Sluts that Choose Vs Doormat Gypsies

The UK primetime series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (Channel 4, 2010, 2011, 2012) offered audiences the opportunity to be armchair matrimonial ethnographers, to reveal the courtship curiosities of “one of the most secretive communities in the UK.” In spite of claims to social realist documentary, however, we argue that this programme has clearer resonances with “sexposé” reality television, producing and circulating a moral, visual economy premised upon the cultural figuration of “the gypsy bride.” The gypsy girl and gypsy bride are marked as victims of male gypsy oppression, of “backwards” and repressive cultural practices, of age-inappropriate sexualisation and “excessive” consumerism, and is thus defined by her failure to be a good aspirational postfeminist subject. In this paper, we explore the intersecting discourses around gender, sexuality, class, and race operative within Gypsy Wedding and analyse online forums responding to the programme. We use psychosocial methodologies and theories of affect to argue that the gypsy bride becomes a figure of abjection, desired and despised, and that the (readily accepted) invitation to be appalled by her “oppression” reveals the strategic potency of postfeminist notions of empowerment and the racist, sexist, and classist agendas it can serve.     

Developing Culturally Responsive Supervision Through Yarn Up Time and the CASE Supervision Model

ABSTRACT

This article explores a culturally focused supervision training program supporting Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal supervisors to provide cross-cultural supervision for Aboriginal staff within mainstream and Aboriginal community and human service organisations. The key features of the training program, Yarn Up Time and the CASE supervision model are a culturally respectful approach to cross-cultural professional supervision practice with the purpose of contributing to the development of culturally responsive supervision with Aboriginal staff and their clients. The article concludes with feedback from participants who attended the training and supports the future advancement of cross-cultural supervision practice and models in Australia.

IMPLICATIONS

• There continues to be a need for more culturally responsive supervision for Aboriginal staff and for non-Aboriginal social work practice with Aboriginal people.

• Yarn Up Time and the CASE model is a culturally appropriate approach for supervising Aboriginal staff and non-Aboriginal social workers’ supervision of social workers’ practice with Aboriginal communities.

• Social work supervisors need to be able to use an effective cultural supervision model to support Aboriginal staff in Yarn Up Time.

     

The Retention of Newcomers in Second‐ and Third‐ Tier Canadian Cities1

The federal government of Canada and several provincial governments are anxious to promote a more balanced distribution of immigrants across the country. Currently, 89 percent of all newcomers settle in large cities, 75 percent in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal alone. This study examines the internal migration of refugees destined to second‐and third‐tier cities in Alberta. Their decisions to stay in or leave these communities have significant policy implications. The economic vitality of urban centers, the existence of compatriot communities, and the recognition of immigrant skills and educational credentials all contribute to the retention of newcomers in second‐ and third‐tier cities.     

Trends and transitions from secondary school: insights from a boarding school for disadvantaged New Zealand youth

Engagement in further education, employment or training following the completion of compulsory schooling is an important predictor of adult life adjustment. As a key microsystemic context, supportive school environments can facilitate positive transitions, especially for disadvantaged youth who are at higher risk of underachievement and not engaging in further education, employment or training (NEET) in emerging adulthood. The present research consists of quantitative and qualitative analyses of secondary data of three student cohorts from a New Zealand boarding secondary school for males from disadvantaged backgrounds to investigate positive transition outcomes and experiences. The quantitative study (N = 178) compared participants’ educational attainment and NEET status across cohorts and with national statistics. Results showed that participants’ achievement and transition outcomes were consistently superior to the national comparison. The qualitative study (N = 38) examined the subjective experiences of a subsample of participants who transitioned to tertiary study and apprenticeship courses. These findings highlight the importance of cultivating students’ holistic development during the secondary school years. Implications for secondary schools are discussed.     

Grandfriends,an Intergenerational Program for Nursing-Home Residents and Preschoolers: A Randomized Trial

Intergenerational programs may improve meaningful engagement for people with dementia and for attitudes toward older people in youth. Grandfriends, a 12-week program increased passive engagement and enjoyment among nursing home residents when interacting with preschoolers (n = 21) in comparison to usual activities. Grandfriends participants (n = 20) did not show changes on quality of life, agitation, or sense of community in comparison to residents (n = 20) randomized to usual care. Suggestions for future programs are given.     

