The Lost Glory of Urdu Medium Schools: A Socio-Academic Survey on White Collar Parents' Perceptions about English Medium Schools' Superiority

This article descriptively unfolds the socio-academic perceptions of white-collar parents about the superiority of English medium over Urdu medium schools. An opinionnaire containing twenty-five opinion items was administered to fifty parents who send their wards to popularly known as English medium schools. The results of the study show that the majority of parents are fearful about the socio- academic or professional future of the children if sent to Urdu medium schools, which are either in the public sector or known as Galli/mohallah schools having eye-catching names. The study unfolds that a majority of parents themselves studied at Urdu medium schools, which, according to them, were once capable of catering to the multi-faceted needs of the students. Hence, the study invites the attention of the policymakers to address the issue and try to bring back the lost glory of the Urdu medium/public sector schools, which may guarantee the socio-economic future of students.

“We Are Radical In Our Kindness”: The Political Socialisation, Motivations, Demands and Protest Actions of Young Environmental Activists in Britain

The year 2018 was a watershed in environmental activism, especially regarding young activists. Greta Thunberg started her School Strikes for Climate and the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion was founded. This article deals with young people’s involvement in these two global movements. It draws on 60 semi-structured interviews carried out with young environmental activists before, during and after protest actions under the auspices of the climate strikes and/or Extinction Rebellion in five British locations. The period of the political socialisation of this young generation is outlined and how it contributes to young people becoming environmental activists. The article then identifies the “radical” demands made by young environmental activists and their “radical” repertoire of contention in relation to their perceptions of the “radical” compared to hegemonic definitions. The interviews show that these young environmentalists are part of a generation of activists committed to obtaining significant change from powerholders through the use of deliberately non-violent direct action that challenges academic perceptions of radical repertoires of contention.

WHAT DOES OPEN INNOVATION MEAN? BUSINESS VERSUS ACADEMIC PERCEPTIONS

Since the first appearance of ‘open innovation’ as a theoretical concept in 2003, the debates on its essence still continue among academics, while its interpretations within the business community also seem to differ from one company to another. Using a survey of 251 companies operating in Europe, in this research, we compare the perceptions of open innovation that exist within both the academic and business worlds, to assist in the conceptual development of the phenomenon. Our research reveals a mismatch in these perceptions, as only a few activities counted as ‘open’ by innovation scholars appear to affect companies’ self-reported state of open innovation implementation. Moreover, our research has shown differences in the interpretation of open innovation among companies of different sizes. Only free revealing, acknowledged by scholars as one of the open innovation practices, has been recognised as such a practice by all the studied firms. This paper contributes to conceptualisation of ‘open innovation’ and shares practical insights on bridging academia and business perceptions of it.