When the time is right: phenology and flowerings

In spring days lengthen, weather warms, flowers open, bees feast on nectar and pollinate. But flowers are opening too early; dependencies are breaking down. Sandra Bell looks at phenology, once the eccentric hobby of Victorian clergymen, now an essential indicator of climate change.     

Sexual agency,risk and vulnerability: a scoping review of young Indigenous Australians’ sexual health

This review of qualitative research examining young Indigenous Australians’ sexual health highlights the profoundly social nature of young people’s sexual lives. Nineteen peer reviewed published papers were identified for inclusion. Findings reveal efforts made by some young Indigenous Australians to control their sexual lives, mitigate risk and maintain their sexual health. The review identified factors which are conducive to sexual health risks and vulnerability, including incomplete knowledge about STIs and safer sexual practices; gossip and ridicule concerning sexual activity and its consequences; damaging expectations about male prerogatives with respect to sexual relationships; limited inter-generational communication about sexual health issues; inadequate school-based sexual health education; and tensions between Indigenous and biomedical explanations of sexual health issues. Future research priorities include a focus on young Indigenous people in cities and towns across Australia, and in regional and remote settings in New South Wales and Victoria; understanding how Indigenous cultural values support young people’s sexual health; young men’s sexual and service-based practices; and the experiences of same-sex attracted and gender diverse youth. This research would inform the design and delivery of culturally safe and acceptable sexual health services and programmes, underpinned by an understanding of factors in young Indigenous Australians’ everyday sexual lives.     

‘Thence to Patty Cannon’s’: gender,family, and the reverse Underground Railroad

The abduction of free African-Americans from cities like Philadelphia and the wholly illegal traffic of such people into the Deep South to be sold as slaves provided exceptional opportunities for women to participate directly in the American interstate slave trade as kidnappers, warehouse managers, and coffle co-captains. The activities of the Cannon-Johnson ring, active in the 1820s, demonstrate how Delaware’s Patty Cannon and other female traffickers leveraged familial relations with male conductors and station agents on this reverse Underground Railroad in order to secure their own passage through an otherwise treacherous and decidedly homo-social world.     

A comparison of multi‐disciplinary groups in the UK and New Jersey

During the past 30 years in both the United Kingdom and the United States there has been an increasing emphasis on the need for the agencies, disciplines and professions who are involved in investigating child abuse allegations and in protecting children from abuse to work together, to cooperate with each other and to coordinate their responses. (See Besharov, 1990; British Paediatric Association, 1966; Kempe and Helfer, 1972; London Borough of Brent, 1985; London Borough of Greenwich, 1987). One way of achieving this has been through the use of multi‐disciplinary groups. This paper will describe the initial findings from a study which aimed to examine and compare the working of two such groups, namely, case conferences in the UK and multi‐disciplinary teams in one state in the United States, New Jersey. The findings from the study show that while there are some similarities between the two types of multi‐disciplinary groups, there are also significant differences in functions, membership, structure of meetings and chairing. However, the major difference that emerges is the more prominent role of representatives from the legal system in New Jersey's multi‐disciplinary teams compared with UK case conferences. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘I Was Attracted to Him Because of His Money’: Changing Forms of Polygyny in Contemporary Papua New Guinea

Substantial economic transition in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is giving rise to increased wealth, rapid social change and changing cultural practices. Polygyny practices in PNG have come under increasing domestic attention in recent years, especially as pertains to reinforcing patriarchy and exacerbating gender inequality. Based on qualitative research with women, we identify a new ‘emerging polygyny’ that is located in women’s and girls’ choices, decisions, experiences and actions, and which contrasts with other research documenting polygyny from men’s perspectives. Narratives from female participants described young women and girls who actively seek polygynous relationships with men who have disposable income and other assets, with the aim of gaining access to economic wealth as co-wives. In the context of public and legal debate about the status of polygyny in PNG, these findings illustrate the need for a more balanced discussion about polygynous relationships, located within an understanding of women’s lived experiences.     

The creative countryside: Policy and practice in the UK rural cultural economy

This paper explores emerging policymaking and research into rural creative industries, drawing on a case study from the county of Shropshire in the UK. It begins with a critique of existing creative industries policy, which is argued to focus almost exclusively on the urban as the site of creative work. The paper highlights an emerging body of critique of this neglect of the rural in cultural policy, which is matched by a neglect of the cultural in rural policy. Attention then turns to an investigation of the size, scope and characteristics of the creative sector in Shropshire, with findings based on a consultancy report commissioned by public sector actors keen to highlight and promote the county's creative work. This material is used to illustrate some of the distinctive issues facing the UK rural creative sector, which current policy is ill-equipped to address. The paper ends by reflecting these findings back to the broader academic and policy contexts.     

Multiple Views of the Family and Adolescent Social Competencies

This research examined the linkages between congruence in perceptions of family functioning and adolescent competencies with a sample of 223 first‐year college students, their mothers, and their fathers. The primary goal was to explore further the nature and importance of perceptual congruence as related to adolescent social competencies with a more informative analytic strategy than has been used in most past research (one that controls for individual perceptions of family members and takes into account direction of differences among family members), and with more comprehensive, multimethod assessments of adolescent competencies. Our congruence analyses portrayed a more complex picture of congruence and divergence than has emerged from previous studies, and highlight the importance of examining interaction patterns in future research. It is noteworthy, however, that individual perceptions of family members were more important than was congruence in relation to adolescent social competencies. The possibility that congruence effects may be more apparent when the focus is on more specific rather than global measures and on developmental as well as family interaction processes is suggested.