Unemployed by choice: young creative people and the balancing of responsibilities through strategic self-management

The Danish welfare system inadvertently provides a good opportunity for young creative people to pursue their dreams in creative fields such as art, acting, music while being on unemployment benefits. As Michael, one of the participants, puts it: ‘I consider unemployment benefit entrepreneurial support’. The subversive practice is illegal. This qualitative study investigates how young unemployed people who choose to be unemployed in order to engage in innovative projects in creative fields understand and justify their practice. Analysis of in-depth interviews with six young unemployed persons shows how the understanding and management of responsibility is pivotal in the self-understanding and legitimization of receiving unemployment benefits by choice, not out of need. This creative group reflects the contours of a new type of unemployed that has received very little attention in the research literature. The group challenges the traditional representation of the unemployed and portrays themselves as innovative, competent and able to cope with financial insecurity even though it is psychologically distressing and a risky path to go down. We characterize them as strategic self-managing as they use educational systems and unemployment benefit systems for something entirely different from what they are intended – they use it to create their own artistic life courses. This study tentatively points to a categorization distinguishing between personal, social and societal responsibility by which we can improve our understanding of responsibility in neoliberal contexts.     

Gendered forms of responsibility and control in teenagers' views of alcohol

There has been a shift in the most recent UK Government's Alcohol Strategy (2012) from personal responsibility towards a model of shared responsibility for young people's drinking. On closer examination of the strategy, however, it appears that rather than exonerating young people from blame, governance is merely extended to include wider partners. Using findings from nine focus groups with young people in Liverpool, UK, we explore who they believe are responsible for their drinking behaviours and how they learn to become ‘good drinkers’. Our findings show that while teenagers were aware of dominant alcohol-related messages and maintained a moral position as responsible citizens; they also negotiated and resisted norms about teenage drinking. Although both boys and girls agreed that parents were the primary responsible authority for regulating their drinking, there was gendered disagreement about personal responsibility. The girls described how they were ultimately responsible for any adverse consequences if they drank too much whilst the boys considered a wide range of partners who would be implicated. However, unlike the girls, the boys described a willingness to either abstain or moderate their alcohol intake in order to remain in control and avoid any alcohol-related trouble or harm.     

The problem of social generations: a critique of the new emerging orthodoxy in youth studies

Over the previous seven years the application of a social generation paradigm or ‘theory’ has gained increasing currency as a method in analysing young people's relationship with the life course. Whilst not a new concept or approach its resurgence and reconfiguration to ‘new’ times has seen some writers positioning it as a ‘new orthodoxy’ or ‘consensus’ within youth studies. In this it is seen as providing a conceptual framework that better helps us understand the complexity of circumstances and conditions that shape youth identities in late modern society. In this paper we examine and explore the underlying assumptions and claims that are made by those advocating the social generational paradigm, raising questions and seeking further clarification on a number of key themes. We accept youth studies needs to move beyond ‘old models’ that define and understand social context as a simply a tension between ‘structure or/and agency’ or as a ‘flavour’ to social action. To conclude therefore we propose the need to have an approach that is ecological and both accepts ‘social change’ and ‘continuity’ as critical parts of the life course, one that recognises the nature and influence of power and social reproduction, especially for different social classes, in shaping the experience of being young.     

Young adult carers: a literature review informing the re-conceptualisation of young adult caregiving in Australia

The experiences of young adult carers (YACs) have been vastly under-researched, particularly within Australian caregiving literature. This article explores the existence, extent and nature of informal young adult caregiving in Australia, defining YACs as individuals aged between 18 and 25 years who provide unpaid care or support to family members living with chronic illness or disability. The aim of this article is to provide a foundation for the re-conceptualisation of YACs as a distinct carer cohort who, without suitable recognition and specifically targeted support, may experience significantly reduced future life opportunities. The traditional, narrative-based review will first redefine YACs in accordance with overseas literary definitions and will then explore the complex nature and extent of young adult caregiving in Australia. Explanations as to why young adults are increasingly undertaking these informal caregiving roles and how YACs differentiate from their non-carer peers will then follow. Finally, three prominent paradigms, namely the clinical, social capital and carers' rights' perspectives, will be presented to establish a greater understanding of the implications, contextual experiences and unmet civil rights of YACs in Australia.     

