Familial Feeling

This open access book discusses British literature as part of a network of global entangled modernities and shared aesthetic concerns, departing from the retrospective model of a postcolonial “writing back” to the centre. Accordingly, the narrative strategies in the texts of early Black Atlantic authors, like Equiano, Sancho, Wedderburn, and Seacole, and British canonical novelists, such as Defoe, Sterne, Austen, and Dickens, are framed as entangled tonalities. Via their engagement with discourses on slavery, abolition, and imperialism, these texts shaped an understanding of national belonging as a form of familial feeling. This study thus complicates the “rise of the novel” framework and British middle-class identity formation from a transnational perspective combining approaches in narrative studies with postcolonial and queer theory

What Grounds Special Treatment Between Siblings?

Siblings ought to treat one another specially – in other words, siblings qua siblings ought to treat one another in ways that they need not treat others. This paper offers a theory of why this is the case. The paper begins with some intuitive judgments about how siblings ought to treat one another and some other normative features of siblinghood. I then review three potential theories of why siblings ought to treat one another specially, adapted from the literature on filial piety: the gratitude theory, the friendship theory, and the special goods theory. In each case, these theories fail to explain some of the intuitive judgments about how siblings ought to treat one another. The paper then proposes a familial belonging theory. The institution of the family has certain goals, which impose normative demands on family members. I suggest that one such family goal is that every member feel familial belonging towards every other member, a goal which grounds the ways in which siblings ought to treat one another specially

TAKING CARE OF THE SICK ELDER PEOPLE AT HOME IN THE SPEECH OF FAMILIAL CARE TAKER

This investigation is about an exploratory, descriptive and in a qualitative approach study, which hadas its objective to know how the choice of the sick elderly peoples familial caretaker occurs and how the caretakerfeels in this role. The main caretaker was interviewed in home visits. The sample was constituted of nine familialcaretakers, mainly from the female sex: wives, daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters, and the husband. Forthe analysis of the data, the content analysis, following the methodological steps of Minayo, was used. Twoanalytical categories were elaborated: being a familial caretaker: is it an option or an obligation?, which shows thatthe choice of taking care is closely related to the feeling of obligation, but also to affection relations, gratitude andthe impossibility of choosing another caretaker, and being a sick elderly peoples familial caretaker that approachesfeelings of gratitude, resignation, inexperience in face of the care demands, physical and emotional tiredness, lossof freedom and solitude due to the activity in the caretaker

Uneasy social and psychological landscapes in the cinemas of Chile and New Zealand

Distinct modes of social and psychological angst are noted in a significant number of films from Chile and New Zealand, becoming most evident in the way family relations are portrayed, and in various modes through which the protagonists relate to their natural and social environment. This article focuses on the films In My Father’s Den (Brad McGann, New Zealand, 2004) and B-Happy (Gonzalo Justiniano, Chile, 2003). The narrative of both these films centres on lower-middle-class adolescent girls who reside in semi-rural areas, living in a state of unease due to the difficulties they confront in finding social and familial protection, which drives them to yearn and search for alternative geographical, cultural and affective landscapes. This comparative examination suggests that the crisis of identity displacement observed in New Zealand society engenders more tragic results than those gestated by the ‘concrete’ socio-economic exclusion found in Chile, indicating perhaps that sociopsychological anxieties require more complex and intricate strategies of recognition and eradication than those created by structural forms of social abuse

Memory, space and time: Researching children's lives

This article discusses the research approach in 'Pathways through Childhood', a small qualitative study drawing on memories of childhood. The research explores how wider social arrangements and social change influence children's everyday lives.The article discusses the way that the concepts of social memory, space and time have been drawn on to access and analyse children's experiences, arguing that attention to the temporal and spatial complexity of childhood reveals less visible yet formative influences and connections. Children's everyday engagements involve connections between past and present time, between children, families, communities and nations, and between different places. Children carve out space and time for themselves from these complex relations. © The Author(s) 2010

