Empty towns, public places that the new generations no longer frequent, a village spirit that is being lost: if these images are far from completely corresponding to reality, they are very present in the discourse that circulates about the countryside. With such a representation, the idea arises that young people flee these public spaces. However, things are […] … learn more→

“The two most important days in life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain. According to the indicators of academic performance of undergraduate students in Spain, one in three new students for the 2015–16 academic year dropped out of the undergraduate degree. Of this percentage (specifically 33.2%), 12.4% changed […] … learn more→

New Zealand is generally proud of being a world leader, but there’s one claim that might not be universally admired: being home to the longest running English-language market for illegal drugs on the so-called “darknet”. Known as “Tor Market”, it has been active since March 2018 and has outlived several larger and better known operations […] … learn more→

Blended learning combines face-to-face and virtual instruction through the use of online learning technologies. Post-secondary students attend lectures in real-time, either virtually or in person, and this is accompanied by online learning activities completed outside of class time. These blended classrooms can help support the educational needs of university students. When combined with traditional instruction, a […] … learn more→

Microcredentials — attestations of proficiency in a specific skill or knowledge base that are certified by an authority — can provide evidence of a person’s skills to employers. While microcredentials are becoming more popular, the concept is hardly new: A driver’s licence or the St. John Ambulance certificate could be considered as microcredentials, attesting respectively to a person’s driving […] … learn more→

Experts often recommend that people specialize in one field of work or research to maximize their chances of success. Yet our recently published research indicates that successful innovators take a broader path. We looked at the careers of Nobel Prize winners, who are arguably among the most innovative people in the world. We found that they are unusually likely to be […] … learn more→

“Moral panic”: this was the expression used 50 years ago by the sociologist Stanley Cohen when observing the disproportionate coverage by the British media of some fights that took place on the beaches between young people of the counter-culture of the 1960s , rockers and mods. In his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics (never translated into French), the […] … learn more→

The ecological transition is on everyone’s lips, both internationally and in the European Union and the countries around us. In Spain, an ad hoc name has even been created for the ministry, before Environment, which indicates the current focus of its mission: Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge . Although an ecological transition does not depend only on a ministry, but […] … learn more→

I always feel the need for more information, at the same time as feeling completely overwhelmed by what I already have. What I’m describing is a weird (highly privileged of course), 21st century form of anxiety… But perhaps you can relate? Certainly, a lot of people wrote to me after my most recent post on […] … learn more→

The past couple of weeks have seen wall to wall coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death. Many media outlets took to eulogizing the Queen with effusive praise of her service and duty. But not everyone saw her and the insitution she headed in the same light. Many took to social media to discuss the Queen’s role in Britain’s imperial project, […] … learn more→