Services for troubled adolescents: exploring user variation

This paper outlines some of the main findings from an exploratory study of a sample of 257 adolescents living in children's homes, foster homes and residential special schools ‘for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties’ (‘EBD’). It focuses on the characteristics of service users, particularly contrasting the looked after and EBD groups. Though there are some similarities, there are also important differences between the populations in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, reasons for separation, legal status, family background and education. An attempt was made systematically to compare groups by creating a subsample of ‘difficult’ adolescents, based on involvement in anti‐social behaviour. Unexpectedly, this revealed that half of the teenagers were not ‘difficult’. Factors associated with being identified as ‘difficult’ were explored.     

Singing with Durham Cathedral: exploring the relationship between architecture and singing

ABSTRACT

Acoustically, cathedrals can be challenging spaces. The long reverberation lengths created make singing well without prior knowledge of the building an almost impossible task. It is necessary then to understand and work with the building to achieve the sounds expected during services. Taking influence from the question of whether architecture can be heard, the article explores how singers in Durham Cathedral maintain an embodied awareness of their relationship with the building. Furthermore, it argues that the music used in Durham Cathedral developed symbiotically, emerging from a material engagement between singers and the building. The article concludes that the sound of worship cannot simply be a performance in Durham Cathedral, but a performance with Durham Cathedral as the singers works through an embodied knowledge of the architecture and its unique traits.     

Indian student concerns about violence: exploring student perceptions

While considerable attention has been given to the spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2009 and 2010, less attention has been paid to how the students who were at the centre of the furore perceived the violence. In this paper we explore the perceptions of Indian postgraduate and undergraduate male students studying in Melbourne, Australia, based on data gathered in focus groups. Analysis revealed four broad themes in students' explanations for the attacks: race hate versus opportunism, intercultural issues, systemic ineffectiveness, and media reporting. Students' perceptions of the reasons for the attacks were divided in some areas and aligned in others. There was divergence among students about whether the attacks were race hate crime or opportunistic, and about intercultural issues. Students' perceptions were aligned on issues of systemic ineffectiveness and media reporting. In the current context of decreased international enrolments from Indian students, in which we seek to better understand them, the findings provide implications for international student policy and planning priorities.     

尊重差异:阿多诺"否定的辩证法"再探

法兰克福学派的第一代成员阿多诺认为,西方主流哲学从古希腊以来一直以概念为基石追求规律,追求事物的同一性来高扬理性的力量,这样无疑会使充满差异事物的现实世界成为机械的、虚假的概念世界,导致人的存在方式单一化、概念化,而丧失人本真的感性、个体性、创造性、批判性以及思考的能力。因此,阿多诺重申哲学的兴趣在于非概念性、个别性和特殊性。"否定的辩证法"正是这样的哲学,它以尊重事物的差异性为指向,彻底否定依据同一性把事物贬低成种或类的解释现实的方式。无疑这一思想源于马克思所开创的以主体实践为基础的实践哲学,它为当今社会倡导创新,凸显个性提供了卓有见地的启示。     

The limits of uncertainty: A note

Discussions of decision making by individuals and organizations invariably touch on the issue of uncertainty. Decision theory axiomatizations are based on the assumption that uncertainty cannot be unlimited, but that there must exist a minimal interval of value stability. This note makes explicit that assumption for individual choice. For group and organizational decision making, a proof is presented which deduces a limit to uncertainty from the existence of deliberate social action.     

Domestic violence and child protection: exploring the role of perpetrator risk assessments

This article explores the issue of severity in relation to domestic violence and provides a number of reasons for the necessary engagement by workers with such a contentious issue. The specific role that the assessment of the risks posed by the perpetrator which has now developed in some police forces in the United Kingdom is examined, and its relevance to child welfare intervention discussed. A range of factors are identified that heighten the risks of increased violence. These include prior sexual assault; stalking and controlling behaviour; substance misuse and mental‐health problems; separation and child contact disputes; pregnancy; escalation including the use of weapons and psychological abuse; attempts and threats to kill; child abuse; isolation and barriers to help‐seeking. The ways in which perpetrator risk assessment can be used to inform the filtering of referrals to the statutory child care agency, enhance multi‐agency working, provide a structure for the assessment of the perpetrator, enhance partnership‐working with survivors (usually women) and inform the protection strategies for workers are explored.     

Sleep disruption and domestic violence: exploring the interconnections between mothers and children

This paper argues that sleep disruption is both a strategy and an effect of violence and abuse which profoundly affects the lives of women and children. This paper traces the interconnections between the patterns of sleeping (not sleeping) for women and children living with and recovering from the effects of violence and abuse. It highlights the threat to the emotional and physical well-being of children and women and provides a non-pathologizing route into an exploration of one of the symptoms of trauma. It is based on a pilot study which interviewed 17 women, 14 of whom were mothers to 28 children. Mothers reported that many of their children experienced nightmares, bed-wetting, night panics and disrupted sleep patterns. Recovery of the ability to sleep was often slow and uneven with interactive effects between women and children slowing progress.     

试论社会与社群的概念界限

应当以R·M·迈基文 (Maciver)的community和society的定义为基本出发点 ,结合卡尔·马克思对gesellschaftlich和sozial的哲学理解和当代学者所作的阐释 ,对社会与社群两个概念做重新规定并论证两者应有的相互关系 ;同时应尽快改变我国长期以来用一个汉语名词翻译commu nity和society两个重要概念的现状 ,建立以society为特有研究对象的学科体系     

毛泽东对中国工业化道路的探索

新中国建立后,如何使中国由落后的农业国变成先进的工业国,实现国家工业化,这是摆在中国共产党第一代领导集体面前的一项崭新而艰巨的任务.在探索中国工业化道路时,毛泽东以苏联经验为借鉴,从农、轻、重三者的关系出发,提出了一条中国式的工业化道路.毛泽东提出的中国工业化的理想,虽然在他有生之年未能实现,但就其思想本身来说,仍然具有重要的理论意义和现实意义.