Recent policy initiatives in early childhood and the challenges for the social work profession

The Labour Government in the UK has announced, as part of its launch of The Children's Plan, that it 'wants to make this country the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up' in. This latest Plan is further evidence of the surge of interest that there has been in children (and, in particular, early childhood) over the last ten years in the UK and indeed elsewhere. Many of the recent policy and practice initiatives have implications for social workers working with young children. Yet, social work as a profession, in comparison with education, has remained relatively silent on these initiatives and it is hard to find any critical analysis of these developments in terms of either their underlying discourses or their implications for social workers. This article sets out to address these gaps by providing a critical analysis of: what types of knowledge regarding the early years have gained political currency; why and how this is the case; and what the implications are for the role and practices of social workers. The article proposes that discourses of 'need' and 'provision' mask more powerful discourses of economics, social control and risk avoidance, and it concludes by advocating more critically reflexive social work practice with young children and their families.

Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution:Debating peace in Northern Ireland

This book offers new insights into the close relationship between political discourses and conflict resolution through critical analysis of the role of discursive change in a peace process.

Just as a peace process has many dimensions and stakeholders, so the discourses considered here come from a wide range of sources and actors. The book contains in-depth analyses of official discourses used to present the peace process, the discourses of political party leaders engaging (or otherwise) with it, the discourses of community-level activists responding to it, and the discourses of the media and the academy commenting on it. These discourses reflect varying levels of support for the peace process – from obstruction to promotion – and the role of language in moving across this spectrum according to issue and occasion. Common to all these analyses is the conviction that the language used by political protagonists and cultural stakeholders has a profound effect on progression towards peace.

Bringing together leading experts on Northern Ireland’s peace process from a range of academic disciplines, including political science, sociology, linguistics, history, geography, law, and peace studies, this book offers new insights into the discursive dynamics of violent political conflict and its resolution.

Explicit argumentation as a supervisory tool for decision making in child protection cases involving human rights issues

This paper addresses the problems often faced by social workers and their supervisors in decision making where human rights considerations and child protection concerns collide. High profile court cases in the United Kingdom and Europe have consistently called for social workers to convey more clarity when justifying their reasons for interfering with human rights in child protection cases. The themes emerging from these case law decisions imply that social workers need to be better at giving reasons and evidence in more explicit ways to support any actions they propose which cause interference with Convention Rights. Toulmin (1958, 1985) offers a structured approach to argumentation which may have relevance to the supervision of child protection cases when social workers and managers are required to balance these human rights considerations. One of the key challenges in this balancing act is the need for decision makers to feel confident that any interventions resulting in the interference of human rights are both justified and proportionate. Toulmin’s work has already been shown to have relevance for assisting social workers navigate pathways through cases involving competing ethical and moral demands (Osmo and Landau, 2001) and more recently to human rights and decision making in child protection (Duffy et al, 2006). Toulmin’s model takes the practitioner through a series of stages where any argument or proposed recommendation (claim) is subjected to intense critical analysis involving exposition of its strengths and weaknesses. The author therefore proposes that explicit argumentation (Osmo and Landau, 2001) may help supervisors and practitioners towards safer and more confident decision making in child protection cases involving the interference of the human rights of children and parents. In addition to highlighting the broader context of human rights currently permeating child protection decision making, the paper will include case material to practically demonstrate the application of Toulmin’s model of argumentation to the supervision context. In this way the paper adopts a strong practice approach in helping to assist practitioners with the problems and dilemmas they may come up against in decision making in complex cases.

And He Opened His Mouth and Taught Them Saying

This paper provides an overview of rich biblical imagery related to the mouth, built around the conceptual metaphor MOUTH IS AN OPENING, followed by a critical analysis of four text units from both Testaments employing the basic extensions of this metaphor in the renderings of twelve contemporary English versions of the Bible. It is demonstrated that the meaningful choice of translating techniques and the type of equivalence pursued in translation must be based on a thorough examination and comparison of the conceptual systems of the source and target languages.

Knowledge as Power, Knowledge as Capital: A Political Economy Critique of Modern 'Academic Capitalism'

We are constantly reminded that we live in a 'knowledge society, and indeed that with a 'knowledge economy' a nation's international competiveness is directly linked to its ability to innovate, out-compete and successfully commercialise knowledge. INcreasingly, research within universities is being directed, incetivized and ultimately disciplined towards clear 'economic' priorities. This article offers a critical analysis - employing a broad political economy approach - of the ways in which research within universities and other places of higher learning has become increasingly orientated towards a narrow set of economic goals.

