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“I love the Queen”: Positioning in young British Muslim discourse
Get PDFStereotyping of Muslims in media and political narratives can have tangible effects on the day-to-day lives of young people. Using data from focus groups and interviews with 19 university students in London and Birmingham, UK and focusing on extracts from the data in which participants tell stories about their own experiences, this article explores how young British Muslims position themselves in response to negative media narratives about Muslims, particularly after terrorist attacks. The analysis shows that the media was seen as a driving force behind negative stereotypes about Muslims, and this resulted in pressure on Muslims to present themselves in non-threatening and welcoming ways to others, despite being subjected to covert and overt discrimination which participants felt in various contexts. Participants suggested that discrimination could be difficult to identify and quantify, and even when discrimination was overt, it could be illogical and incoherent, and therefore difficult to respond to in a meaningful way
Inter-Subjectivity and Worker Self-Disclosure in Professional Relationships With Young People: A Psychosocial Study of Youth Violence and Desistance
Get PDFThis article argues that psychosocial theory can enhance understanding of intersubjective dynamics between workers and young people involved in crime and violence. After introducing some conceptual tools from psychoanalysis and post‐structural theory, a case study follows a worker's efforts to bring about a young man's desistance (including the worker's use of self‐disclosure) and how this is stymied by systemic failings in a homeless hostel in the UK. The article concludes that professional work in services targeted at young people with multiple support needs requires a deep sensibility to intersubjective and unconscious dynamics within professional relationships and organisations
Life after Joe: Politics and War in the West Midlands, 1914–1918
Get PDFBy considering the political effects of the First World War in the whole of the West Midlands (rather than just Birmingham or the Black Country), this article seeks to demonstrate that, although the political culture of the region shifted in terms of behaviours and priorities, many of the features of the late Victorian and Edwardian regional polity survived the ‘deluge’ of war. The region became less politically homogenous, however, as the pressures of the war and the political responses to these exposed significant differences between the rural counties, the Black Country and the Birmingham conurbation. It concludes that the future political direction of Britain was by no means decided by 1918 and that the electoral results of the first fully democratic election demonstrated that there were many possible alternative choices for a population keen to cement the perceived unity of Britain which was credited for winning the longest and bloodiest struggle since the British Civil Wars
Shifting discourses from boy preference to boy crisis: educating boys and nation building in neoliberal China
Get PDFIt is well established that China has emerged as a major economic power, resulting from
the nation’s neoliberal modernisation. What is less understood is the socio-cultural and
educational impact of this change on public institutions. This article focuses on the
education system, which is currently seen as central to delivering the nation’s
modernisation project, particularly through suzhi jiaoyu (education for quality). More
specifically, we engage with a pervasive public discourse of a boy crisis. We suggest the
need critically to explore the local (national) meanings within a contemporary Chinese
context of this assumed projected crisis that appears to be established as a western
phenomenon. We argue that the discourse of a boy crisis can be read as a strategic move
to re-inscribe an earlier discourse, that of the boy preference, that in turn is discursively
linked to nation building at a time of globally-inflected socio-economic transformations
To engage or not to engage? That is the question: Students' perceptions of engagement at a West Midlands university
Get PDFAs part of the REACT research team, students from Newman University embarked on a two-year research project which set out to explore and compare how the concept of student engagement was perceived by students who were involved in a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The rationale for undertaking the study was with a view to developing a shared understanding of student engagement across the institution, making student engagement more visible across the institution and ensuring that strategies implemented to encourage student engagement were fit for purpose, particularly for the ‘non-traditional’ student at Newman. Questionnaires were designed by students and staff to facilitate both quantitative and qualitative responses around the comparing and contrasting definitions of engagement from students. Student perspectives considered engagement usually at an academic level, with little knowledge and understanding of the wider opportunities for engagement. Data collected also identified that working with others was a key aspect of student engagement, but barriers were identified as to why students did not perceive social engagement as important
Analysing a cycling grand tour: Can we monitor fatigue with intensity or load ratios?
