The production and reproduction of Chinese and Taiwanese identities in Taiwan’s popular songs

This article charts the impact of Chinese and Taiwanese identities on popular songs in Taiwan in three major historical periods: the Japanese colonization between 1895 and 1945; the Kuomintang (KMT) rule between 1945 and 1987; and the cultivation of Taiwanese identity since the 1980s. By exploring the historical processes of nation-building on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, this article demonstrates how socio-political transformations have produced, reproduced and mediated both Chinese nationalism and Taiwanese identity, and the role of popular songs in that process. It shows how, since 1895, the themes of popular songs have developed through processes of ‘de-Japanizing’ to ‘de-Sinolizing’ to ‘Taiwanizing’. The political and cultural forces which have affected both Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese identities are evident in the changing market for Taiwan’s popular songs. At a period when questions of political and cultural identity are still hotly debated in Taiwan, popular songs now seek to integrate its multiple identities.     

Social Psychology,Consumer Culture and Neoliberal Political Economy

Consumer culture and neoliberal political economy are often viewed by social psychologists as topics reserved for anthropologists, economists, political scientists and sociologists. This paper takes an alternative view arguing that social psychology needs to better understand these two intertwined institutions as they can both challenge and provide a number of important insights into social psychological theories of self‐identity and their related concepts. These include personality traits, self‐esteem, social comparisons, self‐enhancement, impression management, self‐regulation and social identity. To illustrate, we examine how elements of consumer culture and neoliberal political economy intersect with social psychological concepts of self‐identity through three main topics: ‘the commodification of self‐identity’, ‘social categories, culture and power relations’ and the ‘governing of self‐regulating consumers’. In conclusion, we recommend a decommodified approach to research with the aim of producing social psychological knowledge that avoids becoming enmeshed with consumer culture and neoliberalism.     

‘Doing it right?’– accessing the narratives of identity of newly qualified social workers through the lens of resilience: ‘I am,I have,I can’

Using narrative enquiry, this paper accesses the construct of identity through exploring resilience in newly qualified social workers based in statutory children's services. In seeking to avoid deficit‐based models of this role, this paper aims to present inductively the ‘voice’ of three social workers in a semi‐rural authority, storying the positive ways in which resilience has developed during their first year. Using the Grotberg resilience framework (1995) –‘I am, I have, I can’– as an analytical tool at the interface of personal, professional and organizational identities, we conclude that ‘I am’ and ‘I have’ are more important than the skills dimension of ‘I can’. Positive role models, trust, ‘managed’ optimism, flexibility of support in and beyond induction, and, crucially, self‐efficacy and space for reflexivity, are more prominent as sources of resilience and strong identity. The reflexivity, inspired by the process of narrative enquiry, is an important contributor to self‐efficacy. We propose that a positive view of growth and identity is preferable to deficit models in the context of the transition between the two ‘communities of practice’ and of the challenges of the workplace. Organizational approaches based on this view will be more likely to promote a sustainable workforce.     

Identity Development and Grieving: The Evolving Processes for Parentally Bereaved Women

This paper is a report of the findings from a qualitative researchstudy that explored how the death of a parent influences femaleadolescents, with particular focus on women’s evolvingidentity development. A sample of eighteen women was recruitedfor the study. Findings highlight that constructing a relationshipto the deceased, shifting family dynamics and the ebb and flowof grieving influenced identity development. The women’sdevelopment allowed them to more fully recognize their parent’ssubjectivity and, in turn, allowed them to see more aspectsof themselves. The active process of ‘re-membering’(Myerhoff, 1982) the deceased through a variety of activitiescontributed to identity development. Implications for socialwork practice will be discussed.     

The politics of community arts: quilting the power and identity of women

This article attempts to articulate and re-validate the unique social contributions of marginalized and working women to their communities and to society-at-large, contributions which tend to be obscured if not forgotten, given the global dynamics of exclusion as they are at work in the capitalist society of Hong Kong. It looks at how a group of disenfranchised women workers renegotiate their identity, reclaim their dignity and regenerate social power through a community arts project ‘Quilting the Power and Identity’; that is, how through these creative but powerful actions, their transformation from a transient state of imposed victimhood into active agency could be made possible.     

