Online Educational Ecosystem, Sustainability and Resiliency in Bangladesh: Scaffolding Pathways?

How is online tertiary education opening the student/teacher mind-set, particularly during the transitional learning/teaching process? The question is tested through a country-wide survey of students/teachers conducted against Independent University, Bangladesh's (IUB's) own transition. Students reported two broad changes: (a) micro-level infrastructural and resource issues resonating with macro-level interventions;and (b) the quality of learning vis-à-vis teaching amid-online platform transition merely exacerbating both teacher-level and student-level pressures. Accordingly, the chapter illustrates a handful of micro-level leverage points, based upon learner characteristics, needs, and university online ecosystem (including infrastructures, teacher's competency challenges, and Covid-19 impacts on the learning-teaching community), for future relevance. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.

Sustaining opportunities and mutual partiality through Collaborative Online International Learning in South Africa

The value of internationalization within the limits of mobility has become more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. As reflection occurs on our own history, navigating a period of reset and renewal, this paper examines how to advance our thinking, and explore and transverse essential differences within the digital space. Hence, recalibrating the global north and south agenda to create inclusionary principles through virtual exchange. First, this ethnographic paper explores the sympoeitic relationship of creating opportunities and a sense of agency toward morphogenesis. Second, it focuses on the contextual rationale for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) within higher education. Third, it explores equity in the digital space through multiple engagements in COIL. The paper offers associated conclusions for critical virtual exchange to advance equity, inclusion, and social justice and suggests responsible pluralistic internationalization. © The Author(s) 2023.

Introduction

Taking for granted new perspectives of nationalism in China's twenty-first-century global politics, this book introduces the everyday micro and macro-social levels of political, cultural, and economic behaviours and practices of individuals and States in society. It analyses the transformations surrounding the public domain of States and their national boundaries. Indeed, examples ranging from the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU) to the global social contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including China's politics of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), have shown evidence of growing "global nationalism”. By putting the case of China's BRI, the book advances the multi-scale dimensions of nationalism. It inserts the double face of foreign public policy and global Chinese activities. Based on a sociological-political perspective, the book reveals interactions emerging from "inside” and "outside” domains of States and their public actions. It also shows evidence of the role of culture in the global political economy. In addition, China's BRI puts forward distinct roles of culture, interests, and economy. These interactions run as the key features of the reception of the Chinese foreign policy. Specifically, technologies, development projects, trade, agro-industry, cyber-technologies, expertise, labour, military, and individuals and States' normative ambitions disclose new perspectives on nationalism and political economy. Contributors in this book explore these transactions between nationalism and economic politics by drawing on different cases from Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Pandemic techno-politics in the global South

Brazil has been standing out as one of the worst places on Earth to be during a global health crisis, especially for those whose struggle for basic humanitarian rights is already routine. How do the political environment and historical inequalities in countries like Brazil affect the ways in which public policy and technologies are framed as responses for the pandemic crisis? In this paper we aim to present the sequence of actions and omissions in the fight against sars-cov2 in Brazil, concentrating on measures based on the use of digital technologies and the sociotechnical arrangements unfolding in materialities that give shape to such measures. We will also discuss possible repercussions of the widespread adoption of surveillance technologies as a quick fix to the effects of the pandemic. Our focus is to explain how the materiality of the virus and its political as well as territorial effects are combined with digital technologies as responses (or lack of them) in the fields of healthcare, education, communication and labour in the context of the global South. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Information Polity: The International Journal of Government & Democracy in the Information Age is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Critical Commentary: Beyond growth and density: Recentring the demographic drivers of urban health and risk in the global south

Debates within urban studies concerning the relationship between urbanisation and infectious disease focus on issues of urban population growth, density, migration and connectivity. However, an effective long-term risk and wellbeing agenda, without which the threat of future pandemics cannot be mitigated, must also take account of demographic forces and changes as critical drivers of transmission and mortality risk within and beyond cities. A better understanding of the dynamics of fertility, mortality and changing age structures – key determinants of urban decline/growth in addition to migration – provides the foundation upon which healthier cities and a healthy global urban system can be developed. The study of how basic demographic attributes and trends are distributed in space and how they interact with risks, including those of infectious disease, must be incorporated as a priority into a post-COVID-19 urban public health agenda. This perspective concurs with recent debates in urban studies emphasising the demographic drivers of urban change. Moreover, it raises critical questions about the microbial and environmental emphasis of much research on the interface of urban health and governance.

