The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG8) emphasizes decent work and the need to generate employment for vulnerable groups such as women, youth, and low-income rural and urban residents. Though extended retirement age policies to sustain workforce productivity are promulgated across OECD states, within SDG8 there is no evident…

The following work is intended to be a closer look and commentary on the issue of gun violence and mass shootings in the United States of America. An overarching pragmatic lens will be utilized to argue that the time is now to make a change in our current trajectory of normalized gun violence in our schools, and society in general. We currently…

This article is an excerpt from "Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis" (2011), by Sandra Steingraber. As a scientist, mother, and concerned citizen, Steingraber explores herein the damaging effects of the myriad and ubiquitous environmental pollutants--in homes, schools, and communities--on the lives…

Recent social policy discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand focus on vulnerable children's well-being and the detrimental, long-term and costly impacts of child poverty. The discourse pervading much of the policy labels children and young people as "vulnerable" or "at risk" or "in crisis", a view, which we argue, is both…

The legacy of slavery and racism in America and the history of what John C. Calhoun and other Southern leaders of the 1800s called "our peculiar institution" has not gone unnoticed. Neither has the psychological damage that remains as baggage carried by the descendents of both the slave and the slave owner (Berry & Blassingame, 1982;…

It is difficult to challenge a strong consensus that governments must intervene in a worsening crisis of emotional and psychological well-being. The article relates rising estimates of problems and corresponding calls for intervention in educational settings to the increasingly blurred boundaries between a cultural therapeutic ethos, academic…

Considerable policy and academic attention has been focused on the topic of food deserts. We consider this topic from an economic perspective. First, we consider how the components of a standard economic analysis apply to the study of food deserts. Second, using this economic lens, we revisit the empirical literature on food deserts to assess the…

Educational theorists frequently invoke rights claims to express their views about educational justice and authority. But the unyielding nature of rights claims presents a significant quandary in democratic contexts, given the tension between rights claims and majoritarian democracy. Educational theorists have given limited attention to this…

In this article, we argue that policymakers in America should reference a coherent, comprehensive, and child-centered framework for children. That is, based on an extensive review of the empirical literature on the first two decades of life, we conclude that policies should address the needs of young people throughout the first two decades of…

Environmental ethicists have focused much attention on the limits of utilitarianism and have generally defined "environmental ethics" in a manner that treats utilitarian environmental ethics as an oxymoron. This is unfortunate because utilitarian ethics can support strong environmental policies, and environmental ethicists have not yet produced a…

This introductory piece highlights key themes raised by Sir Bernard Crick and Professor Tariq Ramadan. Firstly I consider why citizenship is on the agenda and how these discourses are increasingly linked to discourses of diversity and identity. Secondly, I consider understandings of integration, especially with respect to Muslims, and thirdly,…

A new special-topics course on green chemistry would help students to critically evaluate policy decisions in an environmentally conscientious manner. The actively acquired knowledge would allow students to spread the word about green chemistry in the long term to the world, where they would pursue their future goals of life.

Environmental ethicists have focused much attention on the limits of utilitarianism and have generally defined "environmental ethics" in a manner that treats utilitarian environmental ethics as an oxymoron. This is unfortunate because utilitarian ethics can support strong environmental policies, and environmental ethicists have not yet produced a…

Dozens of countries have decentralized at least part of their natural resource policies over the last two decades. Despite the length of time that these policy experiments have been in force, there is little agreement about their effectiveness. We argue that part of this ambivalence stems from three limitations of extant studies, suggesting that…

In this paper, the authors highlight features of the social and cultural context which surrounds services to children. Emphasis is given to the point that those who work with children exist within the same cultural landscape occupied by the children, parents and other parents. Whilst this landscape is diverse, it contains certain dominant,…