Reactive and proactive aggression in children with and without ADHD and negative emotional lability

Children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit marked difficulty with frequent and intense shifts in negative or positive emotions, referred to as emotional lability. This study examines the relationships between negative emotional lability (NEL), ADHD, and reactive and proactive aggression. A community sample of 96 children (53 with ADHD, 43 control) ages 8–12 and their parents completed a baseline session include a diagnostic structured interview and the Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPAQ). Parents then rated their child's NEL using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale as part of an Ecological Momentary Assessment protocol 3 times a day for 28 days. Seventy‐three participants (37 with ADHD, 36 control) completed the RPAQ at follow‐up. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that NEL significantly and independently estimates reactive aggression at baseline and follow‐up, regardless of ADHD status. NEL and ADHD status significantly estimates concurrent proactive aggression, but not at follow‐up. Results of this study suggest that NEL accounts for a significant amount of the variability in reactive aggression, a common difficulty in children with ADHD. Further, individuals that are reportedly emotionally labile become more reactively aggressive over time. Both ADHD diagnostic and NEL are predictors of proactive aggression at baseline, although no interaction occurred.     

Neighborhood: the “outside” space for girls in urban India

Singh S. Neighborhood: the “outside” space for girls in urban India
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 206–214 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This study explores the perspective of adolescent girls on the neighborhood as a social space that plays a role in the formation of their identity and agency. The study applies the ‘identities’ conceptual framework, which is a global, interdisciplinary, theoretical approach to understanding female identity. The study participants were girls enrolled in grades 7–10, from five schools in a district in the Northern State of India, who participated in structured focus group discussions. The study reports on the reduced relevance of neighborhood for girls and illustrates, through quotes, the reasons for their limited interaction.     

ADHD and its comorbidity: an example of gene–environment interaction and its implications for child and family social work

In many of their cases, child and family social workers, particularly those involved with abuse and neglect, will find themselves also working with children who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The paper reviews current understandings and debates about the nature and causes of ADHD. Although modern evidence suggests the neurobiological basis of the condition and the effectiveness of medication in treating the behaviour, it is also recognized that the quality of the child's caregiving and social environment plays a significant role in the aetiology, maintenance and treatment of ADHD. Recognizing the part that psychosocial elements play in understanding the condition, child and family social workers can be valued members of multidisciplinary teams treating ADHD in which they offer support to parents, helping them to understand and manage their ADHD‐diagnosed child.     

Gender,emotions and fly‐in fly‐out work

This paper explores the emotional life of fly‐in fly‐out (FIFO) workers and their families, through an analysis of more than 500 postings made on an online chat forum for mining families. Building on literature on fly‐in fly‐out workers and understandings of emotions as socially constructed, analysis shows how posters to the forum, typically women whose male partners are FIFO workers, construct gendered emotional identities for their partners (sometimes referred to as ‘Mr Miner’), and for themselves, as ‘mining women’, ‘mining widows’ or the ‘mining missus’. Inherent in the creation of gendered emotional subject positions is the process of women undertaking emotion work on and behalf of themselves, their male partners and their children. The findings demonstrate the overarching normative dimensions of women's emotional self‐transformations in the service of their mining partners' careers and the attendant reproduction of everyday patriarchal relations in the private lives of mining families.     

