When was secularization? Dating the decline of the British churches and locating its cause1

Dating the decline of Christianity in Britain has a vital bearing on its explanation. Recent work by social historians has challenged the sociological view that secularization is due to long‐term diffuse social processes by asserting that the churches remained stable and popular until the late 1950s and that the causes of decline lie in the social and cultural changes associated with the 1960s. We challenge this interpretation of the evidence. We also note that much of the decline of the churches is explained not by adult defection but by a failure to keep children in the faith. Given the importance of parental homogamy for the successful transmission of religious identity, the causes of decline in one generation may well lie in the experiences of the previous generation. We focus on the disruptive effects of the 1939–45 war on family formation and use survey data to argue for a staged model of decline that is compatible with the conventional gradual view of secularization.     

Beyond Managism: Negotiated Narratives and Critical Management Education in Practice

A pragmatist conception of critical management education and learning is first set out. This accepts a degree of 'functionality' between management study and management practice. It is, however, a non-managerialist and non-technicist functionality. The criterion for judging critical management learning cannot be how well it reveals truths in any absolute or foundationalist sense. The only possible criterion is how well, relative to alternative types of learning, it informs the practices of people involved in managerial situations (regardless of whether these are managers or not). Next, one way of applying pragmatist critical management principles is outlined. This works through negotiated narratives and stands as an alternative to orthodox management education approaches – ones to which the critical concept of scholarism is applied. The outline is then developed through an ethnographic style account of an instance of such a practice. Central to this piece of teaching and learning practice is the critical concept of managism . Managist discourse and its role in framing managerial thinking and practices is examined and debated by the management class in the process of attempting collectively to make sense of stories brought to the class by both the students and the teacher. The basic 'story' that the paper tells is rehearsed at the end in the form of a fairy tale. This is done as an alternative to concluding or 'closing' the paper. The story of critical management education and learning and what is done in its name continues to unfold.     

Physical activity in the life of a woman with cerebral palsy: physiotherapy,social exclusion,competence, and intimacy

Although physical activity can have substantial mental and physical health benefits, people with cerebral palsy usually lead sedentary lives. To understand, at an individual level, this inactivity, we interviewed a 29-year-old minimally active woman with cerebral palsy (Alana) about the meanings and experiences of physical activity throughout her life. Using a case-study approach, we found that Alana had adverse childhood experiences with physical activity, including: having to perform difficult, and sometimes painful, physiotherapy; wearing callipers to assist her walking; demonstrating limited competence at physical activity; being excluded from physical education and other organised physical activity at school; and feeling socially isolated from her classmates. These experiences seemed to contribute to feelings of difference/inferiority and the subsequent avoidance of physical activity, which, in turn, might have contributed to premature functional decline. Physical activity levels in people with cerebral palsy might be increased through focusing on enhancing childhood experiences.     

BOURDIEU'S CONCEPT OF REFLEXIVITY AS METALITERACY

For Bourdieu, the extent to which agents can attain knowledge of, and negotiate, various cultural fields is dependent upon, and explicable in terms of, two epistemological types. The first is a practical sense (the ‘logic of practice’), while the second involves a sort of conscious comprehension that he names ‘reflexivity’. Bourdieu defines reflexivity as an interrogation of the three types of limitations (of social position, of field and of the scholastic point of view) that are constitutive of knowledge itself. But the reflexive relation to the habitus, the demands and influences exerted by cultural fields, and one's own practices within those fields, cannot be understood simply as something that is obtained by the subject; rather, any reflexive relation to the doxa and illusio of the field must be a constitutive part of that field. This paper identifies a number of principles taken from Bourdieu's work that clarify how, where and why the reflexive ‘surpassing’ of literacy might occur. But we also suggest, contra Bourdieu, that only fields that are informed or characterized by the scholastic point of view are likely to be characterized by the set of conditions constitutive of reflexive knowledge; and that the scholastic point of view is therefore, simultaneously, both a potential impediment to, and a condition (almost necessary) of the production of reflexive knowledge.     

Augmented or admented reality? The influence of marketing on augmented reality technologies

As mobile and wearable devices that enable digital content to be displayed over physical surroundings continue to develop, scholars are increasingly interested in these ‘augmented reality’ (AR) technologies. While much of the focus has either been on the technological development of these devices and their potential for changing user perception, there has been less attention paid to the stakeholders and companies developing these technologies. This study examines developments in the industry itself, where companies are finding resources and structuring their businesses, and how this has created a momentum toward marketing and advertising. The intricate link between marketing and AR is one that has implications for how the technology is developing, what experiences are possible through the technology, and the future contexts in which AR is deployed.     

Toolkit for assessing the readiness of local safeguarding children boards: origins,ingredients and applications

A central plank in the transformation of children's services in England and Wales is the creation on a statutory footing of Local Safeguarding Children Boards in every local authority area. The focus of the boards will be on the promotion, multiagency coordination and scrutiny of services to safeguard and promote children's welfare. They replace Area Child Protection Committees, which were judged to be ineffective. This paper presents the origins, ingredients and applications of an audit and preparation Toolkit designed to support the establishment of the new boards. The Toolkit was developed from the findings of a survey of 204 members of 16 ACPCs by the first author, and has been tested and refined through work with a large number of ACPCs. This survey identified problematic aspects of interagency collaboration that will need remedying if the new boards are to succeed where the previous committees failed. These include: the board's strategic relationship to wider children's planning fora; operational definition of the term ‘safeguarding’; collective accountability; level of membership; performance management capacity; service user consultation. The ingredients of the Toolkit are described in relation to the findings of the survey. The paper concludes with a discussion of the applications and approaches to be considered in using the Toolkit. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.