Client self-assessment in community aged care: A comparative study involving older Australians and their case managers

Self-assessment of support needs is a relatively new and under-researched phenomenon in domiciliary aged care. This article outlines the results of a comparative study focusing on whether a self-assessment approach assists clients to identify support needs and the degree to which self-assessed needs differ from an assessment conducted by community care professionals. A total of 48 older people and their case managers completed a needs assessment tool. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were used to ascertain older people’s views and preferences regarding the self-assessment process. The study suggests that while a co-assessment approach as outlined in this article has the potential to assist older people to gain a better understanding of their care needs as well as the assessment process and its ramifications, client self-assessment should be seen as part of a co-assessment process involving care professionals. Such a co-assessment process allows older people to gain a better understanding of their support needs and the wider community aged care context. The article suggests that a co-assessment process involving both clients and care professionals contains features that have the capacity to enhance domiciliary aged care.

Xploring txtuality & txtually transmitd dis-Ez : exploring textuality & textually transmitted dis-ease

In studyn th sociolog of transl8n, ther is logic n atemptin 2 stay az tru 2 form az possbl n reportin on studies, 4 wat is known is n de performanc of reportin, furthr transl8ns ocur. + additionl & praps unesary distortns ocur wen d resrch is bEing disemN8d. Taking a performativ turn, research disein8n attnds 2 > than th aesthetic. N nvestig8ng how young ppl bcom positind n thR preferences 4 textn ther iz positnin dat trivializs, pathologizs & marginalizs. N only attendin 2 a sanitizd voice, 1 made 2 fit th acadimc audiens, transl8d in2 d discours of th0s situa8d n d mainstrem, proceses of colonz8n & opresn r perpetu8d. N givng academic credens 2 particla voices & not othrs, conventns of academia suport a domiNt discours: "to b takn serious dont stay az u r". This papr ther4 focuss on a partclr part of reserch, the collatral damge of reserch dissemn8n that restrcts & altrs voice. 2 redres violenc gainst such voices, a performativ turn is takn. 

The cosmopolitan stranger

The chapter contributes to a critical discussion of cosmopolitanism by examining the affinities between the cosmopolitan subject and the stranger as conceptualized in the social sciences. The similarities between these two social actors are manifested in the cosmopolitan outlook/disposition espoused in contemporary versions of cosmopolitanism. Drawing on the work of Simmel and Bauman, the chapter outlines the major characteristics of the stranger and, through an investigation of various cosmopolitan thinkers, we delineate a cosmopolitan world-view. This comparison leads to my central thesis that a new social type has emerged which can be categorized as the cosmopolitan stranger. The chapter demonstrates how cosmopolitan strangers develop a more perceptive, broader and keener insight than those confined to either a particular or universal perspective. As a consequence of this enlightened view, these new social actors undermine binary logic and the essentialism underpinning ‘standpoint epistemology’. We begin with an investigation of the stranger in sociology, and then provide a brief examination of the major attributes of the cosmopolitan disposition and conclude with a critical assessment of the cosmopolitan stranger.

Introduction to the special issue on science fiction

This introduction to a special issue of Thesis Eleven devoted to science fiction begins by exploring the way the genre has been handled by German and French critical theory and their Anglophone equivalents. It proceeds to a discussion of the historical sociology of the genre and, thence, to an account of what it terms the dialectic of science fiction endangerment. Finally, it concludes with a brief overview of the various contributions to the issue.