The Human Right to Leisure in Old Age: Reinforcement of the Rights of an Aging Population

The right to leisure is recognized as a human right under the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The actual meaning and material content of this human right is subject to debate. The aim of this study is to examine the extent and the context to which this human right is specifically recognized with regard to older persons. Methodologically, this study textually analyzed 17 different international older persons’ human rights documents. The findings reveal that in the majority of these documents there is no reference to the right to leisure. In the remaining documents, the right to leisure is mostly referred to indirectly or in a narrow legal construction. These findings support the notion that despite the growing body of knowledge regarding the importance of meaningful leisure in old age—and its empowering and anti-ageist nature—this knowledge has not transformed into a legal human rights discourse.     

Where has all the Youth Crime Gone? Youth Justice in an Age of Austerity

Youth justice under the Coalition government in England and Wales has been characterised by considerable gains — falling youth crime, increased diversion and substantial reductions in child imprisonment — that would generally be associated with a progressive agenda. Focusing on youth justice policy in England and Wales, this article suggests that the tensions implicit in a government of the new right delivering outcomes that demonstrate an increased tolerance to children who offend can be explained by the logic of austerity. That same logic brings with it other policy measures that are potentially less compatible with children's well‐being.     

Involving Young People—Empowerment or Exploitation?

The principle that children should be heard as well as seen—that they have a right to be consulted over decisions affecting them and to have their views taken into account by the adults working with or for them—now has general currency. One consequence is that increasing numbers of children and young people are now appearing on conference platforms or are included on the executive councils of charities or participate in working parties. Such events are often effective, but sometimes they can be embarrassing or counter-productive to all concerned. Amanda Allard considers the lessons to be learnt from a successful initiative to involve young people in policy advocacy.     

Treating Trauma Through Three Interconnected Lenses: Body, Personality, and Intersubjective Field

The neuroscience of trauma in increasingly oriented to the importance of understanding right brain to right brain dynamics and helping the therapist to respond to implicit communication, which is discussed, as well as Porges’ polyvagal theory. The traumatized patient presents a variety of challenges to clinicians, including a dysregulated autonomic nervous system (ANS), compromised ability to self-soothe and diminished capacity for relatedness with others. Therefore, one effective approach to treating trauma (especially dissociation) includes conceptualizing and responding to our patients through three separate but interconnected lenses: (1) patient and therapist as human mammals—orientation to the ANS, (2) patient and therapist as personalities—orientation to the internal world and, (3) patient and therapist as inhabiting an intersubjective field together—orientation to shared, co-created body/psychological states. The capacity to be guided by countertransference is an especially valuable skill for therapists, as well as the ability to know when they are being experienced as helper or adversary by their patients. Different dynamics driving dissociation and different strategies for responding to the dissociating patient are discussed. Clinical examples are included.     

Research into Practice/Practice into Research; How a Practice‐based Research Network Might Work

Last issue, I wrote some more about Practice Based Research Networks as a model that could be followed for applied clinical research in family therapy settings. What I would like to do now is to choose an area of interest and show how it might be worked up into a PBRN. This is necessarily going to be a limited example because at this stage there is a ‘network’ of one — I am effectively talking to myself right at the moment — but it will still serve as a demonstration.     

From neuromuscular electrical stimulation and biofeedback-assisted exercise up to triathlon competitions—regular physical activity for cancer patients in Austria

Individual rehabilitation concepts for cancer patients include specific nutrition programs, psychotherapy and many modalities from the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. At the Medical University of Vienna, challenging and complex cases of cancer patients are presented and discussed with the goal to plan rehabilitation, within the worldwide first official tumour board for cancer rehabilitation. Regular physical activity is an active option which has been shown to be an important part in the treatment and rehabilitation of cancer patients. Exercise—individually prescribed—has been described to improve functional health of cancer patients with benefits for physical performance, mental health, quality of life, participation and—in some types of cancer—survival. However, not all cancer patients need the same form of regular physical activity. Nevertheless, most of cancer patients should start as soon as possible to be physically active, but under the supervision of specialized physicians and within their individual “right” setting.     

