4,274 research outputs found
Self-building Our Lives: social care research report
No full text#SelfBuildingOurLives is a collaborative research project drawing upon the work of Andrew Power, Melanie Nind, Andy Coverdale, Hannah Macpherson and Abigail Croydon at University of Southampton, Ed Hall and Alex Kaley at University of Dundee, and a team of advisory group partners including people with learning disabilities and their respective organisations from across the UK.The The report draws on primary research we undertook in England and Scotland with people with learning disabilities, support organisations and commissioners. This was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): Reclaiming social care: Adults with learning disabilities seizing opportunities in the shift from day services to community lives (ES/P011764/1). The views expressed are those of the authors and not the ESRC.It also draws upon the feedback from participants at a national impact event held in London on 13 November 2019 and feedback received via social media (@SelfBuildLives)
Adrian Caesar speaking at Alex Miller author: A Celebration, held at the National Library, Canberra, 30 October 2011 /
No full textTitle from information supplied by photographer.; Part of the collection: Alex Miller author: A Celebration, held at the National Library of Australia theatre, 30 October 2011.; Mode of access: Online.; Photographed by a staff member of the National Library of Australia
[Letter from Alex Bradford to Lieutenant and Mrs. Ray Starner - November 4, 1940]
No full textLetter from Alex Bradford to Lieutenant and Mrs. Ray Starner describing the the current state of affairs that the author was experiencing, including: the London blitz, the moral of the troops on the ground, and the collective company of men opposing the Nazi regime
Focus group method:Doing research inclusively and supporting social inclusion
No full textThis chapter relates to the inclusive or democratic turn in social science research. Increasingly, researchers are seeking to shift the dynamics of research production away from doing research on people, mining them for information, and towards researching with participants and recognizing that research needs to be purposeful and beneficial for participants. One important way of doing this is by creating vibrant interactive spaces in which best use can be made of participants’ potential not just to contribute, but to learn from each other’s contributions and come to know themselves and their own situation a little better. Focus groups can create these spaces, especially when the researcher is alert to their inclusive and transformative potential and open to the idea of hybrids of focus groups and other methods. Taking a Freirean approach to the focus group method, the authors have been using focus groups to support participants’ power in the research process. This comes through embracing the praxis of defining their focus collaboratively and by embedding the research authority in the interactive space between individuals. The chapter shows how focus groups can be political or playful as a means of co-production. This will be illustrated using data from studies involving people with intellectual disabilities, where the mutual support among those in dialogue is evident. The authors argue that the experience of taking part in focus groups enhances the social inclusion of those involved
Alex Haley, author
No full textExamines the life and achievements of Alex Haley, celebrated author of "Roots" and other writings, discussing his life and literary career, as well as his obsession with researching his family's history
Voluntary Support in a Post-Welfare State:experiences and challenges of precarity
No full textThis paper examines voluntary sector care and support provision under a context of significantly reduced government funding. Whilst geographers have analysed the causes and aftermath of austerity on different populations, our focus is on how managers of voluntary sector organisations have had to learn and evolve through bidding for non-statutory funding to sustain their core provision. Drawing on research with voluntary support organisations in the learning disability social care sector in England and Scotland, the paper examines the effects of the state’s continued reliance on the sector for core ‘public’ services whilst simultaneously withdrawing its funding. Using accounts from managers, the paper offers a particularly novel and potent example of voluntary sector precarity and the deepening unfinished and unsettled nature of care and support that has unfolded in the wake of austerity. Through the empirical research, attention is drawn to three levels of precarity that are experienced by those seeking to sustain voluntary support provision: voluntary sector organisation and structures, the voluntary sector workforce, and individual managers’ everyday emotional and affective experiences
Debilitating landscapes of care and support: envisaging alternative futures
No full textThis paper explores the impact of policy changes and budget cuts on the service and support landscape faced by people with learning disabilities. Drawing upon collaborative research in England and Scotland and interviews with commissioners and support organisations we show how landscapes of care and support are unstable and fragmented. We identify how pressures of time, resource and precaritisation in the workforce are creating ‘debilitating landscapes of care’ that further erode the capacities of both the people that work in the sector and people with learning disabilities. Some of the specific challenges that people with learning disabilities face in this context include; finding appropriate local support, narrowing access as a result of reductions in benefit entitlements and identifying quality providers amid an increasingly complex array of private and charitable provision. Capacity to cope with thesechallenges is contingent on access to quality advocacy, supportive family, friendships and peer support, but these are not always available. Organisations that offer a positive future include social enterprises that provide productive occupational environments, support people to learn and develop, encourage peer support and enable high quality advocacy. However, the impact of Covid19 has only served to intensify some of the issues we identify and the urgent need for a response. Our analysis is inspired by Berlant’s (2007) conception of ‘slow-death’ and Puar’s (2017) associated conceptualisation of ‘debility’.<br/
Description by author Alex Irvine of his recent participation in the San Diego C
No full textDescription by author Alex Irvine of his recent participation in the San Diego Comic-Con, one of the largest conferences of comic/media/book producers and consumers. Irvine was there to promote his new fiction book, One King, One Soldier, published by Del Rey
Recovery through contradiction?
No full textWith this new drug strategy, the circle has turned. It was a Conservative government
that introduced the first drug strategy, Tackling Drugs Together, in 1995. This aimed
to reduce drug related crime, protect young people and reduce health harms by
discouraging drug use. It was criticised at the time for having unrealistic, intangible
aims and for not providing the necessary funding. New Labour’s strategies introduced
increasingly specific targets and massively expanded the funding of treatment. This
new Coalition strategy has no targets and provides no new funding
Alex Miller signing books at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 30 October 2011 /
No full textTitle from information supplied by photographer.; Part of the collection: Alex Miller author: A Celebration, held at the National Library of Australia theatre, 30 October 2011.; Mode of access: Online.; Photographed by a staff member of the National Library of Australia
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