This paper attempts to define cultural globalisation and cultural glocalisation in terms of cultural identity (CI) and language. Homogenisation, heterogenisation and glocalisation are three possible ways to face the challenge of cultural globalisation but glocalisation may be the most realistic solution as it seems to be the way to a better…

Neoliberal policies, in spite of their considerable damage to economic equality, the environment, and education, remain dominant. In this paper, we suggest that neoliberalism has remained dominant in part because the power elite who benefit from the policies have gained control over both public debate and policy-making. By dominating the discourse…

Compassionate care leave and benefits were introduced in 2003/04 to help employees cope with this difficult work-life balance challenge. Employment Standards legislation and the Employment Insurance program (EI) were amended to provide leave without pay, with payment of EI benefits for compassionate care leave. Collective agreements have been…

John Dewey was inspired by what he termed "the miracle of shared experience and shared communication." His faith in the power of individuals working in democratic association also included warnings of a darker side, the "monstrosities" that individuals can become when they live and work in isolation from others. In this…

The author has strong childhood memories of sitting on the ledge of an open fireplace after a bath on a cold winter's evening. While the logs crackled and sizzled, he and his brothers would toast their pajamas on the screen and slowly dress themselves before bed. Those are good memories for him. So it was with great joy that he recently bought a…

Education and human service organizations providing services to people with intellectual and closely related developmental disabilities are increasingly being impacted by the supports paradigm, the quality of life concept, and the evaluation of personal outcomes. In this article the authors discuss the relationship among these three areas,…

Bringing post-Operaismo into network culture, this text tries to introduce the notion of surplus in a contemporary media debate dominated by a simple symmetry between immaterial and material domain, between digital economy and bioeconomy. Therefore a new asymmetry is first shaped through Serres' conceptual figure of the parasite and Bataille's…

Racial microaggressions are brief, everyday interactions that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racially minoritised group. Compared to more overt forms of racism, racial microaggressions are subtle and insidious, often leaving the victim confused, distressed and frustrated and the perpetrator oblivious of the…

Choice, a concept included in the quality of life approach, is frequently referred to in quality of life and related literature, but its components have not been described clearly. Drawing on conceptual considerations and research reports, the authors review and extend what is known about choice, and set out a conceptualization of its two main…

The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) is one of four regional centers in the United States that have worked to improve the quality of life in rural communities for nearly 40 years. With funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the land-grant universities in our 12-state region, the NCRCRD…

Based on three surveys carried out for studying living conditions of youth, women and elderly living in six remote areas (Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai, Sheung Shui, Fan Ling and Tai Po) in the New Territories of Hong Kong, this paper reports the poverty and social exclusion of these three groups of people. The quality of life of youth, women…

The purpose of this paper is to provide an alternative operationalization of amenities that does not privilege certain kinds of natural resources and climatic conditions and that can be used for assessing the quality of life in small towns. The amenity inventory presented here extends previous literature by including a broad range of amenities…

The emergence of the standards-based reform movement has raised a number of issues related to the design of educational programs for students with severe disabilities, and a debate has arisen that presents an "either/or" choice between the general education curriculum and an ecological curricular framework that has traditionally guided…

Twenty-seven five-year-olds walk into kindergarten on the first day of school in southeastern Kentucky. On average, nine of those children live in poverty, two were born to mothers who did not complete high school, two were removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect, and fourteen are from single-parent homes: this according to statistics…

A few days ago, Steve Jobs, the rockstar founder and Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Inc. resigned from his job to become Chairman of the Board, instead. For more than ten years, Mr. Jobs has been paid one dollar a year to run what has become the most valuable company in the world. From his first partner, Steve Wozniak, to the small team of…