Kairos and practice wisdom in social work practice

Practice wisdom is a form of practical moral reasoning when social workers face the complexity and uncertainty encountered in practice. Following a literature review on practice wisdom in social work, its essential features are discussed, identifying a neglected element in the literature—the element of time. The element of time is found to be implicitly considered in models of social work practice but not in relation to practice wisdom. If the right action has to be taken in the right place, and at the right time, the concept of practice wisdom would be much impoverished if the element of time is not considered in its discussion. Hence, the concepts of kairos—qualitative time, and chronos—quantitative time, are discussed. The relevance and usefulness of kairos in social work practice are pointed out. Social workers need to work with ‘time within time’, be conscious of clients’ sense of time, know what to do as well as what not to do at the appropriate time. Finally, the inextricable link between time and space and the possible emergence of novelty and ingenuity are examined to bring out the creative dimension of practice wisdom.     

Political Position and Social Knowledge1

The nature of social cognition—how we “know about” the social world—is one of the most deceptively obvious problems for sociology. Because we know what we know, we often think that we know how or why we know it. Here, we investigate one particular aspect of social cognition, namely, what we will call “political ideology”—that is, people’s self‐placement on a dimension on which persons can be arrayed from left to right. We focus on that understanding that is in some ways the “ur‐form” of social cognition—our sense of how we stand by others in an implicit social formation whose meaning is totally relational. At the same time, these self‐conceptions seem to be of the greatest importance for the development of the polity and of civil society itself. Our question is, when citizens develop such a “political ideology,” what does this mean, and what do they do with it? We examine what citizens gain from their subjective placement on the dimension from liberalism to conservatism by using the results of a survey experiment that alters aspects of a hypothetical policy.     

On the same page: The value of paid and volunteer leaders sharing mental models in churches

We examine the idea that mental models shared among paid and volunteer leaders are associated with improved financial performance in nonprofit organizations. Our empirical analysis of thirty‐seven churches yields evidence that organizations are more effective if paid and volunteer leaders have a shared task mental model—that is, if they report similar conceptualizations of organizational goals and decision‐making processes. These findings suggest that the extent of leaders' agreement on organizational goals and the processes of how decisions are made matter for organizational performance. We argue that it is as important to ensure that everyone is on the same page with regard to goals and how decisions are made as it is to have the “right” goals or right decision processes in place. Implications for practice and future research on shared mental models are discussed.     

The Theoretical Frame of Symbolic Interactions: A Contextualist,Social Science*

Symbolic interactionism is differentiated from conventional “natural science” approaches as an exemplification of pure “social science.” This alternative philosophy of science is described and contrasted with mechanistic natural science along lines set forth by Pepper and recently elaborated by Sarbin: it is a contextualist mode of science concerned with the qualitative analysis of human conduct in interpersonal situations. Validity is assessed by qualitative confirmation—does it fit? and is it useful?—not by reference to a causal theory of truth. Symbolic interactionism represents an acausal science independent of the categories and presumptions of mechanistic natural science, which is logically and practically adequate in its own right.     

Competing Sovereignties,Contested Processes: Insights from the Venezuelan Food Sovereignty Experiment

Abstract

This article explores how ‘competing sovereignties’ are shaping the political construction of food sovereignty—broadly defined as ‘the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems'. This study was motivated by a lack of clarity on the ‘sovereignty’ of food sovereignty, as noted by numerous scholars—sovereignty for whom, and how? As there is a growing consensus that there are in fact ‘multiple sovereignties’ of food sovereignty that cut across jurisdictions and scales, there is the question of how these sovereignties are competing with each other in the attempted construction of food sovereignty. This question is becoming ever more relevant as food sovereignty is increasingly adopted into state policy at various levels, calling for state and societal actors to redefine their terms of engagement. This article explores questions of ‘competing sovereignties’ by developing an analytical framework, using the lenses of scale, geography, and institutions, and applying it to Venezuela, where for the past 15 years a food sovereignty experiment has been underway in the context of a dynamic shift in state–society relations.     

