Working across boundaries to improve health outcomes: a case study of a housing support and outreach service for homeless people living with HIV

This paper reports the findings of an evaluation of the ‘Housing Support, Outreach and Referral’ service developed to support people living with HIV who were homeless or at risk of homelessness. The service was set up as part of the Supporting People Health Pilot programme established to demonstrate the policy links between housing support services and health and social care services by encouraging the development of integrated services. The paper considers the role of housing support in improving people's health, and considers the challenges of working across housing, health and social care boundaries. The evaluation of the health pilot employed two main sources of data collection: quarterly project evaluation reports, which collected process data as well as reporting progress against aims and objectives, and semi-structured interviews with professionals from all key stakeholder groups and agencies, and with people who used services. Over the course of 15 months, 56 referrals were received of which 27 were accepted. Fifteen people received tenancy support of whom 12 were helped to access temporary accommodation. At the end of the 15 months, all of the tenancies had been maintained. In addition, 18 people registered with a general practitioner and 13 registered with an HIV clinic. Interviews with professionals emphasised the importance of the local joint working context, the involvement of the voluntary sector and the role of the support workers as factors that accounted for these outcomes. Those using services placed most emphasis on the flexibility of the support worker role. Importantly, interviews with professionals and those using services suggest that the role of support worker incorporates two dimensions – those of networker/navigator as well as advocate – and that both dimensions are important in determining the effectiveness of the service.

Literature review

There are many studies that reveal the nature of design thinking and the nature of conceptual design as distinct from detailed or embodiment design. The results can assist in our understanding of how the process of design can be supported and how new technologies can be introduced into the workplace. Existing studies provide limited information about the nature of collaborative design as it takes place on the ground and in the actual working context. How to provide appropriate and effective of support for collaborative design information sharing across companies, countries and heterogeneous computer systems is a key issue. As data are passed between designers and the computer systems they employ, many exchanges are made. These exchanges may be used to establish measures of the benefits that new support systems can bring. Collaboration support tools represent a fast growing section of the commercial software market place and a reasonable range of products are available. Many of them offer significant application to design for the support of distributed meetings by the provision of video and audio communications and the sharing of information, including collaborative sketching. The tools that specifically support 3D models and other very design specific features are less common and many of those are in prototype stages of development. A key question is to find viable ways of combining design information visualisation support with the collaboration support technologies that can be seen today. When collaborating, different views will need to be accessible at different times to all the collaborators. The architects may want to explain some ideas on their model, the structural engineers on their model and so on. However, there are issues of ownership when the structural engineer wants to manipulate the architect’s model and vice versa. The modes of working, synchronous or asynchronous may have a bearing as in a synchronous session there is control of what is happening.

Active awareness : supporting the intentional disclosure of awareness information in collaborative systems

