Beer and Tea: Harmony and Contradiction Among Two Unlikely Counterparts

This essay begins by examining the representations and interpretations of women and men in two sets of images: the Women's Institute Alternative Calendar and a television commercial for Guinness beer. Both of these compositions are exceptional in their own right, and have captured the imaginations of wide audiences. Taken together, the counterpointing of culture and nature, serenity and intensity, and feminine charm and virility creates a montage of images that both reflect and represent traditional forms of femininity and masculinity. This essay draws on a variety of sociological and interdisciplinary theoretical approaches, with an emphasis on the storied nature of lives, sexuality, and life change. C. Wright Mills declares that the sociological imagination is necessary in order to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society (Mills, 1959, p. 6). The author's aim in this essay, following through on Mills's idea, is to provide insight into the lives of earlier cohorts of women and a glimpse into how personal and social change comes about.     

Social exclusion in Europe: some conceptual issues

In the late 20th and early 21st century, social exclusion has become something of a trope around which is pegged justifications for various reforms. The notion of social exclusion has found its way into the lexicon of all major global governance institutions. How has this happened, and what are its implications for scholars of contemporary welfare reforms? In this article, we consider the ‘rise and rise’ of the discourse of social exclusion, with particular reference to its development as a policy paradigm within the European Union. We note that its initial iteration was anchored in a functionalist discourse of social organisation but that this was quickly challenged both by post‐structuralist and post‐colonial perspectives and by research findings that undermined the view of mainstream institutions as fundamentally integrative and inclusive in nature. The debate about social exclusion, we suggest, is simultaneously a debate about the historical and social dynamics of European modernity.     

Mobile skilled workers: Making the most of an untapped rural community resource

Many small rural communities have a flow of skilled people through the community, including employees from the government, non government and private sectors on fixed-term contracts, and a range of professionals, often attracted by amenity and seeking a sea change or tree change. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to investigate how rural communities can optimise benefits from professional and other highly skilled workers in the context of an increasingly mobile and transitory workforce. The paper examines the characteristics and attributes of mobile skilled workers from six different Australian rural communities and one Canadian rural community. It overviews the reasons why mobile skilled workers become involved in rural communities, the process of integration, and the reasons why they decide to stay or leave. If rural communities better understand the characteristics and motivations of mobile skilled workers, they will be able to better harness the potential of this group. Community settings and, to a lesser extent, policy, make a difference to mobile skilled worker integration and community participation. Community settings such as culture, interactional infrastructure and leadership influence the integration process for mobile skilled workers. Effectiveness of the integration process determines the nature and extent of mobile skilled worker contribution to the community and the likelihood that the worker will be retained in the community. Rural communities that make the most of the available pool of skills provided by mobile skilled workers can increase resilience, community capacity, identification and uptake of opportunities such as new enterprises, good practice in natural resource management, enhanced social and leisure opportunities, and the quality and range of local services.     

‘I Don't Just Want to Do It for Myself’: Diverse Pespectives on Being Successful at University by Social Work Students Who Speak English as an Additional Language

This article gives attention to furthering understandings about what being successful at university means to social work students, focusing on the perspectives of students who speak English as an additional language (EAL). It departs from approaches in the literature that focus on problematic aspects of teaching and learning. The article is informed by data from a small-scale focus group study of nine students from an undergraduate and a postgraduate social work programme in a South Australian university. Drawing on a methodological approach known as ‘Appreciative Inquiry’, students were asked how they conceptualise, experience and imagine success at university. The study found that students’ understandings of success are inextricably intertwined with their individual, family and community aspirations. These findings are discussed in the light of current dominant assumptions about the notion of success and possible directions for future research and implications for social work education.     

Promoting small business in Northern Ireland

During the last 10 years, Northern Ireland has suffered the same economic fate as the rest of the United Kingdom—a severe decline in its manufacturing base, and with this a substantial growth in unemployment to unacceptable levels. In response, a strategy for regeneration has been constructed. The main thrust of this strategy has been three-fold:

1. (1) To seek Inward Investment.

2. (2) To stimulate New Firms.

3. (3) To encourage Existing Firms to grow.

The strategy has involved a wide range of schemes of advice and assistance, managed through the Department of Economic Development, the Industrial Development Board (IDB), the Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU), as well as local enterprise organizations.

However, whilst many of the problems encountered, for which various schemes have been devised, can be seen replicated elsewhere in the United Kingdom, the basic problems in Norther Ireland are different in character.     

The Analysis of Designed Experiments and Longitudinal Data by Using Smoothing Splines

In designed experiments and in particular longitudinal studies, the aim may be to assess the effect of a quantitative variable such as time on treatment effects. Modelling treatment effects can be complex in the presence of other sources of variation. Three examples are presented to illustrate an approach to analysis in such cases. The first example is a longitudinal experiment on the growth of cows under a factorial treatment structure where serial correlation and variance heterogeneity complicate the analysis. The second example involves the calibration of optical density and the concentration of a protein DNase in the presence of sampling variation and variance heterogeneity. The final example is a multienvironment agricultural field experiment in which a yield–seeding rate relationship is required for several varieties of lupins. Spatial variation within environments, heterogeneity between environments and variation between varieties all need to be incorporated in the analysis. In this paper, the cubic smoothing spline is used in conjunction with fixed and random effects, random coefficients and variance modelling to provide simultaneous modelling of trends and covariance structure. The key result that allows coherent and flexible empirical model building in complex situations is the linear mixed model representation of the cubic smoothing spline. An extension is proposed in which trend is partitioned into smooth and non-smooth components. Estimation and inference, the analysis of the three examples and a discussion of extensions and unresolved issues are also presented.     

Postmodern theory and politics: Perspectives on citizenship and social justice

In this paper we consider some contributions made by postmodern perspectives to theoretical and political questions of citizenship and social justice. Postmodern theory is often dismissed as a distraction from pressing questions of material inequality and economic and political exploitation. In the paper we distinguish between ‘ludic’ or ‘spectral’ postmodernisms and ‘oppositional’ or ‘resistance’ postmodernisms. We suggest that the latter provide theoretical resources for analysing the cultural construction of inequalities and struggles around social inclusion and exclusion. The paper is divided into three sections: in the first, three dominant narratives of modernization are addressed and their implications for concepts of citizenship and social inclusion noted; in the second, some postmodern challenges to these narratives are explored in order to disclose some of the key problems with modern paradigms of citizenship and social justice; in the third section we outline two postmodern approaches to the analysis of social struggles and their contributions to debates about citizenship.     

Trust Relations in High-Reliability Organizations

Workplace trust has been recognized by researchers and practitioners alike to be an important component of an effective safety culture. However, despite this, the concept of trust as it relates to safety has been underresearched, particularly within high-reliability organizations. This article examines the importance of trust relations and their concomitant impact on safety culture within the specific context of high-reliability organizations using relevant literatures. The article then explores the implications of high and low trust situations for safety through case studies conducted within the nuclear and offshore industries as exemplars of organizations operating within high-reliability sectors.     

Marital Therapy and Feminism

The authors examine first the meaning ascribed to gender behaviour and the impact this has on couples' struggle to evolve a marital structure that can equitably meet their needs. The roles played by counsellors who inadvertently reinforce sex-role stereotyping in their counselling is also described and case-discussion in literature where sexism prevails will be presented. Alternative ways of helping couples discover their own fit without appealing to gender behaviour as a structural social tool will be developed. Attention is drawn to the necessity for counsellors to first question their own values about gender behaviour, without succumbing to social definitions.