Contextualising accounts of illness:Notions of responsibility and blame in white and South Asian respondents' accounts of diabetes causation

We undertook a secondary analysis of in-depth interviews with white (n = 32) and Pakistani and Indian (n = 32) respondents who had type 2 diabetes, which explored their perceptions and understandings of disease causation. We observed subtle, but important, differences in the ways in which these respondent groups attributed responsibility and blame for developing the disease. Whereas Pakistani and Indian respondents tended to externalise responsibility, highlighting their life circumstances in general and/or their experiences of migrating to Britain in accounting for their diabetes (or the behaviours they saw as giving rise to it), white respondents, by contrast, tended to emphasise the role of their own lifestyle 'choices' and 'personal failings'. In seeking to understand these differences, we argue for a conceptual and analytical approach which embraces both micro- (i.e. everyday) and macro- (i.e. cultural) contextual factors and experiences. In so doing, we provide a critique of social scientific studies of lay accounts/understandings of health and illness. We suggest that greater attention needs to be paid to the research encounter (that is, to who is looking at whom and in what circumstances) to understand the different kinds of contexts researchers have highlighted in presenting and interpreting their data. © 2007 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Exploring care relations in later life: disentangling notions of care and choice

The experience of later life varies widely and is often framed in terms of the active lifestyles of the Third Age and the frailty and abjection of the Fourth Age. This thesis sought to understand how the concepts of care and choice are enacted, experienced and interrelated in the context of both informal and formal care in later life and how older people themselves, their families and significant others understand and experience these concepts. The discourse of personalisation that dominates care services has led to an emphasis on individual choice, control and independence so that those in need of care are faced with what has been described as the ‘logic of choice’, a focus on individual responsibility rather than care. Adopting a Feminist Foucauldian theoretical approach and drawing on Tronto’s (1993) ethic of care, this thesis explores the experiences of older people and their informal carers through dialogical narrative analysis. The stories begin with the recognition by individuals that there is a need for care and how this need is met through negotiations with families and significant others. As needs increase the physical and logistical limits of informal care by individuals are reached, often leading to a need to ‘choose’ formal care. Rather than impacting solely on the care recipient, formal care is shown as being an experience that is shared with informal carers. Indeed, the participants depict how informal care continues alongside formal care and how the boundaries between them become blurred. I argue that a binary division between actively making choices and being a passive recipient are not appropriate to understandings of care. By disentangling the notions of care and choice this thesis explores the extent to which these concepts are relevant to the experience of older people in specific care situations.

The information security policy unpacked:a critical study of the content of university policies

Ensuring the security of corporate information, that is increasingly stored, processed and disseminated using information and communications technologies [ICTs], has become an extremely complex and challenging activity. This is a particularly important concern for knowledge-intensive organisations, such as universities, as the effective conduct of their core teaching and research activities is becoming ever more reliant on the availability, integrity and accuracy of computer-based information resources. One increasingly important mechanism for reducing the occurrence of security breaches, and in so doing, protecting corporate information, is through the formulation and application of a formal information security policy (InSPy). Whilst a great deal has now been written about the importance and role of the information security policy, and approaches to its formulation and dissemination, there is relatively little empirical material that explicitly addresses the structure or content of security policies. The broad aim of the study, reported in this paper, is to fill this gap in the literature by critically examining the structure and content of authentic information security policies, rather than simply making general prescriptions about what they ought to contain. Having established the structure and key features of the reviewed policies, the paper critically explores the underlying conceptualisation of information security embedded in the policies. There are two important conclusions to be drawn from this study: (1) the wide diversity of disparate policies and standards in use is unlikely to foster a coherent approach to security management; and (2) the range of specific issues explicitly covered in university policies is surprisingly low, and reflects a highly techno-centric view of information security management.

Shifting borders of European Union internal security:technology, externalisation and accountability

This edited volume analyzes recent key developments in EU border management. In light of the refugee crises in the Mediterranean and the responses on the part of EU member states, this volume presents an in-depth reflection on European border practices and their political, social and economic consequences. Approaching borders as concepts in flux, the authors identify three main trends: the rise of security technologies such as the EUROSUR system, the continued externalization of EU security governance such as border mission training in third states, and the unfolding dynamics of accountability. The contributions show that internal security cooperation in Europe is far from consolidated, since both political oversight mechanisms and the definition of borders remain in flux. This edited volume makes a timely and interdisciplinary contribution to the ongoing academic and political debate on the future of open borders and legitimate security governance in Europe. It offers a valuable resource for scholars in the fields of international security and migration studies, as well as for practitioners dealing with border management mechanisms.

