An exploratory study of administrative process in a psychiatric hospital.

Includes 27 tables and 18 figures. Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

SESSION 3 [Panel]: The Anthony Martin BC Penitentiary Collection at TRU: Disseminating the Archive

Panel Proposal for BC Studies Conference 2019 (May 2-4) Thompson Rivers University “Intersections: Peoples and Places in British Columbia” Title: “The Anthony Martin BC Penitentiary Collection at TRU: Disseminating the Archive” Panelists: Jennifer Murphy, TRU, SSWHS; Mary Hemmings, TRU Law Librarian; P. J. Murphy, Dept. of English, TRU. This panel is a sequel to “Relocating the Martin BC Penitentiary Archive at the Old Courthouse in Kamloops”, BC Studies Conference, May 3, 2013, Douglas College, New Westminster, “Transforming British Columbia”. This session was well attended and generated a lot of interest among archivists, curators, and local historians. If, as Michel Foucault argued, our institutional structures form a “carceral net”, then prison as a key intersectional point in that network can tell us a great deal about ourselves, our convictions, and our attitudes towards marginalized peoples. This panel will focus on major developments in networking the Archive since the earlier presentation in 2013. Foremost among these is the establishment of a designated Archival Room in the TRU law library. Our panel could, indeed, be held there; in addition to archival holdings, a number of curated exhibitions and various art works are on display. Jennifer Murphy will discuss the Catalogue for the Collection that she compiled with curator, Kristina Bradshaw. Mary Hemmings will discuss how the website for the Collection has been made available to TRUSpace thousands of vintage photographic images et al. P. J. Murphy will raise a number of possibilities for scholarly research on this Archive of provincial and national importance

Welfare: A Reply to Fred Powell and to Charles O'Sullivan and Ciara Fitzpatrick

Thank you for both your responses, your respectful engagement with the paper and positive comments on its significance. Professor Fred Powell claims I have made a courageous attempt to address welfare state convergence in Northern Ireland and Ireland, but that my assessment of the core models as ‘broadly neoliberal in character’ is fundamentally erroneous. My assessment of some convergence (albeit with obvious divergence) is limited to an assessment of social security arrangements—the focus of my paper and of Ciara Fitzpatrick and Charles O Sullivan’s recent ARINS paper.

Re-thinking the coronavirus pandemic as a policy punctuation: COVID-19 as a path-clearing policy accelerator

This article joins with others in this special issue to examine the evolution of our understanding of how the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic impacted policy ideas and routines across a wide variety of sectors of government activity. Did policy ideas and routines transform as a result of the pandemic or were they merely a continuation of the status quo ante? If they did transform, are the transformations temporary in nature or likely to lead to significant, deep and permanent reform to existing policy paths and trajectories? As this article sets out, the literature on policy punctuations has evolved and helps us understand the impact of COVID-19 on policy-making but tends to conflate several distinct aspects of path trajectories and deviations under the general concept of “critical junctures” which muddy reflections and findings. Once the different possible types of punctuations have been clarified, however, the result is a set of concepts related to path creation and disruption—especially that of “path clearing”—which are better able to provide an explanation of the kinds of policy change to be expected to result from the impact of events such as the 2019 coronavirus pandemi

A New Welfare Imaginary for the Island of Ireland

Social imaginary is a sociological concept referring to the set of values, institutions, laws and symbols through which people imagine their social whole. This article unpacks what might be needed to develop an all-island welfare imaginary. Literature points to the importance of ‘institutional fit’, ‘policy opportunity’ and ‘learning processes’ as factors facilitating policy transfer between different jurisdictions. An absence of ‘institutional fit’ presents barriers to policy transfer, but even where there is institutional fit, effective policy transfer requires sufficient policy opportunity and effective policy learning processes. We find potential for convergence between the Irish and Northern Irish welfare systems in that both are broadly neoliberal in character, with common features and challenges. However, recent reforms created divergence in their direction of travel, as is evidenced in social security responses to the pandemic. Looking to the future, labour market disruption and restructuring is likely as economies and societies cope with impacts of the pandemic, future automation and climate challenges, and possible constitutional changes across the UK. Negotiating these new social risks will require greater agility and navigational agency of citizens. Enabling institutions will be key, as will maximum social and economic participation and cohesion; these policy goals offer compass points to guide mutual travel for working age welfare and social security policy, north and south. This article promotes knowledge mobilisation towards an ‘island welfare imaginary’ that draws on Nordic social democratic and universal models of welfare states and seeks to maximise social and economic participation as a way of rooting solidarity and reciprocal citizenship

What do we need for a Second Republic? High Energy Democracy and a Triple Movement

