Context collapse: theorizing context collusions and collisions

The collapsing of social contexts together has emerged as an important topic with the rise of social media that so often blurs the public and private, professional and personal, and the many different selves and situations in which individuals find themselves. Academic literature is starting to address how the meshing of social contexts online has many potentially beneficial as well as problematic consequences. In an effort to further theorize context collapse, we draw on this literature to consider the conditions under which context collapse occurs, offering key conceptual tools with which to address these conditions. Specifically, we distinguish two different types of context collapse, splitting collapse into context collusions and context collisions. The former is an intentional collapsing of contexts, while the latter is unintentional. We further examine the ways in which both technological architectures and agentic user practices combine to facilitate and mitigate the various effects of collapsing contexts.     

Disabled children,child protection systems and the Children Act 1989

It is now widely recognized that disabled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse but that a number of factors get in the way of protecting them. This article discusses research on the implementation of the Children Act as it applies to disabled children and the findings from in‐depth interviews with young disabled people. The research concluded that: current child protection systems are not addressing the particular needs of disabled children; the Children Act regulations on short‐term and long‐term placements are often not complied with; and disabled children and young people have little say in decisions which affect them and few opportunities to communicate their experiences. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The emotional and professional wellbeing of Australian midwives: A comparison between those providing continuity of midwifery care and those not providing continuity

Background

Continuity of midwifery care contributes to significant positive outcomes for women and babies. There is a perception that providing continuity of care may negatively impact on the wellbeing and professional lives of midwives.

Evaluating the effects of canine urine on urban soil microbial communities

Due to extensive areas of impermeable surfaces, combined sewer overflow (CSO) is currently a major problem in urban areas across the United States. In CSO systems, sewage can travel through underground pipes to be decontaminated in treatment facilities, or it can combine with stormwater after a precipitation event and discharge into local waterways. Many cities are implementing green infrastructure installations, which use vegetation and bioactive soil microbial communities to enhance soil water-holding capacity, thereby minimizing CSO events. Understanding the factors that structure soil microbial communities in green infrastructure will facilitate more effective management of these engineered ecosystems; however, few studies to date have evaluated ecological patterns and processes of microbes in the urban environment. Nitrogen loading is known to be a major factor structuring fungi and bacteria in non-urban soils, and since cities also contain large populations of canines, N-rich urine deposition is a potential factor that could be important for structuring soil microbes in ground-level green infrastructure installations. Our study investigated the effects of canine urine on the urban soil microbial communities in a greenhouse experiment by treating Liriope muscari, a common plant found in New York City green infrastructure, with different concentrations of canine urine for 4 weeks in an experimental setting. We found that urine application significantly decreased total soil microbial biomass and microbial richness, and increased water runoff volume. These findings indicate that canine urine may have negative consequences for soil water-holding capacity and nutrient cycling in urban green infrastructure installations by directly decreasing the abundance and richness of soil microbial communities.

     

Birth Territory: a theory for midwifery practice

The theory of Birth Territory describes, explains and predicts the relationships between the environment of the individual birth room, issues of power and control, and the way the woman experiences labour physiologically and emotionally. The theory was synthesised inductively from empirical data generated by the authors in their roles as midwives and researchers. It takes a critical post-structural feminist perspective and expands on some of the ideas of Michel Foucault. Theory synthesis was also informed by current research about the embodied self and the authors' scholarship in the fields of midwifery, human biology, sociology and psychology. In order to demonstrate the significance of the theory, it is applied to two clinical stories that both occur in hospital but are otherwise different. This analysis supports the central proposition that when midwives use 'midwifery guardianship' to create and maintain the ideal Birth Territory then the woman is most likely to give birth naturally, be satisfied with the experience and adapt with ease in the post-birth period. These benefits together with the reduction in medical interventions also benefit the baby. In addition, a positive Birth Territory is posited to have a broader impact on the woman's partner, family and society in general.     

Media Representations of Sexual Abuse Risks

What are the risks associated with child sexual abuse? Who is at risk? From whom? For professionals working in the field of child abuse, the main answers to such questions are straightforward. There is a broad consensus that children are at risk from adults (and young people), often from men (and sometimes women) that they know. Fathers, step-fathers, uncles and brothers are often implicated. This is not, however, the focus of news coverage. Abductions, paedophile rings and abuse in children's homes attract intermittent but occasionally intense media attention. In contrast, sexual abuse of children within their own families is rarely front page news—except, that is, where the accusations are contested. Almost as soon as the existence of widespread abuse within ‘ordinary’ homes became public knowledge, this was over-shadowed by a series of high-profiled ‘scandals’, such as Cleveland, Rochdale and Orkney. The focus turned to questions of misdiagnosis, inappropriate intervention and the supposed coaching of children to make false accusations. More recently ‘false memory syndrome’ has hit the headlines suggesting that some adults' accounts of abuse can also be discredited. The news coverage often gives the impression that the main risks are not tochildren, but to parents, particularly fathers. How has this come to be the focus of public debate? Why is it that these risks have proved so much more ‘newsworthy’? This paper examines the media profile of the risks associated with sexual abuse and draws on interviews with journalists to seek to explain the shape of the coverage.