Search

Taking a cue from the reflections and contributions made by manuscript, archival and historical studies, this paper proposes a new approach to the methodology of digital facsimiles. It asks how we research the past in the age of digital facsimiles and what are our biggest challenges and opportunities. By broadening the definition of what digital facsimiles are and re-evaluating their relationship with databases seeing databases as primarily aggregations of digital facsimiles the paper argues that the key methodological challenge lies in acknowledging the narrative within them. This can only be achieved if we incorporate the existing humanities methodologies in any data-related pursuits. The article demonstrates how notions of objective thresholds in data aggregations are in reality failures to notice and acknowledge the inherent narratives within the digital facsimiles that constitute them. At the same time, while deeply connected, digital facsimiles have to be recognised as ontologically separate from their exemplars. This influences greatly the way we research the past and a failure to recognize both the inherent narrativity and the cognitive gap will always lead to questionable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is axiomatic that crime fiction is not considered "literary" and is excluded from prestigious and mainstream literary prizes. Although Ruth Rendell's later "standalone" and Barbara Vine novels have often been successful in gaining specific crime fiction awards, her Chief Detective Inspector Wexford series have been passed over in this regard, and it was only with the beginning of the Vine publications that her work was considered to take a literary turn. In response to this misapprehension, her early writing has received comparatively little attention, even within the still limited range of Rendell scholarship. This should be surprising as, beginning with the first Wexford, From Doon with Death in 1964, her work, whether writing as Rendell or Vine, is without exception comprised of layers of narrative complexity, literary references, and textual mosaics. This article, through its analysis of Rendell's first three novels, From Doon with Death, To Fear a Painted Devil, and Vanity Dies Hard, will explore the centrality of texts and textuality within her work, from the minutiae and range of texts that form her mosaic of clues, to the centrality of the acts of reading and writing, but most importantly to the revelation of the extent that the novels are steeped in literary knowledge and understanding, and the extent to which Rendell's readers should equal that knowledge and understanding to fully engage with the narrative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a call for manuscript submissions for a special issues of the "The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism," which are due by January 7, 2008. The special issues will present topics regarding to the aesthetics, poetics, and the philosophy of narratives in film, music, dance, and literature.

How do we orient our conduct in relation to dharma, and what role does narrative play in this process of constituting the ethical self? These are the central questions of this special issue. The papers in this collection draw from a wide variety of stories from the itihāsas and purāṇas, in various languages, from the classical to the early modern period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are increasingly being used in the treatment of advanced heart failure. Left ventricular assist device patients frequently report improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) post-implantation. However, HRQOL varies over time and between patients, which can be explained by patient-related and environmental factors, as individual studies suggest. This review aims to synthesize qualitative evidence on factors influencing HRQOL of LVAD patients. Methods and results We systematically searched the databases PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and CINAHL for qualitative studies on factors influencing HRQOL of patients with continuous flow LVADs. The included papers were synthesized using a thematic synthesis. The results were validated in discussion with a patient and practical implications were jointly developed. We included 11 papers and developed 7 themes that represent influencing factors for HRQOL of LVAD patients: disease experiences , emotional reactivity , heart failure and mechanical circulatory support symptoms , medical care , self-care , self-concept, and social environment. Conclusion The identified themes highlight influencing factors on HRQOL. These help to explain variation in patient outcomes and to better consider the individual situation in rehabilitation. Based on the results, four strategies are proposed for promoting psychosocial outcomes: facilitate self-care, ensure social support, offer psychosocial support, and manage patient expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the background to the notion of the 'geography of discontent' in the context of UK interregional inequalities and political shocks. The paper then examines how the geography of discontent has bound conflicting political and economic narratives together in ways, which makes the correcting for these regional imbalances all the more difficult, and results in ambiguity and a lack of clarity regarding the nature and form which Levelling Up processes should take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since megaprojects are costly, impactful, and often contentious policymaking processes, scholars have started to look at policy narratives as instruments that actors use strategically to justify their preferences and achieve their goals. But is this really the case? Do actors always adopt a narrative to support their goals? Do they develop arguments that are consistent with their official goals and in a timely manner? This paper suggests that, when megaprojects are not salient, narratives are likely to be strategically nonused or used in a hypocritical way, as such strategies better fit the process-related goals of significant actors. Such a claim is illustrated by a case study on the construction of a new high-speed railway line and station in the city of Florence (Italy). Relying on content and discourse analysis of official documents, and experts' interviews, the paper shows that, despite favorable premises for the emergence of a battle of narratives, this never took place, as some of the proponents choose to nonuse a strategic narrative, while others occasionally publicly used arguments to jeopardize the whole