Post-pandemic Urban World: Rethinking Urban Policies for Selected Indian Cities

With ninety percent of COVID-19 reported cases from urban areas, the urban world became an epicenter of the pandemic. A technology-driven approach was followed by Chinese cities had managed to keep the transmission in control. However, in Western countries, a human-driven approach was followed to combat the pandemic. The cities of global south were relatively more challenged in terms of technology as well as human-driven approaches. Likewise Indian cities too faced additional problems like inadequate infrastructure facilities. The pandemic aftermath did lay bare the disparities among different population groups, particularly the vulnerable ones who had been dually hit by low income as well as weak social and economic coverage. Though a multitude of research has been done on the general impact of pandemic, a limited number of research outpourings were observed on the impact of pandemic on the ‘third space'. As a critical component of social distancing all the ‘communal hangout spots' like park, local markets and gyms were forced to shut down during a pandemic which critically altered the social infrastructure. The study aimed to understand of the impact of pandemics on urban life, with a focus on the ‘third spaces', in the selected Indian cities. The methodology was integrated research review which included research output from popularly used database of scientific articles as well as government reports, documents, etc. This chapter questions how these spaces are perceived and how the perception changed during the outbreak. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Livelihood Zonation Mapping: An Unplugged Sect of Regional Science

Amidst the global health emergency, when couples of academicians are devoted to pursuing their research linked with COVID-19, this present chapter is purposively concerned with the lesser-highlighted issue of customarily categorized livelihoods scenario, on a spatial basis, in one of the nations of Global South. The prime objective of the present section is to find out the fundamental fashion of regional deviation as well as the concentration of livelihood and future suggestions for suitable policy proposals. While this volume is systematically based on secondary datasets from recognized sources and the methods are being adopted after judiciary modification of established modus operandi like ‘crop combination', ‘location quotient', ‘crop diversification', and ‘GDP geographical area ratio'. On the other side, for the overall ‘livelihood zone map' (LZM), the standard ‘Z'-score method, and GIS mapping tool have been used. Although the regional data-oriented outcome is much voluminous, in a nutshell, it can be affirmed that in Goa, Delhi (NCR), West Bengal, and Manipur, the quality of livelihood condition is well, while among rest of the Indian states and union territories, the status is below the desired level. Conclusively, for a more precise and area-oriented suitable policy proposal, more research work has been needed for the novel development of livelihood conditions and the country's economic base. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.

Everyday Morbid Geography: Street Life and COVID-19 State Regulation in Manila and Hanoi

After a full year of intermittent observation of pandemic conditions, this research analyzes the way street life of neighborhoods in two Southeast Asian cities has adapted to government-intensified sanitation measures, scarcity of essential goods and services, and movement restrictions that characterize the persistence of the COVID-19 influenza in selected sites in and around Manila, in the Philippines and in Hanoi, Vietnam. This study describes how citizens negotiate the morbid geography - the reshaping of public space as well as its encompassed social, institutional and economic processes in response to the pervasive state of pandemic - in relation to well-meaning but sometimes draconian government health regulations in the Global South. We draw on the dynamics of institutional strategy and citizen tactics as a theoretical lens, as informed by literature on coping and transgressive practices. Learning from comparable patterns of citizens' everyday life on the streets, even in countries with distinct administrative traditions, the study highlights the significance of agency under crisis and emphasizes the different meanings of public space for varied social groups. It suggests how urban planning and administration can be improved to prepare cities for future health emergencies and make them more resilient. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Institutional moral analysis of a global injustice: The case of access to antiretroviral drugs in the global South

The global health challenges highlighted by Covid-19 invigorate the interest in the legal instruments related to public policies on access to medicines, in a way that highlights the dialogue between the local and the global and the ambiguous role of global institutions in reducing inequalities in this access, as they themselves legitimize some of the causes of the problem. To guide this discussion, this study aims to question the institutional dimensions of unequal access to antiretroviral drugs between Global North and South, comparing the dialogue between international and domestic law in the field of health and intellectual property, as well as the challenges in terms of policies imposed on Brazil and India to deal with the impact of global decisions at the local level. It is concluded that, in relation to global health crises, the big question is not about the need to modify laws and institutions to face them, but about what combination of reforms would alleviate the problems arising from them in a more fair and efficient way. The study is operationalized by dialectical reasoning and carried out through documental, jurisprudential and bibliographic analysis. As for its originality, it consists in bringing to the debate this topic that is so pertinent in the global pandemic context from a comparative perspective and under the prism of global justice, an institutional approach that departs from egalitarian liberalism to defend that the mitigation of injustices comes from of an intelligent redesign of norms and institutions. © 2022 Centro Universitario de Brasilia. All rights reserved.

Monkeypox vaccination in the global south: Fighting a war without a weapon.

