Authenticity and stakeholder planning in the segregated city

This paper is concerned with the production and reproduction of segregation in Northern Ireland and how territoriality has impacted on the Protestant community in Derry/Londonderry. The city was pivotal in the development of the most recent conflict, has a majority Catholic population, sits on a contested border and has attempted to respond to expressions of alienation that have emerged from the Protestant community. The research used multiple methods to understand the nature of alienation and exclusion using secondary data, a quantitative household survey, in-depth interviews and focus
groups. This empirical commitment was important in identifying and unpacking the claims of various stakeholders with an interest in the use and development of the area. It is argued here that a version of Collaborative Planning provides a loosely articulated conceptual and methodological framework for drawing Protestant communities into the wider planning framework for the city. The data, however, suggest that the nature of stakeholders is complex and contradictory, and discursive practice that seeks consensus has limits, especially in validating or legitimating the assertions of self-acclaimed stakeholders. The research shows that the Protestant community had declined and residualised but had little experience of direct conflict with the majority community. Moreover, the Protestant community is now more likely to use the city centre (a predominantly Catholic space) for consumption and work, and its demographic decline has stopped. These findings are important as policy responses and community relations programmes have failed to distinguish between measurable socioeconomic needs and claims concerning ethnic alienation based on emotion and manipulation. Such alienation has tended to bolster single identity communities who have little or no prospect and/or knowledge of the collaborative efforts required to deliver meaningful regeneration. More realistic strategies based on agonism focus attention on power relations and the authenticity of positions adopted by competing interests in land use management and change. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to acknowledge and value contestation but to challenge sectarian discourses represented as legitimate claims about community needs and priorities.

Psychological problems in children with hemiplegia: a European multicentre survey

Objective: To describe the prevalence and determinants of psychological problems in European children with hemiplegia. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Home visits in nine European regions by research associates who administered standard questionnaires to parents. Patients: 279 children with hemiplegia aged 8–12 years were recruited from population-based case registers. Outcome measure: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire comprising emotion, conduct, hyperactivity, peer problems and prosocial domains. An “impact score” (IS) measures the social and psychological impact of the child’s difficulties. Results: Children with hemiplegia had higher mean scores on the total difficulties score (TDS) compared with a normative sample (p<0.001). 48% and 57% of children, respectively, had borderline–abnormal TDS and IS. Significant, independent associations were observed between intellectual impairment and an increased risk for hyperactivity (odds ratio; OR 8.4, 95% CI 3.4 to 20.8), peer problems (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.7 to 5.5), psychological and social impact (OR 3.0, 95% CI 1.6 to 5.6) when children with an intellectual quotient (IQ) <50 were compared with those with an IQ >70. Boys had an increased risk for conduct (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.7) and hyperactivity disorders (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.4 to 4.6). Poor self-esteem was associated with an increased risk for peer problems (OR 5.8, 95% CI 2.5 to 13.4) and poor prosocial skills (OR 7.5, 95% CI 2.4 to 23.2) compared with those with high self-esteem. Other determinants of psychological adjustment were impaired communication, severe pain and living with a single parent. Conclusions: Many of the psychological problems identified are amenable to treatment. Special attention should be given to those at highest risk of developing psychological difficulties.

Action research and reflective practice: towards a holistic view

Two concepts that have captured the imagination of the educational community in the last 60 years have been those of ‘reflective practice’ and ‘action research’. Both, in their various forms, are considered to be critical dimensions of the professional development of teachers. However, whilst both were receiving academic attention during the 1930s and 1940s (Lewin, 1934, cited in Adelman, 1993; Lewin, 1946; Dewey, 1933), it was not until Stenhouse’s (1975) notion of the teacher-as-researcher that the two came most compellingly into relationship and educational action research as a process, which held at its centre different kinds of reflection, began to be reformulated in Britain (Carr, 1993). This article considers the important part played in teachers’ development by different kinds of action research. Its central thesis is that, although action research has a critical role to play not least as a means of building the capacity of teachers as researchers of their own practice, there has been insufficient attention given to both the nature of reflection in the action research process, and its relationship to the purposes, processes and outcomes. The article challenges the rational, cognitive models of reflection that are implicit in much of the action research literature. It suggests that more attention needs to be given to the importance of the role of emotion in understanding and developing the capacities for reflection which facilitates personal, professional and ultimately system change.

