Rethinking integration and identity: Chinese migrants in the Republic of Ireland

Using historical narratives and a qualitative research approach, this paper analyses the social, cultural and cognitive causes of differentiation and stratification among Chinese migrants in the Republic of Ireland. It discusses individuals’ diversified capabilities, attitudes and actual levels of integration, as well as their disparate patterns of self-identification. In the research area of Chinese migrants in Ireland, in-group diversity and its implications is still a novel research topic. With this introductory work, the authors seek to draw more attention to this particular group, especially to the need for studies of encounters between subgroups and longitudinal investigations. The paper points out that subgroups of Chinese migrants in Ireland are divided according to social classification and self-categorisation, which have distinct significances for subgroup members’ integration and identity.     

Modernization and religious intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland

There are strong theoretical reasons for hypothesizing that those sections of the population who are most exposed to modernization processes are more likely to marry outside their own religious group. We examine this for Catholic-Protestant intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland. We use a multivariate analysis on survey data to test the hypotheses that urban dwellers, persons of non-farming parents, persons with higher levels of education and the young are more likely to be religiously intermarried. While the odds of being in an intermarriage are greater for urban dwellers, this is in large part due to their being non-farmers. The farming effect is not necessarily related to religiosity. The odds of being in an intermarriage do not increase significantly for persons with third level education and this can be explained in terms of the marriage market for minority groups. It is shown that the historical context and the minority position of religious group should be taken into account in explanations which relate modernization to the pattern of religious intermarriage.     

Visual and textual narratives of conflict-related displacement in Northern Ireland

Combined textual and visual narratives and counternarratives illustrate a range of experiences in Northern Ireland’s conflictual, spatial landscape. In this article, I argue that combined textual and visual narratives about conflict-instigated displacement create and articulate community-specific experiences of disadvantage, with the intention of gaining political recognition and/or advantage over other communities in ongoing processes of conflict transformation. I expose the multiple, contextualised meanings of selective narratives that are accessible in language and image but, that are rarely questioned because of the political influence of their tellers or, because of their scale. Their meanings and intentions exist alongside counternarratives about intra-community displacement and displacement against other groups and are concurrent with public apathy, which serve to minimise their effectiveness as political tools to gain community-specific, social and political advantage. These narratives and counternarratives persist as key spatial markers and as sites on which conflict, and its effective transformation, are played out.     

Independent living: the frontier of communitarian welfare? 1

We hear so much about the ‘cost’ of care, today;and so little about the value society places upon ‘care’ and welfare, which, in turn, can promote economic, social and civic participation within society at large. The question of what should be supported and valued in contemporary society needs exploring critically. In the following I explore three well-established responses to the question of how society should support and deal with disadvantage. I argue that communitarian politics/thought and the independent living movement have key roles to play in forging a better society for disabled people.     

Disability and conflict: exploring how the peace process in Northern Ireland assesses and addresses the needs of persons with disabilities

This article suggests that attempts to address the needs of persons with disabilities in the post-conflict setting have been largely characterized by a medicalized understanding of disability. In so doing, it neglects an assessment and comprehensive attempt to address the impact of structural and cultural violence on the opportunities and quality of life of persons with disabilities. Accordingly, the article suggests an elicitive approach to post-conflict efforts informed by the social model of disability to better assess and address the needs of persons with disabilities in a post-conflict society.     

The current status and future of centers for independent living in Korea

In Korea the independent living movement has made great strides since the late 1990s. This paper describes the current status and future directions of Centers for Independent Living (CIL) in Korea. This paper discusses the following. First, the demographic and historical perspectives of disabilities are described for context. Second, the disability movement and the independent living movement are described. The current status and operations of CIL are then explored in detail. Finally, the current issues and future directions of CIL are discussed. To facilitate independence among disabled people several critical tasks must be addressed: the establishment of relevant laws, the development of various funding sources, unification of the two associations for CIL, the development of the capacity of CIL staff and the establishment of an international network for sharing information and experiences. Achieving the goals listed above will advance the Korean independent living movement and, therefore, the international independent living movement.     

