O processo de desafiliação vivido no seio familiar e a representação social da adolescente em situação de rua: em busca da prevenção

A proposta deste estudo é entender o fenômeno da adolescente em situação de rua através da Teoria das Representações Sociais, buscando a imbricação de relações, funções, tensões, saberes, valores que constroem e transformam as práticas cotidianas familiares para produzir o afastamento do convívio familiar ou prevenir a desafiliação. O objetivo principal é analisar o processo de desafiliação vivido na família e a possibilidade de sua prevenção a partir das representações sociais sobre a adolescente em situação de rua na perspectiva da própria adolescente. Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, na qual 21 adolescentes com experiência de viver na rua foram acessadas em um abrigo da rede municipal. Os dados foram produzidos através da entrevista semi-estruturada e analisados à luz da análise temático-categorial de conteúdo com auxílio do software NVivo. Os resultados indicam que a representação social da adolescente em situação de rua para a própria adolescente envolve um circuito que compreende a tradicional imagem do menor carente e abandonado, por suas perdas e ausências que constituem verdadeiros desafios de sobrevivência, para os quais encontram formas de enfrentamento em sua maioria consideradas desviantes, acrescentando a imagem da delinquência e criminalidade. Contudo, as práticas, relações, valores e lógicas estabelecidas, que tornam possível esse modo de viver, dão contorno a uma imagem da adolescente ancorada em atributos positivos como força, alegria, inteligência, afetividade, sagacidade/habilidade/capacidade de aprendizado, sinalizando uma ruptura (ainda que parcial) na tradicional representação da mulher como sexo frágil e submisso. O processo de desafiliação, por sua vez, é gradualmente constituído, de um lado pelos diversos fatores de esgarçamento dos laços familiares, e, de outro lado, pela aproximação e socialização com a rua, sendo fortemente influenciado pelas representações sociais acerca da adolescente em situação de rua (pela familiaridade com as práticas relacionadas com este modo de viver, mas, principalmente, pelos atributos positivos relativos à ideia de liberdade, força, diversão, facilidade, enfrentamento). Conhecer e valorizar a trajetória, crenças e representações de cada família e a estrutura de práticas e relações, situando-a num contexto histórico e cultural parece fundamental para a atuação junto às famílias e às adolescentes. A lógica das políticas públicas voltadas para a família deve considerar a instrumentalização que viabilize a atuação com base nesses parâmetros.

É mais fácil condenar quem já cumpre pena de vida: um estudo sobre a prática profissional do assistente social no Sistema Penitenciário do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a prática do assistente social no Sistema Penitenciário do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, a partir dos pressupostos estabelecidos pelo Projeto Ético Político da Profissão. A relevância deste estudo consiste em colocar no centro do debate o desafio que representa para a categoria, com um direcionamento profissional ético e político comprometido com os interesses da classe trabalhadora e com a efetivação dos direitos da mesma, efetivar estes pressupostos num campo de atuação marcado pelo controle e repressão dos indivíduos pertencentes a esta classe. A prisão é uma instituição total, punitiva, vingativa, onde observamos a face mais dura do Estado, onde, muitas vezes, o assistente social se vê sozinho na defesa e efetivação dos direitos do preso. Constitui-se como objetivo central deste estudo analisar se dentro desta instituição, o assistente social consegue efetivar os valores defendidos e consagrados pelo projeto profissional. Para realização do estudo nos debruçamos sobre a produção teórica e a história do sistema penitenciário; sobre a legislação específica da área (Lei de Execução Penal e Regulamento Penitenciário do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) e sobre documentos, relatórios, manuais, etc., elaborados pela Coordenação de Serviço Social da Secretaria de Estado de Administração Penitenciária (SEAP). Devido às limitações impostas pela instituição, os sujeitos de nosso estudo foram os gestores e ex-gestores que aturam na Coordenação de Serviço Social e na antiga Divisão de Serviço Social da SEAP. Procuramos resgatar a trajetória histórica do Serviço Social dentro do Sistema Prisional fluminense, destacando as batalhas e conquistas alcançadas pela categoria, ao longo dos quase sessenta anos de inserção nas unidades prisionais do Rio de Janeiro. Observamos ao longo do estudo que a inserção do assistente social no Sistema Penitenciário encontra-se devidamente institucionalizada, regulamentada e organizada, o que demonstra a relevância do trabalho deste profissional, que muitas vezes ainda é visto como benfeitor do preso. Hoje, a execução penal pode ser considerada uma área consolidada para a atuação profissional dos assistentes sociais, embora apresente uma série de inconsistências e discrepâncias, tais como péssimas condições de trabalho, violação de direitos, entre outras. Procuramos mostrar neste estudo como o profissional de Serviço Social enfrenta essa realidade e contribui para a sua transformação, a partir dos ideais defendidos pelo Projeto Ético Político da profissão.