project. In turn, opponents effectively developed a strategic narrative that, differently from other similar cases, mostly relied on technical arguments and emplotment. Hence, the case study generates hypotheses that could be tested in further studies on the conditions under which a coalitional dynamic emerges and the role played by policy narratives in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Greta Thunberg's school strike in Stockholm in August 2018 and the October 2018 'declaration of rebellion' by activists in the UK, 2019 saw several climate protest movements rise to public attention, including Fridays for Future (FFF), Extinction Rebellion (XR), and the US Sunrise Movement. What is striking about them is that they rather bluntly refer to science in their campaigns. In this paper, we present an in-depth and comparative study of how the new climate protest movements relate to scientific evidence. Employing a narrative analysis of different types of data (websites, press releases, and media coverage), we study the movements' understandings of 'the science' as well as of science's role in policy processes. We find that the movements in their initial phase predominantly rely on science for their legitimation and adopt a scientific worldview with very little 'green ambivalence'. Notably, FFF and XR hold a deficit model of existing climate communication and enact roles as science communicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born-again conversion offers the paradoxical promise of self-transcending self-transformation, which takes narrative form when converts attempt to recount their experiences: how to tell a story of self-transformation, in which oneself is neither the author nor the agent of change? Existing scholarship suggests that conversion narratives work insofar as they resolve underlying paradoxes and stitch together a sense of coherent selfhood. This paper tacks in the opposite direction: the analysis focuses on the tendencies of conversion narratives to blur, blend and double over categorical bounds of selfhood, highlighting paradoxes rather than looking for their resolution. The paper contends, therefore, that conversion narrative practices facilitate converts' experience of conversion, not only insofar as they resolve paradox and stitch together coherent identity, but also insofar as they cultivate ephemeral experiences and explorations of narrative paradoxes that are inherent to—though often hidden from—most any attempt to find and feel identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a conference held at St John's College, University of Cambridge, focusing on medieval French narrative and song. The conference included presentations by literary scholars and musicologists from various universities, exploring topics such as the international impact of French songs, translation issues, the role of nature in medieval French literature, and the performance of medieval songs. The conference concluded with a concert by the Ensemble Leones, showcasing the repertoire discussed during the event. The success of the conference has led to potential collaborations between scholars and musicians for future projects. [Extracted from the article]

Identifying which approaches can effectively reduce the need for out-of-home care for children is critically important. Despite the proliferation of different interventions and approaches globally, evidence summaries on this topic are limited. This study is a scoping review using a realist framework to explore what research evidence exists about reducing the number of children and young people in care. Searches of databases and websites were used to identify studies evaluating intervention effect on at least one of the following outcomes: reduction in initial entry to care; increase in family reunification post care. Data extracted from papers included type of study, outcome, type and level of intervention, effect, mechanism and moderator, implementation issues and economic (EMMIE) considerations. Data were coded by: primary outcome; level of intervention (community, policy, organisation, family or child); and type of evidence, using the realist EMMIE framework. This is the first example of a scoping review on any topic using this framework. Evaluated interventions were grouped and analysed according to system-level mechanism. We present the spread of evidence across system-level mechanisms and an overview of how each system-level mechanism might reduce the number of children in care. Implications and gaps are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the implications of being a social worker seconded to a Mental Health Trust based on narrative interviews with mental health social workers. As part of a wider study, thirteen mental health social workers from across England were interviewed individually about their experiences of being seconded to a Mental Health Trust. Building on the work of Andrew Pithouse, the findings reveal the (in)visibility of mental health social work. The social workers were isolated within Health Trusts with minimal links to their local authority employers. They struggled to articulate and define social work. Instead, social work was depicted as being indefinable, involving working in liminal spaces and as filling the gaps left by other professions. Furthermore, the social workers were unable to make social work visible, as social work is not 'seen' by the other members of the team. Finally, the social workers were unable to make social visible through supervision if they did not have a social work manager. The paper ends with an unexpected outcome of the research: the notion of the research interview as surrogate supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Hypothesis Psychotic experiences (PEs) are associated with increased risk for mental disorders, in particular persistent PEs. PEs therefore might be useful within intervention research. We sought to systematically determine the incidence and persistence of PEs in the general population. Study Design A double-blind search of databases (Embase, Pubmed PMC, Psychinfo, Medline, and Web of Science) from inception to January 2023 and data extraction, were conducted. Study quality was assessed using the NIH assessment tool. Random effects models were conducted to calculate pooled incidence rate per person-year and proportion of persistent PEs per year. Age and study design were all examined using subgroup analyses. Demographic, risk factors, and outcomes for incidence and persistence of PEs were reported in a narrative synthesis. Study Results Using a double-blind screening method for