Social work education and political conflict: preparing students to address the needs of victims and survivors of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

This paper reports on the evaluation of a European PEACE III sponsored teaching and learning project that was designed to enable social work students to better understand the needs of victims and survivors of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The paper begins with an introduction to policy, practice and educational contexts before reviewing the literature on social work, conflict and trauma. It also summarises key, innovative pedagogical approaches used in the teaching, including the use of ground rules, teaching teams consisting of lecturer and service user dyads, learning exercises and case studies. The paper then explains the evaluation methodology. This involved two surveys which returned 144 student and 34 practice teacher questionnaires. The findings revealed that students were generally committed to this form of teaching and engagement with victims and survivors of the conflict, although some students reported that their attitudes towards this subject had were not changed. Some students also discussed how the conflict had affected their lives and the lives of families and friends; it is argued that such biographical details are crucial in developing new pedagogical approaches in this area. Practice teachers who supervised some of these students on placement reported general levels of satisfaction with preparedness to work with conflict related situations but were less convinced that organisations were so committed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study limitations and a recommendation for more robust methods of teaching and evaluation in this area of social work education and practice.     

Information Technology, Gender Segmentation and the Relocation of Back Office Employment: The Growth of the Teleservices Sector in Ireland

The movement of routine back office activities from the central business districts of metropolitan regions in advanced economies to remote locations is leading to a distinctive global division of labour in office employment. While facilitated by the development of information and communication technologies, this process of relocation is primarily driven by the desire to reduce operating costs, mainly by moving to sources of cheap female workers. This reflects a classic gender segmentation process in patriarchal societies whereby back office work is mainly done by women and, accordingly, involves relatively low levels of remuneration. This provides direct parallels with the offshoring of routine manufacturing work associated with the new international division of labour. Ireland has been to the forefront in acting as a host for internationally-mobile routine office work, initially involving mainly data processing and, more recently, teleservices. As elsewhere, teleservices employment in Ireland is characterized by a combination of female predominance, low pay, difficult working conditions and high turnover rates. However, the Irish teleservices sector is unusual in its foreign language requirement, the high education levels of workers and its concentration in a prosperous metropolitan location. The resultant labour shortages, combined with growing use of Internet-based business-to-consumer transactions, are likely to place the sustainability of the sector under increasing pressure. Plans to upgrade the types of back office functions being located in Ireland may pose further challenges for women workers due to male dominance of the higher-level jobs involved.     

Rise of the Department Store and the Aestheticization of Everyday Life in Early 20th Century Japan

Abstract:  This paper focuses on the ways in which the department store has become a key site for the constitution of Japanese modernity through the introduction of images and goods taken from the West, along with the emphasis on "Western design" and "Western taste". These new consumer spaces have become aestheticized in various ways so that we can speak of an "aestheticization" of everyday life. Yet this was also a modernizing learning process for Japanese consumers, hence a key problem was how these new experiences were to be classified and ordered into a relatively stable habitus. The rise of the department store has had an important mediating function here. Department stores not only provided new goods along with interpretations of how to use them, but also acted as theatres, as rehearsal spaces, with front and back stage areas where one can watch the performance, try out for oneself new roles. This is especially the case for women in the city, who were able to explore a new identity space with a new set of competence experiences and pleasures. In this process, the department store also provided a form of women's public sphere where they could enjoy shopping, entertainment and learning opportunities. Department stores encouraged not only a sense of luxury and theatrical settings, but also help to teach women how to assemble new tastes and styles into their lifestyle. In addition, it should be emphasized that in the Japanese case, department stores also played an important role not just as a new cultural initiative on the part of the businessmen and cultural intermediaries who invented consumer culture, but also as a political initiative on the part of the government who sought to link them to the reform of everyday life and the production of good Japanese citizens.     

