'Creating a modern nursing workforce’: nursing education reform in the neoliberal social imaginary

This paper explores how nursing education both exemplifies the contradictions of neoliberalism alongside its seemingly all-encompassing influence. We conduct a feminist critical policy analysis to trace the histories of nursing as a feminised vocation located outside the academy, and how this is reflected in recent policy. We then critically explore widening participation and social mobility in relation to nursing education, and demonstrate how a discourse of fairness is used to justify market solutions. The ‘special case’ of nursing is considered through an analysis of how ‘the nurse’ as subject is constituted in education policy discourse. Our discussion focuses on the effects of these reforms and demonstrates how historical discourses that centre on women as carers are assimilated into the ‘neoliberal social imaginary’. The paper’s scope is both local – the gendered history of nursing education in England – and global – the force of neoliberal globalisation in education policy

Child sexual abuse amongst Asian communities: developing materials to raise awareness in Bradford.

NoThis article starts from recognition that child sexual abuse is perpetrated in all communities, but appears to be under-reported to varying degrees in different communities. It acknowledges that children who have been sexually abused will usually benefit from services designed to assist them in moving on from this experience and to provide future protection from perpetrators. It notes, in particular, the apparent disproportionately low take-up of relevant services by members of Asian communities in Britain. It places this in the context of reported responses to child sexual abuse in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and explores the likely impact of factors arising from cultural norms in relation to family structure and role relationships. It reports on work begun within Asian communities in Bradford to increase awareness of and appropriate responses to child sexual abuse which hopefully address issues which are or relevance elsewhere. In particular, it discusses responses to a preliminary questionnaire, discussions with community groups, a consultation event held in April 2003, and a multilingual information booklet produced as a result. It urges respectful dialogue with women, men, children and young people in Asian communities as being essential to progress regarding appropriate responses to child sexual abus

Brackish Water Shrimp Farming and the Growth of Aquatic Monocultures in Coastal Bangladesh

One of the most significant changes in marine and coastal environments since the mid–twentieth century has been the growth of coastal shrimp aquaculture in many tropical and sub–tropical regions of the world. This chapter, which draws on the author’s own archival and field research and the published works of other students of the global shrimp market, examines the growth of brackish water shrimp production from the 1970s to the present in Bangladesh’s coastal belt and its social and ecological impacts. It shows that for most of this period shrimp production was encouraged by the Bangladesh Government to expand in a fragmented and uncoordinated way with varying environmental, economic and social consequences. These included higher levels of soil salinity, increased risk of flooding, loss of agricultural land, a decline in biodiversity, contraction of various traditional occupational activities, growth in new non-agricultural work, a shift to diversified employment strategies among households, higher incomes for shrimp farmers and land renters and economic and social dislocation for others. Government, business and international aid agencies supported the expansion of mono–cultural forms of shrimp production integrated into global trading networks at the expense of local resource extraction activities such as artisanal fishing and forestry

Afferent and Efferent Connections of the Sexually Dimorphic Medial Preoptic Nucleus of the Male Quail Revealed by in Vitro Transport of Dii

The medial preoptic nucleus of the Japanese quail is a testosterone-sensitive structure that is involved in the control of male copulatory behavior. The full understanding of the role played by this nucleus in the control of reproduction requires the identification of its afferent and efferent connections. In order to identify neural circuits involved in the control of the medial preoptic nucleus, we used the lipophilic fluorescent tracer DiI implanted in aldheyde-fixed tissue. Different strategies of brain dissection and different implantation sites were used to establish and confirm afferent and efferent connections of the nucleus. Anterograde projections reached the tuberal hypothalamus, the area ventralis of Tsai, and the substantia grisea centralis. Dense networks of fluorescent fibers were also seen in several hypothalamic nuclei, such as the anterior medialis hypothalami, the paraventricularis magnocellularis, and the ventromedialis hypothalami. A major projection in the dorsal direction was also observed from the medial preoptic nucleus toward the nucleus septalis lateralis and medialis. Afferents to the nucleus were seen from all these regions. Implantation of DiI into the substantia grisea centralis also revealed massive bidirectional connections with a large number of more caudal mesencephalic and pontine structures. The substantia grisea centralis therefore appears to be an important center connecting anterior levels of the brain to brain-stem nuclei that may be involved in the control of male copulatory behavior