Protecting Black mothers: How the history of midwifery can inform doula activism

In response to the crisis of racist disparities in maternal mortality, many activists are pushing for increased access to birth doulas for Black women. As states and municipalities respond by incorporating doulas into hospital settings with increasingly common requirements for doula certification, it is more important than ever to investigate the role of doulas, and how that role might change under the medical model of birth within US hospitals. Will activism for doulas turn into arguments for the “right” to a doula? Without the full privileges of citizenship—will the most marginalized women be left out of that right despite their health and safety being at the origins of the activist struggle? To investigate these questions, we can look to the history of midwives in the United States, and examine how the midwifery model of childbirth changed as activists fought for increased access to midwives to improve birth outcomes.     

Interrogating medical tourism: Ireland, abortion, and mobility rights

Medical tourism in Ireland, like in many Western states, is built around assumptions about individual agency, choice, possibility, and mobility. One specific form of medical tourism—the flow of women from Ireland traveling in order to secure an abortion—disrupts and contradicts these assumptions. One legacy of the bitter, contentious political and legal battles surrounding abortion in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s has been securing the right of mobility for all pregnant Irish citizens to cross international borders to secure an abortion. However, these mobility rights are contingent upon nationality, social class, and race, and they have enabled successive Irish governments to avoid any responsibility for providing safe, legal, and affordable abortion services in Ireland. Nearly twenty years after the X case discussed here, the pregnant female body moving over international borders—entering and leaving the state—is still interpreted as problematic and threatening to the Irish state.     

Das Deprivationskonzept in der Rechtsextremismusforschung

Economic deprivation and unemployment is — especially in the public debate — a very popular model if one tries to explain the development of right wing extremism. In the scientific discussion the evaluation of the concept is controversial. The results of empirical studies range from median to no effects at all. One reason for this heterogeneity of results may be due to the variance of different concepts that are in use. Therefore the present study tries to develop a systematic view on different concepts of deprivation. In the empirical analyses a comparative test of the explanatory power of these concepts is presented. It is shown that only collective, especially collective emotional deprivation has a significant impact on ethnocentric attitudes. However, deprivation on the individual level is related to ethnocentrism if social contexts are framed by situations of real economic conflicts.     

Reproductive justice for the invisible infertile: A critical examination of reproductive surveillance and stratification

The ability to decide if, when, and how often to reproduce is a human right and a biomedical and sociopolitical goal. Infertility impinges upon this right by restricting the ability of individuals and couples to meet their reproductive desires. While biomedical interventions to address infertility have proliferated recently, their distribution has been inequitable; inequalities in rates of infertility, infertility‐specific distress, and access to reproductive healthcare to address infertility abound. Using a reproductive justice framework, and focusing on the United States, we examine the collection and utilization of the Integrated Fertility Survey Series, the inception and provisions of Title X, and the structural limitations of the private healthcare system. This analysis highlights systematic and linked exclusions of marginalized groups from reproductive health surveillance and the public and private provision of reproductive healthcare, including older, non‐white, working class, LGBTQ, geographically remote, less educated, HIV‐positive, institutionalized, and disabled individuals. Individuals who are excluded from infertility tracking, services, and treatment—the invisible infertile—are limited in their ability to realize their human right to reproductive health. Utilizing existing resources in public and private clinical spaces may be a useful starting point for addressing these disparities, but a broader commitment to equitable and inclusive surveillance and healthcare provision is also needed.     

The Structure of Issue Voting in Postindustrial Democracies

Issues matter for elections. The issue environment, however, varies across political campaigns as well as across countries. How does the issue environment structure the vote? Is the issue space single‐ or multidimensional? Do issues vary in terms of salience across parties or nations? This article addresses these questions using an original dataset of mass and elite policy positions covering the United States and nine other industrialized nations. Results show that while the traditional language of politics—expressed as the left/right divide—still resonates, the issue space is not single dimensional but two dimensional. Issues associated with globalization represent a crosscutting divide, which complicates the voter's decision. Further, the salience of an issue to a party varies as a function of the party's type, size, and age. This article shows how a cross‐national approach provides perspective on how voter decision making operates in different country contexts.     

