‘You Make Me Feel like a Woman’: Therapeutic Cultures and the Contagion of Femininity

This article explores the relations between processes of emotionalization in society, therapeutic cultures in the workplace and new forms of emotional subjectivity and self‐presentation. For many commentators, this subjectivity is culturally feminized, drawing as it does on first‐person narratives, confessionals, emotional performances and ‘the personal’ and it is also highly problematic. In particular, the article speculates on the emergence of a somewhat hostile reaction by some prominent critics to these emotional selves, to whom they appear to represent a form of emasculation. Exploring a range of ‘archives’ in different discourse registers, the article suggests that these dismissive responses could be seen to signify growing cultural anxieties about the imagined feminization of the self and the workplace. The article concludes by proposing that while therapeutic cultures are politically ambivalent, the significance of the resources and solace that they offer should not be ignored or trivialized.     

Children's Self-esteem and Moral Self: Links to Parent–Child Conversations Regarding Emotion

The current study has two aims: (1) to examine associations between the emotional content of parent–child past event conversations and two aspects of children's self‐concept—moral self and self‐esteem; and (2) to examine the degree to which talk about past events is uniquely associated with self‐concept when compared with talk about ongoing events and situations. Fifty‐one five‐ and six‐year‐old New Zealand children and their parents discussed four emotional past events and two ongoing conflicts. Children's moral self, self‐esteem and language ability were also assessed. When parents referred to a greater number of positive emotions and evaluations, regardless of conversation type, their children had higher self‐esteem. Past event talk also uniquely predicted children's self‐esteem: Parents who used more explanations during conversations regarding past negative emotions, and more explanations and confirmations of past positive emotions, had children with higher self‐esteem. We discuss these results with respect to an autobiographical memory approach to self‐concept development.     

Incongruent migration categorisations and competing citizenship claims: ‘return’ and hypermigration in transnational migration circuits

ABSTRACT

Recent scholarly interventions propose that the principle of jus nexi (effective connections) or jus domicile (domicile) should replace birthright or birthplace considerations when assigning citizenship status and political membership. Nonetheless, both views privilege notions of territorial presence and the ideal of political community. This paper focuses on Mainland Chinese return migration from Canada to metropolitan cities in China. The dual citizenship restriction enforced by China means those that naturalised in Canada have relinquished their right to Chinese citizenship. Should they be considered returnees, immigrants or transnational sojourners in their ancestral homeland? It is this incongruence in migration categorisations compared to migrant life-worlds that this paper aims to examine. The paper also highlights the interface of competing claims to citizenship in the context of Chinese internal migration and new (African) immigration in China, as well as the returnees’ own transnational migration across the lifecourse. It argues that the ordering mechanisms that characterise normative conceptions of citizenship focus on isolated types of migration trends whereas what confronts us more urgently are intersecting migration configurations that underline the incongruence of migration categorisations and the complexity of competing citizenship claims spatially and temporally.     

Temporalities,materialities and connecting locales: migration and mobility in Asia-Pacific cities

ABSTRACT

In this introduction, we argue that paying attention to the heterogeneous and multi-directional characteristics of mobilities in the Asia-Pacific can generate new conceptual and empirical insights for research on migration and mobility, transnationalism, and intercultural encounters. We note that temporality and materiality are productive lenses for connecting research across diverse urban locales, and to understand the changes these locales experience as a result of emerging forms of mobility. We also draw out three key themes that emerge from the analyses presented by papers in this special issue, and which link the papers as a collection. First, the collection challenges conventional ways in which migrant and non-migrant subjects are classified and researched, by working within the conceptual space opened up by arguments against ‘migrant exceptionalism’, on the one hand, claims for the centrality of the ‘figure of the migrant’ on the other. Second, the papers implicitly or explicitly unpack the temporal, spatial and material consequences of migration and mobility in terms of how aspirations manifest materially and through affective encounters. Third, the collection as a whole signals the analytic power of connecting seemingly distinct sites and scales in and through which migration and mobility take place.     

Performances of social class,race and gender through youth subculture: putting structure back in to youth subcultural studies

This paper aims to advance debates in youth studies about the contemporary relevance of social structures of class, race and gender to the formation of youth subcultures. I demonstrate how drawing on a cultural class analysis and education literature on learner identities and performativity can be productive in theorising the continued significance of class, and indeed also race and gender in young people's lives. In examining school-based friendships and (sub)cultural forms through empirical research in urban schools, I argue that not only are young people's subcultural groups structured by class, race and gender but also they are integral to the production of these identities. By examining the discursive productions of two school-based subcultures as examples: the ‘Smokers’ and the ‘Football’ crowd, I further argue that these identity positions embody resources or capitals which have differing value in the context of the urban school and thus demonstrate how race, class and gender privilege are maintained and reproduced through youth subculture.     

Planned telephone support for disadvantaged parents in North Wales: perceptions of service users

This paper draws on the findings of a qualitative evaluation to examine user perceptions of a planned telephone support intervention based in a disadvantaged area in North Wales. Telephone support services are tailored differentially to offer information, advice and/or counselling on a crisis‐led or planned‐intervention basis. Research focusing on telephone support, for the most part (and particularly in the UK) has examined crisis‐led as opposed to planned support services. The findings of our study resonate with earlier research findings about telephone support that suggest provision of non‐visual support in social care can overcome some practical and financial difficulties for users with little discernible loss to their experience of satisfaction with the service. In addition, the paper suggests that planned support may provide a valuable service to users who are most disadvantaged and marginalized and who have found traditional forms of support unsatisfactory. For such users, planned telephone support can offer one‐to‐one communication tailored to specific client needs. Moreover, it can enable the development of user trust in the service which empowers users to operationalize strategies in the context of a reliable, sustained, unthreatening (and thus minimal risk) relationship.     

FEMALE CAREGIVERS’ REFLECTIONS ON ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING: THE INTERSECTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ELDER CARE

As our population ages, increasing numbers of social workers and other therapists will provide counseling to women who are caregivers of frail elders. These female caregivers often face complex ethical dilemmas in caring for a frail elder. Furthermore, these dilemmas are compounded by domestic violence in the caregiver/frail elder relationship initiated before the onset of caregiving. Illustrated with case examples, this article presents an ethical decision-making model based on an empowerment framework for helping practitioners work with caregivers who face difficult dilemmas impacted by domestic violence. Implications for strengthening clinical practice with these caregivers are discussed.     

Poverty, Disability and the Role of Older Carers

Due to the high incidence of disability amongst their contemporaries, older people are likely to be involved in informal caring relationships. Due to the limited nature of post-retirement incomes, such carers are also likely to be relatively poor. In spite of this, little attention has been given to the role of older carers of disabled people or to the influence of poverty upon this role. In an attempt to redress this neglect, this paper will explore the way in which the ageing process serves to exacerbate the demands upon such carers, not only due to the increased incidence of disability experienced by older people, but also due to their decreased access to material resources, which would help to alleviate these demands.