A Comparison of South-East Asian and Australian First-Year Students' Views on University

A questionnaire study was carried out with Asian and Australian university entrants in order to ascertain their differential attitudes as to the purposes of an ideal university, and their expectations as to the milieu of an actual university. The implications of the significant culturally based differences between the two groups are discussed in terms of relative value systems, culture-shock effects, and the ramifications for both academic policy and inter-racial relations.     

What are Nice Feminists Like You Doing on the O. J. Defense Team? Personal Ruminations on the "Trial of the Century"

This paper is the subjective, anecdotal, and introspective account of the experience of two feminist psychologists who served as defense consultants in the O. J. Simpson murder trial. The authors explore the personal and professional implications of involvement in a high-profile case. They detail special problems forensic psychologists may encounter in high-profile cases and make recommendations for meeting the challenges such cases present.     

Time demands on families: Is there a bottom line?

As families continue to adapt to interpersonal and marketplace pressures, time available for household production is becoming scarce. The purpose of the study reported here is to explore the utility of regional economic analyses in determining minimal levels of household production as measured in terms of time. The results provide a minimum family time required in the long term of approximately 35 hours per week and a short term requirement of 2 hours per week. Theoretical frameworks used in family science are integrated in the discussion to explain these findings.Pamela N. Olson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling and Family Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. Her current research interests are family member time-use and families in debt. She completed her Ph.D. at Oregon State University.James J. Ponzetti, Jr. received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Family Studies in the Department of Home Economics, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926. His current research interests include divorce, loneliness, and family planning.Geraldine I. Olson is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, Family Resource Management, College of Home Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97131. She completed her Ph.D. at The Ohio State University and current research interests include family member time-use, assessing managerial activities, and factors which influence the substitution of marketplace goods with household production.     

Recognising the agency of people with dementia

People with dementia have been assumed to possess weak or even no agency, so this paper provides a novel contribution to academic debate by examining their actual potential for agency. The author draws on findings from a qualitative study of everyday decision-making by people with dementia that aimed to identify the role of social factors (such as gender) in influencing their involvement in decisions. Whilst decision-making constitutes a form of deliberative agency, the research also identified when agency was alternatively habituated, embodied or emotional. The Economic and Social Research Council-funded research was undertaken in the North of England. Existing theoretical perspectives on agency are critiqued, particularly in relation to rationality, language and individualised agency. The study highlighted that people with dementia who lack deliberative capacity can nonetheless demonstrate creative capacity for agency. A more expansive concept of agency is needed in social science theory that is informed by the experiences of cognitively disabled people.     

In the steps of Joan Acker: A journey in researching inequality regimes and intersectional inequalities

Inspired by two of Acker's interconnected concepts, inequality regimes and intersectionality, the authors revisit their intersectional research. By exploring their various studies on inequality regimes and intersectionality, the authors propose some novel insights that have emerged from an aggregate appraisal of some 17 empirically researched papers, all shaped by Joan Acker's sociology. While Acker's work on gender and organizations has provided crucial insights into much of this work, this article concentrates on the overarching concept of inequality regimes and then focuses in on less‐developed aspects of intersectionality in Acker's work. In doing so, it reconsiders the value of inequality regimes in pushing the boundaries of intersectional insights.     

‘Go on,Go on,Go on’: Sexual Consent,Child Sexual Exploitation and Cups of Tea

This novel paper critically addresses a currently popular sex education resource which compares sexual consent to tea drinking. Drawing from a study which considered the meaning of consent through focus groups and interviews with young people and professionals, we argue that the central ‘risk avoidance’ message of such resources individualises the potential risks of non‐consensual sex and ignores the gendered social structures which shape interpersonal relationships. We suggest that simplifying and extrapolating sexual consent from broader cultural understandings is problematic. Conversations with young people are important, but they need to address the complexity of sexual consent, coercion and gendered sexual norms.     

The quality of social security benefit data in the British Family Resources Survey: implications for investigating income support take-up by pensioners

Summary.  Family Resources Survey (FRS) data for April 1997 to March 2000 are used to estimate the take-up of income support (IS) by a subset of pensioners. We scrutinize the quality of FRS data for this purpose and describe a process of identifying and correcting inconsistencies in the data. Comparisons are made, before and after corrections to the data, of take-up estimates, logistic regression take-up models and predictions of take-up responses to changes in IS rates. Overall, the corrections do not have large effects on estimated take-up rates but suggest that non-take-up is marginally less serious than the uncorrected data imply. Logistic regressions using corrected and uncorrected data were in broad agreement on the factors influencing take-up. There were some differences in the scale of these influences, with implications for predictions of take-up responses to changes in the generosity of IS. Desirable improvements in the FRS are identified.