Before and after science: Admissions process to Australian university social work courses

Abstract

Application processes to Australian university social work courses provide an explicit example through which to explore the influence of two schools of thought — social work as an art and as a science — on social work processes. Using admissions literature and questionnaire data provided by Australian schools of social work, this qualitative study explored the extent to which these perspectives are reflected in admissions processes. It was found that in terms of both qualities sought and techniques utilised, schools are operating essentially from a social work as science perspective, although there exists a desire to access qualities from an art perspective. This is perceived as being the result of institutional requirements, resource constraints, academic conventions and lack of knowledge about how to effectively assess the latter qualities. It is argued that social work needs to assert its unique perspectives in claiming a right to determine application processes for social work courses.     

Participatory Art as a Social Practice of Commoning to Reinvent the Right to the City

The right to the city is a concept that helps rethink spatial–social dynamics, which has recently reinvigorated the field of organization studies. Following Lefebvre and considering the failure of both the market and the state, other scholars pinpoint the need to rethink social–spatial and geographical–historical relations. They do so by theorizing the city as a host for urban commons. Collective and non-commodified, these spatial–social experiences need to be constantly reproduced and preserved through commoning practices in the struggle against spatial injustice. A case study shows that a civil society organization (CSO) uses participatory art to (re)produce urban commons at the level of a local community and to redress partially spatial injustice. We theorize participatory art-making as a social practice of commoning, i.e., a process of organizing for the commons—collective art-based activities to serve a community—and of the common—to (re)produce a community while performing them. Such commoning practices are not only about sharing urban resources but also about using and experiencing differently urban spaces. By making participatory artworks in public spaces and co-designing street furniture with residents of poor areas, TDA helps to better cope with the tensions between residents and local authorities and between amateurs and professional artists. By negotiating the long-term implementation of these creative artworks in the public space with public authorities, TDA has fostered the empowerment of inhabitants as they have experienced citizens’ reappropriation of some public spaces in Marseille.     

The Use of Incarceration in Canada: A Test of Political and Social Threat Explanations on the Variation in Prison Admissions across Canadian Provinces, 2001–2010

Recent scholarship has indicated that political and ethnic threat theories—which maintain that the use of prison is not only determined by the extent of crime in society but also by various features related to power, ideology, and access to resources—provide powerful accounts as to why the use of punishment varies within and between societies. However, no study to date has tested these theories within Canada, a country in which such theories are quite plausible. This study begins to fill this void by assessing these theoretical claims using a pooled time series analysis of the variation in imprisonment rates across Canadian provinces from the years 2001 to 2010. After accounting for several measures including charge rates, the results show that Canadian incarceration rates are largely driven by ethnic threat. The size of the Aboriginal and visible minority populations across each province are the most significant determinants of the variation in punishment. Furthermore, we find a nonlinear relationship consistent with a political version of the threat hypothesis. Results, however, do not support political accounts which stress the power of right‐wing parties or a conservative public.     

Universal Access to Affordable Housing? Interrogating an Elusive Development Goal

Abstract

Universal access to safe and secure housing has long been a central concern of the international development community. Since 2001, this aspiration has taken the form of global benchmarking embodied in the UN Millennium Development Goal 7–11 and its successor the Sustainable Development Goal 11. Despite these targets, hundreds of millions of households continue to be excluded from this basic human right. How might we understand the politics driving the disjuncture between rhetoric and reality? By historically examining the core policy documents, it is suggested that the self-actualising discourse of neoliberalism—in which the housing goals are framed—work to normalise a reality in which the commodification of basic survival needs and individualised self-help are seen as the only viable alternatives in realising decent shelter for all. Moreover, the construction and reconstruction of neoliberalism over the past 15 years has resulted in the increasingly explicit and central role of corporations in delivering housing justice.