Public relations education in a divided society: PR, terrorism and critical pedagogy in post-conflict Northern Ireland

Most students entering higher education in Northern Ireland's two universities have experienced a highly segregated educational system since they were five years old. This context creates a specific set of issues and problems for the educator who wishes to engage with student groups in a critical analysis of complex and controversial topics within the curriculum. This article presents the results of a research project which was designed to assess student (and educator) experiences of studying the issue of ‘PR and terrorism’ at Northern Ireland's largest university. Data was gathered from undergraduate public relations students using survey questionnaires (administered before and after the teaching and learning experience). The educators engaged in this activity also report on their own ‘participant observation’ experiences and reflect critically upon the role academic staff might play in developing pedagogic practices which are accepting of diversity in respect to controversial and complex curriculum topics.     

Pathologising the victim: law and the construction of people with disabilities as victims of crime in Ireland

Victimologists have for many years explored the construction of identities associated with the ‘victim of crime’, and how certain groups in society are understood as more ‘deserving’ of victim status than others. This paper considers the victim subjectivities ascribed to people with disabilities¹¹ In Ireland, ‘people with disabilities’ is the preferred term to ‘disabled people’.View all notes as victims of crime in Ireland by exploring the legal frameworks that shape their encounters with the criminal justice system. The legislative bricolage that exists is shaped by disjuncture, whereby anti-discrimination measures grounded in people with disabilities’ equal rights to access the justice system sit alongside those that construct them in terms of incapacity. Criminal law overwhelmingly pathologises people with disabilities as crime victims, with impairment dominating their victim status. The paper suggests that notions of victimhood that associate people with disabilities with dependency and passivity will do little to raise awareness of the disabling barriers that characterise their encounters with the criminal justice system.     

Living arrangements and level of care among clients discharged from a scattered-site housing-based independent living program

There is little recent research in the field of adolescent independent living that looks at the specific living arrangements of youth, who at the point of discharge from the child welfare system, had experienced living independently and had access to a choice of housing options. Administrative data and reviews of client records were used in this study to look at the choice of housing option and the change in level of care of 367 young adults who emancipated from the Lighthouse Youth Services Independent Living Program in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the five-year period 2001-2006. Given a range of housing options at the time of discharge, over half (55%) chose an independent living arrangement, including 41% who lived in their own place, either alone (28%) or with a roommate (13%). Only 21% decided to live in someone else's home, including just 7% with one or both birth parents, 10% with some other relative, and 4% with a non-relative. The remaining 24% of youth were discharged from independent living to a more restrictive living arrangement (a.k.a., higher “level of care”, including a residential treatment program, group home, foster care, or supervised independent living program) (11%) or whose whereabouts were unknown (13%). The outcomes of this study suggest that, when presented with a choice of housing options, most of this county's emancipating foster youth would prefer to live on their own, rather than to return to live with their families of origin. The study also suggests that many youth who participate in a scattered-site housing-based independent living program can succeed in leaving care with affordable housing in place and avoid immediate homelessness.     

Awareness of Elder Abuse Among Community Health and Social Care Staff in Northern Ireland: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This article reports on one of the first surveys of multi-disciplinary staff awareness of elder abuse in this region of the United Kingdom (UK). Forty staff from eight professional groups in the Southern Health and Services Board area were surveyed about their knowledge of elder abuse, the types of help they thought they could offer the abused and the abuser, and the level of abuse in their current caseload. Thirty-five per cent of respondents had cases of physical, psychological, financial, and sexual abuse as well as care-giver neglect of people aged 65 and over in their caseloads. The findings suggest that while staff had differing levels of awareness of elder abuse, further training is necessary.     

Addiction Problems,Addiction Services,and Social Work in the Republic of Ireland

SUMMARY

The aim of this paper is to review policy and practice in relation to the management of alcohol and drug problems in Ireland, with a specific focus on the role of professional social work. There is a high prevalence of alcohol and drug problems in the caseloads of social workers that work within the statutory childcare and criminal justice services. Professional social work in Ireland is of comparatively recent origin and there are few social workers employed in specialist addiction posts or settings in Ireland. The profession as a whole, moreover, has not actively lobbied for a greater role in specialist services. While formal social policy on addictions has shifted in recent decades towards broad public health strategies, which reflect a pragmatic European perspective, the disease model from the United States of America continues to have popular appeal.     

