The power of poetry: Validating ethnic identity through a bibliotherapeutic intervention with a Puerto Rican adolescent

The use of a Puerto Rican poem in ego-supportive work with a sixteen-year-old adolescent is described. His positive response to reading poetry of his own people indicated that his ethnic identity, a core element of ego identity, was validated by the experience. The possible relationship between the bibliotherapeutic intervention and the course of the client's treatment is discussed, as are implications for the use of ethnically sensitive bibliotherapy in practice.     

Constructing a Focal Formulation and Hypothesis in Family Therapy

This paper is an account of the use of a focal formulation as part of a method of brief focal family therapy. The history of the focal approach is outlined and the concept of focal hypothesis examined. The theoretical basis of the approach is discussed by considering the way meaning in a family is expressed. Two forms of meaning are described: surface action, which is the current content of interaction, and depth structure, which is its context and is based in subjective history. A case example is provided to illustrate the application of the concepts, therapeutic implications, and the basis of outcome evaluation.     

The Balangingi Samal: The Global Economy,Maritime Raiding and Diasporic Identities in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines

In the early nineteenth century, an entire ethnic group, the Samal Balangingi of the Sulu-Mindanao region, specialised in state-sanctioned maritime raiding, attacking Southeast Asian coastal settlements and trading vessels. This paper traces the process of the formation of the Samal Balangingi as an ethnic group comprised of 'pirates' and their captives, and their continued sense of belonging to the island stronghold of Balangingi, even after its inhabitants were forcefully resettled between 1848 and 1858. The paper also stresses just how critical the Spanish resettlement policy directed against the deported Samal Balangingi was for their future cultural and social life. It highlights the inextricable relationship between maritime raiding, slavery, forced migration, 'homeland' and cultural identity as being critical factors that led to the emergence of new ethnicities and diasporas. By highlighting the problems of self-definition and the reconstruction of identities and the meaning of homeland and lost places, as a revealing social and psychological process in its own right, the case of the Samal Balangingi challenges lineal notions of history and bounded static conceptions of 'culture' and ethnic groups that were imposed, imagined and maintained by Europeans both prior to and after colonisation.     

The role of foster parents in helping young people develop emancipation skills

The current focus on preparing youths in foster care for emancipation has largely ignored the critical role foster parents have always played in preparing youths to leave their homes and take their place as successful adults in our society. To assure that programs to enhance youths' skills and abilities to function responsibly are fully effective, they must include foster parents. In doing so, they will exponentially increase the hours of service and training available to eligible youths and develop a resource that will be available to future youths after funds are redirected. It is unrealistic, however, to expect foster parents to provide all of the help that most youths in foster care need. Foster family support and training must be seen as one dimension of an integrated approach that provides all youths with a variety of resources but is specific to the needs of each youth. With appropriate support and training, foster parents can assume professional responsibility for assuring that such plans are implemented, and that youths leaving foster care have what they need to emancipate successfully.     

Statistical forecasting—The state of the art

A survey is given of the state of the art of statistical forecasting as it exists in practice. The survey covers:

1. (a) the types of model in use

2. (b) the ways these models are used to obtain forecasts

3. (c) how the forecasts may be adapted or adjusted for effective practical use

4. (d) how forecasts are analysed and controlled

5. (e) how they are applied.

     

Young people and the division of labour in farming families

The family farm has been identified as the main unit of agricultural production in Britain and it has been widely studied as an economic unit in agricultural research. However, it is also a social unit: one with a division of labour based upon gender and generation. Here we will consider a relatively unexplored area of agricultural production: the contribution of children to the family farm, based upon a quantitative survey of young people in a rural area and detailed qualitative interviews. The approach is to look at the farm family in terms of a ‘household work strategy’ although in the paper we argue that this should take into account the importance of moral obligation and patriarchal ideology. The importance of gender and generation are explored as intersecting factors in the division of labour.