'A Luxury for the First World': a Western perception of Hong Kong Chinese attitudes towards inclusive education

The debates I explore in this article were prompted by conversations I had with a Government Education Inspector who accompanied me on a visit to a primary school and participated in a series of workshops I organised while I was on a fellowship at Hong Kong University. May Lee's challenge to me that a non-selective education system was a luxury only the First World could afford provoked me into acknowledging a whole new dimension for our discussions of the function of segregated education for groups excluded from the mainstream. I begin by introducing the education system in Hong Kong as it was in the early 1990s. Then I go on, and discuss the activities and conversations I shared with May Lee. Patterns of inclusion and exclusion in Hong Kong reflect a deeply-respected concept of a 'good school'; special schools and classes are the only settings for the provision of additional learning support. I discuss examples of each. Finally, I discuss inclusion in education in the context of a developing country, drawing on the work of Chinese, Indian and Western writers to assess May Lee's claim. Opinion is divided. I conclude that the force of an international rhetoric of inclusion obscures the continuing operation of a cultural commitment to selection.     

A few introductory notes on the special issue on the Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in Research and Innovation (EFFORTI)

Being European with a long standing research interest in evaluation of gender policies, I could not begin my assignment as Editor in Chief with a better task. Readers will forgive me for these few biographical notes. Before presenting this special issue, I owe many thanks to Jonny Morell who involved me in its design as early as June 2018. I also want to thank Susanne Bührer, Clemens Striebing, Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt, Rachel Palmén, Sybille Reidl, Florian Holzinger and Jörg Müller, who invited me at the 2019 conference in Brussels, where the final results of the European initiative ‘Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in Research and Innovation’ (EFFORTI) were critically debated.¹ And drawing on the outline and comments I pointed out on that occasion, in this short introduction, I highlight why this special issue is politically relevant and theoretically innovative.     

Mutuality in Relationships with Health Care Providers

Abstract

I have had a mobility impairment for many years and have experienced repeated trauma at the hands of medical personnel. They have withheld anesthesia and postoperative pain medication, insisting that I had no pain. Physicians have also refused to believe that I have been physically active, and have minimized the degree of impairment that I described. They hold the same biases about people with disabilities as do most people: that we are lazy and weak, and that we do not try hard enough. Despite my ongoing attempts at self advocacy, my orthopedist has made unilateral decisions about my treatment goals and the management of my diseased joints. These have caused me to wear out other joints, until I am significantly impaired and can work only a few hours a week. He then began to treat me differently, since his preconceptions prevented him from seeing me as an individual with unique abilities facing attitudinal and physical barriers. Our relationship was the only tool available to me to attempt to break down his prejudices to stop the harm he was causing me. I will describe a series of oppressive medical provider relationships. I will then demonstrate my attempts to assert myself as an essential mutual partner in decisions about my goals, and show the limitations of this approach in the presence of a great power differential.     

Home Is Where She Is

ABSTRACT

I have written this paper with the intention of reading it out loud to you. As I was writing this paper, I imagined your skin, that soft outer membrane of your body. I imagined my tongue moving to shape my words, all the while carefully shifting my teeth out of the way. I imagined having these words thump under your skin and tremble your presence to the beat of our hearts. Because this paper was supposed to have you feel me and my people. And by “my people,” I truly mean everyone around me, including you. So, this paper is essentially about us, you and me. You know, I just had a feeling that you might know us, but you do not feel us. I just had a feeling that you have got to feel how we are. … Do you hear me? Because, only then, can we finally, start.     

“I want my social worker”. One child's struggles to find an available maternal figure: reflections from a peer supervision group

In this paper, I analyse a piece of social work practice using the reflections provided by a peer supervision (work discussion) group. I describe my work with an eight year child looked after, who telephoned me stating that he wanted to kill himself. I discuss the powerful unconscious processes that contributed to his risk-taking behaviour and my emotional experience of it. I reflect on how my knowledge of psychoanalytic theory enabled me to contain the powerful feelings being projected and to safely manage the situation. I highlight how reflective peer supervision groups are a helpful way to understand the complexities of the lives of children looked after and can help inform decision making.     