This thesis opens up the design space for awareness research in CSCW and HCI. By challenging the prevalent understanding of roles in awareness processes and exploring different mechanisms for actively engaging users in the awareness process, this thesis provides a better understanding of the complexity of these processes and suggests practical solutions for designing and implementing systems that support active awareness. Mutual awareness, a prominent research topic in the fields of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) refers to a fundamental aspect of a person’s work: their ability to gain a better understanding of a situation by perceiving and interpreting their co-workers actions. Technologically-mediated awareness, used to support co-workers across distributed settings, distinguishes between the roles of the actor, whose actions are often limited to being the target of an automated data gathering processes, and the receiver, who wants to be made aware of the actors’ actions. This receiver-centric view of awareness, focusing on helping receivers to deal with complex sets of awareness information, stands in stark contrast to our understanding of awareness as social process involving complex interactions between both actors and receivers. It fails to take into account an actors’ intimate understanding of their own activities and the contribution that this subjective understanding could make in providing richer awareness information. In this thesis I challenge the prevalent receiver-centric notion of awareness, and explore the conceptual foundations, design, implementation and evaluation of an alternative active awareness approach by making the following five contributions. Firstly, I identify the limitations of existing awareness research and solicit further evidence to support the notion of active awareness. I analyse ethnographic workplace studies that demonstrate how actors engage in an intricate interplay involving the monitoring of their co-workers progress and displaying aspects of their activities that may be of relevance to others. The examination of a large body of awareness research reveals that while disclosing information is a common practice in face-to-face collaborative settings it has been neglected in implementations of technically mediated awareness. Based on these considerations, I introduce the notion of intentional disclosure to describe the action of users actively and deliberately contributing awareness information. I consider challenges and potential solutions for the design of active awareness. I compare a range of systems, each allowing users to share information about their activities at various levels of detail. I discuss one of the main challenges to active awareness: that disclosing information about activities requires some degree of effort. I discuss various representations of effort in collaborative work. These considerations reveal that there is a trade-off between the richness of awareness information and the effort required to provide this information. I propose a framework for active awareness, aimed to help designers to understand the scope and limitations of different types of intentional disclosure. I draw on the identified richness/effort trade-off to develop two types of intentional disclosure, both of which aim to facilitate the disclosure of information while reducing the effort required to do so. For both of these approaches, direct and indirect disclosure, I delineate how they differ from related approaches and define a set of design criteria that is intended to guide their implementation. I demonstrate how the framework of active awareness can be practically applied by building two proof-of-concept prototypes that implement direct and indirect disclosure respectively. AnyBiff, implementing direct disclosure, allows users to create, share and use shared representations of activities in order to express their current actions and intentions. SphereX, implementing indirect disclosure, represents shared areas of interests or working context, and links sets of activities to these representations. Lastly, I present the results of the qualitative evaluation of the two prototypes and analyse the results with regard to the extent to which they implemented their respective disclosure mechanisms and supported active awareness. Both systems were deployed and tested in real world environments. The results for AnyBiff showed that users developed a wide range of activity representations, some unanticipated, and actively used the system to disclose information. The results further highlighted a number of design considerations relating to the relationship between awareness and communication, and the role of ambiguity. The evaluation of SphereX validated the feasibility of the indirect disclosure approach. However, the study highlighted the challenges of implementing cross-application awareness support and translating the concept to users. The study resulted in design recommendations aimed to improve the implementation of future systems.

Adultos desempregados no reconhecimento e validação de adquiridos experienciais

Trabalho de projecto de mestrado, Ciências da Educação (Formação de Adultos), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, 2011

Deteção e previsão de falhas em equipamentos de produção industrial

As empresas nacionais deparam-se com a necessidade de responder ao mercado com uma grande variedade de produtos, pequenas séries e prazos de entrega reduzidos. A competitividade das empresas num mercado global depende assim da sua eficiência, da sua flexibilidade, da qualidade dos seus produtos e de custos reduzidos. Para se atingirem estes objetivos é necessário desenvolverem-se estratégias e planos de ação que envolvem os equipamentos produtivos, incluindo: a criação de novos equipamentos complexos e mais fiáveis, alteração dos equipamentos existentes modernizando-os de forma a responderem às necessidades atuais e a aumentar a sua disponibilidade e produtividade; e implementação de políticas de manutenção mais assertiva e focada no objetivo de “zero avarias”, como é o caso da manutenção preditiva. Neste contexto, o objetivo principal deste trabalho consiste na previsão do instante temporal ótimo da manutenção de um equipamento industrial – um refinador da fábrica de Mangualde da empresa Sonae Industria, que se encontra em funcionamento contínuo 24 horas por dia, 365 dias por ano. Para o efeito são utilizadas medidas de sensores que monitorizam continuamente o estado do refinador. A principal operação de manutenção deste equipamento é a substituição de dois discos metálicos do seu principal componente – o desfibrador. Consequentemente, o sensor do refinador analisado com maior detalhe é o sensor que mede a distância entre os dois discos do desfibrador. Os modelos ARIMA consistem numa abordagem estatística avançada para previsão de séries temporais. Baseados na descrição da autocorrelação dos dados, estes modelos descrevem uma série temporal como função dos seus valores passados. Neste trabalho, a metodologia ARIMA é utilizada para determinar um modelo que efetua uma previsão dos valores futuros do sensor que mede a distância entre os dois discos do desfibrador, determinando-se assim o momento ótimo da sua substituição e evitando paragens forçadas de produção por ocorrência de uma falha por desgaste dos discos. Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho constituem uma contribuição científica importante para a área da manutenção preditiva e deteção de falhas em equipamentos industriais.

