Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Toward a Nuanced Understanding of Digital Skills and Perceived Social Mobility: An Exploratory Study Among Chinese Youth
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/12011
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.12011
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 12011
Author-Name: Hao Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Public Administration, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China
Author-Name: Chun Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Public Administration, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China
Author-Name: Puxin Zhang
Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute of Public Administration, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, China
Abstract: It is generally believed that the acquisition of digital skills is associated positively with socioeconomic empowerment. Policies and programs have been implemented to equip young people with skills in various digital technologies. However, the association between different types of digital skills and young people’s socioeconomic outlook is unclear. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey conducted in China, this article reveals that overall digital skill level (DSL) and basic digital skills are not significantly associated with young adults’ perceived future mobility (PFM). Rather, the mastery of advanced digital skills is what matters. Individuals with only basic digital skills tend to exhibit more pessimistic expectations about their future mobility than those who possess both basic and advanced skills. In particular, the association between DSL and PFM varies across different levels of socioeconomic status (SES), suggesting that DSL correlates more strongly with perceived mobility for youth with lower SES than it does for their wealthier peers. This study suggests the existence of a digital skills underclass among young people, a relatively small yet significant group at risk of being left behind. The findings offer new perspectives for policymakers seeking to promote inclusive and sustainable youth development in the digital age.
Keywords: China; digital divide; digital skills; perceived future mobility; young adults
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12011

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Transition and New Forms of Spatial Inequality
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/12508
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.12508
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 12508
Author-Name: Tiit Tammaru
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Kadi Kalm
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Rūta Ubarevičienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Lithuania
Author-Name: Veronika Mooses
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Anto Aasa
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Olle Järv
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia / Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland
Abstract: This thematic issue examines how digital transition reshapes spatial inequalities by reconfiguring relationships between people, places, and opportunities. We frame the contributions around three interrelated mechanisms—place attractiveness, access to opportunities, and the coordination of activities— that operate through housing and labour markets. Digital transition reshapes all three mechanisms, generating spatially uneven outcomes across the settlement system. Rather than producing a fundamental spatial shift or simply reproducing existing inequalities, it repositions people and places into more networked and multilocal arrangements. Suburban areas emerge as key beneficiaries, large cities retain their dominance in employment while facing intensifying housing pressures, and rural areas are increasingly reoriented towards residence and consumption, with amenity‐rich localities gaining while more peripheral areas face compounding disadvantage. We identify three avenues for future research: the implications of remote work for residential mobility and immobility; unequal household capacities to coordinate activities across digital and physical space; and the need for a multi‐scalar perspective to better understand the shift towards networked and multilocal spatial arrangements as everyday activities increasingly span physical and digital space.
Keywords: digital divide; digital transformation; housing market; labour market; multilocality; remote work; segregation; spatial inequality
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12508

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Response by Co‐Working Spaces to Digital Transformation in Singapore
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11685
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11685
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11685
Author-Name: Anastasia Sinitsyna
Author-Workplace-Name: Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Luca Alfieri
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Italy / School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: This article examines how the digitalisation process has reshaped the evolution of co‐working (CW) spaces in Singapore and has contributed to the emergence of hybrid work ecosystems. Drawing on qualitative data from semi‐structured interviews with managers of CW spaces in Singapore, the findings suggest that digitalisation did not create entirely new client segments but instead reinforced the existing ICT‐dominated customer base by stabilising hybrid and remote working practices. At the same time, digitalisation made possible the institutionalisation of virtual CW practices, supported by platforms which serve to integrate video conferencing, collaborative software, and digital community tools. These virtual extensions enhance flexibility, inclusivity, and cross‐border collaboration whilst remaining complementary to physical CW spaces. Within the Singapore context—one which is characterised by strong digital infrastructure and its role as a regional headquarters and innovation hub—CW spaces are evolving towards structurally‐embedded hybrid models. This study contributes to the available literature by conceptualising CW spaces as digitally‐enabled socio‐spatial infrastructures which operate within hybrid work ecosystems rather than as purely physical shared offices.
Keywords: co‐working space; digitalisation; hybrid work ecosystem; Singapore
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11685

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Uneven Digital Visibility of Urban Places: Evidence From TikTok Hotspots
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11647
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11647
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11647
Author-Name: Shuyu Zhang
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Claudiu Forgaci
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Lei Qu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Maarten van Ham
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Abstract: Social media platforms increasingly shape how urban places gain visibility and attention in the digital age. In this article, we examine patterns of “place visibility” on TikTok in Amsterdam. We propose and operationalise a TikTok Place Visibility Score, defined as a composite indicator based on user engagement metrics, to measure the relative visibility of places on the platform. We then explore how TikTok mediates and redistributes visibility within existing urban hierarchies. Drawing on 3,767 TikTok posts associated with #amsterdam and hotspot‐related keywords, we apply geo‐parsing, spatial mapping, visualisation, and network analysis to analyse how visibility is distributed across the city. Our results show that several neighbourhoods just outside the historic urban core—rather than only central locations—exhibit high digital visibility on TikTok. These areas function as digitally prominent activity spaces despite their non‐central position in the urban hierarchy, while central neighbourhoods maintain a strong online presence. The findings suggest that social media algorithms and user interactions affect digital visibility and may reconfigure how attention is redistributed across urban space. We argue that digital visibility patterns shape how places are circulated and prioritised in the digital public sphere, with implications for how people use and engage with urban space. More broadly, the article highlights the importance of attending to platform mechanisms and visibility dynamics when studying urban space in the digital transition era.
Keywords: Social media; TikTok; digital visibility; spatial inequality; hotspots
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11647

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “I Refuse to Answer This Question!”: Teachers’ Diversity Beliefs and Dutch Higher Education Transformation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11670
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11670
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11670
Author-Name: Sofie Smeets
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands / School of Education (Teacher Training), Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Abstract: In an era of increasing diversity in higher education, understanding teachers’ positions and diversity beliefs is crucial. Teachers are often seen as primary actors and change agents in diversity policies within higher education institutions. However, there is a lack of an overview regarding these beliefs in European contexts. Transitions for diversity and inclusion in higher education are often slow due to the invisible normalization of institutional norms, which often stem from teachers’ diversity beliefs. Therefore, this article investigates the diversity beliefs of higher education teachers at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences through ethnographic research. Using interviews, informal conversations, and participatory observation, I analyze these beliefs within a framework of conservative, liberal, and critical diversity perspectives. I present an overview of these perspectives, showing the prominence of a liberal view. Notwithstanding its prominence, interactions during diversity and inclusion events reveal that teachers challenge this dominant perspective, highlighting aspects that often remain unseen. These findings show that diversity perspectives of teachers are not static, but instead represent dynamic, contextual, and relational positions for connection, navigation, and negotiation. This provides insights into the potential for transformation by teachers in contexts resistant to diversity and inclusion. The article contributes to current debates on teachers’ diversity beliefs and their relation to transformation.
Keywords: diversity and inclusion; higher education; resistance and transformation; teachers’ diversity beliefs
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11670

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Impact Agenda and Practices of Inclusion and Reward for Early Career Researchers in the Social Sciences and Humanities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11666
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11666
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11666
Author-Name: Sanja Djerasimovic
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, University of Exeter, UK
Author-Name: Jenny Barke
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy and Anthropology, University of Exeter, UK
Abstract: This article explores some effects of the “impact agenda” on early academic careers and knowledge production. The impact agenda is the incentivisation of socio‐economic impact in university‐based research through research funding and evaluation mechanisms, producing, it has been theorised, new modalities of scholarly distinction (Watermeyer & Chubb, 2019). The latter risk aligning with traditionally individualistic forms of academic performativity (Chubb & Derrick, 2020), thus perpetuating existing inequality regimes (Davies et al., 2020) through posing additional obstacles to success for traditionally marginalised groups in academic hierarchies. Within the UK context, where the impact agenda is strongly institutionalised, we examine the delivery of highly rated impact by early career researchers and its effect on their work and careers. Specifically, we interrogate the potential for the (e)valuation of impact to democratise knowledge production and access to, and progression in, academic careers. Our article reports on the documentary discourse analysis of the highest‐rated “impact case studies” in the UK’s recent research evaluation exercise and interviews with some of their early career researcher (co)authors. The findings of this exploratory work suggest that while the impact agenda has started to incentivise and reward knowledge co‐production and a broader set of research skills, motivations, and pathways, there is a risk that this tendency co‐exists with, rather than challenges, established forms of “scholarly distinction” embodied in publishing productivity and funding capture, potentially leading to skill and talent loss.
Keywords: academic careers; early career researchers; impact agenda; research culture; research evaluation; social sciences and humanities
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11666

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Diversity and Change Agents in Higher Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/12429
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.12429
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 12429
Author-Name: Liudvika Leišytė
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business and Economics, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Author-Name: Rosemary Deem
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway (University of London), UK
Author-Name: Ivana Načinović Braje
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract: This issue explores how higher education (HE) uses transformation to develop diverse and inclusive institutions, including policies utilising multiple actors’ agency. Existing HE literature has examined transformation through several lenses, such as how managerial reforms on diversity and inclusion work, and the potential of disruptive events for HE access and teaching quality, but also concerns that reforms may reinforce longstanding inequalities. Less attention has been given to how diversity, intersectionality, and the agency of institutional actors contribute to organizational transformation. Addressing this gap, we highlight the role of HE policies, practices, and agency of internal and external stakeholders in reshaping organizational practices, academic norms, and institutional routines. Drawing on perspectives that view transformation as emerging from complex interactions among stakeholders, the issue considers both planned reforms and emergent change processes. The contributions focus on: policies promoting equity and inclusion in HE, policy tools and organizational practices that support institutional change, and the agency of diverse stakeholders in transformative processes. Overall, the issue emphasises participatory governance and collaboration across institutional roles to foster more inclusive and adaptive HE systems. While these interactions can foster collaboration and coalition‐building across institutions, they may also reproduce exclusionary dynamics.
Keywords: agency; diversity; ECRs; higher education; inclusion; policy; students; transformative change; university
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12429

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Impacts of Remote Work on Residential Space: A Review on Relocation, Multilocality, and Spatial Inequality
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11664
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11664
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11664
Author-Name: Riku Reunamäki
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Veronique Van Acker
Author-Workplace-Name: Urban Development and Mobility Department, Luxembourg Institute of Socio‐Economic Research (LISER), Luxembourg / Department of Geography, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Olle Järv
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland / Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: Remote work has emerged as one of the more consequential transformations in contemporary society, with far‐reaching implications that extend beyond the organisation of work itself. One of its most profound, yet still insufficiently understood, consequences concerns residential space. By redefining the traditional spatial coupling between workplace and home, remote work offers many individuals greater freedom in choosing where to live, thereby having the potential to reshape residential location decisions. At the same time, remote work does not necessarily lead to permanent relocation; instead, it may encourage more flexible and fragmented residential strategies such as multilocal living—living and spending time in more than one dwelling. However, since remote work is not possible in every occupation, it can also potentially exacerbate socio‐spatial inequalities, both temporary and permanent, in cities and rural regions. In this systematic literature review, based on 33 articles, we examine the impacts of remote work on residential space and its implications for spatial inequality. First, we provide a meta‐analysis of where, when, and how the impacts of remote work on residential space have been studied over the past decade, focusing on three literature streams: residential relocation, multilocal living, and spatial inequality. We then summarise the main findings regarding these impacts, and through synthesising the existing literature, highlight issues that are currently missing from the three research streams. Finally, we suggest avenues for future research aimed at addressing the existing knowledge gaps at the nexus between remote work and residential space, which clearly remains understudied to date.
Keywords: multilocal living; remote work; residential relocation; residential space; spatial inequality; systematic literature review
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11664

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Moving Towards Inclusive History Education? Reflections on Practices, Constraints, and Possibilities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11618
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11618
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11618
Author-Name: Lise Zurné
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Jasmin Seijbel
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Burak Fıçı
Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: This article reflects on a collaborative project at a Dutch university that examined inclusivity in bachelor‐level history education amid a growing body of scholarship on the persistence of Eurocentrism and androcentrism in the field. History education involves sensitive and contested topics such as colonialism, migration, and structural inequalities. In this context and in line with our own experiences, some students and staff expressed concerns about representation, accessibility, and classroom dynamics. In response, this project combined curriculum analysis, student‐centred focus groups, and a staff questionnaire, to gain insight into current teaching content and practices, focusing specifically on the representation of the Global South, gender diversity, and inclusive pedagogical practices. Findings echo wider disciplinary patterns, including Euro‐American bias and perspectives, and gender imbalances in assigned scholarship. While many staff expressed a commitment to inclusive teaching, the findings suggest that such efforts remain uneven and are shaped by structural constraints. Situating these findings within institutional, disciplinary, and national contexts shows that inclusive history education requires attention to the societal embedding of the programme, the peculiarities of the history profession, as well as educational dynamics. While this project was intended to make our programme more inclusive, it also functioned as a mirror to our own teaching practices, revealing the need for shared understandings and aims, pedagogical support, and coordinated leadership. By foregrounding the challenges encountered during this process, this article contributes to debates on inclusive pedagogy, epistemic justice, and institutional change in higher education, thereby offering insights for educators and policymakers.
Keywords: androcentrism; curriculum; Eurocentrism; higher education; history; inclusive education; pedagogy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11618

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Where the Grass Is Greener: Deconcentration Mobility and Activity Space Changes Among Remote‐Worker Families
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11669
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11669
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11669
Author-Name: Anneli Kährik
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Katarzyna Kajdanek
Author-Workplace-Name: Migration–Culture–City Lab, University of Wrocław, Poland
Author-Name: Epp Vallikivi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Helina Tamm
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Raul Garcia Estevez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Bianka Plüschke-Altof
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Tiit Tammaru
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: Digital change—most notably advances in digital tools, infrastructure, and the widespread adoption of remote work—has increasingly shaped residential mobility decisions. Alongside shifting attitudes toward remote work and the expansion of e‐services, these developments have reduced the importance of workplace proximity in residential choice. This changing context has opened new decentralised residential pathways from urban cores to suburban, peri‐urban, and rural areas, as residential decisions are increasingly shaped by digitally mediated connections to activities and places. Drawing on a qualitative study of remote workers relocating from Tallinn to its hinterland and beyond, this article examines how digital transition influences residential decision‐making, daily activity spaces, and subsequent lifestyle changes following relocation. The analysis is framed within a life course approach, which conceptualises residential relocation as an event embedded within interconnected dimensions: the individual (situated within an individual’s lifeworld), the relational (shaped by linked lives and social ties, especially among the household members), and the structural (conditioned by institutional, technological, and economic contexts). The findings show that the ability to work remotely enables greater freedom in choosing where to live while maintaining employment, particularly where considerations of housing affordability, environmental quality, and family‐oriented lifestyles intersect. However, traditional life course factors remain important, and the ability to work from home primarily acts as an enabler for realising existing residential preferences rather than fundamentally altering them.
Keywords: activity space; digital change; linked lives; remote work; residential mobility
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11669

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Commuting Burden Distribution: The Equity Effects of the New Work Dynamics on the Lisbon Metropolitan Area
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11629
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11629
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11629
Author-Name: Julianno de Menezes Amorim
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism, and Architecture (CiTUA), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Author-Name: João de Abreu e Silva
Author-Workplace-Name: Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability (CERIS), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Author-Name: Jorge Gonçalves
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism, and Architecture (CiTUA), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract: Transport‐related equity is gaining increasing attention, highlighting the need for a system that is equitable, accessible, and affordable for all. From a spatial perspective, the spatial distribution of transport infrastructure plays a key role in mitigating socio‐spatial inequalities. Since Covid‐19, teleworking has become more prominent across sectors, raising questions about the equity implications of remote work. This study examines the spatial distribution of commuting burden (CB), as the ratio of travel costs to wages, across the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and tests the hypothesis that telework increases inequality in CB distribution rather than alleviating it. We analyse CB before and after increased telework adoption, integrating occupational typologies, wage levels, and telework potential at the civil parish level. Generalised commuting costs are estimated using travel time and distance by mode, fare structure, and value of time. An adapted Palma index assesses the equity impact of telework on CB distribution, identifying areas of compound burden or benefit. The findings confirm that despite a general decline in average CB under the telework scenario, inequality increases, as measured by the Palma index. High‐wage workers in skilled occupations, predominantly located in more central or well‐connected areas which already have a lower CB, gain disproportionate advantages from telework. Conversely, low‐wage workers in peripheral areas face both higher CB and limited telework capacity. This suggests telework, in its current distribution logic, exacerbates rather than mitigates socio‐spatial disparities. The study underscores the need to embed telework within equitable urban planning frameworks that address the structural causes of socio‐territorial fragmentation.
Keywords: commuting burden; equity; telework; transport justice
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11629