‘Individual and connected’: an exploration of young people’s discourses about youth cafes in Ireland

Since 2000, youth cafes are accorded prominence in Irish youth policies and research. Youth cafes are drug and alcohol free recreational spaces and research shows that they impact positively on young people. Youth cafes are broadly similar to youth clubs, but they are less structured and are primarily youth-led spaces. This paper draws on qualitative materials from a national study of youth cafes in Ireland, arguing that young people’s perceptions of youth cafes are linked to individuality and connectedness. In this paper, we explore these discourses surrounding individuality and connection in detail and argue that youth work in the twenty-first century must simultaneously appeal to young people’s need for space to ‘be’ and to find themselves and provide a structure within which they can relate to others and wider society.     

Greater involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa

This study reports on a pilot project, the greater involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS Workplace Model, which places trained fieldworkers living openly with HIV/AIDS in selected partner organisations sectors, where they set up, review or enrich workplace policies and programmes. The project adds credibility to partners' HIV/AIDS programmes and creates a supportive environment for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and others to speak about HIV/AIDS. Eleven men and women living with HIV, aged between 30 and 45, and with varied life experiences and education levels, shared a willingness to speak about their HIV status in their workplace. They worked in very different environments but their collective experiences showed that PLWHA can add value to workplace HIV/AIDS programmes in a way that is relevant, effective, efficient, sustainable and ethical. They made companies and communities more aware of the intense need for HIV/AIDS policies and encouraged care and support for infected and affected people.     

Independent living services,adjudication status,and the social exclusion of foster youth aging out of care in the United States

Recent policy changes have increased the availability of independent living services (ILS) to foster youth aging out of care in the United States. Yet, it is possible that youth who are also involved in the juvenile justice system may have trouble accessing these services. This study uses a social exclusion framework to examine associations between independent living service receipt, adjudication status, and early adult outcomes for youth aging out of the U.S. foster care system. Outcomes and ILS receipt data for 7412 older youth from the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) were used for this study. Chi-square tests and logistic regression models were used to explore the relationships among adjudication status, ILS, social exclusion, and social connectedness at age 19. Findings indicated that postsecondary education support and education financial services at baseline were related to a higher likelihood of being socially connected and lower likelihood of being socially excluded at age 19. Being an adjudicated delinquent and receiving special education and career services were related to a lower likelihood of being socially connected. This suggests that ILS are well-suited for youth already doing well, but may not do enough for those who struggle the most during this period.     

Linguistic affinity and achieved geographic mobility: evidence from the recognition of non-national social work qualifications in Ireland and the UK1

This article presents statistics from the national authorities of two EU countries responsible for the recognition of non-national social work qualifications: Ireland and the United Kingdom. This material is drawn upon in an attempt to identify the role of linguistic affinity in relation to the geographic mobility of social work graduates.     

English and discourses of commodification among tourism workers in the Himalayas

In this article, I investigate commodification discourses and ideologies of English from the perspective of Nepali tourism workers. Drawing data from interviews with porters and trekking guides in Nepal, I argue that English is not seen as merely a transactional means to convey meaning; it works in combination with the traditional form of labor and care in the local economy, establishing itself as a powerful tool to establish closer interpersonal relationships, enhance such interpersonal relationships for economic gains and commodify local identities and cultures in the tourism market. The interview and ethnographic details show that language learners are agentive and capable of making sense of their actions by positioning themselves variously in terms of ethnicity, economic class and job category. These workers think that tourists' linguistic and financial resources are the empowering tools that enable them to travel to locations that they want. They also want to empower themselves with English skills and translocal imaginaries to travel and see the world beyond their immediate reach. Repertoires in English are considered as instruments to mediate their imaginaries and the foreign worlds they want to be part of.