From Abstract Concept to Active Participants: Reflections on a Purposive Sample

This article draws upon my experience of conceptualizing, identifying and recruiting interviewees for a doctoral study of Bangladeshi citizens working for social change in their own country. Understanding how these key workers negotiate the complex dilemmas and conflicting demands involved in working for social change adds to our understanding how civil society actors both contribute to, and are constituents of, sustainable human development. Methodologically, the study can be described as a psychoanalytically-informed sociological enquiry, drawing on feminist and decolonial perspectives, that used open-ended life-history and event-centred interviews to elicit multiple ‘small’ personal stories of experience (Phoenix, 2013). From these ‘small’ stories a number of identifiable ‘bigger’ stories, or contextualized narratives (Goodson, 2017), emerged which were analyzed both sociologically, using Bourdieusian social theory, and psychoanalytically in the tradition of British object relations

Negotiating Development: a psychosocial study of Bangladeshi development workers

A complex web of development organisations has emerged from efforts to alleviate the problems of enduring and gross inequalities in formerly Third World countries such as Bangladesh. While the social and economic circumstances of Bangladesh have improved, its democratic institutions have struggled, leading to a so-called ‘paradox’ of development. In this context economists and political scientists question the role of a growing global middle class, while postcolonial critics interrogate the very notion of ‘development’ and advocate alternative ‘post-development’ scenarios. In this milieu it is important to understand how dominant macro-policies and different perspectives affect the material realities of working for development on the ground. Previous research on the personnel of development aid has revealed a host of ethical, moral and political dilemmas, contradictions and paradoxes associated with aid work not least those faced by feminists within bureaucracies. The literature has tended to focus on international NGO workers from the global north. By contrast, this is a study of 24 English-speaking Bangladeshi individuals who are engaged in development work through NGOs, and other forms of activism within their own country. The aim of the research is to understand how these development workers negotiate the complex dilemmas and conflicting demands, and manage the emotional labour and demands of working for progressive social change. A psychosocial approach transcends the usual altruism-egotism binary to better understand the actions of and influences on this group, and allows for the interrogation of privilege, power and agency, and the relationships and emotional investments at stake. A narrative methodology helps reveal the conditions in which an individual life is lived and given meaning, and in which the development of the self and others can occur. Analytically, the study draws upon Bourdieusian models of social class distinctions, contemporary theorizations of the politics of emotions, and is informed by British psychoanalytic traditions. The study found a stratum of reflexive, well-resourced and highly committed workers and activists who skillfully manage the everyday dilemmas of development, albeit at some emotional cost. They are constrained by subjective classed and gendered identities and objective structures of governance. The women in the study were struggling for empowerment and opportunity both inside and outside the workplace despite the equalities discourse espoused by their NGO employers. The significance of family and kin, and wider identifications, compete with the ed framings of a neo-liberal development paradigm and further suggest the need for a re-consideration of the ethos and ethics of ‘development’

A Behavioral Change Perspective of Maroon Soil Fertility Management in Traditional Shifting Cultivation in Suriname

In Suriname, the Maroons have practiced shifting cultivation for generations, but now the increasing influence of modern society is causing a trend of decreasing fallow periods with potentially adverse effects for the vulnerable tropical soils. Adoption of appropriate soil fertility management (SFM) practices is currently slow. Combining methods from cultural ecology and environmental psychology, this study identifies two groups with divergent behavioral intentions which we term semi-permanent cultivators and shifting cultivators. Semi-permanent cultivators intend to practice more permanent agriculture and experiment individually with plot-level SFM. Shifting cultivators rely on traditional knowledge that is not adequate for their reduced fallow periods, but perceive constraints that prevent them practicing more permanent agriculture. Semi-permanent cultivators act as a strong reference group setting a subjective norm, yet feel no need to exchange knowledge with shifting cultivators who are in danger of feeling marginalized. Drawing on a political ecology perspective, we conclude that cultural ecological knowledge declined due to negative perceptions of external actors setting a strong subjective norm. Semi-permanent cultivators who wish to enter the market economy are most likely to adopt SFM. We conclude that any future SFM intervention must be based on an in-depth understanding of each group’s behavior, in order to avoid exacerbating processes of marginalization

George Chowdharay-Best: a bibliography

Until his death in April 2000, George Chowdharay-Best was a familiar figure in the reading rooms of the British Library. For many years he was on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary, rising to be a Senior Assistant Editor. While most of his scholarly work was subsumed in this great collaborative enterprise, he produced papers on many subjects for a range of journals and was also a frequent letter writer to the press. A summary of his life and career is followed by a complete bibliography of his writings

Crossing Conceptual Boundaries XI, Winter 2021

ISSN: 2041-9090 Crossing Conceptual Boundaries PhD Annual Yearbook New Series Volume XI A peer-reviewed graduate publication, School of Social Sciences, UEL, U

The prison diary (16 May-22 November 1794) of John Horne Tooke

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Beneficence in psycho-social research and the role of containment

Within the context of research ethics beneficence consistently receives less attention than non-maleficence and research ‘benefits’ are predominantly understood in tangible, intentional terms. Scanter attention has been given to the more subtle aspects of the research process that elicit less tangible, and often unexpected, benefits for research participants. Drawing on a study conducted with social workers in two childcare social work settings, this article outlines how psycho-social approaches to research – and specifically the concept of containment – can provide fruitful theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the development of more complex understandings of beneficence in the research process. The article concludes by proposing that there is scope to enhance the experience and quality of research if, from the outset, attention to containment is embedded within the research process. Realizing ‘containing’ research involves firstly, recognizing the capacity of researchers to retain an observational stance of ‘negative capability’ that attends to research processes and secondly, understanding the importance of social researchers being contained through appropriate support systems that help to manage the anxiety inherent in social work research contexts specifically, and human relations research, more broadly