Guardians of the Golden Age: Custodians of American Military Culture and the Fortified “Home” in Time and Space

ABSTRACT

The Heritage is a gated retirement community for military officers and their wives. This “defensive space” is modeled on elite Anglo-American military culture rooted in the American Revolution. The military “family” and “home” are re-envisioned in this liminal space: a military culture into which they were born, into which they chose to marry, and now, the home into which they have chosen to live until they die.     

Examining the Development of Positive Space in Health and Social Service Organizations: A Canadian Exploratory Study

All health care sectors are currently examining factors that influence delivery of high-quality services for diverse groups with an understanding that minority populations experience barriers to service access that contribute to well-documented ill health and health inequities. With a goal of understanding dynamics that can improve access to care in the home care sector, this qualitative exploratory study examined processes to create inclusive, positive space for diverse lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in community-based health and social service agencies. A purposeful sample of eight key informants from agencies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which offer programs and services to LGBTQ communities, completed in-depth interviews. Conventional content analysis and a critical lens were used. Themes offered insight into the histories, challenges, and turning points which shaped the development of LGBTQ-positive spaces in these organizations. Community engagement and leadership emerged as relevant, as did strategies to embed LGBTQ voices and visibility within everyday organizational functioning. Given the gap in literature addressing LGBTQ access to home care and the unique dynamics that shape care in the home, implications address the application of these study findings for creating positive space in the home care sector.     

Sexology as a Profession in Spain: Results of the “Euro-Sexo” Study on the Practice of Sexology in Spain

This article presents the major results of a survey on the profession in Spain. An international research program previously conducted in eight European countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom) was adapted to Spain. The sample was made up of Spanish professionals who were members of professional organizations in sexology. The questionnaire used in the other European countries was translated and adapted into Spanish; its 89 questions inquired into: the sociodemographic profile of respondents, their initial academic and professional background, the specific training received in sexology or human sexuality, and their professional practices in sexology. In Spain, most sexologists are women from a nonmedical health profession. Most respondents received specific training in sexology and stated that it is not necessary to be a physician to be a sexologist. The findings bring to light many similarities with the data collected in the eight other European countries.     

Decisions About the “If,” “When,” and “How” of Moving Home: Can a Relocation Service Help? A Welsh Case Study

This small-scale, Welsh qualitative study explores how a new “moving on” service empowered older people to move voluntarily from their home to an extra-care facility. Eighteen older people were interviewed about their experiences of the service, which offered in-person, bespoke information, advice, financial, practical, brokerage, and emotional support about moving. Findings indicate three service use patterns: continuous, partial, and discontinued. It was instrumental in empowering clients to exercise decisional, executional, delegated, and/or consumer autonomies. Recommendations for future developments of a prototype “moving on” service include a multipartner approach and caseworker case management training modeled on social work practice.     

Towards a More Social Orientation in Gerontechnology: Case Study of the “Reminiscence Stick”

The purpose of this article is to investigate, through a case study, how social orientation can be realized in gerontechnology's objectives. The focus is on user-driven development process of an “mStick,” which is a tool for storing various biographical material: photographs, texts, audio and video clips, and using it in elderly care services. Qualitative data were collected in 11 pilot cases. The content analysis was used to investigate how the “Gerontechnology's Five Ways”: prevention, enhancement, compensation, care, and research, were applicable especially from the perspective of social implications. The mStick acts as a prevention by offering meaningful contents to life, as enhancement by offering a possibility to utilize elderly person's resources. It compensates weakening abilities by preventing the world from becoming narrower. In care, it helps to see patients as whole human beings with unique biography. In addition, mStick offers potential for, for example, applications in memory research. The implication of this study is to pay attention to gerontechnology's role in supporting the social nature of the human being. This may contribute to renewing caring culture towards a more social and biographical orientation. Limitations of this study include focusing on the early development and implementation process with no long-term use data.     

