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Women across the world are being incarcerated at an alarming rate. Between 2000 and 2017, the female incarceration rate worldwide increased by 53.3%, whereas the male incarceration rate increased by only 19.6%. In Latin America, drug offences are the first or second cause of female incarceration. The excessive use of pre-trial detention, mandatory minimum sentences, and disproportionate penalties characterise the region’s drug policies. Recent data compiled by the Washington Office on Latin America show that between 35% and 70% of incarcerated women, depending on the country, are behind bars due to a drug offence, while for men the rate is much lower. In other words, harsh drug laws disproportionately impact women.

Qualitative research on female prisoners accused of drug-related offences shows how gender roles, gender-based violence and social exclusion are often triggering factors for women’s participation in the drug trade. Agency and victimisation co-exist in these women’s stories, and while drug trafficking becomes a means to cope with adversity, it also further enhances previous vulnerabilities, and incarceration can have a devastating impact on their families. These women are engaged in high-risk activities but represent a low risk to society. Drug law reforms and the use of alternatives to incarceration could reduce the number of women behind bars for low-level drug offences.

This chapter presents a broad introduction to women’s varied interactions with drugs and drug markets. It provides a brief overview of the international framework of drug control and the ways in which drug policy enforcement differently impacts women and men. It highlights the negative and disproportionate impacts on women of criminalisation-based approaches and how drug policy serves to reinforce existing problems of structural discrimination. This provides context for the contributions to this edited collection, which are summarised in the introduction. The book situates drug policy reform as a crucial and underlooked feminist issue.

The purpose of this paper is to consider one of the major, under-researched themes in rural studies – the business family. Acting as an economic bedrock and entrepreneurial business base, families may support one or more businesses over varying time frames (Rouvinez, 2001).

By reviewing related literature, the paper aims to encapsulate some thoughts on this topic and to consider ways in which future work in this field might be directed.

Standing at the divide between entrepreneurship research, business research and research which looks at the family in a social paradigm, business families remain one of the under-researched areas which provide a vital function within rural communities (Getz et al., 2004, p. 3). One distinction drawn out within this paper is of the manner whereby a family business – defined here as a business with one or more family members where the owners perceive it to be a family business – stands in parallel to the business family. Difficulties in definition of the term family business (Sharma, 1996) have further complicated this distinction, but the importance of family businesses in a worldwide context is acknowledged (Poutziouris, 2006) alongside the need for further research in a UK context (Fletcher, 2002; Getz et al., 2004, p. 72). If the term family business is difficult to define, simpler definitions of the business family do appear: families with a distinct track record in portfolio or serial entrepreneurship but where the expertise is embedded within more than one individual.

Developing thinking around the interaction between families and the businesses they run is a vital development in regional development and of especial importance where agriculture.

This piece of work reports on the initial findings of ongoing research conducted at the Victoria University of Manchester UK, aiming at categorizing the city‐region’s different forms of knowledge capital. Using a global knowledge‐based development (KBD) model as an instrument, information about recent urban regeneration and development experiences in its inner city and beyond have been collected, identified and analyzed. Such research is aiming to establish Manchester’s potential to become a knowledge city. In this aim, the current research paper will report first on a review of the theoretical background behind the concepts of the knowledge city (KC) and KBD, which have been the catalysts to a systematic account of facts and figures of urban regeneration developments within Manchester. The review will be followed by the narrative of KDB observations on the continuous flow of creation and renovation initiatives; with observations on outcomes that can be traced out through Manchester’s cumulated and diversified capital repositories and agents. Such flow is presented through the eyes of the different actors involved (authorities, researchers, and partnership organizations), whose voices are present in the diverse capital landmarks of the city. The global knowledge‐based model used has served as a comprehensive framework for consistent, systematic gathering of primary data on capital systems for a deeply contextualized case study. It has facilitated powerful inter‐relational capabilities for researchers’ insights on the city‐region’s potential knowledge capital. It has also provided the platform for systematic identification of socio‐economic issues beyond level one. In the case of Manchester, the model helped interrelating concerns about social inclusion, access, and skills for sustainable development. They were also re‐positioned to their true dimensions as the KBD model has assisted research with the systematic identification of the (knowledge capital) roles that city‐region actors (k‐agents and k‐repositories) are playing, and the solutions they are bringing to those concerns and beyond. Most of all, the KBD model facilitated multiple insights into how global challenges are finding local solutions. And Manchester’s case is undoubtedly filling a gap in the recent literature of knowledge cities. This contribution, amongst many others, is aiming to trigger further debate through a rainbow of contrasting points of view about what KBD has meant for the city‐region of Manchester. It is also hoped that a renewed interest in capital systems research and its social policy implications in and about the city would be triggered as well.

This paper aims to examine the perceptions of the visual packaging of snacks and nutrition knowledge among preschool children. Packages serve as persuasive media at the point of purchase.

In this paper 13 interviews with four-year-olds were conducted. Children sorted seven snacks that implied fruit into categories based on perceptions of fun, taste, parent’s choice and “nutrition”. Children also drew trees with food that would make them healthy or not healthy.

Children attended to the package elements more than the product. All children selected the character fruit snack as their preferred choice; however, perceptions for fun and taste varied among snacks. Perceptions of healthiness showed evidence of heuristics (e.g. sugar = bad; fruit = good). Some children were able to understand that their parents’ choices may be different from their own.