‘Playing it by the rules': the politics of research in ‘race' and education

This article offers an examination of the interplay between politics, ethics, theory and methodology as they impact upon social research, through a critical analysis of the ethnographic study conducted by Peter Foster. It will be argued that his highly contentious claim to have found no manifestations of racism (either direct or indirect) throughout his study of an inner-city, multi-ethnic comprehensive school was, in the last analysis, both misleading and inaccurate. It will be contended that such claims were based upon a research design and methodology which were ultimately determined by his own political orientation and the ethical and theoretical positions which he developed as a consequence.

Who's minding the shop?:the role of Canadian research ethics boards in the creation and uses of registries and biobanks

Abstract. Background. The amount of research utilizing health information has increased dramatically over the last ten years. Many institutions have extensive biobank holdings collected over a number of years for clinical and teaching purposes, but are uncertain as to the proper circumstances in which to permit research uses of these samples. Research Ethics Boards (REBs) in Canada and elsewhere in the world are grappling with these issues, but lack clear guidance regarding their role in the creation of and access to registries and biobanks. Methods. Chairs of 34 REBS and/or REB Administrators affiliated with Faculties of Medicine in Canadian universities were interviewed. Interviews consisted of structured questions dealing with diabetes-related scenarios, with open-ended responses and probing for rationales. The two scenarios involved the development of a diabetes registry using clinical encounter data across several physicians' practices, and the addition of biological samples to the registry to create a biobank. Results. There was a wide range of responses given for the questions raised in the scenarios, indicating a lack of clarity about the role of REBs in registries and biobanks. With respect to the creation of a registry, a minority of sites felt that consent was not required for the information to be entered into the registry. Whether patient consent was required for information to be entered into the registry and the duration for which the consent would be operative differed across sites. With respect to the creation of a biobank linked to the registry, a majority of sites viewed biobank information as qualitatively different from other types of personal health information. All respondents agreed that patient consent was needed for blood samples to be placed in the biobank but the duration of consent again varied. Conclusion. Participants were more attuned to issues surrounding biobanks as compared to registries and demonstrated a higher level of concern regarding biobanks. As registries and biobanks expand, there is a need for critical analysis of suitable roles for REBs and subsequent guidance on these topics. The authors conclude by recommending REB participation in the creation of registries and biobanks and the eventual drafting of comprehensive legislation.

Teenage Pregnancy and Motherhood: The Contribution of Support

This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the role of support in teenage motherhood. Family, partner and peer support are considered and literature emanating from both the USA and UK is reviewed. In summary the research literature indicates that family support is particularly important to teenage mothers and has been found to have a positive influence on parenting behaviours and practices. However, the mother–daughter relationship is not always a straightforward one and conflict between the two can diminish some of the positive impact. The research on partner support highlights how support from fathers and/or other male partners has been linked with improved financial and psychological outcomes for teenage mothers as well as having a positive influence on parenting behaviours. There is also evidence to suggest that support from partners may become increasingly important to teenage mothers over time and can be a valuable source of socializing participation and positive feedback. While the research available on peer support is much more limited it suggests that the emotional support of peers is perceived as being important by teenage mothers. Current research findings suggest that families, partners and peers tend to provide different, but complementary, forms of support for teenage mothers which, on the whole, appear to contribute to more positive outcomes for this group.

Development of a Portable Tissue Micro Array Instrument

Tissue micro array (TMA) is based on the idea of applying miniaturization and a high throughput approach to hybridization-based analyses of tissues. It facilitates biomedical research on a large scale in a single experiment; thus representing one of the most commonly used technologies in translational research. A critical analysis of the existing TMA instruments indicates that there are potential constraints in terms of portability, apart from costs and complexity. This paper will present the development of an affordable, configurable, and portable TMA instrument to allow an efficient collection of tissues, especially in instrument-to-tissue scenarios. The purely mechanical instrument requires no energy sources other than the user, is light weight, portable, and simple to use. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4004922]

Changing shape and shifting boundaries - the media portrayal of probation in Ireland

Literature on the media representation of probation highlights that probation as a ‘brand’ and concept is poorly understood and lacks public visibility. This has implications for its legitimacy and credibility. In this article we explore probation’s visibility in one country, the Republic of Ireland, through a critical analysis of print media representations of probationover a 12-year period (2001 to 2012). While our study finds that the majority of the coverage of probation was either positive or neutral in tone, we note a recent shift towards a more negative tone that we argue is reflective of the changing shape of the penal-probation boundaries. These changes are linked to resourcing of the criminal justice system and have implications for the public perception of probation.

