Farmers, farm workers and work-related stress

This research explores the ways in which stress affects farming communities, how this has changed in recent years, and the degree to which work-related aspects of stress may be assuaged by support interventions. A qualitative case study research approach was employed to address these issues, involving 60 interviews in five locations across England and Wales.In examining farming stress, a distinction is made between its intrinsic, extrinsic and workrelated dimensions. Whileinterviewees tended to associate day-to-day worries and acute stress with farming’s intrinsic demands (such as disease and adverse weather conditions), external causes of tension (such as competition and regulation), together with worries about finances and family, were associated with more sustained anxieties. By contrast, work-related aspects of farming stress, such as workload issues and farming practices, involved a combination of physical and mental health effects.Notably, work-related and extrinsic dimensions of stress have increased in recent years in relation to organisational and policy shifts, price fluctuations, mounting paperwork demands, workload intensification, and changes in agricultural regulation. These have prompted an escalation in the aspects of their work that farming communities feel powerless to control, and represent a major area for policy intervention. Principal farmers displayed the most visible manifestations of stress, linked at once to the intrinsic, extrinsic and workrelated dimensions of their work. By contrast, family farm workers and labourers often lacked autonomy over the way they worked, and work-related aspects of stress concerning workload and organisation made up a greater part of their experience. Increased paperwork demands emerged as a major cause of stress among interviewees, particularly forfarmers and their wives, who struggled to balance these with traditional farming priorities. Differences between farmswere also influential in explaining stress. Livestock farming embodied intrinsic pressures relating to stock crises and the unpredictability of animals, but more recently has come under intense economic pressure, prompting a rationalisation of working practices. Arable farmers found the organisation of activities, such as harvesting and planting, in a context of reduced and increasingly contractual workforces particularly challenging. Mixed farmers faced the dual stresses of balancing work activities with conflicting timetables, and the paperwork demands of a complex portfolio of farming. Smaller farms were struggled with intensified workloads, while larger enterprises had to comply with the demands of more inspection regimes.Support agencies need to overcome the stigma attached to asking for help among farming communities and offer a rangeof responsive and proactive services. Locally based support was more likely to be used and trusted, although concernsabout client confidentiality might deter those most in need from seeking help. Where existing local networks wereestablished, there was a strong argument for providers to plug into these and work towards publicising their efforts to ensure that support is provided most effectively. Critically, support must be multidimensional, reflecting the wide range of stressors and their impacts among farming communities

Changing Priorites, Transformed Opportunities?

In addressing why some people work after state pension aage, this paper draws upon recent qualitative research to argue tht work decisions reflect long-standing dispositions and priorities, and are critically informed by opportunity structures. drawing upon a typolgy distinguishing between 'workers' and 'professionals' and creatives', and within these subgroups pf 'entrepeneurs' and 'portfolio workers', which relfect particular patterns of self-employment tha paper illustrates that qualitatively different meanings are associated with work, nd agrues tht class distinctions form the basis of particular sets of priorites and practices. Work orientations are considered against the context of opportunity structures, including work intensification, restructuring nd the decline of traditional industries, and shifts in health nd care responsibilities, which may revise people's options at state pension age. Revisiting the traditional relationshop between class and work, examining both cultural and economic factors, new conceptual insight may be gained into the reproduction nd persistence of social inequalities over the life course.

Exploring Community Formation and Coalescence at the Late 14th-Early 15th Century Tillsonburg Village Site

This thesis examines the Tillsonburg Village’s particularly large and dispersed community plan through an intra-site analysis of ceramic vessels and longhouse attributes, as these are considered useful indicators of social, organizational, and temporal processes. The archaeological site in Tillsonburg, Ontario dates to the late Middle Iroquoian Period (AD 1350-1420). Community coalescence involves the aggregation of previously separate social groups into one communal settlement. It is explored as the predominant conceptual approach to better understand the formation of the Tillsonburg Village’s community plan. However, other processes relating to the contemporaneity of village areas or houses are also considered. Spatial and statistical analyses are used to explore spatial patterning of attributes among their associated contexts. The findings suggest that the Tillsonburg occupants were experimenting with formative processes of community coalescence, with groups interacting and living together in one settlement, yet still remaining socially and spatially distinct within the larger village community