Would a Commodity‐based Trade Approach Improve Market Access for Africa? A Case Study of the Potential of Beef Exports from Communal Areas of Namibia

Market access for African livestock products has long been stymied by a variety of animal diseases endemic in the region. The concept of commodity‐based trade (CBT) has been advanced to make trade dependent on process‐related attributes of production that ensure freedom from disease rather than the geographical origin of the animals themselves. This article looks at the potential of CBT in improving market access for beef from communal areas of Namibia, which have historically been excluded from high‐value export markets. Model results suggest only modest gains from CBT, given the substantial costs of compliance with SPS and quality standards required for high‐value markets. Regional markets may still offer the best option for beef exports from these areas.     

The Production of the Female Entrepreneurial Subject: A Space of Exclusion for Women of Color?

SUMMARY

Using critical discourse analysis, this paper examines how the female entrepreneurial subject is constructed/produced within entrepreneurial discourses, how this subject is racialized, gendered and classed, and examines what practices contribute to the shaping of the female entrepreneurial subject. I specifically look at four areas/discourses central to entrepreneurship; that of independence, self-definition/self-monitoring, networking, and women's abilities as businesswomen. I contend that contemporary self-employment discourses mirror those of neo-liberalism/modernization where the notion of the independent liberal subject has the ability to self-determine and self-monitor, which is a sign of autonomy and mastery of the self. I also argue that the space of women's entrepreneurship legitimizes white middle-class women's experiences and excludes women of color from becoming active subjects in entrepreneurial discourses.     

Extra Care Housing in the UK: Can it be a Home for Life?

Extra care housing is believed to constitute a home for life, precluding the need for institutional accommodations, but currently there is little substantiating evidence. Longitudinal data show that 8.2% of extra care housing residents will move to institutional accommodations after 5 years. Matching analyses suggest that extra care housing residents aged 80 years and older are approximately half as likely to enter institutional care compared with older people in the community in receipt of domiciliary care, albeit with some caveats. Extra care housing may embody a home for life for the majority of residents, although a substantial minority is likely to require institutional care.     

Necessary Disruptions: A Discussion of Daniel Butler’s “Racialized Bodies and the Violence of the Setting”

This discussion of Daniel Butler’s article “Racialized Bodies and the Violence of the Setting” takes up the importance of the concept of place, largely through the lens of Frantz Fanon. It argues that being is best understood as being placed, emphasizing the necessity of material and historical setting for any ontological formation. Very tentatively, it advances a fragile hope that Whiteness is currently being placed in a way that can no longer be regarded as something universalized and invisible.     

Into the Wilderness—A Case Study: The Psychodynamics of Adolescent Depression and the Need for a Holistic Intervention

Adolescent depression has become epidemic in the United States, with statistics showing that one in five adolescents may suffer from depression (Brent and Birmaher in N Engl J Med 347(9), 2002). This article examines adolescent depression from a psychodynamic perspective, and identifies the psychodynamics of adolescent depression as the affective correlates that stem from unresolved developmental conflicts, issues of separation/individuation, the search for identity and the development of the true self. This article presents wilderness therapy as a holistic intervention which can be used to address the intrapsychic, developmental and relational factors that give rise to adolescent depression. Wilderness therapy is a modality of mental health treatment that takes place outdoors and utilizes challenge and adventure, group work and other structured clinical interventions. A clinical case study presents wilderness therapy as an effective intervention for adolescent depression that can promote positive self-image and enhanced coping skills, and discusses limitations and implications for social work practice.     

Non‐Response in a Birth Cohort Study: The Case of the Millennium Cohort Study

The advantages that birth cohort data offer researchers interested in the measurement and explanation of change across the life course are tempered by the problem of non‐response that becomes progressively larger as cohorts age. This article sets out the extent of this problem for the first two waves of the fourth in the series of UK birth cohorts: the Millennium Cohort Study. The response rate at Wave 1 is 72%, declining to 58% at Wave 2. Sample loss between Waves 1 and 2 was due to the failure to trace families who had moved, to contact families at a known address and to refusal. The correlates of these three kinds of non‐response are different. Although non‐respondents are systematically different from respondents at Waves 1 and 2, these differences in the propensity to respond are small compared with the unequal selection probabilities built into the sample design. It is, therefore, unlikely that weighting adjustments will have a substantial effect, over and above the effect of the sample design, on longitudinal analyses based on the first two waves of the study.     