Não tenha vergonha, vem pra Marcha da maconha: ação coletiva, política e identidade em um movimento social contemporâneo

O presente trabalho aborda o movimento social conhecido como Marcha da Maconha, buscando uma análise compreensiva de suas características a partir de revisão teórica e pesquisa etnográfica. Apresenta inicialmente uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o fenômeno das drogas, com o objetivo específico de contextualizar o debate em que o movimento se insere. Busca-se enfatizar a polissemia do termo droga, os aspectos culturais, sociais, econômicos e políticos da história da proibição de algumas drogas e o atual cenário de modelo proibicionista. A partir deste enquadramento, o trabalho apresenta um histórico da manifestação Marcha da Maconha no Brasil, enfatizando seus princípios norteadores, modo de organização, demandas e identidade. Busca-se compreender, lançando mão da abordagem teórica de autores como Touraine e Melucci, os fatores de mobilização e pertencimento construídos na manifestação que marcam experiências na vida social. Apresenta então resultados da pesquisa de campo junto à rede de ativistas da manifestação na cidade do Rio de Janeiro no ano de 2013. Partindo da diversidade e das tensões internas e históricas da organização, o trabalho propõe mapear e caracterizar os grupos engajados, evidenciando as diferentes interpretações sobre o próprio movimento, perfis de ativismo e militância, interesses, enfoques e estratégias.

Controle social no Brasil recente: Neoliberalismo, guerra às drogas e Estado penal

No final do século XX, observamos a restruturação produtiva do capital sob a concepção neoliberal. As transformações econômicas impactariam a estrutura do Estado, o modo de controle social, bem como a função do cárcere na sociedade. A hipertrofia do Estado penal ganha novos agravantes com a política de guerra às drogas, declarada pelos EUA na década de 1970. A combinação destes ingredientes impactaram a forma de vigiar e punir a classe trabalhadora no Brasil, com o aumento da repressão e criminalização da pobreza. As heranças históricas de desigualdade social e racial agravam o controle sobre as classes perigosas. A violência urbana torna-se uma verdadeira questão social com a crescente militarização da política de segurança pública do Rio de Janeiro, em particular. Todas estas questões nos levam a pesquisar a história da consolidação do atual modelo de controle social e criminalização da pobreza no Brasil recente no contexto de guerra às drogas.

O demônio familiar: pensamento social e psiquismo em Os sertões

Esta tese se dedica a fazer uma análise da obra de Euclides da Cunha, publicada em 1902, Os sertões. Para tanto, toma como campos de investigação a história do pensamento social brasileiro, a história dos discursos e os saberes da psicologia de fins do século XIX, com o objetivo de examinar a semântica do conceito de psique, fundamental na construção do argumento do livro. Embora não caracterizado por sentido específico, o sistema semântico da psique pode ser compreendido no livro de Euclides através de uma regra de semelhança que se configura como regra de reflexão, isto é, tradução entre o organismo biológico e o organismo social. Na linguagem de Os sertões, como argumentamos, o psíquico se realiza como metáfora que sustenta a tradução e a regra de semelhança entre fisiologia e sociologia. Neste sentido, em reflexão com os ensaios de Hans Blumenberg e com a teoria dos sistemas de Niklas Luhmann, analisamos o livro de Euclides de modo a compreender o horizonte semântico ao redor do qual o seu psiquismo aparece sistematizado. Em Canudos, quando a ordem social republicana foi atacada, Euclides depura o argumento de que os crimes da nacionalidade derivam os seus motivos da inconsciência generalizada dos habitantes do litoral sobre as populações rurais caracterizando Canudos como um crime de consciência de onde o autor reclama para si a tarefa de vingar, isto é, tornar conhecidas as populações historicamente ignoradas, socialmente esquecidas pela civilização. A semântica da psique, nesse sentido, assume para Euclides uma técnica de observação, mas também uma hipótese política sobre as condições de sobrevivência da sociedade brasileira.

