charity, integrity-based trust). The research suggests that accounting disclosures can repair trust damage for reasoned donors and support institution-based trust for generalist donors, but do not seem able to repair trust damage for emotional donors and can potentially damage trust further.
Practical implications
Overall, the findings suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to communicating with individual donors after negative events is not likely to be very effective in repairing trust. Instead, charities may need to adapt disclosures to their different types of individual donors.
Originality/value
While prior accounting studies have largely focussed on how charity managers themselves grapple with accountability or how negative events impact charitable donations, the authors demonstrate how accounting disclosures can play different roles in the trust-repairing process for different types of individual donors.
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In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these…
Abstract
In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these children are analogized to victim truth testimony, analyzed as a therapeutic, procedural, and developmental process, and examined as a catalyst for systemic accountability and change. Youth stories take different forms and appear in different media: testimony in legislatures, courts, research surveys or studies; opinion editorials and interviews in newspapers or blog posts; digital stories on YouTube; and artistic expression. Lawyers often serve as conduits for youth storytelling, translating their clients’ stories to the public. Organized advocacy by youth also informs and animates policy development. One recent example fosters youth organizing to promote “normalcy” in child welfare practices in Florida, and in related federal legislation.
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Since January 1997, the UK has imposed sanctions on employers found to be employing irregular workers. Coercing employers into conducting immigration status checks makes it…
Abstract
Since January 1997, the UK has imposed sanctions on employers found to be employing irregular workers. Coercing employers into conducting immigration status checks makes it increasingly difficult for irregular migrants to secure employment opportunities, thus restricting their ability to sustain a tolerable life in the UK. The deputisation of employers, as well as other private entities, such as landlords, has become a pivotal element of what is commonly known as the ‘hostile environment’, an attempt to make UK life unbearable for irregular migrants. This chapter uses the social science critique of ethnocentrism to explore different forms of bias and discrimination embedded in the deputisation of employers. Dehumanisation and exclusion are the two manifestations of ethnocentrism focussed on: examples of these recurring issues are drawn from the justifications for implementation, and effects of the employer sanctions regime.
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This case analyzed a mix of publicly accessible primary and secondary sources ranging from blog posts to academic articles. Taken together, the case study shows the reoccurring…
Abstract
Research methodology
This case analyzed a mix of publicly accessible primary and secondary sources ranging from blog posts to academic articles. Taken together, the case study shows the reoccurring arguments made by self-advocates.
Most of the videos and speeches mentioned in this case study are available online, and students can read/watch them in addition to reading the details presented here.
Case overview/synopsis
Autism Speaks entered the nonprofit scene in 2005 and rapidly became a powerful organization that raised substantial funds, collaborated with influential people and shaped public discourse on autism. However, from the beginning, the organization faced considerable criticism from self-advocates within the autism community who argued that the organization’s negative, medicalized narratives of autism undermined the neurodiversity movement’s goals of acceptance and inclusion. Tensions intensified over the next decade, with grassroots activists and disability rights organizations like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network demanding the inclusion of more autistic perspectives in the organization’s leadership and decision-making processes. The Autism Speaks controversy represents a powerful case study on how nonprofits should ethically represent their beneficiaries, collaborate with the community and engage with activist stakeholders.
Complexity academic level
This case study was designed for graduate or undergraduate students studying organizational ethics, nonprofit management or nonprofit funding and development.