Get PDFThis study evaluated the changes in ratios of different intensity (rating of perceived
exertion; RPE, heart rate; HR, power output; PO) and load measures (session-RPE;
sRPE, individualized TRIMP; iTRIMP, Training Stress Score™; TSS) in
professional cyclists. RPE, PO and HR data was collected from twelve professional
cyclists (VO2max 75 ± 6 ml∙min∙kg-1) during a two-week baseline training period and
during two cycling Grand Tours. Subjective:objective intensity (RPE:HR, RPE:PO)
and load (sRPE:iTRIMP, sRPE:TSS) ratios and external:internal intensity (PO:HR)
and load (TSS:iTRIMP) ratios were calculated for every session. Moderate to large
increases in the RPE:HR, RPE:PO and sRPE:TSS ratios (d = 0.79 – 1.79) and small
increases in the PO:HR and sRPE:iTRIMP ratio (d = 0.21 – 0.41) were observed
during Grand Tours compared to baseline training data. Differences in the
TSS:iTRIMP ratio were trivial to small (d = 0.03 – 0.27). Small to moderate weekto-
week changes (d = 0.21 – 0.63) in the PO:HR, RPE:PO, RPE:HR, TSS;iTRIMP
sRPE:iTRIMP and sRPE:TSS were observed during the Grand Tour. Concluding,
this study shows the value of using ratios of intensity and load measures in
monitoring cyclists. Increases in ratios could reflect progressive fatigue that is not
readily detected by changes in solitary intensity/load measures
Caring for Soldiers, Veterans and Families in Scotland, 1638-1651
Get PDFScotland was overwhelmed with injured servicemen and their families during the wars of the 1640s. Centralized attempts to help support war veterans and, later, their families were ambitious but continued to rely upon local church sessions to collect, distribute and monitor charitable payments. Using local parish-based manuscript material, this article shows how this system proved remarkably successful in providing financial support with one striking caveat: Unlike similar schemes in England and some areas of the continent, Scottish authorities only intended payments to injured servicemen and their families as a form of supplementary relief rather than permanent pensions. Moreover, despite local calls for further financial support, the central government made no effort to wrestle away the management of charitable activity from the parish setting. Veterans and their families continued to rely on informal support from family, friends and neighbours within a remarkably local charitable context. Such networks draw attention to the limited aims of official support in the seventeenth century and the necessity for it to co-exist with, and co-opt, a variety of less formal measures of charitable help
Why so much talk? Direct speech as a literary and exegetical device in rewritten bible with special reference to Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities
Get PDFAn Exploratory Study of the Impact of Government Policies on the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises in Developing Countries
Get PDFThis paper explores the effects of government policies on the development of Small and Medium Enterprises in developing countries through the examination of the case of Nigeria. Many research studies reported that SMEs in Nigeria have not benefited from the policies formulated by the government. This paper investigates the impediments to manufacturing SMEs growth and the needed pre-requisite environment for SMEs to benefit from government specific policies. The study adopted a qualitative methodology depending on face to face interviews with 20 SME owners and/or managers in five of the six geographical arears of Nigeria, 20 bank managers in the capital city of Lagos and 20 government officials located in the federal capital city of Abuja. The study unveils unique contextually novel insights, including particularly the distinctive processes and different relationships related to lenders decision. The research findings are consistent with those reported by other scholars in the field, and confirm that government policies and support in the areas of technology, infrastructure and finance affects the performance of SMEs to a great extent in Nigeria
Below the surface: Parents’ views on the factors that influence treatment adherence in paediatric burn scar management — A qualitative study
Get PDFIntroduction: Parents have a crucial role to play in burn scar management for their children at a time that is extremely stressful for them and their child. Scar management treatments such as pressure garment therapy (PGT) require high levels of adherence. There has been a lack of research into the factors that may influence adherence in paediatric burn scar management. This qualitative research study has investigated parents’ experiences of scar management and their attempts to adhere to treatment at home. The aim of this paper is to outline parents’ views on the factors that influence adherence.
Methods: 25 parents of paediatric and adolescent burn patients took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants were recruited from three UK burns services. Interviews were conducted in a participant-focussed manner and topics for discussion included parents’ accounts of treatment and their experience of PGT. A thematic analysis was undertaken.
Results: Four overarching themes describe parents’ views and experiences of scar management and adherence. These are the transition from hospital to home; the practical realities of treatment; the emotional labour involved in treatment and; negotiating treatment and regime. The transition from hospital to home is a significant event for parents. They may be apprehensive about this at the same time as they desire that they and their child return to some sense of normality following the burn injury. Parents are required to adopt the role of therapeutic caregiver upon transition from hospital to home. Adherence to scar management is influenced by the practical realities of maintaining treatment (routine, division of care labour, hospital appointments) and the emotional labour involved in doing so. The latter demands that parents manage their own and their children’s emotions. Approaches to adherence were often described as flexible in response to these influences.
Conclusions: Some parents negotiate the realities and demands of scar management successfully, whereas others do not. The emotional labour experienced by parents and their ability to cope with this is often a strong influence on their views regarding adherence to scar management. Further research is needed to explore how burns services and staff manage this at present, and whether simple interventions can help with the key practical and emotional influences on treatment adherence