Perspetivas de professores de Educação Especial sobre o seu papel na inclusão de alunos com necessidades educativas especiais

O presente estudo visa identificar opiniões e conceções de cinco professoras de educação especial em relação ao seu contexto profissional e ao seu desempenho no mesmo. O estudo lida, assim, com as perspetivas dessas professoras, pretendendo-se caraterizar o seu pensamento sobre as condições reais para a inclusão de crianças com Necessidades Educativas Especiais (NEE) e o seu papel nesse sentido, apesar dos constrangimentos existentes. Assume-se que o professor é, enquanto profissional, não só produto de valores pessoais, sociais e institucionais/políticos como também seu veículo. Os dados foram recolhidos através da realização de entrevistas semiestruturadas às referidas professoras, seleccionadas pelos seus largos anos de experiência em escolas da região da Grande Lisboa. Os resultados do estudo sugerem que as professoras são afetadas no seu desempenho profissional por fatores pessoais e sociais e ainda pelas interações com professores titulares de turma, técnicos especializados e poder institucional. Pode ainda concluir-se que as professoras preocupam-se em fazer uma intervenção ecológica junto do aluno, preocupando-se não só com o seu desenvolvimento pessoal, como também com a sua inclusão na escola, família e sociedade. Ressaltam ainda, do estudo, preocupações no que concerne ao futuro destes alunos e à evolução da Educação Especial, resultado das políticas educativas vigentes.

As condições de trabalho e a satisfação profissional: dimensões do profissionalismo docente no ensino médio

The dissertation is developed in the Research Base of Teacher Training and Professionalization of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte as a way to discuss the professionalization of High School teachers in Natal. It is a study linked to the research The context of teaching practice and professionalism: the case of high school teachers and sponsored by CNPq, with the objective of characterizing working conditions and job satisfaction as dimensions to the teacher professionalism in high schools. In this study we prioritized the focus on professionalization in national and international discussions, which combines the aspects of teaching in its historical, social, political and economical path, in order to reflect about its evolutional elements in the hierarchy of professions and establish a relation to high school teaching. To develop this relation we elaborated some questions that are considered relevant, such as: How does the high school teacher evaluate his/her working conditions to his/her professional practice? What level of satisfaction does the high school teacher have regarding his/her professional practice? What expectations does the high school teacher have in relation to his/her professional development? The answers to those questions were according to the high school teachers considerations shown in the questionnaire, which was structured with open and closed questions. These questions gave better adequacy to the teachers evaluations about their working place and the situations they experience in their working conditions, provoking job satisfaction and expectations for professional growth. The description of the teachers perception about working conditions, job satisfaction and expectation of professional development can explain the distinct factors that characterize these categories in the working context, although the conclusive results, in general, do not show a direct relationship between the categories studied. Some factors that teachers attribute as causes of bigger difficulties in working conditions and work activity itself are: working time, salary, professional status, school s infrastructure, and school s social context. These factors are similarly related to the degree of job satisfaction, without showing interference in the professional expectations

L'interpretazione a distanza: Analisi di interazioni telefoniche mediate da interprete

Interpreter profession is currently changing: migration flows, the economic crisis and the fast development of ICTs brought unexpected changes in our societies and in traditional interpreting services all over. Remote interpreting (RI), which entails new methods such as videoconference interpreting and telephone interpreting (TI), has greatly developed and now sees interpreters working remotely and being connected to service users via videoconference set up or telephone calls. This dissertation aims at studying and analyzing the relevant aspects of interpreter-mediated telephone calls, describing the consequences for the interpreters in this new working field, as well as defining new strategies and techniques interpreters must develop in order to adjust to the new working context. For these purposes, the objectives of this dissertation are the following: to describe the settings in which RI is mostly used, to study the prominent consequences on interpreters and analyze real interpreter-mediated conversations. The dissertation deals with issues studied by the Shift project, a European project which aims at creating teaching materials for remote interpreting; the project started in 2015 and the University of Bologna and in particular the DIT - Department of Interpreting and Translation is the coordinating unit and promoting partner. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 contains an outline of the major research related to RI and videoconference interpreting as well as a description of its main settings: healthcare, law, business economics and institution. Chapter 2 focuses on the physiological and psychological implications for interpreters working on RI. The concepts of absence, presence and remoteness are discussed; some opinions of professional interpreters and legal practitioners (LPs) concerning remote interpreting are offered as well. In chapter 3, telephone interpreting is presented; basic concepts of conversational analysis and prominent traits of interpreter-mediated calls are also explored. Chapter 4 presents the materials and methodology used for the analysis of data. The results, discussed in Chapter 5, show that telephone interpreting may be suitable for some specific contexts; however, it is clear that interpreters must get appropriate training before working in any form of RI. The dissertation finally offers suggestions for the implementation of training in RI for future interpreting students.