Microneedle-Mediated Minimally Invasive Patient Monitoring

Background: The emerging field of microneedle-based minimally invasive patient monitoring and diagnosis is reviewed. Microneedle arrays consist of rows of micron-scale projections attached to a solid support. They have been widely investigated for transdermal drug and vaccine delivery applications since the late 1990s. However, researchers and clinicians have recently realized the great potential of microneedles for extraction of skin interstitial fluid and, less commonly, blood, for enhanced monitoring of patient health.

Methods: We reviewed the journal and patent literature, and summarized the findings and provided technical insights and critical analysis.

Results: We describe the basic concepts in detail and extensively review the work performed to date.

Conclusions: It is our view that microneedles will have an important role to play in clinical management of patients and will ultimately improve therapeutic outcomes for people worldwide.

Special Education Today in the United Kingdom

This chapter attempts to provide a critical analysis of special needs education within the United Kingdom today. Central to such an analysis is an understanding of the rapidly changing social and political milieu within which special needs education is embedded, including the rapidly changing demographics of schooling, and the devolution of political power into four separate but linked countries - England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Following a discussion of such wider social, political and educational issues, the authors thoroughly explore the convergences and divergences in policy and practice across the four devolved administrations. They describe a plethora of contemporary texts within each of the four administrations that speak to the need for special needs education to change in response to 21st century concerns about the problems of access to, and equity in education for all children. Despite this, they explain why they remain circumspect about the potential of such developments to lead to successful inclusive practices and developments on the ground. Their analysis in the last section centres on the issue of teacher education for inclusion and some very innovative UK research and development projects that have been reported to successfully engage teachers with new paradigm thinking and practice in the field of inclusive special needs education.

גבול (Border)

This paper is a reexamination of the concept of the geopolitical border through a critical analysis of prevalent conceptualizations of borders, as they are articulated in the fields of geopolitics, political theory and international relations. Suggesting that thinking of borders as the derivative of territorial definitions disregards the dependency of territoriality and sovereign space on the praxes of border making, this paper offers an analytic distinction between normative articulations of borders and the border as a political practice. This distinction enables the identification of partial and incoherent border making processes. Consequently, the creation of borders can be analyzed as an effect of a multiplicity of performative praxes, material, juridical and otherwise discursive, that operate in relation to the management of space and attribute it with geopolitical distinctions. Furthermore, the paper suggests that these praxes, which appear in dispersed sites and in a wide variety of loci, are intrinsically linked to different spatial practices of population management, of governmentality. Thus, I offer a reading of borders as a praxis which manages binary differentiations of matrixes of governmentality, which create schisms in the population as a totality, through the deployment of the evocation of sovereignty as the legitimizing source of this differentiation or for the means necessary for its sustainment.

Oltre il "Momento dell'Abolizione":Saggio in memoria di Louk Hulsman

This article is written to celebrate the fine contribution and constant optimism of Louk Hulsman to the debate about penal abolition, the rethinking of popular and political discourses on ‘crime’, and the institutionalised responses of the ‘criminal justice system’. Reflecting on his experiences of incarceration and on his critical analysis of the political economic relations of power, Louk Hulsman talked of the defining ‘moment of abolition’ – his reading of Thomas Mathiesen’s ground-breaking text, The Politics of Abolition. Having considered the key elements of Louk Hulsman’s work and its critical challenge to the criminological enterprise, the article explores the apparent political contradiction in campaigning for humane conditions while seeking abolition within the context of an ever-expanding, global prison-industrial complex.

Ultra-Wideband Communications - An idea whose time has still yet to come? [Wireless Corner]

This paper presents a critical analysis of ultrawideband (UWB) and considers the turbulent journey it has had from the Federal Communications Commission's bandwidth allocation in 2002 to today. It analyzes the standards, the standoffs, and the stalemate in standardization activities and investigates the past and present research and commercial activities in realizing the UWB dream. In this paper, statistical evidence is presented to depict UWB's changing fortunes and is utilized as an indicator of future prominence. This paper reviews some of the opinions and remarks from commentators and analyzes predictions that were made. Finally, it presents possible ways forward to reignite the high-data-rate UWB standardization pursuit.