European competition law and the non-profit sector

Although there has been a debate in the USA for more than two decades about competition policy and non-profit organisations, the debate has not yet had the same prominence in Europe. Only in the last few years, even in the USA, has anti-trust policy toward the sector been examined. The paper examines the position for two groups of competition issues in European Community law: first, the problem of the lawfulness of grant aid, given the rules against state subsidies distorting competition; and second, the application of the rules for competition in the single market including EC anti-trust law. Particular legal problems are identified for non-profits which use geographical catchment area agreements with similar organisations. Finally, the paper examines a range of policy issues which arise on consideration of Community law, including the idea of community development as a locally autarchic objective, the terms of competition for grants and contracts, and the possible implications of the future application of European competition law to non-profits in the Community.This paper is part of a series of studies on non-profit organisations and competition policy; others include 6, 1991; 1992a,b. Many people, all of whom know much more about the law and the economics of this subject than I do, have helped me with this paper. I am particularly grateful to Richard Steinberg, Tymen van den Ploeg, Richard Whish, Martin Knapp, Jeremy Kendall and Stephen Lloyd who read and commented on earlier drafts. Richard Whish urged me to greater caution on the meaning of undertaking and interstate trade effects, pointed out the relevance of the subsidiarity provisions in Maastricht, put me straight on the merger regulations, and saved me from a number of legal errors. I am grateful to Jeremy Kendall for pointing out the BUPA case to me, and to Tymen van den Ploeg for directing me to theDaily Mail case and explaining its significance to me with greater patience than I deserved. I have also benefited from advice from Lindsay Driscoll, Nigel Tarling, Bridget Phelps, Anita Randon and Janet Morrison. I am grateful also to all the people who attended an NCVO seminar on 27 April 1992 at which a late draft of the paper was given for their comment. None of them is responsible for my errors. Although I am employed by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, London, the paper represents my own views and not those of the Council.     

Sexual Abuse,Spiritual Formation,and Psychoanalysis

Sexual abuse, from being an event in fearful silence, is now seen as a civil wrong or crime. Participants are stereotyped as perpetrators, victims, and enablers. These are the simplifications of an adversarial legal and insurance system. I suggest a more complex view. I was abused as a boy by the senior acolyte who was training me. The abuse taught me to lie and lose trust in adults and myself. For survival, I learned to invent provisional selves without understanding that these would become profound confusions of identity, sexuality, and purpose, lifelong sources of anxiety and depression. Through a recovery of my abandoned spiritual life and an intense psychoanalysis that together amounted to a metanoia, “a change of heart,” I was able to move past mere forgiveness to a reconciliation with myself and my history, and with my elderly father, who I saw as having failed to protect me years before.     

Little Theories and Big Problems: Chicago Sociology and Ethnic Conflicts*

Since this society is oriented toward a specific theory, I thought I ought to say something about theories in general and our little theory in particular. Let me get that off of my chest. I am not overly fond of terms like “theory” and “theorist,” both of which seem to suggest the importance of the person who claims the identity more than anything else. They are pompous terms. To the extent that we are thoughtful about what we are doing and how we are going about it, all sociologists are theorists and methodologists. But if that is all we are, then we are literally people of no substance. We have no substantial knowledge of or concern for the empirical world. The little theory we share is extraordinarily empirical. It is, as one of its most prominent practitioners called it, a “grounded theory” ( Glaser and Strauss 1967 ). I confess that several years after receiving my degree I had no real sense of what symbolic interaction was and how it might differ from other theoretical orientations. Arnold Rose enlightened me on this when he asked me to submit a paper for a new collection he was editing ( Rose 1962 ). I was pleased and flattered. Rose was a mentor of mine, and I had never before been asked to contribute to an edited volume. But I was unsure of what would be appropriate for a book about symbolic interaction. I screwed up my courage and asked Arnold: “Exactly what is symbolic interaction”” He shrugged off my ignorance, turned on his heels, and muttered over his shoulder, “It is what they do at Chicago.”     

Academic odyssey: The training of an African sociologist

This article describes my experience of graduate training in sociology at an elite American university. As an African, I faced cultural and intellectual pressures to adopt white middle class cultural norms and a Eurocentric worldview. The article critiques American sociology, including symbolic interactionism, the sociology of the Third World and the study of race and ethnic relations. I describe my personal encounter with American racism and the process that led me to conduct research on black immigrants. I argue that my exposure to American sociology and experience of American society transformed me into a black marginal sociologist, specializing in teaching and research on the African-American experience in the New World. His forthcoming book,Becoming Black American, is being published by AMS Press.     

The Copeland choice function an axiomatic characterization

We give a generalization of Copeland Scroes in a set of alternatives endowed with a complete binary relation. We then first study the links between Copeland scores and cycles. We provide a full axiomatic characterization for the Copeland choice rule and the Copeland ranking method.I am greatly indebted to Hervé Moulin who introduced me to the subject and helped me in many discussions. I have also a large debt do Jean-Luc Vila who gave me much advice     

A TOOL FOR TRAINING SUPERVISORS: USING THE SUPERVISION FEEDBACK FORM (SFF)

As the field of supervision and training has evolved, there has been a growing recognition of and appreciation for the skills required to be an effective supervisor or trainer (Liddle, Breunlin, & Schwartz, 1988). This new awareness has pointed to the need for effective methods and tools for training family therapy supervisors. One of the tools I developed to improve my supervision complete to give me feedback on my supervision. This article describes how developing and using an SFF was valuable to me in my training as a supervisor. Based on my experience, I believe the SFF could be a useful tool in training other supervisors.     

