Problematizing Arab Youth: Generational Narratives of Systemic Failure

Talking talent Narratives of youth sports selection

In sports, there seems to be an eternal interest in discovering young talents and refining them into elite adult athletes. The dilemma of selecting talent, while at the same time ensuring every child ́s right to participate, needs to be addressed and have consequences in social practice. This dissertation elucidates the discourse of selection and the process of selecting young sporting talents d...

Problematizing official narratives of HIV and AIDS education in Scotland and Zimbabwe

When human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are framed within an intersectional approach, they have the potential to transform understandings of social justice within the curriculum and education policy and practice in general. Yet, this transformative potential is often hampered by official narratives that fail to position HIV and AIDS as an integral ...

Religion in the Arab Spring: Between Two Competing Narratives

Problematizing Mirativity

There are many excellent descriptions of mirativity in various language grammars, and more recently there has been a flurry of research refining mirativity to include how languages linguistically realize surprise and related concepts such as ’unexpectedness’ and ’new information’. However, there is currently no commonly accepted set of independently motivated diagnostics for testing mirativity ...

Youth, Religion and Democracy After the Arab Uprisings: Evidence from the Arab Barometer

T he Arab uprisings of 2011 left an indelible mark on the region. As Long-standing presidents fell in four countries, many wondered if a wave of democratization might be sweeping the region. This early optimism soon faded as countries as protests were violently suppressed in Bahrain and subsequently Libya, Syrian and Yemen fell into civil war. This narrative of the failure of the uprisings to y...