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Digitalization of the Housing Market in Spain: A Case Study of the Use of Online Platforms and Spatial Inequalities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11584
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11584
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11584
Author-Name: Ángela Mesa-Pedrazas
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Author-Name: José Manuel Torrado
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Author-Name: Isabel Palomares-Linares
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Author-Name: Ricardo Duque-Calvache
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Abstract: Online platforms are the main form of mediation in the housing market. While their importance has grown significantly in recent decades, that growth has been uneven throughout various territories and social groups. The role of online platforms goes beyond intermediation; the ease of access they provide stimulates market activity, while the concentration of listings on the same web portals homogenizes and raises prices. This article uses a unique database on housing supply for rentals and sales by census tract from Spain’s primary online housing portal between 2012 and 2021. Using data from this portal as a case study, we analyse how the gradual growth of the digital housing supply (in both space and time) is connected to changes in the distribution and characteristics of the housing units. Rental and sales markets show spatial differences, with opposing dynamics in rural and urban areas, highlighting a digital divide. Middle‐class urban areas, which also attract tourists, are the most active markets, while rural areas remain less dynamic. Housing in more active markets, in turn, appreciates, increasing territorial inequality. Rising prices benefit existing owners but are a disadvantage to potential buyers, especially lower‐income households. In that respect, our case study points to the conclusion that the digital divide in the use of online intermediation tools amplifies territorial and social inequalities.
Keywords: digital divide; housing; proptech; purchase; rental
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11584

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “You are One of Them”: Performing Inclusion and Practicing Marginalization in Academia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11695
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11695
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11695
Author-Name: Faime Alpagu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: This article critically examines how diversity initiatives in higher education can paradoxically reinforce exclusionary practices, particularly within academic systems that frame inclusion as both an ethical commitment and institutional achievement. Through an autoethnographic approach grounded in everyday academic encounters, I analyze how power is reinforced through routine interactions and how individual actors actively sustain racialized hierarchies under the banner of inclusion. Scholars of color are frequently perceived through reductive racialized or migrant identities, regardless of credentials or scholarly contributions, revealing how institutional whiteness is reproduced not only structurally but through interpersonal practices. Rather than presenting these dynamics as abstract or unintentional, the article interrogates how specific actions—such as symbolic inclusion, exceptionalization, and performative allyship— uphold the “neutral” norms of white, middle‐class academic culture. Drawing on García Peña’s (2022) critique of “The One,” I argue that diversity discourse often masks deeper power asymmetries by isolating and instrumentalizing minoritized scholars, positioning them as representatives rather than colleagues. By shifting attention from representational inclusion to the micro‐politics of complicity, this article calls for greater accountability in how inclusion is practiced and performed within academic communities. By naming these practices, it aims to open space for more critical institutional analysis and the possibility of transformative change.
Keywords: autoethnography; critical whiteness; exclusionary dynamics; performative allyship; practices of complicity; representation politics
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11695

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: New Generation of Fathers in Poland: A Path to Gender Equality?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10887
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10887
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10887
Author-Name: Magda Muter
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Abstract: This article explores fatherhood in Poland among dual‐earner couples, parents to at least one young child. The birth of a child usually results in a more traditional, gendered division of labour among partners, including that of newly created childcare duties. However, a visible intergenerational shift is developing, with new fathers increasingly expressing the desire to be more involved with their children, as compared to their own fathers. Mothers seem to support this change and prioritise fathers building relationships with their children rather than doing more housework. This article focuses on the results of 74 semi‐structured individual interviews with 37 couples, conducted in 2019 in Poland. I explore how the concept of “involved fatherhood” is understood and practiced amid many contradictions. For example, despite generous and seemingly gender‐neutral social policies (e.g., long parental leave available for both mothers and fathers), there is a strongly gendered uptake, with women using the vast majority of all leaves. For many of the fathers in my sample, fatherhood was a life‐changing experience. However, it is important to mention that even when a father is an active caregiver, this doesn’t always translate to a more gender‐equal division of labour. Through the experiences of my respondents, I argue that despite increasing cultural support for involved fatherhood, there are still challenges with practicing it.
Keywords: division of labour; equality; gender; involved fatherhood; Poland
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10887

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Involved Fatherhood Among Roma Men: Class, Kinship, and Caring Masculinities in Post‐Socialist Hungary
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11201
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11201
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11201
Author-Name: Judit Durst
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK / ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Abstract: Scholarship on fatherhood has increasingly emphasised men’s practical and emotional involvement in childcare; yet, this research has largely focused on majority middle‐class populations. Roma fathers in Hungary are often stereotyped from a deficit view, and their practices remain underexplored. This article draws on two qualitative projects: (a) long‐term ethnographic fieldwork in a marginalised, lower‐class Roma settlement in Northern Hungary; and (b) narrative life‐history interviews with first‐in‐family graduate Roma fathers. Four case studies—two working‐class Roma fathers and two graduate Roma fathers—are presented as theoretical narratives. The working‐class fathers enact involved fatherhood through alternative forms of caring masculinities, in which physical protection, emotional expressiveness, pragmatic acts of provision (breadwinning), and kinship‐based solidarity are the main modes of fatherly care under economically precarious conditions. In contrast, the graduate fathers mobilise cultural capital, institutional knowledge, and reflexive parenting repertoires, as well as the transmission of a recast Roma identity, even in non‐residential contexts. The comparison shows that their practices are not dichotomous but form a continuum of involved fatherhood, shaped by classed resources, kinship ties, and the experience of racialisation. The study demonstrates that Roma fatherhood in post‐socialist Hungary is not absent nor deficient; rather, it is diverse and class‐stratified, ranging from emotionally and physically protective kinship‐based masculinities to intimate, education‐oriented practices, with each representing meaningful forms of care under conditions of racialised precarity. The article contributes to international debates on involved fatherhood, caring masculinities, and racialised minority fatherhood beyond middle‐class benchmarks.
Keywords: caring masculinities; intimate fathering; involved fatherhood; kinship and care; minority mobility; post‐socialist Hungary; racialised fatherhood; Roma fathers
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11201

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Involved Fatherhood Ideals and Practices in European Post‐Socialist Societies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/12229
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.12229
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 12229
Author-Name: Judit Takács
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Author-Name: Hana Hašková
Author-Workplace-Name: Gender and Sociology Department, Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Alenka Švab
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Author-Name: Ivett Szalma
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Abstract: This thematic issue examines how involved fatherhood is negotiated across post‐socialist Europe, where expectations of paternal engagement remain unevenly institutionalised and practiced. Bringing together seventeen contributions covering eleven post‐socialist countries and a 16‐country comparison, the issue analyses how fathers navigate tensions between traditional breadwinner norms and emerging caregiving ideals. The articles reveal substantial cross‐national and social variation shaped by welfare regimes, labour market structures, family policies, and socio‐economic inequalities. Using frameworks such as involved fatherhood, caring masculinities, intensive parenting, intersectionality, structural approaches, and the multiple equilibrium approach to fertility, the collection highlights a persistent gap between aspirations and practices. Despite support for involved fatherhood, structural constraints—long working hours, income disparities, workplace cultures, and limited policy support—constrain equal responsibility, particularly for the mental and organisational dimensions of care. Based on diverse qualitative and quantitative data, the findings show class‐, education‐, ethnicity‐, and family‐structure based inequalities, demonstrating how institutional legacies, contemporary politics, and socio‐economic stratification shape fatherhood in distinct ways, informing more context‐sensitive research and policy aimed at advancing gender equality.
Keywords: child care; caring masculinities; European post‐socialist societies; gender equality; involved fatherhood; parental leave policies; socio‐economic inequalities; work–life balance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:12229

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intersectional Dynamics of Platformed Scientific Labor in e‐Science
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11562
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11562
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11562
Author-Name: Öznur Karakaş
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Gender Research, Uppsala University, Sweden / Department of New Media and Communication, Üsküdar University, Türkiye
Abstract: e‐Science, multidisciplinary research that operates with large‐scale data sets across distributed networks and grid systems, has largely been examined in relation to knowledge production within international and interinstitutional collaborations in higher education and research (HER), supported by shared e‐infrastructures and advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs). As such, the rise of e‐Science constitutes a major socio‐technical change agent within HER. This article approaches e‐Science as a digital science platform and investigates how it reshapes knowledge production practices and their intersectional gendered implications. The analysis draws on findings from a year‐long qualitative study on a Swedish academic e‐Science platform, hereafter referred to as eSci. The study identifies multiple and overlapping forms of work extension and intensification within eSci, including multi‐ and co‐locational, (inter)disciplinary, translational, and interactional, as well as extension of work in the form of project‐based recruitment of contingent staff. These transformations generate distinct responses from tenured and contingent staff, producing varied gendered effects and positioning precarity as a crucial intersectional dimension in gender analysis. Ultimately, the findings suggest that these dynamics undermine the inclusive potential of e‐Science, limiting its capacity to attract and sustain the participation of women in a field that remains heavily male‐dominated.
Keywords: digital science platforms; diversity; e‐infrastructure; precarity; work extension; work intensification
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11562

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Relational Change in Higher Education: How Students and Staff Navigate Diversity and Agency
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11687
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11687
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11687
Author-Name: Helena Segarra
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Science, Austria
Author-Name: Concha Antón Rubio
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Spain
Author-Name: Inga Juknytė-Petreikienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Public Governance and Business, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Lisa Tackie
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: Higher education has traditionally been characterized by slow institutional change and entrenched norms, yet recent developments point to growing collective agency among academic staff, administrative professionals, and students. This study examines how different university actors—students, academic staff, and administrative staff—perceive diversity and their own agency in fostering change within higher education institutions. Drawing on Giddens’ theory of structuration and Bourdieu’s theory of practice, it explores how individual and collective actions both reproduce and transform institutional structures. Based on nine focus groups (<span class="fontstyle2">? = </span><span class="fontstyle0">56) across three European universities in Austria, Spain, and Lithuania, the research applies a shared coding framework and a mixed‐methods approach, combining qualitative content analysis with quantitative pattern detection. The findings show that perceptions of diversity and agency are shaped more by professional role than institutional context. Students emphasize lived experiences and grassroots activism but feel structurally underrepresented; academic staff frame diversity as a pedagogical responsibility that is constrained by workload and limited institutional support; while administrative staff interpret agency through procedural discretion and professionalism, yet face bureaucratic inertia. Across all roles, the participants reveal a sense of “diversity fatigue,” reflecting the emotional labor of unsupported efforts towards inclusion. The study concludes that meaningful institutional change arises less from formal policy than from relational alignment, mutual recognition, and collaboration among actors, which enables everyday transformations within existing structures.</span>
Keywords: agency; diversity; enablers and obstacles for change; higher education; university actors
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11687

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Listening Classroom: Professor and Cultural Change in Inclusion for Students on the Autism Spectrum
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11675
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11675
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11675
Author-Name: Erwin Robert Aguirre-Villalobos
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Planning and Territorial Ordering, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
Author-Name: Daniela Paz Godoy-Donoso
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Planning and Territorial Ordering, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
Author-Name: Lorena González-Otárola
Author-Workplace-Name: Unidad de Mejoramiento Docente (UMD), Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
Author-Name: María de los Ángeles Ferrer-Mavárez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Design, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile
Abstract: This article examines the role of university faculty as agents of institutional transformation in the inclusion of students on the autism spectrum in Chilean public higher education. Based on a case study from the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM) in Santiago, the research explores how faculty training in neurodiversity and inclusive pedagogy shapes attitudes and promotes cultural change within the university. The study adopts a critical qualitative methodology informed by Theory of Change (ToC), which was used to model the causal mechanisms linking staff training in neurodiversity, inclusive practices, and institutional change. Data were collected via focus groups and personal academic narratives from both staff and students, exploring the tensions between institutional inclusion discourses and lived pedagogical practices. Findings suggest that genuinely inclusive teaching occurs when difference is acknowledged and normalized, rather than treated as an exceptional or deficit‐based condition requiring management or special assistance. Training initiatives were found to improve communication, flexibility, and empathy, although structural barriers persist due to managerial cultures and the precarization of academic work. The study concludes that the inclusion of students on the autism spectrum requires more than mere institutional policy: It requires learning environments capable of acknowledging, understanding, and reframing differences as a transformative force toward genuinely inclusive higher education.
Keywords: autism spectrum; higher education; inclusive pedagogy; institutional transformation; neurodiversity
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11675

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: From Legislative Mandates to Student Demands: Institutionalising Intersectionality in Spanish Universities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11641
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11641
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11641
Author-Name: Gloria García-Romeral
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, Universitat de Vic–Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic‐UCC), Spain
Author-Name: Marina Garcia-Castillo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Law, Universitat de Vic–Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic‐UCC), Spain
Author-Name: Lorena González-Ruiz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Law, Universitat de Vic–Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic‐UCC), Spain
Abstract: Spain has undergone a significant normative shift; new laws on equality, coexistence, and university governance have expanded institutional responsibilities for promoting inclusion and preventing discrimination. This development reflects broader changes in the composition of the Spanish higher education student population and highlights the need for a more comprehensive, intersectional approach to inclusion, moving beyond the traditional focus on disability. This article examines how institutional frameworks and student agency interact to drive organisational change in higher education. Drawing on a qualitative case study at a Catalan university, the research combines (a) policy analysis, (b) eight participatory workshops on inequality and inclusion with over 150 students, and (c) an analysis of the first year of operation of the university’s Equality and Diversity Unit, which includes a review of the types of requests and cases managed and semi‐structured interviews with staff responsible for implementing student support plans and coordinating inclusion efforts. The study examines the interaction between top‐down policy frameworks and bottom‐up initiatives in shaping institutional understandings and practices of inclusion. Findings point to persistent tensions between regulatory commitments and everyday university life, revealing how inclusion policies are interpreted, negotiated, and enacted across different organisational levels. This article advances current debates on the institutionalisation of intersectionality and identifies emergent forms of collective agency within increasingly complex university ecosystems.
Keywords: diversity governance; higher education; inclusion policies; inequalities; intersectionality; Spanish universities
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11641

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Does Telework Make People Experience More Segregation in Daily Activity Spaces?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11557
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11557
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11557
Author-Name: Jun Cao
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Architecture, Southeast University, China
Author-Name: Tanhua Jin
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Architecture, Southeast University, China / Department of Geography, Ghent University, Belgium / School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Zhou Mengyao
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Architecture, Southeast University, China
Author-Name: Tao Shou
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Architecture, Southeast University, China
Abstract: Telework reshapes daily mobility, but its implications for lived social exposure remain underexplored. This study examines whether and how telework affects experienced racial segregation by integrating socioeconomic characteristics, built‐environment context, and activity–travel behavior in a structural equation modeling analysis. Using pooled cross‐sectional data from the Puget Sound Regional Travel Surveys (2017, 2019, 2021), we distinguish residential segregation (home census block group) from experienced segregation measured across non‐work activity destinations using an entropy‐based index of multi‐group racial diversity. Results show that telework is associated with an increase in experienced racial segregation, primarily through mobility reorganization: Telework increases non‐work activity participation but reduces the spatial extent of daily activity spaces, and the localization effect dominates. Residential segregation remains a strong baseline determinant, yet telework contributes additional exposure differences beyond the residential context. Telework adoption is structurally patterned by socioeconomic and built‐environment conditions, while density and accessibility shape exposure indirectly via activity behaviors. These findings imply that telework policy is not socially neutral; hybrid arrangements and compact, mixed‐use, amenity‐rich environments may mitigate telework‐related exposure segregation.
Keywords: activity space; mobility; segregation; telework; travel behavior
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11557

