The so called Second Demographic Transition (Lesthaeghe and Van der Kaa, 1986), which surfaced in the sixties of the twentieth century in Western Europe and North America, resulted from a significant change in the pattern of norms and values. This again resulted in delayed fertility, a declining population when there was no replenishment through "replacement migration” and an increasing variety of household structures (with a rising number of one-person households). The rise in life expectancy coupled with a declining fertility, evolved into a gradual ageing of the population.The concept of ‘unbalanced population decline’ (Van Nimwegen and Heering 2009) enables us, while studying population decline, to take into account different motives underlying the decision to migrate during the life course; young people migrating in search of higher education and job opportunities and elderly clustering in places with a high facility level. This unbalanced population decline is taking place in some rural parts and smaller towns in the Netherlands. Especially the two migration flows mentioned above determine the structure of the population and the possibilities for effective family, kin and other social support systems for the elderly.Method:Analysis using amongst others recent demographic data from de community of Oldambt (Netherlands)Results:It will be shown that the effects of the demographic transition in the North of the Netherlands are accelerated because of unbalanced population decline. Furthermore it will be argued that because of this combination in parts of the Northern Netherlands family, kin and social support systems for the elderly are deteriorating more rapidly than in other parts of the county.Conclusion:Combined effects of demographic transition and unbalanced population decline urge for a reconsideration of the possibilities to rely on family, kin and other social support systems in different regions in the Netherlands.
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Wereldwijd onderzoek: Hoe gebruiken nieuwsmedia social media? Jongeren lezen geen krant meer, ze kijken op hun smartphone die ze altijd bij de hand hebben. Binnen het lectoraat social media en reputatiemanagement van NHL hogeschool te Leeuwarden heeft een groep internationale studenten in 12 landen onderzoek gedaan. Hierbij hebben ze meer dan 150 social media sites bestudeerd van nieuws media. De resultaten maken deel uit van een internationaal onderzoek van NHL Hogeschool en Haaga Helia University. De onderzoeksvraag was: Wat speelt zich af in de nieuwsmedia? Persbureaus kunnen het overzicht gebruiken om hun social media te optimaliseren. En voor ieder die journalistiek een warm hart toedraagt is het interessante informatie over de nieuwsmedia in een overgangssituatie (2nd edition)
The transition taking place within the Dutch healthcare system has been a central theme in politics and public debate for decades. The recent changes again demand the full attention of researchers and educators in the field. In this article, we reflect on the current ideology and goals of the transition and link these to the range of ideas that lie behind the ideal of “community care”. Additionally, we pose the question of what these changes may mean for research and education within the social care domain in general and for our research group in particular. The AUAS Community Care Research Group covers a variety of research topics that are clustered into three “streams”: informal care, social inclusion and network strengthening. Within these streams, we focus on care by society and link this to professional caregiving. We will also explain why our research interests are specifically relevant in the context of the transition of the healthcare system, as this transition explicitly accentuates the importance of a “caring society” and thus a change in role for the care professional. We will also reflect on how we can best translate our research results into the curriculum of education programmes for students who will soon work as professionals in the social and/or care domains.
Designing cities that are socially sustainable has been a significant challenge until today. Lately, European Commission’s research agenda of Industy 5.0 has prioritised a sustainable, human-centric and resilient development over merely pursuing efficiency and productivity in societal transitions. The focus has been on searching for sustainable solutions to societal challenges, engaging part of the design industry. In architecture and urban design, whose common goal is to create a condition for human life, much effort was put into elevating the engineering process of physical space, making it more efficient. However, the natural process of social evolution has not been given priority in urban and architectural research on sustainable design. STEPS stems from the common interest of the project partners in accessible, diverse, and progressive public spaces, which is vital to socially sustainable urban development. The primary challenge lies in how to synthesise the standardised sustainable design techniques with unique social values of public space, propelling a transition from technical sustainability to social sustainability. Although a large number of social-oriented studies in urban design have been published in the academic domain, principles and guidelines that can be applied to practice are large missing. How can we generate operative principles guiding public space analysis and design to explore and achieve the social condition of sustainability, developing transferable ways of utilising research knowledge in design? STEPS will develop a design catalogue with operative principles guiding public space analysis and design. This will help designers apply cross-domain knowledge of social sustainability in practice.
