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Transnational routes such as direct-entry have become a more attractive option for Chinese students, due to the pandemic-imposed travel restrictions in China. The rise of Chinese direct-entry students can potentially lead to a significant increase in demand for academic and non-academic support not only after their arrival, but also before their departure from China. By applying Schlossberg's transition theory, this paper seeks to develop a good understanding of the academic and social belonging of Chinese direct-entry students in the UK through re-analysing the portraits (written narratives) of a previous research project. The findings indicate that these students were feeling disconnected from the academic and social communities. The factors affecting their sense of belonging are described using the 4S framework, namely self, strategies, situation and support. The paper ends with recommendations to key university stakeholders on how the partner institutions in China and the UK can help enhance a sense of academic and social belongingness of Chinese direct-entry students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences and perceptions of Zora, an older Muslim woman living with a disability in the UK. Older disabled Muslim women in the UK often face multiple discriminations based on disability, age, gender, religious, and racial grounds and this has arguably been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on multiple narrative interviews with Zora, this paper focuses on the intersections of disability, ageing, gender, race and religion within a particular social context during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The paper describes the complex ways in which Zora experienced various modes of everyday disablism which were not related to the COVID-19 virus itself, rather the consequences of the movement restrictions associated with it. Much of the oppression and barriers she described were socially determined, both through direct discrimination, stares and prejudicial attitudes, and indirectly through stigmatization and an embodied fear of the reaction of others in public spaces. Nevertheless, Zora did not present herself as a victim. Instead she portrayed herself in affirmative terms, as a 'brave' woman who resisted and overcame daily social challenges and movement restrictions as part of working toward creating a more accessible, inclusive and age-friendly society. One that is inhabitable for herself and other older disabled women facing an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a national survey of over 3400 teachers across all phases of education in England, 10 weeks into school closure. In this paper we report on the teachers' experiences and their testimonies of the effects of the lockdown on their wellbeing as they navigate the situation, trying to cope with teaching and adjusting to the use of new technology to deliver lessons in the confines of their home. We present their voices as they related their experiences and emotions in real time as the event unfolded. Teachers reported an increased workload with a proportionately large amount of time spent on administrative duties and planning, but less on actual teaching. On average, these teachers spent 15 h a week marking during the lockdown. Under half of the respondents said they felt happy and cheerful often, while only 17% said they did not feel this way often. Almost all teachers said they felt that what they were doing was important and worthwhile. The most common emotions expressed by teachers were fear, isolation, neglect, anxiety, and confusion. The inconsistency and lack of clarity of government guidelines added to teachers' anxiety. The negative media portrayal of teachers did not help. The majority of teachers reported little previous experience in online teaching and only a quarter were confident in using edtech to deliver remote teaching. Only a third of teachers said they were adequately supported for online teaching. This has implications for future teacher development and initial teacher training. However, there were equally numerous positive experiences reported by teachers. Active support from parents and consistent school-home communication were seen as important in ensuring students' continued engagement with learning. These lessons are beneficial in supporting the long-term sick and school refusers post-lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective paper begins with discussing how COVID-19 magnified the prepandemic 'bare life' conditions which exposed older people's lives to risks and indignities in the health and social care system. Then, by using the concept of Necropolitics, the life and death decisions, based on age as a proxy measure for population health during the pandemic, are discussed. This discussion includes examples of 'exceptional' practices that were implemented in the UK during the first wave, including 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders, unsafe hospital discharges, not transferring to hospitals, and denying access to treatment for older people. It then goes on to renew the call for a feminist care ethic to be central to the ways in which our future health and social care systems are configured. Arguing for the need to politically reframe ageing, health and social care provision towards a radical alternative system that rethinks care relations and addresses inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for more sustainable tourism has long been recognised, and the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated renewed calls for large-scale and rapid transformation of the sector. Attractive as such calls were, implementing aspirations for more sustainable futures requires significant 'buy-in' from the demand side. Yet, substantive evidence of tourists desiring more sustainable futures was lacking. This paper aims to address this empirical deficit and to critically reflect on early pandemic rhetoric calling for transformative change. It reports on the results from a panel survey conducted with visitors to Northern Devon—a UK destination with a long-standing commitment to sustainable development—who stayed overnight in the region during Coronavirus restrictions. Of three possible trajectories for tourism development, the majority of respondents preferred a sustainable future. However, just under a quarter preferred a scenario associated with further growth in tourism, and this trajectory was perceived as the most likely to occur. Using a case-study approach, the paper critiques emergent discourse around sustainability transitions in tourism, highlighting a supply-side emphasis in extant analysis and the need for closer examination of tourist preferences for transitional pathways. If conceptual