Distinctive alcohol cultural practices amongst Niuean men living in Auckland,New Zealand

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe some of the distinctive cultural practices evident in Niuean men's drinking behaviours. The paper is also intended to illustrate that alcohol is an integral aspect of the Niuean culture and part of the system of cultural exchange. Alcohol has become an integral component of Niuean cultural rituals to the extent that celebrations and festivals are thought to be incomplete if alcohol is not present. Alcohol is used as a tool for expressing cultural values such as fakaalofa (gifting), generosity, respect, status and host obligations. Finally, alcohol is used as a symbol of ‘being Niuean’ and being a ‘real’ Niuean man. This paper will describe how practices specific to Niuean men such as drinking the ‘Niuean way’ and kalaga are symbols that help to reinforce men's cultural identity, enhancing their feeling of communal identity. It is important to emphasize that it is difficult to divorce the ‘cultural’ components of Niuean men's drinking styles from their drinking and behaviour more generally. Culture shapes people's values and behaviours. Although this paper points to some of the specific and distinctively ‘cultural’ aspects of Niuean drinking, we must recognize that all of the participants’ drinking behaviours and attitudes are likely to have been shaped by their cultural and social context. Furthermore, this paper provides only a brief snapshot of how culture and alcohol are intertwined for Niuean men. Educational programmes and host responsibility guidelines need to be culturally appropriate to suit the needs of the Niuean community. Further work is needed to elucidate this complex topic.     

Dialogical Demand: Discursive Position Repertoires for a Local and Global UK Sex Industry

The increasing incidence of ‘trafficking’ has added an incontestably disturbing dimension to the contestable nature of a ‘non‐trafficked’ UK sex industry. Men who buy sex remain under‐researched, though some studies have indicated ambivalence within men's attitudes. This study combines a critical discursive psychology in support of dialogical self theory. Secondary data, from prominent UK media resources, were analysed using Edley's (2001) method of combining ‘interpretative repertoires’, ‘ideological dilemmas’ and ‘subject positions’. Contrasting discursive practices indicative of wider ideological conflict were found. Discursive concepts were ‘mapped’ onto Hermans and Hermans‐Konopka's (2010) ‘I‐positions’ to explore how these potentially dilemmatic positions might be understood in terms of identity production. The function of ‘uncertainty’, particularly salient with the increasing complexity of globalisation, was considered a factor in how men's identities might be limited by the current discursive space. A ‘dialogical’ model of self is introduced as a framework for understanding how men who buy sex might take up new, inclusive, positions. A corollary is reflected upon; that researchers, activists and buyers alike, who remain ideologically inflexible, may be sustaining the conditions for coercion through their contribution to the discursive conflict. The synthesis of discursive and dialogical analytical tools is recommended for investigating the production of selves in contested spaces.     

Longing to belong: children in residential care and their experiences of peer relationships at school and in the children's home

Resilience literature has stressed the potential of both children's educational experiences and their friendships to act as protective factors against adversity. However, less is known about how children living with adversity navigate these ‘everyday’ aspects of social terrain and the particular challenges that they face. This paper explores the meaning and experience of peer relationships to one group of children living in residential care in Ireland. Drawing on a larger study of school and care, it explores data gathered from 16 children, aged 8 to 18, who were living in eight different children's homes on the east coast of Ireland. The findings suggest that the children were acutely aware of their ‘care’ status and developed a number of strategies to manage this identity in school. It appears that more often than not, children described being left to their own devises to manage friendships and peer relationships. Thus, despite being a crucial source of both stress and support, peer relationships did not appear to be regarded as an issue that adults should be involved with. This raises questions for practice about what children should be supported with and the way in which peer relationships are potentially overlooked by social work, residential and school staff.     

Non-resident motherhood: managing a threatened identity

Drawing upon a narrative study investigating the personal experience of 20 non‐resident mothers in the UK, the paper discusses how the atypical nature of their situation poses a potential threat to women's identity at both the personal and the social level. It is argued that more constructive adjustment is linked to women's ability to maintain a positive view of themselves as a ‘good’ mother in spite of their non‐resident status and that providing opportunities for women to ‘tell their story’ may be helpful in this respect. In addition to the cathartic effect of openly sharing an atypical mothering experience and defending against negative social judgements, exploring narratives can open up space, creating opportunities for new meanings and possibilities to emerge.     

