Supporting the Sexual Rights of Women Living With HIV: A Critical Analysis of Sexual Satisfaction and Pleasure Across Five Relationship Types

In the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a focus on protecting others has overridden concern about women’s own sexual well-being. Drawing on feminist theories, we measured sexual satisfaction and pleasure across five relationship types among women living with HIV in Canada. Of the 1,230 women surveyed, 38.1% were completely or very satisfied with their sexual lives, while 31.0% and 30.9% were reasonably or not very/not at all satisfied, respectively. Among those reporting recent sexual experiences (n = 675), 41.3% always felt pleasure, with the rest reporting usually/sometimes (38.7%) or seldom/not at all (20.0%). Sex did not equate with satisfaction or pleasure, as some women were completely satisfied without sex, while others were having sex without reporting pleasure. After adjusting for confounding factors, such as education, violence, depression, sex work, antiretroviral therapy, and provider discussions about transmission risk, women in long-term/happy relationships (characterized by higher levels of love, greater physical and emotional intimacy, more equitable relationship power, and mainly HIV-negative partners) had increased odds of sexual satisfaction and pleasure relative to women in all other relational contexts. Those in relationships without sex also reported higher satisfaction ratings than women in some sexual relationships. Findings put focus on women’s rights, which are critical to overall well-being.     

Social work through collaborative autoethnography

This paper discusses a research project involving five MA Social Work Students and one member of Social Work Academic Staff. Using narrative and taking a collaborative autoethnographical approach, this project highlights some of the feelings that students articulated following a 70-day placement experience. Findings include anxiety, powerlessness and frustration, together with growing confidence, recognition of their skills and a deeper understanding of the role of ‘self’ in social work. Raising issues of preparedness for practice placement, this paper has implications for both social work practice and social work education. Autoethnography (AE) is both a method of carrying out research and a methodology, specifically a qualitative methodology linked to ethnography and narrative inquiry. AE results in highly personalized narrative accounts of the researcher’s engagement with specific sociocultural contexts in the pursuit of knowing more about a phenomenon. Applying such a methodology to explore collaboratively issues of student lived experience of placement is a new and innovative use of this method.     

Patriarchy and the Horror of the Monstrous Feminine

This paper compares the gender politics expressed in Ringu and The Ring, paying particular attention to specific and noteworthy distinctions and crucial underlying cultural differences that structure and shape the gender politics articulated in the two films. While highlighting the divergences in the films' narratives and examining how their depictions of female characters reveal the fundamental historical, cultural, social and ideological forces that structure Eastern and Western views of femininity, women, and their roles in society, this paper argues that although both films reflect a misogynist patriarchal perspective in their depiction of evil, violent, destructive females, it is the American remake that is ultimately more conservative and reactionary in its simplistic alignment of women, the feminine and maternity with evil and monstrosity. In comparison, the Japanese original offers a more ambiguous treatment of a key female character, the mysterious and deadly Sadako, allowing her to emerge as a potential figure of resistance against conservative patriarchy, an element that is distinctly absent in the American remake.     

Transforming settlement and integration services during a pandemic

Settlement services are key to Canada's success in welcoming and integrating immigrants. Offered mainly in person prior to COVID-19 by non-governmental agencies reliant on and regulated by government funders, services were forced online and delivered by staff working remotely. We document this transition between September 2020 and September 2021 in Ontario, Canada and the conditions that influenced it. Surveys completed by workers and managers at member agencies of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants reveal how agencies provided services and stabilized organizational resources and capacities. Their success is evident in staff satisfaction with management's responses to the pandemic. While our findings underscore the resilience of the agencies and their workforce, they also challenge many tenets of New Public Management. The survey and discussions with managers suggest that sustained and flexible funding, rapid and respectful communication between agencies and funders and collaborations with other agencies were key to overcoming pandemic challenges.     

South Africa's Emergent “Social Indicators Movement”

Social Indicators Research -     

Reflections on citizen-state child welfare partnerships: Listening to citizen review panel volunteers and agency liaisons

Objective

Previous research pertaining to the citizen review panel (CRP) initiative indicates that discrepancies exist between panel member and state agency liaison perceptions of CRP effectiveness in fulfilling the CAPTA CRP mandate. This study explores the impressions of both CRP members and liaisons involving barriers to effective CRP-state child welfare partnerships and recommendations to improve the relationship, provided through narrative survey responses from CRP liaisons from 30 states and D.C. and panel members from 32 states and D.C. Thematic categories which emerged from analyses of these responses are discussed, and a conceptual model and substantive-level theory of the CRP-child protective services (CPS) relationship developed from the results are presented.

