‘Stories of distress versus fulfilment’: A narrative inquiry of midwives’ experiences supporting alternative birth choices in the UK National Health Service

BackgroundSome childbearing women/birthing people prioritize out of maternity care organizational guidelines’ approaches to childbirth as a way of optimizing their chances of a normal physiological birth. Currently, there is little known about the experiences of midwives who support their choices.AimTo explore the experiences of UK midwives employed by the NHS, who self-defined as supportive of women’s alternative physiological birthing choices.MethodsA narrative inquiry was used to collect and analyse professional stories of practice via self-written narratives and interviews. Forty-five midwives from across the UK were recruited.FindingsThree overarching storylines were developed with nine sub-themes. ‘Stories of distress’ highlights challenging experiences due to poor supportive working environments, ranging from small persistent challenges to extreme situations. Conversely, ‘Stories of fulfilment’ offers a positive counter-narrative where midwives worked in supportive working environments enabling woman-centred care unencumbered by organisational constraints. ‘Stories of transition’ abridge these two polarized themes.ConclusionThe midwives’ experiences were mediated by their socio-cultural working contexts. Negative experiences were characterised by a misalignment between the midwives’ philosophy and organisational cultures, with significant consequences for the midwives. Conversely, examples of good organisational culture and practice reveal that it is possible for organisations to fulfil their obligations for safe and positive maternity care for both childbearing women who make alternative birthing choices, and for attending staff. This highlights what is feasible and achievable within maternity organisations and offers transferable insights for organisational support of out-of-guideline care that can be adapted across the UK and beyond.     

"中阿合作论坛"框架下的中阿合作范式研究

2004年建立的"中阿合作论坛"顺应了中阿人民巩固传统友谊、加强互利双赢合作关系的共同要求,也体现了中阿关系的历久弥坚和中阿传统友谊的强大生命力。在新形势下,共同的目标、共同的任务、共同的利益,使中阿合作比以往任何时候都更加迫切和重要。全面发展中阿关系和深化中阿在各个领域的合作是大势所趋,是中阿关系持续发展的必然。     

学习型组织的组织学习过程模型的构建

很多国内外学者将组织的学习过程定义为一个持续的循环过程,他们模型的差异仅仅体现在对组织学习单次循环过程中不同阶段的界定。但在现实中,组织学习并不是单次循环的简单重复。组织在不断积累经验知识的基础上,出于对已有知识态度和运用方式的不同,其学习过程有可能发生一些路径偏离,严重者甚至会导致组织的灭失。文章通过探讨组织学习的单次循环过程,以及组织在多次学习循环过程中可能发生的路径偏离及原因,理清了学习型组织应当遵循的学习路径,进而构建了学习型组织的学习过程模型。并提出：要真正构建学习型组织,必须建立起一条时刻关注、适应外界环境变化的科学的学习路径,而防止学习路径发生偏离的关键,就在于组织能够去粗取精、去伪存真地运用有意遗忘的方式不断对知识库进行实时更新。     

《迷途》的“好看”与“耐看”

李运启的长篇小说《迷途》首先是一部"好看"的小说,这源自两个方面:一是故事本身好;二是讲故事的方式好。同时,它还是一部"耐看"的小说,故事的表层写的是虚构的他者,深层指向的却是每一个真实的自我。在"好看"和"耐看"中,小说传达了积极的伦理诉求:彻底否定被欲望控制的人生。     

强制性冲突法和任意性冲突法理论初探

冲突法对法官和当事人是任意性规范还是具有强制性的拘束力?这是一个具有重要现实意义的问题.普通法国家一般认为冲突法是任意性法律.这些国家的法院总是适用法院地法,除非当事人一方要求适用外国法作为准据法.罗马法国家一般认为冲突法是强制性法规,这些国家的法院有义务按照法院地的冲突规范适用准据法.我国冲突规范主要规定于《中华人民共和国民法通则》之中,因为《中华人民共和国民法通则》不是任意性的,因此我国冲突法不应是任意性规范.但我国一些地方法院的司法实践却不时将我国冲突法作为任意性法规对待,这不仅有损于我国司法在国际社会的形象,而且损害了我国冲突法的健康发展.因此我们必须在立法和司法实践中明确:我国的冲突规范不是任意性规范,它对所有人民法院均具有拘束力.     

转型中理性范式的再思索与演进逻辑思辨

20世纪发生了两次重要的事件:一是20世纪初由不发达的市场体制和半封建体制向社会主义计划体制的转型;二是20世纪末期由社会主义计划体制向市场体制的转型。转型是人类社会发展和变迁的重要过程,但在转型中如何定位人类理性的作用和把握转型的演进逻辑却不是容易回答的重要问题。人类在有限理性基础上的有选择的理性建构模式是一种科学和可行的行为模式;而转型中的演进逻辑应是自发演进和人类理性作用相结合的一种互动逻辑,这是转型取得成功的重要前提和保证。     

发展中国家的贸易政策选择--经济发展与贸易环境

我们放弃常用的柯布-道格拉斯生产函数假设,采纳里昂惕夫型生产函数,引入中间产品和发展中国家的特征,构建并从实证上验证了一个适用于发展中国家的理论模型,得出如下结论:当一国经济发展水平比较落后时,其最优的贸易政策选择为保护贸易政策;而当一国的经济发展超过一定水平时,最优的贸易政策选择为与其贸易环境相同的贸易政策。     

How Local Social Movement Groups Handle a Presidential Election

How do local social movement groups respond to national electoral politics? Previous studies, often based on aggregated data on public protests, focus on the effects of elections on established social movement organizations (SMOs). Some find that SMOs flourish during election years, taking advantage of the political opportunities that elections pose. Others conclude that elections hurt SMOs, siphoning members and resources. Using ethnographic, in-depth interview, and document data on new and emerging social movement groups (SMGs) in Pittsburgh for 20 months before and after the 2004 U.S. presidential election, we examine how members think about elections and whether and how groups decide to respond to national electoral campaigns. We find that SMGs vary considerably in the strategies of action or inaction they adopt, depending on their changing sense of whether the election poses an opportunity or a threat to the group and that these strategies of action are patterned in path-dependent sequences. We conclude with a discussion of the possibilities for integrating concepts of path-dependency and timing into social movement research.     

The influence of need for closure on consumer’s choice behaviour

Consumers select a decision strategy in a purchase situation that best meets their goals for that situation. One of those possible goals is to obtain closure. The dimension need for closure (NFC) (vs. avoidance) reflects the desire for clear, definite, or unambiguous knowledge that will guide perception and action, as opposed to the undesirable alternative of ambiguity and confusion. The purpose of this study is to identify the influence of NFC on choice behaviour in a low involvement purchase situation. Both high (N=71) and low (N=71) NFC participants participated in a shopping experiment. In a simulated environment, participants were asked to choose repetitively between different brands within two low involvement product categories. We found significant differences between high and low NFC participants with regard to the amount of information sought, the amount of information used, the use of decision rules and the level of confidence in their decisions made. Marketing implications, limitations and directions for future research are also provided.