A Concise History of France

Price, Roger, A Concise History of France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp.xiii+491 RAE2008

Frequency of word-use predicts rates of lexical evolution throughout Indo-European history

Mark Pagel, Quentin D. Atkinson & Andrew Meade (2007). Frequency of word-use predicts rates of lexical evolution throughout Indo-European history. Nature, 449,717-720. RAE2008

A view of the history, literature, and religion of the Hindoos : including a minute description of their manners and customs, and translations from their principal works / by Rev. W. Ward.

http://www.archive.org/details/wardshidoos00sethuoft

Vulnerability or resilience? Psycho-social factors associated with deliberate self-harm among adolescents

Background: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is common among adolescents in Ireland and internationally. Psychological factors, negative life events and lifestyle factors have been found to be associated with self-harm in this group. However, large scale population-based studies of adolescent selfharm and its correlates have been lacking, and internationally a standardised methodology was needed to facilitate comparative studies. The focus on vulnerability which has been prevalent in this field has meant that research has failed to examine resilient adaptation among at-risk adolescents. Method: Data were obtained from a cross-sectional school-based study conducted in Ireland and in each of the six other centres which participated in the Child and Adolescent Self-harm in Europe (CASE) study. In Ireland, 3,881 adolescents in 39 schools in completing the anonymous questionnaire, while across all 7 centres, over 30,000 young people participated. Data were gathered on health and lifestyle, self-harm thoughts and behaviour, a wide range of life events, psychological characteristics (anxiety and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, impulsivity and coping style), and support available to young people. Results: This thesis reports the findings of the Irish CASE centre as well as one international study. The factors associated with DSH among Irish adolescents differed by gender, but among both genders drug use and knowing a friend who had engaged in self-harm were associated with DSH. Among Irish boys, strong associations were found between bullying and poor mental health and DSH. Among boys who had been bullied, psychological and school factors were associated with DSH, while family support was protective. Links between stressful life events, psychological characteristics and DSH within the international CASE sample were examined. Increased history of self-harm thoughts and acts was associated with greater depression, anxiety and impulsivity, lower self esteem and an increased prevalence of ten different negative life events, supporting the hypothesis of a “dose-response” relationship between these risk factors and the self-harm process. Associations between coping style, mental health factors (depressive symptoms, anxiety and self-esteem) and self-harm were examined among Irish adolescents. Emotion-oriented coping was strongly associated with poorer mental health and self-harm thoughts and acts. A mediating effect of emotion-oriented coping on associations between mental health factors and DSH was found for both genders and between problem-oriented coping and mental health factors for girls. Similar mediating effects of coping style were found when risk of self-harm thoughts was examined. Resilient adaptation among adolescents exposed to suicidal behaviour of others was examined. Self-harm thoughts were common in these adolescents. Among those exposed to suicidal behaviour of others, vulnerability factors were drug use and higher levels of anxiety among boys, while for girls drug use, bullying and abuse were vulnerability factors, while resilience was associated with higher self-esteem and use of problem-oriented coping. Conclusion: These findings can aid in the identification of young people at risk of self-harm in the school setting and highlight the importance of mental health, peer-related and lifestyle factors in the development of DSH. High-risk groups of young people such as bullying victims and those exposed to suicidal behaviour of others have distinctive profiles of risk factors which differ from those of their peers. Findings relating to the importance of positive coping skills can inform positive mental health programmes, many of which aim to enhance life skills and build resilience among young people. Knowledge of the factors associated with positive adaptation among at-risk adolescents can inform prevention efforts among this group.

History, revolution and the British popular novel: historical fiction in the romantic age

“History, Revolution and the British Popular Novel” takes as its focus the significant role which historical fiction played within the French Revolution debate and its aftermath. Examining the complex intersection of the genre with the political and historical dialogue generated by the French Revolution crisis, the thesis contends that contemporary fascination with the historical episode of the Revolution, and the fundamental importance of history to the disputes which raged about questions of tradition and change, and the meaning of the British national past, led to the emergence of increasingly complex forms of fictional historical narrative during the “war of ideas.” Considering the varying ways in which novelists such as Charlotte Smith, William Godwin, Mary Robinson, Helen Craik, Clara Reeve, John Moore, Edward Sayer, Mary Charlton, Ann Thomas, George Walker and Jane West engaged with the historical contexts of the Revolution debate, my discussion juxtaposes the manner in which English Jacobin novelists inserted the radical critique of the Jacobin novel into the wider arena of history with anti-Jacobin deployments of the historical to combat the revolutionary threat and internal moves for socio-political restructuring. I argue that the use of imaginative historical narrative to contribute to the ongoing dialogue surrounding the Revolution, and offer political and historical guidance to readers, represented a significant element within the literature of the Revolution crisis. The thesis also identifies the diverse body of historical fiction which materialised amidst the Revolution controversy as a key context within which to understand the emergence of Scott’s national historical novel in 1814, and the broader field of historical fiction in the era of Waterloo. Tracing the continued engagement with revolutionary and political concerns evident in the early Waverley novels, Frances Burney’s The Wanderer (1814), William Godwin’s Mandeville (1816), and Mary Shelley’s Valperga (1823), my discussion concludes by arguing that Godwin’s and Shelley’s extension of the mode of historical fiction initially envisioned by Godwin in the revolutionary decade, and their shared endeavour to retrieve the possibility enshrined within the republican past, appeared as a significant counter to the model of history and fiction developed by Walter Scott in the post-revolutionary epoch.