Results

The complex nature of CRP-CPS relationships emerged as the central theme among CRP members' and liaisons' responses. Liaisons and CRP members identified a need for CRP members to become more educated globally on child welfare despite the relatively high level of education and experience of much of the sample. Difficulties encountered by panel members in the effort to partner surfaced in themes of mistrust and skepticism about the worth of citizen participation in child protection. Negative agency attitudes, lack of role clarity, and lack of commitment to authentic partnership were cited as negative influences upon the relationship by both liaisons and CRP members. The most important preferred outcome of the partnership was that citizen volunteers would become more knowledgeable partners who could meaningfully contribute to child welfare efforts. A second desired outcome important to CRP members was to form a shared vision with CPS.

Conclusions

Findings imply that when key components of mutual respect, legitimacy, CPS knowledge, shared vision, authenticity, citizen engagement, honest communication, and a serious, deliberative process are in any way impeded, the partnership is vulnerable to breakdown, and intended outcomes may be compromised.

Implications

Important relational difficulties that have formed barriers between volunteers and CPS agencies have been identified, and results suggest specific issues to target for improvement. These findings can prompt a more informed discourse about the challenges and opportunities presented when attempting to engage citizens in child welfare practice and policy-making, and can lead to new research paths. Suggestions for such efforts are offered.     

A digital pedagogy pivot: re-thinking higher education practice from an HRD perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper has a provocative purpose. From both HRD and academic practice perspectives, it considers the digital pedagogy pivot made necessary by the Covid-19 pandemic. Universities have traditionally resisted substantial change in learning and teaching processes. This paper addresses the challenge they face of achieving the equivalent of a ten-year digital learning strategy in mere months. From a position that HE pedagogy constitutes a site of HRD practice, the paper considers the characteristics of a meaningful, digitally enabled pedagogy in Higher Education (HE) and their alignment with established HRD theories and concepts. It considers the pedagogic opportunities arising from the ‘digital pivot’ and the HRD processes appropriate to facilitate game-changing approaches to academic practice in Higher Education. The paper advances debate about the relationship between HRD and HE academic practice and contributes proposals for HRD processes to support rapid pedagogic change. It further contributes an original categorization of the way in which HRD concepts and theories are aligned with principles of HE pedagogy and a digital pedagogy pivot model.     

Editorial comment

The special issue of theJournal of Gambling Behavior, dedicated to a discussion of compulsive gambling and the law, represents a first effort in addressing some of the many complicated issues on this topic. Articles by experts on compulsive gambling—written by legal authorities, a treatment provider, and victims of the disorder—are included to present the broadest possible forum to analyze the turmoil the idea of compulsive gambling is having on the American legal system. Included are an historical account of how changing laws affect compulsive gamblers, problems facing the expert witness, effects of civil service policies and military law, comparisons of U.S. and English legalization debates, lottery issues, concerns of a lawyer representing casinos, and personal accounts by those who are suffering from this disorder.I. Nelson Rose is an Associate Professor of Law at Whittier College School of Law as well as a licensed attorney. Professor Rose is recognized as the nation's leading authority on gambling and the law.Dr. Valerie C. Lorenz has specialized in research, education and treatment of compulsive gamblers since 1973. She has extensive experience in military, state and federal courts, having served as a qualified expert witness on compulsive gambling.     

Pathological gambling: Psychosomatic,emotional and marital difficulties as reported by the spouse

Two parallel self-administered surveys were distributed at three conferences of Gamblers Anonymous. One survey was for members of Gamblers Anonymous and the other was for members of GamAnon. Approximately 500 respondents completed the surveys, with 215 having completed the questionnaire for the spouse. This article is a report of some of the data from the spouse's survey. This survey focused on two time periods of the spouse's life — during the desperation phase of the gambler's illness (Custer, 1982) and the phase following a period of abstinence from gambling. Specific areas covered in this report focus on the psychosomatic problems and emotional difficulties encountered by the spouse, marital and familial estrangement, financial management, and the need for mental health services. It is anticipated that some of these needs can be met through training or therapy sessions in professional gambling treatment centers and at Gamblers Anonymous conferences.The work on this spouse survey represents a collective effort to enhance the understanding of the relationship between the pathological gambler and the spouse during the desperation phase of the illness and during recovery. Dr. Lorenz developed and implemented the survey. Yaffee organized the data processing, statistical programming, and analysis of the survey. For dedicated and outstanding assistance, special thanks must be given to our senior research assistants, who prepared the codebook and program for this spouse survey: Maria Ycasiano, Leslav Giermanski, Roger Meier, Raisa Rot and Steven Rubenstein. Thanks must also be given to Norberto Colon, Paula Diamond, Edwin Castro, Abdul Beydoun, and Fallan Rhim for their valuable assistance in entering, checking, and cleaning the data prior to analysis. Appreciation for the program written by Joseph Lautner, to check for misalignments in the data file, and the assistance provided by Deborah Becker on this project, is also gratefully acknowledged. To Dr. Thomas Wesselkamper, Chairman of the Hunter College Science Department, for permission to run this project, and all of the aforementioned research assistants, the authors express their sincere gratitude.