Mobbing nos enfermeiros

Introdução: As pressões constantes do mundo laboral e, a especificidade do seu trabalho expõe os enfermeiros a actos de violência como o mobbing ou assédio moral. Este é um fenómeno dissimulado e psicossocial que afecta o indivíduo, o grupo de trabalho e a organização e, que importa aprender a combater. Objectivos: Determinar a prevalência de mobbing nos enfermeiros; caracterizar o mobbing; relacionar a influência das características sociodemográficas e profissionais na percepção de mobbing dos enfermeiros. Metodologia: Estudo quantitativo, de carácter descritivo-correlacional, transversal. A amostra não probabilística por conveniência foi constituída por 143 enfermeiros do Hospital Sousa Martins, Guarda. Maioritariamente são mulheres (71,3%) e, com média de idades de 37 anos. Possuem formação base 71,3%, 69,9% pratica horário rotativo, 69,2% tem vínculo estável e, tempo médio de exercício profissional de 14 anos. Os dados foram colhidos através de questionário que integrou a escala LIPT-60. Resultados: Os enfermeiros em estudo experienciaram baixos níveis de mobbing no seu contexto laboral. Em média, referem sentir oito condutas de assédio moral com efeito (0,20) e intensidade reduzida (1,37). As condutas mais experimentadas visam o bloqueio à comunicação e a difamação. Cerca de 42,0% dos enfermeiros admitem já ter sido vítima de mobbing e 24,1% referem que aconteceu por um período de seis meses. Os principais agressores identificados foram os médicos (40,0%) e os superiores hierárquicos (37,1%). Contudo, a percepção de mobbing é maior à medida que se progride na carreira, bem como nos enfermeiros que praticam regime de horário fixo e, que trabalham no mesmo serviço há 5 – 10 anos. Conclusões: Apesar dos baixos índices de percepção de mobbing, este está presente no contexto laboral dos enfermeiros tornando-os vulneráveis e afectando a prestação de cuidados. Os ataques sentidos acontecem sobretudo, de forma dissimulada fazendo denotar a gravidade deste fenómeno, sobre o qual impera prevenir e intervir. Palavras-Chave: Mobbing; Assédio moral; Abuso psicológico; Violência psicológica; Agressão psicológica no trabalho.

Impacto do contexto de trabalho e da resiliência sobre o bem-estar no trabalho de profissionais dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial

Este estudo teve como intuito investigar o impacto do contexto de trabalho e da resiliência sobre o bem-estar no trabalho em profissionais dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS). Os CAPS são serviços públicos substitutivos ao modelo asilar para tratamento de pessoas em sofrimento psíquico, preconizado e fundamentado na Política Nacional de Saúde Mental (PNSM). Para medir o contexto de trabalho utilizou-se a Escala de Avaliação do Contexto de Trabalho (EACT) que investiga as condições de trabalho, a organização do trabalho e as relações sócio profissionais. Já o instrumento utilizado para medir a capacidade dos trabalhadores em manter o nível de desempenho no trabalho mesmo em situações complexas e desgastantes foi a Escala de Avaliação de Resiliência no Trabalho (EART). Por último, investigou-se o nível de bem-estar do público pesquisado através do Inventário de Bem- Estar no Trabalho (IBET-13). O bem-estar no trabalho tem sido considerado como um construto psicológico resultado de vínculos positivos com o trabalho e com a organização. Participaram 81 profissionais dos CAPS das cidades de Petrolina PE e São Bernardo do Campo SP, com idade média de 37 anos (DP= 10,45), em sua maioria do sexo feminino (65,4%), com níveis de escolaridade acima do ensino superior e pós-graduação completa (ambos com 29%), que se declararam casados ou em união estável (39%). Neste estudo, considerou-se bem-estar no trabalho como variável critério e resiliência no trabalho e contexto de trabalho como preditores. Foram realizadas análises estatísticas exploratórias e descritivas, análises de regressão e análises de variância (ANOVA) para descrever participantes, variáveis e testar o modelo. Os resultados apoiaram parcialmente o modelo de predição, pois apenas o fator relações sócio profissionais se confirmou como preditor significativo de Bem-estar no Trabalho, e não houve predição significativa com as demais variáveis (Condições de Trabalho, Organização do Trabalho e Resiliência no Trabalho). Estes dados podem revelar que boas relações sócio profissionais tendem a aumentar o nível de satisfação e comprometimento organizacional afetivo com a instituição, bem como o aumento do nível de envolvimento desses profissionais com seu trabalho.

