Discipline Without Frontiers? Representations of the Mettray Reformatory Colony in Britain, 1840–1880

Abstract The agricultural colony founded at Mettray, France, in 1839 rapidly acquired an international reputation as an exemplar of the 'family system' of moral training, in which inmates were dispersed into separate 'houses' rather than being concentrated in large buildings. Many foreign visitors portrayed Mettray as a place where the fruits of the new reformatory science had been realised in practice. The paper aims to show how the Mettray model came to play a critical role within debates over the treatment of criminal children and juvenile paupers in Britain between 1840 and 1880.     

Neuroscience and Education – an Incompatible Relationship

To date, there has been little opposition to the growing influence of cognitive neuroscience in education from the education profession itself. However there is growing criticism from the fields of psychology and philosophy. This paper aims to summarize the central arguments found in literature critical of the claims made by cognitive neuroscientists who advocate its potential to improve education. The paper is organized around three sections which draw together assessments from psychology, philosophy and sociology of education. The first, “Brain, Mind and Culture,” lays out the general argument against neuro‐education and evaluates two common assumptions made by advocates of neuro‐education: that there is a causal relationship between brain and mind and that learning is a central tenet of education. The second section, “Promises and Problems,” critically considers an example of neuro‐educational research and then goes on to discuss how neuro‐education has detrimental consequences for two necessary conditions of liberal subject‐based education; disciplinarity and pedagogic authority. The final section, “Discourses of Risk, Vulnerability and Optimal Outcomes,” considers wider sociological literature to locate neuro‐education within its contemporary cultural context. The paper concludes with a summary of the main philosophical and moral objections to neuro‐education.     

Co-therapy — As a Mode of Intervention

This paper describes and discusses some of the relevant issues and implicit assumptions pertaining to co-therapy. The ideas in this paper, though shared by many family therapists came to fruition through the authors' experiences of working together for approximately three and a half years.     

Science and the Mass Media –‘Medialization’ as a New Perspective on an Intricate Relationship

This survey article discusses a recently proposed perspective on the science–media interface the concept of medialization. The medialization approach assumes that there is mutual resonance between science and the mass media. Medialization research systematically investigates structural transformation in science: What are the implications of high media attention for science funding, for research agendas, for universities and the professional self‐understanding of scientists? And how do these developments relate to the production of scientific knowledge? For detailed empirical studies of these processes, the medialization approach separates the role of mass media, but its grounding in general social theory contextualises this research with social science studies on sciences relation to other spheres such as politics and the economy.     

Comparison at 32–37 Weeks Postconception of Infants Born 1983–1989 and 1995–2004 on the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant

In spite of numerous recent outcome studies of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants, no data exist on their development prior to term. In this study we traced and compared the neurobehavioral development of 251 ELBW (< 1,000 g) and 240 low birth weight (LBW; 1,000 g–2,500 g) preterms born between 1995 and 2004 from 32 to 37 weeks postconceptional age (PCA), using the Neurobehavioral Assessment of the Preterm Infant (NAPI Korner & Thom, 1990). Compared to the original NAPI cohort of 521 infants (born 1983–1989), the ELBW and LBW infants were at higher medical risk, displayed weaker motor development, a tighter scarf sign and popliteal angle at all or most PCAs, and a weaker cry at older PCAs; they did not differ in irritability and percent asleep ratings. Few differences were noted between the ELBW and LBW groups. Research is now needed to determine whether the 1995 to 2004 NAPI values of ELBW and LBW infants at 32 to 37 weeks PCA are predictive of later outcome of high‐risk preterms.