This article discusses the prospects of Ireland emerging from crisis renewed and reformed as a second republic. Evidence from opinion polls and surveys confirms Irish citizens value key republican principles of equality, rights and fair distribution; however, trust in politics, government and non-government organisations is low and the 2016 general election confirmed the absence of leadership to create political momentum around such values. The answer to the question of what is needed to generate a new politics or a high energy democracy lies in understanding how the crisis has impacted on values and attitudes towards key leadership institutions and how it has changed Irish political and civil society. Examining the relationship and linkages between the two allows some assessment of Irish political and civil society’s capacity for a values-led discourse that could promote a transformative-type change. We identify the absence of effective framing, a necessary prerequisite for effective linkage and mobilisation. What is required for new politics is an Irish triple movement which incorporates gender and social reproduction, as well as environmental and traditional distributional concerns about income equality and public services. Such framing offers potential to mobilise across a wide range of actors and create a livelier battleground in which the interests of a much wider section of the population can find expression, create new alliances, reshape power relations and, over time, create a second republic.Le présent article examine et évalue la perspective d’un renouvellement politique en Irlande qui pourrait prendre la forme d’une seconde république à la suite de la crise. Enquêtes et sondages confirment que les citoyens irlandais sont attachés aux principes-clés républicains d’égalité, de respect des droits et de répartition équitable ; cependant, la confiance dans la politique, dans le gouvernement et dans les organisations non-gouvernementales est faible, et les élections législatives de 2016 ont confirmé l’absence d’une direction structurée pouvant créer un effet d’entraînement politique autour de telles valeurs. Pour identifier les éléments nécessaires à la production d’un nouvel environnement politique et d’une démocratie dynamique, il faut d’abord comprendre l’impact que la crise a eu sur les valeurs et les attitudes vis-à-vis des principales institutions politiques et comment elle a transformé la société politique et civile irlandaise. L’analyse des relations et interconnections entre les deux permet d’évaluer dans une certaine mesure la capacité de la société politique et civile irlandaise à développer un discours fondé sur des valeurs et qui serait de nature à promouvoir un processus de changement profond. Parmi les facteurs de transformation manquants, on peut identifier en particulier l’absence d’un cadrage ou discours cadre (framing) efficace, pré-condition nécessaire à une mise en réseau et une véritable mobilisation. Pour rendre possible un renouvellement politique, il faut pouvoir imaginer en Irlande un triple mouvement prenant en compte la problématique de la reproduction sociale et genrée, celle de l’environnement et celle, plus traditionnelle, de la répartition socio-économique, autour de l’égalité de revenus et des services publics. Un tel cadrage (framing) pourrait mobiliser un large éventail d’acteurs et ouvrir un champ de discussion politique plus dynamique, au sein duquel les intérêts d’une bien plus large part de la population pourraient trouver leur expression, dans un mouvement propice à la création de nouvelles alliances, à la reconfiguration des relations de pouvoir et, à terme, à la mise en place d’une seconde république

EEPIC - Enhancing Employability Through Positive Interventions For Improving Career Potential: The impact of a high support career guidance intervention on the wellbeing, hopefulness, self-efficacy and employability of the long-term unemployed - a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Labour market policy (LMP) and its implementation have undergone rapid change internationally in the last three decades with a continued trend towards active LMP. In Ireland however, this shift has been more recent with ongoing reforms since 2012 and a concomitant move toward active labour market ‘work-first’ policy design (i.e. whereby unemployed people are compulsorily required to work in return for their social welfare benefits). Labour market policies vary from those that require this compulsory approach to those which enable the unemployed to move towards sustainable quality work in the labour market through upskilling (human capital approach). Despite this, however, long-term unemployment—a major cause of poverty and social exclusion—remains high, while current employment support approaches aimed at sustainable re-employment are, arguably, unevaluated and under examined. This study examines the effectiveness of a new high support career guidance intervention in terms of its impact on aspects of wellbeing, perceived employability and enhancing career sustainability. Method: The study involves a single-centre randomised, controlled, partially blinded trial. A total of 140 long-term unemployed job-seekers from a disadvantaged urban area will be randomly assigned to two groups: (1) an intervention group; and (2) a ‘service as usual’ group. Each group will be followed up immediately post intervention and six months later. The primary outcome is wellbeing at post intervention and at six-month follow-up. The secondary outcome is perceived employability, which includes a number of different facets including self-esteem, hopefulness, resilience and career self-efficacy

