Fatimah Zailly Ahmad Ramli

China’s community and neighborhood governance has become increasingly multi-actor, yet the literature remains fragmented across residents’ committees, homeowner self-governance, social organizations, crisis response, and participatory regeneration. This systematic critical review synthesizes 62 English-language studies published from 2018 to 2025. The final evidence base comprised 38 original studies and 24 supplementary additions and was tiered into 45 core studies for prevalence analysis, 15 supplementary studies for mechanism enrichment, and two background studies. A deductive–inductive protocol linked actors, functions, strategies, and governance tensions, while evidence anchors, two-pass coding, relevance appraisal, and claim weighting constrained interpretation. Participation and mobilization appeared in 38 of 45 core studies, coordination and brokerage in 34, and representation and self-governance in 22. Cross-study comparison shows convergence around continuing state infrastructural power and the importance of brokerage, but divergence over whether Party-state steering, NGO delivery, homeowner organization, and project-based participation expand autonomy or reproduce control. Five strategy clusters and five recurring tensions are synthesized in an Actor–Function–Strategy–Tension (AFST) framework. The framework explains why actor pluralization can generate service capacity, coordinated action, and resident influence in some settings while producing dependency, tokenism, politicization, commercialization, or unequal representation in others. The review contributes a relational explanation of state-structured pluralism and identifies implications for evaluating decision rights, representation, resource control, accountability, and the durability of participation.

Child marriage is an internationally recognised human rights issue that has been extensively studied by various Non-GovernmentalOrganisations and the United Nations. In response to this problem, many countries have implemented social policies aimed at addressing child marriage and several international treaties are dedicated to combatting it. This study focuses on examining the factors contributing to child marriage within refugee populations. The research methodology involved conducting in-depth interviews with ten young wives aged between 16 and 22, facilitating focus group discussions with their husbands and parents residing in Domiz Camps 1 and 2 in Kurdistan, as well as interviewing key informants who work in child protection services and social policy development. Thematic analysis was employed to identify prominent themes and subthemes based on the perspectives of participants. The research revealed that child marriage is driven by factors such as the need for safety, preservation of family honour, and economic challenges. Similar safety concerns were observed among Syrian refugees in this study, as well as in previous studies conducted on Jordanian refugees and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. This study takes a comprehensive approach by considering perspectives from young wives, their parents, husbands, and key informants when examining factors related to child marriage. Ultimately, the findings of this study will contribute to a deeper understanding of refugee issues and efforts towards protecting children’s rights within the refugee context.

This qualitative study explores the influence of Malay culture and religion in shaping the pathways of help seeking for family carers of older adults with mental health problems in rural Malaysia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with family carers of older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. Thematic analysis was used to analyse patterns within the data. Based upon the perspectives of family carers, findings show how cultural and religious beliefs and practices provided support to carers, and highlight how carers manage the intersection of culture and religion with psychiatric treatment for their family members with mental illness.

In Malaysia, inclusiveness for people with disabilities in higher education remains a challenge. This study addresses the perception of 52 students with disabilities of their campuses’ physical accessibility. The survey shows partial dissatisfaction with facilities, with seniors displaying the highest discontent. In addition, interviews with 14 students reveal opinion discrepancies between students with visual impairments and those with other physical disabilities. The overall findings imply that inclusive education for students with disabilities is far from achieved. Thus, Malaysian social work has a critical role in intervening and advocating for inclusiveness in higher education.

Religion and culture affect the meaning and practicalities of caring for families with mental illness in Malaysia. Such care also differs according to social background, family values and support, commitment, availability, practicality and the needs of the care recipient. This qualitative study explores 14 Malay caregivers of the older adults with mental health problems in Kelantan, Malaysia. A semi-structured interview was translated and transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis using NVivo software. The findings show that cultural values and religion shaped the meaning of care as provided by the caregivers. The nature of the relationship is also important in determining the best person in the family to take over the caregiving role.

Malaysia aims to increase the participation of students with disabilities in Higher Education. This study examines the experiences of students with disabilities in selected Malaysian universities. Interviews with 14 students and 5 administrators indicated that universities need to play more active roles to eliminate barriers to access and participation. Participants’ accounts showed that the central role of universities lies in providing services, access, organising logistics, creating awareness, ensuring disabled-friendly facilities and developing specific policies to address issues concerning disabilities. Suggestions included increasing funding allocations, having Offices of Disability, and incorporating Universal Design (UD) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to increase participation.

This article describes the importance of mental health/clinical social workers in Malaysia. Convenience sampling was utilised and an in-depth, semi-structured interview methodology was employed. Four participants – two social workers, a psychiatrist and a community nurse – were involved. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants reported that mental health social workers are important in providing psychoeducation and conducting assessments. Specialised training in the field of mental health would benefit social workers and their health care counterparts.

In many cultures, diagnoses of mental illness are commonly associated with stigmatisation. Negative attitudes and beliefs cause significant problems not only for people with mental illness but also for their caregivers. Such attitudes and beliefs are embedded in cultural, religious and social contexts. It is important therefore to understand experiences of stigma in a range of contexts. This article reports on a qualitative study of the experiences of fourteen Malay caregivers’ of older people with a mental health problem in Kelantan, Malaysia. The in-depth interview data were analysed thematically. The impacts of stigma are reported in relation to caregivers’ life course opportunities; shame and embarrassment in a small community; a complex mix of understandings and the role of religion and culture in help-seeking behaviour. The challenges and ways forward to address this sensitive issue in this particular socio-cultural context are presented.