Emotion and relatedness as aspects of the identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities: contributions from ‘practice‐near’ social work research

This paper considers social and personal/individual approaches to researching identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities; suggesting that vital components of emotionality and relatedness are largely missing from research and consequently from literature informing social care professionals. This leaves untapped, rich information and communication resources for research which may improve understandings of the experiences of a socially excluded group of young people. A psychosocial view of adolescent identity development, ‘subjectivation’, offers a way forward and a case study on ‘Billy’, drawn from a ‘practice‐near’ observational study, helps to illustrate this. Observation allows the researcher to be sensitive to the subtle ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are constructed, often with a sense of fragility and uncertainty. Continuities of experience between the young people and the rest of the adolescent community may be seen, but also the impact of living with impairment can be thought about in relation to the particular psychosocial circumstances of each young person. Knowledge of these processes enhances social work practice by encouraging workers to be sensitive to, and healthily curious about, the multiple ways in which identities of young people with severe learning disabilities are shaped in relationship with those around them and the wider social field.     

Recognition and gendered identity constructions in labour activation

Few studies have considered how labour activation programmes affect participants’ identity construction, particularly from a gender comparison perspective. Using qualitative data and recognition theories, this exploratory study of the Norwegian Qualification Program examined how gender may affect labour activation recipients’ identity construction and sense of social value. The findings suggest that women experience labour activation as an enabling process, facilitating an enhanced sense of social value and status. In contrast, men experience either no such change or a diminution of their sense of worth and status. The study shows how cultural values regarding gender, work and employment are embedded in social work practice and activation policy implementation. Underscoring how activation may be intertwined in such cultural values and norms, the study calls for further research to understand these processes, as they may affect outcomes in labour activation policy.     

Burnout in Chinese social work: Differential predictability of the components of the Maslach Burnout Inventory

Burnout is a worldwide phenomenon among social welfare workers. This study examined how burnout affects student social workers and professional social workers. It first examined the construct validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory‐General Survey (MBI‐GS) scale, using data from two Chinese samples (848 student social workers and 748 professional social workers). The original three‐factor model was regarded as superior to other competing models. Investigation of the second‐order factor model indicated that exhaustion and cynicism are core components but that personal efficacy is not. The research also revealed the differential predictability of the three subscales of the MBI‐GS. Our expectation that differential patterns of effects could be predicted was largely supported. Professional efficacy plays a key mediating role in the relationship between student social workers’ professional identity and their satisfaction with fieldwork, while social workers’ cynicism is the main mediator in the relationship between their professional identity and turnover intention. Therefore, identifying at‐risk students and professional social workers to undertake appropriate intervention strategies that focus on both their professional identity and different dimensions of burnout may be an effective way to prevent students’ dissatisfaction and reduce social worker turnover.     

Garbage‐can Policy‐making Meets Neo‐liberal Ideology: Twenty Five Years of Redundant Reform of the English National Health Service

The garbage‐can theory of decision‐making (Cohen et al. 1972), has been adapted into a perspective on policy‐making, with adaptations of the approach placing notable emphasis upon the health sector (Kingdon 2006; Paton 2006). This article creates an adapted ‘garbage‐can’ framework to help explain each stage of the reform of the English National Health Service (NHS) over the last 25 years. The emergence of the key idea and resultant policy at each stage of reform of the English NHS has been arational and indeed sometimes irrational. Policy has reflected advocacy by policy‐salesmen (Kingdon 2002), proffering ‘solutions’ to ill‐defined problems and answers to unasked questions, and politicians' short‐termist responses at each decision‐point. Yet the garbage‐can alone is not enough: if arationality rules in policy‐making day to day, this does not mean that there is not an overall ideological context, trend or bias in reform. The article also posits that ‘market reform’ has derived from the ideological hegemony of a naive anti‐statism (hostility to a misleadingly defined and often mythological ‘centralist state’) in public services and enthusiasm for market competition rather than any evidence‐based application of pro‐market ideas to health policy. A question arises: how are these two approaches (short‐term arationality and longer‐term ideological bias) combined in explanation of how policy over time is biased in a particular direction while seemingly arbitrary and directionless at each messy decision‐point. The article attempts to combine the insights of a garbage‐can approach with wider explanations of ideological hegemony.     

