The Paradoxical Effects of COVID‐19 in Italian Systemic Practice: Clinical and Teaching ‘Insights’

The COVID‐19 pandemic has impacted the personal and professional lives of all of us and has laid the bases for a social and cultural change. This article is written as a reflection on the paradoxical effects of the ‘viral phenomenon.’ We wish to highlight the opportunities and changes that have arisen from the emergency situation, especially through the use of the online setting, both in the clinical work and training activities of systemic therapists. This article is not intended to be a panegyric on the merits of digital sessions, but an appraisal, also through clinical examples, of the contributions that technology may give to our practices. We do not consider technology as a substitute, but as an integration and enrichment of the therapist's and trainer's tools. This tough experience may be transformed into an opportunity for learning new techniques and practices in which the screen becomes a useful support.     

Economic decline and voter discontent

Standard economic voting research is too narrowly focused on how economic changes affect the popularity of the governing incumbents, especially with respect to the mainstream opposition party. This approach cannot easily interpret voting behavior as an expression of system wide support. The article seeks to fill this void by using the case of Canada to analyze how long-term economic decline affects election behavior. In particular, the relative success of non-mainstream parties in recent Canadian elections is shown to be connected, at least in part, to long-term economic decline. This is particularly true of those who have borne the brunt of the economic restructuring that has taken place since the 1970s, namely, working-class individuals who lack post-secondary education. Although economic conditions of this group have always been precarious, it has suffered greater economic decline compared to others. This widening gap has led to more negative attitudes towards the political system, which in turn has increasingly led voters from this group to abandon Canada's two mainstream parties, the Liberal and Progressive Conservative, in favor of non-mainstream parties. Analysis is based on a pooled dataset that integrates economic and election survey data from the 1970s to the 1990s.     

Real or imagined - Black women's experiences in the Academy

This is a reflective and reflexive account of the individual and shared work experiences of three Black female Senior Lecturers working in higher education. Through the process of sharing our common experiences we not only make visible the details of the race and gender oppression we face, but also the acts of resistance we engage in within the academic community. We draw on our understanding of Black feminist principles and ideas to explore and analyse our experiences as Black professional women; this exploration is central to the development of the strategies that we propose. These strategies, we believe will enable Black women and others engaged in the process of change to continually challenge and resist the oppressive power relations that characterise academic environments. Ici nous donnons un compte rendu réflexif qui s'agit des expériences non seulement collectives entre trois conférencières Noires universitaires, mais aussi des expériences plutôt privées de cettes chercheuses. Par le processus de partager de cette façon nos expériences nous faisons visible l'oppression raciste et sexiste qui se presente dans la vie quotidienne. En meme temps on essaye de souligner la résistance dans laquelle on s'engage dans la communauté scolaire. Par notre compréhension des principes et des idées féministes nous sommes capables d'explorer et d'analyser nos expériences en tant que femmes Noires professionelles. En plus, cette exploration est centrale au développement des stratégies que nous proposons. Nous croyons que par cettes stratégies les Noires (et les femmes en général qui sont engagées dans les efforts d'effectuer le changement) auront le pouvoir de lancer un défi continuel et de résister l'abus de pouvoir accablant qui existe àchaque moment dans les environnements scolaires.     

‘There's a huge gulf between me as a male carer and women': Gender,domestic responsibility,and the community as an institutional arena