The Future of China\u27s U.S.-Listed Firms: Legal and Political Perspectives on Possible Decoupling

There is a long history of Chinese firms raising capital on leading U.S. exchanges. These shares have proved attractive and are estimated at $1 trillion value, in spite of deep mismatches between Chinese internal approaches to corporate governance and those taken under U.S. securities regulations. Chinese listings of nonstate firms, particularly in the technology sector, had depended on a largely laissez-faire initial approach to the expansion through foreign listings, including tolerance of the opaque Variable Interest Entity (VIE) structures adopted as a means to bypass Chinese restrictions on foreign ownership. Concerns regarding data security had, however, prevented compliance by Chinese firms listed in the United States with audit inspection requirements, and these mismatches in the United States have now led to Chinese firms being on shaky ground on both sides of the U.S.-China fault-line. U.S.-listed Chinese companies have faced the looming threat of delisting under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA), enacted in response to both non-compliance with audit inspection requirements and concerns about the opaque nature of VIEs and possibilities of Chinese state control. Admittedly, fears of mass delistings under the HFCAA in the near future have been allayed by Chinese agreement as to U.S. audit inspections, and the 2022 finding of two Chinese firms to be compliant with U.S. regulations. There remains, however, heightened levels of Chinese state involvement in the affairs of nonstate companies with further potential to bring strain, as Communist Party policies have changed dramatically in recent years, alongside heightened geopolitical tensions. The data concerns that had prevented audit inspections have not disappeared and, in fact, have grown. These, together with some other harmful Chinese state strategies impressed upon nonstate firms and preferences for Chinese firms to look inwards for capital, as well as a damaging trade war in semiconductors, present remaining concerns regarding investments in U.S.-listed Chinese firms. Immediate concerns regarding delistings under the HFCAA may have abated but there may be other firms for which compliance may be difficult, and there remains potential for future delistings, presenting risks for U.S. investors. These Chinese firms may find the exit voluntarily whilst the stream of U.S. listings by Chinese companies will slow. It will not yet amount to a decoupling, but investors should be wary

Media literacy education in primary years: carrying on regardless

This think- piece shares emerging ideas about media education, which the authors permit themselves to explore despite the current ‘strangulation’ of media studies in England. By ‘carrying on regardless’ we refer to an aspiration we have to continue to develop our pedagogical and theoretical approaches to media education, rather than having to expend energy always defending the subject and reformulating it to suit the discourses of populist politics. As such we reflect back on the Developing Media Literacy research project and consider our interpretations of the data in the light of recent thinking about cognition, constructivism and curriculum (more Cs!) in learning and pedagogy. We suggest that there is still important work to be done in terms of developing pedagogy which enables complex concepts to be understood, operationalized and questioned by children. We do so with the assumption implicit (as it is in most other subjects) that this work is important for the individual, the community and society (and that we do not need to spend our word count reinventing that particular wheel)

Personal Insolvency in China: Necessities, Difficulties, and Possibilities

There has long been demand for personal insolvency laws in China, yet such laws have hitherto been unavailable, in part due to ideological resistance. In more recent years there has been an increase in borrowing by individuals, which has led to increased calls for honest but unfortunate debtors to be able to obtain a fresh start. Yet there is significant public mistrust of defaulting debtors and in particular there is a shadow cast by those termed the Lao Lai that has led many to question the desirability of such a reform. There has also been a need for change in the development of an infrastructure to support a personal insolvency system, such as a social security, property registration and credit information systems, and although progress has been made in these regards there is still a need for further development. However, there has been case law progress in one province enabling collective resolutions of claims against insolvent debtors, and judicial guidance from senior courts has expanded on this. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated progress towards the enactment of personal insolvency laws on a local level in Shenzhen. This article considers the need for personal insolvency laws in China, identifies the obstacles that have hitherto stood in the way of such laws and discusses the momentum which has been recently gained towards the enactment of personal insolvency laws

