“I want my experiences to make a difference” promoting participation in policy-making and service development by young people who have experienced violence

This paper explores participation, by young people who have experienced violence, in policy and practice developments. Consideration is given to the promoters and inhibitors to high level participation identified by young people who contributed to a qualitative study completed in four European countries. These young people had, between them, experience of various types of violence within the home and community. They believed that the organizational and policy context in which participation occurs, the knowledge, skills, values and experience of the facilitator, the past experiences of the young people themselves and the mix of young people involved in a participatory activity combine to inform the level of participation that can be achieved. Drawing on these findings the authors argue that current models of participation do not pay sufficient attention to the complex, multifaceted and fluid process that is participation. They put forward a model that emphasizes that participation is a dynamic process with the degree of participation constantly fluctuating depending on the inter-action between the organization, the facilitator and the young people. The ways in which senior managers and policy-makers, facilitators and young people interpret participation, perceive the role of young people in decision-making, trust and have confidence in each other and are influenced by past experiences, all impact on the inter-action.     

‘Cukup for me to be successful in this country’: ‘staying’ among left‐behind young women in Indonesia's migrant‐sending villages

By examining the aspirations of young, rural Indonesian women who, unlike their parents, want to stay behind rather than migrate for work, we look at how these women's experiences of feeling left‐behind affect their quests for alternative futures. Using a household relational lens, we employ the mediating concept of enough (cukup) to analyse the aspirations of young women wishing to remain at home. By focusing on their commitment to inter‐generational continuity and care rather than a lack of choice, we are able to offset the discourses associated with the culture of migration and its accompanying remittance euphoria. Our findings showed three main reasons for their choice. First, these young women pursue remittance‐funded higher education as a counter to parental sacrifice. Second, staying allows them both to provide the hands‐on care they themselves were denied as children and to pursue meaningful local careers. Third, the idea that migration has been ‘enough’ is a rational response to the social risks with which migration confronts a family.     

It is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix: Concern for relative standing in rural China

This paper examines the concern for relative standing among rural households in China. We used a survey-experimental method to measure to what extent poor Chinese farmers care about their relative income. We found compared to previous studies in developed countries, the concern for relative standing seems to be equally strong among rural households in China. This should be seen in the light of the rapid change China has undergone, with high growth, and increased inequality. Thus, the rural population, which is lagging behind, is suffering not only from the low absolute income but also from low relative income.     

Establishing a mental health service for young children in out-of-home care: The Gumnut Clinic for 0 to 5 year olds in Western Sydney

Objective

Children aged 0 to 5 years in out-of-home care represent a vulnerable population at high risk of social, emotional and developmental problems, yet there are few services specifically addressing their psychological needs. This paper is the first of two concerning the establishment of The Gumnut Clinic, a specialist mental health assessment clinic in Western Sydney for this population. The current paper provides the rationale for the development of the clinic and detail of the referral and assessment processes.

Method

The paper describes the establishment of The Gumnut Clinic at Redbank House in Sydney, Australia, the approach to assessment of these young children and their carers, and the challenges encountered.

Conclusions

Young children are overrepresented in child protection and out-of-home care services. Their social, emotional and developmental needs are under-recognized. Development of a specialist mental health service is a step towards improving health outcomes for these children.     

‘How to be a Happy Homosexual?!’ Non‐monogamy and Governmentality in Relationship Manuals for Gay Men in the 1980s and 1990s

This article explores discourses on non‐monogamy in relationship manuals published in the 1980s and 1990s for gay men from a perspective of governmentality. A distinctive feature of relationship manuals for gay men is the presentation of (non‐) monogamy as a matter of choice and negotiation. However, within this paradigm, most manuals problematise recreational, casual, or non‐relational sex or relationships with multiple partners through a set of discourses around the concepts intimacy, maturity, addiction and compulsion. The normative ideal of a successful gay male partnership is fleshed out in the provision of narrative schemata based on stage model theories which naturalise white middle class relationship experiences and concerns. Governmental rationality thereby enfolds itself in an interplay of several strategies including psychologisation, individualisation, normalisation, problematisation, and responsibilisation.     

When “citizenship is indispensable to the practice of a profession”: Citizenship Requirements for Entry to Practise Professions in Canada

This paper explores citizenship requirements for entry to practice regulated professions historically in four Canadian provinces. It reviews how common citizenship restrictions have been in Canadian professions, when and where they were implemented, and what rationales were provided for these restrictions. Findings provide support for both Weberian social closure theory which sees such restrictions as the product of professional lobbying, and state‐centred explanations which hold that states regulate professions to facilitate governance. Many citizenship restrictions were historically implemented by state actors. The decline of citizenship restrictions reflects not only changing social attitudes, but changes in state‐profession relations in Canada.     

Multiple Social Roles — a Resource or a Burden: Is it Possible for Men and Women to Combine Paid Work with Family Life in a Satisfactory Way?

The aim of this article is to study whether multiple social roles can be seen as a resource or a burden, or in other words, if a strong engagement in both paid work and family life is a positive or negative experience for men and women respectively. The main data used are a data set from Statistics Sweden, the so‐called ULF (the study of living conditions), in which nearly 30,000 randomly selected individuals were interviewed. When analysing how the combined family and labour market situation is related to the number of preferred working hours and psychological distress of individuals, the results show that it is primarily cohabiting women with children who work more than 40 hours per week, who want to reduce their working hours. However, the distress level is not relatively high for this category. Results indicate that many women, and some men, who have multiple social roles express a wish to reduce their working hours, but this does not necessarily mean that the levels of distress are higher for these groups. This may be a result of the fact that the alternative resources provided by multiple social roles in some sense outweigh the stressful effects that double demands have on psychological distress.     

‘..It takes a lot of brain space’: Understanding young carers’ lives in England and the implications for policy and practice to reduce inappropriate and excessive care work

This qualitative study, undertaken in England, explored young carers’ perspectives on the nature of their caring responsibilities. The findings are significant, particularly in the context of England's Care Act 2014, which seeks to prevent children engaging in ‘excessive’ or ‘inappropriate’ caring. Our research placed children at the heart of the debate on what constitutes appropriate care. The findings raise key questions regarding effective implementation of contemporary child policy, duties of care towards children in caring roles and priorities for child protection and family support policy and practices, with the potential to inform thinking around child's well-being in wider contexts.