What's in it for us? A case study research about micro sense making processes through the eyes of front line employees, during culture change implementation

Abstract How employees make sense of change is a very complex process. Recently, academics have neglected to research sense making activities in a micro culture implementation context, through the eyes of front line employees. In contrast to a macro view, a micro perspective limits researchers to only look at an individual, departmental or group level. By doing so, we can zoom in on the details of sense making processes that employees use in their daily work life. A macro (organisational) view is based on the notion that there is a general integrated culture that can be found in all organisational units and departments. It is assumed that culture can be researched by using the entire organisation as one single research entity. This thesis challenges this assumption. In case of planned change it is usually the management community who are in charge of the change intervention. Because of their formal hierarchical position, they have the power to abort or initiate change programs. It is perhaps therefore that researchers tend to be focused on the management community rather than on lower level organisational members, such as front line employees. Apart from the micro view, scholars also neglected to research culture change implementation through the eyes of front line employees. This thesis is an attempt to fill these two gaps that currently exists in academic change management publications. The main research question is therefore: From a micro point of view how do front-line employees make sense of the impact of culture change, during the implementation phase? This thesis starts with a literature review which exposes the two main gaps. The most important outcome of this review is that only 2% of the research articles dealt with culture implementation, through the eyes of front line employees. A conceptual research model is built on the integrated sense making theory of Weber and Manning (2001) and the micro variables of Raelin and Cataldo (2011). These theories emphasize elements of sense making in a daily working context. It is likely that front line employees can identify themselves with research elements such as tasks, skills practices, involvement and behaviour. Front line employees were selected, because as lower level organisational members they are usually the change recipients. They are further away from the change initiating scene (usually the management of an organisation) and form a potential sense making ‘hotspot’ that could provide new academic insights. In order to carry out the primary research, two case organisations were selected in the leisure industry. A participative case study research method was chosen. This meant that the researcher worked in the concerning departments of the case organisations. The goal was to observe and interview front line employees, while they were performing their jobs. The most important advantage of this approach is that the researcher temporarily becomes one with the organisation and is therefore able to acquire both formal and informal narratives that front line employees use during sense making activities. It was found that front line employees make sense of organisational change by using a practical approach. They make sense of the change program by carrying out new tasks, developing new skills and sharing best practices. The most noticeable conclusion was that sense making activities predominantly take place at an individual level in relation to change acceptance. Organisational members tend to create a mental equation in order to weigh the advantages against the disadvantages. They evaluate whether the concerning change program is beneficial to them or not. For future research a sense making scheme model is suggested that is based on two methods: an introspection and an action method.

Supervisão colaborativa para uma educação inclusiva : um estudo com professores do ensino regular