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “This Kind of Thing Does Not Really Exist in Russia”: Russian Fathers Negotiating Shared Care Arrangements
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10983
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10983
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10983
Author-Name: Ekaterina Ivanova
Author-Workplace-Name: Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia / School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
Abstract: This article explores fathers’ experiences of shared care arrangements in Russia after family separation. While shared physical custody has become increasingly normative in many Western countries, Russian legal and cultural frameworks continue to position mothers as the default parents, rendering fathers’ involvement largely invisible. The article draws on nine semi‐structured interviews conducted in 2015 and 2022 with fathers whose children spent at least 35% of their time in their care. Using narrative and reflective thematic analysis, this article identifies four strategies fathers employed to navigate the fragility of their involvement, namely by valuing informality and flexibility, not picking fights, gendering child support, and by being a “damn good” father. It also explores how fathers manage the complex emotions associated with their precarious position as carers and how they rely on certain traditional masculine practices to regain a sense of certainty and control. This study contributes to the broader conversation on involved fatherhood in the post‐socialist context by examining how Russian fathers not only negotiate shared custody but also challenge the model of marginalised fatherhood, seeking a more active, long‐term presence in their children’s lives.
Keywords: divorce; family separation; fatherhood; Russia; shared care
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10983

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Developments in Involved Fatherhood in Hungary: A Register Database Analysis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10898
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10898
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10898
Author-Name: Júlia Galántai
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Abstract: This study investigates developments in involved fatherhood in Hungary. Drawing on the concepts of involved fatherhood and caring masculinities and recent findings on Hungarian caring fathering practices, the analysis employs multinomial logistic regression to examine Hungarian register data from 2011 and 2022. The dependent variable distinguishes between three categories: GYES (childcare allowance paid at a fixed rate), GYED Extra (childcare benefit combined with employment), and GYED Home (childcare benefit without a work commitment). Independent variables include educational attainment, marital status, regional context, employment type, and household status. A key contribution of this study was the emergence of a new group: fathers who interrupt their paid employment to care for their child, demonstrating the pluralisation of paternal roles. The sample shows that the norms of caring fatherhood have differentiated: In addition to the classical role of head of the family, there is more space for forms of care independent of work. The analysis revealed that this form of care has been spreading in Hungarian society independently of other contextual variables (region and educational attainment). These results underscore the interaction between institutional policies and evolving norms, highlighting the diversification of fatherhood models in contemporary Hungarian society.
Keywords: involved fatherhood; gender norms; parental care; parental leave; register data; social policy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10898

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Twin Transition Attitudes and Regional Left‐Behindness: Unpacking the Drivers of Interregional Migration Intentions
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11543
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11543
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11543
Author-Name: Anastasia Panori
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Author-Name: Elli Papastergiou
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Author-Name: Tuomas Väisänen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Milad Malekzadeh
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Olle Järv
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland / Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: This article investigates how individual attitudes toward the green and digital transitions, collectively referred to as the twin transition, and expressions of regional left‐behindness shape EU interregional migration intentions across different life domains. The study disaggregates migration intentions by motive, work, education, quality of life, and retirement, to better understand the interplay between personal values and regional structural conditions. The findings reveal that while traditional socio‐demographic characteristics remain strong predictors of work‐related migration intentions, green and digital attitudes significantly influence relocation intentions for education and quality‐of‐life reasons. Notably, individuals with strong green values are more likely to express intentions to move for quality‐of‐life reasons. Rural areas, in this case, are aligned with ecological lifestyles, whereas digital attitudes correlate with urban settlement preferences and, for retirees, confidence in relocating to digitally connected rural regions. Expressions of regional left‐behindness, such as economic decline, demographic ageing, and weak connectivity, act as structural push factors that differentially affect migration intentions. The analysis suggests that twin transition values function as behavioural primers which, combined with structural push or pull factors, guide individual intentions and reveal how unequal capacities to adapt to digital and green transitions shape migration intentions.
Keywords: digital transformation; green transition; left‐behind areas; migration; twin transition
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11543

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Location and Residential Concentration of the “Creative Class” in Riga, Latvia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11611
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11611
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11611
Author-Name: Maris Berzins
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Latvia, Latvia
Author-Name: Sindija Balode‐Kraujina
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Latvia, Latvia
Author-Name: Zaiga Krisjane
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Latvia, Latvia
Abstract: Economic and urban geographers have paid considerable attention to creative and cultural industries, both for their propensity to cluster in urban neighbourhoods and their potential to drive economic development. The thesis of the “creative class” has been a central topic of academic debate and urban planning since the dawn of the 21st century. It is widely believed that a city’s economic prosperity is directly related to its ability to attract and retain “creative people.” Within this context, our study aims to examine the residential patterns of the “creative class” in Riga, Latvia, using geo‐referenced individual‐level census data from 2021 and a multi‐scalar k‐nearest neighbour approach. We identify a pronounced spatial concentration of creative class workers in the historic inner city and adjacent pre‐war neighbourhoods, with substantial variation across subgroups: Cultural workers show the strongest inner‐city clustering, knowledge and creative industry workers display moderately dispersed but still core‐oriented patterns, and leisure industry workers are the most spatially integrated across the city. Creative class workers are markedly underrepresented in Soviet‐era housing estates, reflecting established socio‐spatial divides, rather than active displacement processes. These findings demonstrate that “creative class” residential patterns in Riga align with fragmented forms of urban transformation characteristic of post‐socialist cities, while revealing significant internal heterogeneity that challenges the notion of a unified “creative class.”
Keywords: creative class; knowledge workers; residential patterns; Riga
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11611

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: International Academics as Agents of Transformation: Lived and Managed Internationalization in a Finnish University
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11672
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11672
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11672
Author-Name: Vesna Holubek
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University, Finland
Author-Name: Derek Ruez
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland
Author-Name: Mila Bujić
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
Author-Name: Marisa Honkanen
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, Finland
Author-Name: Zsuzsa Millei
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University, Finland
Abstract: This article explores internationalization processes as an ongoing transformation of higher education institutions by examining a case of internationalization efforts at Tampere University (TAU) in Finland. Against the prevailing policy discourse of international “talent” which tends to instrumentalize international academics, we explore how the experiences of international academics provide a window into complicated dynamics of lived and managed internationalization, including how international academics are themselves agents of transformation. This case study combines a survey and interviews with self‐identified international staff at TAU, as well as our own critical reflections as a team of international and Finnish academics who conducted the research and used the findings to advocate for changes. Our analysis emphasizes a relational understanding of international academics and highlights intersecting challenges around language, uncertain career prospects, and distance from university decision‐making forums. Taken together, the findings illuminate the contradictory positioning of international academics and show the complicated convergences and divergences between managerial attempts to increase the university’s global competitiveness and the diverse needs, positionalities, and agencies of international academics.
Keywords: change agent; Finland; international academics; university internationalization
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11672

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Involved Fatherhood in Slovakia? A Multi‐Dimensional Picture Painted Using Multiple Methods
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10960
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10960
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10960
Author-Name: Zuzana Dančíková
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Gender Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Abstract: While multiple Western European countries have introduced leave policies that set aside well‐paid leave for fathers—policies expected to support more involved fatherhood—post‐socialist Central and Eastern European countries were slower to follow. The 2010 Slovak fathers’ leave policy reform was an early regional exception in granting fathers 28 weeks of high leave benefits, not transferable to mothers. The reform provides a unique opportunity to explore the extent to which such policies may foster involved fatherhood in a post‐socialist context characterized by practices, individual attitudes, and societal norms geared towards fathers’ economic provision rather than hands‐on childcare. I draw on a three‐dimensional conceptualization of paternal involvement, entailing engagement, accessibility, and responsibility, and a combination of methods: qualitative (38 interviews with fathers and mothers) and quantitative (unique administrative microdata). My qualitative analysis shows that fathers’ leave‐taking can stimulate greater engagement and accessibility, but brings about less change in fathers’ responsibility for children. My quantitative analysis reveals further limits to the policy’s potential for fostering fathers’ involvement: A considerable proportion of fathers were excluded from using the policy, and among those eligible, fathers with lower‐class markers were less likely to use it.
Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; involved fatherhood; leave policy for fathers; Slovakia
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10960

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Higher Education Champions and Reciprocal Community Partnership
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11574
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11574
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11574
Author-Name: Busisiwe Octavia Ntsele
Author-Workplace-Name: Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa
Author-Name: Halleh Ghorashi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: Academics globally have been called to investigate and contribute to addressing growing structural inequality, social exclusion, and disconnection. In recent decades, critically engaged research with a social justice orientation has emerged, aiming to bridge scholarly inquiry with community accountability. Within this context, two interconnected areas have gained prominence in academia: diversifying curricula and forming meaningful partnerships with disadvantaged communities to co‐create knowledge and transform unequal structures in universities and society. We argue that such partnerships require a critique of and commitment to a “multidirectional flow of knowledge,” one that recognizes the complex, multifaceted nature of knowledge that moves in different directions. Using Meraka Village as an example of a university‐community partnership in Bloemfontein, South Africa, we demonstrate the value of co‐creative partnerships. This partnership prioritizes mutual learning, equal collaboration, and equitable sharing of benefits. We highlight how co‐learning—based on integrating indigenous and academic knowledges—has enabled the innovation and transformation necessary for reimagining community structures. Through this, we argue for amplifying the role of higher education champions as agents of change and for applying a power‐sensitive lens when engaging with disadvantaged communities in transformative work.
Keywords: co‐learning; decolonial methodologies; higher education engagement; indigenous knowledge; reciprocal partnerships; social justice
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11574

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Changing Fatherhood: Social Differences in Parental Leave Uptake and Childcare Participation Among Bulgarian Men
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10845
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10845
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10845
Author-Name: Tatyana Kotzeva
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Population and Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Author-Name: Elitsa Dimitrova
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Population and Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Author-Name: Kalina Ilieva
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Population and Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: This study investigates social disparities in the uptake of paid parental leave (PPL) and engagement in childcare by Bulgarian fathers within the context of shifting gender norms and recent policy reforms. Based on survey data from 503 fathers of young children, it examines attitudes toward involved fatherhood, motivations and obstacles to PPL use, and the interaction between gender stereotypes and socioeconomic conditions. Despite EU‐aligned measures such as a two‐month non‐transferable paternal leave, uptake remains limited due to enduring male breadwinner expectations, income‐related disincentives, and traditional caregiving models centered on mothers. Findings indicate a hybrid model of fatherhood: While maternal dominance in caregiving persists, a growing number of fathers, particularly those with higher education or remote work opportunities, are adopting more egalitarian roles. Logistic regression results highlight key predictors of PPL uptake, including the number of children, household income, and workplace flexibility. Moreover, PPL use of fathers correlates positively with egalitarian gender attitudes, implying that paternal leave functions as both a reflection and a catalyst of cultural transformation. Nonetheless, ambivalence endures among lower‐income and less educated fathers, for whom caregiving often conflicts with masculine identity. Overall, the analysis underscores that although normative shifts are emerging, sustained progress requires comprehensive support through policy, workplace culture, and broader societal change to promote equitable parenting and normalize active fatherhood. The findings enrich ongoing discussions on gender equality, social inclusion, and evolving masculinities in post‐socialist societies.
Keywords: Bulgaria; fatherhood; gender equality; gender roles; hybrid masculinity; paid parental leave (PPL); paternal involvement; work–life balance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10845

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Multilingual Biographical Interviews With Migrated Young People: Translation Practices, Power Relations, and Epistemic Equality
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10967
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10967
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10967
Author-Name: Susanne Siebholz
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
Author-Name: Luisa Burgmer
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
Abstract: Global migration and the resulting multilingual societies call for in‐depth reflection in social science research. In particular, multilingual and interpreter‐facilitated interviews raise methodological questions regarding translation practices and research interactions. This article explores the methodological implications of multilingualism in interview‐based research, with a focus on power relations. It is based on empirical data from a recent study of migrated youth in state care. In this study, a multi‐perspective research approach is adopted, with narrative‐biographical interviews serving as one of the research methods. This method positions participants as experts in their own life experiences, with the potential to contrast the multiple societal deficit ascriptions that migrant youth in state care experience in everyday life at the intersection of social categories. To observe and understand the social practices that emerge from the study’s design, the article analyses the first interview undertaken. The findings indicate how the different roles and relations of power, dependency, and agency were exercised in the analysed case, from initial access to the field and contact with the interviewee, to the interview situation itself. The results emphasise the importance of researchers engaging in ongoing, iterative reflexivity throughout the multilingual research process, particularly when working with participants in marginalised social positions. The article concludes with a call for systematic empirical engagement with multilingual research practices and deeper methodological sensitivity to the complexities of language, power, and epistemic equality in qualitative research.
Keywords: biography; epistemic equality; interview; migration; multilingual; narration; power; translation; youth
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10967

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Researching in Multilingual Spaces: Addressing Methodological, Ethical, and Epistemological Implications
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11911
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11911
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11911
Author-Name: Clara Holzinger
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria / Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Abstract: This editorial proposes reflecting upon multilingual social research in spatial terms to better grasp the manifold challenges described by the contributing authors when examining their own methodological approaches and research practices regarding multilingualism(s). Conceptualizing the research process as embedded in multilingual spaces brings power relations and their impact on the produced knowledge to the fore. These power relations and their implications appear as cross‐cutting themes in all contributions to this thematic issue, which are otherwise multifaceted and diverse. The contributions provide insights into concrete research settings, and thus into specific multilingual spaces and their associated language regimes and practices that are embedded in and shaped by larger structural conditions. They look at how different actors meet in the multilingual research spaces; how their interactions are shaped by individual dispositions, organizational, financial, and personnel resources, concrete institutional practices, regulations and customs, larger structural conditions, and language ideologies. By highlighting that research challenges in multilingual spaces transcend issues of translation and translatability as well as underscoring the need for reflexivity, the contributions vividly illustrate the potential that consciously engaging with multilingualism holds for social research.
Keywords: empirical social research; language regimes; multilingualism; reflexivity; research methods
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11911

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Which Regions Gain the Most From Digital Transition: Urban, Suburban, or Rural?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11492
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11492
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11492
Author-Name: Anto Aasa
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Rūta Ubarevičienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Lithuania
Author-Name: Raúl García Estévez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Author-Name: Tiit Tammaru
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: Since the outbreak of Covid‐19, the digital transition has intensified globally. This study examines its spatial dynamics by focusing on the distribution of fast internet across settlements and how it relates to the location of IT companies and the residential patterns of IT workers. While existing research often emphasizes the urban–rural divide, we go beyond this by adopting a full‐country approach at a fine spatial scale and by distinguishing between urban, suburban, and rural contexts. The study focuses on Estonia, a digitally advanced country known for its e‐governance and digital public services. Using multiple data sources—including fast internet availability, business registry data to map IT company locations, and individual‐level census microdata to trace the residences of IT workers—we conduct a detailed spatial analysis at the settlement level. Our findings show that telecom companies provide fast internet primarily in urban areas, while public subsidies have aimed to address market failures in less urbanized regions. Areas with fast internet host nearly four times as many IT companies and three to four times as many IT workers as unconnected regions. IT companies are highly concentrated in Estonia’s two main cities, while IT workers are more dispersed, extending into suburban and exurban areas. Settlements with fast internet and higher shares of IT workers also report significantly higher income levels. The Estonian case highlights the importance of targeted public policy to address the cumulative and spatially uneven effects of digital transition. Expanding fast internet access to underserved regions is essential for inclusive and balanced regional development.
Keywords: digital transition; high‐speed internet infrastructure; IT companies; IT workers; regional divides
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11492

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Flexible Work, Constrained Mobility: Spatiotemporal Barriers to Teleworkers’ Daily Travel
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11643
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11643
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11643
Author-Name: Michaela Kousalová
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Abstract: Just as the spatial and temporal flexibility offered by telework and flextime can bring autonomy and a greater sense of control over an individual’s time–space behavior, it can also reveal hurdles that limit and modify this behavior. The objective of this research is to examine the time–space barriers that result from these work arrangements, as well as how these barriers may affect everyday mobility and its planning. The analysis draws on 13 semi‐structured interviews with Czech teleworkers who also use flexible work schedules. In doing so, this study complements the plethora of predominantly quantitative studies that deal with the impact of these work arrangements on mobility. Time barriers can be attributed to the tendency to align the flexible rhythm of teleworkers with that of colleagues or the predominantly fixed working patterns inherent in the Czech work environment. Conversely, space barriers emerge from the disadvantageous policies of certain establishments (e.g., cafés) and from the need to negotiate reasonable distances between home and potential secondary workplace. This ultimately prompts teleworkers to seek the most effective means of optimizing their time–space behavior—and while the time barriers presented mainly affect planning when, with whom, and whether their non‐work trips will take place at all, spatial barriers mainly affect the formation of work‐related travel and movement between home and alternative workplace.
Keywords: daily mobility; flexible work; flextime; spatiotemporal barriers; telework
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11643

