Fitting the von Mises distribution using glim

An efficient probabilistic approximation to the von Mises likelihood is used to allow fitting via GLIM. This permits the full use of covariate information in analysis of directional data. A numerical integration is performed to evaluate the normalising constant (IO) and the method is compared to standard numerical optimisation routines from the IMSL library.     

Formal and informal helping in child welfare services: implications for management and practice

The author raises questions about whether and how informal and professional helping networks may work hand-in-hand to help children at risk of harm and families at risk of dissolution.     

The professionalization of the 'shoe clerk'

Summary.  The address reviews the professionalization of statisticians working in the regulated world of drug development. The need for statisticians to continue to push the boundaries of their professional environment is stressed. It is argued that to maintain the strength and influence of the profession it is neither desirable, nor necessary, to define in a statutory sense access to the profession.     

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS AND THE CLERGY: A NEED FOR CLINICAL COLLABORATION, TRAINING, AND RESEARCH

This article calls for greater collaboration between clergy and marriage and family therapists. It spells out the reasons for potenial collaboration and suggests some specific ways it can occur. Marriage and family therapists acknowledge the highest rates of religious involvement of any metntal health profession, placing them in a unique position to be involved in the continuing education of clergy. There is a clear need for research to understand how marriage and family therapists and clergy can more effectively work together. The dearth of research, training, and collaboration between the two vocations is all the more unfortunate given the clear evidence of the importance of religion in the personal lives of the clients we serve.     

Negotiating space with family and kin in identity construction: the narratives of British non‐heterosexual Muslims1

This paper highlights significant moments, strategies, and themes in British nonheterosexual Muslims’ management of familial and kin relations. Significant socio‐cultural and religious factors constitute the framework within which they negotiate such relations. These factors are: the strict religious censure of non‐heterosexuality (specifically homosexuality) based on various Islamic written sources, the pervasive cultural censure of homosexuality as a ‘western disease’, the expectation of marriage as a cultural and religious obligation, the respect for parents, and the maintenance of family honour (izzat) particularly in the close‐knit kinship network. These factors, which significantly inform the participants’ responses and experiences, also reflect the social position of this religious and ethnic minority in British society. Specifically, the participants highlighted the complexity of secrecy, silence and discretion in balancing individualism (ie expression of sexuality) and socio‐ religious obligations. In general, the data demonstrate the intricate inter‐relatedness of structure and agency, and the cultural embeddedness of the production and management of identity and social relations.     

Citizenship, poverty and the real will

The paper analyses the concept of citizenship in the work of Bernard and Helen Bosanquet against the backcloth of a broader intellectual and historical framework. The discussion then addresses three issues in relation to citizenship: class, markets and poverty. Each concept is introduced through the medium of T.H. Marshall's ideas on citizenship. Marshall's ideas are taken as broad markers for the discussion of the concept in the post 1945 era. The discussion of each concept is then analysed in relation to the Bosanquets’ theories. The basic conclusion is that many of the Bosanquets’ analyses and answers are both inappropriate and antique, however they do highlight certain intrinsic difficulties which are still very much part of twentieth century states.