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This paper explores the Dementia Enquirers approach to dementia research, and the 10 local projects which have been funded in the first wave of the programme. The paper is written by six people with dementia with expertise by experience, supported by a traditional academic with expertise by research. This co-production enables the voices of people with dementia to be heard, and expands the field of disability studies. The authors discuss problems with traditional academic research, and the different ways that people with dementia go about research. Two examples of research projects led by people with dementia are discussed. The paper explores difficulties people with dementia have had with formal research ethics procedures and how they propose to do things differently. In conclusion, the authors challenge mainstream dementia research to do things differently, and to understand the potential contributions of people with dementia. People with dementia can conduct research People with dementia understand ethics and can come to considered judgements about capacity, consent and the risk of harm. People with dementia may sometimes enjoy advantages in their ways of working Mainstream research and research governance needs to adapt, if people with dementia are to be included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents qualitative research findings from the evaluation of a Parkinson's Dance well-being venture in the UK. Methods: Qualitative data was gathered to see how bespoke dancing sessions helped people with Parkinson's (PwP) to manage their conditions and improve their lives and prospects. Principles of a participatory approach were incorporated and methods included semi-structured interviewing, researchers participant observation and an elicitation-based activity. Nineteen PwP, six carers, four dance artists and seven helpers participated in the study. Results: Participating in Parkinson's Dance sessions meant that PwP could experience the possibilities to dance, develop a "can do" attitude, experience fun, enjoyment, social connection, exercise, movement to music, improvement and/or maintenance of their balance, suppleness, coordination and confidence with movement, symptoms being pushed back and ability to learn new things. Conclusions: Our findings add to the evidence-base about the benefits of dance for people experiencing Parkinson's and through novel application of the Life-world based well-being framework of K. T. Galvin and Todres (2011) we propose a theoretical basis for Parkinson's Dance as a resource for well-being. There is scope to consider application of the well-being framework to other arts activities and as the basis of an arts and well-being evaluation tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, this paper explores the perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine among South Asian communities residing in the UK. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted using a qualitative approach and analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants represented Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Afghani, and Nepali backgrounds. The participants revealed that family and community influence their perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine. The results suggest that normalizing vaccine acceptance, addressing unknown side effects, and popularizing vaccine efficacy data will increase vaccine uptake within the South Asian community in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has suggested that older trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people may face particular challenges related to stigma, social exclusion and discrimination in later life. However, direct data on social support and needs in older TGNC population both internationally and within the UK is limited due to the small, dispersed nature of this population, and the absence of specific data collection on aging TGNC populations. During the UK COVID-19 lockdown in summer 2020, older people and those with long-term health conditions were advised to adopt particular precautions. This study aimed to explore older TGNC people's social support networks, key concerns and unmet needs during the COVID-19 'lockdown'. A UK cross-sectional survey of LGBT + people aged 60+ (n = 375) was undertaken during the lockdown. This paper analyses responses from the subset (n = 38) of TGNC participants. The majority of TGNC respondents described diverse social networks, often centered around friends and non-kin social networks, although partners and adult children were also significant for some. In most cases, those with existing strong networks continued to maintain social connections during lockdown, albeit with some regrets about loss of activities and face-to-face connection. However, a minority of respondents had experienced greater challenges prior to lockdown, and may have been at increased vulnerability during the pandemic, for example indicating that they had no-one to call on for practical support in an emergency. When asked about unmet needs and challenges, social isolation was repeatedly raised as the most frequent concern. Several respondents also mentioned issues specifically affecting TGNC communities, including access to gender affirming care and a perceived rise in social intolerance. Health and social care providers should be aware of the diversity of support networks within TGNC communities. There may also be benefits in community sector interventions to help older TGNC build and maintain strong social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data based on questionnaire measures from parents in New Zealand, the UK, and Sweden on attitudes toward advertising to children is presented. There is cross-national evidence that attitudes in this area are affectively strong and consistent and data is presented on responses to particular attitude statements that support this claim. An exploratory factor analysis on the Swedish and UK data suggests a factor structure in respondents with both positive and negative attitudinal clusters toward advertising to children. