Mapping Meaning : Critical Cartographies for Participatory Water Management in Taita Hills, Kenya

Participation of local people is often neglected in natural resource management, which leads to failure to understand the social aspects and historical construction of environmental problems. Participatory mapping can enhance the communication of local spatial knowledge for management processes and challenge the official maps and other spatial representations produced by state authorities and scientists. In this study, we analyze what kind of social meanings can be revealed through a multimethod participatory mapping process focusing on water resources in Taita Hills, Kenya. The participatory mapping clearly complicates the simplified image of the physical science mappings, typically depicting natural water supply, by addressing the impacts of contamination, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, distance to the sources, and restrictions in their uses on people's access to water. Moreover, this shared exercise is able to trigger discussion on issues that cannot always be localized but still contribute to place making. Local historical accounts reveal the social and political drivers of the current water-related problems, making explicit the political ecology dynamics in the area.Peer reviewe

An exploration of the use of infant observation methods to research the identities of severely learning disabled adolescents and to enhance relationship-based practice for professional social work practice

This paper considers how infant observation methods may be adapted to explore and research the identities of severely learning disabled adolescents, a group of young people whose experiences are poorly represented in the literature. Through focusing on emotion and relationship, this ‘practice-near’ research method also offers a way for social workers to develop their reflective capacity in relation to the often hidden, uncomfortable emotions aroused by experiencing impairment and difference, but without the defences usually involved in assuming the professional role. The importance of taking time to get on a disabled child’s ‘wavelength’ is illustrated through extracts from the research which show how a young person’s agency and identity can be appreciated. The method also has the potential to develop social workers’ awareness of the powerful undercurrent of emotions apparent at times within families of severely disabled young people and tentative suggestions are made about the projective processes and hidden hostilities at work within one of the families observed as part of the research project. Professionals may be able to use this knowledge to become resilient and reflective practitioners and the observation method itself has something to offer by way of a containing experience for families

Prisoners of the Capitalist Machine: Captivity and the Corporate Engineer

This chapter will focus on how engineering practice is conditioned by an economic system which promotes production for profit and economic growth as an end in itself. As such it will focus on the notion of the captivity of engineering which emanates from features of the economic system. By drawing on Critical Realism and a Marxist literature, and by focusing on the issues of safety and sustainability (in particular the issue of climate change), it will examine the extent to which disasters and workplace accidents result from the economic imperative for profitable production and how efforts by engineers to address climate change are undermined by an on-going commitment to growth. It will conclude by arguing that the structural constraints on engineering practice require new approaches to teaching engineers about ethics and social responsibility. It will argue that Critical Realism offers a framework for the teaching of engineering ethics which would pay proper attention to the structural context of engineers work without eliminating the possibility of engineers working for radical change

Advanced Nurse Practitioners’ (Emergency) perceptions of their role, positionality and professional identity: a narrative inquiry

Aims To explore Advanced Nurse Practitioners' (Emergency) perceptions of their role, positionality and professional identity. Background Advanced nursing practice was formally established in the Republic of Ireland in 2001 with 336 Advanced Nurse Practitioners currently registered increasing to a critical mass of 750 by 2021. Advanced practitioners (Emergency) provide full emergency care for a specific cohort of clients with unscheduled, undifferentiated and undiagnosed conditions. Design Qualitative narrative inquiry using Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field and capital as the theoretical framework was undertaken. Methods Data were collected in ten in‐depth interviews and thematic analysis applied. Results Five key themes emerged: participants' career pathways, personal and professional transitions, role dimensions and core concepts, position in the organisation and emergent professional identity. Role‐transitioning and a change in habitus, field and capital revealed the uniqueness of their nursing role. Minimising waiting times, timely patient care and patient satisfaction were key performance indicators. A heightened awareness regarding higher‐level decision‐making, autonomy and accountability are integral to advanced practice. Conclusion This study presents unique insights into the advanced nurse practitioner role covering recruitment, organisational culture changes required and support to ease transition emerged. Impact Better understanding the motivation to undertake the role, the transition experience and use of advanced practice skills‐sets will inform the targets for the future recruitment and retention of Advanced Nurse Practitioners are met nationally and internationally. Dissatisfaction with previous management roles and wanting to be clinically‐close to patients were motivations to follow an advanced practice clinical career trajectory. Positionality and emergent professional identity are key enablers ensuring advanced practitioners' roles demonstrate the attributes of advanced practice. Educators could use the findings to develop recruitment, retention and progression strategies. Disseminating the role and scopes of practice could positively influence collaborative models of service delivery and policy development

Being Mesolithic in life and death

Fifty years ago approaches to Mesolithic identity were limited to ideas of man the hunter, woman the gatherer, and evidence of non-normative practice was ascribed to "shamans" and to "ritual", and that was that. As post-processual critiques have touched Mesolithic studies, however, this has changed. In the first decade of the 21st century a strong body of work on Mesolithic identity in life, as well as death, has enabled us to think beyond modern western categories to interpret identity in the Mesolithic. Our paper reviews these changing approaches, offering a series of case studies of such approaches, before developing these case studies to advocate an assemblage approach to identity in the Mesolithic