Sex worker and mother: managing dual and threatened identities

This paper draws on a qualitative study that sought to understand and develop theory based upon 24 women's subjective accounts of their childhood and adult experiences and involvement in sex work in the UK. It specifically examines the management of dual and threatened identities for the 17 women who were also mothers. To ensure the centrality of the women's voices in the analysis and theory generation, a grounded theory approach was taken using a psychosocial framework that drew on concepts of resilience to explore how the meanings of those experiences were reflectively appraised by participants. The findings indicate that there is a need to cope with the threat to identity inherent in society's diametrically opposed perceptions of sex worker and ‘good mother’ and simultaneously to manage the coexistence of the roles and identities of mother and sex worker. What appear significant in determining how these tensions are managed are the accumulated risk factors of early childhood, and the resources available to individuals in adulthood to manage both identities. Services must recognize not only individual but wider environmental and familial factors impacting on women with the dual identity of sex worker and mother in order to promote their resilience as mothers, whether living with or apart from their children.     

Work Activation Regimes and Well‐being of Unemployed People: Rhetoric,Risk and Reality of Quasi‐Marketization in the UK Work Programme

Well‐being and employment activation have become central and intertwined policy priorities across advanced economies, with the mandation of unemployed claimants towards employability interventions (e.g. curriculum vitae preparation and interview skills). Compelled job search and job transitions are in part justified by the well‐being gains that resulting employment is said to deliver. However, this dominant focus within the activation field on outcome well‐being – the well‐being improvement triggered by a transition to paid work – neglects how participation in activation schemes can itself affect well‐being levels for unemployed people – what we term ‘process well‐being’ effects. Combining theoretical literature with empirical work on the UK's large‐scale quasi‐marketized Work Programme activation scheme, we develop the limited existing academic discussion of process well‐being effects, considering whether and how activation participation mediates the negative well‐being effects of unemployment, irrespective of any employment outcomes. We further relate variation in such process well‐being effects to the literature on activation typologies, in which ‘thinner’ work‐first activation interventions are linked to weaker process well‐being effects for participants compared to ‘thicker’ human capital development interventions. Confirming these expectations, our empirical work shows that Work Programme participants have, to date, experienced a largely ‘thin’ activation regime in which participants are both expected to, and empirically demonstrate, similar if not lower levels of process well‐being than those who are openly unemployed. These concerning findings speak to all nations seeking to promote the well‐being of unemployed people and particularly those perusing ‘black box’ activation schemes based around quasi‐marketization, devolution and New Public Management.     

Person‐centredness in the community care of older people: A literature‐based concept synthesis

‘Person‐centredness’ is a ubiquitous term, employed in modern care services to signify policies and practices that attend to the uniqueness of each individual user. Despite being highly regarded in older adult community care services, there is much ambiguity over its precise meaning. Existing reviews of person‐centredness and its attributes have tended to focus on the medico‐nursing literature, neglecting other interpretations, such as those relevant to community social care. A new literature‐based concept synthesis reported here identified 12 common attributes within the broad themes of ‘understanding the person’, ‘engagement in decision‐making’ and ‘promoting the care relationship’. The review also contrasts how these attributes are applied across different interpretations of person‐centredness. The article argues that not all attributes necessarily pull in the same direction, and that older adults may require them to be delivered in different ways than they are to younger people. Thus, a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach should be discouraged in community care. Key Practitioner Message: ? ‘Person‐centredness’ is open to multiple interpretations, causing difficulties for services trying to gauge performance and quality; ? Three themes are central to person‐centred services: ‘understanding the person’, ‘engagement in decision‐making’ and ‘promoting the care relationship’; ? A ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach to applying person‐centredness is to be discouraged.