Things are not what they seem: Modisane’s recently discovered short story

The unusual form and style of Modisane’s hitherto unpublished short story ‘All Sons of Gaika’ presents the reader with various challenges. It differs in tone and style from his previously published work, and its rather contrived dialogue and somewhat obscure plot are puzzling. Is this some kind of satire, and, if so, what is the target? Thematically, the story seems (at face value) to be another examination of the tensions between tradtion and modernity, and focuses in particular on the issue of lobola (‘bride‐price’). The young couple at the centre of the story are at pains to distance themselves from traditional pieties. To complicate matters, a secret resistance movement is seeking recruits in the area, and our protagonist, Jason, is somehow implicated. Two security policemen are the pantomime villains of the piece, as they seek to either coopt or frame Jason. The hybrid figure of a diviner conducts a cleansing ceremony, and this is the occasion for an excursion into postcolonial metacommentary, drawing on the Prospero‐Caliban topos. The story concludes with a wedding, and comes to an enigmatic conclusion. Is this is a sustained exercise in irony or mockery? How much (or how little) does it revel of the author, writing from exile in London?     

Innovating adult social work practice—learning from the Named Social Worker for adults with learning disabilities pilots

In 2016, following the publication of the vision for adult social work in England, the Chief Social Worker for Adults at the Department of Health in England announced the intention to pilot a new social work role—that being a Named Social Worker supporting people with learning disabilities. Phase 1 of the pilot has tested a reframing of the social work role as a relational practitioner with an expertise in human rights, freed from transacting the management of care. Phase 2 is now underway testing key knowledge and skills requirements for post-qualifying practice in the field of social work supporting adults with learning disabilities. Heuristic approaches are capturing outcomes from generative learning processes throughout the pilot. The insight emerging from this national pilot is that at its heart, named social work is about qualifying and on-going post-qualifying social work education which promotes and maintains practitioner reflexivity and connection to their social work values. We are finding that self-advocates may be a critical influencing factor, positively affecting the sources of resistance through making explicit the connection between social work values and lived experience of practice from the people social workers are there to serve.     

Social connectedness and life satisfaction: Comparing mean levels for 2 undergraduate samples and testing for improvement based on brief counseling

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Comparing the mean levels of social connectedness and life satisfaction, and analyzing their relationship for 2 undergraduate samples, and testing for an increase in their means for a brief counseling sample. Participants: Between October 2013 and May 2015, 3 samples were collected: not-in-counseling (NIC; n = 941), initial counseling session (ICS; ie, triage session only; n = 168), and brief counseling (BC; ie, median of 4 additional counseling sessions; n = 28). Methods: Online surveys measuring demographic and background control variables, social connectedness, and life satisfaction. Results: NIC students exhibited higher social connectedness and life satisfaction than ICS students. Social connectedness significantly explained life satisfaction beyond controlled-for variables for both samples. There was a significant increase in social connectedness and life satisfaction for the BC sample. Conclusions: Social connectedness is an important antecedent of life satisfaction for undergraduates. Brief counseling can increase transition students' social connectedness and life satisfaction.     

Deconstruction of National Identity in the Third Reich: Nazisprache und Geopolitik

Under the Third Reich, concepts of Geopolitik and Lebensraum were redefined. The Nazi Party developed Nazisprache, a coded, convoluted vocabulary used to describe, delimit and eventually destroy undesirable populations (primarily Jews, Gypsies, mentally ill, disabled, etc.). By corrupting conventional German meaning, Nazi officials legally extended borders of Nazi-controlled territories while successfully suppressing knowledge of their cruelty. As Nazi communications grew more circumspect, ‘euphemism’ increased; national and personal boundaries were linguistically renamed and politically re-conceptualised, potentiating the thorough dissolution of nation, person and ethnic entity.

‘A yielding to the form prepares for assent to the matter identified with it.’ (Kenneth Burke)     

The analysis of sex segregation: When is index measurement not index measurement

In their paper in this issue. Grusky and Charles (1998) make a number of dubious claims about the measurement and interpretation of sex segregation. First, they incorrectly claim that only log-odds measures yield margin-free measures of segregation. Second. the estimation and testing of a limited class of log-linear models does not provide an independent test of the appropriateness of a log-odds ratio index to measure segregation. Their estimation informs them of the statistically justifiable degree of occupational disaggregation, not whether a log-odds ratio is superior to, say, a linear index in the measurement of segregation. Finally, their index A is beset with problems of interpretation. not withstanding their arguments. and their additional measures, A_w and A_B, suffer similar problems. Grusky and Charles are. however, correct in arguing that measurement procedures should be margin-free. Further, I concur with the view that the adoption of a single annual summary measure of segregation cannot be justified. because it is premised on the assumption that individual occupations, or groups of occupations. exhibit similar trends in sex segregation.     

STOP‐GO MONETARY POLICY

We propose and estimate several discrete choice models of monetary policy decision‐making that feature time‐varying inertia. The models permit us to account for three stylized facts characterizing monetary policymaking in the United States: (1) target interest rates are gradually adjusted in small discrete movements, (2) there are some long stretches of time in which rates are repeatedly moved, and (3) there are other long stretches in which the policy rate does not change. The models are used to account for delayed monetary policy responses to the recession of 2001 and to the housing‐driven expansion of 2003–2006. (JEL E52, E58, E65)     

Basil Bernstein: Theory,models and the question of method

The purpose of this article is to address the interpretive synthesis of qualitative research. The article discusses the potential to develop a ‘meta-interpretation’ approach which attempts to maintain an interpretive epistemology congruent with the majority of primary qualitative research. The article identifies and discusses a range of issues in the synthesis of interpretive qualitative research (objectivity, evaluation of studies, sampling, context, interpretation and integrity) that emerge from a review of nine research methods involving synthesis and a broader review of the research synthesis literature. Seven fundamental features of meta-interpretation are outlined and the meta-interpretation procedure is presented. In conclu-sion, the aims of synthesis procedures in general and meta-interpretation in particular are discussed.     

Rapidly diffusing innovation: whether the history of the Internet points the way for hydrogen energy

This paper identifies conditions for the rapid diffusion of what may be part of the solution for global sustainable energy – hydrogen – by drawing a comparison with the contemporary history of the Internet. The Cold War drove the take-off of the Internet and state regulation ensured that the market on which its rapid diffusion came to depend was not controlled by corporations. To take-off and start to diffuse, hydrogen energy could similarly have to be considered a “public good”. However, the comparison with the Internet reveals differences too. The Internet diffused rapidly among the public at low cost to individual users, starting in the mid 1980s and kicking off in the 1990s. To achieve affordable hydrogen transport in the long term, many drivers might have to forgo cars for public transport. Moreover, global sustainable energy demands cooperation between nations rather than the conflict that spurred the Internet.