Parenting and the Harry Potter stories: a social care perspective

This paper analyses the capacities of the parents in the Harry Potter stories, written by J. K. Rowling, from a social care perspective. It argues that there is a synergy between what the social sciences have discovered about ‘good enough parenting’ and the insights that can be gathered from entering the imaginative world of literature. This is illustrated by a discussion of the qualities of the parents and parent substitutes in the four books published between 1997 and 2000. It concludes that fictional experiences of childhood create empathy in the reader and enable us to confront the need for imagination as parents and practitioners, while the social sciences keep knowledge grounded and evidenced. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tolerating Force: A Contextual Analysis of the Meaning of Tolerance

This study employs college student survey data to examine the specific social conditions that influence tolerance of the use of force against children. The findings reveal that a certain ambivalence exists regarding parental force to control the behavior of children. Although the respondents are tolerant of parental force used to counteract disrespectful provocations by children, they are less tolerant of force used to counteract age-related misbehaviors. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of current and future social and family policy.     

Infants' Ability to Learn Phonetically Similar Words: Effects of Age and Vocabulary Size

What do novice word learners know about the sound of words? Word‐learning tasks suggest that young infants (14 months old) confuse similar‐sounding words, whereas mispronunciation detection tasks suggest that slightly older infants (18–24 months old) correctly distinguish similar words. Here we explore whether the difficulty at 14 months stems from infants' novice status as word learners or whether it is inherent in the task demands of learning new words. Results from 3 experiments support a developmental explanation. In Experiment 1, infants of 20 months learned to pair 2 phonetically similar words to 2 different objects under precisely the same conditions that infants of 14 months (Experiment 2) failed. In Experiment 3, infants of 17 months showed intermediate, but still successful, performance in the task. Vocabulary size predicted word‐learning performance, but only in the younger, less experienced word learners. The implications of these results for theories of word learning and lexical representation are discussed.     

Achieving the indeterminate: Accomplishing degrees of certainty in life and death situations

This paper explores technology's pivotal position at the intersection of control and uncertainty. It examines two areas: Intensive Care and a Labour Ward. Building on the work of Davis (1960), it argues that certainty and uncertainty are socially constructable and reconstructable. This is actively achieved by the deployment of strategies involving particular paradigms (the biomedical model) and artefacts (medical technology). Power lies in control over knowledge and the structures and practices which sustain it, including those embedded in advanced technology. The contribution of medical technology to the achievement of certainty in Intensive Care and end-game Obstetrics (the Labour Ward) is considered. Achieved certainty in medical situations is seen as: the structured masking of uncertainty by the application of medical iconography, artefacts and techniques to create the illusion of certainty. The accomplishment of uncertainty in Obstetrics (as a precursor to technological intervention) is also explored. The accomplishment of uncertainty in medical situations is seen as associated with the structured projection of uncertainty, involving using medical discourse rooted in the medical paradigm to exaggerate the generality of risk and the probability of pathology. It is argued that the highly structured and routinised settings of ICU and the labour Ward, not only aid control by the medical profession but diminish perceptions of uncertainty.     

Evaluating community initiatives

The increasing emphasis on using research evidence as a basis for policy and practice change has led the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to consider better methods of evaluation. A theories of change approach has been found to be particularly valuable.     

Powers of Discrete Goodness-of-Fit Test Statistics for a Uniform Null Against a Selection of Alternative Distributions

The comparative powers of six discrete goodness-of-fit test statistics for a uniform null distribution against a variety of fully specified alternative distributions are discussed. The results suggest that the test statistics based on the empirical distribution function for ordinal data (Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Cramér–von Mises, and Anderson–Darling) are generally more powerful for trend alternative distributions. The test statistics for nominal (Pearson's chi-square and the nominal Kolmogorov–Smirnov) and circular data (Watson's test statistic) are shown to be generally more powerful for the investigated triangular (∨), flat (or platykurtic type), sharp (or leptokurtic type), and bimodal alternative distributions.     

Constructing an Accounting Journal Website

Abstract

To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of searches for information, accounting students, researchers, practitioners, and regulators could benefit from a Website devoted to the electronic access to journals. The site described here addresses such a need in the business discipline of accounting. On the site, the titles of over 470 journals are listed and categorized by topical areas within accounting. Then, within each accounting category, the journals are grouped according to their Internet accessibility. To provide the user with quick access to the various journals, the site provides links to the homepages of the various journals. Serials Review 2002; 28:201–205.     

‘Actually There is a Brain in There’: Uncovering Complexity in Pathways Through Education for Young Adults Who Have Been in Care

Internationally, research has highlighted disruption to the educational trajectories of young people in care, documenting concern about upheaval and poor educational outcomes. We present findings from English data arising from qualitative longitudinal research with care experienced people (16–32 years) who were also in education, employment or training. The analysis extends understanding of the experiences of those who achieve educational ‘success’, including those who followed non‐linear trajectories. The need for a flexible education system, and leaving care entitlements, which take into account the disruption experienced by young people in care and the consequent possibility of delayed educational pathways, is discussed.