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: More Helpers Than Sharers? Barriers to Involved Fathering in Hungary
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10884
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10884
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10884
Author-Name: Zsuzsanna Makay
Author-Workplace-Name: HCSO Institute for Quantitative Population and Economic Research, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, Hungary
Author-Name: Zsuzsanna Veroszta
Author-Workplace-Name: HCSO Institute for Quantitative Population and Economic Research, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, Hungary
Abstract: Fathers face conflicting expectations as both involved caregivers and traditional breadwinners. This study examines the tensions of this dual role using data from the Cohort ‘18—Growing Up in Hungary birth cohort study, analyzing responses from over 1,700 fathers of 18‐month‐old children collected between October 2019 and December 2020, using linear regression models. We assess how fathers’ workloads, perceived work–family conflict, and fathering‐role attitudes—their own and their partners’—relate to the division of caregiving tasks on weekdays and weekends. Results show that caregiving remains largely the mother’s responsibility, with fathers reporting relatively low involvement. Moreover, longer working hours and higher work–family conflict are associated with reduced paternal involvement in childcare tasks. Egalitarian attitudes—particularly fathers’—are linked to greater paternal engagement, especially on weekdays, where a one‐unit increase in the fathering index is associated with a 10.6% increase in task‐sharing. This suggests that egalitarian attitudes may be most consequential during weekdays, when fathers face time constraints and competing priorities, compared to more flexible weekend periods.
Keywords: egalitarian attitudes; Hungary; parental tasks; paternal involvement; work–family conflict; workload
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10884

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Attitudes Towards Work: The Care Arrangements of Couples With Preschool‐Aged Children—A European Comparison
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11016
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11016
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11016
Author-Name: Hana Třísková
Author-Workplace-Name: Charles University, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Ivett Szalma
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Abstract: Societal expectations in Europe regarding the roles of mothers and fathers in the work and caregiving spheres continue to evolve unevenly. While the labour market participation of women has become widespread, shifts in terms of normative support for paternal caregiving have progressed more slowly, which reflects a persistent cultural lag in the gender revolution process. This study examines public attitudes towards work–care arrangements and preferences for organising work and childcare for preschool‐aged children employing data from the 2022 International Social Survey Programme conducted across 16 European countries. Applying multinomial logistic regression models, the analysis compares support for three ideal‐typical arrangements—traditional, semi‐traditional, and egalitarian—across a range of sociodemographic, attitudinal, and contextual dimensions. The findings reveal pronounced regional patterns: Egalitarian preferences dominate in Nordic countries, semi‐traditional models are more prevalent in parts of Central and Southern Europe, and traditional orientations remain dominant in post‐socialist contexts. Gender ideology, religiosity, and education comprise the central predictors of support for egalitarian arrangements, while attitudes towards the distribution of paid parental leave further differentiate national profiles. Overall, the results demonstrate that public preferences are shaped by the interplay of cultural norms and institutional conditions, which underscores the tension between advancing structural change and enduring normative expectations that surround parental roles in Europe.
Keywords: Europe; fatherhood; gendered division of labour; normative attitudes; work–care arrangements
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11016

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “My Phone Is Like My Office”: Refugee Women’s Social Media Entrepreneurship in Dar‐es‐Salaam
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10869
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10869
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10869
Author-Name: Catherina Wilson
Author-Workplace-Name: Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Mira Demirdirek
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Middle East Studies, German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Germany
Author-Name:  DIGNITY Kwanza
Author-Workplace-Name: Non‐Profit Organization, Tanzania
Abstract: In this article, we explore the cases of two Congolese refugee women who have pivoted their social media engagements to entrepreneurship to offset their immobilization resulting from the Tanzanian asylum regime. The fear of losing access to mobile communications amid the introduction of biometric SIM card registration highlighted the critical importance of mobile telephony to the livelihoods of urban refugees in Dar‐es‐Salaam. Based on ethnographic research, including qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, and (digital) observation, we look at the entrepreneurial opportunities facilitated by social media. While highlighting how virtual mobility and connectivity provide an already marginalized group with essential workarounds, our findings also underscore how these online encounters do not substitute for the need for offline connections. We argue for a nuanced reading of technology’s potential to resolve disparities, as we also observe how this potential can reinforce intersectional discrimination based on gender and precarious legal status.
Keywords: ICT4D; informal livelihoods; social media; technology in Africa; urban refugees; virtual mobility; women’s entrepreneurship
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10869

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digitalization and Migration: Rethinking Socio‐Economic Inclusions and Exclusions
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11882
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11882
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11882
Author-Name: Colleen Boland
Author-Workplace-Name: Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI), Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Giacomo Solano
Author-Workplace-Name: Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI), Radboud University, The Netherlands
Abstract: This thematic issue interrogates the relationship between digitalization and the social inclusion or exclusion of migrants in destination countries. Drawing on thirteen articles employing a breadth of methodological approaches across eight national contexts around the globe, it investigates whether digitalization phenomena simply reconfigure pre‐existing socioeconomic inequalities or demonstrate unprecedented, emergent dynamics. Three cross‐cutting themes structure the issue. First, authors provide timely evidence on migrant agency and digital practices, demonstrating how migrants navigate and reappropriate digital technologies. In doing so, they challenge exclusionary infrastructures and offline inequalities. Second, articles analyze the role of intermediary organizations, highlighting contrasting dynamics: On the one hand, state digitalization initiatives produce intentional or unintended exclusionary consequences; on the other, NGOs can leverage these technologies to support migrants in the face of old or technologically intertwined challenges. Finally, the issue zooms into a digital intermediary—the platform economy. Platformization creates new layers of precarity for migrant workers in food delivery and care sectors, and can be prevailed upon in migrant strategies to overcome exclusion. Ultimately, the query as to whether technologies and spaces of digitalization reinforce pre‐existing inclusion or exclusion or create new ones is answered in a nuanced, context‐specific manner that demands even further research: to some extent the embedded power relations in digitalization processes and practices do entail reproduction of the same, but new facets also emerge, and technologies can also be leveraged to challenge inequalities via migrant agency.
Keywords: digitalization; digital technologies; migrants; migration; social exclusion; social inclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11882

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Does Telework Work for Everyone? Teleworking’s Impact on Wellbeing Across Gender and Parental Status
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11538
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11538
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11538
Author-Name: Jente Versigghel
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Hannah Hook
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of the Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland
Author-Name: Jonas De Vos
Author-Workplace-Name: Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK
Author-Name: Frank Witlox
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Ghent University, Belgium / Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: The rise in teleworking has reshaped patterns of work, travel, residential choices, and social interaction, but its effects are not evenly distributed across space or socio‐economic groups. Although previous studies highlight both positive and negative consequences of teleworking, less is known about how it affects wellbeing, and whether these effects differ by gender and childcare responsibilities—two factors closely linked to unequal household and caregiving burdens. This study addresses these gaps by examining how teleworking relates to commute‐related wellbeing and general life satisfaction, and whether these relationships vary according to gender and the presence of children in the household. Data were collected through an online survey, targeting employees in East Flanders, Belgium. We estimated two OLS models to assess the influence of teleworking frequency on (a) commute‐related wellbeing and (b) general life satisfaction. The results show that teleworking is a significant predictor of commute wellbeing, but not of general life satisfaction. To explore the moderating role of gender and childcare responsibilities, we estimated two extended models: one including an interaction term between teleworking and gender, and another including an interaction between teleworking and the presence of children. We did not find evidence of gender differences among teleworkers or non‐teleworkers in commute wellbeing or life satisfaction. However, combining teleworking with childcare, especially for children under the age of six, was associated with lower life satisfaction, suggesting that the digital transition may reinforce existing social inequalities.
Keywords: childcare; commute wellbeing; East Flanders (Belgium); life satisfaction; remote working arrangements
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11538

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Involved Fatherhood as Interpreted by Czech Men’s Organizations
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11105
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11105
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11105
Author-Name: Steven Saxonberg
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Södertörn University, Sweden
Author-Name: Lenka Formanková
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work, Charles University, Czech Republic
Abstract: Drawing on the discourse on masculinities, this article explores the positions of Czech men’s organizations related to childcare. Recently, there has been growing attention to the idea of involved fatherhood; we show that one Czech men’s organization has indeed developed a caring masculinity that aligns well with the notion of involved fatherhood. The other organizations, by contrast, have expressed strong anti‐feminist sentiments, blaming women and female‐dominated professions for their losses in divorce cases. While these groups initially emerged to demand equal custody post‐divorce—appearing to endorse gender equality—they claim to support the “traditional family,” where the man is the head of the household. Although these views seem to be contradictory, we argue they are in line with the pre‐modern view of masculinity in which the family (wife and children) was the property of the man; therefore, it was no contradiction for the father to expect the mother to be the main carer before a divorce, while demanding custody rights after a divorce.
Keywords: caring masculinity; childcare; involved fatherhood; paternal care; pre‐modern masculinity; shared custody
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11105

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Immigrants’ Cross‐Border Interaction and the Pandemic: Estonians Living in Finland
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/11474
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.11474
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 11474
Author-Name: Jussi S. Jauhiainen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Finland / Institute of Ecology and the Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia
Abstract: Although major Covid‐19 restrictions have ended, their impact on how immigrant communities navigate physical and digital mobility continues to demand attention. This article examines shifts in cross‐border offline and online interactions before and after the pandemic’s most disruptive phase, focusing on Estonians in Finland, the country’s second‐largest immigrant group. Survey data from 2,398 respondents shows how the pandemic reconfigured cross‐border activity spaces: Physical travel to Estonia sharply declined while digital contact via phone and social media intensified. The pandemic altered immigrants’ spatial agency and expanded digital spaces of interaction. Digital communication and interaction did not replace embodied mobility nor generate hybrid transnational identities; instead, it reinforced emotional and cultural attachments to Estonia. After restrictions eased, in‐person visits not only resumed but exceeded pre‐pandemic levels. This case highlights how digital tools reconfigure cross‐border activity spaces and belonging in highly specific ways, shaped by ethnic, spatial, and socio‐technical factors. Ensuring equitable digital inclusion policies remains essential for sustaining immigrants’ well‐being and spatial agency.
Keywords: activity space; Covid‐19 pandemic; cross‐border; Estonian; Finland; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11474

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: When Recruiters Talk About Language Skills: Research Challenges of Comparing “Folk” Concepts in Different Languages
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10935
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10935
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10935
Author-Name: Magdalena Zehetgruber
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Communication, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Abstract: In job interviews, recruiters, as gatekeepers, make decisions about applicants’ employability, also regarding their language skills. An analysis of recruiters’ beliefs and attitudes towards linguistic and communicative competence, therefore, helps us understand the concepts underlying their decisions. However, the way recruiters discuss these skills and concepts is influenced by the language they use. For this reason, when investigating recruiters’ perceptions, the language of research must be closely aligned with the language of the target group. This article examines the challenges of conducting multilingual research on recruiters’ beliefs and attitudes towards the language skills of job applicants in Austria and France. The study is based on a three‐stage research design, comprising an exploratory analysis of job advertisements, an online survey (? = 277), and focus group interviews (? = 12) conducted in both German and French. This article draws on data and methodological considerations to describe comparability and translatability issues with respect to expressions related to the concept of linguistic competence that recruiters use as linguistic folk. The challenges encountered pertain to the utilization of a multilingual questionnaire and the interpretation and analysis of the resulting data. They also extend to the dissemination of results, which requires translation into English.
Keywords: folk linguistics; language as a social practice; linguistic diversity; metalanguage; methodological reflectivity; multilingual research
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10935

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Housework, Childcare, and Fertility Intentions: The Role of Fathers’ Involvement in Belarus
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10865
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10865
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10865
Author-Name: Kamila Ishchanova
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Demography and Geodemography, Charles University, Czech Republic
Abstract: The impact of fathers’ involvement in household tasks on fertility intentions is being both increasingly acknowledged and contested. This article adds to the evidence base by analysing the relationship between fathers’ involvement in childcare and housework and the short‐term fertility intentions of mothers and fathers in Belarus. Due to its fertility dynamics, marked by early first childbearing, low‐to‐no second childbearing, and high divorce rates, the case of Belarus presents an opportunity to revisit theoretical assumptions surrounding fathers’ involvement and their role in second‐parity transitions. Employing the results of the Generations and Gender Survey (2017) for Belarus, I performed separate logistic regressions for mothers and fathers who are fertile, aged 18 to 45, in a partnership, and have at least one child under 14 years of age in the household. The results revealed that fathers’ involvement in childcare is positively associated with the fertility intentions of the fathers, but not those of the mothers. In contrast, fathers’ involvement in housework is positively associated with the fertility intentions of the mothers, but not those of the fathers. Furthermore, education, the self‐assessed household economic situation, and employment status are associated with fertility intentions, while gender‐related values are not. The results provide partial support for the multiple equilibrium framework, but also challenge its underlying assumption that gender role symmetry drives higher fertility. Rather, the study reveals that the effects of fathers’ participation in the household are contingent on gender and the type of task, and that factors related both to gender and to economic well‐being and certainty should be considered when analysing fertility intentions.
Keywords: Belarus; childcare tasks; fathers’ involvement; fertility intentions; gender equality; housework tasks
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10865

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Framing Fatherhood: Legal Norms and Media Narratives in Croatia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10886
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10886
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10886
Author-Name: Brigita Miloš
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Author-Name: Ivana Tutić Grokša
Author-Workplace-Name: Department for EU Projects, Adult Education Institution Dante, Croatia
Author-Name: Nadja Čekolj
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract: Gender roles in Croatia reflect the historical and political legacies typical of post‐socialist Europe. While women’s emancipation advanced during the Yugoslav era, the post‐Yugoslav period witnessed a retraditionalisation of family ideals, reinforcing gender stereotypes. Despite growing paternal involvement in childcare, caregiving remains unequally distributed between mothers and fathers. This study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining a systematic review of Croatian parental‐rights legislation with qualitative content and critical discourse analyses of 72 Index.hr articles (2022–2025) to examine both the legal framing of fathers’ rights—particularly EU‐aligned paternity leave—and media representations of fatherhood as areas where state policy and societal norms converge. The findings illuminate how fatherhood is conceptualised in a post‐socialist context and reveal factors that shape paternal engagement. As the media analysis is limited to Index.hr, Croatia’s most widely read news portal, results cannot be taken as being representative of the broader media landscape; future research should include other outlets, social media, and fatherhood‐focused platforms in order to provide a fuller picture of paternal representations.
Keywords: child rearing; Croatia; family policy; fatherhood; media representation; social policy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10886

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Becoming a “Good” Father in the Context of Czech Social Work
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10878
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10878
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10878
Author-Name: Barbora Gřundělová
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Jiří Mertl
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
Abstract: This article explores how fatherhood is experienced by the clients of Czech family social workers, paying particular attention to how class, ethnic, and gender inequalities shape these experiences. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 11 fathers, the study employs a critical, intersectional, and structural social work perspective to analyse fathers’ narratives about their paternal identities and everyday lives. The findings reveal that fatherhood is constructed and negotiated within systemic constraints, such as insecure housing, precarious labour, and institutionalised gender norms. Fathers strive to embody the ideals of the “good” father, typically defined through breadwinning, but their efforts are undermined by structural exclusion and stigma. The study argues that paternal identity in contexts of social exclusion must be understood not as an individual trait, but as a politically and institutionally shaped phenomenon.
Keywords: fatherhood; housing; poverty; social exclusion; social work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10878

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting Among Lithuanian Men
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10903
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10903
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10903
Author-Name: Aušra Maslauskaitė
Author-Workplace-Name: Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Roma Jusienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Vilnius University, Lithuania
Abstract: This article aims to analyze the intergenerational transmission of parenting among Lithuanian men. Numerous studies have proven that parenting can be transmitted intergenerationally, with both supportive and harsh parenting behaviours being passed on. However, to the authors’ knowledge, there is a lack of evidence stemming from Central and Eastern European countries where, in recent decades, substantial shifts have taken place in the family gender roles and cultural scripts of parenting. Little is known about the transmission of psychological control as a parenting practice. Furthermore, most of the existing evidence on intergenerational transmission is drawn from the samples of mothers. This study is based on a large‐scale representative cohort dataset encompassing middle‐aged men born in the 1970s and 1980s (? = 1,745). This study’s main finding is the continuity of the intergenerational transmission of parenting despite major socio‐cultural shifts related to gender and family in society. We found that men’s emotionally warm fathering was linked to having experienced supportive parenting during childhood. Conversely, behavioural control in fathering was attributed to the experience of authoritarian parenting in childhood. Men’s psychological control, as a fathering practice, was associated with both supportive and authoritarian parenting experienced in childhood, although the predictive value was low. Additionally, the study revealed that men’s parenting was associated with their personality traits and parental self‐efficacy. The relationship between men’s fathering and socio‐economic characteristics was inconsistent.
Keywords: fathering; intergenerational transmission; parenting practices; paternal self‐efficacy; personality traits; socioeconomic status
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10903