Children’s experiences of and involvement in the treatment and management of their epilepsy: a qualitative study

Epilepsy is one of the most frequently diagnosed neurological disorders in childhood (Roberts and Whiting-MacKinnon, 2012). A diagnosis of childhood epilepsy holds a variety of implications for the child and their parents beyond seizures (Ronen et al, 2010), including intricate and multidimensional treatment and management protocols (Kerr et al, 2011). However, despite the increasing recognition of the importance of listening to and consulting with children regarding their healthcare (e.g. Children and Young People (Scotland) 2014), children’s accounts of their epilepsy and involvement in their treatment and management of the condition remain under examined (Harden et al, 2016). This thesis is based on research and data collected with 23 children (aged 7-14 years) with epilepsy and 31 of their parents (54 participants in total). The research examined the everyday experiences of children with epilepsy and their involvement in the management and treatment of their condition at home and in a clinical setting. Children with a diagnosis of active epilepsy and one or both of their parents were interviewed separately on two occasions. Between the first and second interviews, an observation of a routine clinical appointment was conducted which guided the second interview and generated a more in-depth discussion. Additional research tools were used in both child interviews to further facilitate discussions. The data were analysed using a thematic approach. The data indicate that children’s understandings and meanings of epilepsy were drawn directly from their own experiences of the condition and by the information provided by their parents. Both children and parents considered the latter as gatekeepers of epilepsy knowledge. Parents detailed their control of how and what children understood by their condition, and ultimately how it became incorporated into part of their lives. The meanings of epilepsy crafted by children were influential in their experience of its treatment and management. Children’s involvement (at home and in the clinic) was widely reported as being valuable to children, parents, and healthcare professionals. There was, though, variability in how much involvement children sought with their care, illustrated through their various enactments of agency. Connected to this, parents’ and healthcare professionals’ recognition and fostering (implicit and explicit) of children’s agentic contributions and potential also varied across the sample and according to the circumstance shaping children’s involvement in their care. Certain situations were illustrated as influential in children’s desires for involvement and their abilities to demonstrate agentic capabilities. Additionally, the significant contribution parents have in supporting and promoting children’s agentic capacity has been shown. Through exploring the data, I have illustrated children’s agency and competence in their involvement in epilepsy care. The thesis findings are contextualised through discussions of the sociology of childhood health and illness and provide further thought on the concepts of care and agency from a child’s perspective. Additionally, the findings offer practical insights for healthcare professionals working with children with epilepsy. In sum, through scrutinising children’s own accounts this research has illustrated how children with epilepsy enact agency through their involvement or resistance in epilepsy care, and how parents and healthcare professionals provide a mediating influence on this. As such it furthers sociological and clinical discussions on, and highlights, children’s contributions to their care in the context of childhood epilepsy

Ticking the right boxes: A critical examination of the perceptions and attitudes towards the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) acronym in the UK

© 2222 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, CC BY, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/The Black Lives Matter movement and coronavirus pandemic have raised awareness of society's categorisation of non-white people and institutional language used. We add to contemporary debate on the BAME acronym (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) by providing a critical examination of the perceptions and attitudes towards it in the UK. Drawing on in-depth interviews with women from these communities who were working in the hyper-masculinised and white-dominated sporting industry, we privilege the voices of those who traditionally have been omitted. Adopting a Critical Race Theory approach and an intersectional lens three overarching themes were identified: rejection and indifference towards the BAME acronym; filling in the form – inadequacies of the system; and, making up the quota – perpetuating (work-related) insecurity(ies). The findings provide analytical insight into institutional language and highlight the potential for the BAME acronym to cause distress and alienation while preserving the concept of Whiteness.Peer reviewe