Negotiating a ‘Scary Gap’: Doctoral Candidates, ‘Writing Up’ Qualitative Data and the Contemporary Supervisory Relationship

The complex task of ‘writing up’ qualitative data provides difficulties and challenges for both doctoral candidates and their supervisors, which can often result in detrimental effects on the supervisory relationship. These effects can be heightened by the pressures currently felt by supervisors, not least to ensure their supervisees submit in a timely fashion. We argue here that these pressures are in part responsible for a shift in supervisory pedagogy from a relational to a processual grounding. This article addresses some of the consequences of these effects via analysis of interviews with doctoral candidates and their supervisors from a series of interdisciplinary research training workshops in the UK designed to provide help for doctoral candidates engaged in writing up qualitative data. In these workshops doctoral candidates came together briefly for a residential workshop along with peers at the same stage of the doctoral cycle who were away from their institutional homes. We discuss the relationship between process and relationality and how a workshop of this kind might impact on writing and help with timely submission

Gun Laws and Crime: An Empirical Assessment

This paper deals with the effect of gun laws on crime. Several empirical analyses are carried to investigate the relationship between five different crime rates and alternative law variables. The tests are based on cross-section data from US sates. Three different law variables are used in the analysis together with a set of control variables for income, poverty, unemployment and ethnic background of the population. Empirical analysis does not lend support to the notion that crime laws would affect the crime rates. The results seem to be the same for all five crime categories that are analyzed in the paper

Children's Facebook Usage: Parental Awareness, Attitudes and Behavior

The study aims to focus on parental awareness, attitudes and behavior regarding children's use of the world's largest social network - Facebook. Data were obtained from 195 Israeli parents, Jews and Arabs whose children are above and under the age of 13 (official age to start registration to Facebook). Analyses included variance analyses, correlations, and regressions. The results indicated that parents have moderate to low levels of awareness, involvement, and monitoring in their children's Facebook usage. However significant differences were found between mothers and fathers, as mothers expressed less positive attitudes toward Facebook and greater need for guidance than fathers. Arab parents expressed higher levels of monitoring and of need for guidance than Jews. Our findings highlight the need for usage regulation and for guidance for parents in order to help them direct their children toward safe and responsible use of the internet

Space to Think: Using Metaphor to Expand Public Thinking about Criminal Justice Reform

Metaphor is a vital feature of human cognition that is used both in making and creating meaning. As such, it can play a central role in multiple aspects of communication. In this paper, we synthesize theories of metaphor, culture and framing and argue that metaphors can be designed and tested to serve instrumental functions in communications practice. We discuss and explore this theory through a case study approach — presenting an iterative, multi-method research project that was conducted as part of a larger effort designed to reframe criminal justice reform and expand public discourse on this issue. Through this case study, we synthesize and apply several bodies of theory and offer a methodology for studying metaphors as a communication device. We argue for the power of metaphors as tools in effective communications practice