Because of the small sample size, it is not possible to generalize results to all children. Children seemed to understand that the character may not convey “healthy” or “taste”, but they still chose the snack with a character.

Children as young as four can understand nutrition heuristics and may/may not use those heuristics in product preferences.

Children may be able to reason about their own preferences and others’ preferences at a preoperational stage of development.

Previous research indicates that older children are attracted by characters. The findings show that younger children also prefer characters but may be capable of disentangling the various associations of “characters”.

This paper aims to analyse how children behave during a purchasing process in a simulated shop and how they put their goals into effect at the Point of Sale (POS). The focus of this research is children in Germany aged between 8 and 10 years. The results reveal answers to the following questions: which criteria do the children consider important when buying groceries? How efficiently and effectively do children pursue the goals demanded of them at the POS? This knowledge can support parents, teachers and educational organisations in teaching children consumer literacy.

Data were collected through interviews and a subsequent observation of the behaviour in a purchase simulation. A total of 436 school children aged 8 to 10 years answered a questionnaire about their behaviour at the POS and perceived demands during the purchasing process as well as their understanding of purchase-relevant concepts. Subsequently, purchase behaviour and decisions in a digitally simulated shopping environment of a supermarket were analysed for a subsample (n = 170). This combination of methods enables the collection of observable decision-making behaviour as well as of the declarative knowledge and the purchasing habits of the children.

Children often act differently from the way they themselves intended and expected during the purchase decision at the POS. Only a small number of children behaved purposefully, whereas the vast majority was distracted by the great amount of stimuli in the simulated supermarket. The results reveal factors that helped children cope with the shopping task and shielded them against purchase impulses from the stimuli at the POS.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to combine questionnaires about children’s declarative knowledge of the shopping process with observation of the real decision behaviour in a supermarket simulation task.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the substance use disparities among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth, the contributing factors to these disparities, proven and promising approaches through strengths-based methods, barriers to implementation of prevention and treatment efforts, and future recommendations for effective programs and research.

Approach – We have conducted a thorough literature review of relevant research studies, as well as a review of government, tribal, and community-based curricula and resources. This review of programs is not exhaustive but provides several examples of best practices in the field and suggestions for future directions.

Social implications – We strongly advocate that to accurately explore the true etiology of substance abuse and to respond to the concerns that AI/AN have prioritized, it is necessary to utilize a strengths-based approach and draw upon traditional AI/AN perspectives and values, and active community participation in the process. More specifically, prevention and treatment programs should use methods that incorporate elders or intergenerational approaches; foster individual and family skills-building; promote traditional healing methods to recognize and treat historical, cultural, and intergenerational and personal trauma; focus on early intervention; and tailor efforts to each Native nation or community.

Value – Ultimately, to reduce substance abuse disparities in AI/AN youth, we must find better ways to merge traditional Native practices with western behavioral health to ensure cultural competency, as well as to develop mechanisms to effect system- and policy-level changes that reduce barriers to care and promote the well-being of AI/AN youth, families, and communities.

This study aims to determine the influence of Mobile learning (M-learning) technologies based on the gender orientation of vocational education construction trade trainees in Pakistan. Additionally, it explores the challenges associated with integrating M-learning technologies in vocational institutions of civil engineering. Further, this study will focus on the solutions to improve the accessibility of M-learning technologies after the pandemic.

A quantitative method with a survey research design has been adopted in this study. In contrast, the target population was the trainees of vocational education institutions of civil engineering in Pakistan. Further, the data was collected using an adapted survey tool with a five-point Likert scale. Similarly, the data were analyzed through SPSS 27 software tool by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The study's findings highlighted a positive influence of M-learning technologies based on the gender orientation of construction trade trainees from vocational institutions. Similarly, it is also specified that the challenges vocational trainees of the construction trade have faced while utilizing M-learning technologies were related. Hence, it is evident that the potential challenges of M-learning technologies integration and utilization are related to both gender orientations during a postpandemic situation in Pakistan.

In the Pakistani context, the M-learning technologies approach is recently introduced in the vocational education sector. Therefore, the utilization and integration of M-learning technologies are considered challenging tasks in the context. In this regard, this study helps to understand the acceptance, challenges and impact of M-learning technologies based on gender orientation among vocational institutions trainees of construction trade in Pakistan.

This study not only refers to the impact of M-learning technologies and their challenges but also highlights the current situation of M-learning in Pakistan, particularly construction engineering trainees in vocational education institutes.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt acutely by resettled refugee communities around the world. Adjusting to life in a new country typically presents a host of challenges that must be met by newly resettled refugees, and these challenges were no doubt compounded by the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of resettled Rohingyan refugees living in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study uses a grounded theory approach to derive meaning from qualitative interviews conducted with 21 Rohingyan refugees. This study embodied an emic design by involving the community in the development, conduction and interpretation of the data, rooting itself in the recognition of Rohingyan expertise and understanding.

The data yielded three major themes: financial instability, disruptions in access to health care and mental health distress. In addition, two minor themes were established: disruptions to everyday life and impacts on religious practices.

Little is known about the resettlement experiences of the Rohingyan people, who are arguably some of the most marginalized among refugees. With no written language shared among Rohingyans, communication barriers exacerbate an already challenging resettlement trajectory. The insights provided through this study are key to understanding the unique needs and strengths of Rohingyan refugees and will be valuable in shaping interventions to support their successful resettlement.