Employment status transitions among young adults,with and without disability

Employment is a crucial avenue through which young people with disability can experience material wellbeing and social participation. While the low employment rates of young people with disability are well established, little is known about the stability of employment status – that is, the degree to which individuals remain in or move in and out of employment. This article uses longitudinal data from a large Australian national data set to investigate the transitions between full‐time, part‐time and non‐employment for young people with and without disability. Considerable mobility was found between employment states for both young people with and without disability, with young people with disability more likely than their peers without disability to transition to reduced levels of employment and less likely to transition to increased levels of employment. Social background and contextual factors predicted employment for young people with disability; however, disability represented an additional penalty even after taking these factors into account. Findings suggest a need for social policy targeted specifically towards the barriers to maintaining and increasing employment experienced by young people with disability.     

Praise and Protest: Music and Contesting Patriotisms in Postcolonial Kenya

Abstract

This paper explores the partisan nature of music and musicians in Kenya from the colonial era to the present, and investigates how music served many differing sectarian interests during this period. It reveals how the ambivalent space within which musicians work influences and shapes their music, paying particular attention to political context. It shows how officialdom in postcolonial Kenya has endeavored to construct, and then saturate public space with, its own version of patriotism. The paper also reveals the ways in which such patriotism is contested. However, the fact that, in the economic and political context of contemporary Kenya, some musicians defend their right to economic gain in response to accusations of sycophancy, suggests that popular music does not always function as a site of subversion.     

Face attack and patients’ response strategies in a Kenyan hospital1

Social power can be exercised by face attack where power differentials are sufficiently great and significant retaliation or sanctions are unlikely. Such exercise of social power is common in military contexts. It is not commonly observed in hospital settings yet some nurses in Kenya's public hospitals routinely attack the face of their patients. Using data from interactions observed in a provincial hospital, it is illustrated how nurses initiate conflict and how patients counter the face‐attacking moves. The investigation shows that nurses use a high frequency of utterances that violate the dignity of patients while the latter prefer conflict avoidance strategies. Nurses generally make no attempt to mitigate the impact of most of their face‐threatening utterances while patients demonstrate awareness of the need to preserve mutual face and reclaim dignity. Three strategies used by patients to reclaim dignity – namely silence, retaliatory face damage and face repair – are illustrated. Nguvu za kijamii zinaweza kutekelezwa kwa kushambulia uso mahali kadri za nguvu ni mazito mno na ulipizaji kisasi wala vikwazo haviruhusiwi. Utekelezaji huu wa nguvu hudhihirika sana katika mazingira ya kijeshi. Hauonekani sana katika hospitali. Ingawaje, baadhi ya manesi katika hospitali za umma nchini Kenya mara kwa mara hushambulia uso ya wagonjwa wao. Huku tukitumia data ya miingiliano iliyotazamwa katika hospitali moja ya mkoa, twaonyesha jinsi manesi hubuni migogoro na vile wagonjwa hukabiliana nayo. Uchunguzi huu unaonyesha kuwa manesi hukiuka hadhi ya ubinafsi ya wagonjwa pakubwa ilhali wagonjwa huchagua mikakati ya kuepuana na migogoro. Kwa ujumla, manesi hawaonyeshi nia ya kupunguza athari za shambulio la uso katika matamshi yao ilhali wagonjwa huonyesha ufahamu wa kuhifadhi heshima na kudai tena hadhi. Mikakati mitatu ya wagonjwa ya kudai tena hadhi ikiwemo kimya, ulipizaji kisasi na urekebishaji uso inaelezwa humu.