A Fit Person to Run a Home: Registered Homes Tribunal Interpretations of the ‘Fit Person’ Concept in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The abuse of people living in residential care in the UK is well documented. A further wealth of information is available in the form of anecdotal accounts of those who have been employed in this sector but who, in a climate which is still somewhat hostile to ‘whistle blowers,’ are not prepared to formally report their concerns. A small but significant amount of hard evidence of abuse exists in the reports of the Registered Homes Tribunal decisions. This body has the jurisdiction to hear appeals concerning the running of registered and nursing homes in the UK. The circumstances portrayed range from issues of ‘bad practice’ to abuse which may be physical, psychological, or sexual, perpetrated by staff, home owners, residents, or visitors. Many of the cases which concern the tribunal focus on whether a given individual is a ‘fit person’ to run a home. It is the aim of this article to consider and reflect on the tribunals’ interpretation of that term, in relation to the operation and decisions of the tribunal.     

A Qualitative Study of “fa’a’amu” Kinship Care Experiences in Tahiti

“Fa'a'amu” is a type of adoption commonly found in French Polynesia involving open, informal adoption arrangements, in which the child maintains ties to the family of origin. Although the function that child circulation plays in Oceanic societies has been widely documented by anthropologists, the implications of fa'a'amu at the individual level have yet to be examined. To address this gap, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to 1) examine the lived experiences of adults who were fa'a'amu as children, and 2) identify experiences and characteristics associated with positive psychosocial and mental health outcomes in adulthood. The sample consisted of 22 Tahitian adults, who had been fa'a'amu during childhood. Applying a developmental and attachment lens, we explored how participants experienced relationships with birth and adoptive families, and how being fa'a'amu impacted their sense of well-being, attachment, identity, and belonging. Data was collected through The Adult Attachment Interview and the Fa'a'amu Experience Interview, which were coded using thematic analysis. Factors associated with positive outcomes in adulthood included early age at adoption, sensitive fa'a'amu parents, positive or benign relationships with birth parents, and respect between fa'a'amu and birth families. Factors associated with emotional distress included late age at adoption, abandonment and rejection, exploitative fa'a'amu parents, and conflict between birth and fa'a'amu families.     

A Comparative Study of Agencies Assisting Domestic Violence Victims: Does the South Asian Community Have Special Needs?

This paper presents the results of a questionnaire of 12 South Asian agencies nationwide that work predominantly with domestic violence victims of South Asian origin. Based on the analysis of their responses to questions that compare their strengths, ideology, ethnic specific intervention approaches, and challenges they face, this article demonstrates their relevance and the role they play in meeting the needs of a growing number of women who seek help.     

“Otis”: A Case Study of an Online Attempt to Purchase Children for Sex

ABSTRACT

The researchers analyzed court documents to develop a case study of an individual convicted of buying sexual services from exploited children. Findings indicate that the subject deviates from preexisting victim selection processes and demonstrates characteristics inconsistent with existing sexual offender typologies that likens offender behaviors to the hunting techniques and behaviors of predatory animals. As evidenced in the case study, the individual perceived the victims solely as a means of deviant sexual satiation and did not participate in traditionally established victim acquisition techniques. In addition, the researchers propose adopting terminology that adheres to the term consumer rather than buyer as it better represents some offenders’ disconnect and lack of empathy in the victim acquisition process.     

Devil in the Details: A Critical Review of “Theoretical Loss”

In their review of Internet gambling studies, Auer and Griffiths (J Gambl Stud 30(4), 879–887, 2014) question the validity of using bet size as an indicator of gambling intensity. Instead, in that review and in a response (Auer and Griffiths, J Gambl Stud 31(3), 921–931, 2015) to a previous comment (Braverman et al., J Gambl Stud 31(2), 359–366, 2015), Auer and Griffiths suggested using “theoretical loss” as a preferable measure of gambling intensity. This comment extends and advances the discussion about measures of gambling intensity. In this paper, we describe previously identified problems that Auer and Griffiths need to address to sustain theoretical loss as a viable measure of gambling intensity and add details to the discussion that demonstrate difficulties associated with the use of theoretical loss with certain gambling games.