Background: The Mpox outbreak awakened countries worldwide to renew efforts in epidemiological surveillance and vaccination of susceptible populations. In terms of Mpox vaccination, various challenges exist in the global south, which impede adequate vaccine coverage, especially in Africa. This paper reviewed the situation of Mpox vaccination in the global south and potential ameliorative approaches. Methods: A review of online literature from PubMed and Google Scholar concerning Mpox vaccination in countries belonging to the 'global south' category was done between August and September, 2022. The major focus areas included inequity in global vaccine distribution, challenges impeding vaccine coverage in the global south, and potential strategies for bridging the gap in vaccine equity. The papers that met the inclusion criteria were collated and narratively discussed. Results: Our analysis revealed that, while the high-income countries secured large supplies of the Mpox vaccines, the low- and middle-income countries were unable to independently access substantial quantities of the vaccine and had to rely on vaccine donations from high-income countries, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges in the global south particularly revolved around inadequate vaccine production capacity due to lack of qualified personnel and specialized infrastructure for full vaccine development and manufacturing, limited cold chain equipment for vaccine distribution, and consistent vaccine hesitancy. Conclusion: To tackle the trend of vaccine inequity in the global south, African governments and international stakeholders must invest properly in adequate production and dissemination of Mpox vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.

Dismantling cultural borders through social media and digital communications: How networked communities compromise identity

This book explores how social media and its networked communities dismantles, builds, and shapes identity. Social media has been instrumental, sometimes dangerously so, in binding together different communities;with thirteen original chapters by leading academics in the field, the volume investigates how belonging, togetherness, and loyalty is created in the digital sphere, in a way that transcends, and even dismantles, ethnic and national borders around the world. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

Re-imagining Educational Futures in Developing Countries: Lessons from Global Health Crises

This book explores the challenges and precarity of higher education post-pandemic, explicitly focusing on higher education in emerging countries. Looking beyond the pandemic, the editors and contributors provide a holistic view of the residual legacies of global health crises like COVID-19 in developing countries. The book calls for the need to reimagine, reevaluate and reposition the higher education system: exploring the challenges experienced by students, staff, administrators and other stakeholders. Bringing forth insights from researchers, practitioners and senior leadership, the book shares theoretical and practical insights on dealing with the aftermath of a pandemic and what can be learned for the future. It will be of interest and value to researchers, practitioners and leaders who wish to understand a develop new approaches for their teaching and management post-pandemic. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Law enforcement and public health: A framework for analysis of LEPH in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

Approaches for protecting public safety and enhancing community wellbeing at the intersection of law enforcement and public health (LEPH) are increasingly being examined with a view to developing a theoretical framework for analysing their multiple intersections (van Dijk et al., The Lancet, 393(10168):287-294, 2019). Yet, crime, health and social 'problems' occur, manifest, resolve or regress in different ways in different contexts. We outline a framework identifying a number of broad variables for consideration to identify, assess and explore LEPH solutions to problems of public health and safety in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Before proposing the development of this framework to develop the various dimensions at the intersection of the LEPH in further detail, this chapter looks at three case studies focused on the topics of HIV-AIDS, abortion and COVID-19. While the focus of this chapter is on examples in the Global South, the framework also has utility in the Global North. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

Taking Part while being apart: conducting participatory research with children during the COVID-19 pandemic

The paper is a reflective narrative of engaging two school students aged 13–16 as advisors in participatory research in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 crisis. It outlines different ways to facilitate the active engagement of children and young people and include their voices in research. The authors also discuss the benefits and methodological and ethical complexities of engaging children and young people as advisors of adult researchers during the pandemic in a country from the Global South, such as Bangladesh. The findings underscore the need to rethink the traditional view of considering children and young people as vulnerable and passive members of society in times of emergency and explore the scope of involving them as active stakeholders in producing quality research data. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Research & Method in Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Beyond Mainstream Development: The Moral Economy Alternative

Calls for moral economy abound as evidence accumulates of growing social, ecological and racialized failings of mainstream development conceived as a Westerncentric/Eurocentric construct largely driven by the notion of 'economic growth' as basis of development. There is now a considerable and diverse literature on contradictions of the mainstream development, including questions of inequality, climate change vulnerability, white racism, modern slavery, child labor, terrorism, new nationalism, decline of multilateralism at post-Brexit Europe and more recently COVID-19 pandemic-which has exacerbated existing poverty and inequality in the Global South. Yet these growing concerns are neglected in mainstream development discourse. Importantly, the broader landscape within which climate change, modern slavery, white racism, ecological and human security is situated is increasingly changing bringing new challenges to the understanding and rational of mainstream development. In view of this context, this article makes a new contribution to the debate on the failures of the mainstream development in post-pandemic world order. Building on post development debate, it argues that there are several disconnects, tensions and contradictions between the economic growth model and more ethical and equitable treatment of development. It proffers a moral economy and what makes it an alternative model and draws new distinctions between development as economic growth, which inhibits an understanding of moral economy that can address more directly the underlying contradictions of mainstream development in an historically asymmetrical global system. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Forum for Development Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Decolonising Safeguarding During a Pandemic: Lessons for Research Praxis in International Social Work

