The Impact of Short Breaks on Families with a Disabled Child: Report One of the Quantitative Phase

This document reports on a cross-sectional sample of families with a disabled child using short breaks in England; it describes the characteristics of children and families using short breaks, the nature and quantity of the short breaks they are using, their experiences of and satisfaction with short breaks and which factors are associated with a range of outcomes for family carers, disabled children and their siblings. This report uses both quantitative data derived from standardised questions and qualitative data from family members’ written responses to open-ended questions in the survey instruments

The impacts of short break provision on disabled children and families: an international literature review

For over 30 years, short breaks have been part of the landscape of support provision for families with a disabled child. Historically, the term ‘respite care’ has been used in much of the research literature concerning short breaks for families with a disabled child. However, ‘short breaks’ has become the preferred term, partly due to the negative connotations of family carers requiring ‘respite’ from their children, and partly because short breaks now encompass a much wider range of supports than out-of-home placement in specialist residential facilities (Cramer and Carlin, 2008). As such, the term ‘short breaks’ will be used throughout this review, with the exception of direct quotes from research studies where the term ‘respite’ is used by study participants or study authors

Linking the loop : voicing dimensions of home economics

The aim of this study is to analyse how individuals working within the field of Home Economics describe the profession against the background of the Position Statement published by the International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE) in 2008 and discussion papers detailing the Position Statement published in the first issue of the International Journal of Home Economics (IJHE). This paper links individual statements on the meaning of Home Economics provided for Linking the Loop project with four key dimensions or areas of practice of Home Economics, as defined in the IFHE Position Statement, and reflects the statements against generational theory. A qualitative content analysis of 94 statements provided by Home Economists around the world provides an insight to the variety in understanding and defining the field—a process that is essential to secure a viable future for the profession.Peer reviewe

Does the Tin Man Have a Heart?: Organizational Rhetoric and the Public Debate Over Precarity in the Amazon-New York Times Controversy

This thesis is concerned with public discourse and cultural controversy around labor precarity in high-technology organizations. Through analyzing a case study, in which a New York Times expos&eacute; of Amazon&rsquo;s treatment of white-collar workers inspired thousands to join a conversation on labor rights, this thesis contributes to discovering how organizational identity is co-constructed with the public and journalism&rsquo;s (constrained) role in labor activism. Just as the New York Times article exposed the still present reality of labor exploitation in the &ldquo;new economy,&rdquo; this project seeks to rupture the myth of utopian labor conditions in the high-technology sector. This thesis examines how organizational rhetors discursively maintain legitimacy and authority while depicting labor precarity by reframing these practices as allowing employees freedom and choice. The project also uses the methodological tool of external organizational rhetoric to uncover how external stakeholders interpret and add to controversy, expanding the scope the story through their discursive representations of labor precarity. I conclude this project with some thoughts on the lasting impact of the controversy on Amazon&rsquo;s organizational identity, as well as some future possibilities for labor resistance against precarity.</p

Girlhoods and social action: an intersectional approach to working-class girls' participation

In this thesis I explore how working-class, mainly racially-minoritised girls at three schools in London’s poorest boroughs participate in social action. There are multiple discourses about what it means to be a girl in the contemporary global North. These inform how girlhood is thought about, talked about, and practised, and shape expectations about how girls should be. The ‘successful girl’ is expected to attain academic and extracurricular achievements that destine her for a ‘successful’ future; the ‘good girl’ is expected to be docile and to be caring; and girls’ lives are shaped by ideas about authenticity or ‘being yourself’. Yet girls experience inequalities that can make these ideals difficult to achieve, especially working-class girls. They make important contributions to society despite experiencing significant challenges, but these girls tend to be invisible in the media and in public policy beyond concerns about their sexuality or educational attainment, and are often assumed to be White British. An important arena in which working-class girls contribute to society is through social action. In recent decades, successive UK governments have promoted youth social action – activities that make a positive difference to others or the environment, like volunteering – through initiatives to address inequalities in access and to boost participation. These usually consider inequalities along class lines, with strategies to address them involving removing practical barriers to involvement. However, inequalities are present in the experiences of social action and its consequences as well as in access to it. They are felt not along single axes such as class or gender or race, but instead by how these categories intersect. Inequalities are also not only experienced on an individual level but are shaped by how power operates across multiple domains (Hill Collins, 2000); discourses of girlhoods are embedded in these domains. This conceptualisation of inequality and power – an intersectional approach – is missing from policy and practice concerns. Moreover, what ‘counts’ as social action may be excluding important aspects of working-class girls’ participation. I find that working-class girls are expected to become successful by working hard at school and doing certain kinds of social action, but that this cannot guarantee their success; it therefore constitutes ‘hope labour’. Expectations to be good lead to the girls having to do as they are told and spending much of their time at home, where they are expected to be caring by doing care work. I argue that this care work should be considered social action. Finally, I show that the girls value authenticity (‘being themselves’) but find it difficult, and that feeling (in)authentic can both enable and constrain their social action. I identify a discourse of the authentic girl in which social action can be both self-transformation and self-expression. In doing so, I provide insight into how power and inequalities shape working-class girls’ lives and their participation in social action, and I show how an intersectional girlhoods approach can enhance our understanding of how social action might truly be more inclusive