Death and football: An analysis of men's talk about emotions

This study is concerned with men's talk about emotions and with how emotion discourses function in the construction and negotiation of masculine ways of doing emotions and of consonant masculine subject positions. A sample group of 16 men, who were recruited from two social contexts in England, participated in focus groups on 'men and emotions'. Group discussions were transcribed and analysed using discourse analysis. Participants drew upon a range of discursive resources in constructing masculine emotional behaviour and negotiating masculine subject positions. They constructed men as emotional beings, but only within specific, rule-governed contexts, and cited death, a football match and a nightclub scenario as prototypical contexts for the permissible/understandable expression of grief, joy and anger, respectively. However, in the nightclub scenario, the men distanced themselves from the expression of anger as violence, whilst maintaining a masculine subject position. These discursive practices are discussed in terms of the possibilities for effecting change in men's emotional lives.

The good our field can hope to do, the harm it should avoid

This paper tries to achieve a balanced view of the ethical issues raised by emotion-oriented technology as it is, rather than as it might be imagined. A high proportion of applications seem ethically neutral. Uses in entertainment and allied areas do no great harm or good. Empowering professions may do either, but regulatory systems already exist. Ethically positive aspirations involve mitigating problems that already exist by supporting humans in emotion-related judgments, by replacing technology that treats people in dehumanized and/or demeaning ways, and by improving access for groups who struggle with existing interfaces. Emotion-oriented computing may also contribute to revaluing human faculties other than pure intellect. Many potential negatives apply to technology as a whole. Concerns specifically related to emotion involve creating a lie, by simulate emotions that the systems do not have, or promoting mechanistic conceptions of emotion. Intermediate issues arise where more general problems could be exacerbated-helping systems to sway human choices or encouraging humans to choose virtual worlds rather than reality. "SIIF" systems (semi-intelligent information filters) are particularly problematic. These use simplified rules to make judgments about people that are complex, and have potentially serious consequences. The picture is one of balances to recognize and negotiate, not uniform good or evil. © 2010-2012 IEEE.

Cross-Cultural Patterns in Dynamic Ratings of Positive and Negative Natural Emotional Behaviour

Background: Studies of cross-cultural variations in the perception of emotion have typically compared rates of recognition of static posed stimulus photographs. That research has provided evidence for universality in the recognition of a range of emotions but also for some systematic cross-cultural variation in the interpretation of emotional expression. However, questions remain about how widely such findings can be generalised to real life emotional situations. The present study provides the first evidence that the previously reported interplay between universal and cultural influences extends to ratings of natural, dynamic emotional stimuli.

Methodology/Principal Findings: Participants from Northern Ireland, Serbia, Guatemala and Peru used a computer based tool to continuously rate the strength of positive and negative emotion being displayed in twelve short video sequences by people from the United Kingdom engaged in emotional conversations. Generalized additive mixed models were developed to assess the differences in perception of emotion between countries and sexes. Our results indicate that the temporal pattern of ratings is similar across cultures for a range of emotions and social contexts. However, there are systematic differences in intensity ratings between the countries, with participants from Northern Ireland making the most extreme ratings in the majority of the clips.

Conclusions/Significance: The results indicate that there is strong agreement across cultures in the valence and patterns of ratings of natural emotional situations but that participants from different cultures show systematic variation in the intensity with which they rate emotion. Results are discussed in terms of both ‘in-group advantage’ and ‘display rules’ approaches. This study indicates that examples of natural spontaneous emotional behaviour can be used to study cross-cultural variations in the perception of emotion.