abstract (k = 5763) and full text (k = 250) were screened. In total 91 samples from 71 studies were included, of which 39 were included in a meta-analysis (incidence: k = 17, n = 56 089; persistence: k = 22, n = 81 847). Incidence rate was 0.023 per person-year (95% CI [0.0129;0.0322]). That is, for every 100 people, 2 reported first onset PEs in a year. This was highest in adolescence at 5 per 100(13–17 years). The pooled persistence rate for PEs was 31.0% (95% CI [26.65,35.35]) This was highest in adolescence at 35.8%. Cannabis was particularly associated with incidence of PEs, and persistence of PEs were associated with multiple mental disorders. Conclusions Each year incidence of PEs is 2 of every 100 people, and persists each year in 31% of cases, this risk is highest in adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new framework for researching victims that blends appreciative inquiry methods used by prison researchers with narrative interview methods used by desistance researchers to investigate victim 'strength-growth-resilience'. Alongside established victimological concerns with the extent, distribution and treatment of crime victims, this framework offers an alternative lens that focuses on victim agency, identity and transformation. Building on the emancipatory project of feminist victimology, narrative and cultural criminology and an emerging narrative victimology the framework aims to provide a new conceptual reference point for victimological research. The article's objectives are to demonstrate that this framework delivers a theoretically, empirically and ethically robust approach for exploring the mechanisms by which victims become resilient, and can even flourish, in the aftermath of criminal harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobilization of narratives is essential in integrating people and constructing identities that help in navigating complexity, uncertainty, and conflictuality. This paper explores how comparisons are used as a discursive tool to shape narratives and bring about changes in policy and society, using the High Speed Two megaproject in the UK as a case study. We examine the comparisons that promoters and protesters employ in an organizational setting. In particular, we explore how the narratives that result from these comparisons--on questions including the need for the megaproject, the benefits of the megaproject, alternatives to the megaproject, and issues of noise, sustainability, compensation, and branding--help their efforts to organize. The research highlights how comparisons serve as an important cue in discourse and how different forms of comparison can help to create narratives and shape policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports qualitative findings from a mixed-methods evaluation of an intervention for families affected by substance misuse and child protection concerns. The study involved twenty-seven families, including eighty-four children. The data illustrate the various impacts of substance misuse on family life, including neglect, instability and physical and sexual abuse. During semi-structured interviews, many of the parents went some way to counter highly stigmatised identities through confessing previous parental failings and demonstrating the distance they have travelled since then. A small minority maintained that they have been wrongly labelled as inadequate parents. Additionally, parents vividly recalled hardships and abuse, underlining the challenging material realities of their lives. For most, domestic abuse was a particularly dominant factor. Implications for practice are outlined in the conclusion of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial differences in productivity, accompanied by growing social and political discontent, have widened across UK regions in the last 40 years, creating a dysfunctional spatial equilibrium; a coordination failure that has so far proved resistant to change. In this paper, we link such persistent regional disequilibria with current socio-psychological theories about the role of narrative in decision-making under radical uncertainty to explore how and why ideas held collectively within a social network can become the coordinating device for a range of decisions within networked communities that have extra-market effects (externalities), analogous to the role that prices play within markets. Drawing on findings from a pilot interview study in two UK regions, we show the potential for local leadership to use well-constructed narratives to coordinate fragmented agents to cooperate on a common purpose and more generally propose a framework to understand how low-income equilibria become stable but might be re-set. In this way we bring new insights into the need for an expanded economic theory of knowledge applicable to expectation and preference formation in conditions of radical uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscape for social work is continually changing and working with asylum seekers remains a highly charged and contested area of practice. This paper compares the role of social workers working with asylum seekers in statutory and voluntary-sector settings in the UK. Institutional practices suggest a divide between statutory settings and charitable organisations. However, based on empirical qualitative research and in-depth interviews with thirty-four social workers in Scotland and the south-east of England that explored dominant discourses influencing their practice, we suggest considerable similarities in the different sectors. Austerity measures for local authorities (LA) and voluntary agencies have resulted in the closure of specialist teams and reduced funding for social workers. Findings highlight politicised dominant narratives when working with asylum seekers and we argue for alternatives that promote a more nuanced perspective of entitlement and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The EU directive on patients' rights and cross-border care is of particular interest to small states as it reinforces the concept of health system cooperation. An analysis of the challenges faced by small states, as well as a deep evaluation of their health system reform characteristics is timely and justified. This paper identifies areas in which EU level cooperation may bring added value to these countries' health systems. Method: Literature search is based primarily on PUBMED and is limited to English-language papers published between January 2000 and September 2014. Results of 76 original research papers appearing in peer-reviewed journals are summarised in a literature