Exploring the Zionist evolution of Robert Briscoe: History and memory

Robert Briscoe was the Dublin born son of Lithuanian and German-Jewish immigrants. As a young man he joined Sinn Féin and was an important figure in the War of Independence due to a role as one of the IRA’s main gun-procuring agents. He took the anti-Treaty side during an internecine Civil War, mainly due to the influence of Eamon de Valera and retained a filial devotion towards him for the rest of his life. In 1926 he was a founding member of Fianna Fáil, de Valera’s breakaway republican party, which would dominate twentieth-century Irish politics. He was first elected as a Fianna Fáil T.D. (Teachta Dála, Deputy to the Dáil) in 1927, and successfully defended his seat eleven times becoming the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1956, an honour that was repeated in 1961. On this basis alone, it can be argued that Briscoe was a significant presence in an embryonic Irish political culture; however, when his role in the 1930s Jewish immigration endeavor is acknowledged, it is clear that he played a unique part in one of the most contentious political and social discourses of the pre-war years. This was reinforced when Briscoe embraced Zionism in a belated realisation that the survival of his European co-religionists could only be guaranteed if an independent Jewish state existed. This information is to a certain degree public knowledge; however, the full extent of his involvement as an immigration advocate for potential Jewish refugees, and the seniority he achieved in the New Zionist Organisation (Revisionists) has not been fully recognised. This is partly explicable because researchers have based their assessment of Briscoe on an incomplete political archive in the National Library of Ireland (NLI). The vast majority of documentation pertaining to his involvement in the immigration endeavor has not been available to scholars and remains the private property of Robert Briscoe’s son, Ben Briscoe. The lack of immigration files in the NLI was reinforced by the fact that information about Briscoe’s Revisionist engagement was donated to the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv and can only be accessed physically by visiting Israel. Therefore, even though these twin endeavors have been commented on by a number of academics, their assessments have tended to be based on an incomplete archive, which was supplemented by Briscoe’s autobiographical memoir published in 1958. This study will attempt to fill in the missing gaps in Briscoe’s complex political narrative by incorporating the rarely used private papers of Robert Briscoe, and the difficult to access Briscoe files in Tel Aviv. This undertaking was only possible when Mr.Ben Briscoe graciously granted me full and unrestricted access to his father’s papers, and after a month-long research trip to the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv. Access to this rarely used documentation facilitated a holistic examination of Briscoe’s complex and multifaceted political reality. It revealed the full extent of Briscoe’s political and social evolution as the Nazi instigated Jewish emigration crisis reached catastrophic proportions. He was by turn Fianna Fáil nationalist, Jewish immigration advocate and senior Revisionist actor on a global stage. The study will examine the contrasting political and social forces that initiated each stage of Briscoe’s Zionist awakening, and in the process will fill a major gap in Irish-Jewish historiography by revealing the full extent of his Revisionist engagement.

Health care and neoliberalism in Ireland: withholding the gift and corrupting the social contract