Este trabalho, desenvolvido por uma professora de educação especial no contexto onde exerce funções, resultou da vontade de aprofundar o conhecimento sobre as dinâmicas de trabalho entre os professores do Ensino Regular e entre estes e o professor de Educação Especial. Desta forma elaborámos um projeto de investigação com o propósito de aprofundar o conhecimento sobre estas dinâmicas, no âmbito de uma oficina de formação, dinamizada pela investigadora, realizada no contexto de trabalho dos participantes. Neste âmbito, foi proporcionado um conjunto de experiências vivenciadas em conjunto, procurando contribuir para novas perspetivas teóricas sobre o conhecimento, bem como o envolvimento dos participantes em situações empíricas que lhes permitissem aplicar esses conhecimentos na resolução de problemas concretos emergentes no seu contexto de trabalho. A estratégia formativa baseou-se na colaboração como factor de desenvolvimento e de aprendizagem, surgindo como relevante e necessário o envolvimento dos formandos em processos de investigação da própria prática. A formação, na modalidade de Oficina, foi promovida através do Centro de Formação da Instituição onde a escola, um estabelecimento de ensino particular e cooperativo, se integra. Neste âmbito foi acreditada pelo Conselho Científico-Pedagógico da Formação Contínua e envolveu dezasseis professores do 1.º, 2.º e 3.º ciclos do ensino básico. A formação desenvolveuse em duas fases - a primeira fase, constituída por 4 sessões, teve lugar entre maio e julho de 2011, e a segunda fase, igualmente constituída por 4 sessões, teve lugar de setembro a novembro de 2011, num total de 25 horas presenciais e 25 horas não presenciais. Trata-se de um estudo com uma dupla intencionalidade – formativa e investigativa – no qual se procura compreender (i) a relação entre as estratégias de formação e supervisão promovidas pela professora de educação especial e o desenvolvimento de dinâmicas de trabalho colaborativo entre os participantes (ii) e o impacto dessas dinâmicas no desenvolvimento profissional e nas suas práticas, tendo em vista a promoção de uma educação inclusiva. Configura-se como estudo de caso, na variante de multicaso apresentando, ainda, algumas características de investigação-ação. No âmbito deste estudo, utilizámos um conjunto diverso e complementar de procedimentos investigativos, nomeadamente, o inquérito por questionário aplicado a todos os participantes no início e no fim da oficina de formação; o inquérito por questionário de avaliação das sessões, tendo por base os objetivos do estudo; a entrevista semi-estruturada, realizada a quatro docentes do 1º CEB que constituem os subcasos e o portfolio reflexivo individual dos mesmos, os quais se constituem como estratégia de formação e de investigação. Recorreu-se, ainda, como fontes de informação secundária, ao Teaching portfolio do investigador, às videogravações das sessões de formação, aos registos em vídeo de alguns episódios relativos à intervenção dos formandos em sala de aula e aos projetos de investigação-ação, bem como aos dados recolhidos na entrevista dirigida ao Diretor do estabelecimento de educação e ensino, depois de concluído o programa de formação. Os resultados da análise parecem evidenciar a existência de dinâmicas colaborativas e um clima de inter-ajuda que caraterizou a interação ocorrida na formação, em torno de casos concretos, os quais tiveram um impacto significativo sobre o pensamento e a prática dos participantes. Todo o processo desenvolvido parece ter dado lugar à partilha de saberes e à procura conjunta de soluções para os problemas, tendo contribuído para que os professores passassem a ser mais interventivos, evidenciando novas aprendizagens e uma maior consciencialização do conceito de educação para todos e do que esta implica. Os resultados parecem ainda revelar o desenvolvimento de uma parceria estratégica entre os professores do ensino regular e a professora de educação especial, a qual passou a ser aceite como uma pessoa que pode ajudar a encontrar soluções para os problemas que surgem na sala de aula, de forma a garantir a inclusão de todos os alunos e não apenas dos que têm necessidades educativas especiais.

Propuesta curricular de habilidades adaptativas para la estimulación temprana de niños y niñas de 0 a 3 años de edad, con discapacidad cognitiva

Abstract. The study developed builds a curriculum proposal based on adaptive skills for early stimulation of children from 0 to 3 years with cognitive disabilities as a final requirement for graduation from the Masters in Education with Emphasis on Development The proposal intends to improve the coherence, relevance and effectiveness of special education offered to students with special educational needs, specifically with cognitive impairment conditions, from early stimulation with a population of 0 to 3 years. The main objective of the study rises from the working context of the study: the individual needs of special education teachers and their students.

Turkey's boycott of the Cyprus EU presidency: context, meaning and its consequences. EU Centre in Singapore Working Paper No. 9, September 2012

In 2011 Turkish officials began indicating their intention to suspend all contact with Cyprus’s presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), slated for the second half of 2012, given the issues surrounding the unresolved Cyprus conflict. This came as the latest development in a long and arduous path of Turkey’s application for EU membership that began in 1987. This paper provides the context – the Cyprus conflict, Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, and the Cyprus reunification talks – in understanding the reasons and consequences of Ankara’s boycott of the Cyprus presidency. The article also considers the evolving nature and the role of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, especially after the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, and how this may have played into Turkey’s calculations in calling for the boycott.