map and narrative review. Results: Primary care, health workforce and medicines emerge as the salient themes in the review. Lack of capacity and small market size are found to be the frequently encountered challenges in governance and delivery of services. These constraints appear to also impinge on the ability of small states to effectively implement health system reforms. The EU appears to play a marginal role in supporting small state health systems, albeit the stimulus for reform associated with EU accession. Conclusions: Small states face common health system challenges which could potentially be addressed through enhanced health system cooperation at EU level. The lessons learned from research on small states may be of relevance to health systems organized at regional level in larger European states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the two lexical adverbs in Korean, cikum and icey, which are assumed to be synonymous with each other and equivalent in meaning with English now. Because cikum and icey seem to be interchangeable in many instances without significant differences, their distinctive semantic features have been overlooked and not systematically studied. Starting from an overview of previous studies of cikum and icey, which focus on the intra-sentential analysis, this paper claims that, contrary to common assumptions, cikum and icey differ inherently in terms of the viewpoint of perspective taking in narrative discourse. Using examples drawn from a corpus, we argue that cikum simply refers to a time interval that contains the reference point from which the described event is viewed. On the other hand, icey describes a change in situation, showing that the reference point can be perceived as a point that divides the past and the future seen from this vantage point. Subsequently, we show that English now has in fact two functions corresponding to the Korean cikum and icey. The semantic differences between cikum and icey in narrative discourses are represented in discourse representation theory. Cikum preserves the given reference time, elaborating on an event described by the preceding sentence, while icey introduces a new reference time, updating the temporal context with a shifted temporal perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Often, part of the fictional content of a narrative is not stated explicitly. Interpreters are frequently concerned with establishing this content. In doing so, they sometimes argue that, fictionally, something is the case because under that interpretation, the aesthetic merit of the work would be greater than under an alternative interpretation. The move from what would be of greater aesthetic merit to what is (fictionally) the case raises questions regarding the argumentative force of such arguments: How exactly do the premises of arguments from aesthetic merit to fictional content (for short: Afams) establish their conclusions? This paper spells out four ways to reconstruct the argumentative structure of Afams: In Section ii, we analyze two possibilities to establish Afams as deductive arguments; Section iii is concerned with a reconstruction based on a constructivist picture of literature and literary interpretation; and in Section iv, we look at a nondeductive reconstruction of Afams in accordance with an intentionalist framework. While we conclude that all four reconstructions can account for the argumentative force of Afams, the ultimate acceptability of each reconstruction rests on the readers' commitment to background assumptions concerning the theory of interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at parallels in the articulation of memory and trauma between Toni Morrison's Beloved and the more recent publication Ponciá Vicêncio , written in 2003 by the Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo. It examines the novels' illustration of slavery trauma and the creative investment of descendants of slaves in re-presenting traumatic family history. With this concern, it proposes a comparative reading of Beloved and Ponciá Vicêncio , focusing, first, on their representations of the embodiment of trauma; second, on their respective concepts of rememory and memory-thoughts – or pensamentos-lembranças; and third, on the descendants' engagement with the revision of narratives of family past, through the characters Denver and Ponciá. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into child and family social work has largely stopped short of getting close enough to practice to produce understandings of what goes on between social workers and service users. This is despite the known problems in social worker engagement with children in cases where they have died. This paper outlines and analyses the methods used in a study of social work encounters with children and families on home visits where there were child protection concerns. It illustrates how mobile methods of walking and driving interviews were conducted with social workers on the way to and from home visits, and how the ethnography involved participant observation and audio-recordings of the interactions between social workers, children and parents in the home, revealing the talk, actions and experiences that occurred. Social workers often moved around the home, especially to interview children on their own in their bedrooms, and the paper shows how ways were found to stay close enough to observe these sensitive encounters within families' most intimate spaces, while ensuring the research remained ethical. Ethnographic and mobile methods produce vital data that advance new understandings of everyday social work practices and service users' experiences and of dynamics that are similar to breakdowns in practice that have occurred in child death cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of belonging in post-disaster environments remains an under-theorised concept, particularly regarding refugee populations. This paper presents a qualitative study with 101 refugee-background participants from varying communities living in Christchurch, New Zealand, about their perspectives and responses to the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-11. Participants spoke of how a sense of belonging as individuals and as a wider community was important in the recovery effort, and highlighted the multiple ways in which they understood this concept. Their comments demonstrate how belonging can have contextual, chronological and gendered dimensions that can help inform effective and resonant disaster responses with culturally and linguistically diverse populations. This analysis also