To know or not to know? Dilemmas for women receiving unknown oocyte donation

BACKGROUND: This study aims to provide insight into the reasons for choosing an unknown oocyte donor and to explore recipients’ feelings and wishes regarding donor information. METHODS: In-depth interviews were carried out with 11 women at different stages of treatment. Seven were on a waiting list and four have given birth to donor oocyte babies. The interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. RESULTS: The choice of unknown donor route was motivated by a wish to feel secure in the role of mother as well as to avoid possible intrusions into family relationships. The information that is available about unknown donors is often very limited. In the preconception phase of treatment, some participants wanted more information about the donor but others adopted a not-knowing stance that protected them from the emotional impact of needing a donor. In the absence of information that might normalize her, there was a tendency to imagine the donor in polarised simplistic terms, so she may be idealized or feared. Curiosity about the donor intensified once a real baby existed, and the task of telling a child was more daunting when very little was known about the donor. A strong wish for same-donor siblings was expressed by all of the participants who had given birth. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative study throws light on the factors that influence the choice of unknown donation. It also highlights the scope for attitudes to donor information to undergo change over the course of treatment and after giving birth. The findings have implications for pretreatment counselling and raise a number of issues that merit further exploration

Women's gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of product harm: Differences by age and gambling risk status

Background: Women's participation in, and harm from gambling, is steadily increasing. There has been very limited research to investigate how gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of gambling harm may vary across subgroups of women. Methods: This study surveyed a convenience sample of 509 women from Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. Women were asked a range of questions about their socio-demographic characteristics and gambling behaviour. Focusing on four gambling products in Australia-casino gambling, electronic gambling machines (EGMs), horse betting, and sports betting-women were asked about their frequency of participation, their product preferences, and perceptions of product harms. The sample was segmented a priori according to age and gambling risk status, and differences between groups were identified using Chi-square tests and ANOVAs. Thematic analysis was used to interpret qualitative data. Results: Almost two thirds (n=324, 63.7%) of women had engaged with one of the four products in the previous 12 months. Compared to other age groups, younger women aged 16-34 years exhibited a higher proportion of problem gambling, gambled more frequently, and across more products. While EGMs were the product gambled on most frequently by women overall, younger women were significantly more likely to bet on sports and gamble at casinos relative to older women. Qualitative data indicated that younger women engaged with gambling products as part of a 'night out', 'with friends', due to their 'ease of access' and perceived 'chance of winning big'. There were significant differences in the perceptions of the harms associated with horse and sports betting according to age and gambling risk status, with younger women and gamblers perceiving these products as less harmful. Conclusions: This study highlights that there are clear differences in the gambling behaviour, product preferences, and perceptions of product harms between subgroups of women. A gendered approach will enable public health researchers and policymakers to ensure that the unique factors associated with women's gambling are taken into consideration in a comprehensive public health approach to reducing and preventing gambling harm

Extending the reportoire of research approachs in a professional doctoral program: The place and shape of a critical perspective

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Critical management research; A case study in the production of knowledge and organisational change in the financial services industry

• Management knowledge, which is eclectic, is frequently ambiguous, incomplete and contested with respect to its theoretical and/or empirical nature. • Management knowledge about organisational change is frequently concerned with both cultural and structural change that reflects multiple realities of individuals, groups and the firm (e.g. boards, shareholders, customers and companies). • There is a ‘trialectical’ nature in the relationship between management, the rest of the organisation and external agents such as consultant-researchers. In this paper trialectical refers to the multi-directional creation and use of knowledge. • The concurrently emergent and directive processes that form meta-knowledge and meta-processes around organisational change are evident in this contemporary practice case. • Critical management research as an emergent and directive process is indicated in the contemporary practice case discussed in this paper. The paper integrates key concepts about management knowledge, practice and research, and illustrates and integrates them through a contemporary case study which focuses on: 1. the creation of management knowledge to address change in two radically-different organisations in knowledge-intensive service industries, and; 2. the application of new management methods to diagnose and facilitate the adoption of technology-based tools by a traditional advice-based service business. To address implications from this and similar cases, a model for research using a critical pragmatic realist perspective is introduced as a framework to mediate and interpret the trialectical relationship between management, organisation and research. Through the way the case study has unfolded we illustrate both the complexities and the need for a critical pragmatic realist perspective and approach, as outlined in the model. We argue that this framework creates the possibility of enhanced understanding and better informed action. In this case study, it became obvious that the parties’ (predominant) perceptions about each other’s role as outsource or alliance partner continue to evolve. This evolution is increasingly raising some new commercial possibilities with the consequence that the smaller party will be able to introduce significantly new strategic value to both partners - the result will likely be a change in the power relationship between the two. This neatly illustrates the way in which differential knowledge can change power relationships as well as the alternative which is more readily recognised: that the differences in power bring with them differences in the production and use of knowledge

Countering localized impacts of globalization: Some rural community development initiatives in Australia

abstract not availabl