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research in order that the international debate on advertising and marketing to children is informed by cross-cultural research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We remain without an adequate understanding of the process through which militant dissent was managed, and marginalised, during the inter-war development of British industrial relations. The industrial cooperation conferences between trade unions and business associations during the late 1920s reduced industrial conflict and reinforced the state's strategies to avoid a crisis during the interwar years in Britain. The TUC's involvement in the cooperation talks helped to legitimise trade unionism in the view of the state and capital. Furthermore, in joining the industrial conversations, the TUC reinforced its strategy of side-lining industrial dissident organisations, notably the National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM). Scholarship on industrial relations has inadequately grasped the relevance of the industrial cooperation talks in reducing industrial conflict and marginalising dissent during the interwar years in Britain. Using archival research and documentary analysis, this paper contributes to the literature on British industrial relations, highlighting the TUC's attitudes against the NUWM during the late 1920s. In doing so, it advances an Open Marxist account, emphasising the role of the state in seeking to oversee smooth processes of exchange, distribution and production, which in turn has an impact upon the operation of trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CreST is the Creative Speech Technology Network, a research network which brought together people from a wide variety of backgrounds spanning arts technology and beyond. The papers in this volume represent some of the outcomes of that collaboration. This editorial introduces the background of the network and each of the papers. In conclusion we demonstrate that this work helped to realize many of the objectives of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the treatment of personality disorders, the use of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in mental disorders, and addictions, compulsions and fetishism.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) degrees in Australian and British universities have come under attack from sceptics who argue that such courses teach only 'pseudoscience'. Moreover, CAM academics have themselves been publicly labelled 'quacks'. Comparatively little is known about this group of health professionals who span the two worlds of CAM practice and academia. How do they navigate between these domains, and how are their collective and individual professional identities constructed? Drawing on 47 semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the professional identities of academics working in three university-based CAM disciplines in Australia and the UK: osteopathy, chiropractic and Chinese medicine. By analysing these individuals' accounts, and building on prior research on health professions in the academy, the paper contributes to understanding how contests about professionalism and professional knowledge take place against the academic-practice divide. By focussing on a domain where knowledge claims are conspicuously contested, it highlights the salience of navigating 'epistemic stress' for both group and individual professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been no shortage of literature that has focused on the role of money in politics. While the majority has focused squarely on the fundraising activities and spending preferences of parties and candidates, far less has paid attention to the spending habits of corporations, unions and interests that often register as non-parties. Yet these actors have gained prominence across general elections and referendum campaigns in the past decade owing to the increase in funds spent to influence election outcomes. Little is known about what the public thinks about the participation of these actors in campaigns. Yet public opinion toward non-party campaign spending is important to the degree that it effects perceptions of electoral integrity and might compel policy change. This paper uses new survey data collected from Canada and the UK to answer questions about how citizens perceive non-party campaign spending and what informs attitudes toward non-parties. We find that the public in both countries have mixed views on the participation of non-parties, but that there is some evidence that core concerns about electoral interiority and perceptions toward the role of money in politics drives opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the usability and acceptability of the Mental Capacity Assessment Support Toolkit (MCAST) in healthcare settings and whether its use was associated with increased legal compliance and assessor confidence. A mixed methods convergence triangulation model was used. Multidisciplinary professionals used the MCAST during mental capacity assessments for UK hospital patients with diagnoses of stroke or acute or chronic cognitive impairment. Changes in legal compliance were investigated by comparing scores on case note audits before and after implementation of the MCAST. Changes in assessor confidence and professionals' perceptions of the MCAST's usability and acceptability were explored using surveys. Patients' and family members' views on acceptability were determined using semi-structured interviews. Data were integrated using triangulation. Twenty-one professionals, 17 patients and two family members participated. Use of the MCAST was associated with significant increases in legal compliance and assessor confidence. Most professionals found the MCAST easy to use and beneficial to their practice and patients. Patients and family members found the MCAST materials acceptable. The MCAST is the first toolkit to support the needs of individuals with communication disabilities during mental capacity assessments. It enables assessors to deliver high quality, legally compliant and confident practice. Mental capacity assessment practice needs to be improved to maximise patient autonomy, safety and well-being. The MCAST is a paper-based toolkit designed to facilitate and improve mental capacity practice in England and Wales. This study suggests the MCAST would be easy and acceptable to use in healthcare settings and could lead to improvements in assessment quality and assessor confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom there are guidelines and policies to facilitate boundaries within professional interactions which recognise power differences between those employed in services and those referred to them. However, perhaps we must acknowledge that these boundaries may have indirectly resulted in an unbridgeable division between professionals and those that use services in current professional policies. This paper considers what it means to be a Clinical Psychologist and user of services or carer with the complexity that surrounds this dual position. Through incorporating personal reflections, it seeks to highlight how hard it can be to break down 'them and us' barriers despite the best intentions of the profession and policy makers. The suggestion is that to be truly equal and inclusive we must shift from relating differently to service users, professionals and professionals who may use services by acknowledging our personal positions; otherwise breaking down barriers will remain an ideal rather than a reality. When it comes to our overall well-being breaking down these barriers could shift us from direct or oblique misunderstandings, judgements and stigma towards understanding, tolerance and acceptance within and between all of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the gendered