illustrates how the participants' perspectives of belonging shifted over time, and discusses the corresponding role of social work in supporting post-disaster recovery through the concepts of civic, ethno and ethnic-based belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between Theory of Mind (ToM) and literacy is increasingly being recognized in the literature. However, the focus to date has concentrated on the connections between reading and ToM, with an emphasis on the ways in which ToM is implicated in making inferences from text and suggestions that engaging in reading fiction can support the development of ToM. The exploratory study presented in this paper is unique in its approach as it widens the focus to consider the relationship between ToM and writing. Using a developmental framework based on the work of Westby and Robinson (Westby, C. & Robinson L. (2014). A developmental perspective for promoting theory of mind. Topics in Language Disorders 34 (4), 362–382 doi: 10.1097/TLD.0000000000000035), the written narratives of 43 deaf children (aged 7.2 years to 11.11 years) were examined for evidence of ToM. Evidence of ToM was found in the writing of 86% of the participants (n = 37) with children demonstrating abilities across the spectrum of development. Implications for both research and pedagogical practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the meanings of research fatigue and silences in conflict-related sexual violence research. Drawing on field experiences in Liberia, Tanzania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Peru, we discuss some of the unintended consequences of persistent focus on victim-survivors' narratives and argue for a reflexive feminist perspective that allows us to question the need and context of interviewing survivors and the associated insistence on disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science is a search for evidence, but science communication must be a search for meaning. General audiences will only care about science if it is presented in a meaningful context. One of the most effective ways to do this is through storytelling. Stories are integral to all cultures. Studies indicate that stories even help audiences to process and recall new information. Scientists sometimes worry that storytelling will conflate empirical evidence with fabrication. But when telling non-fiction stories, it is a process of recognizing the story elements already present in the subject material and distilling the most concise and compelling account for a target audience. In this paper, I review literature, offer examples, and draw from my experience as a scientist and a communication trainer to explore how storytelling makes science comprehensible and meaningful for general audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives are common to all branches of science, not only to the humanities. Scientists tell stories about how the things we study work, develop, and evolve, and about how we come to be interested in them. Here I add a third domain (Secularity) to Gould's two "non-overlapping magisteria" of Science and Religion, and I review previous work on the parallels in elements between story-telling in literature and science. The stories of each domain have different criteria for judging them valid or useful. In science, especially historical sciences such as biology and geology, particular scientific methods and approaches both structure and test our narratives. Relying on the narrative assumptions of how certain processes, such as natural selection, are supposed to work is treacherous unless they are tested by appropriate historical patterns, such as phylogeny, and rooted in the process of natural mechanisms. The structure of scientific explanation seen in peer-reviewed papers and grant proposals obscures true narrative within a formulaic sequence of "question, methods, materials" and so on that is quite different from the classic narrative of folk-tales and novels, producing an "anti-narrative" that must be "un-learned" before it can be communicated to non-scientists. By adopting some of the techniques of classic story-telling, scientists can become more effective in making our ideas clear, educating the public, and even attracting funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work is yet to develop a domain-specific vantage point on the ideologically charged topic of migration. To date, social work's focus has centred on cultural competency. This paper uses information obtained from migrant narratives to understand the dynamics of belonging in the context of place and identity. Belonging is not confined to the ethnic perimeter. Visual narrative analysis was applied to make sense of the experiences of belonging. Individual and social freedoms were highlighted in the narratives. The findings challenge methodological nationalism and the multicultural framework that understands culture as a fixed entity. In addition, the findings highlight a need to build more supportive relationships with migrant clients by acknowledging that the clients are active shapers of societal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores findings from an exploratory study on the significant aspects of sibling relationships post adoption reunion. The qualitative data were drawn from in-depth interviews with thirty-three adopted people who had met birth siblings in adult life. The complex pathways of adopted people towards reunion are outlined. The findings demonstrate that, although most participants had maintained contact with the birth siblings they had met in adult life, these relationships were also fragile and ambiguous in nature. Important insights are gained from participants who made recommendations in relation to post-reunion social work support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county of Ya’an city, Sichuan Province, China, on 20 April 2013. The Lushan earthquake damage is less than the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake’s, where 70,000 houses collapsed and 2 million people across nineteen prefectures and 115 counties of Sichuan province were affected. Temple Village (fictitious name), an old village in S township, was chosen as an intervention site. As most young adults went to work in the city, the old community became dilapidated and its traditional culture, architecture, custom, skill and wisdom were dying. Social workers were unable to tackle fully this community’s multiple needs, especially those associated with environmental and physical spaces linked to notions of belonging and identity, on their own. A transdisciplinary action