Protocol, image, and discourse in political leadership competition:the case of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, 1997-2002

This article examines the relationship between Prime Minister Jospin and President Chirac in the period 1997 to 2002. It is concerned in particular with symbolism, discourse and protocol, and how these have mediated the political competition between Chirac and Jospin. We develop a framework of analysis with several main strands. We consider the effects of the institutions of the Fifth Republic upon the political conduct of Prime Minister and President. We observe the perceived character traits of the individuals concerned, as well as the character traits expected of the offices of President and Prime Minister. We investigate the influence of the past upon the behaviour of Chirac and Jospin in the present, both in terms of notions of regime crisis which configured the institutions in the first place, and in relation to the image of previous holders of the offices (especially Charles de Gaulle and Franois Mitterrand).

World knowledge in the process of translation

The paper illustrates the role of world knowledge in comprehending and translating texts. A short news item, which displays world knowledge fairly implicitly in condensed lexical forms, was translated by students from English into German. It is shown that their translation strategies changed from a first draft which was rather close to the surface structure of the source text to a final version which took situational aspects, texttypological conventions and the different background knowledge of the respective addressees into account. Decisions on how much world knowledge has to be made explicit in the target text, however, must be based on the relevance principle. Consequences for teaching and for the notions of semantic knowledge and world knowledge are discussed.

Collective action and civil disobedience: the anti-GMO campaign of the Faucheurs volontaires

Civil disobedience has hitherto enjoyed only a relatively marginal place in the repertoires of French social movements, but has recently emerged as a key rallying frame for social mobilization, especially among environmental and counter-globalization movements. This paper examines the theory and practice of civil disobedience in the French context through an analysis of one such movement, the anti-GM Faucheurs Volontaires. Discussing the highly controversial campaign's positioning as 'civic disobedience', the article examines contested discourses of violence surrounding crop destruction, and the state responses to action, before asking what the campaign's claims to Republican civism mean for traditional notions of the relationship between state and challenging groups in France. It argues that framing action as civil disobedience is central to attempts to construct political and popular legitimacy, in terms of the campaign's national, international, and sectoral goals.

Concentration of the UK stock market

During 1999 and 2000 a large number of articles appeared in the financial press which argued that the concentration of the FTSE 100 had increased. Many of these reports suggested that stock market volatility in the UK had risen, because the concentration of its stock markets had increased. This study undertakes a comprehensive measurement of stock market concentration using the FTSE 100 index. We find that during 1999, 2000 and 2001 stock market concentration was noticeably higher than at any other time since the index was introduced. When we measure the volatility of the FTSE 100 index we do not find an association between concentration and its volatility. When we examine the variances and covariance’s of the FTSE 100 constituents we find that security volatility appears to be positively related to concentration changes but concentration and the size of security covariances appear to be negatively related. We simulate the variance of four versions of the FTSE 100 index; in each version of the index the weighting structure reflects either an equally weighted index, or one with levels of low, intermediate or high concentration. We find that moving from low to high concentration has very little impact on the volatility of the index. To complete the study we estimate the minimum variance portfolio for the FTSE 100, we then compare concentration levels of this index to those formed on the basis of market weighting. We find that realised FTSE index weightings are higher than for the minimum variance index.

The microstructure of the Irish stock market

This is the first paper to examine the microstructure of the Irish Stock Market empirically and is motivated by the adoption, on June 7th of Xetra the modern pan European auction trading system. Prior to this the exchange utilized an antiquated floor based system. This change was an important event for the market as a rich literature exists to suggest that the trading system exerts a strong influence over the behavior of security returns. We apply the ICSS algorithm of Inclan and Tiao (1994) to discover whether the change to the trading system caused a shift in unconditional volatility at the time Xetra was introduced. Because the trading mechanism can influence volatility in a number of ways we also estimate the partial adjustment coefficients of the Amihud and Mendelson (1987) model prior and subsequent to the introduction of Xetra. Although we find no evidence of volatility changes associated with the introduction of Xetra we do find evidence of an increase in the speed of adjustment (JEL: G15).

Languaging the worker:globalized governmentalities in/of language in peripheral spaces

In the introduction to the special issue “Languaging the worker: globalized governmentalities in/of language in peripheral spaces”, we take up the notion of governmentality as a means to interrogate the complex relationship between language, labor, power and subjectivity in peripheral multilingual spaces. Our aim here is to argue for the study of governmentality as a viable and growing approach in critical sociolinguistic research. As such, in this introduction, we first discuss key concepts germane to our interrogations, including the notions of governmentality, languaging, peripherality and language worker. We proceed to map out five ethnographically and discourse-analytically informed case studies. These examine diverse actors in different settings pertaining to the domain of work. Finally we chart how the case studies construe the issue of languaging the worker through a governmentality frame.

