How We Know Each Other Exploring the bonds of friendship using friendship ethnography and visual ethnography

This paper presents that argument that by combining the methods of friendship ethnography and visual ethnography, friendship itself reveals itself to be a practice-based, suffuse, routinized and emplaced phenomenon. We have used film and interviews to explore the practices that cement friendship bonds amongfour friendship pairs. In exploring practices and spaces that bind friendship pairs, research was undertaken with participants with whom the primary researcher and filmmaker is already acquainted to varying degrees of intimacy. Situating the research among friends, treating participants according to the ethics of friendship, draws us closer to an understanding of the nature of their bonds. The use of documentary film as a sensory practice that documents practice more vividly than verbal accounts alone can, used alongside friendship ethnography, draws the research closer to the non-verbal aspects of friendships that epitomize intimacy. Our close encounters with these pairs, enhanced by the medium of film, enable us to argue that friendship itself is a practice which is founded on something done (practice-based), embedded in wider social networks (suffuse), enhanced by regular contact (routinized) and contextualized in space (emplaced)

Book review: Female psychology: an annotated psychoanalytic bibliography; Schuker, E., Levinson, N.A., Eds.; Routledge: England, UK, 2017; ISBN 978-1-138-87226-4

Rarely is a book published with a specific focus on ‘Female Psychology’—one of the three branches of the ‘Psychology of Women’ field of study. It is more common to see texts that focus on ‘Feminine Psychology’, and arguably the greatest number of texts in this area are in fact dedicated to ‘Feminist Psychology’. This makes the annotated psychoanalytic bibliography, edited by Eleanor Schuker and Nadine A. Levinson a rare, but important resource. This book review assesses the re-printed text for its content and novel contribution to the field, but does so framing it in the wider context of studies into the Psychology of Women, the changing times, and the current landscape of similar research. Furthermore, this review frames the text in a wider psycho-socio-cultural academic debate about the similarities, differences, and conceptual meanings of the three (distinct) branches of: Feminist, Feminine, and Female Psychology; concluding the difference in origin of these schools of thought has allowed for their individualization and continued utility as separate areas of study into the Psychology of Women

The desire for new humanisms

This paper articulates our desire for new humanisms in a contemporary cultural, economic and global context that has been described as posthuman. As researchers committed to modes of radical, critical, politicised and inclusive education, we are mindful of the significance of social theory and its relationship with articulations of social justice. Whilst sympathetic to the potentiality of posthuman thought we grapple with the imperative to embrace new humanisms that historicise and recognise global inequalities that concurrently exist in relation to a myriad of human categories including class, age, geopolitical location, gender, sexuality, race and disability. We focus in on the latter two categories and draw on ideas from postcolonial and critical disability studies. Our argument considers the problem of humanism (as a product of colonial Western imaginaries), the critical responses offered by posthuman thinking and then seeks to rearticulate forms of new humanism that are responsive to the posthuman condition and, crucially, the political interventions of Postcolonial and Critical Disability Scholars. We then outline six new humanist projects that could productively feed into the work of the Journal of Disability Studies in Education

Feminist composite narratives of Chinese women: the interrelationship of work, family and community in forced labour situations

This contribution builds on the work Lewis has engaged in around women’s decision-making processes on work and care. Gender has been an important consideration across her work and this has been explored in familial and organisational settings. The personal is undoubtedly political and a feminist lens privileges this. Previous research (including Lewis) has marked a shift from work-life balance to work personal life integration. This implies agency and perhaps a particular kind of woman able to make choices. In contrast, this paper focuses on Chinese migrant women working in vulnerable situations. Drawing on data gathered from a forced labour project, we present some composite narratives from women as daughters, mothers and wives. These highlight the role of the core economy in decisions about migration for work. Inevitably work decisions are bound up with and situated in wider care and familial networks. These insights around emotional and practical labour are feminist concerns. We present the complex decisions made by women around precarious work, present and distant ‘families’ and care. We suggest that future work-life research should heed Lewis’ call for more nuanced understandings of the multi-layered context of people’s experiences, workplace practices and relevant national policies, but go beyond this, to pay attention to the globalised forces underpinning ever greater inequity in work, in families and in communities

Participation in community arts: lessons from the inner-city

In this paper, we critically reflect, through the lens of liberation psychology, on our experiences of using participative community arts in work with young people and intergenerational groups in inner-city Manchester, UK. We used mixed methods to examine the impact of and engagement with community arts in two projects. One study was quasi experimental in design and used questionnaires developed by the researchers to compare Higher Education aspirations with levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy, as a result of participating in creative music sessions. The other study was a multi-media action research project, using qualitative methods to explore participant experience and the impact of the activities. Our methods included observations, interviews, the creative products and the creative processes. Through our critical reflections, we examine the role of power and powerlessness in participative arts, as well as ways in which participation had the potential to enable ‘conscientisation', which in turn had the potential to lead to self-empowerment and motivation for action. Both projects demonstrated the importance of forming ‘communities of practice’ with a diverse range of stakeholders in order to gain maximum impact from the projects and move towards a position of collaborative governance. We found that this approach was a useful starting point for facilitating ‘collaborative governance’ for wider social and political change

