Conceptualising Listening to Young Children as an Ethic of Care in Early Childhood Education and Care

This paper focuses on recent discourses and practices of listening to young children, in order to highlight listening as an ethical practice in early childhood education and care settings. The paper asks how discourses of listening should be viewed in theoretical terms and explores the work of a diverse range of authors who define autonomy and rights issues as relational. Central to the paper is a consideration of feminist critique of Foucault’s ethics of care argument. To contextualise this, the paper discusses examples of recent research in the field of listening to young children and highlights issues facing the status of the early years workforce. In summary, the paper contends that an ethical view of listening can bring adults and children together in democratic care practices which challenge conceptions of childhood and reconnect ideas of care and education.     

The Relationship between Female Sexual Arousal and Response Bias in Women with and without Provoked Vestibulodynia

Smaller correlations have typically been found between genital and subjective sexual arousal in female versus male samples. This study evaluated the association between response bias and the relationship between genital and subjective arousal (i.e., concordance) in women with (n = 20) and without (n = 21) provoked vestibulodynia. Participants (M = 21.27 years, SD = 2.27) underwent blood flow imaging via a laser Doppler imager to assess genital responsiveness to a visual erotic stimulus; subjective arousal was assessed during and following the film. The relationships between three types of subjective arousal ratings (perceived sexual arousal, perceived genital responsiveness, and reported desire to engage in sexual activity) and two forms of socially desirable responding (impression management and self-deceptive enhancement) were examined. Concordance estimates were statistically non-significant in both groups, with the exception of the desire to engage in sexual activity, which was moderately correlated with genital arousal in the control group. Impression management was not a statistically significant moderator of the relationship between genital and subjective arousal, but was moderately negatively related to the three forms of subjective arousal ratings in the provoked vestibulodynia group. The results highlight the importance of assessing response bias in laboratory studies comparing women with and without sexual dysfunction.     

Book reviews

The Anthropology of Europe: Identity and Boundaries in Conflict. Victoria A. Goddard, Josep R. Llobera and Cris Shore, eds. Oxford: Berg Publishers Ltd, 1994. 310 pp. $45.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper).

Inside European Identities: Ethnography in Western Europe. Sharon MacDonald, ed., Oxford: Berg Publishers Ltd, 1993. 247pp. $ 49.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper).     

Assisting women to make informed choices about screening for Group B Streptococcus in pregnancy: A critical review of the evidence

The approach to the prevention of early onset GBS disease in the newborn varies considerably from country to country. The Centre for Disease Control in the United States advocates universal culture based screening with the administration of intra-partum antibiotics, usually benzylpenicillin or ampicillin, to women who are colonised with GBS. National groups in the UK and New Zealand advocate a risk-based approach where intra-partum antibiotics are given to women with identified risk factors. The Canadian Taskforce on preventive health care has identified a third approach; where intra-partum antibiotics are given to women with a positive GBS culture and an identified risk factor. There are no national guidelines or consensus in Australia.The aim of this paper is to explore the evidence for screening and intrapartum prophylaxis for GBS. The three main methods of detection and management of GBS in pregnancy are described and the implications for women and midwifery practice are addressed. It is hoped that this discussion will provide women, midwives and other clinicians with a summary of the evidence, risks and benefits to enable informed decision making.     

Space,place and the midwife: Exploring the relationship between the birth environment,neurobiology and midwifery practice

BackgroundResearch indicates that midwives and their practice are influenced by space and place and that midwives practice differently in different places. It is possible that one mechanism through which space and place influence midwifery practice is via neurobiological responses such as the production and release of oxytocin, which can be triggered by experiences and perceptions of the physical environment.AimTo articulate the significance of space and place to midwifery and explore the relationship between the birth environment, neurobiology and midwifery practice.DiscussionQuality midwifery care requires the facilitation of trusting social relationships and the provision of emotionally sensitive care to childbearing women. The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a critical role in human social and emotional behaviour by increasing trust, reducing stress and heightening empathy, reciprocity and generosity.Principle conclusionThrough its role as a trigger for oxytocin release, the birth environment may play a direct role in the provision of quality midwifery care.     

The regulatory environment for migrant and women entrepreneurs

This study explores the impact of the underlying assumptions in the regulatory environments of two national contexts, Turkey and the Netherlands, on the entrepreneurship of Turkish women. It uses discourses on gender, ethnicity and entrepreneurship. The results indicate that these regulatory environments are immersed with male gendering ideology and give a secondary position to women and migrant entrepreneurs. Accordingly, women and migrant entrepreneurs are confined by the support provided to them by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Turkish women entrepreneurs are restricted in networking; access to institutions; and funding by the programmes, initiatives or regulations that their enterprises receive support from. This study contributes to existing literature on migrant and women entrepreneurship by discursively analysing underlying assumptions regarding these groups in two different national contexts.