The health of a nation tells much about the nature of a social contract between citizen and state. The way that health care is organised, and the degree to which it is equitably accessible, constitutes a manifestation of the effects of moments and events in that country's history. Using four case studies, this thesis uses a historical genealogical approach to explain the evolution of Ireland's particular version of health care provision. The total social fact of the gift relationship, central to all human relations, will be used to form a theoretical and conceptual framework on which to build an analysis of Ireland's health and welfare conditions. Additionally, social contract theory will enable an examination of the role of solidarity in relation to social expectations around health care provision. Through the analysis of these cases, the complex matrix of the influential forces that have shaped current conditions are exposed and revealed, enabling a critical understanding of the extent of acquiescence to the inequitable system that arguably exists. The vulnerability of citizens in need of care to the external and global effects of market forces and neoliberalism, therefore, becomes central to any argument for state-provided health and welfare. The hegemony of such forces can be seen to influence the manner in which the idea of individual self-reliance, in place of collective solidarity, is conceptualised and subsequently infiltrated into a range of aspects of the social world. For example, the particular discourse of the market and of economic concerns succeeds in shaping understandings of responsibilities around central areas of health and welfare. Similarly the 'possessor principle' can be seen to be misplaced within the context of health and social care, but yet has become normalised within this discourse. Within this matrix of complex influencing factors, the welfare state struggles to impose a balance between market values and social values. Responsibilities of the state to support and compensate its citizens for the ills of the market have become devalued, as the core values of classical liberalism have become distorted beyond recognition, leaving instead bare neoliberal concerns. This thesis traces the genealogical origins of this transition within the recent history of Irish health care and thereby reveals the embedding of individualism in place of solidarity, the on going reneging of the social contract and the corruption of the gift relationship.

A history of the Irish Red Cross Society, 1939-1971

This research is concerned with assessing from a national perspective the role, work and historical impact of the Irish Red Cross Society (IRCS) between 1939 and 1971. During this period the IRCS discharged three primary functions: it provided first aid services both in war-time and peace-time; it pioneered public health and social care services; and acted as the State’s main agency for international humanitarian relief measures. Although primarily a national organisational history of the Society, it is not a history in isolation. A broader perspective demonstrates that the work undertaken by the IRCS has relevance to the medical, social, religious, cultural, political and diplomatic history of twentieth century Ireland. This study assesses the impact of a number of significant public health and social care initiatives which the IRCS implemented and developed since its inception and how most of these were subsequently developed independently by the State. During the early 1940s, the Society’s formation of a national blood transfusion service ultimately laid the foundations for the establishment of a national blood transfusion service. The Society’s steering of a national anti-tuberculosis campaign in the 1940s brought the issue of the eradication of TB to the fore and helped to change public attitudes towards the disease. The concept of caring for the needs of the elderly in Ireland was largely unknown until the IRCS began addressing the issue in the 1950s and, for more than two decades, was effectively the only organisation in the State that campaigned and introduced innovative services for the aged. The IRCS made a significant impact in terms of its commitment to the needs of refugees and the provision of international humanitarian relief from Ireland. The Society’s donation in 1945 of a fully equipped hospital to the population of Saint-Lo in France, its war-time overseas relief efforts and its post-war work for child refugees earned Ireland significant international recognition and prestige and, more importantly, justified Ireland’s war-time policy of neutrality. With Ireland’s admission to the UN, the government became more dependent on the IRCS to consolidate that position.

Design history: exploring corporate communities

A design history is a narrative involving a multitude of social groups, interpretive flexibility, and eventual stabilization of shared understanding. Design history surfaces the practices that help shape and define engagements and can increase not only our theoretical understanding of what design is, but also our capacity to realize this understanding in practice. We use a design history perspective to examine how corporate technology initiatives establish and support open source communities and the crafting of relevant design practices that enable their advancement. We foster an evolving expression of design research that treats artifacts not as stable objects to be singularly evaluated, but as evolving systems contingent on historical trajectories.

The impact of shame on health-related quality of life among HIV-positive adults with a history of childhood sexual abuse.

Childhood sexual abuse is prevalent among people living with HIV, and the experience of shame is a common consequence of childhood sexual abuse and HIV infection. This study examined the role of shame in health-related quality of life among HIV-positive adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Data from 247 HIV-infected adults with a history of childhood sexual abuse were analyzed. Hierarchical linear regression was conducted to assess the impact of shame regarding both sexual abuse and HIV infection, while controlling for demographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors. In bivariate analyses, shame regarding sexual abuse and HIV infection were each negatively associated with health-related quality of life and its components (physical well-being, function and global well-being, emotional and social well-being, and cognitive functioning). After controlling for demographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors, HIV-related, but not sexual abuse-related, shame remained a significant predictor of reduced health-related quality of life, explaining up to 10% of the variance in multivariable models for overall health-related quality of life, emotional, function and global, and social well-being and cognitive functioning over and above that of other variables entered into the model. Additionally, HIV symptoms, perceived stress, and perceived availability of social support were associated with health-related quality of life in multivariable models. Shame is an important and modifiable predictor of health-related quality of life in HIV-positive populations, and medical and mental health providers serving HIV-infected populations should be aware of the importance of shame and its impact on the well-being of their patients.