Negotiating the mine: Commitments, engagements, contradictions

Mining has become such a terrain of conflict that there are multiple pressures on researchers to take sides. At one extreme, co-convening an event with a mining corporation can be interpreted by critical social science colleagues as allowing the company to use the event to claim legitimacy for its social responsibility work. At another extreme, to assume a critical position on human rights abuses at a mine site can lead the mining sector to cast researchers as anti-mining radicals. Is there space, then, to do research on mining that allows for engagement with the full range of actors who have an interest in the mine site? This chapter offers no simple answer to this question. Instead, it explores the wide range of strategies of engagement that characterize the work of researchers doing critical resource geography (many of whom are not geographers). Some scholars prioritize engagements with communities and movements, seeking to contribute to strategies of resistance and negotiation; some, though fewer, engage with governments or prioritize engagements with the industry in the hope that these approaches may elicit some reform. We also consider whether individual researchers can engage with a range of these interests at the same time or whether to do so is impossible, naïve, or both. Our discussion draws on patterns in the literature as well as on the authors’ personal experiences of engagement with corporate, community, nongovernmental, social movement, and public sector actors

The Determinants of Young Women's Intentions About Education, Career Development and Family Life

A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the factors that shape high-achieving young women's plans about further education, career development, having a child and combining work and motherhood. A sample of 92 grammar school girls aged 15 to 17 took part in the study. It was found that the education and career plans of these young women were influenced by their anticipated role as a mother and their perception of social pressure to give up work to care for their children. Despite strong intentions to have a career and gain further educational qualifications, the perceived acceptability of combining work with motherhood influenced the certainty with which they formed these plans. It is concluded that if women are to have equal opportunities to work and have careers, these issues should be explicitly addressed at an early stage in their schooling

Gender differences in the association between childhood physical and sexual abuse, social support and psychosis

Purpose Childhood adversity (variously defined) is a robust risk factor for psychosis, yet the mitigating effects of social support in adulthood have not yet been explored. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between childhood sexual and physical abuse and adult psychosis, and gender differences in levels of perceived social support. Methods A sample of 202 individuals presenting for the first time to mental health services with psychosis and 266 population-based controls from south-east London and Nottingham, UK, was utilised. The Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire was used to elicit retrospective reports of exposure to childhood adversity, and the Significant Others Questionnaire was completed to collect information on the current size of social networks and perceptions of emotional and practical support. Results There was evidence of an interaction between severe physical abuse and levels of support (namely, number of significant others; likelihood ratio test χ2 = 3.90, p = 0.048). When stratified by gender, there were no clear associations between childhood physical or sexual abuse, current social support and odds of psychosis in men. In contrast, for women, the highest odds of psychosis were generally found in those who reported severe abuse and low levels of social support in adulthood. However, tests for interaction by gender did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of investigating the potential benefits of social support as a buffer against the development of adult psychosis amongst those, particularly women, with a history of early life stress