Making Critical Minds: Nurturing ‘Not‐Knowing’ in Students of Health and Social Care

The two authors have been involved in developing teaching and learning resources that can be used with students undertaking a whole range of health and social care courses. The aims of this development work included the fostering of critical thinking skills and of inter professional learning. In this Ideas in Action paper we share both some of the thinking behind our work and several of the learning activities that we have utilized with our students.     

Critical Reflections on a Social Inclusion Approach for an Ageing Australia

Abstract

The use of call centre operations in public and private sectors is a notable development in the changing structure and nature of employment worldwide. This trend is clearly evident in the South Pacific with the establishment of a call centre as the official point of entry for the statutory child protection systems in both New Zealand and New South Wales. As sites of professional practice however call centres are a controversial development. This paper discusses the practice findings of a qualitative research project which explored the particularity of intake social work (ISW) with 14 social workers employed at the Child Youth and Families' (CYF) National Contact Centre (NCC) in New Zealand. Findings were established through semi structured interviews and thematic analysis. They reveal a unique practice combining attributes of social work and emergency communication services in a workplace environment subject to similar output requirements as those found in commercial call centres.     

Environmental hazard and disabled people: from vulnerable to expert to interconnected

Why are disabled people disproportionately affected by the impacts of environmental hazard, and is it really only their relative poverty that makes them so vulnerable? What might disabled people contribute from their experience of negotiating barriers to designing responses to the challenges of environmental hazard? Can the lived experience of inter-dependency, as opposed to individual independence, contribute to the radical rethinking of our relationships with the environment, other sentient beings and each other? Drawing on a short scoping study, this article reviews the multiple causes of disabled people’s vulnerability, and goes on to ask whether the experience disabled people enables them to become valued contributors, rather than just members of a vulnerable group. We also explore possible reasons for the lack of inclusion and diversity within the environmental movement, and suggest that the disability and environmental movements might make a more common cause.     

Remembering Norma (In Memory of Norma C. Lang, 1927–2012)

This tribute to Norma Lang, who died on June 26, 2012, recognizes her contributions to the field of social work and, especially, to social work with groups. Although Lang was a very private person who would not have approved of a tribute, she would have been pleased that a group effort contributed to this article. The group, dubbed the “Toronto Five” by coauthor Patricia Moffat, describes Dr. Norma C. Lang as a matriarch in the social work profession—a complex, strong, capable, and independent pillar with an incredible way of caring for us.     

The Cultural Legacy of Makassar Stone in East Timor

During research on the archaeology and ethnohistory of fortified settlements in East Timor, a series of old graves was recorded with masonry features that local Timorese referred to as ‘Makassar stone’ (M: Batu Makassar, or Makassar mataru in the Fataluku vernacular). Oral histories of Fataluku-speaking communities associate the grave styles with traders from Sulawesi who developed a major maritime network from the late sixteenth century. While the stone used in the Timorese graves is clearly of local origin, the use of similar stonework for grave construction in seventeenth-century Makassar graves in Sulawesi suggests the possibility of close links between the two societies, including the extension of Islamic influences into East Timor at this time. In the following paper, we evaluate a range of evidence for these associations, including a seventeenth-century Islamic burial of a high-born Sulawesi woman near the port of Hera in East Timor.     

Clinical Realism Versus the Seductions of Universal Theory: Discussion of Celenza's “The Guilty Pleasure of Erotic Countertransference: Searching for Radial True”

In this discussion of Celenza's (this issue) article, I consider a paradox in our responses to psychoanalytic writing: from the same data, we expect both “clinical realism” and something more universal that expands psychoanalytic theory. So with Celenza's rich clinical material: from it, I argue, we may be able to make some universal claims about psychoanalytic process at the most general level. It is not, however, possible to make universal claims about what transpires in analyses in general based on the particular treatments she describes. Instead, I argue that the content of any given analysis inevitably varies with each individual patient and each analytic dyad. This discussion is greatly informed by the work of Edgar Levenson (1982 Levenson , E. ( 1982 ). Follow the fox: An inquiry into the vicissitudes of psychoanalytic supervision . Contemporary Psychoanalysis , 18 , 1 – 15 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Benjamin Wolstein (1981 ———. ( 1981 ). Psychic realism of psychoanalytic inquiry . Contemporary Psychoanalysis , 17 , 399 – 412 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).     

HOME-TO-JOB AND JOB-TO-HOME SPILLOVER: The Impact of Company Policies and Workplace Culture

We draw on gender theory and neo-institutional theory to examine the impact of workplace characteristics and family demands on negative job-to-home and home-to-job spillover. Our multivariate analyses of the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data indicate that family-supportive workplace cultures reduce negative spillover in both directions, whereas the availability of company policies, such as dependent care benefits and flextime, do not. Our results also show that family demands increase spillover more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that the atmosphere of the workplace is more important than the availability of company policies in reducing negative spillover.     

The pull of the fruit machine: a sociological typology of young players

This paper seeks to provide a sociological account of how children and young people orient to fruit machine gambling. The account is based upon the findings of an ethnographic study and is presented in the form of a typology. Arcade Kings and their Apprentices, Machine Beaters, Escape Artists, Action Seekers and Rent-a-Spacers comprise a classification which includes ‘addicts’ as well as ‘social gamblers’. The typology reveals the multi-dimensional nature of fruit machine gambling as a leisure pursuit. It thus provides a theoretical contribution to the sociology of gambling as well as an ‘ethnographic road map’ for researchers and counsellors in the field.     

What are the Links Between Theory of Mind and Social Relations? Review,Reflections and New Directions for Studies of Typical and Atypical Development

Twenty years after research on children's ‘theory of mind’ began, this field continues to be a leading influence in the study of developmental psychology and psychopathology. In this review we examine the contribution of research on children's theories of mind to our understanding of children's developing social relationships. Evidence shows that for both typical and atypical populations this relationship is neither uniform nor unidirectional. Theory‐of‐mind skills are multifaceted and the nature of the developmental relationship between different aspects is not yet known, and there is evidence that theory‐of‐mind skills both transform and are transformed by interpersonal and family relationships and by language communities. To understand the multifaceted and complex nature of development in this area, we need clearer definitions of the skills under investigation, as well as research designs that capture the transactional nature of the relationship between theory of mind and social relations. Addressing these issues should help to clarify (i) the processes by which children's developing understanding of others is influenced by the social environment, and (ii) issues concerning the specificity of theory‐of‐mind impairments in atypical populations and the processes by which these impairments develop.