Protecting people from harm and upholding their right to be protected is a central tenet of social work. ‘Safeguarding' as a term is, however, a relatively new introduction to the language of international research practice for protecting people. Practices of judging and categorising risk, harm, and vulnerability are nevertheless not new territory for either social work or research. Inherently imbued with power and ‘othering' practices, the problematic aspects of these categorisations, especially in Global North-South relations, are in fact long established (Munck and Kleibl, 2019). They sort and classify people as those who pose a ‘risk' or challenge to certain social norms, and those who are deemed to be ‘at risk, ' ‘vulnerable, ' or in need of protection. In this way, risk as a concept and ‘risk-work' as practice can be understood to be a colonial project. Systemic and institutionalised, or ‘baked in, ' to both research institutions as well as research and welfare practices. Researching social work, especially at this time of global pandemic, therefore has the potential to reify these colonial logics. Drawing on the growing literature on the impacts of COVID-19 on development challenges, and work undertaken by YOLRED to assess safeguarding issues for working with at-risk or marginalised groups, including former child soldiers, this chapter explores the conceptual, linguistic, and practical challenges of ‘safeguarding' for praxis. Further, it will illustrate, from the authors' ongoing works within this area, lessons learned and key takeaways for how the concept of safeguarding can be reimagined as a potential framework for decolonising research. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

the disease of expertise

The Disease of Expertise, is a poem composed by poet, playwright, musician and researcherTawona Sitholé. Within the poem,Sitholé challenges the contemporary constructs of modernity, knowledge, and knowledge production in the scope of globalized economies. Utilizing Covid-19 and the corresponding global pandemic as a backdrop into the inquiry of knowledge, and economic development Sitholé incorporates his own lived experience and local knowledge to highlight contemporary issues relating to globalization, structural inequities, and questions of knowledge within the Global South.

Pushed to the Margins: Ethiopian Migrants in South Africa

Ethiopian immigrants in South Africa are increasingly occupying informal trading space in townships, rural areas and in select central business districts across the country. This article documents the experiences of Ethiopian migrants in the informal sector in South Africa. Theoretically, the article rests on the concept of everyday life. It draws on data from interviews, focus group discussions and observations carried out between October 2020 and September 2021. This signals a period in which everyone was challenged by COVID-19, especially migrants, which compounded the hierarchies of marginality in which Ethiopian migrants in South Africa are situated. Coupled with this, Ethiopian migrants face two broad levels of marginality: firstly, marginality from state policies and the communities in which they reside and work;and secondly, marginality from gendered and class-based inequalities within the Ethiopian community. The structural and hegemonic barriers range from lack of documentation to regularize residency status and business respectively, extortion by gangs in the name of "protection fee,” exploitation by local level state/community structures and women restricted to female roles. By the same token, we see the creativity and ingenuity of this community, that focuses on their personhood, to make sense of their lives and create conditions to live meaningful lives. This article explores some of the core contestations emerging out of these twin marginalities the ways in which Ethiopian migrants structure their lives and livelihoods in South Africa.

Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Responses on Persons with Disabilities Including Psychosocial Disabilities in the Global South: The Case of Ghana

There is evidence that persons with disabilities (PWDs) continue to encounter barriers globally;such barriers impede their participation and inclusion in society. In developing countries such as Ghana, the effects of the barriers could be profound because of attitudes that are deeply rooted in Ghanaian sociocultural beliefs and practices. Although these attitudes marginalize persons with disabilities, stigma, and discrimination against persons with disabilities, have a further impact on familial support systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the weak familial support systems for persons with disabilities. Lockdowns, social distancing, physical distancing, hygiene, and health practices are among the safety measures taken against the impact of this pandemic, which affects individuals, families, and communities. Unfortunately, the government of Ghana's COVID-19 response strategy adopted by several community organizations are not disability inclusive. The chapter explores the challenges faced by persons with physical and psychosocial disabilities within Ghanaian society in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we explore the risk factors and how they impact persons with disabilities. We seek to learn more about which groups of persons with disabilities are more vulnerable, the coping strategies adopted by persons with disabilities, and the measures that the government could adopt to better address the needs of persons with disabilities. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

COVID and Social Work Voices from India and Australia: Strategic and Meaningful Solidarities for Global Justice

The social work experiences of COVID are differentially experienced within and between countries. This chapter is a co-production that draws on narratives by social work academics and social work practitioners in India and Australia, which highlight inequities. From the voices of co-producers, four thematic areas that arose are discussed: People and the State: Migrants, Refugees, and Citizens;Women, Mobility, and Violence;Digital Divide: Access to Communities and Social Work Practice;and Role of Social Workers: Relief and Systemic Interventions. The rich narratives highlight the expertise of social workers as complementary to the dominant reliance on health professional interventions. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.