experience of singleness in Britain through a theoretical and empirical understanding of the abject. Drawing on the writings of Judith Butler, we argue that singleness is culturally pathologised as an abject ‘other’, a liminal state which renders the legitimation of the single subject unintelligible. Through 14 active interviews with British singles, we demonstrate how our participants negotiate their marginal status vis-à-vis the marketplace and the broader society that continue to uphold heterosexual partnership as a normative form of intimacy. Our data uncovers persistent and powerful gender stereotypes of how singles ought to organise their lives and conform both to social, as well as market-driven pressures. We therefore highlight research gaps in the experience of singleness and critique the heteronormative framework that remains dominant, yet concealed, in gender research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the lack of collective political action and engagement in protests and anti-deportation campaigns (ADCs) on the part of foreign-national offenders facing deportation from the UK. Taking ADC guidelines from migrant support groups, and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in London, I show that the circumstances of foreign-national offenders, and in particular their own understandings of their removal, appear incompatible with open political action and with the broader work of ADC support groups. The findings presented throughout this paper make the case that foreign-national offenders have conflicting notions about their deportation and their ‘right’ to protest and campaign against it, revealing how perceptions of legitimacy impact not only on how policies are lived and experienced but also on the scope for political action on the part of those who are experiencing those policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The release of the 2014 REF results in the UK is a timely reminder that many national governments have aimed to increase the research productivity of universities, by introducing performance-based research systems. This paper examines whether there is a relationship between attitudes to these research systems and research productivity, using interview data from three universities in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It concludes that attitudes are not strongly related to productivity, and that only a better understanding of system limitations will help to improve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In order to increase the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in dementia, a step-by-step process translating evidence and public engagement should be adhered to. This paper describes such a process by involving a two-stage focus group with people with dementia (PwD), informal carers, and staff. Methods: Based on previous evidence, general aspects of effective interventions were drawn out. These were tested in the first stage of focus groups, one with informal carers and PwD and one with staff. Findings from this stage helped shape the intervention further specifying its content. In the second stage, participants were consulted about the detailed components. Findings: The extant evidence base and focus groups helped to identify six practical and situation-specific elements worthy of consideration in planning such an intervention, including underlying theory and personal motivations for participation. Carers, PwD, and staff highlighted the importance of rapport between practitioners and PwD prior to commencing the intervention. It was also considered important that the intervention would be personalised to each individual. Conclusions: This paper shows how valuable public involvement can be to intervention development, and outlines a process of public involvement for future intervention development. The next step would be to formally test the intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that physical activity (PA) programmes promoted via healthcare settings worldwide may not currently meet the needs of many patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs). This paper describes the outcomes of a qualitative enquiry into the perspectives of patients and professionals from multiple healthcare services regarding the role of PA. 19 patients and 22 HCPs were purposively recruited from physiotherapy, podiatry, chronic pain, diabetes and continence services at a community-based healthcare clinic in the United Kingdom. Participants' views were explored using semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Results identified five themes: differences between the social and medical rationales underpinning PA promotion; the impact of the patient-professional relationship on patient activation, self-management and PA; a risk culture surrounding PA; challenges to meet variation in patients' needs and preferences; and lack of formal role for PA as a core part of routine healthcare. The study highlights tensions between needs and aspirations, and the reality of delivering advice and support for PA. Challenges resonated with patients and HCPs across different care groups and were not condition-specific. This highlights a need for sharing good practice across healthcare services and system-level interventions to address organisational barriers to the promotion of PA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of the views and experiences of 21 sperm donors and five egg donors registered with UK DonorLink (UKDL), a voluntary DNA-based contact register established to facilitate contact between adults who wish to identify and locate others to whom they are genetically related following donor conception. Specifically, the paper examines donors’ reasons for searching for, or making information about themselves available to donor-conceived offspring. Their expectations of registration with UKDL, experiences of being registered and finally, the experiences of those who had contacted donor-conceived offspring and other genetic relatives are investigated. While most respondents reported largely positive experiences of registration, the study found significant issues relating to concerns about donation, DNA testing, possible linking with offspring and expectations of any relationship that might be established with offspring that have implications for support, mediation and counselling. Research that puts the experiences, perceptions and interests of gamete donors as the central focus of study is a relatively recent phenomenon. This study contributes to this debate and highlights directions for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses analysis of interview transcripts and notes from participant observation to explore white reactions to the introduction of diversity management in a large public sector workplace in Glasgow. The paper analyses white talk about racial equality in a social context where the shaming, exclusion and demonization of disadvantaged groups including migrants, asylum seekers and the poor have