Journal Article

Despite increased popularity and a strong pedagogical tradition, the literature on community-based learning (CBL) initiatives and service learning evidences a certain conceptual imprecision. In the hopes of clarifying definitional ambiguities, we critically review the CBL literature, identifying six distinct types of CBL options and their characteristics. The result is a hierarchy of community-based learning, which while not proposed as a definitive conceptualization, is likely to be useful in terms of curricular development. Using a hypothetical sociology class, the community-based learning options identified (i.e., out-of-class activities, volunteering, service add-ons, internships, service learning, and service learning advocacy) are discussed in terms of their pedagogical differences and associated curricular benefits.

Background: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are all developed nations that are home to Indigenous populations which have historically faced poorer outcomes than their non-Indigenous counterparts on a range of health, social, and economic measures. The past several decades have seen major efforts made to close gaps in health and social determinants of health for Indigenous persons. We ask whether relative progress toward these goals has been achieved. Methods. We used census data for each country to compare outcomes for the cohort aged 25-29 years at each census year 1981-2006 in the domains of education, employment, and income. Results: The percentage-point gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons holding a bachelor degree or higher qualification ranged from 6.6% (New Zealand) to 10.9% (Canada) in 1981, and grew wider over the period to range from 19.5% (New Zealand) to 25.2% (Australia) in 2006. The unemployment rate gap ranged from 5.4% (Canada) to 16.9% (Australia) in 1981, and fluctuated over the period to range from 6.6% (Canada) to 11.0% (Australia) in 2006. Median Indigenous income as a proportion of non-Indigenous median income (whereby parity = 100%) ranged from 77.2% (New Zealand) to 45.2% (Australia) in 1981, and improved slightly over the period to range from 80.9% (Canada) to 54.4% (Australia) in 2006. Conclusions: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand represent nations with some of the highest levels of human development in the world. Relative to their non-Indigenous populations, their Indigenous populations were almost as disadvantaged in 2006 as they were in 1981 in the employment and income domains, and more disadvantaged in the education domain. New approaches for closing gaps in social determinants of health are required if progress on achieving equity is to improve.

The last 3 decades have witnessed the rise of reforms aimed at conjoining Canadian universities to the economic system. Critics have pointed out how reforms have emphasized economic utility in universities to the detriment of their sociocultural mission, producing negative effects. One curricular innovation that has spread in tandem with reforms is co-operative education (co-op), which is seen to improve economic utility but has not attracted critical scrutiny. This article offers a socially critical perspective on co-op that draws on conceptual work and a sub-set of empirical data from a multi-case study conducted in one university. A tentative portrait emerged of a previously unexplored avenue of commercialization that is mediated through co-op. The process began with students enrolling to deal with personal financial burdens and to feel more secure about their economic futures. Once in co-op, students were exposed to competitive market processes that immersed them in the commercial activity of packaging, exchanging, and accumulating their human capital, using “skills” as discursive currency. Students internalized the discipline of the market, taking an entrepreneurial stance towards their self-definition and presentation. Programmatic features did not to enable students to reflect on or remediate negative experiences (e.g., tacit or explicit sexism) or distorting effects (e.g., devaluation of sociocultural skills). Their experiences highlighted areas for further critical investigation: the devaluation of the liberal arts; power dynamics and asymmetries between employers, administrators, and students; and patterns of social relations (e.g., the exercise of gendered power) in labour markets, workplaces, and universities. The article concludes that a rebalancing of economic and sociocultural purposes is needed in co-op, and the scope of critical inquiries into economistic reforms should be extended to include micro-level effects produced through the market-driven processes at the heart of co-op.

We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of 'culturomics,' focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000. We show how this approach can provide insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology. Culturomics extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities.

The term skills mismatch is very broad and can relate to many forms of labour market friction, including vertical mismatch, skill gaps, skill shortages, field of study (horizontal) mismatch and skill obsolescence. In this paper, we provide a clear overview of each concept and discuss the measurement and inter-relatedness of different forms of mismatch. We present a comprehensive analysis of the current position of the literature on skills mismatch and highlight areas which are relatively underdeveloped and may warrant further research. Using data from the European Skills and Jobs Survey, we assess the incidence of various combinations of skills mismatch across the EU. Finally, we review the European Commission's country-specific recommendations and find that skills mismatch, when referring to underutilized human capital in the form of overeducation and skills underutilization, receives little policy attention. In cases where skills mismatch forms part of policy recommendations, the policy advice is either vague or addresses the areas of mismatch for which there is the least available evidence.

More than 500 top-level business executives were studied to ascertain the validity of common stereotypes of who takes risks and who avoids risks. We began with 13 risk measures based on theoretical grounds, naturally occurring situations, and attitudes. These measures were formed into seven consolidated measures using factor analysis. Data were gathered on numerous socio-economic variables including ones relating to personal, financial, and professional characteristics. When these characteristics were subjected to factor analysis, four main factors emerged. Linear discriminant analysis was used to address the question of whether risk takers can be differentiated from risk averters. The results were surprisingly clearcut. The most successful executives were the biggest risk takers; the most mature executives were the most risk averse

This article examines the mismatches between supply of skills and attributes of immigrants and the demands of employers that influence workplace integration of skilled immigrants in Australia. It argues that, despite being skilled, immigrants still cannot meet the requirements of employers in doing their jobs effectively. There are mismatches, which happen mainly in the aspects of English proficiency, qualification and culture. The study followed a qualitative research design taking skilled immigrants from IT and engineering professional backgrounds and their employers in Australia as the interviewees. The results confirm that the workplace integration of immigrants is not only affected by the inherent capacities of immigrants, but the mindset of employers and their perception towards immigrants' overall qualities also manipulate the process. The results are, however, indicative only, as the study is confined to IT and engineering professional groups, and does not report the experiences of other immigrants.