Languages, nations and identities

This article reviews a range of ways in which issues of national identity have been shown to be linked with the topic of language. We suggest that there is scope for development both of the theoretical underpinning to claims made about the nature of these links, and also, in consequence, to the methodological approaches appropriate to empirical investigations of them. Here, we explore the ways in which aspects of the social world such as those summarised above are understood theoretically. The first part of the paper argues that debates about the relationship of languages to forms of social identity, particularly those associated with nationalisms, often make a number of assumptions - about languages, about collectivities and about social agency. The second part interrogates these assumptions and proposes the utility of realist theory in evaluating claims in this area. In the final part of the paper, we outline the methodological implications of our argument

Turning Brass to Muck? A Small Scale Exploration of Charities Use of Charity Bags Collections

The title of this paper is an inversion of the usual cliché of turning muck to brass, which it is arguable that charity bag collections do, by providing an in income for charities for goods that would normally be thrown away. While previous research has highlighted that charity bag collections are becoming an increasingly significant source of income for charities, enabling charities to metaphorically turn muck into brass, research has been rather disparate in its analysis of four main issues highlighted as pertinent to this growth. These are: the frequency of collection requests; the amount of materials collections provide; the amount of commission received by charities from outsourced collections, and the extent of bogus/fraudulent collections. This paper uses data collected over a 12 month period using a convenience sampling method to explore these issues in some empirical detail. The findings particularly suggest in that there are a number of processes through which charities undertake their collections which risks undermining the current and future income from charity bags, and which thereby has the potential to invert the metaphor, and turn what has become muck to brass into brass to muck, thereby losing out on a significant income stream

International and industry partnerships: Building nursing capacity in Thailand

A newly formed partnership between Edith Cowan University, the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand, a College of Nursing and two major hospitals in Bangkok is building capacity within Thai Nurses to manage mental health problems and HIV/AIDS. The partnership, funded through the AusAID Public Sector Linkages Program is developing and delivering these training programs in three phases. The first two phases support the development of the curriculum and planning for the course delivery, with Phase 3 being the delivery of a four month certificate course in each of the specialist areas, mental health and HIV/AIDS, to local Thai Nurses. The program provides the opportunity for senior Thai Nurse Educators to gain insight into the Australian perspective of the relevant specialist areas as well as the broader Australian health system. Participants have then been able to review the course curricula and teaching methodologies, including additional and revised information and strategies as is relevant to the Thai health environment. An integral component of the program is evaluation. Following completion of the courses, nurses will be followed up on return to their workplace, to assess the impact of the course on the work practices of nurses. The program evaluation will support better understanding of emerging issues for all program partners and provide a strong basis for refinement of the program for future delivery. At the time of the ECU-COM 2006 conference, the program will be at the stage where the Thai nurses are completing the four month course. This paper will discuss the progress of the program to date, from the perspective of the Australian program partner

Linguistic ethnography in realist perspective

This article engages with linguistic ethnography from the perspective of sociological realism. It begins by reviewing some of the positions expressed in the linguistic ethnography (LE) literature about the extent to which LE is defined by theoretical orientation as well as by method. The article is then framed around a kind of ‘generic’ sociolinguistic research question – ‘Which people use which kinds of language in what circumstances and with what outcome(s)?’. Taking each element in turn, it explores the ways in which an ethnographic approach contributes to the processes of: classifying speakers as members of various kinds of social groups; identifying language varieties; accounting for the inf luence of ‘context’; and identifying ‘outcomes’. I suggest that each of these aspects of social linguistic research stands to benefit from the methods developed in ethnography, and from the theories and principles underlying the approaches it uses. However, drawing on the work of contemporary realist social theorists, the article concludes that ethnography is a method suited to illuminating certain aspects of such questions better than others

‘I just couldn't do it’:representations of constraint in an oral history corpus

Corpus linguistic techniques are increasingly being used by discourse analysts whose interest is in the ‘critical’ issues of inequality and the representation of disadvantaged groups. This paper reports an extension of these approaches, where concordancing was used to analyse a corpus of 144 transcribed oral history interviews in order to explore the issue of constraint on the speakers’ goals and experiences. The analysis is of the expression I couldn't, which is contextualised with reference to research on negation and modality in authentic discourse contexts. This paper explores the ways in which I couldn't is deployed to refer to constraints of three main kinds: physical (pertaining to the body and material objects), structural (pertaining to the distribution of resources) and cultural (pertaining to social norms and expectations). The approach illustrates the advantage of maintaining an analytical distinction between the discursive and the material, so as to explore the interplay between them

Shareholder Engagement and Chevron’s Policy 520 on Human Rights: The Role Played by the United States Jesuit Conference’s “National Jesuit Committee on Investment Responsibility”

Purpose To demonstrate how the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the United States through the “National Jesuit Committee on Investment Responsibility” played a significant role as a socially conscious institutional and religious investor in influencing Chevron’s Human Rights Policy 520 and to analyze the factors that contributed to a successful shareholder engagement with the company. Methodology/approach Case study based on firsthand information. Findings Our conclusion offers support for Allen et al.’s (2012) conclusion of legitimacy (credibility) being the dominant force in a successful engagement. We found that coalition-building is a significant moderating variable in increasing shareholder salience. This finding contradicts the study by Gifford (2010). Originality/value of chapter The chapter is based on the actual process of shareholder engagement with Chevron Corporation that led to the human rights policy and is written mainly based on firsthand information

Extra-Curricular Activities: creating graduates with impact in education

Staff from the Carnegie Faculty’s Centre for Social and Educational Research across the Life-course (SERL) have completed a project for the Higher Education Academy subject group for education, ESCalate, into ‘Creating Graduates with Impact in Education’. Jacqueline Stevenson, Professor Sue Clegg and Paula Sealey undertook research with students and staff across a range of education-related courses as well as with employers from schools, local authorities and other education settings

Contrasting Greek and UK youths’ subjective responses to austerity: lessons for other European countries

Since 2010, many European countries have faced severe economic crises, resulting in the implementation of various forms of ‘austerity’ social policies, and Greece and the UK have been at the forefront of the implementation of such policies. While it is important to note that these austerity measures are affecting different groups in different ways, the impact on young people can be seen as particularly deleterious. For example, in contrast to previous generations, young people in these countries are now experiencing intense social, political and economic transformations that have impacted particularly on their current and future lives, and are very likely to be the first generation to do worse than their parents

Whither Multiculturalism? – an Analysis of the Impact on Welfare Practice and Theory of Policy Responses to an Increasingly Multicultural Society in the UK

The UK is becoming an increasingly multicultural society, driven by a variety of demographic changes, particularly increased net migration from EU10 and the EU2 enlargement over the last 20 years. In response to this, there have been two main policy focus, that of reducing immigration and limiting entitlement to welfare benefits for migrants. This article will analyse the challenges that the latter of these policy changes in particular pose for practice, both in terms of its application and its theoretical implications. In terms of practice application, the paper outlines how the limitation of entitlement to welfare benefits on the one hand amplifies already existing issues, and on the other creates new challenges for social welfare practitioners with migrant groups. In terms of theoretical implications, the paper will outline how these policies reflects a retreat in policy away from multiculturalism towards assimilation, such as in relation to specifying the assimilation of ‘Britishness’ and ‘British values’ in daily life. Underpinning this retreat from multiculturalism is a changed citizenship, or more specifically the diminution of social citizenship rights integral to being complete citizens