1,120 research outputs found
Who needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathered
The legacy of apartheid and continued social and economic change have meant that many
South African men and women have grown up in families from which biological fathers
are missing. In both popular and professional knowledge and practice this has been posed
as inherently a problem particularly for boys who are assumed to lack a positive male
role model. In drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of South African men
in which they speak about their understandings of being fathered as boys, this paper
makes two key arguments. The first is that contemporary South African discourses tend to
pathologize the absence of the biological father while simultaneously undermining the
role of social fathers. Yet, this study shows that in the absence of biological fathers
other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers
often serve as social fathers. Most of the men who participated in this study are able to
identify men who - as social rather than biological fathers - played significant roles in
their lives. Secondly, we suggest that while dominant discourses around social
fatherhood foreground authoritarian and controlling behaviours, there are moments
when alternative more nurturing and consultative versions of being a father and/or being
fathered are evident in the experiences of this group of men.IS
A structure in the early Universe at z 1.3 that exceeds the homogeneity scale of the R-W concordance cosmology
A Large Quasar Group (LQG) of particularly large size and high membership has been identified in the DR7QSO catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It has characteristic size (volume^1/3) ~ 500 Mpc (proper size, present epoch), longest dimension ~ 1240 Mpc, membership of 73 quasars, and mean redshift = 1.27. In terms of both size and membership it is the most extreme LQG found in the DR7QSO catalogue for the redshift range 1.0 = 1.28, which is itself one of the more extreme examples. Their boundaries approach to within ~ 2 deg (~ 140 Mpc projected). This new, huge LQG appears to be the largest structure currently known in the early universe. Its size suggests incompatibility with the Yadav et al. scale of homogeneity for the concordance cosmology, and thus challenges the assumption of the cosmological principle
Experiences of the Pre and Post Retirement Period of Female Elite Artistic Gymnasts: An Exploratory Study
This study explored retirement experiences of eight, female, former elite artistic gymnasts. Particular attention was afforded to coping strategies employed and dynamics of gymnast’s relationships with significant members of their social support network, in light of identity impact, across the retirement transition period. Retrospective, semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcripts were analysed through content analysis, and represented via pen profiles. Pre-retirement planning emerged as fundamental to the quality of the retirement transition. Keeping in contact with sport was the most frequently cited coping strategy. Social support networks adjusted pre- to post-retirement, identifying parents and partners as the consistent members of these networks across the transition. Findings provide formative recommendations to enhance the post-career education within current lifestyle management programmes, and for the design of a transitional support programme for gymnasts. The study findings may be of relevance for policy and practice in elite sport transitions more generally
Experiences of the Pre and Post Retirement Period of Female Elite Artistic Gymnasts: An Exploratory Study
his study explored retirement experiences of eight, female, former elite artistic gymnasts. Particular attention was afforded to coping strategies employed and dynamics of gymnast’s relationships with significant members of their social support network, in light of identity impact, across the retirement transition period. Retrospective, semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcripts were analysed through content analysis, and represented via pen profiles. Pre-retirement planning emerged as fundamental to the quality of the retirement transition. Keeping in contact with sport was the most frequently cited coping strategy. Social support networks adjusted pre- to post-retirement, identifying parents and partners as the consistent members of these networks across the transition. Findings provide formative recommendations to enhance the post-career education within current lifestyle management programmes, and for the design of a transitional support programme for gymnasts. The study findings may be of relevance for policy and practice in elite sport transitions more generally
The ESO Key-Programme ``A Homogeneous Bright QSO Survey'' - I The Methods and the ``Deep'' Fields
This is the first paper in a series aimed at defining a statistically
significant sample of QSOs in the range and .
The selection is carried out using direct plates obtained at the ESO and UK
Schmidt Telescopes, scanned with the COSMOS facility and searched for objects
with an ultraviolet excess. Follow-up spectroscopy, carried out at ESO La
Silla, is used to classify each candidate. In this initial paper, we describe
the scientific objectives of the survey; the selection and observing techniques
used. We present the first sample of 285 QSOs () in a 153 deg
area, covered by the six ``deep'' fields, intended to obtain significant
statistics down with unprecedented photometric accuracy. From
this database, QSO counts are determined in the magnitude range .Comment: 21 pages uuencoded compressed postscript, to appear in Astronomy and
Astrophysics Supplements, 199
- …