Contestation and negotiation: regionalism and the politics of school textbooks in Ukraine's eastern borderlands

This paper aims to explore the (re)construction of identities in three regions adjacent to the Russian–Ukrainian border. The article analyses the areas' historical and political development and argues that placing such areas within a mega-region term such as ‘eastern Ukraine’ fails to recognise important differences between them. Content analysis of regional history textbooks reveals that the ‘official’ state historical narrative found in school history textbooks is heavily negotiated, with regional elites in each area ‘picking and choosing’ which parts of the ‘official’ state narrative to accept and which parts to reject. In this way, the article demonstrates how the notions of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are highly debated topics in the Ukrainian classroom as the central and local state elites are both part of the dynamic process of (re)definition of national identities.

Sanctioning pregnancy:a psychological perspective on the paradoxes and culture of research

Pregnancy provides a very public, visual confirmation of femininity. It is a time of rapid physical and psychological adjustment for women and is surrounded by stereotyping, taboos and social expectations. This book seeks to examine these popular attitudes towards pregnancy and to consider how they influence women’s experiences of being pregnant. Sanctioning Pregnancy offers a unique critique of sociocultural constructions of pregnancy and the ways in which it is represented in contemporary culture, and examines the common myths which exist about diet, exercise and work in pregnancy, alongside notions of risk and media portrayals of pregnant women. Topics covered include: •Do pregnant women change their diet and why? •Is memory really impaired in pregnancy? •How risky behaviour is defined from exercise to employment •The biomedical domination of pregnancy research. Different theoretical standpoints are critically examined, including a medico-scientific model, feminist perspectives and bio-psychosocial and psychodynamic approaches. Table of Contents: Introduction. Cognition and Cognitive Dysfunction. Working and Employment. Dietary Change and Eating. Exercise and Activity. Pregnancy and Risk. Pregnancy Under Surveillance. Concluding Remarks. References/Bibliography. Index.

Heritage and innovative learning approaches:an alternative approach to engineering education

Over recent years, the role of engineering in promoting a sustainable society has received much public attention [1] with particular emphasis given to the need to promote the future prosperity and security of society through the recruitment and education of more engineers [2,3]. From an employment perspective, the Leitch Review [4] suggested that ‘generic’ transferable employability skills development should constitute a more substantial part of university education. This paper argues that the global drivers impacting engineering education [5] correlate strongly to those underpinning the Leitch review, therefore the question of how to promote transferable employability skills within the wider engineering curriculum is increasingly relevant. By exploring the use of heritage in the engineering curriculum as a way to promote learning and engage students, a less familiar approach to study is discussed. This approach moves away from stereotypical notions of the use of information technology as representing the pinnacle of innovation in education. Taking the student experience as its starting point, the paper draws upon the findings of an exploratory study critically analysing the pedagogical value of using heritage in engineering education. It discusses a teaching approach in which engineering students are taken out of their ‘comfort zone’ - away from the classroom, laboratory and computer, to a heritage site some 100 miles away from the university. The primary learning objective underpinning this approach is to develop students’ transferable skills by encouraging them to consider how to apply theoretical concepts to a previously unexplored situation. By reflecting upon students’ perceptions of the value of this approach, and by identifying how heritage may be utilised as an innovative learning and teaching approach in engineering education, this paper makes a notable contribution to current pedagogical debates in the discipline.

Transnationalism as a force for ethnic minority enterprise? The case of Somalis in Leicester

The extant literature on the phenomenon of transnational entrepreneurship has documented that in an era characterized by ‘superdiversity’, ethnic minorities use their diasporic networks to access an array of valuable resources in order to facilitate entrepreneurial activity. The article examines the connection between the notions of ‘superdiversity’, transnationalism and entrepreneurship by illuminating the dynamics of ‘transnational’ Somali business activity in Leicester. Considering this as a critical case, we attempt to address a gap in the literature on ethnic minority enterprise, which has struggled to address the ‘diversification of diversity’ that attends the arrival of new communities in the UK. Moreover, the article contributes to the discussion on the importance of ‘conditioning factors’ in explaining the ‘integration’ of new arrivals. Although familial and co-ethnic ties influence the availability and interaction of social, financial and human capital, this falls considerably short of neoliberal depictions of globalization. The political-economic context imposes harsh constraints upon Somali business activity which cannot be circumvented by the utilization of diasporic links, and transnational entrepreneurship is likely to be the preserve of a minority of minorities.

Logics of marginalisation in health and social care reform:integration, choice, and provider-blind provision

The period 2010–2013 was a time of far-reaching structural reforms of the National Health Service in England. Of particular interest in this paper is the way in which radical critiques of the reform process were marginalised by pragmatic concerns about how to maintain the market-competition thrust of the reforms while avoiding potential fragmentation. We draw on the Essex school of political discourse theory and develop a ‘nodal’ analytical framework to argue that widespread and repeated appeals to a narrative of choice-based integrated care served to take the fragmentation ‘sting’ out of radical critiques of the pro-competition reform process. This served to marginalise alternative visions of health and social care, and to pre-empt the contestation of a key norm in the provision of health care that is closely associated with the notions of ‘any willing provider’ and ‘any qualified provider’: provider-blind provision.