In the Shadow of the Tower: The View of the Undergraduate Experience

This paper reports the initial findings of a survey (N=388) conducted in Winter 1991 focusing on the quality of the academic experience for Arts and Science students at a medium size post-secondary institution in eastern Canada. Our purposes are: 1) to set out the context in which undergraduates conduct their academic work, 2) to document what their experience entails, and 3) to present some of their perceptions of the higher education process. While most students have vocational goals in mind, they are also keenly interested in acquiring a solid general education. Undergraduates attend most of their classes, are heavily committed to completing their programs, and work quite diligently in pursuit of their goals in the face of what many of them consider to be heavy workloads. They are not, however, completely satisfied with the services that they receive in return for their tuition fees and for Canadians' tax dollars. While satisfaction levels vary with the type of services provided, it is clear that there does exist substantial room in which institutions can make improvements. Specifically, our data suggest that the primary goals of universities seeking to better the undergraduate experience should be to encourage more effective teaching and its evaluation, to reduce class sizes, to increase formal and informal interaction among faculty members and students, to improve the quality of academic advising, and to support the creation of more equitable financial assistance programs for students.Cet article présente les premiers résultats d'une enquête (N=388) menée durant l'hiver 1991 portant sur la qualité de l'expérience universitaire d'étudiants en arts et en sciences inscrits à une institution de moyenne importance dans l'est du Canada. Nos intentions sont: 1) d'établir le contexte dans lequel les étudiants accomplissent leur travail scolaire, 2) de documenter en quoi consiste cette expérience et 3) de décrire quelques-unes de leurs impressions sur le système d'éducation supérieure. Bien que la plupart des étudiants poursuivent des buts professionnels, ils s'intéressent aussi vivement à acquérir une éducation générale à bases solides. Les étudiants de premier cycle assistent à la plupart de leurs cours, se sont voués à compléter leurs études, et travaillent diligemment afin de réaliser leurs buts malgré ce que beaucoup d'entre eux estiment être des programmes exigeants. Toutefois, ils ne sont pas entièrement satisfaits des services qu'ils reçoivent en échange de leurs frais de scolarité et des impôts prélevés aux Canadiens. Alors que le degré de satisfaction varie selon les services offerts, il est clair que des améliorations s'imposent dans plusieurs domaines. Plus précisément, nos donnés suggèrent que les universités cherchant à améliorer l'expérience des étudiants au niveau du premier cycle devraient se proposer comme buts prioritaires d'encourager un enseignement plus efficace et de mieux l'évaluer, de réduire la taille des classes, de favoriser l'interaction formelle et informelle entre les professeurs et les étudiants, d'améliorer la qualité des services d'orientation scolaire, et de promouvoir la création de programmes d'aide financière plus équitable pour les étudiants

Some Useful Sources

Debates about sustainable welfare and eco-social policy cut across many fields, from environmental studies to political economy, to normative political theory, to comparative welfare state research, to active labour market policy, to income support and social protection. The key debates engaged with in this thematic section concern the relationship between eco-social policy and normative theories of wellbeing (human needs theory, capabilities approach), and the implications of such understandings of sustainable wellbeing for the provision of benefits and services. Also at issue, particularly in the latter contributions, is the intersection between eco-social policy and post-productivist theories of ‘work’, and what this entails for active labour market policy and the conditionality of income supports. This brings in a much larger debate about reconfiguring income supports, and the differences between universal basic income (UBI), a minimum income guarantee (Coote, this themed section), or a participation income (Laruffa et al., this themed section). The literature on UBI is vast, so only recent work articulating the relationship between UBI and the transition towards a more eco-socially sustainable welfare state has been included. The literatures on human needs theory and the capabilities approach are similarly extensive. Hence, only foundational work in those fields has been included, along with subsequent contributions that have applied those theories to issues of eco-social concern

A period of contention? The politics of post-crisis activation reform and the creeping marketisation of public employment services

Public employment services (PES) have undergone significant change since2011, reshaping the roles of the market, state, and community sector withinIreland’s mixed economy of welfare. The post-crisis years saw thereplacement of FÁS with a new network of one-stop-shop Intreo activationservices, and the procurement of new employment services for the long-termunemployed through competitive tendering and Payment-by-Results. Thisprocess of marketisation is now being extended to other PES currentlydelivered by community organisations under block grants, such as LocalEmployment Services and Job Clubs. We position Ireland’s PES landscape as astrategic actionfield wherein various providers compete with one another forposition, power and resources during episodes of contention. Applying thislens to the ongoing reform of activation policy and PES institutions, thepaper considers how the recent trajectory of PES marketisation has remainedpolitically contentious. It examines the strategies of various providers andpolicy actors in shaping the politics of reform, focusing especially on theposition of community organisations within thefield and the degree towhich they have been able to strategically mobilise against marketisation.Lessons are drawn about the nature of Irish politics and policy reform