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Warm Fathers and Competent Mothers? Stereotypes and Attitudes Towards Single Parents in Hungary
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10919
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10919
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10919
Author-Name: Boglárka Herke
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Abstract: Public attitudes and stereotypes significantly influence how mothers and fathers share parental responsibilities and who is considered the custodial parent after family separation. This study examines the differences between social perceptions of single mothers and fathers in post‐socialist Hungary during the 2010s–2020s, a period marked by conservative governments reinforcing traditional gender roles. Using the stereotype content model and the concept of involved fatherhood as theoretical frameworks, the study presents three separate investigations from surveys conducted on representative and quota samples. The first examines general perceptions of single mothers (? = 416) and fathers (? = 407) through open‐ended questions. The second assesses the perceived competence in solo parenting and its determinants using representative survey data (? = 1027). The third investigates perceptions of the difficulty of solo parenting for both mothers and fathers (? = 289) through free associations. Results show that besides the overall positive perceptions of both genders, single fathers were more frequently associated with warmth traits (e.g., likeable, friendly). Single mothers, however, were perceived as more competent, particularly regarding raising children alone. Qualitative data showed that while most respondents viewed single motherhood and fatherhood as equally difficult, gender stereotypes persisted—mothers were seen as more capable caregivers, fathers as better breadwinners. Quantitative results were more nuanced: More liberal views on parenting roles were linked to greater acceptance of both single mothers’ and fathers’ competence, but only to some extent. Emotional and relational aspects of parenting remain tied to the two‐parent ideal, while financial concerns continue to influence perceptions of single mothers’ adequacy as providers.
Keywords: gender roles; Hungary; involved fatherhood; single fathers; single mothers; stereotype content model
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10919

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Involved Fathers and Intensive Parenting in Czechia: Norms and Fathers’ Contextualised Practices
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10861
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10861
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10861
Author-Name: Jana Klímová Chaloupková
Author-Workplace-Name: Values and Politics Department, Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Hana Hašková
Author-Workplace-Name: Gender and Sociology Department, Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Abstract: Intensive parenting norms that emphasise high parental investment to optimise child development are increasingly prevalent in advanced economies. Although motherhood has been widely studied, fatherhood remains underexplored, especially in contexts like Czechia, where support for shared childcare between parents is limited. Using data from the Czech ISSP 2022 and qualitative interviews with Czech middle‐class fathers and mothers (2022–2024), this study examines how intensive parenting norms shape the views and practices of fathers’ involvement in childcare. The survey results show similar levels of support for intensive parenting norms among men and women, irrespective of expectations about paternal care. The interviews reveal three intensive parenting patterns: maternal‐specialised, stimulation‐oriented, and partially egalitarian. Although mothers bear the main emotional and logistical burden, fathers’ participation in childcare remains selective. The findings highlight how intensive parenting norms are enacted in gendered ways, shaped by persistently gendered cultural and institutional constraints.
Keywords: fatherhood; intensive parenting; involved fathers; mixed‐methods study
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10861

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Between Supportive and Equal Parenting: Exploring Middle‐Class Fathering in Romania Today
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10874
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10874
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10874
Author-Name: Anca Dohotariu
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, Romania
Author-Name: Réka Geambasu
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Cluj‐Napoca, Romania / ELTE CERS Budapest, Hungary
Author-Name: Cristina Raț
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Cluj‐Napoca, Romania
Abstract: The profound restructuring that Romania underwent in the last decades of post‐socialist transformations and EU accession and membership has brought along changes in family life, including fathers’ involvement in parental responsibilities. Today, family arrangements incorporate gender equality values but also opposition to them, alongside an uneven revival of certain conservative norms. Drawing upon a relational approach that analyses the interplay between parental care as a process and gender equality, our research aims to capture the performative, “alive,” and constantly transforming features of fathering. We focus on the experiences of middle‐class fathers with preschool‐age children and their narratives about parental care for infants, balancing ideals of “involved fatherhood” with the everyday actions of involved fathering. To this end, we conducted 41 in‐depth qualitative interviews with highly educated, cisgender, and ethnically diverse urbanite fathers who raise their children together with their partners. Our findings confirm that middle‐class fathers’ involvement is shaped by employment and workplace arrangements, as well as by mothers’ attitudes and the concrete needs of the infant. By looking at fathering as performative, i.e., at “doing” fathering, we could see it as constantly shifting along a continuum of noninvolvement–involvement–disinvolvement–reinvolvement. However, our inquiry highlights that “involved fathering” does not necessarily overlap with “equal parenting.” Overall, we identified a pattern in fathers’ narratives that portrays them as “supportive,” as protecting the mother‐child bond, at least during the first months of the infants’ lives. When this occurs, conjugal partners become solely parents with asymmetric parental responsibilities.
Keywords: child care; class; family; gender equality; involved fathering; parental responsibilities; Romania
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10874

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Navigating Integration in The Netherlands: Syrian Refugees, Digital Practices, and Inclusive Communication
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10946
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10946
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10946
Author-Name: Noemi Mena Montes
Author-Workplace-Name: International Business Communication (Faculty of Arts), Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Yiran Yang
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Milou Visser
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, The Netherlands
Abstract: This study explores how digital communication technologies and informal actors facilitate and shape the communication and network development that support Syrian refugees in navigating integration in the Netherlands. It examines how digitalization introduces both opportunities and challenges in addressing language barriers, cultural differences, and bureaucratic procedures. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with 14 Syrian refugees and six Arabic‐speaking mentors on whom they relied for support, the study demonstrates the significance of digital technologies and social networks in helping refugees navigate the increasingly digitalized Dutch welfare state and foster new social connections. The findings highlight the potential of platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook groups, and other online communities as dynamic tools for facilitating access to institutional information and for establishing both online and offline social networks. These networks are essential for building trust, which in turn supports the provision of translations, information verification, and navigation of digitalized procedures. In addition, the results show that offline interactions with mentors and intermediaries offer translated content and culturally contextualized guidance that further enhances integration. Overall, the study conceptualizes integration as a relational process shaped by the interplay between online and offline interactions.
Keywords: digital tools; digitalization; media literacy; mentors/intermediaries; misinformation and migration; social media; social networks; socio‐economic inclusion; Syrian refugees
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10946

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Halting of Everyday Media Practices in Swedish Detention Centres: A Physical, Social, and Digital Exclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10882
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10882
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10882
Author-Name: Miriana Cascone
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden
Abstract: In line with previous research, this article starts from the awareness that ubiquity and mobility, central features of migrants’ transnational lives, are sustained by everyday digital media practices. It aims to investigate what happens when these media practices can no longer be carried out due to circumstances beyond the individuals. The research context is the Swedish detention system, which in some cases breaks the migration trajectories and forces individuals to wait for an unwanted return. Detention centres are highly mediatized spaces where the rapid digitalization that characterizes societies is forced to slow down to a standstill for migrants. This situation marks the return of old media forms that become new, such as dumb phones and paper letters. The study is based on face‐to‐face interviews with detained and formerly detained migrants conducted between 2022 and 2024 in Sweden and reported here through the method of ethnographic vignettes. Offline and online practices in detention are explored to understand whether they can still guarantee the social inclusion that digitalization outside had made possible, and that here can be described as a process that follows different speeds and directions depending on the power exercised through it and its aims, leading to a counter movement. I therefore argue that there is a double exclusion, first from the country through the instrument of detention, and thus also expulsion from society understood as sociality, and this through counter‐digitalization.
Keywords: detention; digitalization; disconnection; exclusion; migrants
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10882

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Eritrean Refugees in the Digital Netherlands: Between Inclusion and Exclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10834
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10834
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10834
Author-Name: Mihretab Solomon Gebru
Author-Workplace-Name: Organization Sciences Department, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Ioana Vrăbiescu
Author-Workplace-Name: Organization Sciences Department, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: While the use of digital technologies has been associated with refugees’ successful integration, this perspective overlooks the digital divide growing on the existing structural inequalities. For Eritrean refugees living in the Netherlands, the digital divide cuts deep into their personal lives and endangers their relation to authorities. Based on two months of ethnographic research and five continuous months of digital participant observation (first author), our article aims to show how differences in digital knowledge and unequal digital infrastructures between Eritrean asylum seekers and Dutch society led to challenges for both refugees and street‐level bureaucrats in the Netherlands. Tackling the case study of Eritrean refugees in the Netherlands, we demonstrate how a non‐homogeneous understanding of the digital divide, organizational blind spots, and a lack of socio‐political support hinder refugees’ integration. At the same time, the case study offers novel ways to ethically assess the digital training and learning paths of street‐level bureaucracy as well as the state’s adaptation and updating of the asylum seekers’ digital assessment framework in the Netherlands.
Keywords: bureaucracy; digital divide; digital inclusion; Eritrea; refugees; The Netherlands
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10834

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “I Don’t Want to Underpay People”: Platforms for Childcare and Migrant Mothers Navigating Belonging
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10833
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10833
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10833
Author-Name: Colleen Boland
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Migration Law, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Abstract: Feminist scholarship engages with in flux and situational motherhood, childcare, and the boundaries between private and public domains. Decades of knowledge production have signaled undervalued care work and feminized global care chains. Against this backdrop, more recently, digital platforms or social networks connect childcare workers to migrant (and non‐migrant) parents, with new or reconstituted implications for gender inequalities. While the limited research to date on childcare platformization has focused on experiences of domestic workers, there is a noticeable gap regarding parents’ perspectives on engaging this care, especially that of migrant mothers. This article inquires as to why migrant mothers turn to digital platforms in addressing childcare needs, if they are aware of applicable childcare regulation, and if (and how) platforms mediate understandings of regulation and worker or employer definitions. It frames the discussion in terms of belonging linked to normative values of care. To do so, the article first offers background on the Dutch childcare regime. Then, empirical analysis includes a desk review of online childcare platforms, alongside a survey among 30 participants and 9 semi‐structured follow‐up interviews with migrant mothers in the Netherlands. On the one hand, findings indicate little or unclear knowledge of domestic work regulation, further obfuscated by platforms as an intermediary. On the other hand, negotiations of belonging in fluctuating contexts, as well as perceptions of exclusion and high costs of care, serve as the rationale behind turning to childcare platforms.
Keywords: belonging; care work; migrant mothers; platformization; social reproduction
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10833

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Maybe I Say Something, I Understand a Bit”: On the (In)Accessibility of Translation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10962
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10962
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10962
Author-Name: Natalie Bella
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany / Fulda Graduate Center of Social Sciences, Germany
Abstract: Working with interpreters is common in qualitative social research. It can even be necessary when researchers address the perspective of people with whom they do not share a lingua franca. Interpreters are then brought into the research endeavor to enable a communication setting that would otherwise be impossible. Following the theme of enabling communication, the dominant perspective on interpreted interviews suggests that there is only one person involved in the interaction—the interpreter—who can understand and speak both languages. This perspective falls short as it relies on a monolithic understanding of refugees as perpetually removed from (the linguistic requirements of) their new surroundings. However, when people have visited language courses or have otherwise been exposed to the language of their new contexts, they are gaining ground as agents of translation. Thus, the interactional dynamic of the interpreted interview changes drastically as the interviewee can participate more in how they and their stories are interpreted. Faced with the varying language proficiencies of the interviewees, the interpreter adapts their strategies of interpreting. Drawing from narrative interviews with refugees from Syria, collected at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), this article explores the question of how the interviewees’ language proficiency influences the interpreted interview, as it is rooted in situated performativity. Focusing on the interactions between all three participants, three empirical constellations highlight the relevance of acknowledging the performative density of translating and interpreting collaboratively.
Keywords: interpreting; methodology; multilingual research; narrative interview; performativity
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10962

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Digitalisation of Dutch Civic Integration: How Digital Technologies Shape Inequality and Bureaucratic Discretion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10879
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10879
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10879
Author-Name: Iris Poelen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Planning & Environment, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Ricky van Oers
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Migration Law, Radboud University, The Netherlands / Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Abstract: Migration management is becoming increasingly digitalised, with digital borders producing inequalities by fixing framings that determine who is allowed entry and residence. Civic integration functions as another bordering practice regulating the entry and naturalisation of “migrants.” In the Netherlands, the Integration Act 2021 enshrines a partially digitalised civic integration programme, with digital monitoring across government actors, digital language classes and exams, and online communication between “integrators” and “case managers.” Nevertheless, how digitalisation shapes the interactions, decisions, and outcomes of civic integration remains unresearched. This qualitative study, based on desk research and in‐depth interviews with municipal officers and language teachers, examines the implications of digital technologies in this programme. Our findings reveal a dual impact. For “integrators” with sufficient digital literacy, these technologies offer enhanced language learning and greater self‐reliance in a taxing trajectory. However, digital technologies exacerbate existing inequalities and create new forms of digital exclusion for those with limited digital skills, as they impact their performance on their intake test, and therefore their opportunities throughout and after the civic integration trajectory. For street‐level bureaucrats, the discretion to potentially mediate these policy effects is not simply curtailed or enabled, but transformed into a “web‐level bureaucracy.” While digital technologies streamline workflows and quick assessments of a future “integrator,” they also impose administrative burdens, introduce bias, and limit bureaucratic discretion. Ultimately, digital civic integration both deepens and narrows existing inequalities and tasks street‐level bureaucrats with the responsibility to address pervasive digital divides.
Keywords: civic integration; digitalisation; digital borders; street‐level bureaucracy; web‐level bureaucracy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10879

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Materialising Digital Borderscapes: Examining the Effects of Digital Systems on Asylum Seekers and Refugees
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10871
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10871
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10871
Author-Name: Saskia Greyling
Author-Workplace-Name: Institut de géographie, Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Author-Name: Corey R. Johnson
Author-Workplace-Name: Environmental and Geographical Science Department, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Abstract: Digitalisation is increasingly adopted in the public sector in South Africa. The country’s Department of Home Affairs has a significant digitalisation project that aims to improve its efficiency in service delivery. Despite this project, it was the Covid‐19 pandemic that saw the introduction of a digital interface to manage the bureaucracy of asylum seeker and refugee administration. This article examines the impacts of this asylum seeker and refugee permit extension online system. The article traces how the online system works to refigure how asylum seekers access the state and the possibility of securing documentation. We demonstrate that this online system has effects far greater than simply improved efficiency; instead, it fundamentally refigures the borderscapes navigated by asylum seekers and refugees. Here, digitalisation shifts bureaucratic responsibility to the asylum seekers and refugees, and in so doing, distances them from the state. We show this by paying attention to how the online system changes the materialities of asylum seeking; the spaces in which protection is sought; as well as the practices thereof, where actors other than the state are called on for assistance. In the world of technological interventions, this online system for permit renewal is a seemingly mundane example of digitalisation; yet its effects on the possibilities for social, legal, and even economic inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees are significant.
Keywords: borderscapes; bureaucracy; digital mundane; digitalisation; migration; South Africa
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10871

