Making sense of common sense: examining the decision‐making of politically appointed representatives in Swedish child protection

A distinguishing feature of Swedish child protection is the direct and indirect influence on decision‐making in individual cases by representatives appointed by their elected political parties. As members of local committees, they take the most interventionist and costly decisions themselves, informed by care proposals submitted by professional social workers. Other decisions are delegated to professional social workers. In direct decision‐making, they are supposed to act as laypersons using their own judgement and experience, not as politicians. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse these committees, their role and responsibilities, and possible influence of politics on child protection. A mixed method was used, with a survey sent to 467 representatives, structured interviews with 99 secretaries of local committees and data drawn from national statistics. The Swedish model is discussed as a hybrid system influenced not only by professional, bureaucratic, political and market governance logics but also by laypersons. One conclusion is that although child protection is directly influenced by politics, the reverse is also true. By exposing politicians to the difficult life circumstances and societal shortcomings experienced by vulnerable children, the system can, in turn, have an impact on politics at the municipal level.     

Can sense of community inform social capital?

This paper examines the theoretical linkage between social capital and sense of community through research studies within four contextual areas. Social capital (SC) can be conceptualized as all the interactions between individuals in a community, and has been examined in various groups and communities. Sense of community (SoC) is a psychological construct that we argue is a correlate of social capital. Sense of community reflects the feelings of attachment and belonging that an individual has towards a community. Through qualitative and quantitative research carried out across the lifespan in four communities in Western Australia (i.e., Perth community, adolescent Jewish community, urban and rural communities, and primary school community), this paper utilizes SoC as a framework for investigating ways in which SC may be realized in communities. The significance of this paper highlights the practical application of increasing SC within communities through targeting SoC within individuals.     

The individual rationality of maintaining a sense of justice

Let us say that an individual possesses aprincipled preference if she prefers satisfying her preferences without violating the principles of justice governing her community to satisfying her preferences by violating these principles. Although living among possessors of principled preferences benefits individuals, maintaining such a preference is individually costly. Further, individuals can benefit from others possessing principled preferences without themselves possessing one. In this paper, I argue that occupying a choice situation which mirrors key aspects of our own situation, maximizing rationality requires individuals to develop and maintain principled preferences.To establish that maintaining a principled preference is individually rational for the occupants of such a choice situation, I define a range of individual strategies for them, model their choice of individual strategies as a game, and argue that this game involves an equilibrium in which all of its participants would choose to develop and maintain a principled preference.     

The development of gender identity: Making sense of the world

A Review of Gender Identities and Education: The Impact of Starting School , by Barbara Lloyd and Gerald Duveen.     

Does a universal non-contributory social pension make sense for rural China?

China’s pension reform during the past three decades has allowed a majority of China’s population to be covered by a pension scheme. Of particular note has been the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS), a voluntary programme introduced starting in 2009. One goal of our analysis is to assess that pension scheme, using a variety of sources of information including data drawn from recent (2013 and 2015) nationwide China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Surveys (CHARLS). Our analysis involves an exploration of differences between the generosity and structure of the NRPS and other pension schemes currently in place. We also explore the feasibility of reforming the current “quasi-social pension” component of the NRPS by substituting a universal non-contributory social pension pillar. In connection with our assessment of the NRPS, we note the unusually low benefit levels for rural China.     

Alcohol-related problems among adolescents and the role of a sense of coherence

Alcohol abuse is generally regarded as a major risk factor for antisocial problem behaviour among adolescents. On the other hand, personal coping strategies hypothetically can be seen as protective of alcohol-related behaviour problems. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of sense of coherence (SOC) on alcohol-related behavioural problems in an SOC-alcohol intoxication model. The method of study was a cross-sectional, school-based questionnaire study of 4,305, 16- and 19-year-old adolescents. We found that both a SOC and the frequency of alcohol intoxication were independently associated with alcohol-related behavioural problems. Our model shows that the combination of these two independent factors amplifies them considerably, and adolescents with a strong SOC, despite frequent intoxication, were protected to a large degree from experiencing alcohol-related problems.     

Electromagnetism and the Nth sense: augmenting senses in the grinder subculture

Grinders aim to enhance their sensory capabilities by assimilating emerging material technologies to their bodies. One of the most common upgrades is a magnet implant, which makes it possible to feel electromagnetic waves. Peripheral devices are then built to transmit information (e.g. weather, twitter, sonar) into electromagnetic waves, making it a powerful mediator between environment and body.     

Making sense of the self: an integrative framework for moral agency

The self is conceptualized in a multitude of ways in different scholarly fields; at the same time moral agency appears to presuppose a unitary conception of the self. This paper explores this tension by introducing ‘moral senses’ which inform the normative evaluations of a person. The moral senses are featured as innate dispositions, but they inevitably recruit discursive categorizations in order to function. These senses forward both an ‘individual self’, by experiencing a unitary body, mind and character, and a ‘social self’, that is similarly experienced as a body, a mind, and a character. This social self is enabled by the capacity to internalize other people's feelings and intentions and the need to have otherworldly explanations for observable reality. This integrative framework of moral senses provides an understanding that helps to address the challenge of moral heterogeneity and plurality.     

