The Dynamic Deprivation Index: measuring relative socio-economic deprivation in NZ on a monthly basis

The standard measures of relative socio-economic deprivation within New Zealand are the NZDEP studies and the NZ IMD. Although both sets of studies are extremely rigorous, high quality research outputs they are only able to provide a snapshot of the national distribution of relative socio-economic deprivation at fixed points in time. The inability to express deprivation levels as an extended and current time series means that not only are policy analysts and researchers working with outdated information, but also that it is often unfeasible to associate changes in deprivation levels to specific events or policy implementations. The Dynamic Deprivation Index (DDI) assigns a deprivation score and deprivation index to each area unit in New Zealand on a monthly basis. In this paper we look to describe the methodology behind the construction of the DDI and to validate the results therein. We argue that if public bodies were to make the data they hold more easily accessible, then there is no reason why New Zealand should not be able to benefit from a measure of socio-economic deprivation that combines the sophistication of the NZDEP studies or IMD with the contemporaneousness of the DDI.     

The Influence of Feelings While Driving Regular Cars on the Perception and Acceptance of Self‐Driving Cars

Self‐driving vehicles will affect the future of transportation, but factors that underlie perception and acceptance of self‐driving cars are yet unclear. Research on feelings as information and the affect heuristic has suggested that feelings are an important source of information, especially in situations of complexity and uncertainty. In this study (N = 1,484), we investigated how feelings related to traditional driving affect risk perception, benefit perception, and trust related to self‐driving cars as well as people's acceptance of the technology. Due to limited experiences with and knowledge of self‐driving cars, we expected that feelings related to a similar experience, namely, driving regular cars, would influence judgments of self‐driving cars. Our results support this assumption. While positive feelings of enjoyment predicted higher benefit perception and trust, negative affect predicted higher risk and higher benefit perception of self‐driving cars. Feelings of control were inversely related to risk and benefit perception, which is in line with research on the affect heuristic. Furthermore, negative affect was an important source of information for judgments of use and acceptance. Interest in using a self‐driving car was also predicted by lower risk perception, higher benefit perception, and higher levels of trust in the technology. Although people's individual experiences with advanced vehicle technologies and knowledge were associated with perceptions and acceptance, many simply have never been exposed to the technology and know little about it. In the absence of this experience or knowledge, all that is left is the knowledge, experience, and feelings they have related to regular driving.     

The Mother-in-Law Mystique: A Tale of Conflict,Criticism and Resistance

While women have been described in various disciplines as the kin keepers of family relationships, empirical data show that the greatest rivalry in newly constructed heterosexual families exists between two women: the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. Numerous rituals are employed across cultures in order to ease the expected tension between these two rival women. Yet, the topic seems to have been overlooked by feminist and family therapy research alike. Inspired by Bowen's (1978) concept of differentiation of self and Linn's (1998) and Gilligan's (Linn & Gilligan, 1990) ideas of the resisting self, the present study examines these female rivals as moral critics in the war zone of the family. The study sample consists of 14 mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, and sons/husbands, belonging to five Israeli families of diverse cultural origin. Gilligan's Listening Guide was used to assess how participants saw the dilemmas of their situation, adopted a critical distance, and formed an authoritative moral voice.     

Working With Parents of Gender-Variant Children: Using Social Action as an Emancipatory Research Framework

This article examines and reflects on the methodology used in a research project that involved group work activities with parents of gender-variant children. Gender variance in children remains a topic people talk little about. Discussions about people who express themselves differently from the social norms attached to their birth sex, to a large extent, remain rarely discussed. They challenge a society organized largely on the basis of a binary understanding of identity, one that belongs to either male or female. This article discusses the concept of oppression as being central to the experiences of gender-variant children and young people and their parents, and it proposes social action research as a compatible and appropriate research framework for exploring their experiences. We describe the research process, identify its achievements, and explore issues that had to be confronted. We suggest that traditional research structures may benefit from being revisited in order to allow emancipatory research to more fully achieve its potential for both research and social action.     

Competitive Priorities in Operations Management

Identifying manufacturers' competitive priorities has long been considered a key element in manufacturing strategy research. However, relatively little effort has been devoted to measurement of these constructs in published research. In this study we develop scales for commonly accepted competitive priorities, cost importance, quality importance, delivery-time importance, and flexibility importance. We assess how well the scales capture the constructs that they represent using data collected from 114 manufacturing plants in the United States. The findings suggest that the instrument developed can provide reliable data and that the constructs measured are valid. In addition, comparisons between pairs of informants representing the same business indicate that the perceptual measures of competitive priorities are as reliable as point estimates of routine, seemingly objective information.     

Developing cultural competence with LDS clients: Utilizing spiritual genograms in social work practice

ABSTRACT

In recent years, social work has increasingly focused on spirituality and religion as key elements of cultural competence. Consequently, specific strategies have been developed to provide the most appropriate interventions for religious clients. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is the fourth largest and the fastest growing church in the United States and is one of the fastest growing churches worldwide. In an effort to facilitate cultural competence with LDS clients, a spiritual assessment tool was developed based upon the genogram. Evaluation of this tool was facilitated through a survey of 100 practitioners. Participants liked the idea of using a spiritual genogram and felt it would be a useful tool in therapy. In general, they thought the questions associated with the spiritual genogram were appropriate and consistent with LDS culture, although numerous suggestions for improvement were offered.     

Working at the edge: Emotional labour in the spectre of violence

Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with police officers, door(wo)men and prison officers we present intimate, emotional and sometimes harrowing accounts of both the physical and emotional pain routinely endured by those employed as agents of social control. This article positions labour undertaken in such contexts as ‘edgework'; exploring how the boundary, or ‘edge', between safety and danger is negotiated and managed ‘in the moment' through embodied performances of empathetic and antipathetic emotional labour and emotional neutrality. Placing the concepts of edgework and emotional labour in dialogue, we open up a space in which to explore gendered conceptualizations of emotional labour and offer a more feminist appreciation of edgework that moves us beyond narrow concerns with pleasure, to account for embodied experience and emotional performance. In so doing, this article offers a unique insight into the emotional labour repertoires of both men and women who work in the spectre of violence.     

Sexual agency,risk and vulnerability: a scoping review of young Indigenous Australians’ sexual health

This review of qualitative research examining young Indigenous Australians’ sexual health highlights the profoundly social nature of young people’s sexual lives. Nineteen peer reviewed published papers were identified for inclusion. Findings reveal efforts made by some young Indigenous Australians to control their sexual lives, mitigate risk and maintain their sexual health. The review identified factors which are conducive to sexual health risks and vulnerability, including incomplete knowledge about STIs and safer sexual practices; gossip and ridicule concerning sexual activity and its consequences; damaging expectations about male prerogatives with respect to sexual relationships; limited inter-generational communication about sexual health issues; inadequate school-based sexual health education; and tensions between Indigenous and biomedical explanations of sexual health issues. Future research priorities include a focus on young Indigenous people in cities and towns across Australia, and in regional and remote settings in New South Wales and Victoria; understanding how Indigenous cultural values support young people’s sexual health; young men’s sexual and service-based practices; and the experiences of same-sex attracted and gender diverse youth. This research would inform the design and delivery of culturally safe and acceptable sexual health services and programmes, underpinned by an understanding of factors in young Indigenous Australians’ everyday sexual lives.