research team in which social workers operated hand in hand with the disciplines of architectural design became the means for exploring an alternative model of post-disaster community reconstruction that would enhance the quality of life of left-behind people in this disaster-affected community. Working together, the research team facilitated the formation of a community kitchen project that enabled villagers to create a new building and co-operative organisations for the village’s long-term sustainable development. This paper presents the participatory design process, contribution of green social work and transdisciplinary interventions in post-disaster community reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial scams have been described as the crime of the twenty-first century, representing a global challenge for agencies involved in the protection of older people at risk of financial abuse. Financial abuse is the second most common form of adult abuse, but traditionally research has focused on abuse that occurs within relationships of trust within families. Less is known about financial scams perpetrated by individuals or organisations unknown to the individual, and which specifically target older people. In part, this is because financial scams are often underreported, as victims can be reluctant to disclose their experience, posing challenges to those who have a safeguarding role. This paper discusses factors emerging from the literature that act as triggers for scam involvement. These include loneliness, emotional vulnerability linked to life events, cognitive impairment and mental capacity. The findings of a small exploratory qualitative study with older people and their carers (n  = 12) who have experienced financial scams will be discussed in relation to the literature. These provide unique insights into the experience of being scammed and the impact on individual health and well-being. Key themes will be discussed in relation to social work practice and integrated working across health and social care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about non-fictional objects in fictions and their role as narrators. Two central claims are advanced. In part 1 it is argued that non-fictional objects such as you and me can be part of fictions. This commonsensical idea is elaborated and defended against objections. Building on it, it is argued in part 2 that non-fictional objects can be characters and narrators in fictional narratives. As a consequence, three fundamental and popular claims concerning narrators are rejected. In particular, it is shown that some fictional narratives have non-fictional internal narrators, some have no internal fictional narrator, and, most controversially, that the author of a fictional narrative can be identical to its internal narrator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a linguistic approach to narrative analysis, illustrated through a quantitative/qualitative lexico-semantic study of sustainability reports by BP, Equinor, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil. It contributes novel insights into how major CO2 emitters present themselves in climate narratives. My aim is, first, to show how the basic components of narratives (Complication, Reaction, and Resolution) and the classic character set (victim, villain, and hero) may be identified through linguistic features, and second, to consider how the special nature of climate change impacts on the enactment of this character set. The study considers whether the companies acknowledge their reputation as villains in the global climate narrative, or whether they are discursively shying away from this script. I find that the reports share a basic climate narrative, representing a techno-optimistic approach to maintaining a profitable business in a carbon-constrained society, with gas representing a narrative Complication as well as a Resolution. The global villain role is acknowledged, but typically softened through a dual villain/hero role. The hero role in fact turned out to be the most conspicuous in the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for foster-carers has significantly increased in recent decades as growing numbers of children are in need of out-of-home care. However, despite their importance to the foster-care system, the foster-carer role is imbued with ambiguity. The perceptions and expectations of the foster-carer role differ greatly between child protection workers, the children in foster-care, the wider community and foster-carers themselves. This paper seeks to provide insight and understanding of provision of long-term foster- care from the perspective of the female carer. The findings presented in this paper are drawn from a larger doctoral study that examined women's experiences of providing long-term foster-care in Australia. Analysis revealed participants did not perceive themselves as foster-carers, but rather viewed themselves as mothers to the long-term foster children in their care. This understanding has the potential to: inform both policy and practice in relation to long-term foster-care; provide useful recruitment information; and possibly serve to augment relations between child protection workers and women who provide long-term foster-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a practice-based research example of how critical reflection developed possibilities for emancipatory change. Specifically, it traces the experiential process of one practitioner who participated in a recent research project. This original research tested the possibilities for critical reflection to produce change in practitioners engaged in supporting victims/survivors of sexual assault in the context of the Australian criminal justice system. The paper contributes to addressing a gap that has been identified in the literature concerning a lack of empirical evidence to support the claims made about critical reflection by its proponents. The paper provides an empirical example of the deconstruction and reconstruction processes involved in the research that enabled this practitioner to overcome her initial sense of fatalism and powerlessness, to instead envision new ways to engage with adversity and creative strategies to work towards emancipatory change and social justice within a micro-practice context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The complex humanitarian emergency in northern Uganda was occasioned by the two decades of conflict. As a result, several development organisations (local and international) responded to the support needs of children and communities affected by