Neoliberal economic policies’ effects on perceptions of social justice and sociopolitical participation in Portugal

Contemporary societies challenge long-standing projects of the “good society” and social equality through neoliberal economic policies. Social forms of uncertainty generated by financial deprivation, precarity, and inequality seem to have effects on agency and coping and so socioeconomic and psychological consequences. This study aims to test these relationships, as well as a hypothesis on the potential impact of these constructs on beliefs of sociopolitical control and social dominance, which have implications for social justice. A mediation model explores the effects of financial access (the manifest benefit of work) on psychosocial uncertainty (which reflects the perception of uncertainty in the social context and the experience of its consequences within work, relationships, and the adoption of self-defeating beliefs) and on emotional coping strategies towards uncertainty, and their effects on personal agency, sociopolitical control (SPC), and social dominance orientation (SDO). Data are derived from a study of 633 participants in Portugal. Although personal agency is influenced by financial access and psychosocial uncertainty, it is not proved as a significant mediator for SPC and SDO. Nevertheless, financial access, psychosocial uncertainty, and emotional coping significantly contribute to the model, supporting the hypothesis that financial access protects against psychosocial uncertainty. Both have an impact on SPC and SDO. Therefore, financial deprivation and psychosocial uncertainty potentially contribute to extremism and populism in societies characterised by socially created forms of uncertainty. Implications of results for psychological intervention, namely in vocational/professional counselling, are discussed

Provocations for critical disability studies

This article posits a number of provocations for scholars and researchers engaged with Critical Disability Studies. We summarise some of the analytical twists and turns occurring over the last few years that create a number of questions and concerns. We begin by introducing Critical Disability Studies; describing it as an interdisciplinary field of scholarship building on foundational disability studies theories. Critical Disability Studies scholarship is being produced at an exponential rate and we assert that we need to take pause for thought. We lay out five provocations to encourage reflection and debate: what is the purpose of Critical Disability Studies; how inclusive is Critical Disability Studies; is disability the object or subject of studies; what matters or gets said about disability; and how can we attend to disability and ability? We conclude by making a case for a reflexive and politicised Critical Disability Studies

Sustainable Development Stakeholder Networks for Organisational Change in Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study from the UK

Progressing towards sustainable development remains a key global challenge. And yet, the various interpretations of the concept of sustainable development and the questions it raises about economic growth make its implementation difficult. Higher education institutions may help to overcome these difficulties by developing new processes of change. However, to achieve this they need to integrate sustainable development in all their areas of activity. The aim of this paper was to develop new insights into organisational change processes in universities relating to sustainable development. Contributing to this aim, this paper reports on a case study of United Kingdom higher education drawing on findings and conclusions from a survey of their policy frameworks relating to sustainable development. The method comprised a critical policy analysis in order to identify, differentiate and categorise stakeholder interactions. The data generated comprised the range of higher education stakeholders and the network of interactions that they formed. Theoretical insights from social network analysis, stakeholder theory and the normative business model were used to find opportunities to address the difficulties in the implementation of sustainable development. Results suggested that the existing networks identified in the policy frameworks may not support the effective integration of sustainable development in higher education. Low-density of the national networks; the lack of a clear governance vocabulary for national policy frameworks; and the lack of explicit funding flows between organisations all pose problems for organisational change towards sustainable development in higher education

'Neither a professional nor a friend': the liminal spaces of parents and volunteers in family support

Home-Start is a family support charity whose delivery model is a national and global example of how targeted volunteer support can benefit parents, carers and children experiencing difficult times, in both domestic and other spaces. Parenting support continues to be a key policy area for the current UK government and other policy-makers across the Global North. In this article we draw on qualitative findings from an ethnography of a Home-Start organisation in a city in the north of England. The theoretical framework of liminality, a space between social structures, allows for an appreciation of the ambiguous nature of supporting parents in the private domestic spaces, and the ways in which this support enables parents and families to move forward. The article has broader implications for global social care and social work practice, specifically demonstrating the importance of the relationships between parents and volunteers in the every day, and contributes to the literature on liminality

'I'm not a therapist you know...I'm an artist': Facilitating well-being and basic psychological needs satisfaction through community arts participation

The role of the artist is crucial to the success of arts for health initiatives yet remains under-explored in the research literature. This article examines the practice of arts facilitation through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Fourteen interviews with artists leading projects for older adults across three settings were subject to a secondary thematic analysis. A hybrid approach was adopted with themes developed inductively and deductively. Artists were found to satisfy participants’ basic psychological needs in diverse ways. Autonomy: artists spoke of valuing the expression of individual differences and identities, encouraging participants to assume ownership of projects. Competence: developing participants’ aptitudes and skills and repairing negative self-beliefs emerged as common goals. Relatedness: artists sought to cultivate social interaction within groups and forge relationships with participants themselves. Self-determination theory provides a well-validated framework to conceptualize the psycho-social processes mediating arts project outcomes relating to psychological well-being