Politics as usual? The Trials and Tribulations of the Law of Historical Memory in Spain

The aim of this article is to evaluate the Law of Historical Memory from a political perspective where politics is understood as "the art of the possible". It will be argued that the Law of Historical Memory is a product of the compromises which characterise the process of politics as usual in a functioning democracy. An analysis of the Law of Historical Memory, therefore, can illuminate the way in which politics functions in Spain today. Two main issues are focused on: the primacy of electoral considerations and the interaction between state and civil society

Evaluation of the Children’s Commissioning Support Resource. Final report

It is clear that the CCSR has not fully realised its initial goals and there are a range of factors preventing it from doing so. - The interlinked nature of the issues influencing its success means that it is difficult at this stage to set a specific path towards improved effectiveness. It is clear however, that the first and major step required is to develop much clearer ownership, leadership and direction

Masculinity, Sexuality and the Visual Culture of Glam Rock

Glam Rock. a musical style accompanied by a flamboyant dress code emerged during the early 1970s. This essay looks at the changing representations of masculinity which occured during the late 1960s and early 1970s. leading eventually to the Glam Rock phenomenon. The impact of social changes including the legalisation of homosexuality and the growth of the women's liberation movement and their effect on male representation will be explored. There will be an examination fashion and retailing for men. "unisex" style to demonstrate how menswear became increasingly feminised. culminating eventually in the adoption of full transvestism by male performing artists like David Bowie. The relationship between Glam Rock and other musical subcultures will also be discussed with a view to explaining how the eventual adoption of transvestism by Glam Rock performers exposed and challenged the hegemony of the prevailing metanarrative of heterosexual male freedom within 1970s popular culture

Beyond Contradiction: Sacred-Profane Waters and the Dialectics of Everyday Religion

Studies of the relationship between religion and ecology are either highly enthusiastic about the ways that religious belief can motivate sound resource management or skeptical of the connection. Using an everyday religion approach, this text takes a middle ground to show that resources are variously interpreted in daily life and that religious orientations, while potentially supportive of environmentally sound action, are but one source of influence. Drawing from fieldwork, the discussion employs practice theory to look at how water resources in a Himalayan township are understood and the ways that notions of responsibility for sacred and profane waters are changing. The text aims to show that resource degradation is not necessarily indicative of contradictions in belief. This assertion pushes us to think more critically about the importance of everyday terrains of discourse and action, including how resource perceptions and management activities are influenced by structural constraints

Vampires and werewolves: Rewriting religious and racial stereotyping in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series

Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005–8) demonstrates a strong connection with the theology, cultural practices and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), of which Meyer is an active member. One of the strongest ways in which this connection is demonstrated is through characterisation: specifically, by featuring vampires and werewolves as prominent supernatural characters in the text. Twilight employs vampires as a metaphor for the LDS Church. By eschewing literature’s traditional association of vampires with subversive acts, especially subversive sexuality, and rewriting them as clean-cut pillars of the community, Twilight not only charts but promotes the progression of Latter-day Saints from nineteenth century social pariahs to modern day exemplars of conservative American family values. The series represents its Native American shapeshifting werewolves as an ancient group of people from LDS scriptural history called Lamanites, who were cursed by God with ‘a skin of blackness’ for their ‘iniquity’ (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 5:21). The construction of the werewolves as impoverished and socially marginalised yet with strong family ties enables the treatment of race in Twilight to move beyond a standard white/non-white binary frame to engage at a deeper level with LDS stereotyping of Native American people

Conditional expertise in chronic illness : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Social Sciences at Massey University