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Tactics of Refugee Women: Towards an Inclusive Framework for Digital Literacies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10866
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10866
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10866
Author-Name: Amber I Bartlett
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Noemi Mena Montes
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Lieke Verheijen
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Koen Leurs
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Mirjam Broersma
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Abstract: This article examines the complex relationship between online and offline inequalities for shaping refugee women’s experiences during resettlement. Refugee women have unique challenges during resettlement, yet the role of gender in shaping refugees’ experiences of inclusion, exclusion, and associated risks is often overlooked. Research into the role of digital technologies in refugees’ resettlement is fragmented, spread across disciplines, and therefore lacks analytical focus. Motivated by a research field that is fragmented and lacks a gender analysis, we conducted a scoping review to (a) consolidate studies across disciplines on refugee women’s digital practices during resettlement and (b) propose tactics as an analytical approach to the study of the relationship between online and offline inequalities. Through the analytical framework of tactics, we review three thematic areas of the outcomes of digital technology use for refugees: social connectedness, access to information, and self‐presentation. We find that outcomes of refugee women’s ICT use are heavily shaped by gendered norms, expectations, and structural exclusion, and there is a strong need for a better understanding of the role of digital technologies in the lives of refugee women. This study has also demonstrated the use of tactics as an important analytical tool in pluralising understandings of digital literacies as a practice, and that tactics have a strong gendered component. Using tactics as an analytic tool illuminated that, while offline inequalities can inform outcomes of digital technology use, the same inequalities can shape the reappropriation of digital platforms to mitigate the risk of the practices, while gaining access to the outcomes. This study demonstrates that tactics offer a valuable conceptual framework to foreground refugee women’s situated agency in digitally mediated contexts.
Keywords: diaspora; digital inclusion; digital literacy; digital migration; ICT; refugee women; resettlement; tactics
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10866

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Inclusion of Migrants in Türkiye: Emotional, Linguistic, and Structural Barriers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10852
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10852
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10852
Author-Name: Bilge Hamarat Yalçın
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, Kocaeli University, Türkiye
Author-Name: Çağlar Akar
Author-Workplace-Name: Vocational School, Istanbul Okan University, Türkiye
Abstract: This study uses a bibliometric review of international research and 27 in‐depth interviews to investigate digital disparities among migrant groups in Türkiye. We aim to understand how gender, as well as emotional, linguistic, and structural factors influence digital inclusion. The interviews demonstrate how these problems manifest across Türkiye’s varied migrant communities, while the bibliometric analysis identifies global themes such as digital literacy, access, trust, and language barriers. The primary obstacles, which are frequently exacerbated by gender and legal status, are monolingual e‐government platforms, low digital trust, and reliance on family for online access. The results show that social and emotional aspects of digital inclusion are involved, requiring institutions to be sensitive, build trust, and ensure linguistic accessibility. The study integrates infrastructure with lived experience‐based policies, proposing culturally sensitive, linguistically inclusive, and emotionally sensitive strategies. For other areas with sizable migrant populations, this strategy offers a scalable model.
Keywords: digital inclusion; digital trust and safety; language barriers; migrants and refugees in Türkiye
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10852

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Language, Power, and Multilingualism in Migration Research: Reflections From the Documentary Method
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10821
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10821
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10821
Author-Name: Tamara Tries
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Author-Name: Victoria Mehringer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Special Education and Psychology, University of Applied Science and Arts Northwestern Switzerland,
Switzerland
Abstract: In two research projects conducted in Austria and Germany in the field of forced migration, we found similar challenges and potentials, namely, the methodological challenges of addressing multilingualism in a methodically controlled way and the potential of systematically analysing power dynamics within multilingual interviews using the documentary method. In this article, we illustrate the intertwining of language and power in multilingual qualitative research. Discussing two empirical examples in depth, we show that different data (with and without interpreters) are embedded in different power hierarchies, which need to be recognized. We also discuss the lessons we learned, as well as the limitations that we encountered, and conclude with a call to navigate through the ambiguities of migration societies that are reflected in multilingual research realities.
Keywords: documentary method; forced migration; interviews; migration societies; multilingualism; power dynamics; qualitative research; second language interview research; social inequalities; translation
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10821

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Translanguaging Towards Equitable Participation: Doing Research Multilingually With People With a Migration Background
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10867
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10867
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10867
Author-Name: Erin Gail MacDonald
Author-Workplace-Name: Development and Education of Youth in Diverse Societies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Mirona Moraru
Author-Workplace-Name: Development and Education of Youth in Diverse Societies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Arthur Bakker
Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre for Curriculum Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Elma Blom
Author-Workplace-Name: Development and Education of Youth in Diverse Societies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract: Doing research with multilingual people belonging to marginalized groups involves reconsidering our methods of inquiry. Language differences between researchers and participants can render the lived experiences, multilingual subjectivities, and knowledge of the participants unrecognized and undervalued. This is amplified in educational settings, where a monolingual norm can be pervasive, delegitimizing other languages that are important for sharing values and knowledge. Based on a codesign study with multilingual caregivers with a migration background, the present article aims to reflect on how translanguaging can be employed as a methodological approach in research processes. Translanguaging is defined here as promoting the use of a person’s entire linguistic repertoire to make meaning and (more equitably) participate in research. We draw on three codesign rounds conducted in the Netherlands involving ten multilingual caregivers. In a reflection based on fieldnotes, artefacts, and pictures collected during participant observation in 22 codesign meetings, we formulate seven heuristics that could be helpful to other researchers or practitioners employing translanguaging in research processes. These are: (a) encouraging and modeling the use of multiple languages; (b) using multilingual resources; (c) using translation apps; (d) using an interpreter; (e) encouraging brokering; (f) encouraging same‐language group pairings; and (g) building in the time necessary to legitimize translanguaging strategies. By sharing our reflections and heuristics, we hope to foster equitable participation of marginalized groups in research, with a specific reference to participants with a migration background.
Keywords: multilingual caregivers; participatory research; researching multilingually; translanguaging
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10867

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Language(s) and Translanguaging in Interpretation Groups: Reflections From a Linguistic Group Ethnography
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10907
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10907
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10907
Author-Name: Nadja Thoma
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Author-Name: Giorgia Andreolli
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Applied Linguistics, Eurac Research, Italy
Author-Name: Safà El Koura
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Innsbruck, Austria / Institute for Applied Linguistics, Eurac Research, Italy
Author-Name: Kristina Savic
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Author-Name: Rebecca Weckenmann
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Abstract: This article explores how our diverse linguistic repertoires interact with one another and with ethnographic materials during group interpretation sessions. Building on research about interpretation groups, translanguaging, and reflexivity, we focus on preparing and interpreting multilingual ethnographic material for a linguistically diverse team, the role of human and AI‐assisted translation, and the relationship between English and translanguaging. In doing so, we make the analytical process more transparent and adopt a critical reflexive approach that closely connects language practices to researchers’ biographical experiences, encouraging biographical reflexivity and challenging methodological nationalism. Our findings illustrate how biographical and professional knowledge on language shape how data is interpreted and understood, and the need for critical reflection on language practices and the relations between linguistic repertoires in a research group. They further show that multilingualism and translanguaging are not merely objects of analysis but represent lived experiences, sites of negotiation, tension, and meaning‐making. Moreover, we reconstruct how our engagement with AI‐based translation and transcription tools became a hybrid communicative site where linguistic boundaries are negotiated, reconfigured, and contested. Finally, we explore how English functions as an architectural scaffolding that opened a space for translanguaging and English‐specific ambivalences in the context of group communication and knowledge construction.
Keywords: AI translation; English as a lingua franca; group ethnography; interpretation groups; linguistic ethnography; multilingualism; reflexivity; researching multilingually; social research; translanguaging
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10907

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Of Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones: Navigating Multilingual Challenges in Reconstructive Forced Migration Research
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10822
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10822
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10822
Author-Name: Ana Mijić
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Yelyzaveta Zolotarova
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Oriental Languages, V. I. Vernadsky Taurida National University, Ukraine
Author-Name: Olena Tkalich
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Austria
Author-Name: Michael Parzer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: Reflexive migration research emphasizes the critical examination of knowledge production—particularly concerning researchers’ positionalities, the categories they employ, and the institutional contexts in which they operate. We aim to extend this research stream by systematically engaging with linguistic positioning, which remains an underexplored feature in migration studies. Hence, our article critically engages with the multilingual challenges encountered in a sub‐study of our project, The Art of Arriving, which reconstructively examined the experiences of individuals who fled Ukraine to Austria during the early months of Russia’s war of aggression. Our contribution pursues two main objectives. First, we highlight the linguistic challenges that arose at various stages of the research process—including material collection, field access, data collection, translation, and reconstructive data analysis—and critically reflect on the strategies we adopted to address them. The active involvement of researchers with both cultural and linguistic expertise, combined with a reflexive and continuous dialogue within the entire research team, was crucial for navigating the multilingual research landscape. Second, we argue that translation processes in such projects should not merely be viewed as obstacles to overcome. Instead, these processes should be recognized as integral to the research itself. When critically reflected upon and facilitated through dialogue with culturally and linguistically familiar researchers, multilingualism can even enable deeper and more nuanced reconstructive analyses.
Keywords: forced migration; multilingualism; reflexivity; reconstructive research; translation
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10822

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Construction of Researcher Positionality Through Language Practices in Multilingual Contexts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10844
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10844
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10844
Author-Name: Marie Rickert
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, The Netherlands / iHub, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Pomme van de Weerd
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Development and Education of Youth in Diverse Societies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Daan Hovens
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Literature and Art, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Leonie Cornips
Author-Workplace-Name: NL‐Lab, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Netherlands
Abstract: Ethnographers immerse themselves in the lifeworlds of their participants—including their language practices—through participant observation. In this process, researchers’ linguistic repertoires, along with the language choices and practices they enable, play a central role in co‐constructing positionality within emergent interactions. These interactions both shape and are shaped by locally situated meaning‐making, reflecting the dynamics of the research context. This article examines the dynamic construction of positionality in multilingual research contexts. Drawing on four linguistic ethnographies conducted at a metal foundry, a preschool, a secondary school, and dairy farms, the analysis identifies four key dimensions through which researcher positionality is constructed via language practices: attuning to, engaging in, translating, and recognizing participants’ linguistic practices. Multilingual research contexts, we argue, introduce additional layers of complexity to the construction of positionality and call for critical reflection on the language practices of both ethnographers and participants.
Keywords: linguistic ethnography; multilingual practices; outsider–insider continuum; researcher positionality
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10844

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Navigating Power and Language: Methodological Reflections on Biographical Research in Transnational Contexts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10849
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10849
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10849
Author-Name: Gwendolyn Gilliéron
Author-Workplace-Name: School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences of Paris (EHESS), Institute of Political Anthropology, France
Author-Name: Marie Hoppe
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Educational Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany
Abstract: Transnational research settings create shared linguistic spaces between researchers and participants that are framed by global power relations, postcolonial constellations, and unequal access to resources. Against this backdrop, our article highlights methodological, ethical, and practical research issues in biographical research in multilingual settings, arguing for power‐sensitive perspectives in all stages of the research process. We discuss methodological decisions and research dynamics from two transnational research projects in which biographical narrative interviews were conducted by native German speakers in the national contexts of Morocco and Turkey. The interview languages—French and English in Morocco and Turkish in Turkey— were learned by the researchers as foreign languages, while some of the interviewees’ first language was Arabic or Kurdish. We argue that in this transnational and multilingual context, biographical research can have specific potentials to reflect on (hidden) aspects of social power relations that might be inherent in the designs of our projects. We therefore propose to understand multilingual research settings not as a burden for knowledge production but rather as an opportunity to engage more deeply with how meaning is produced in interview settings and with contextual complexities.
Keywords: biographical research; language; methodology; multilingual research; power relations
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10849

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Research Guided by Gaps in Understanding: Multilingual Qualitative Research in Translations
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10815
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10815
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10815
Author-Name: Benita Kawalla
Author-Workplace-Name: Gender & Diversity Working Group, University of Kiel, Germany
Abstract: Due to its very subject matter, research on transnational migration inevitably involves multiple languages. As a result, such research cannot be reduced to research where the researcher’s first language is English, but the interviewees’ first language is not; it needs to be expanded to interviews where the researcher and the interviewee speak the same language. Even then, however, their (class, race, gender) background may become an obstacle to understanding each other. In my research project on family life worlds under Jordanian citizenship law, I conducted semi‐structured interviews in Arabic without an interpreter. Arabic was the first language of my interviewees, but my third foreign language, which I speak and understand well, but not perfectly. This special interview situation seemed challenging and was initially due to a lack of financial resources for interpreters, which is often recommended (van Nes et al., 2010). In the course of my research, conducting interviews without an interpreter proved to be a helpful approach in order to take into account the co‐constitutive process of reality generation in qualitative research (Finlay, 2002). Grounded in feminist and intersectional methodologies, I developed a reflexive approach on how to deal with languages, (a lack of) understanding, and the corresponding power hierarchies in research processes. I argue that the balance of power between researchers and interviewees is changed by the fact that the interviewee is in a linguistically more capable position and thus may develop a different perception of his or her own agency. I propose epistemologically that an interview outside the interviewer’s first language can be a constant reminder of gaps in understanding and the different realities of the interviewer and the interviewee in the subsequent transcription, translation, and analysis steps (Larkin et al., 2007).
Keywords: family; intersectionality; interview; Middle East; reflexive qualitative research; translations
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10815

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: From Babel to Bridge: The Challenges of Research Co‐Production in Multilingual Spaces
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10870
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10870
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10870
Author-Name: Chantal Radley
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Author-Name: Margaret Greenfields
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Author-Name: Eleonore Kofman
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Business and Law, Middlesex University, UK
Author-Name: Gill Searl
Author-Workplace-Name: Strategic Migration Partnership, Local Government East, UK
Abstract: This article discusses emerging findings from a large‐scale study undertaken in 12 diverse areas of England focused on reducing health inequalities for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrant populations. Working with multilingual populations has posed both ethical and practical considerations throughout the design and implementation of this co‐produced participatory research project. Despite our deep‐rooted commitment to working collaboratively with communities of interest and a large team of multilingual academic and community partners who have co‐designed the study, the linguistic complexities of operationalising planned activities have highlighted multiple obstacles. We argue that multilingual research presents significant challenges to researchers and has the potential to jeopardise commitments to inclusivity and co‐production, even for those teams well‐versed in working with refugee and migrant groups. Practical considerations around recruitment in diverse languages, appropriate translations of project documentation, and timely booking of sufficient interpreters repeatedly emerged as challenges, as has gaining informed consent, particularly where literacy and understanding of concepts of research are new to participants. The methodological difficulties involved in achieving linguistic inclusivity are outlined, together with the complexities of interpreting and translating set within a context of negotiating different power relationships between institutions, academic researchers, collaborative partners, community co‐researchers, and participants. Whilst community co‐researchers and organisations create a vital bridge to enable all participants to communicate effectively within an ethical and collaborative space, we interrogate the challenges inherent in such empirical research and propose methodological practices to address these concerns.
Keywords: asylum seekers; co‐production; inclusivity; migrants; multilingual; power dynamics; refugees
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10870

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Challenges of Multilingual Research: A Discourse in the Context of Nagaland, India
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10838
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10838
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10838
Author-Name: Vezolu Puro
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing – Kurnool, India
Author-Name: Rukulu Kezo
Author-Workplace-Name: Capital College of Higher Education, India
Author-Name: Nittala Noel Anurag Prashanth
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing – Kurnool, India
Author-Name: Hariharasudan Anandhan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language, Culture and Society, SRM Institute of Science and Technology – Kattankulathur, India
Author-Name: Mykolas Deikus
Author-Workplace-Name: Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Jolita Vveinhardt
Author-Workplace-Name: Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Abstract: Nagaland, a small Northeastern state in India, may be considered to be one of the world’s most linguistically diverse regions. This is so because it is home to 17 officially recognized tribes, along with many unrecognized sub‐tribes, most of whom speak two to three sub‐dialects that are often not mutually intelligible. For example, the Chakhesang tribe has three distinct dialects, namely, Chokri, Khezha, and Sapu, each unique in phonology and lexicon, that members of this tribe find it difficult to communicate with each other. This diversity creates challenges for both education and research. In a similar vein, multilingual research in Nagaland recurrently encounters difficulties and challenges that go beyond the conventional global frameworks. Although multilingual research has made advancements, contexts like Nagaland, which are characterized by multilayered linguistic complexity, remain to be addressed. This study presents the argument that standard research methods, which usually assume more uniform linguistic contexts, are not sufficient for Nagaland. It also raises the need for context‐sensitive approaches to multilingual research that can account for such complexity. The study explores the challenges of conducting multilingual research in Nagaland, while also evaluating the limitations of existing research methods, and attempts to advocate for a new framework that can better suit its multilingual realities. The findings of the study contribute to the broader discourse on multilingual research methods by emphasizing the importance of culture and linguistic sensitivity in diverse contexts.
Keywords: hyper‐diverse; linguistic diversity; methodological challenges; multilingual research; participatory action research
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10838