A longitudinal study exploring the relationships between occupational stressors, non-work stressors, and work performance

There is a lack of intricate research into the relationships between work performance and other variables. This study examined the causal relationship between work, non-work stressors, and work performance. Using longitudinal multi-group data from three groups—university staff, trainee nurses, and part-time employees (overall N=244)—structural equation modelling was employed to explore one-way and reverse competing models. The results produced a good fitting model with one-way causal paths from work-related and non-work stressors (time 1) to job performance (time 2). Nested model comparison analysis provided further evidence to support this best fitting model, emphasizing the strong influence that non-work factors have within the workplace. This study has important implications for theory, methodology and statistical analysis, and practice in the field of work-related stressors and performance.     

Great Expectations?: The Dubious Financial Legacy of Quality Audits

In recent years there appears to have been a veritable boom in the provision of ‘quality audits’– that is, audits of organizations' production processes and management systems. Despite the rising significance of this international audit movement affecting hundreds of thousands of organizations world‐wide, there has been limited interest in, or critique of, the practice of quality audit by academic auditing researchers. This paper traces the history of quality assurance standards and auditing and finds that quality auditing is not simply an outgrowth of an engineering inspection function. Rather, for several decades, quality auditors have consciously modelled their practice on that of the statutory financial audit, which in turn, exposes them to similar issues with regard to the long standing ‘expectations gap’ debate. Yet, despite what the authors argue are critical links with the financial audit, there has not been any notable involvement on the part of the accounting profession with quality auditing. The growing demand for ‘added‐value’ audits poses considerable questions for the future development and organizational significance of quality auditing. Current developments in both quality and financial audit services suggest that these two influential audit movements are now competing against each other to promote business excellence and contribute to business strategy.     

Researching the gender division of unpaid domestic work: practices,relationships, negotiations,and meanings

The paper focuses on the potential of quantitative research methods for sociologists who research the gender division of unpaid domestic work. To begin, it reflects on the emergence of the sociological interest in unpaid domestic work and identifies an early core concern with making invisible work visible. It is argued that quantitative research methods provide us with the most valuable opportunities for ‘recognising’ unpaid domestic work since they facilitate larger scale representative projects. However the data in most of the large scale surveys are scant, and fail to reflect developments in the conceptualisation of unpaid domestic work. Four areas of concern to contemporary sociology are identified: domestic work practices, relationships, negotiations and meanings. Given the complex questions that these four sub‐topics raise, the paper proposes a range of sub‐areas as a focus for ongoing sociological research into unpaid domestic work. It is concluded that, despite the methodological challenges presented, detailed indicators of the multiple dimensions of unpaid domestic work need to be agreed so that valid information can be collected in large scale surveys as routinely as it is on paid work.     

UN genocide commemoration,transnational scenes of mourning and the global project of learning from atrocity

This paper offers a critical analytic reconstruction of some of the main symbolic properties of annual UN Holocaust and Rwandan genocide commemorations since 2005. Applying a discourse‐historical approach (Wodak and Meyer 2010), it retraces how themes of guilt, responsibility, evil and redemption are woven together across annual commemorative performances in the hope of stabilizing shared patterns of cultural translation of the significance of these atrocities to globally dispersed communities. UN commemorative discourse characteristically links memories of Holocaust and Rwandan trauma in a ‘chain of communication’ with those of other episodes of brutality (e.g., Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur) chiefly to convey the continuity of human barbarity across time and endorse certain presuppositions regarding the fate of a fallen humanity in this more ‘post‐secular’ age. As scenes of mourning, UN commemorations unite participating international delegations in their expressions of grief for the victims of ‘preventable tragedies’ in the past but also, it must be said, their uncertainty regarding new horrors likely to occur in the future. The duty to remember is reiterated continuously as both a mark of respect to those who have already perished and as a warning of atrocities yet to unfold. This paper explores how the historical constancy of violence is interpreted by the UN through a detailed critical analysis of its recently inaugurated ‘remembrance through education’ programme aimed at a transnational collective learning from atrocity.