Gayatry Chakravorty Spivak: Nacionalizam i imaginacija i drugi eseji

This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on participation and attainment in higher education by reviewing the patterns of entry and success of undergraduate students. It examines the characteristics of entrants to different subjects and considers the role that subject studied plays in determining the likelihood of graduating with a ‘good’ degree. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK-domiciled undergraduate students from one ‘elite’ British university. Despite considerable between-subject variation in degree outcomes, multivariate analysis of the relationship between students’ social and academic characteristics and achievement at university revealed that once social background and prior attainment had been controlled for, the subject students studied added little explanatory power to models predicting final degree classifications. Differences in degree outcome were most strongly related to attainment on entry to higher education, sex and ethnicity. In contrast with attainment during the earlier phases of education, the relationship with occupational class was relatively weak. Disparities between the proportion of higher level classifications awarded in different subjects can be largely explained by the background characteristics of the students who choose (and are accepted) to study on these degrees. This finding has particular implications for policies aimed at increasing both the number and quality of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in what is often argued to be a ‘shortage’ or ‘priority’ area

‘If parents are punished for asking their children to feed goats’: supervisory neglect in sub-Saharan Africa

Summary: In the United States and the United Kingdom supervisory neglect of children is premised on a construction of childhood which characterises children as essentially vulnerable and in need of constant care and protection by parents. This Western conception has been transmitted to the countries of the sub-Sahara via the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, the socio-economic and cultural context of African countries differs significantly from those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The incorporation of a Western hegemonic idea of childhood into the national laws of African countries creates fundamental contradictions in the application of criteria for adjudging the adequacy of parental supervision in the sub-Sahara. Drawing on secondary data, this article explores these contradictions and proposes alternative considerations in the conceptualisation and assessment of supervisory neglect. Finding: The combined effects on households in the sub-Sahara of economic conditions, ascribed gender roles and the reciprocal duties held by children to assist their families, contest established indicators and thresholds for supervisory neglect. The concept of societal neglect together with the application of the Haddon Matrix provides a more apposite framework for reducing the risk of significant harm to children. Application: All African countries, excepting Somalia, have introduced the Convention on the Rights of the Child through domestic legislation. The findings of this study are pertinent to policy-makers and social workers in the sub-Sahara. They also invite Western scholars to critically engage with dominant notions of supervisory neglect and re-appraise its applicability in cross-national contexts

Advancing an energy justice perspective of fuel poverty: Household vulnerability and domestic retrofit policy in the United Kingdom

The concept of energy justice has brought philosophies of ethics and principles of social justice to bear on a range of contemporary energy issues. More inter-disciplinary and applied endeavours are now needed to take this field forward. One such application is to the issue of fuel poverty and the challenge of retrofitting inefficient housing stock. An energy justice perspective sees fuel poverty as a fundamentally socio-political injustice, not just one of uneven distribution. Starting from this premise, we highlight the multiple injustices faced by two groups who are regarded by policymakers as being particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty: disabled people and low-income families. In the UK, these groups are nominally prioritised within fuel poverty policy, but their complex situations are not always fully appreciated. Building on the theoretical foundations of energy justice, we present an inter-disciplinary dialogue that connects this approach with wider vulnerability research and domestic energy efficiency policy. Specifically, we discuss ‘within group’ heterogeneity (recognition justice), stakeholder engagement in policy and governance (procedural justice) and the overlap of multiple structural inequalities (distributional justice). In each section we illustrate the added value of combining justice and vulnerability conceptualisations by linking them to domestic energy efficiency schemes

Drug policy constellations: A Habermasian approach for understanding English drug policy