This paper explores the persistent link between women and domestic responsibility, a link that has been heavily documented and yet much less frequently theorised. Drawing on a qualitative research project with a 'critical case' study sample of couples trying to share housework and childcare in Britain in the early 1990s the paper argues that part of this puzzle linking women and domestic responsibility can be addressed by adopting wider definitions of domestic responsibility and of community. While domestic responsibility is often conceived as family labour that occurs within families/households, it also has inter-household, inter-institutional and community dimensions. With regard to a wider conceptualisation of the community, the paper argues that the community is more than a social institution; it is an institutional arena within which families/households, inter-household relations, community-based social networks and a wide array of community activities occur. The overall findings and implications of the research presented in this paper are three-fold. First, gendered socially constructed norms and gendered community-based social networks are highlighted as important factors that help to account for the persistent link between women and domestic responsibility. Second, taking cues from research carried out in Third World and low-income Western communities, it is important to shift research agendas on domestic divisions of labour to focus not only on intra-household divisions but also inter-household and intra-community relations. Third, the need is highlighted for greater attention to the links between socially constructed norms on masculinities, men's friendships and domestic responsibility. Este articulo explora la conexión persistente entre las mujeres y la responsabilidad doméstica. Se ha documentado mucho veces esta conexión pero se ha teorizado muy pocas veces. Se hace uso de una investigación cualitativa con un estudio tipo 'caso crítico' del cual proviene una muestra de parejas que intentan compartir las tareas domésticas y el cuidado de los niños, y se sostiene que se puede tratar parte de este enigma que une a las mujeres con la responsabilidad doméstica si se adoptan unas definiciones mas amplias de la responsabilidad doméstica y de la comunidad. Mientras que a menudo se suele concebir la responsabilidad doméstica como trabajo familiar que tiene lugar dentro de las familias/los hogares, también tiene dimensiones inter-hogares, inter-institucionales y comunitarias. Con respecto a una conceptualización mas amplia de la comunidad, este artículo sostiene que la comunidad es más que una institución social; es un ruedo institucional (Goetz, 1997) dentro del cual se encuentran las familias/los hogares, las relaciones inter-hogares, las redes sociales basadas en la comunidad y una amplia gama de actividades comunitarias. Tienen tres aspectos las conclusiones e implicaciones globales que se presentan en este artículo. Primero, se ponen de relieve las connotaciones de género, que se evidencian en las normas sociales y en las redes sociales basadas en la comunidad, como factores importantes que ayudan a explicar la conexión persistente entre las mujeres y la responsabilidad doméstica. Segundo, es importante seguir el ejemplo de investigaciones realizadas en el tercer mundo y en las comunidades occidentales de bajos ingresos, y cambiar el enfoque de las investigaciones de las divisiones domésticas del labor para centrarse no sólo en las divisiones entre el hogar sino también en las relaciones entre los hogares y entre la comunidad. Tercero, realzo la necesidad de prestar mas atencion a los vínculos entre las normas sociales sobre las masculinidades, las amistades entre los hombres y la responsabilidad doméstica.     

Preferences Representable by a Lower Expectation: Some Characterizations

We propose two different characterizations for preference relations representable by lower (upper) expectations with the aim of removing either fair price or completeness requirements. Moreover, we give an explicit characterization for comparative degrees of belief on a finite algebra of events representable by lower probabilities.     

Generalized Weibull Linear Models

For the first time, a new class of generalized Weibull linear models is introduced to be competitive to the well-known generalized (gamma and inverse Gaussian) linear models which are adequate for the analysis of positive continuous data. The proposed models have a constant coefficient of variation for all observations similar to the gamma models and may be suitable for a wide range of practical applications in various fields such as biology, medicine, engineering, and economics, among others. We derive a joint iterative algorithm for estimating the mean and dispersion parameters. We obtain closed form expressions in matrix notation for the second-order biases of the maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters and define bias corrected estimates. The corrected estimates are easily obtained as vectors of regression coefficients in suitable weighted linear regressions. The practical use of the new class of models is illustrated in one application to a lung cancer data set.     

A Likelihood‐Based Analysis for Relaxing the Exclusion Restriction in Randomized Experiments with Noncompliance

The exclusion restriction is usually assumed for identifying causal effects in true or only natural randomized experiments with noncompliance. It requires that the assignment to treatment does not have a direct causal effect on the outcome. Despite its importance, the restriction can often be unrealistic, especially in situations of natural experiments. It is shown that, without the exclusion restriction, the parametric model is identified if the outcome distributions of various compliance statuses are in the same parametric class and that class is a linearly independent set over the field of real numbers. However, the relaxation of the exclusion restriction yields a parametric model that is characterized by the presence of mixtures of distributions. This scenario complicates the likelihood‐based estimation procedures because it implies more than one maximum likelihood point. A two‐step estimation procedure based on detecting the root that is closest to the method of moments estimate of the parameter vector is then proposed and analyzed in detail, under normally distributed outcomes. An economic example with real data concerning returns to schooling concludes the paper.     

Students in out-of-home care: Their experiences of Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk,an Australian education programme

Children living in out-of-home care are at greater risk of poor educational outcomes compared to other children. To address their educational needs, several programs have been developed. Within a qualitative paradigm, this study explored the experiences of students about their involvement in TEACHaR (Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk), a specialized education programme. Eight students (aged 13 to 18 years) from the programme participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Responses were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Participants indicated that the programme provided individualized and flexible academic support, reduced their shame and embarrassment and provided them with more than academic support. They highlighted the importance of the student–educator relationship, and the need for encouragement and motivation to pursue their educational goals. Finally, findings report on how COVID-19 impacts on student experiences of the programme. Recommendations for the development and improvement of education programs for students in out-of-home care conclude this paper.