architectures from Transitions Studies are to support the implementation of sustainability transitions in tourism, both the Multi-Level Perspective and the Transitions Management approach must consider tourists' perspectives on destination change more carefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold damage to the socio-economic lives of people all over the world. Research has also demonstrated great inequality in the pandemic experience. In the UK as in many other countries, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and in workingclass positions have suffered disproportionately more than the majority group and those in salariat positions in terms of income loss, financial difficulty, and vulnerability to infection. Yet little is known about how people coped in the daily lives and tried to maintain their well-being during the most difficult days of the pandemic through social capital. Methods: In this paper, we draw data from the COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies to address these questions. The survey covered the period from May 2020 to February 2021, the height of the pandemic in the UK. It contains numerous questions on contact, help and support among family, friends, community members, socio-political trust, and physical and mental health. We conceptualise three types of social capital and one type of overall well-being and we construct latent variables from categorical indicator variables. We analyse the ethnic and socio-economic determinants of the three types of social capital and their impacts on well-being. Results: Our analysis shows that social capital plays very important roles on wellbeing, and that ethnic minority groups, particularly those of Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Black heritages, faced multiple disadvantages: their poorer socio-economic positions prevented them from gaining similar levels of social capital to those of the white group. However, for people with the same levels of social capital, the effects on well-being are generally similar. Discussion: Socio-economic (class) inequality is the root cause for ethnic differences in social capital which in turn affects people's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of stress and work from home and their influence on the frequency of praying (spirituality) and attending ritual services (religiosity). Design/methodology/approach: Drawing from a data set from Understanding Society (COVID-19 study) in the UK from 5,357 participants, this study specifies a two-level mixed-effects ordered-probit regression to test the main hypotheses and chi-square (x2) analysis, gamma (γ) and tau-b (τb) for checking the robustness of this study results. Findings: The findings of this study exhort with statistical confidence that spirituality is positively related to religiosity. Working from home positively influences individuals' spiritual and religious needs, while attending religious services in person is associated with less stress. Females have been found to be more likely to pray rather than attend religious services. Originality/value: This study investigates the role of work from home and stress on spirituality and religiosity, two key elements often forgotten in personal life and copying. This paper considers spirituality as the frequency of praying, while religiosity is the frequency of attending rituals, which religion has institutionalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the growth of the UK coworking space (CWS) sector in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on data from a multi-year study comprising 44 interviews with CWS owners, managers, and other key economic actors. The paper offers a novel contribution by drawing on critical political economy to conceptualise CWS as capitalist enterprises providing fixed capital of an independent kind in competitive markets increasingly shaped by changing urban commercial real estate dynamics which necessitate that CWS adapt their business models to remain economically viable. The paper finds the entry of large corporate actors in the CWS sector is forcing smaller independent CWS to diversify to remain competitive. This pressure inhibits the ability of CWS to adhere to – and offer services matching – the aims of early CWS, namely the cultivation of a community of like-minded individuals who cowork to reduce rental costs and social isolation. These findings are theoretically and empirically significant as they illustrate how rapid sectoral shifts are driven by business decisions with structural causes, rather than being due to the actions of individual users of CWS or the communities they serve. These findings have implications for understanding the future of coworking and provide new insights into how competition shapes and changes the business models and competitive strategies of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint Institutions are created from two different universities joining together to create a collaborative research and education effort. Compared to traditional universities, several unique challenges present themselves from this arrangement. We are especially interested in the student experience at UK-China Joint Institutes. We therefore organized a conference with the UK-China Joint Institute Alliance to aggregate knowledge on this issue. This paper summarizes the topics presented and discussed at the conference including: student learning and methods with which to measure and improve it, monitoring and incentivizing student engagement, the transition period from high school to university, teaching evaluations of staff, and lastly, learning and teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical agency (CA) refers to an individual's feeling of power in relation to social inequalities. Research has demonstrated that high CA is associated with positive adolescent outcomes, however, less is known about what supports are important for its development. Moreover, a large majority of the literature is based on studies from the US and various countries in Africa; although the UK is saturated with inequalities there is little research within a UK context. In this paper we examine (a) the validity of using an existing measure of CA with a sample of UK adolescents and (b) the extent to which resilience supports account for variance in CA. Our analysis identified two distinct factors of CA: justice-oriented and community-oriented. High CA in both factors was explained by resilience supports associated with peer relationships (p < 0.01). Our findings push us towards new relational, ecological ways of understanding adolescent CA. We close by instantiating a translational framework for those devising policies in support of youth resilience and CA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]