The incidence of chronic illness is increasing in the developed world. This means that there is an increased utilisation of acute health care services by people with chronic illnesses, either for treatment of exacerbations or for unrelated health problems. Acute health care services are based on the notion of finite, curable episodes of ill-health, and as such they do not always meet the needs of people with chronic illnesses. This study uses a grounded theory approach to examine the issues surrounding hospitalisation in acute care facilities for a group of eight people with chronic illness. Participants were interviewed within two months of an admission to hospital. Analysis of data, further interviews and other data collection, and generation of theoretical concepts were performed in accordance with the grounded theory method. The key finding from the research was a state of conditional expertise for the chronically ill. While living at home, and in a state of relative well-being, participants were acting as experts in the management of their illnesses. During encounters with health providers in the primary care setting, particularly those whom participants knew, a process of negotiation occurred, engendered by mutual trust in each other's expertise. However, once the acute care setting was entered, participants discovered that their expertise was neither valued nor acknowledged. In response, they went through the processes of informing health carers, by repeatedly telling their stories to different health professionals they encountered, and finally withdrawing from participation in care. This withdrawal could be either physical, where the participants sought early discharge, or emotional in terms of becoming passive recipients of care. The implications of this study, given its limitations, are numerous. In order to provide satisfactory care for people with chronic illnesses, health professionals working in acute care settings must move beyond the dominant model and seek to establish trust relationships which acknowledge and value patient expertise. This requires, first, that education programmes for health carers encourage the recognition of important data patients that do not relate to biological and disease states. Second, a system of care needs to be developed within the acute care setting that allows ongoing relationships to be established between individual patients and carers. This in turn would generate trust between patient and carer, which would enhance the abilities of each to acknowledge expertise. The Partnership model of nursing care is proposed as a possible solution to this problem

What enables inclusion in the workplace : an attributional analysis from diverse perspectives : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of life is an issue of basic civil rights. There is currently a gap in inclusion and disability research at work in how to incorporate the different experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities into the inclusion framework. The first step is identifying a difference, which could theoretically be done through Actor-Observer theory. The current study aimed to assess whether employees with disabilities perceive inclusion at work differently to employees without disabilities, and if this relationship could be explained through attribution theory. A questionnaire that used a reversal technique (as per Storms’ 1973 reversal) placed employees with and without disabilities as both Actors and Observers by switching positions in two given scenarios. Through the participation of 93 employees in a range of occupations, two measures with psychometric properties looking at workplace culture and attitudes were distributed. Findings showed when participants with disabilities were placed as ‘Actors’ they responded that ‘situational’ factors (e.g. policies) were more important for inclusion than did the comparison group of employees without disabilities (Observers). When roles were reversed in a different scenario, employees with disabilities (Observers) responded significantly more strongly to dispositional items (i.e. rated others as more likely to think negatively or positively) for one factor, and showed a trend of responding more strongly to the dispositional factors in general compared to the employees without disabilities (Actors). The current exploratory study showed support for the use of actor-observer theory in identifying that differences in viewpoints (actor/observer) contributed to a difference in perspective that prevented understanding of barriers to inclusion. Findings demonstrated that in order to create meaningful change, the perspectives of people with disabilities must be considered to address the attribution of responsibility in policy and practice at work

Headteachers’ Perception of the Implementation of the Capitation Grant Scheme In The Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region

This study was conducted to find out head teachers' perception of the implementation of the capitation grant scheme in Sunyani West East District of the Brong Ahafo Region. The study specifically focused on explaining how head teachers conceptualised the concept of capitation grant scheme, the implementation process, and the challenges associated with the implementation of the scheme. A descriptive research design was adopted for the study, and a questionnaire and an interview guide were designed and administered to a sample of 40 head teachers from the district in the Region. The analysis of data revealed that 70.0% of the head teachers had an in-depth understanding of the source of capitation grant as being from the Government. The study, among others, found that the main challenges confronting the smooth implementations of the scheme were delay in the release of funds and inadequate funds. It is recommended that Government should release adequate amount of the grant in good time (thus, before the beginning of each quarter) so that school heads will avoid pre-financing of school activities. Also, the Ghana Education Service should continue to train head teachers in financial management and administration for prudent use of funds