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Review of Digital Technology in Informal Education and Its Role in Educational Equity
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10894
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10894
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10894
Author-Name: Yufei Jiang
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Law, Hangzhou City University, People’s Republic of China
Author-Name: Chaoqun Lu
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Macau, People’s Republic of China
Author-Name: Bin Hu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Law, Hangzhou City University, People’s Republic of China
Abstract: Digital technologies have profoundly transformed the landscape of education, enhancing learning approaches while raising concerns about digital equity. This review pays particular attention to informal education settings (e.g., public libraries, museums, and telecentres) and examines the application of digital technologies in these settings and their role in educational equity. Specifically, it focuses on the diverse Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), exploring the implications of digital technologies from a global perspective. Through a scoping review of 31 studies, this study synthesizes a broad spectrum of digital technologies employed in informal education, ranging from conventional digital tools (e.g., internet‐enabled computers, printers, and CD‐ROMs) to advanced digital technologies (e.g., online public access catalogs, immersive technologies, and artificial intelligence). By applying the PROGRESS‐PLUS framework’s equity dimensions, the review reveals the dual role of digital technologies: On one hand, the integration of digital technologies in informal education fosters inclusion for minority groups and improves accessibility to learning resources; on the other hand, it exacerbates disparities for individuals lacking access to digital infrastructure or sufficient digital literacy. The discussion explores the challenges and opportunities of digital integration in informal education, with specific implications for the GBA in China.
Keywords: digital technology; equity; Greater Bay Area; informal education
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10894

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Contextualizing System Leadership in China: Evidence From Inter‐School Collaboration in the Greater Bay Area
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10998
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10998
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10998
Author-Name: Meng Zhang
Author-Workplace-Name: South China Normal University, China
Author-Name: Wei Zhang
Author-Workplace-Name: Guangxi Normal University, China
Author-Name: Jiafang Lu
Author-Workplace-Name: The Education University of Hong Kong, China
Author-Name: Haiyan Qian
Author-Workplace-Name: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
Abstract: As inter‐school collaboration becomes a key strategy for educational improvement, the role of system leaders in sustaining such efforts has drawn increasing attention. Yet empirical research in the Chinese context remains limited. This study examines how system leaders facilitate sustainable inter‐school collaboration in China’s Greater Bay Area, focusing on a successful long‐term school partnership established under the government‐supported Sister School Scheme. Using a qualitative case study, we analyzed interview data from five principals—each holding multiple roles—as our primary data source. Documentary materials (e.g., policy texts and school reports) were used to triangulate and contextualize the interview findings. Thematic coding analysis shows that these leaders enacted system leadership by shifting among four interrelated roles—thought advocate, practice pioneer, boundary spanner, and resource mobilizer, each linked to specific leadership practices. The study advances international understanding of system leadership by showing how principals lead across school and system boundaries in China’s policy‐driven, cross‐border context. It also offers practical insights for sustaining inter‐school collaboration.
Keywords: Greater Bay Area; inter‐school collaboration; Sister School Scheme; system leadership
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10998

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Understanding Teacher Learning Through “Boundary Crossing” in the Greater Bay Area: Voices From Hong Kong and Guangzhou
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10950
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10950
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10950
Author-Name: Jianjing Tang
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Author-Name: Jiafang Lu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Abstract: Alongside the growing demand for educational reform, calls for commitment to teacher learning have increased exponentially in the last decade. Yet, little is known about the effects teacher learning across different educational systems (what we will also call “cross‐system teacher learning practices”) have on the work itself, or how the learning these teachers experience across schools is reflected in their engagement in practices and activities when they return to their original schools and classrooms. Through the lens of activity theory, this study aims to ascertain the experiences of groups of teachers in mainland China and Hong Kong who participate in cross‐system teacher learning activities. A qualitative multi‐case study was adopted where three schools were sampled in both Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Six principals and 12 teachers participated in the study. Interviews were collected and qualitatively analysed to categorise the major processes and effects of cross‐system teacher learning and capture the nature of cross‐system teacher learning in China. The study showed that: (a) education departments “set the tone” for teacher education across different educational systems; (b) teaching methods and “the other side” of educational development serve as boundary objects; (c) principals function as boundary brokers; and (d) different types of learning activities regulate teacher learning. Four recurrent themes emerged related to the impact of cross‐system teacher education: (a) awareness and understanding; (b) increased collective efficacy; (c) decision‐making and problem‐solving; and (d) teaching knowledge and skills. It is argued that equity and sustainability were central issues that teachers faced during the study. Relational trust contributed to teachers’ collaboration across different educational systems and community‐building. In the end of this article, suggestions to support cross‐system teacher learning are made and implications for future research are proposed.
Keywords: activity theory; boundary crossing; educational systems; Hong Kong; mainland China; teacher learning
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10950

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Engaging With Mathematics: Exploring Different Learning Environments at the Elementary School Level
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10784
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10784
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10784
Author-Name: Hua Ran
Author-Workplace-Name: Education Department, Jiangnan University, China
Author-Name: Walter G. Secada
Author-Workplace-Name: Teaching and Learning Department, University of Miami, USA
Author-Name: Uma Gadge
Author-Workplace-Name: Teaching and Learning Department, University of Miami, USA
Author-Name: Denghui Liu
Author-Workplace-Name: Education Department, Jiangnan University, China
Abstract: This article examines the “effectiveness” of school‐level mathematics and explores how teachers’ instruction, within classrooms, contributes to an effective learning. By using multiple data sources, including classroom observations and teacher interviews, we found that students from “effective schools” receive more intellectual support than students in “typical schools” and benefit from better learning environments overall. We also found that the overall intellectual quality differs as per students’ ability level, favoring students of “lower ability” when they are enrolled in effective schools. Teacher interviews suggest that teachers from effective schools tend to hold higher expectations for low‐ability students than in typical schools and know how to adapt to them by adopting individualized instruction to meet their learning needs.
Keywords: classroom learning environment; effective schools; elementary schools; mathematics; typical schools
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10784

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Perceived Social Support and Craftsmanship Spirit in Vocational Students: Mediating Roles of Professional Identity and Identity Recognition
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10868
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10868
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10868
Author-Name: Tengfei Guo
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Educational Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China
Author-Name: YouYu Hu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Educational Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China
Author-Name: Yan Liang
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Educational Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China
Author-Name: Chenzhi Cai
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Educational Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China
Author-Name: Qian Li
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Educational Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China
Author-Name: Yakun Ni
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Educational Science, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, China / School of Psychology and Entrepreneurship, Guangdong University of Finance, China
Abstract: In the context of a transforming manufacturing industry globally, skilled talents with a “craftsmanship spirit” are crucial for enhancing industrial competitiveness. While existing research primarily focuses on the development of “craftsmanship spirit” among frontline workers, it often overlooks the cultivation of this spirit in “skill‐oriented reserve talents” within higher vocational education. This study, grounded in social support theory, investigates how “perceived social support” among higher vocational students positively influences the development of their “craftsmanship spirit,” with “professional identity” and “identity recognition” acting as mediators. To mitigate potential “common method bias,” we employed a multi‐wave survey design, collecting data from 348 students across three higher vocational institutions at three different time points. The findings reveal that “perceived social support” significantly and positively impacts the development of “craftsmanship spirit” in higher vocational students. Furthermore, both “professional identity” and “identity recognition” are essential mediators in this relationship. This research advances the theoretical understanding of “craftsmanship spirit’s” antecedents while offering practical guidance for fostering professional ethics and identity cognition among skill‐oriented talents in vocational education.
Keywords: craftsmanship spirit; higher vocational education; identity recognition; perceived social support; professional identity
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10868

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Cultivating Inclusive Classrooms: Strategies for Educational Equity for Non‐Chinese‐Speaking Students in Hong Kong’s Kindergartens
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10831
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10831
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10831
Author-Name: Jessie Ming Sin Wong
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education and Languages, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, China
Abstract: This article explores how Hong Kong kindergartens promote inclusive early childhood education for non‐Chinese‐speaking children within the dynamic context of China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA). It builds upon the findings of a foundational survey of 161 kindergartens from the same research project, which revealed that while new government subsidies encouraged greater inclusion, significant challenges persisted. Specifically, our survey identified systemic barriers, including human resource shortages, a heavy reliance on kindergartens’ own efforts to overcome difficulties, and insufficient parental engagement, resulting in disparities in implementation. Building on these findings, this article moves from identifying problems to highlighting solutions. It analyzes qualitative data from 16 case reports, submitted for an award scheme on multicultural inclusion, and 10 follow‐up interviews to uncover exemplary practices. Using the CARE model (capability, aspirations, resources, engagement) as an analytical framework, this study identifies key strategies that proactive kindergartens employ, such as building multicultural learning environments, forging strong home‐school partnerships, and developing targeted outreach programs. The findings reveal that successful inclusion is not accidental but the result of a deliberate, holistic, and interconnected effort. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of how inclusive education policies can be effectively implemented in diverse urban contexts, offering valuable lessons for advancing educational equity and sustainable development (SDGs 4 and 10) in Hong Kong and, with local adaptation, in comparable urban contexts within the GBA and beyond.
Keywords: early childhood education; educational equity; inclusive education; multiculturalism; non‐Chinese‐speaking children
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10831

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Educational Equity for Migrant Children: A Policy Comparison of Shenzhen and Hong Kong
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10995
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10995
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10995
Author-Name: Xingxing Wang
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
Author-Name: Louie Lei Wang
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, Norway /  Centre for Research on Equality in Education, University of Oslo, Norway
Abstract: This study examined how two contrasting governance systems—Shenzhen and Hong Kong—address educational equity for migrant and immigrant children within the context of China’s Greater Bay Area. While both cities have expanded access to compulsory education, their institutional logics diverge sharply. Shenzhen operates a contribution‐based model, linking school access to parental contribution to the city. In contrast, Hong Kong guarantees near‐universal access under a rights‐based regime grounded in legal entitlements. These differences raise fundamental questions about how equity is defined, prioritized, and implemented across jurisdictions. Drawing on Rawlsian principles of justice and Edgar’s five‐dimensional equity framework, a comparative policy analysis was conducted, using over 40 official documents, including legislative texts, admission guidelines, and statistical reports. Coding was used to trace how each system frames and operationalizes equity across access, input, process, output, and outcome dimensions. The findings show that, while both systems emphasize transparency and capacity expansion, they differ in how they identify target groups, allocate resources, and balance merit with need. Shenzhen’s points‐based system creates strong incentives for formalized urban integration, but disadvantages low‐income migrants structurally. Hong Kong’s legal universalism offers broader entitlement but struggles with linguistic exclusion and digital barriers. By linking normative theory with empirical analysis, this study offers a multidimensional understanding of how education systems interpret fairness in contexts of mobility and inequality. It also contributes to broader debates on policy transfer, urban governance, and the role of ethics in educational inclusion.
Keywords: educational equity; Hong Kong; migrant children; Shenzhen
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10995

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “And Only the Internet Remains…”: Social Media's Role in Building Social Capital Among Migrant Students
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10840
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10840
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10840
Author-Name: Justyna Łukaszewska-Bezulska
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland
Abstract: This article presents a case study of students in Poland, comparing internal and international student migrants in how they form and maintain different types of social capital, including the development of trust, the maintenance of ties with their communities of origin, and the establishment of new relationships within the host society. Based on in‐depth individual interviews, the study shows that strategies for maintaining transnational connections and forming local networks vary considerably across groups. The findings highlight the influence of contextual factors, such as the character of the diaspora, patterns of social media use, and proficiency in the host‐country language on the ways digital practices support or hinder social capital formation. Across all groups, respondents expressed distrust toward strangers online and caution regarding new acquaintances and information encountered on digital platforms. Although participation in online groups provides a sense of community, the relationships formed within them tend to be superficial, marked by limited trust and a tendency to remain within migrant circles, which restricts the development of bridging networks with the host community. While asynchronous communication can create a temporary sense of closeness, sustaining such relationships requires active engagement and maintaining contact beyond online platforms. At the same time, ties that endured despite distance and time were often accorded particularly high value, with their ability to survive digital mediation viewed as evidence of their strength.
Keywords: educational migration; internal migration; Poland; social capital; social media; students
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10840

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Conducting Research Across Three Languages in a Multilingual Space: Polish Immigrants in Alanya
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10786
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10786
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10786
Author-Name: Gizem Karaköse
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
Abstract: In multilingual research, language choices and linguistic hierarchies play a significant role. The participants’ language preferences reveal emotional connection and confidence in their self‐expression. Building on Znaniecki’s (1927) concept of humanistic coefficient, Bourdieu’s (1991) theory of linguistic capital, and Blommaert’s (2010) and Heller’s (2007) understandings of multilingualism as social practice, this article examines how multilingual practices reveal underlying power dynamics and social hierarchies. From an ethical and methodological perspective, it proposes a model that prioritizes participant agency, minimizes biases, and redefines the researcher‐participant dynamic by granting participants the freedom to choose their interview language. Drawing on fieldwork conducted among Polish immigrants in Alanya, Türkiye, the article shows how multilingual practices during interviews expose hierarchies. It also allows code‐switching to function as a resource rather than an obstacle. The study offers a methodological framework for managing multilingual interviews, addressing the ethical and analytical challenges of linguistic hierarchies and code‐switching. It contributes to a broader understanding of social inclusion in migration studies by offering practical insights into developing fair participant‐researcher interactions. I argue that emphasizing participants’ linguistic realities and proposing adaptable strategies for multilingual research contribute to more inclusive and equitable methodologies in migration studies.
Keywords: code‐switching; interview; language hierarchies; multilingual research; social inclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10786

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: What Does Multilingual Research Show Us About Research Ethics? Examples and Challenges From the Field
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10805
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10805
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10805
Author-Name: Sophia Schönthaler
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Migration and Societal Change, Eurac Research, Italy
Author-Name: Andrea Leone‐Pizzighella
Author-Workplace-Name: Marie Sklodowska‐Curie Fellow, Institute for Applied Linguistics, Eurac Research, Italy
Author-Name: Johanna Mitterhofer
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Migration and Societal Change, Eurac Research, Italy
Abstract: Ethics review boards (ERBs) often clash with the emergent, iterative, and co‐constructed nature of critical and constructivist research. Conversely, these approaches also challenge ERBs, particularly around the role of language in informed consent, knowledge co‐construction, and dissemination. Multilingual research makes these tensions especially visible by foregrounding how language shapes research processes. This article examines the overlooked ethical dimensions of multilingual research, especially in relation to institutional ethics review. Drawing on our multilingual work with marginalized communities, we show how language mediates critical aspects of research practice: from obtaining consent and navigating gatekeeping to co‐constructing knowledge. We pursue three aims: (a) reflect on how language mediates ethics approval in critical and constructivist inquiry; (b) explore how sensibility toward language fosters epistemic justice, cultural sensitivity, and methodological appropriateness; and (c) raise awareness of the role of language in ethics procedures, research relationships, and definitions of data. We illustrate these aims with fieldwork examples highlighting the challenges of building trust under restrictive ethics protocols; the need for nuanced linguistic practices in contexts of inequality and underrepresentation; and the use of arts‐based methods as an alternative to language‐based approaches. The article concludes with examples from the formation of our multilingual institute’s ERB and recommendations for other boards.
Keywords: arts‐based methods; dialogic and oral ethics; discrimination; institutional ethics; Italy; migration; multilingualism; participatory methods; research ethics; Romani; school‐based research
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10805

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Between Supportive and Involved Fatherhood in Slovenia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10859
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10859
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10859
Author-Name: Alenka Švab
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Author-Name: Živa Humer
Author-Workplace-Name: The Peace Institute, Slovenia
Abstract: The article draws on four qualitative studies of fatherhood in Slovenia performed over 15 years (2005, 2008, 2015, and 2020) to analyse factors shaping the involvement of fathers in child‐rearing through a diachronic perspective, situating the empirical findings within broader socioeconomic and policy transformations. The period under study included several ambivalent developments. On one hand, the intensification of work, flexibilisation, and precarious employment added to the primacy of paid work and men’s caregiving roles being given limited recognition in organisational cultures. On the other hand, family policy measures— notably the introduction of paternity leave, parental leave reforms, along with other work–life balance reforms—gradually supported fathers taking on greater roles as parents. The findings reveal that by 2005, the traditional model of uninvolved fatherhood was already in decline, giving way to new practices in the form of supportive fatherhood. Although men did participate in childcare and domestic work, their roles were chiefly to assist their female partners. Over time, practices of involved fatherhood also emerged, characterised by more active and egalitarian caregiving. Despite strong aspirations for active participation, empirical evidence shows a persistent gap between ideals and practices. Nevertheless, in Slovenia, fathers are now typically present during pregnancy and childbirth, make use of paternity leave, and engage ever more in everyday childcare, signalling a gradual shift toward the involved fatherhood model.
Keywords: caregiving; domestic labour; family policy; involved fatherhood; labour market; parental leave; Slovenia; supportive fatherhood
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10859