the armed conflict in northern Uganda. Some interventions were developed to meet the psycho-social needs of the children at the reception and rehabilitation centres (RRCs) and in the community. Others were designed to respond to the psycho-social challenges of their families and of the returning children. Interventions have also been developed to address the children's resettlement and reintegration needs. In this paper, I make a critical analysis of the activities of three indigenous organisations, namely CARITAS Gulu archdiocese; Gulu Support the Children Organisation (GUSCO); and Concerned Parents Association (CPA), as they carry out support activities for children associated with fighting forces. I utilise a child rights discourse in analysing the interventions and their overall implications to social work practice in a complex context. I argue that, while these interventions were relevant to the circumstances of the children and young people, they in many cases fell short of fully empowering them to engage more proactively with their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper attempts to reveal the ways in which criminal courts in Israel constructed foreign workers brought to trial as ‘others’. Individual foreign workers were framed as being irrelevant as bearers of rights while, in a parallel process, foreign workers as a group were constructed as symbolically relevant to discussions regarding the state governance of social risk. The study spans the years 1994–2011, when Israel adopted a new neo-liberal regime. The paper shows that the complex penal construction of the ‘other’ was used as a platform to justify and support the fuelling of the country’s globalized neo-liberal economy with cheap migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contemporary child adoption in the UK and USA has been conceptualised as an extended kinship network of adopted children, birth relatives and adopters (Reitz and Watson, 1992; Grotevant and McRoy, 1998). This contrasts sharply with the traditional model of adoption as a form of family substitution. Yet, such a reconceptualisation raises many questions about the meaning of kinship for those involved. This paper draws on data from a series of biographical interviews with twenty-two parents who adopted children within the UK over a twenty-four-year period in order to explore post adoption ‘family relationships’ from the perspective of adoptive parents. It develops an analysis of definitions of ‘kinship’ created by adoptive parents in order to shape family relationships following adoption, particularly the processes through which birth relatives are rendered marginal or integral to adoptive family life. The relevance of current adoption policy and professional practices to these processes are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a widespread consensus internationally, demonstrated in the UN Charter on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and subsequent policy documents, that children should be protected from work that is hazardous and harmful. This paper, based on doctoral research conducted with street-vending children and young people in Nigeria, argues that this approach fails to address the complex reality of children's lives in developing countries. Findings from interviews with itinerant child vendors and participant observation in markets in Enugu, Nigeria, demonstrate that vending is an essential part of children's everyday lives, organised alongside, not separate from, other areas of family life. The paper concludes that it is not helpful to impose developed-world ideas on children's lives in such a different context; the focus of attention should, it is proposed, be on finding out what children and young people think and how they might be better supported and protected within their working environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social work literature has paid increased attention to relations between those living in poverty and social service workers. Numerous studies have reported inconsistencies between clients' and social workers' perceptions of the adequacy of support. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to clients' voices, and seldom are they treated as experts in their own lives. This qualitative study examines the perceptions of women living in poverty in terms of their encounters with social services, focusing on their felt experience. Based on in-depth interviews of fifty breadwinning Jewish Israeli mothers, the analysis reveals four central mechanisms of social exclusion within the encounters between social service workers and their clients, which deprive the women of the opportunity to own power, knowledge and respectability: closing doors; humiliation, shame and stigma; accusation and criticism; and invisibility. To a considerably lesser extent, the analysis also points to mechanisms of social inclusion: visibility, dignity and respect. The paper discusses the implications of these findings in terms of how encounters between women living in poverty and the social services could facilitate social inclusion and respectability, as well as poverty alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a national study of 'whole-family' models of practice--and how these may (or may not) contribute to the reablement of people with mental health difficulties. Using a capabilities-based perspective, it is argued that, within the context of mental health, reablement may best be defined in terms of empowerment and social participation. Framed within a realist evaluation methodology, the study employs a comparative case study design to explore the relationships between contexts of intervention, mechanisms of change and the achievement (or otherwise) of reablement outcomes. Four distinct practice approaches in current use were examined: Systemic Family Therapy, Behavioural Family Therapy, Family Group Conferencing and an Integrated Systemic/Behavioural approach. Using a sample of twenty-two families, separate interviews were undertaken with service users, family members and practitioners, and narrative accounts were triangulated with scaled responses to scorecard questions. From an analysis of these data, heuristic models of change are derived for each approach. From this, a composite schema is developed that charts how, with different starting points and routes, engaging with whole families may lead to the construction of a secure and empowering base from which service users may reconnect with wider social worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on care leavers' experiences of their transition from