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Since the 1980s, neoliberalism has had a major impact on social life and, in turn, research in the social sciences. Emerging from the crisis of the Keynesian welfare state, neoliberalism describes a social transformation that has impacted relationships between citizens and the state, consumers and the market, and individuals and groups. Neoliberal Contentions offers original essays that explore neoliberalism in its various guises. It includes chapters on economic policy and restructuring, resource extraction, multiculturalism and equality, migration and citizenship, health reform, housing policy, and 2SLGBTQ communities. Drawing on the work of influential Canadian political economist Janine Brodie, the contributors use Brodie’s scholarship as a springboard for their own distinct analyses of pressing political and social issues. Acknowledging neoliberalism’s crises, failures, and contradictions, this collection contends with neoliberalism by diagnosing the present, situating the phenomenon within a broader historical and political-economic context and observing instances in which neoliberal rationality is reinforced as well as resisted.

Seventeen years ago Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) published the landmark article \"Toward aTheory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,\" giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I, like countless teachers and university-based researchers, have been inspired by what it means to make teaching and learning relevant and responsive to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference and (inequality. Recently, however, I have begun to question if the terms \"relevant\" and \"responsive\" are really descriptive of much of the teaching and research founded upon them and, more importantly, if they go far enough in their orientation to the languages and literacies and other cultural practices of communities marginalized by systemic inequalities to ensure the valuing and maintenance of our multiethnic and multilingual society. In this essay, I offer the term and stance of culturally sustaining pedagogy as an alternative that, I believe, embodies some of the best research and practice in the resource pedagogy tradition and as a term that supports the value of our multiethnic and multilingual present and future. Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling. In the face of current policies and practices that have the explicit goal of creating a monocultural and monolingual society, research and practice need equally explicit resistances that embrace cultural pluralism and cultural equality.

Women from ethnic minority groups are at greater risk of developing mental health problems. Poor perinatal mental health impacts on maternal morbidity and mortality and can have a devastating impact on child and family wellbeing. It is important to ensure that services are designed to meet the unique needs of women from diverse backgrounds. The aim of the review was to explore ethnic minority women's experiences of perinatal mental ill health, help-seeking and perinatal mental health services in Europe. Searches included CINAHL, Maternity and Infant Care, MEDLINE and PsycINFO with no language or date restrictions. Additional literature was identified by searching reference lists of relevant studies. This was a mixed method systematic review. Study selection, appraisal and data extraction were conducted by two researchers independently. A convergent approach was adopted for the analysis and the data were synthesised thematically. The 15 eligible studies included women from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds and were all undertaken in the United Kingdom (UK). Seven overarching themes were identified; awareness and beliefs about mental health, isolation and seeking support, influence of culture, symptoms and coping strategies, accessing mental health services, experiences of mental health services and what women want. Lack of awareness about mental ill health, cultural expectations, ongoing stigma, culturally insensitive and fragmented health services and interactions with culturally incompetent and dismissive health providers all impact on ethnic minority women's ability to receive adequate perinatal mental health support in the UK. Future research should focus on in-depth exploration of the experiences of these women across multiple European settings and interventions to reduce health inequalities among vulnerable mothers and families affected by perinatal mental ill health.

Many countries adopted comprehensive national initiatives to promote equity in higher education with the goal of transforming the culture of research. Major health research funders are supporting this work through calls for projects that focus on equity, resulting in a proliferation of theoretical frameworks including “intersectionality,” “health equity,” and variations of equity, diversity and inclusion, or EDI. This commentary is geared at individual principal investigators and health research teams who are developing research proposals and want to consider equity issues in their research, perhaps for the first time. We present histories and definitions of three commonly used frameworks: intersectionality, health equity, and EDI. In the context of health research, intersectionality is a methodology (a combination of epistemology and techniques) that can identify the relationships among individual identities and systems of oppression; however, it should also be used internally by research teams to reflect on the production of knowledge. Health equity is a societal goal that operationalizes the social determinants of health to document and address health disparities at the population level. EDI initiatives measure and track progress within organizations or teams and are best suited to inform the infrastructure and human resourcing “behind the scenes” of a project. We encourage researchers to consider these definitions and strive to tangibly move health research towards equity both in the topics we study and in the ways we do research.

The medical profession has an equity problem, particularly in leadership. Several Canadian studies have highlighted the extent of gender inequity in leadership in medicine, and the extent to which opportunities in academic medicine are inequitable by gender. Gender, in combination with race, religion, sexual orientation and cultural origin, elicits discrimination, including in medicine. In the medical profession, inequities in compensation and career advancement, and discriminatory treatment by peers and patients, has been associated with the intersection of race and gender. Here, Tricco et al discuss the problem of gender inequity in medicine in Canada, its root causes, the problems inequity raises for the profession and multipronged approaches to promoting equity at all levels of medical organizations, based on best available evidence.

In recent years, several countries have enacted guidelines and/or mandatory laws to increase the presence of women on the boards of companies. Through these regulatory interventions, the aim is to eradicate the social and labor grievances that women have traditionally experienced and which has relegated them to smaller-scale jobs. Nevertheless, and despite the advances achieved, the female representation in the boardroom remains far from the desired levels. In this context, it is now necessary to enhance the advantages of board gender diversity from both ethical and economic points of view. This article examines the relation between board gender diversity and economic results in Spain: the second country in the world to legally require gender quotas in boardrooms and historically characterized by a minimal female participation in the workforce. Based on a sample of 125 non-financial firms listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2009, our findings show that in the period analyzed the increase of the number of women on boards was over 98 %. This suggests that compulsory legislation offers an efficient framework to execute the recommendation of Spanish codes of good governance by means of the increase in the number of women in the boards of firms. Furthermore, we find that the increase in the number of women on the boards is positively related to higher economic results. Therefore, both results suggest that gender diversity in boardrooms should be incremented, mandatory laws being a key factor to do so.

