Gold coasters overseas, 1880–1919: With specific reference to their activities in Britain

One effect of the British conquest of the Gold Coast was an acceleration in the exodus of members of Euro‐African families from the coastal townships to the British West African empire and to the imperial metropole. Using Gold Coast sources, in the main, to identify these expatriates and to ascertain the nature and purpose of their migration overseas, the article suggests that while the exodus may be interpreted as a nationalist response to colonialism, it also represented a pragmatic and indeed successful reaction in defence of the political and economic interests of an emergent Euro‐African Society, whose origins may be traced to the early phase of ‘informal’ imperialism, associated with the promotion of ‘Commerce and Christianity’ in the Gold Coast.     

Self‐harm by people with learning difficulties: something to be expected or investigated?1

A review of the literature exploring self-harm highlights variations in the way it is understood. A marked difference in approach appears to relate to the presence of a learning difficulty in the person utilizing self-harm. Linkage with abuse has been given credence as one possible explanation for self-harming behaviour in the general population and yet has received little consideration within literature regarding people with learning difficulties. This paper proposes that it is oppression and abuse which provide the context in which self-harm is used by many people with learning difficulties. Continually ignoring the 'message' in self-harm is to further traumatize individuals. Therefore a challenge is posed to look beyond existing responses to the use of self-harm by people with learning difficulties.     

Expert knowledge,expert systems and commercial interests

Experience to date in building expert systems has brought a general realization of the complexity of the effort required for producing systems capable of operating on ‘real-world’ problems. The most successful knowledge-based/expert systems built to date, e.g. DENDRAL, MYCIN, PROSPECTOR and R1 have demonstrated that a considerable investment in time and dedication on the part of systems designers and experts is required to create a fully operational system. The great majority of development projects attempting to harness this new programming technology do not extend beyond creation of a prototype system largely due to lack of necessary resources, i.e. time, money and know-how. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the more important issues associated with development of expert systems and to provide an overview of the commercial and industrial efforts of putting expert systems to work. This paper should be of interest to those who have gained their knowledge of expert systems from the reading of non-specialist publications and thus may have been exposed to somewhat over enthusiastic accounts of the subject.     

Are Children Protected in the Family Court? A Perspective from Western Australia

Despite a landmark High Court judgement in the area of child sexual abuse allegations (M and M, 1988), a major concern in such cases seems to be the fear that mothers use false accusations against fathers as ‘weapons’ in custody and contact cases. This paper seeks to examine the validity of such views as they apply to Western Australia. In particular, it examines the belief that false accusations are rampant; the questionable nature of ‘parental alienation syndrome’, the belief that young children's accounts of abuse lack credibility, and the ignoring of the effect of abuse itself on the nature of a child's testimony. The paper argues that the principle of ‘protection of the child's best interests’ should not necessarily be equated with the child having access, even supervised access, with a parent previously accused of having abused the child.     

Shift Work,Role Overload,and the Transition to Parenthood

This article examines how the work hours, work schedules, and role overload of working‐class couples are related to depressive symptoms and relationship conflict across the transition to parenthood. Data are from 132 dual‐earner couples interviewed 5 times across the transition. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that working evening or night shifts, as opposed to day shifts, was related to higher levels of depressive symptoms. For mothers only, working rotating shifts predicted relationship conflict. Increases in role overload were positively related to both depression and conflict; working a nonday shift explained variance in depression and conflict above and beyond role overload. Results suggest that for new parents, working nonday shifts may be a risk factor for depressive symptoms and relationship conflict.     

Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/Culture’

Responding to the September 2011 special issue on ‘Rethinking Convergence Culture’, this essay seeks to identify ways that the author's thinking about convergence and participatory culture have shifted over time, often in ways that are closely aligned with the issue's contributors. Throughout the essay, the author addresses the links between cultural and political participation, the challenges in using new media in support of democratic change, the ways that institutional power structures continue to exert strong influence on our culture despite or perhaps because of significant expansion of who has access to the means of cultural production and distribution and the challenges and opportunities for doing cultural theory in an era of neo-liberal capitalism.     

A Lesbian Older Adult Managing Identity Disclosure: A Case Study

The aim of this study was to explore the experience of an older lesbian in managing the disclosure of her sexual identity. Specifically, the team wanted to better understand the ways she managed her identity in an assisted living facility. Using a qualitative case study methodology, 2 in-depth interviews were conducted. The following 5 themes were identified in the data: keeping her own counsel, maintaining “family” connection, celebrating second chances, living outside the L box, and staying morally centered. Practice and research implications are offered and the case study is used to expand understanding of disclosure management and resiliency theory.