Examining concepts of power and agency in research with young people

Concepts of power and agency have become increasingly prominent in the youth studies literatures and related research. A focus of the research to date has been an examination of how a better understanding of young people's lived experiences can reveal possibilities for young people's agency to emerge. Despite increased interest in the term agency, much less has been said about how the concept is defined and recognized in research with young people, including what the concept may entail but crucially, how the term is linked to and underpinned by the related concept of power. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of power and agency as utilized in research with young people. The discussion that follows identifies the possible ways in which different theoretical positions shape our understanding of how power and agency are investigated and how these understandings inform the ways we interpret young people's perspectives and actions as holding potential for ‘agency’. Drawing on recent empirical examples, we consider how varying interpretations of power and/or agency shape not only the ways in which young people's agentic experiences are theorized (and the related ontological and epistemological assumptions these positions imply) but also the presumed effects of that agency.     

厄德里克儿童文学中的印第安性书写

文章从印第安人的动物崇拜、祖先崇拜,以及印第安人的家园意识三个层面入手,以文本细读的方式分析厄德里克的儿童文学四部曲。该四部曲充盈着印第安的民族灵魂和血脉,是对印第安民族的宗教信仰、风俗习惯和民族性格的精妙注解。厄德里克以其赤子之心将碎片化的印第安人和印第安文化刻画并展现出来,续写着印第安人的历史与记忆。在全球化如火如荼、民族文化日益难以为继的当下,厄德里克对印第安民族性的书写无疑使得由世界不同民族构成的总体文化更加灿烂多彩,凸显出深刻的人类学意义。     

中重度智障儿童语言康复——从事语言康复的特教教师的经验与困境

通过深度访谈两名从事中重度智障儿童语言康复的特教教师,了解特教教师开展智障儿童语言康复的原则、内容、策略、效果与存在的困难.资料的整理、分析显示,特教教师教育与康复结合,以语言为主、认知和精细动作辅助、以语言理解为重点对智障儿童进行语言康复;更多使用与教育相关的策略,有限地使用口部运动治疗法.特教教师从事语言康复面临专业学习不够、缺乏有经验的指导者和现有语言康复策略很难运用于智障儿童等困境.     

基于 CDIO 理念下的高校实践教学体系的构建

以培养具有实践创新能力和工程设计能力的应用型人才为导向,在高校实践教学中引入 CDIO 工程教育理念,设计了基于 CDIO 工程教育理念的实践教学课程计划,构建了融 CDIO 教育理念的多过程、多层次、多模式、多元化的实践教学新体系,完善了实践教学保障体系以及学生的 CDIO 能力评价体系,以期在实践教学方面有所突破,从而实现蕴含 CDIO 教育理念的教学目标,培养学生的创新意识和 CDIO 工程实践能力。     

需求分析理论下的研究生英语思维能力培养

基于需求分析理论,分析了研究生英语教学现状、学习需求以及社会需求,探究研究生外语教学怎样培养研究生的英语思维能力来提高其英语的实际应用能力,促进研究生的学术交流以及自身发展。     

高校体育专业足球课能力教学模式的构建研究——以重庆文理学院为例

体育运动的生活化、社会化发展趋势对体育工作者的运动能力、训练能力、竞赛组织能力提出了更高的要求,需要体育工作者扮演教师、教练、竞赛组织、社会体育工作者等多重角色。为适应多元化社会需求培育新人才,探索体育专业足球课教学模式的改革,文章运用文献资料、逻辑推理等研究方法,结合当前足球课教学模式的优缺点,得出能力教学模式是足球课程改革的必然选择。足球课能力教学模式的构建应该以“一个中心、两个基本点、三大原则、四种教法”为途径,能力教学模式的构建可以调动学生的积极性、优化学生学习氛围、激发学生的创新精神、提高学生的综合素质。