ensured that issues of entitlement and race are highly charged. It is suggested that in such contexts diversity management is being wielded as a new kind of civility by middle-class people invested in the objectification of poor whites. This represents a form of class conflict over belonging within the body of whiteness that risks reinforcing rather than redressing racial resentments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with public perceptions and attitudes to heritage townscapes, and how these might be influenced by investment in such places, focused on their public realm, and building restoration and improvement as a catalyst for urban regeneration. It draws on a ten-year study of the impact of the Townscape Heritage Initiative, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, on a sample of 16 cases across the UK. By comparing an analysis of changes in townscape quality over this period, with changes in public perceptions (captured through the use of a household survey in all 16 cases at three points in the ten-year period), it draws empirically grounded conclusions about the influence of heritage investment on attitudes and perceptions to the quality of the local environment. The findings from the research suggests that public attitudes are positively influenced by programmes of investment in the built heritage, but that this influence is complex and is not as robust as the physical regeneration itself. The paper also reflects on the relative influence of the post-2008 economic recession on public attitudes to place compared with the influence of heritage investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present paper is to illustrate how leaders can create high performance environments. Using Team Great Britain (TeamGB) cycling’s performance director as a case example, we discuss how leaders can develop social identities (i.e. an emotional attachment and sense of belonging) and shape group meanings as mechanisms through which performance excellence can be achieved. We draw on a contemporary theory of leadership derived from organisational and social psychology to explain how leaders can act to strengthen the emotional bonds within their sport group and motivate athletes to embrace specific group meanings. The present paper also reflects on the lessons learnt from London 2012 that could inform leadership practice in preparation for Rio 2016. In particular, the leaders’ role in developing social identities and distinctive group meanings is important to create an environment conducive to optimum performance. In sum, a social identity approach to leadership detailed within the current paper provides a useful framework to help maximise the opportunities that TeamGB gleaned from London 2012 in order to deliver performance excellence again in Rio 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper offers a case study of a large UK local authority adult care department as it introduces a new practice model. The change programme is examined through a lens of complexity theory. Complexity offers a way of understanding constantly changing systems and uses concepts such as 'feedback loops' and recognition of 'emergent' behaviours to offer a means to anticipate patterns of change in otherwise unpredictable systems. In this study, complexity is found to offer a helpful understanding of behaviour across the complex adaptive system of a large organisation but it falls short at recognising the cause of behaviours that can be obstructive. The author suggests the use of psychoanalytic theory to acknowledge the emotion that might be the driver for resistance to change and notices how effectively the two theories applied together can bring rich understanding as well as strategic oversight to a complex social care system. This study provides a useful, theoretically informed insight into change management and leadership within a social work agency that is moving away from transactional practice and promoting creative, autonomous, relationship-based practice. The study advances understanding of how complexity and psychoanalytic theory can be used in tangent to support organisational change within social care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, the primary public health response to injecting drug use in the UK has been one of harm reduction. That is, reducing the harms associated with drug use without necessarily reducing consumption itself. Rooted in a post-Enlightenment idea of rationalism, interventions are premised on the rational individual who, given the right means, will choose to avoid harm. This lies in stark contrast to dominant addiction models that pervade popular images of the ‘out of control’ drug user, or worse, ‘junkie’. Whilst harm reduction has undoubtedly had vast successes, including challenging the otherwise pathologising and often stigmatising model of addiction, I argue that it has not gone far enough in addressing aspects of drug use that go beyond ‘rational’ and ‘human’ control. Drawing on my doctoral research with people who inject drugs, conducted in London, UK, this paper highlights the role of the injecting ‘event’, which far from being directed or controlled by a pre-defined individual or ‘body’ was composed by a fragile assemblage of bodies, human and nonhuman. Furthermore, in line with the ‘event’s’ heterogeneous and precarious make-up, multiple ways of ‘becoming’ through these events were possible. I look here at these ‘becomings’ as both stabilising and destabilising ways of being in the world, and argue that we need to pay closer attention to these events and what people are actually in the process of becoming in order to enact more accountable and ‘response-able’ harm reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Britain, there has been an increased emphasis on the use of risk assessments in mental health services over the past 20 years. Mentally disordered offenders subject to Section 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (England and Wales) are defined as posing a serious risk of harm to others. They are thus dealt with by forensic mental health services, which are often seen as specialists in risk assessments. This paper is based on original research in three mental health trusts in the South of England which was carried out between March 2009 and September 2011. The paper examines mentally disordered offenders’ awareness and attitude to formal risk assessments in relation to theories of governmentality. Service users subject to Section 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983 were aware that their level of risk was being assessed by professionals caring for them but were commonly unaware of the content of these assessments. These risk assessments were viewed by participants as a means through which professionals measured and monitored behaviour. Although participants often referred to levels of risk, they did not view risk screening schedules as objective, but rather emphasised the need to persuade staff that their risk had reduced. Despite showing a limited awareness of the content of these risk assessments, participants generally identified more risks, in relation to their vulnerability, than did the professional assessments. However, participants generally identified fewer risks in relation to the dangers they posed to others than did professional staff. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports the initial findings from Contemporary Visual Art and Identity Construction—Wellbeing Amongst Older People: a two-year research project that aims to understand how the lives of older people can be improved by examining their use of contemporary visual art in the art gallery and museum. It will focus on data relating to lifelong learning for postretirement people. The paper investigates the impact of engaging with contemporary art on a sample of 43 participants aged 64+. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews available UK evidence on (private sector) business attitudes to transport. It follows a 2008 review of public attitudes to transport, and provides an important frame of reference for considering business attitudes. Accordingly the current paper includes comparisons between public and business attitudes. There are some prima facie similarities between public and business attitudes in relation to congestion, the order of importance of transport attributes (especially reliability), stated conditions for support of road pricing, public transport, travel plans, telecommunications and some issues of reducing travel. There are, however, some differences also: transport concerns are less ubiquitous, less attention is given to the environmental concerns associated with road building and there is less attention to wider government goals such as equity, health, social welfare and the environment. However, both similarities and differences may be misleading, as research on business attitudes is less disciplined, and there are no well-established theoretical frameworks (such as exist for individual attitudes) for understanding attitudes, when applied to the corporate views of a commercial body. In essence, many of the business attitudes reports are framed as lobbying material yet, paradoxically, there can be considerable ambiguity attached to the meanings of business attitudes, that in turn can be partially attributed to doubts as to whether responses represent individual or corporate attitudes. As a result, it is very difficult, from the existing evidence, to interpret a clear and coherent view or set of views of business on transport issues. The authors suggest some protocols, with the aim of improving research methods that, if implemented, could help improve the credibility and clarity of claims to represent the 'voice (or, more realistically, voices) of business'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon the findings of a qualitative in-depth interview study with 23 women aged 23-72 years recruited from members of the general public and a psychosexual clinic, this paper explores participants understandings of the term 'sexuality'. The findings are set within the context of historical, prevailing and often contradictory perceptions of the term. Data were analysed thematically using the conventions of template analysis within a material discursive framework. This paper questions the assumption that sexuality is an altogether powerful and naturally occurring phenomenon. The ability to isolate and give credence to a definitive meaning of the term is, both for participants and academics alike, an arduous undertaking. Rather than focusing primarily on the material body, the extent to which ideology, culture and power intersect with the former indicate its multidimensional, constructed nature. Given the whole host of meanings evoked by the term, the paper asserts that it is more fitting to talk of multiple understandings of sexuality rather than a singular authoritative one whilst also contingent on social and historical practices. The findings have implications that should be considered when evaluating previous sexological research and conducting future research where this term is used throughout as a focus of academic enquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last two decades the literature on public space has registered the emergence of alternative forms of pubic space provision that depart from the traditional model of direct state ownership and management. The picture that emerges is a complex one, not so much one of privatization, but instead one of complex redistribution of roles, rights and responsibilities in public space governance to a range of social actors beyond the state. This paper discusses an approach to understanding the forms of publicness implicit in alternative forms of public space governance. Issues of rights, access, accountability and control could be examined in public space governance arrangements based on contracts, legal agreements and performance management mechanisms involving private and voluntary entities instead of the traditional public sector processes of policy delivery and accountability. The paper proposes a framework for investigating how 'publicness' is constructed and maintained through these arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world in 2010 is a very different place to 1987 when Bhugra's paper on homophobia was published. Huge shifts have occurred in society's attitudes to gender, sex, sexuality and identity - notably by the internet, changes in HIV treatment, media representation of homosexuality and feminism and the role of women in society. This paper updates the literature review on homophobia revisiting society's assumptions about homosexuals. Changes are discussed in the context of definitions of homophobia, socio-cultural and politico-legal perspectives and homophobia and medicine. New current assumptions are drawn up and offered as a way of understanding both development and limitations - whilst there has been a reduction in the fear associated with gay men and women, discrimination remains. Newer issues such as internalised homophobia, globalisation and mainstream representations of homosexuality add complexity to this ongoing concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates around the impacts of the UK's exit from the European Union ('Brexit') have exposed the limited critical attention given to how planning systems intersect with environmental protection. This is an important omission, especially given deregulatory pressures on both planning and environment in many countries. In response, this paper uses documentary, interview and focus group data, to conceptualise different regulatory styles governing the environment-planning interface, and assess UK planning practitioner attitudes to EU environmental legislation and scenarios for future change. The data show practitioners largely supporting the fixed standards and robust oversight characteristic of EU environmental regulatory styles, anxious about deregulation, and interested in