Living in Sandwell: An Exploratory Study into the Key Issues and Challenges that Affect a Small Group of People with Mild Learning Disabilities

This paper is concerned with a small group of people with a mild learning disability; who they are and what their lives are like. This group is not typically known by the label of mild learning disability in research, social policy or in service provision, due to a lack of suitable assessment or identification methods. This small study, using focus groups as a data collection method and undertaken as a pilot study for further research, has shown this group experienced wide ranging social disadvantage, and difficulties and challenges in daily living due to their learning disability. These included travel, shopping, parenting, lack of IT skills, plus experiencing local anti-social behaviour on a regular basis. Lack of recognition and appropriate support can leave them vulnerable to a range of difficulties and issues including social isolation and harassment

The perspectives of people with intellectual disabilities on their experience of voting in UK general elections

© 2023 The Authors. Published by Wiley for the British Institute of Learning Disabilities. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.13087BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disabilities' voting rate within the United Kingdom remains significantly below the population average despite government enacted voting promotion measures. No published academic literature directly involves people with intellectual disabilities when considering their UK general election experiences - this study aims to address this omission. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people with intellectual disabilities (N = 20) about their election experiences during the 2017 (n = 18) and 2019 (n = 8) general elections. Six participants were interviewed around both elections. Data was analysed with template analysis. RESULTS: Eight themes were produced - election information, political knowledge, political opinions, voting choice process, polling station experience, voting outcome, capacity and support. Theme interactions impacted on election experiences. CONCLUSIONS: While acknowledging diverse experiences, voting outcomes and experiences were particularly impacted by factor interactions concerning election information and/or polling station accessibility, capacity and support. Voting promotion interventions and future research should consider these areas.Published onlin

Mainstreaming domestic and gender-based violence into sociology and the criminology of violence

Sociological and criminological views of domestic and gender-based violencegenerally either dismiss it as not worthy of consideration, or focus on specificgroups of offenders and victims (male youth gangs, partner violence victims). Inthis paper, we take a holistic approach to violence, extending the definition fromthat commonly in use to encompass domestic violence and sexual violence. Weoperationalize that definition by using data from the latest sweep of the CrimeSurvey for England and Wales. By so doing, we identify that violence is currentlyunder-measured and ubiquitous; that it is gendered, and that other forms of violence (family violence, acquaintance violence against women) are equally ofconcern. We argue that violence studies are an important form of activity forsociologists

Winning wars, building (illiberal) peace? The rise (and possible fall) of a victor’s peace in Rwanda and Sri Lanka

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Third World Quarterly on 25th September 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01436597.2015.1058150.© 2015 Southseries Inc., www.thirdworldquarterly.com.The literature on peacebuilding dedicates very little space, empirically and theoretically, to countries that are emerging from a war waged to a decisive outcome. This review essay looks at Sri Lanka and Rwanda, two countries where a victorious leadership has led the process of post-conflict reconstruction, largely by employing illiberal means. It looks at the effect of decisive war on statebuilding and at the role of local agency and illiberal practices in a post-victory context. It concludes by assessing the global significance and long-term sustainability of post-victory illiberal statebuilding

Exploring ethical issues arising from ten years of inclusive research with people with a learning disability

© 2020 The Authors. Published by South East Network. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://sentiojournal.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Sentio_Issue_2_Articles_04.pdfInclusive research enables people with a learning disability, with support, to take a lead role at all stages of the research, including the design, process and dissemination, rather than just contributing to the data collection (Walmsley and Johnson, 2003). In 2010 a short-term research project enabled a group of people with a learning disability to ‘research their own lives’. An unexpected outcome was that the members greatly valued the opportunity to tell their stories and wanted to continue. Ten years later the group continues to research issues affecting them and their peers from a disability rights (United Nations General Assembly, 2006) and social model of disability perspective. This article is based on the personal observations and reflections of their non-disabled group facilitator and fellow researcher, regarding a range of ethical issues and dilemmas raised by this inclusive research approach. They include anonymity and confidentiality, the need for flexible roles of the group facilitator, including advocate and supporter, and the extent that this conflicts with the role of co-researcher. Power, ownership and control of the research agenda are also discussed