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Navigating Precarity Between Law and Profit: Migrant Riders in Italy, Poland, and Spain
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10959
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10959
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10959
Author-Name: Francesco Pasetti
Author-Workplace-Name: CIDOB—Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, Spain
Author-Name: Eleonora Celoria
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Turin, Italy
Author-Name: Gianluca Iazzolino
Author-Workplace-Name: Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK
Author-Name: Katarzyna Rakowska
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, Poland
Abstract: This article examines how platform‐mediated food delivery work shapes the socio‐economic inclusion and exclusion of migrants in Italy, Poland, and Spain. Drawing on 60 in‐depth interviews with migrant riders in Turin, Warsaw, and Barcelona, the study adopts a comparative ethnographic approach to examine how distinct regulatory models—Italy’s “dual‐track,” Poland’s “contractual bricolage,” and Spain’s “regulated exclusion”—shape migrant inclusion in platform labour markets. Despite these differences, the findings reveal a striking convergence: migrant riders across all three contexts face legal ambiguity, economic insecurity, and algorithmic control, which together entrench their marginalisation. Theoretically, the article engages with scholarship on platform capitalism, migration governance, and informality to show how digital infrastructures and stratified legal regimes co‐produce new forms of labour exploitation. Migrants respond with informal strategies to navigate the contradictions between denied rights and urgent needs. These practices expose how platform logics of outsourcing and opacity align with state‐driven hierarchies of legal status to corner migrants into the most vulnerable segments of the labour market. The article concludes that the convergence of precarity is not incidental but structurally embedded in the interplay between digitalised labour regimes and exclusionary migration policies, calling for a rethinking of protections that address both technological and legal dimensions of inequality.
Keywords: comparative ethnography; digitalisation; exclusion; food delivery; gig economy; irregular migration; migrant integration; migrant workers; migration governance; platform capitalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10959

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Technologies and Refugees’ Social Inclusion: The Use of ICTs by NGOs
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10942
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10942
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10942
Author-Name: Giacomo Solano
Author-Workplace-Name: Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI), Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Iris Poelen
Author-Workplace-Name: Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI), Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Safiya Farokh
Author-Workplace-Name: Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Sheila Omosomwan
Author-Workplace-Name: Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Abstract: Numerous studies highlight the direct impact of digital technologies on migrants, shaping their decisions to migrate, their migration trajectories, and their experiences in their destination countries. This article contributes to this emerging literature by exploring the influence of digital technologies on the inclusion of migrants, specifically by examining how non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support refugees—an area that has received limited attention in the existing literature. In particular, the article focuses on NGOs in Türkiye and the Netherlands. We conducted interviews with representatives of 23 NGOs across the two countries to understand how and why they use digital technologies. The findings show that NGOs in both countries use ICTs extensively for (direct and indirect) communication, advocacy, and service provision, with clear benefits but also challenges. ICTs enhance visibility and reach, support multilingual and remote service delivery, and help NGOs raise funds and build an institutional identity. Challenges include unequal access to digital tools and insufficient digital literacy by both NGO staff and their clients, lower engagement in online formats, and the risk of losing personal connection due to standardized digital processes.
Keywords: digital technologies; ICTs; NGOs; refugees; social inclusion; The Netherlands; Türkiye
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10942

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: GeoMatch/MisMatch: A Critical Investigation of a Refugee Resettlement and Labour Market Integration Algorithm in the Netherlands
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10923
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10923
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10923
Author-Name: Kinan Alajak
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Governance, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Merve Burnazoglu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Economics, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Koen Leurs
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Gerwin van Schie
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract: This article critically investigates the unintended and perverse effects of digital public technologies on refugees’ fundamental rights and socio‐economic inclusion. As a case study, we examine the GeoMatch algorithm, a recommender system implemented by the Dutch government to automate employment search and matching processes for refugees across its 35 labour market regions. As data and methods, we used close reading techniques to analyse a set of disclosed documents obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, drawing on the practices of investigative journalism. Contrary to official claims of effectiveness, economic impact, and objectivity, our findings suggest that GeoMatch’s algorithmic system prioritises aggregate optimisation over individual opportunities, with a disproportionate risk of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, gender, or marital status. The findings further indicate a diminished capacity for both refugees and reception officers to contest automated decisions, threatening refugees’ human dignity and self‐determination. We therefore argue that the deployment of GeoMatch should be reconsidered until these ethical concerns are adequately addressed. The article provides an empirical case supporting concerns raised in the literature on the role of algorithmic systems in social and economic stratification. Methodologically, our contribution endorses the emerging approach of combining FOI and close reading to study opaque technological systems and automated policy domains.
Keywords: AI; Big Data; digital migration governance; freedom of information; FOI requests; GeoMatch algorithm; refugee reception; refugee resettlement
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10923

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Methodological Insights From a Qualitative Case Study in a Migration Context: Translingual Writing Practices Among Emergent Multilingual Children
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/10875
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.10875
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 10875
Author-Name: Jinsil Jang
Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Liberal Arts and General Education, Gangneung‐Wonju National University, Republic of Korea
Abstract: This article examines the methodological challenges and opportunities of researching translingual writing practices among emergent multilingual children in South Korea. Drawing on a four‐month qualitative case study involving three focal participants, the study explores their translingual writing across school, home, community, and a specially designed after‐school writing program. A multi‐sited, multilingual research design combined classroom observations, interviews, writing artifacts, and digital traces produced in English, Korean, and/or Russian. The multilingual nature of the dataset required sustained attention to translation, interpretation, and shifting ideological meanings across research contexts. Ethical tensions and power asymmetries emerged in decisions surrounding transcription, translation, and voice representation. While participants actively mobilized diverse linguistic resources during composing, this diversity was only partially visible in the final products due to institutional language norms. The findings underscore the need for flexible, reflexive, and context‐sensitive methodologies for multilingual research in migration societies.
Keywords: Koryoin students; multilingual education; multilingual learners; multilingual qualitative research; translingualism
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:10875

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Language Policy as a Channel of Inclusion for Researchers in the Internationalized University
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9833
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.9833
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 9833
Author-Name: Anna Björnö
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, Tampere University, Finland
Abstract: Internationalization has increased diversity in Finnish universities, yet the meaningful inclusion of international faculty remains challenging. This study examines how institutional language policies shape the professional integration of international researchers, highlighting tensions between national language protection and internationalization rationales. Through interviews and document analysis, the findings reveal structural barriers limiting participation, including unclear expectations, inadequate support, and the perceived low professional value of national languages. The study critiques a narrow approach to diversity, arguing for comprehensive support systems—like peer networks and workplace‐based language opportunities—and policy reform that fosters genuine inclusion. Framing language policy as a negotiated space shaped by habitus, community, and power, the study calls for institutional changes prioritizing collaboration and engagement with linguistic diversity.
Keywords: English lingua franca; inclusion; international scholars; internationalization; language policy; national language
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9833

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intersectionality at German Universities: Empowering Teaching Staff as Change Agents With Higher Education Didactic Workshops
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9829
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.9829
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 9829
Author-Name: Julia Mergner
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Author-Name: Sude Pekşen
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Author-Name: Liudvika Leišytė
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Abstract: The increasing diversity at German universities has been accompanied by the demand to widen participation among all groups of students. This challenges higher education teaching, requiring learning environments that acknowledge diverse experiences and needs. While diversity‐sensitive approaches have been the dominant response, they often address single diversity dimensions in isolation, neglecting intersectional interdependencies and structural power relations. An intersectional perspective, however, shifts the focus to power dynamics, knowledge production, and inclusive educational practices. This article argues that such an approach has a good potential to enable lecturers and students to become change agents by fostering critical thinking, reflective agency, and ethical commitment to dismantling systemic inequalities. This is particularly challenging in the German higher education system, where critical, antidiscriminatory pedagogical perspectives are mostly limited to certain disciplines. At the same time, the teaching staff enjoy extensive teaching autonomy, which provides them with freedom for individual engagement in this area. Therefore, implementing intersectional approaches in teaching requires targeted educational interventions that support teaching staff. Building on the concept of intersectional pedagogy, we introduce a case study of a higher education didactic workshop that was designed to raise awareness of intersectional perspectives in teaching. The findings highlight the potential of such workshops to influence teaching practices and promote the engagement of disciplinary teaching communities with intersectionality. This article concludes by discussing the implications for further developing workshop concepts and empowering teaching staff and students as agents of change within the German higher education system.
Keywords: change agents; German higher education; intersectionality; teaching students; university didactics
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9829

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Views of Women Doctoral Students and Dropouts on Doctoral Education in Türkiye
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9828
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.9828
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 9828
Author-Name: Emine Karaduman-Oskay
Author-Workplace-Name: Educational Sciences, Boğaziçi University, Türkiye
Author-Name: Gülistan Gürsel-Bilgin
Author-Workplace-Name: Educational Sciences, Boğaziçi University, Türkiye / Curriculum and Instruction Department, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Author-Name: Havva Ayşe Caner
Author-Workplace-Name: Educational Sciences, Boğaziçi University, Türkiye
Author-Name: Mine Afacan Fındıklı
Author-Workplace-Name: Business Administration Department, Istinye University, Türkiye / UBI Business School, Belgium
Author-Name: Fatma Nevra Seggie
Author-Workplace-Name: Educational Sciences, Boğaziçi University, Türkiye
Abstract: Countries must adapt their higher education systems to address the demands of 21st‐century knowledge societies. Türkiye, a developing country (OECD, 2025), ranks 48th in the Human Development Index (UNDP, 2022). Despite improvements, gender inequality remains a significant issue in Türkiye, with women often dropping out of educational programs due to household and caregiving responsibilities (Conger &amp; Long, 2010; Gür &amp; Bozgöz, 2022; Quinn, 2013). This study explores the experiences and challenges of women in doctoral education, highlighting their roles as change agents in higher education. It presents the views of ten current women doctoral students and ten dropouts from various programs of public universities in Türkiye. The study’s qualitative research captures diverse perspectives by including voluntary participants who were single, married, or divorced; with or without children; and employed outside academia. Data collected from in‐depth semi‐structured interviews were thematically analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the participants’ experiences and perceptions. Two themes were identified through IPA: (a) challenges, which include the imposition of traditional roles, financial constraints, and unconstructive relationships with faculty members or advisors, and (b) the need for constructive relationships, defined by support from faculty, advisors, and peers. Suggestions for support mechanisms are also discussed.
Keywords: doctoral student agency; gender gap; higher education transformation; inclusive doctoral education
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9828

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Embracing Paradox Realities: Racially Minoritised Women and Gender‐Based Violence in Higher Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9825
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.9825
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 9825
Author-Name: Anke Lipinsky
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Data and Research on Society, GESIS‐Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Bruna Cristina Jaquetto Pereira
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Vilana Pilinkaitė Sotirovič
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences, Lithuania
Abstract: Although universities often adopt diversity and inclusion policies, the everyday experience of employees indicates multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination. This article discusses how institutional norms and practices reinforce power structures and stop those experiencing intersectional discrimination from voicing their experiences of gender‐based violence in higher education. We employ the frameworks of “everyday racism” and “network silence” to analyse 12 interviews with racially minoritised women who experienced gender‐based violence in academia and one bystander. Our findings challenge the assumption of universities that gender‐based violence and racial discrimination are marginal concerns. The interviews point to institutional factors that generate, coerce, and support silence. They reveal a paradox combination of dynamics of hypervisibility and invisibility, structural barriers, institutional practices, discriminatory attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudices as factors contributing to silencing, othering, and marginalisation within academia. Women from ethnic minorities and marginalised groups demonstrate both self‐silencing and the deprivation of their agency and voice due to cultural normative expectations. We conclude by exploring alternatives to promote transformational change that considers intersectional and multiple forms of discrimination. We suggest what change agents in higher education institutions can do to hear unheard voices and reduce the long‐standing multiple disadvantages faced by intersectionally marginalised groups.
Keywords: diversity; everyday racism; gender‐based violence; higher education; intersectionality; silence; transformational change
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9825

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Early Career Researchers as Stakeholders in University Decision‐Making in Europe: Comparative Perspectives
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9683
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.9683
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 9683
Author-Name: Liudvika Leišytė
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Author-Name: Ivana Načinović Braje
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Author-Name: Shulamit Almog
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Israel
Author-Name: Sultan Baysan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Studies Education, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Türkiye
Author-Name: Teresa Carvalho
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Aveiro, Portugal / CIPES, Portugal
Author-Name: Dovilė Daunoraitė
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Biotechnology, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Sara Diogo
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Aveiro, Portugal / CIPES, Portugal
Author-Name: Panourgias Papaioannou
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Author-Name: Anna Farmaki
Author-Workplace-Name: Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Author-Name: Shlomit Feldman
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Israel
Author-Name: Rakibe Külcür
Author-Workplace-Name: University College London, UK
Author-Name: Inga Matijošytė
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Biotechnology, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Sandra Pralgauskaitė
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Vanya Rangelova
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Epidemiology and Disaster Medicine, Medical University Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Author-Name: Dalia Šatkovskienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University, Lithuania
Abstract: The voices of academics have traditionally been strong in university decision‐making bodies, where they participated in the shared governance of the university. It has been customary for senior academics to be represented in managing bodies and to exercise control over the key areas of strategy, finance, quality assurance, study programs, and/or human resources. With the new public management reforms that have swept through higher education (HE) systems, the power of academics has been reduced, while managerial guidance has increased, alongside the fostering of universities’ institutional autonomy. At the same time, the power of other stakeholders, such as students or industry representatives, has also been increasing as part and parcel of the governance reforms, albeit to different degrees and at different paces across various HE systems. In this context, this article seeks to examine the role that early career researchers (ECRs) play in university decision‐making bodies across different countries as internal stakeholders. The research is based on seven case studies from seven European and East Mediterranean countries drawing on documentary data and 55 semi‐structured interviews with ECRs and 14 managers, carried out in 2023–2024. Following stakeholder categories distinguished on the basis of their legitimacy, urgency, and power, this <span class="fontstyle0">article investigates the extent to which ECRs perceive their voices to be heard. The findings show variance between the case studies regarding formal representation, with most universities in the study having limited representation of ECRs in university and faculty/school‐level decision‐making bodies. The voices of ECRs, however, are heard in informal ways.</span>
Keywords: decision‐making; early career researchers; power; representation; stakeholders; university governance; university; voice
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9683

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Achieving Inclusion: University Staff Working in Third Space Between Academic and Professional Spheres of Activity
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/9596
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.9596
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 14
Year: 2026
Number: 9596
Author-Name: Celia Whitchurch
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University College London, UK
Abstract: The article reflects on the case of staff employed on academic and professional contracts in UK universities who work in areas of activity that are not aligned precisely to either domain, sometimes referred to as “third space.” Examples are given of academic staff on teaching‐only contracts and people employed on professional contracts in educational and research development roles. Although such individuals are likely to be highly qualified, with a master’s or doctoral qualification, teach and, in some cases, undertake research, they occupy territory in the university that often lacks formal recognition. This is particularly so in relation to the legitimacy of their roles and parity with academic colleagues who undertake mainstream teaching and research and contribute to the UK Research Excellence Framework. Despite increasing commentary on the existence of these roles by practitioners themselves, institutions have been slow to accord them legitimacy in terms of, for example, dedicated space in institutional structures, appropriate professional development opportunities, career paths, or promotion and assessment criteria. Such individuals are therefore liable to feel excluded from the mainstream, even though they may be making a significant contribution to academic endeavours. Examples are offered of the extent to which individuals are able to achieve recognition at both a personal and collective level, and suggestions are made as to practical ways in which universities might accord this group of staff greater visibility, and thereby reduce the cultural, and implicitly hierarchical, divide between them and academic colleagues with an extended teaching and research profile.
Keywords: academic careers; academic staff; educational development; higher education; professional staff; professional careers; research management; third space; UK; work in academia
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:9596