procedural flexibility. More fundamentally, it also reveals the compromises struck in regulatory design, and the importance of concrete development-environment challenges in constructing arguments for change. Consequently, planning occupies a pivotal position within wider debates about new environmental policy fixes, warranting more extensive professional discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the contrasting ways in which disabled people seek to overturn socio-attitudinal, political and physical barriers to their mobility and access requirements in the built environment. In particular, the paper documents how disabled people are attempting to influence the form and content of local authority access practices and policies in the UK, through the context and contours of access groups. I begin by briefly outlining some of the key factors inhibiting and facilitating disabled people organising as effective political groupings, relating the material to access issues in the built environment. Then, using case studies of two contrasting access groups, the paper explores some of the practical barriers, problems and opportunities connected to disabled people's activities in seeking to influence local authority access policies and practices. I conclude by discussing how some of the wider structural and agency-level constraints on disabled people's political and policy interventions in access issues might be removed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine discourse in public deliberations in pre-development locales in the UK and US about advantages and disadvantages of future shale development ('fracking'). We aimed to understand how people anticipate potential health effects, broadly construed, of environmental toxicity and disturbance in the context of planned, but not yet implemented, energy development. In day-long deliberations with small, diverse groups in two cities in each country (London, Cardiff in the UK; Los Angeles, Santa Barbara in the US), participants discussed impacts on health and well-being using three main rubrics: 'It's money or health', 'Why take chances?' and 'Beyond the tipping point'. Throughout, participants framed health as an intrinsically moral issue, with collective responsibility as a dominant normative frame. We identify the concept of compound risk to underscore effects of multiple risks and hazards on people's sensibilities about anticipated future health and environmental harm. The findings demonstrate how and why diverse publics in pre-impact sites in both countries saw shale extraction as high stakes development that poses significant, often unacceptable, risks to human and environmental health and well-being. Risks extended beyond toxicity to broad threats to health, including, for some, the end of life as we know it on the planet. Overall, participants' discussions of health were more connected to social categories and their underlying moral principles than to technological details. This work contributes evidence of blurred boundaries between environment and health as well as the importance people place on social risks in the context of proposed energy system change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, to be a black public intellectual in Britain has, almost by definition, meant being located on the liberal-left spectrum, in terms of analyses of race and class. However, in the past decade a number of high-profile black British thinkers have explicitly positioned themselves at odds with black liberal and radical traditions of thought. This has been particularly apparent in their critiques of multiculturalism, youth and education. This paper uses recent documentary sources to analyse the discursive features of this emergent black social conservatism, examining its claims to authenticity, its claims to offer rethinking of multiculturalism and identity, and its objects of racialization. Drawing upon critical discourse analysis and critical theories of race and black intellectual production, it identifies internal tensions in this emergent discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary research teams and departments are seen by some as a way of addressing problems that cannot be understood using a traditionally narrow and uniform approach rooted in a particular discipline. This paper presents a postgraduate perspective by discussing the positive and negative impacts on Ph.D. research of this type of work and making recommendations for integrating students into teams containing multiple unfamiliar disciplines. These include formal discussion of opportunities and risks and following advice from those who have taken this route. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International concerns about the performativity agenda in schools gives rise to concerns about the neglect of a holistic approach to teaching and learning. Whilst schools in England and Wales are legally obliged to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of children, little is known about how initial teacher training providers prepare trainees to do so. This project aims to address this gap in the literature. This paper details the findings of phase one of a National Survey which investigates trainers’ approaches to delivery and their views on the place of SMSC in primary schools. Findings suggest that trainers value SMSC, but time devoted to it is relatively low and policy changes are perceived to threaten SMSC’s security. The paper argues that it is vital that trainers empower trainees to understand the importance of holistic themes of their respective curricula, informed by critical engagement with theory, in order to avoid them being overshadowed by the performativity discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on an exploratory study of the role of solicitors acting for parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) in public law proceedings. The paper draws on in-depth interviews with 11 solicitors and a subsequent focus group in which the interview findings were presented and reflected on by six of the eleven participants. Two of the five themes that emerged will be discussed here. They are entitled ‘Attitudes and Influence’ and ‘Legal Processes’ and concern the attitudes and influence of those involved in assessing, supporting and representing parents with ID and the care proceedings processes encountered by parents with ID. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents findings of a research project that aimed to critically examine the pedagogical beliefs of work-based learning teachers, and their potential implication on practice and expectations of learners and employers. Based on an online tool, qualitative and quantitative (descriptive) data were generated from a purposive sample of some 120 academics working in the sector across the United Kingdom. Two pedagogical belief orientations emerged: ‘pedagogical belief A’ – transfer of professional/working knowledge; and ‘pedagogical belief B’ – facilitating learning and developing reflective practice. The paper argues that the ability of work-based learning teachers to look beyond their own beliefs and understanding of teaching to more strategically blended and shared understanding would be important to ensure that while teaching and learning meet academic quality standards, student learning experiences would meet expectations at the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article re-examines how willing the English and Scots are to accept or reject claims to respective national identities by people born elsewhere. A previous paper showed, counter-intuitively, that people in the two countries were similar in their willingness to accept claims to national identity. Since then, different political parties are in power in England and Scotland, with differing policies and attitudes to identity. Have the original findings changed in the context of this significant political change? We conclude that the English and Scots continue to be similar on accepting or rejecting claims. However, they have diverged with regard to claims by white people, with national identity a less important explanatory variable than education in Scotland, whereas in England it remains the determining factor. For claims by non-whites, the two societies have become more similar. Education remains in Scotland, and to a considerable extent in England, the more important explanatory variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research applying rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) with athletes is sparse and findings are equivocal. REBT can be applied using education workshops, but previous studies in sport have not assessed changes in irrational beliefs following REBT. This paper reports the effects of a single REBT education workshop on irrational beliefs in elite soccer academy athletes from pretest to posttest. Statistical analyses indicate temporary reductions in irrational beliefs following the workshop. Results are discussed with reference to mechanisms of change, study limitations, workshop reflections, and recommendations for developing REBT workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment for people with learning difficulties is considered key to their social inclusion. This contradicts the perceived un-employability of people with learning difficulties that has been part of their social identities throughout their history hitherto. The national rate of employment for people with learning difficulties remains extremely low and has barely changed in the 20 years between 1990 and 2010. This paper investigates links between learning disabilities and employment, drawing on interview-based research. It analyses the quality of experience of the minority in employment to consider whether employment can serve the inclusive purpose expected of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the concept of professionalism via perceptions (real or imagined) of lecturers delivering higher education business programmes (HEBPs) in further education colleges in England. The study comprised 26 in-depth interviews conducted in the Yorkshire and Humber region in the UK. The study builds on Perkin’s views of a professional society, which is then applied to education. The paper will add to existing knowledge by identifying that the term profession is not only complex and subjective, but Janus-faced, which may lead to role conflict. It was not surprising that the interviewees found it difficult to define professionalism; nevertheless, it was found that many did hold to a perceived individual professional code of praxis and/or idea of expected behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Experiences of autism-spectrum disorder are now increasingly studied by social scientists. Human-animal relations have also become a major focus of social inquiry in recent years. Examining horse-assisted therapy for autistic spectrum disorders, this is the first paper that brings these fields together. Drawing on participant observation and interviews at a UK horse therapy Centre, this article examines how staff and the parents of riders account for the successes and limitations of equine therapy. To the respondents, horses ‘open up’ autistic children and make possible interactions that seemed impossible before. Horses were regarded as facilitating the emergence of apparently social behaviours, which included eye contact, pointing, and speech. Three key explanations emerged for therapeutic success: the sensorial, embodied experience of riding the horse; the specific movements and rhythms of the horse; and, the ‘personality’ of the horse. Equine therapy can be regarded as enabling a form of multispecies intersubjectivity, with the resonance between rider and horse seeming to make possible a new attunement between humans. Practices of equine therapy, and perceptions of its efficacy, serve in turn to attune social scientists to a version of empathy constituted through lively and sensorial interactions, as opposed to one that is restricted to particular kinds of humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reformulates classical questions regarding the plans and strategies of Polish migrants in the UK-such as decisions to leave or remain in the host country, or be 'deliberately indeterminate' about future plans-from a sociologically situated 'rights-based' perspective. This approach considers migrant's attitudes towards specific 'civic integration' measures in a medium-term time frame, as well as in the new context created by the UK's vote to leave the EU. Based on the quantitative analysis of original survey data, we investigate the factors behind Polish migrant's migration strategies and we argue that basic socio-economic and demographic factors are inadequate, on their own terms, to explain future migration and civic integration plans. Instead, we find that aspects such as interest in and awareness of one's rights, as well as anxieties about the ability to maintain one's rights in the future are stronger determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores 'public' attitudes to the use of donated gametes in infertility treatment amongst members of British South Asian communities in the UK. The study included 14 single-sex focus groups with a total of 100 participants of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origins in three English cities and 20 individual semi-structured interviews with key informants. It explores five themes from the data: childlessness and stigma; using sperm and using eggs; cultural connections; choosing gametes; religion and the use of donated gametes; and disclosure and the management of information. The paper demonstrates that the socio-cultural context of fertility treatment is highly relevant and those delivering services and those consulting the public need to be aware of cultural and gender differences. Third party assisted conception represents a challenge to received ideas of identity and has implications for social reproduction and kinship