De 2SHIFT SPRONG-groep is een samenwerkingsverband van HAN University of Applied Sciences en Fontys Hogescholen. Onze ambitie is het vergroten van eerlijke kansen op gezond leven. Dit doen we door het vormgeven en versterken van gemeenschappen als fundament voor het creëren van eerlijke kansen op gezond leven. Vanuit deze gemeenschappen wordt in co-creatie gewerkt aan structuur (i.e. systeem), sociale en technologische innovaties. Deze ambitie sluit aan bij de centrale missie KIA Gezondheid en Zorg om bij te dragen aan goede gezondheid en het verkleinen van sociaaleconomische gezondheidsverschillen. Ook draagt het bij aan deelmissie 1. het voorkomen van ziekte, waarbij wij uitgaan van het concept Positieve Gezondheid en Leefomgeving. Én het zorgt voor het verplaatsen van ondersteuning en zorg naar de leefomgeving (deelmissie 2), doordat gemeenschappen hiervoor een stevig fundament vormen. De gemeenschap is geoperationaliseerd als een samenwerking tussen inwonersinitiatieven (i.e. informele actoren) én professionals vanuit wonen, welzijn, zorg en gemeenten (i.e. formele actoren) die bestuurlijk en beleidsmatig worden ondersteund. Toenemend wordt een belangrijke rol en meer verantwoordelijkheid toebedeeld aan inwoners en wordt de noodzaak van sectoroverstijgende, inclusieve samenwerking tussen deze actoren in lokale fieldlabs benadrukt. 2SHIFT start daarom in vier fieldlabs: twee dorpen en twee wijken in (midden-)stedelijke gebieden, waar in vergelijking met groot-stedelijk gebied (zoals Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag en Utrecht) andere dynamieken en mechanismen een rol spelen bij het creëren van eerlijke kansen op een gezond leven. Om impact in onderwijs en praktijk te realiseren werken we nauw samen met studenten, docenten én met inwoners, professionals, bestuurders en beleidsmakers uit wonen, welzijn, zorg en gemeenten én landelijke kennispartners (“quadruple helix”). 2SHIFT brengt transdisciplinaire expertise én verschillende onderzoeksparadigma’s samen in een Learning Community (LC), waarin bestaande kennis en nieuwe kennis wordt samengebracht en ontwikkeld. Over 8 jaar is 2SHIFT een (inter)nationaal erkende onderzoeksgroep die het verschil maakt.
Teachers have a crucial role in bringing about the extensive social changes that are needed in the building of a sustainable future. In the EduSTA project, we focus on sustainability competences of teachers. We strengthen the European dimension of teacher education via Digital Open Badges as means of performing, acknowledging, documenting, and transferring the competencies as micro-credentials. EduSTA starts by mapping the contextual possibilities and restrictions for transformative learning on sustainability and by operationalising skills. The development of competence-based learning modules and open digital badge-driven pathways will proceed hand in hand and will be realised as learning modules in the partnering Higher Education Institutes and badge applications open for all teachers in Europe.Societal Issue: Teachers’ capabilities to act as active facilitators of change in the ecological transition and to educate citizens and workforce to meet the future challenges is key to a profound transformation in the green transition.Teachers’ sustainability competences have been researched widely, but a gap remains between research and the teachers’ practise. There is a need to operationalise sustainability competences: to describe direct links with everyday tasks, such as curriculum development, pedagogical design, and assessment. This need calls for an urgent operationalisation of educators’ sustainability competences – to support the goals with sustainability actions and to transfer this understanding to their students.Benefit to society: EduSTA builds a community, “Academy of Educators for Sustainable Future”, and creates open digital badge-driven learning pathways for teachers’ sustainability competences supported by multimodal learning modules. The aim is to achieve close cooperation with training schools to actively engage in-service teachers.Our consortium is a catalyst for leading and empowering profound change in the present and for the future to educate teachers ready to meet the challenges and act as active change agents for sustainable future. Emphasizing teachers’ essential role as a part of the green transition also adds to the attractiveness of teachers’ work.