care to adulthood. Using a social pedagogical perspective, we explore continuity and discontinuity in their life course as central aspects of support in the transition process. Using biographical narratives of three young people with different paths of transition from public care, we argue that a successful transition to independent living involves a complex interplay of continuity and discontinuity. Our analysis suggests a typology of (dis)continuity patterns in the transition to adulthood: (i) creating continuity, (ii) transforming continuity, (iii) discontinuity by breaking up continuity and (iv) enabling continuity by discontinuity. Current discourse in social work research values stability in care and continuity in the transition from care as a main strategy for successful transition. This perspective on the efforts of professionals and institutions, emphasising placement stability, disregards the young people's own efforts to create (dis)continuity in other aspects of their life. These, we found, can lead to positive changes. Our results suggest that, to enhance care leavers' agency to cope with transition processes, social work practice should strive to understand the client's biographically driven strategies of creating (dis)continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on findings from a European project, 'Rights through Alliances: Innovating and Networking Both Within Homes And Schools' (RAINBOW-HAS), conducted in 2013-15. It built collaboration between six EU countries to analyse and improve the rights of children and youth regarding sexual orientation and gender identity in educational settings. The main focus of discussion derives from a secondary discourse analysis following thematic analyses of the qualitative interviews undertaken with a range of different families, schools and community associations across these European countries, which provide a snapshot of contemporary practice. We discuss the relative silence of social work in challenging homophobic and transphobic bullying, given their potential in promoting family and young people's engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates the emerging practices of narrative methods in research that focuses on mobility and migration. It seeks to understand how these methods enable a conceptualization of global politics that challenges the global/local divide, revealing instead complex entanglements through which the local and the global are mutually constituted. Focusing in particular on the primacy of narrative, and on the concept of "translation," the paper argues that participants in research author narratives in ways that reveal alternative, powerful accounts of global politics that are meaning-making and demand an understanding of "local" knowledges as valid and important insights into how global politics is understood. Ultimately, these methods engage the heterogeneous, multiple, and ultimately fully relational narratives of individuals who are autonomous and creative, and the ways these accounts interrupt the dominant narratives of how the world is politically understood--and is politically practiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the lived experience of maltreatment in parent-child relationships in relation to Chinese children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-which emerged from a qualitative study conducted in Hong Kong. Out of a clinical sample of forty-four families, 25 per cent of children reported parental abuse, 21 percent of parents had suffered from child-to-parent maltreatment and 11 percent of families had experienced both. Most of the self-disclosures came out naturally in the three phases of the multiple family groups conducted by the authors. The maltreatment experienced was physical in nature, except for four cases of psychological abuse. Maltreatment was the result of escalating parent-child conflicts, triggered in four circumstances: (i) supervision of homework; (ii) parental demand on their children to do something other than playing; (iii) parent's misunderstanding of the child's acting-out behaviours; and (iv) parent's verbal threat of removing the child from home. The narratives underscore the urgent need to develop a complex social work model in helping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in child welfare services has increased significantly during the last decades, and so have the possibilities to process health data. Parton (2009) states that this evolution has led to a shift in the nature of social work itself: from 'the social' to 'the informational'. It is claimed that social workers primarily are becoming information processors concerned with the gathering, sharing and monitoring of information, instead of being focused on the relational dimensions of their work. However, social workers have considerable discretion concerning the way they use ICT. In this paper, we investigate (i) the street-level strategies social workers develop regarding ICTand (ii) howthese relate to a narrative social work approach. To illustrate this, an evaluation of Charlotte was conducted, a client registration system that is used by social workers in child welfare services in Flanders, Belgium. Based on fifteen interviews, we find that social workers develop various strategies regarding Charlotte to preserve a relational and narrative work approach. These strategies not only result in a gap between ICT policy and the execution of that policy in practice, but also decrease the extent to which accountability can be realised via registration data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the notion of 'dirty work' in relation to the newly created role of the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP). An AMHP undertakes various duties set out in the 1983 Mental Health Act, as amended by the 2007 Act, in relation to assessments to make applications for compulsory admission to psychiatric hospital. It has been argued that undertaking this social control function is 'dirty work'. However, the findings from a study of social work AMHPs in England suggest that the picture is more complex. Extracts from narrative interviews are analysed using dialogical narrative analysis. Rather than being designated as dirty work, AMHP duty was presented as prestigious and as advanced social work. However, through their storytelling, the social workers clearly delineated the aspects of AMHP work that they did designate as dirty, specifically the lack of beds, the complexities of coordination and the emotional labour which is an inherent part of the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]