Background: It is increasingly accepted that a view of policy as a rational process of fitting evidence-based means to rationally justified ends is inadequate for understanding the actual processes of drug policy making. We aim to provide a better description and explanation of recent English drug policy decisions. Method: We develop the policy constellation concept from the work of Habermas, in dialogue with data from two contemporary debates in English policy; on decriminalisation of drug possession and on recovery in drug treatment. We collect data on these debates through long-term participant observation, stakeholder interviews (n=15) and documentary analysis. Results: We show the importance of social asymmetries in power in enabling structurally advantaged groups to achieve the institutionalisation of their moral preferences as well as the reproduction of their social and economic power through the deployment of policies that reflect their material interests and normative beliefs. The most influential actors in English drug policy come together in a ‘medico-penal constellation’, in which the aims and practices of public health and social control overlap. Formal decriminalisation of possession has not occurred, despite the efforts of members of a challenging constellation which supports it. Recovery was put forward as the aim of drug treatment by members of a more powerfully connected constellation. It has been absorbed into the practice of ‘recovery-oriented’ drug treatment in a way that maintains the power of public health professionals to determine the form of treatment. Conclusion: Actors who share interests and norms come together in policy constellations. Strategic action within and between constellations creates policies that may not take the form that was intended by any individual actor. These policies do not result from purely rational deliberation, but are produced through ‘systematically distorted communication’. They enable the most structurally favoured actors to institutionalise their own normative preferences and structural positions

Social dialogue in the hospital sector at EU level

The increasing presence of the private sector in public health care systems has made social partners question the effectiveness of existing national social dialogue arrangements. The emergence of issues such as patient mobility, workers' mobility and cross-border health care, which all required action at European level, led social partners at European level to build an informal process of social dialogue. This article examines the process of developing an informal sectoral social dialogue committee for the hospital sector at EU level, from 2000 until 2006, drawing on an analysis of documents, key informant interviews and participant-observer reflections. The findings show that developing the content of social dialogue is as important as the process itself and adequate representation is central to success. The most outstanding achievement of the informal process of social dialogue was that partners became more articulate about developing shared positions and gradually gained access to European institutions. [La présence grandissante du secteur privé dans les systèmes publics de soins de santé a conduit les partenaires sociaux à s'interroger sur l’efficacité des accords de dialogue social existant au niveau national. L’émergence de questions telles que la mobilité des patients, la mobilité des travailleurs et les soins de santé transfrontaliers, qui toutes exigent une action au niveau européen, a conduit les partenaires sociaux à construire un processus informel de dialogue social au niveau européen. Cet article examine le processus de développement, entre 2000 et 2006, d’un comité sectoriel informel pour le dialogue social dans le secteur hospitalier au niveau de l’UE. Il se base sur une analyse des documents, des entretiens avec des informateurs clés et des réflexions en tant que participant/observateur. Il montre que le développement du contenu du dialogue social est aussi important que le processus lui-même, et qu’une représentation adéquate est un facteur clé de succès. Le résultat le plus frappant de ce processus informel de dialogue social est que les partenaires sont devenus plus enclins à développer des positions communes et qu’ils ont obtenu progressivement accès aux institutions européennes.] [Angesichts der zunehmenden Präsenz privater Leistungsanbieter in den öffentlichen Gesund-heitsversorgungssystemen haben die Sozialpartner die Wirksamkeit der bestehenden Regelungen für den sozialen Dialog auf nationaler Ebene hinterfragt. Das Aufkommen von Themen wie Patientenmobilität, Arbeitnehmermobilität und grenzüberschreitende Gesundheitsversorgung, die auf europäischer Ebene angegangen werden mussten, brachte die Sozialpartner dazu, auf europäischer Ebene einen informellen Prozess für den sozialen Dialog einzurichten. Dieser Beitrag untersucht anhand von Dokumenten, Interviews und Beobachtungen von Teilnehmern, wie der Ausschuss für den informellen sozialen Dialog im Krankenhaussektor auf europäischer Ebene im Zeitraum 2000 bis 2006 aufgebaut und entwickelt wurde. Diese Untersuchung zeigt, dass die inhaltliche Entwicklung des sozialen Dialogs ebenso wichtig ist wie der Aufbauprozess selbst und dass die Frage der angemessenen Interessensvertretung eine maßgebliche Rolle für den Erfolg dieses Dialogs spielt. Die wichtigste Errungenschaft des informellen sozialen Dialogs besteht darin, dass die Partner sich deutlicher für die Entwicklung gemeinsamer Positionen eingesetzt und schrittweise Zugang zu den europäischen Institutionen erlangt haben.