Getting away on a sabbatical

When the time came for me to leave on a sabbatical to do research in Mississippi, I had to leave my 32-year-old daughter, who suffers short-term memory loss due to a cancerous brain tumor she had when she was 15. Leaving became a traumatic moment for me as she had just received notice that she could move into an apartment. She had been on a waiting list for a place for over a year. In some ways, I believed that the timing for my sabbatical could not have been worse for our family. Still, my other four children, my husband, and I moved her as we wanted her to have this opportunity for semi-independent living as soon as possible. Two weeks prior to my departure, I began writing a narrative capturing my emotions, detailing how difficult my getting off was for me.     

From Clinician to Researcher: The Challenges and Rewards

After many enjoyable years of practice, I made a decision to retire, and felt the need for new but related interests. I knew it was going to be research because I have long considered the progress of my clinical work from that aspect. As a student, I had been trained in quantitative method, and I expected to experience a culture shock when ‘permitted’ to relax my previous research mode, with its dependence on statistical approaches based on preemptive hypotheses, to undertake a qualitative methodology novel to me.     

Political Correctness and the Study of Racial Differences

I tabulate international data showing Africans and Asians scoring at opposite ends of a continuum with Europeans falling in the middle. This Asian-European-African gradient occurs in mean scores on a long list of characteristics including brain size, crime, sex hormones, sexual behavior, personality, family stability, speed of physical maturation, twinning rate, and social organization. It seems to me that only evolutionary theories are able to fully explain the consistency of the pattern across so many variables. Theories about social inequalities and social problems may need to be revised in the light of this new in/onnation. This challenge to the social science orthodoxy brought political correctness out in force against me, some examples of which I document here. However, numerous benefits derive from studying race particularly in the field of medicine which I illustrate with special emphasis on AIDS. I conclude that if more scientists would speak openly about the views they now voice only in private, our world would become not only a safer place, but a more enlightened one as well.     

Political correctness and the study of racial differences

I tabulate international data showing Africans and Asians scoring at opposite ends of a continuum with Europeans falling in the middle. This Asian-European-African gradient occurs in mean scores on a long list of characteristics including brain size, crime, sex hormones, sexual behavior, personality, family stability, speed of physical maturation, twinning rate, and social organization. It seems to me that only evolutionary theories are able to fully explain the consistency of the pattern across so many variables. Theories about social inequalities and social problems may need to be revised in the light of this new information. This challenge to the social science orthodoxy brought political correctness out in force against me, some examples of which I document here. However, numerous benefits derive from studying race particularly in the field of medicine which I illustrate with special emphasis on AIDS. I conclude that if more scientists would speak openly about the views they now voice only in private, our world would become not only a safer place, but a more enlightened one as well.     

Censoring the Sexual Self: Reflections from an Ethnographic Study of Gay Filipinos on Mobile Dating Apps in Manila

This paper reflects upon Evelyn Blackwood's 1995 ‘Falling in Love with An-Other Lesbian’ essay on love and desire during fieldwork research as it intersects with the figure of the ‘virtual anthropologist’ in Kath Weston's 1997 essay of the same name. My multiple subjectivities (specifically those nativised) enabled and restricted what I considered bonds and differences between me and others during ethnographic research among gay Filipino men using mobile dating apps. I revisit an experience from four weeks of preliminary data collection between May and June 2015 in Manila, Philippines, where I decided not to include a sexual encounter with a research participant named Wesley. Moving forward with my study, my reflections on censoring sexual encounters with research participants helped me to acknowledge several sources of moral anxieties and ethical considerations that influence how this specific testimony took its shape and to consider how to construct and apply a malleable ethic of honesty for current and future projects especially when intimacies themselves are the focus.     

Through the lens of the camera in remote mining sites in the Peruvian highlands

A freelance photography assignment took me to the remote mountain highlands of Peru in 1999, where, in addition to covering the brutal working conditions to which children and their parents are exposed in the mines, I learned about the myths and legends that permeate the lives of the miners. In sharing the myths and the lives of the inhabitants of the place, however, I must account for my role as an observer with a camera. In this paper I aim to provide a brief introduction to the culture, the myths and legends of the mining populations of the highlands as they were conveyed to me. I discuss some of the ethical concerns of using a camera to capture and convey child labour in the highlands and the ethics of photographic and humanitarian interventions.     

Squashed dreams and rare breeds: ableism and the arbiters of life and death

The week beginning 29 June 2015 is not just historic for the closure of the Independent Living Fund in the United Kingdom, but for me was the week they decided that my life is not worth investing in; they being NHS England, NICE and, with them, the Department of Health. They chose not to support the enzyme replacement therapy that has been not only keeping me alive, but giving me a quality of life – enabling me to return to finish my Disability Studies PhD exploring how Christian leaders explain disability, where ethics have become the main topic, and to rebuild my career – or so I thought.