which go well beyond immediate conjugal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence suggesting some convergence between the drinking practices of men and women in recent years, alcohol-related behaviour appears to remain significantly gendered in the UK, with males being more likely to drink alcohol and to drink greater quantities of alcohol than females for instance. The authors of this paper view alcohol-related behaviour as one particular sphere of practice through which gender may be performed and normative gender identities accomplished. The authors ask where the next generations of alcohol consumers learn to ‘do’ gender in relation to alcohol. We argue that the depictions and treatments of alcohol-related behaviour to be found in the magazines that young people claim to read may function as one very important cultural resource in this respect. The paper subsequently offers an analysis and discussion of the ways in which alcohol and alcohol-related behaviour is depicted within a range of magazines read by 11–18-year-olds in the UK. The analysis presented herein illustrates that the treatment of alcohol-related behaviour in these magazines is indeed highly gendered and gendering. Males and females are depicted as engaging in different drinking practices, for different purposes, in different contexts, and to different consequences/effects for instance. Furthermore, the way in which the alcohol-related behaviours of males and females are treated in these magazines varies considerably between those magazines targeted at males and those targeted at females. It is thus acknowledged that these magazines might have a crucial role to play in the reproduction of gender in relation to alcohol-related behaviour specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a current program, the Hive in the Cliff, geared toward initiating social and economic renewal in Broughton, Salford, through a culturally led regeneration and conservation program. Case studies examined included a focus on activities and relationships between individuals at different stages of the life course, but they were not branded as intergenerational activities. Intergenerational relations outlined are implicit outcomes of cultural activities in which knowledge about people, life stories, and evolution of a community are shared and preserved between and across generations. The focus on shared spaces and places shows how intergenerational solidarity may be made knowable through activities involving different generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessed reflective writing is increasingly common in UK higher education. Students writing in this mode are typically required to narrate their experiences, evaluate their performance, investigate associated emotions, and comment on what has been learned. In this paper I focus on assessed reflective writing by students on an MA TESOL course who are required to write individual reflections on a process of working in a group to produce teaching materials. This task places particular demands on the writer. Like other students writing reflectively, they need to manage complex self presentation: to appear honest about relative successes and failures, to show evidence of appropriate reflection, and to indicate desirable learning. Because they are reflecting on a group experience, they also need to differentiate themselves from their work group in their account, and to reflect critically on others as well as on themselves. My focus in this paper is on the ways they manage these additional demands. I first examine the relative frequency with which writers refer to themselves and their work group, and then examine the content of self-referential and group-referential statements. Finally, I examine semantic patterns in the data and draw conclusions regarding possible reasons behind student writers’ choices about how to represent themselves and others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Workplace mediation is high on the British policy agenda. To date, however, despite growing awareness, organisational experience in Britain remains limited and the evidence base accordingly underdeveloped. This paper contributes to the debate by undertaking secondary quantitative analysis of an Acas Omnibus Poll of 500 SMEs. Two substantive issues are explored: the characteristics associated with previous experience of mediation in resolving workplace conflict; and the extent to which prior knowledge and experience of mediation in this context impact on a range of attitudinal variables. In respect of the former we find firm size to be important, while for the latter the data suggest attitudes are typically more positive among experienced firms. This is most notably true in relation to the perceived cost of mediation and (subject to a qualification) to its suitability for smaller firms, both of which are crucial drivers of the uptake of mediation among smaller organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting a football team in the lower leagues of the English league system is rarely a glamorous endeavour that is full of success and glory. So why do fans keep turning up game after game, season after season, in spite of the frequent false dawns, regular disappointment, and apparent lack of success of their adopted team? This essay aims to offer a sociological analysis of this question by firstly examining the historical, social, economic and place-related ontology of English football clubs and the English football league. Secondly, the paper explores how recent developments in the organization and management of football, and wider society more generally, have threatened the very identities that football clubs are built upon and have traditionally relied on. Finally, the paper explores how these developments can actually be seen to both sustain and inhibit lower league football support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the contribution of script theory to understandings of animal health risks. Script theory has long played an important role in studies of health and risk, yet the application of script theories is often vague and confused. Theories from different ontological perspectives are conflated resulting in an overly cognitive and asocial understanding of health behaviour with the potential to misinform health promotion strategies. The paper addresses these problems by applying the concept of script formulations to an analysis of farmers' understandings of bovine tuberculosis in farmed cattle. Drawing on interviews with 61 farmers in England and Wales, the paper argues that farmers reveal animal disease to be a scripted event, but that these scripts also order identity and provide a form of moral accountability for farmers' behaviour. This has implications for attempts to communicate animal disease risks and suggests that a more productive approach is to reorganise governance structures and relationships between farmers and government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]