Named social workers – better social work for learning disabled people?

In 2016, the Department of Health in England announced that it would pilot the role of Named Social Worker. We chose to be part of the pilot because we regularly witness too many people’s lives being defined by restrictions imposed by professionals. Erroneous associations between the concepts of risk and danger have become the norm in how learning disabled people’s decision-making is perceived and managed. However, we believe social workers educated in the social model of disability and grounded more generally in disability studies offer an alternative perspective. The pilot is an opportunity to test our hypothesis that social work practice rooted in social model thinking can successfully challenge oppressive practice and disabling barriers, thus providing the opportunity for social workers to genuinely be ‘servants not masters’ in the lives of disabled people.     

Planners’ Perceptions of Why Canadian Communities Have Too Many Plans

A survey of Canadian planners explored perceptions about factors contributing to the growing number of plans communities have adopted recently. The results suggest that practitioners see themselves as responding to current community concerns, as well as to requirements imposed by higher levels of government. Neoliberal practices that force compliance with accountability frameworks to enable transfer payments increase demands for new plans. Professional practices within planning have encouraged specialization—in fields such as urban design—that often leads to plan-making activities. With many plans to coordinate, and limited staff resources and time available, practitioners face increasing implementation challenges.     

Betting Decision Under Break-Streak Pattern: Evidence from Casino Gaming

Cognitive bias is prevalent among gamblers, especially those with gambling problems. Grounded in the heuristics theories, this study contributes to the literature by examining a cognitive bias triggered by the break streak pattern in the casino setting. We postulate that gamblers tend to bet on the latest outcome when there is a break-streak pattern. Moreover, three determinants of the betting decision under break-streak pattern, including the streak length of the alternative outcome, the frequency of the latest outcome, and gender, were identified and examined in this study. A non-participatory observational study was conducted among the Cussec gamblers in a casino in Macao. An analysis of 1229 bets confirms our postulation, particularly when the streak of the alternative outcome is long, the latest outcome is frequent, and the gamblers are females. The findings provide meaningful implications for casino management and public policymakers regarding the minimization of gambling harm.     

Researcher reflexivity: exploring the impacts of CAQDAS use

Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) programs are established tools for qualitative research. Making informed decisions when using them requires researchers to understand how they affect research practices and outcomes. In this article we consider the impact of CAQDAS on researcher reflexivity. Reviewing three decades of literature, we identify specific ‘reflexive moments’ experienced by CAQDAS users, the contexts in which they occur, the issues they raise, and the reflexive awareness they generate. The ways in which CAQDAS can enhance or undermine researcher reflexivity are also reported. By doing so, we aim to help researchers and especially research students (and their supervisors) understand the relationship between CAQDAS and reflexivity and the reflexive moments they may encounter when using such software.     

Building ‘cowshed cultures’: A cultural perspective on the promotion of stockmanship and animal welfare on dairy farms

Improving animal welfare is an important part of the development of the agricultural industry, particularly at a time when intensification and the encroachment of factory-style production systems is making the maintenance of human-animal relations increasingly difficult. Animal science deals with the issue of improving stockmanship by focusing on the relationships between attitudes and behaviour, under the premise that improved attitudes will lead to improved behaviour. From an analysis of 42 interviews with owners, sharemilkers and workers on dairy farms in New Zealand we present a different view, seeing behaviour instead as part of a self-reinforcing culture in which animals, humans and the physical structure all contribute to the development of farm specific ways of doing and being. We further suggest that changing one stockperson's attitude alone is insufficient to ensure a change in the culture as other actors – including animals and non-human actors – reinforce any existing culture that has developed, making both attitudinal and behavioural change difficult. We conclude by discussing the key importance of designing farm systems and structures that promote positive interactions between animals and humans and suggest that this, rather than simply promoting knowledge and attitudinal change, is likely to be the most effective way of maintaining stockmanship in the face of an industrialising agriculture.     

Reconsidering the Connection between Capacity and Governance

Public Organization Review - High levels of sub-national policy experimentation and public cynicism about politics and government, combined with significant challenges and opportunities for...     

Curriculum Reform,with Particular Reference to Primary Literacy,in Contemporary English and Norwegian Official Documents

This paper explores similarities and differences in recent curriculum reform in England and Norway, focusing particularly on literacy. The main database consists of the official curriculum policy texts produced in both countries. Literacy is the major focus of the paper and a critical account is offered of current literacy policy in both countries by comparing the perspectives, values, and assumptions built into official texts. The paper begins by explaining and comparing the format of the reformed curricula in England and Norway, and by pointing to the impetus for change in both cases. It then goes on to analyse the various conceptions of literacy underpinning official literacy curriculum with reference to functional literacy, cultural literacy and critical literacy. It demonstrates how curriculum policy, and, more specifically, literacy policy is used as a vehicle for social control and reproduction and it concludes that differences in the nature of official policy in both countries can be explained with reference to the origin and impetus for change in the first place, and the extent to which the voice of the education establishment was heeded or silenced.