玩转史上最长假期青岛市南区寻找“最年味”

2012年元月可休14天!青岛市市南区贺年会已经备好了"最年味"的春节饕餮盛宴,让驴友们在"既传统又时尚,既好玩又好看,既温馨又欢动,既浪漫又特别"的混搭游记中,玩转史上最长假期。红色民俗活色生香传统的年俗与年味,在加速度的当下已经成为一种奢侈。这种原本要到影视剧中还原的红色春节,每年都会在市南区原汁原味地鲜活重现老式的过大年场景。原来,这个中国最美的城区不仅有惊艳与     

A synaptic common sense? McLuhan’s tactility and electronic media rhythms

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhen proposed that tactility would eventually become a determining factor in electronic media, leading to the formation of a new kind of “common sense.” This article investigates whether by exploring this idea we are able to arrive at an alternative theoretical framework for understanding tactility, a framework that avoids the tactile-optic distinction and the understanding of tactility as a sensation primarily innervated through the bodily part of the hand. McLuhan’s notions of “acoustic space” and “contraction” are directly related to this breakthrough. It is further argued that the resulting theoretical framework can be enriched when considered in conjunction with social analyses of rhythms and used to account for the differentiation and customization or individualization of media use in the digital age. In this way, tactility is treated as embedded within rhythmic signals and fluctuations in media, allowing us to rethink McLuhan’s “common sense” in a singularly illuminating way.     

Learning to make sense: interdisciplinary perspectives on sensory education and embodied enculturation

ABSTRACT

In this introductory essay we examine through a ‘temporally inflected lens’ some of the complex entanglements of learning, senses, and sense making; body-sensory experience and practice; and culture and society. We thereby aim to bring into dialogue inter-/multisensorial approaches to education as a project and praxis and processes of ‘enculturation’, which have always, in one way or the other, involved ‘embodied’ learning (and imaginaries thereof), rather than mere ‘mental processing’. We first situate the ‘turn’ to the senses, across a range of disciplinary fields, brought on by a growing interest in ‘modes of meaning-making’, including the visual, aural, audio-visual, material, bodily, and spatial. Secondly, we investigate the explanatory potential of enculturation and embodiment as seemingly entangled notions. From this, we derive the concept of ‘embodied enculturation’ for the study of situated, historical entanglements of sensory learning and education. We link this proposed research paradigm to incisive scholarship on ‘cultural learning’ through sensorial lenses, after which we tease out six key questions or concerns emerging from a review of relevant, recent research. These key concerns help to contextualize state-of-the-art ‘sensuous education scholarship’ introduced in the final section of the article and elaborated further in the ensuing contributions to this special issue.     

Mental health and wellbeing of care leavers: Making sense of their perspectives

Despite considerable quantifiable data about the circumstances of care leavers in the United Kingdom, there is less qualitative data about how these circumstances are experienced. This article is underpinned by positioning theory, with a particular focus on the unfolding personal narratives of young care leavers in relation to their mental health and wellbeing and the role of a life‐skills programme in supporting them in this respect. The research illustrates that leaving care projects, such as the one in the current study, are more focused on employment and housing issues than on addressing the mental health and wellbeing needs of young people. Our analysis of interviews with young people illustrates the ambiguity of understandings of concepts such as “mental health” and “wellbeing,” and the complexity of responses to questioning around this area. This illustrates one of the major problems in evaluating the outputs and outcomes of such projects in terms of simplistic targets, where mental health and wellbeing are not clearly defined or understood by young people themselves. The current research provides a more complex picture. More research is needed that involves in‐depth and longitudinal assessment of specific mental health needs of care leavers and how they can be addressed successfully.     

Memories of a dying industry: sense and identity in a British paper mill

Frogmore Paper Mill is a kind of time machine that allows historians of technology and the senses to study the mechanized paper-making as it was done one hundred years ago. Before the introduction of instrumentation and automatic process control, paper-making depended profoundly on the embodied skills of the workers. This article will focus on the sensory knowledge and skills required for monitoring and controlling old machinery. Investigating skills-in-use will help to unravel the close link between sensing and acting to keep a continuous production process stable and running. Paper-makers would shift intuitively between different senses and sensory modes of monitoring and diagnosing sensory tell-tales to balance the production process. The importance of sensory knowledge and embodied skills also shaped paper-makers’ self-perception and professional ethos. The article will examine the impact of new process control technology on the crucial role of sensory skills for the paper-makers’ individual and collective identities.     

Adult children of parents with mental illness: Family stigma and coping on sense of self

Family stigma is associated with persistent negative outcomes among adult children of parents with mental illness (ACOPMI). Loss of sense of self has been reported by ACOPMI; however, the role of family stigma on sense of self remains unclear. Additionally, research suggests coping behaviour (i.e. adaptive or maladaptive) influences the effect of stigmatization on sense of self. This study investigated the impact of family stigma and coping on sense of self among ACOPMI (N = 134, 63.4% female). As hypothesized, high family stigma was associated with weak sense of self (p < 0.001), and ACOPMI who endorsed adaptive coping demonstrated higher sense of self than those who coped maladaptively (p < 0.001). Further, coping moderated the relationship between family stigma and sense of self (p < 0.001). Unexpectedly, this relationship was only significant for ACOPMI with adaptive coping skills (p < 0.001). At higher levels of stigmatization, post hoc analysis revealed coping styles did not exert an influence on sense of self. Results suggest family stigma contributes to loss of sense of self among ACOPMI, with adaptive coping being protective only at lower levels of family stigma. Findings highlight the need for a systemic approach to eradicate family stigma.