Supporting an ethnic minority woman's choice for pain relief in labour: a reflection

Despite professional expectations for midwives to provide care to women that is founded in equality and recognises diversity (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2015), women from ethnic minority populations consistently suggest that they are not heard (Briscoe and Lavender, 2009; Tobin et al, 2014). This article reflects upon a situation where a Portuguese woman with limited English speaking ability was denied access to epidural anaesthesia as the midwife felt that she could not give valid consent to the procedure without the presence of an interpreter. The midwife’s role within this situation will be reflected upon and implications for midwifery practice identified.

Counter-Mappings: Cartography and Difference

Introduction to the co-edited book 'Cartographies of Differences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Visible Difference, Stigmatising Language(s) and the Distinctive Construction of Prejudices against Others in Leeds and Warsaw

The chapter argues that language and cultural communication matter in a transnational world and that the transmission of prejudices against minorities has to be closely analysed while contextualising national histories with minorities. Looking at two spatial sites (Leeds and Warsaw) and analysing interview material that was drawn from a larger study, the authors discuss the way local people address difference particularly through the axes of gendered ethnicity (Muslim men) and gendered class (male underclass). It explores how the same categories of difference are discursively produced in Poland and the UK/ England; to what degree they differ or overlap.

Size Matters: The Effect of the Size of Ethnic Groups on Development

The share of ethnic groups is one of the most important features of African politics. It affects civil wars, representation in government positions, distributive and allocative policies. In this paper we use the partition of ethnic groups as a natural experiment in order to estimate the effect of the share of these ethnic groups on development. We show that larger groups have an advantage in terms of development and that the partition in itself does not matter for development. This result is explained by the fact that the partition matters only when the resulting groups are relatively small, since their lack of political representation may weaken support for institutions, may bias policies and the provision of ethnic/regional public goods.

Escola e diversidade cultural dos alunos: Um estudo no 1º ciclo do ensino básico

Portugal não foi exceção à globalização do mundo e hoje é procurado por povos de toda a parte. A diferença cultural destes povos/minorias reflete-se nas escolas a partir do 1.° Ciclo do Ensino Básico (CEB). No enquadramento teórico de vários autores sobre educação inter/ multicultural para as minorias, abordámos questões sobre a "Sociedade Inter/ Multicultural, Escola Multicultural”, a "Educação Multicultural", e a "Autonomia da escola e gestão do Currículo”. Focalizámos o estudo na "Escola e Minorias étnicas”, na relação da escola com, "estereótipos, preconceitos e atitudes” na sua inter ação com a comunidade e estudámos o caso concreto da escola e a etnia cigana. No estudo empírico, através de um questionário, recolhemos a opinião dos docentes de seis concelhos do distrito de Évora de Escolas do 1.° CEB, sobre as ”Práticas Educativas Desejáveis" e “Existentes” nas escolas em relação a estes alunos. Os resultados obtidos levam-nos a concluir que as práticas educativas existentes não respeitam totalmente a cultura dos alunos de minorias/ciganos mas que existe uma sensibilização para práticas educativas que transformem a escola numa escola multicultural. /ABSTRACT - School and Student's Cultural Diversity Portugal was not exception to the world's globalization and today is looked by peoples (ethnic minorities) of all different places. The cultural difference of these peoples/minorities reflects in the schools since 1.st degree (1. ° Ciclo do Ensino Básico). In the theoretical part of several authors on inter/multicultural education for the minorities, we approached questions on the "Inter/Multicultural Society,” Multicultural School", "School and multicultural education", the "School’s autonomy, curriculum management and multicultural education". We focused the study on the "gypsies" (ethnic minority) approaching questions of´Minority ethnic and school” and "School, Preconceptions and Stereotypes". In the empirical study, through a questionnaire, we collected the opinion of the professors of 1.st degree, from six councils (concelhos) of Évora's district, on "Desirable Educative Practice" and "the Existing ones" in the schools in relation to these pupils. The gotten results take us to conclude that the existing educative practice do not totally respect the culture of the pupils of minorities/gypsies but that exists a sensibilization for educative practice that transform the school into a multicultural school.

Spiking neural network model of sound localisation using the interaural intensity difference

In this paper, a spiking neural network (SNN) architecture to simulate the sound localization ability of the mammalian auditory pathways using the interaural intensity difference cue is presented. The lateral superior olive was the inspiration for the architecture, which required the integration of an auditory periphery (cochlea) model and a model of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body. The SNN uses leaky integrateand-fire excitatory and inhibitory spiking neurons, facilitating synapses and receptive fields. Experimentally derived headrelated transfer function (HRTF) acoustical data from adult domestic cats were employed to train and validate the localization ability of the architecture, training used the supervised learning algorithm called the remote supervision method to determine the azimuthal angles. The experimental results demonstrate that the architecture performs best when it is localizing high-frequency sound data in agreement with the biology, and also shows a high degree of robustness when the HRTF acoustical data is corrupted by noise.

Brand personification and symbolic consumption among ethnic minority teenage consumers: An empirical study

A plethora of evidence suggests that developed societies such as the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly multicultural by the day. Hence, the diversity of consumption in these societies becomes gradually evident in the form of residents’ age, gender, income and ethnicity. Accordingly, this article explores the brand personification and symbolic consumption in respect of London-based Black African teenage consumers. The study is rooted in the interpretive research paradigm with 36 in-depth interviews conducted with the target respondents. The study shows the interactions of personal, social, cultural, psychological and commercial factors in how these young ethnic minority consumers make their consumption decisions, define and manage their various ‘selves’ in the postmodern society. It specifically highlights that they use symbolic consumption to address their need for acceptance in the society. It updates the extant ethnic minority studies and enriches the current understanding about symbolic consumption and brand personification especially with a focus on a specific segment of the society. The managerial implications of the study are highlighted in the article.

Multiculturalismo e ensino : um estudo de caso numa turma do Curso Profissional de Técnico de Turismo do 10.º ano de escolaridade

Relatório da prática de ensino supervisionada, Mestrado em Ensino da Economia e da Contabilidade, Universidade de Lisboa, 2011

Youth attitudes toward difference and diversity: a cross-national analysis

This paper analyses youth attitudes toward difference and cultural diversity. Firstly, we analyse data from 65 countries showing that youths are more tolerant than older people toward both stigmatised groups and groups perceived as racially or ethnically different. Findings also show that political conservatism is a very stable predictor of intolerance to difference. Secondly, we study the appraisals of cultural diversity in 21 European countries, showing that youths express greater openness to cultural diversity than older people. In this new study, while values of conservation correlate negatively with openness to cultural diversity, values of self-transcendence correlate positively.