Reshaping boundaries: Family politics and GLBTQ resistance in urban Vietnam

Although Vietnamese society is currently undergoing significant changes with regards to the rights and perceptions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) people, dominant socio-cultural norms related to gender, sexuality, and the importance of the patrilineal family regime continue to cast a shadow over the lives of GLBTQ in contemporary Vietnam. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the urban centers of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as legal documents and secondary sources, this article illustrates how dominant heteronormative socio-cultural norms have contributed to the political, legal, and social exclusion of same-sex sexualities through a process of outlawing, whereby GLBTQ have been systematically excluded from the rights of law. Drawing on qualitative interviews with gay men and lesbian women between the ages of 20 and 50, the article also highlights how this relation of domination has allowed for instances of GLBTQ resistance, through subversive opposition, strategies of avoidance, and the seeking out of new opportunities in urban spaces outside the dominant sociality. The article thus provides a qualitatively nuanced account of family politics and GLBTQ resistance in urban Vietnam at a significant socio-political historical juncture.     

Adult women and ADHD: On the temporal dimensions of ADHD identities

This paper uses conceptual resources drawn from psychosocial process thinking (Brown & Reavey, 2015; Brown & Stenner, 2009; Stenner, 2017) and from G.H. Mead in particular, to contribute to an emerging body of work on the experiences of adult women with ADHD (Horton‐Salway & Davies, 2018; Quinn & Madhoo, 2014; Singh, 2002; Waite & Ivey, 2009). It has a particular focus on how ADHD features in the construction of women's identities and life‐stories and it draws upon findings from a qualitative investigation of adult women diagnosed or self‐diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A theoretically informed ‘thematic decomposition’ of 16 depth interviews reveals how complex processes of identity transformation are mediated by the social category of ADHD. Through this process, troubled pasts are reconstructed from the perspective of an ‘emergent’ identity that offers participants the potential for a more enabling and positive future.     

The emerging role of Financial Counsellors in supporting Older Persons in financial hardship and with management of Consumer‐directed Care packages within Australia

The role of financial counsellors as providers of information, support and advocacy for those in financial difficulty is a well established mechanism in the mainstream welfare landscape in Australia. In general, the role of financial counsellors is in helping people alleviate or resolve their financial difficulties through improvement of their financial literacy. It is recognised as an important component of policy responses to assist low‐income households and individuals in financial stress. The use of financial counsellors for older persons (i.e., those aged 65+ years), however, appears to be underutilised. Financial hardship and abuse of older persons within our community are becoming key issues as the population of Australia “ages”. Existing evidence also suggests that service providers alone do not have adequate skills to address these issues. This paper firstly examines the development of financial counselling in Australia. It then examines the newly emerging role of financial counselling in supporting older persons in addressing barriers to financial literacy and then in navigating the complex landscape of aged care service provision. The current financialisation, marketisation and complexities of consumer‐directed care are identified as key contextual factors. The paper will then discuss an evaluation study of the provision of financial counselling to the older person population designed to support financial hardship and navigation of the complex aged care services system. The findings of the paper are based on an evaluation of the Financial Consumer Rights Council (FCRC), Victoria: Dignity and Debt Financial Difficulty and Getting Older initiative. This pilot initiative included older persons from both community‐based and aged care residential facilities in one regional area of Victoria. The initiative, conducted over 2016, was designed to assess the effectiveness of one‐on‐one financial counselling sessions with older persons that provided consumer advocacy and information about support services and entitlements (including hardship protections) associated with ageing. The evaluation found that the provision of financial counselling to the older person population could be a key mechanism in improving overall financial literacy, avoiding periods of financial hardship and in maintaining financial well‐being, quality of life and positive ageing. Findings also demonstrated a need for an expanded outreach financial counselling model to better service older persons in more isolated living environments and/or with mobility impairments living in the community, and the potential to situate offices of financial counsellors within medical centres (a space often visited by the ageing population), to co‐situate financial health check‐ups as an overall element of health and well‐being. As such, financial counselling was viewed as well placed to support older persons in improvement of financial literacy and in supporting navigation of the increasingly complex marketised and consumer‐directed care (CDC) landscape of aged care service provision in Australia.     

Subnational FDI Legitimacy and Foreign Subsidiary Survival

We examine how organizational ecology and the strategic choice perspective can be combined to provide more contextualized insights into how multinational corporations (MNCs) can better counter environmental pressures with evolving subnational FDI legitimacy and improve the survival likelihood of their subsidiaries. We consider three organizational identity-based strategic choices, i.e., country-of-origin (COO) agglomeration, expatriate staffing level and subsidiary ownership level. We hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between FDI legitimacy and subsidiary mortality, and that this relationship will be moderated by the level of COO agglomeration at a subnational level. We also hypothesize that with improving FDI legitimacy, the use of higher levels of expatriates and ownership will jeopardize the survival of larger subsidiaries. A longitudinal dataset (2001–2016) for 3025 subsidiaries formed by 1147 Japanese MNCs in China was used in hypothesis testing. Results largely supported our hypotheses. We discuss how an identity-centered approach can contribute to theory and practice.     

Quantifying the costs of drought: new evidence from life satisfaction data

We estimate the cost of droughts by matching rainfall data with individual life satisfaction. Our context is Australia over the period 2001 to 2004, which included a particularly severe drought. Using fixed-effect models, we find that a drought in spring has a detrimental effect on life satisfaction equivalent to an annual reduction in income of A$18,000. This effect, however, is only found for individuals living in rural areas. Using our estimates, we calculate that the predicted doubling of the frequency of spring droughts will lead to the equivalent loss in life satisfaction of just over 1% of GDP annually.

Challenges facing U.S. government and Department of Defense efforts in strategic communication

Without entering the debate about exactly what strategic communication is or should be, this article enumerates challenges facing efforts to inform, influence, and persuade in pursuit of national policy objectives first for the U.S. government in general, and then specific to the Department of Defense. With the problem space thus defined, the article then offers a handful of solutions and suggestions, including requiring desired information endstates as part of commander's intent and separating efforts to manipulate and deceive from truthful efforts to inform, influence, and persuade.     

Portuguese translation and validation of the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale

The absence of a translated and validated instrument for measuring marital satisfaction in Brazil, the largest country in South America and fifth most populous country in the world, is a significant barrier for research and mental health service delivery. The purpose of this study was to translate and validate a marital satisfaction scale into Portuguese that would have both empirical credibility and cultural relevance in Brazil. A six-step serial approach was used to simultaneously translate and culturally validate the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS). The translated instrument (RDAS-P) demonstrated good psychometric properties during field testing.     

Private woodland owners’ perspectives on multifunctionality in English woodlands

Increasing emphasis is being placed in forest policies to deliver public goods such as biodiversity, recreation, landscape and carbon sequestration, alongside timber production. In light of this, it is important to understand how woodland owners themselves perceive their role in delivering these multiple benefits. With up to 80% of woodland in some areas in England in private ownership, and with an increasing number of owners with non-financial objectives for their woodland, the private sector may offer opportunities for delivering public goods. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of private woodland owners to multifunctional woodland management in three study areas in England: Cornwall, the Lake District and the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Q Methodology was used to identify four perspectives of woodland ownership and management, which can be described as: the Hobby Conservationist; the Individualist; the Custodian and the Multifunctional Owner. The implications of the findings for forest policy are discussed.