BackgroundAn equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) audit was commissioned to assess whether hospice stakeholders felt included, with their needs met and their contributions valued, and to ensure that unintentional bias had not crept in.Aim(s)Assess policies, processes and EDI interventions’ effectiveness.Understand EDI perceptions and aspirations, and stakeholders’ ‘lived experience’.Strategically address gaps identified.MethodsPolicies, processes, equality monitoring data and external profile were reviewed, and questionnaires, listening groups and individual interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders.FindingsDespite evidence of senior level commitment to improve, and pockets of significant EDI interest, knowledge and expertise, there was a lack of:A strategic EDI focus and the hospice was ‘behind the curve’.Diversity in:employee and volunteer profiles and therefore understanding of different lived experiencesthe physical hospice environment, sending an inaccurate message to the community about the hospice’s ethos and approachinclusivity in hospice branding, meaning some local minority communities felt the hospice was ‘not for them’.There was an organisational EDI blind spot where unconscious bias played out in unintentionally exclusionary behaviours affecting culture and impeding inclusive service delivery.Progress‘Proud to be’ series, sharing lived experiences, launched.EDI Lead appointed, and governance framework implemented.EDI objectives agreed.Mandatory Conscious Inclusion training.Partnership working with local community.Regional EDI forum established.How innovative or of interest is the abstract?EDI is complex and provocative, requiring humility and a willingness to learn. It requires courage to hold firm in the face of criticism by those whose own views of hospice may be challenged. The ‘Proud to be’ series and training has created the psychological safety for colleagues to share lived experiences without fear of judgment or adverse treatment. This has allowed the entire organisation to grow.

Background The emergence of patient and public involvement (PPI) in healthcare in the UK can be traced as far back as the 1970s. More recently, campaigns by harmed patients have led to a renewed focus on strengthening PPI. There is a growing awareness of the benefits of PPI in research as well as a need to address power inequities and a lack of diversity and inclusion. This review was undertaken to look at evidence for theories, barriers and enablers in PPI across health, social care and patient safety that could be used to strengthen PPI and address a perceived knowledge and theory gap with PPI in patient safety. Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO from inception to August 2018, using both MeSH and free-text terms to identify published empirical literature. Protocols in PROSPERO were also searched to identify any systematic reviews in progress. The extracted information was analysed using a narrative approach, which synthesises data using a descriptive method. Results Forty-two reviews were identified and grouped by key outcomes. Twenty-two papers mentioned theory in some form, 31 mentioned equality and diversity (although with no theory mentioned in this area), and only 19 cited equality and diversity as a barrier or enabler. Thirty-four reviews identified barriers and enablers at different organisational levels: personal/individual; attitudes; health professional; roles and expectations; knowledge, information and communication; financing and resourcing; training; general support; recruitment and representation, PPI methods and working with communities and addressing power dynamics. Conclusions The review findings suggest that a commitment to PPI and partnership working is dependent on taking a whole system approach. This needs to consider the complex individual and organisational enablers and constraints to this process and address imbalances of power experienced by different groups. Addressing equality and diversity and use of a theory-driven approach to guide PPI are neglected areas. The long tradition of involvement across health and social care can provide considerable expertise in thinking about ways to strengthen approaches to PPI. This is especially important in patient safety, with a much newer tradition of developing PPI than other areas of healthcare.

The NHS’s equality, diversity, and inclusion improvement plan in 2023 encompassed all protected characteristics into one undifferentiated cohort.4 As expected, the strategy made no progress on its aims to reduce discrimination in behaviour, policies, practices, and cultures in the NHS workforce. The Medical Workforce Race Equality Standard (MWRES) was first published in 2021 and hasn’t been updated.6 A plan to reduce racism in the medical workforce was published in February 2023 by NHS England,7 but there are no signs of progress towards its objectives. King’s Fund. 22 Aug 2024. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/briefings/10-actions--improve-nhs-working-conditions

Formal racial equality is a key aspect of the current Liberal International Order (LIO). It is subject to two main challenges: resurgent racial nationalism and substantive racial inequality. Combining work in International Relations with interdisciplinary studies on race, I submit that these challenges are the latest iteration of struggles between two transnational coalitions over the LIO's central racial provisions, which I call racial diversity regimes (RDRs). The traditional coalition has historically favored RDRs based on racial inequality and racial nationalism. The transformative coalition has favored RDRs based on racial equality and nonracial nationalism. I illustrate the argument by tracing the development of the liberal order's RDR as a function of intercoalitional struggles from one based on racial nationalism and inequality in 1919 to the current regime based on nonracial nationalism and limited equality. Today, racial nationalists belong to the traditional coalition and critics of racial inequality are part of the transformative coalition. The stakes of their struggles are high because they will determine whether we will live in a more racist or a more antiracist world. This article articulates a comprehensive framework that places race at the heart of the liberal order, offers the novel concept of “embedded racism” to capture how sovereignty shields domestic racism from foreign interference, and proposes an agenda for mainstream International Relations that takes race seriously.