Working class gay men: Redefining community, restoring identity

This report presents the full results of one of a suite of three studies investigating how a range of pre-existing social and cultural factors mediate the development of gay male identity and shape the many forms of gay male social life in London today. These studies aim to problematise monolithic and (we believe) unhelpful social categories such as ‘gay community’ or ‘gay scene’ and show how the population of gay men in London is riven with cultural, political and social differences. It is common to talk simplistically about ‘gay men’ or ‘the gay community’. Commentators have unsuccessfully attempted to undermine such simplistic concepts by asserting that these identities and communities are restricted to White, middle class men. However, we believe that this position on its own is unhelpful because it fails to articulate the broader impact of such sweeping terminology. It serves to obscure the myriad ways of being gay that are not currently being described or represented in health or social policy or interventions for gay men. It implicitly robs anyone who is not White and middle class of a gay identity and sociality. It therefore uses the rhetoric of exclusion to ensure that so-called excluded groups are never considered in mainstream health and social policy for gay men because they are somehow not ‘properly’ gay. In addition, it is reductionist in relation to White middle class gay men. It is always well to be suspicious of any notion of the ‘default’ group which is considered powerful, wealthy etc. Such groups are usually one of two things: an aspirational ‘brand’ created by marketeers to sell us certain lifestyles (a quick review of the commercial gay media supports this suspicion) or a conceptual construction which everyone else uses as a benchmark to establish their own ‘individuality’ or ‘difference’. In short, we are asserting that, in policy terms, the White middle class ‘mainstream’ gay community is a useful political fallacy. In short, our representations of gay men and gay sociality remain woefully impoverished and simplistic. There is one additional over-arching effect of the White middle class fallacy. That is, by speaking the language of inclusion and exclusion, we are condemned to always consider weakness as opposed to strength. There is an implicit assumption in nearly all research and policy work on gay men that to be within the charmed circle of the White middle classes is to be without need. Thus, other experiences of being gay and other groups of gay men are described as automatically disadvantaged and weaker. These three reports will show that there is no paradigmatic gay experience or group. Rather, there are myriad ways of being gay, all of which are imbued with strengths and weaknesses. To this end, we have conducted a suite of qualitative studies into gay men resident in London. One of the others examines the relationship between ethnic minority identity and gay identity and the other investigates the lives of gay migrants in London. This report examines the experiences of blue collar or working class gay men. We aim, with all these studies to change the way that health promoters and policy makers conceive of the gay male population. We want to challenge the construction of the gay male population as having a centre which is privileged – White and middle class – and a periphery of excluded ethnic minorities, migrants, bisexuals and working class men etc. Instead, we present a conception of the gay population of London as a composite of a range of different experiences. As fractured, antagonistic and constantly changing. Moreover, the factors which fracture that population, which create the flux and antagonisms are larger social and structural factors such as ethnicity, religion, education, class, income etc. To put it simply, no gay man is simply gay, he probably also has a class background, an ethnicity, a job, a family, and a religious affiliation or history among other things. It is these differences that animate the gay population of London. Therefore, in all these reports we talk about things rarely considered in policy-oriented research on gay men. We talk of the importance of biological family and heterosexual forms of sociality for many gay men. We talk of the centrality of spirituality and organised religion. We talk about education and the passage from school to work. We talk about masculinity and health. We talk about nationalism. We talk very little about HIV and AIDS and sexual health. We have a transparent aim in doing so. We are hoping to take gay men’s health and social concerns out of the service and policy ‘ghetto’ that is HIV. We are reasserting a particularly sociological perspective that gay men’s health (sexual and otherwise) and the HIV epidemic are fundamentally influenced by broader social factors. In short, if we were to recommend one practice outcome as a result of these studies it would be to produce less community interventions telling gay men what to do (or how to be). Rather, we should be seeking to transform the education of all boys and to increase the capacity of all families to live with and enjoy their gay children; of all services to meet the needs of their gay users and of all communities to capitalise on the presence of their gay members. This is not as socially transformative an agenda as it sounds. We have much to learn from the experiences of working class gay men, gay men from ethnic minorities and gay migrants. Such interventions are, properly speaking, HIV health promotion

'They make us feel like we're a virus': the multiple impacts of Islamophobic hostility towards veiled Muslim women

Within the prevailing post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are commonly portrayed as oppressed, ‘culturally dangerous’ and ‘threatening’ to the western way of life and to notions of public safety and security by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. It is in such a context that manifestations of Islamophobia often emerge as a means of responding to these ‘threats’. Drawing from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article reflects upon the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia and examines the impacts of Islamophobic attacks upon victims, their families and wider Muslim communities. Among the central themes we explore are impacts upon their sense of vulnerability, the visibility of their Muslim identity, and the management of their safety in public. The individual and collective harms associated with this form of victimisation are considered through notions of a worldwide, transnational Muslim community, the ummah, which connects Muslims from all over world. We conclude by noting that the effects of this victimisation are not exclusively restricted to the global ummah; rather, the harm extends to society as a whole by exacerbating the polarisation which already exists between ‘us’ and ‘them’

Familial aggregation of migraine and depression: Insights from a large Australian twin sample

Free to read\ud \ud Objectives: This research examined the familial aggregation of migraine, depression, and their co-occurrence.\ud \ud Methods: Diagnoses of migraine and depression were determined in a sample of 5,319 Australian twins. Migraine was diagnosed by either self-report, the ID migraine™ Screener, or International Headache Society (IHS) criteria. Depression was defined by fulfilling either major depressive disorder (MDD) or minor depressive disorder (MiDD) based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria. The relative risks (RR) for migraine and depression were estimated in co-twins of twin probands reporting migraine or depression to evaluate their familial aggregation and co-occurrence.\ud \ud Results: An increased RR of both migraine and depression in co-twins of probands with the same trait was observed, with significantly higher estimates within monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs compared to dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. For cross-trait analysis, the RR for migraine in co-twins of probands reporting depression was 1.36 (95% CI: 1.24–1.48) in MZ pairs and 1.04 (95% CI: 0.95–1.14) in DZ pairs; and the RR for depression in co-twins of probands reporting migraine was 1.26 (95% CI: 1.14–1.38) in MZ pairs and 1.02 (95% CI: 0.94–1.11) in DZ pairs. The RR for strict IHS migraine in co-twins of probands reporting MDD was 2.23 (95% CI: 1.81–2.75) in MZ pairs and 1.55 (95% CI: 1.34–1.79) in DZ pairs; and the RR for MDD in co-twins of probands reporting IHS migraine was 1.35 (95% CI: 1.13–1.62) in MZ pairs and 1.06 (95% CI: 0.93–1.22) in DZ pairs.\ud \ud Conclusions: We observed significant evidence for a genetic contribution to familial aggregation of migraine and depression. Our findings suggest a bi-directional association between migraine and depression, with an increased risk for depression in relatives of probands reporting migraine, and vice versa. However, the observed risk for migraine in relatives of probands reporting depression was considerably higher than the reverse. These results add further support to previous studies suggesting that patients with comorbid migraine and depression are genetically more similar to patients with only depression than patients with only migraine

Kin and non-kin relationships of a selected group of urban families.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit