Buying for baby: How middle-class mothers negotiate risk with second-hand goods

Focusing on the mother as consumer as well as carer, this chapter considers mothers’ co-consuming practices related to used/second-hand baby goods purchased at nearly new sales. Citing second-hand consumption as an intimate and risky practice, the material negotiations and risk reduction strategies practiced by middle-class mothers as they engage in consuming second-hand baby items are discussed

Mother, consumer, trader: Gendering the commodification of second-hand economies since the recession

In Western contexts, ‘hand-me-down’ and sharing economies of children’s clothes, toys and equipment remain one of the most normalised cultures of second-hand consumption. This article explores the strategies used by mothers to realise the most economic value from these economies in current austere times with the increased possibilities offered by the democratisation of informal buying and selling spaces. Drawing on an ethnographic study of mothers participating in nearly new sales in the United Kingdom, the article outlines the myriad moralities influencing mothers’ everyday consumption, use and disposal of children’s goods. It argues that providing material goods for children is a thrifty skill with mothers thinking past point-of-purchase to the resale potential of second-hand items. This strategy of trading used children’s goods as a practice to circulate resources in the family and keep up with the commodification of childhood

Teacher Perceptions of Multicultural Education: A Research Proposal for a Study of the Perceptions of Five White, Female Teachers

The population of the United States continues to become more and more culturally diverse. Yet, white middle-class women dominate the teaching force. Because there are such great numbers of white middle-class women teaching students of color, it is important to re-examine how they perceive and use multicultural education in their classrooms. There have been numerous studies that have examined how white, pre-service teachers’ perceptions impact their pre-service experiences, but it is important to look at how practicing teachers’ perceptions of multicultural education affect their teaching. This study explores how teachers’ perceptions of multicultural education influence the way they teach. A focus group of five white middle-class female teachers was used to obtain information about how the teachers felt about issues of multiculturalism. The data consisted of five focus group interviews with the same group of teachers. In the analysis of the data, the following themes were identified: Teaching as a Service- Oriented Career, Assumptions about Race and Class, Us Versus Them, and Multicultural Education at Pine. Teaching as a Service-Oriented Career examined the teachers’ choice to teach poor children of color rather than children from privileged backgrounds. Assumptions about Race and Class focused on the how teachers’ perceptions went back and forth between issues of race and class during their discussions of multicultural education. Us Versus Them included information about how the students were often forced to follow two sets of rules; the rules of the street and the rules of the school. Multicultural Education at Pine included the teachers’ personal perceptions of multicultural education. It also conveyed examples of the realities of multicultural education at the school as well as hope for the future. This study indicated that the focus group format provided a safe place for the teachers to discuss their feelings about sensitive topics related to race and class. In my findings, it was evident that discussing sensitive topics about multicultural education in a small group format was helpful and could be a helpful tool for making positive changes with multicultural education in the future. My study reiterated that more multicultural-based training is necessary for practicing teachers

An Algorithm for Calculating the Inverse Jacobian of Multirobot Systems in a Cluster Space Formulation

Multirobot systems have characteristics such as high formation re-configurability that allow them to perform dynamic tasks that require real time formation control. These tasks include gradient sensing, object manipulation, and advanced field exploration. In such instances, the Cluster Space Control approach is attractive as it is both intuitive and allows for full degree of freedom control. Cluster Space Control achieves this by redefining a collection of robots as a single geometric entity called a cluster. To implement, it requires knowing the inverse Jacobian of the robotic system for use in the main control loop. Historically, the inverse Jacobian has been computed by hand which is an arduous process. However, a set of frame propagation equations that generate both the inverse position kinematics and inverse Jacobian has recently been developed. These equations have been used to manually compile the inverse Jacobian Matrix. The objective of this thesis was to automate this overall process. To do this, a formal method for representing cluster space implementations using graph theory was developed. This new graphical representation was used to develop an algorithm that computes the new frame propagation equations. This algorithm was then implemented in Matlab and the algorithm and its associated functions were organized into a Matlab toolbox. A collection of several cluster definitions were developed to test the algorithm, and the results were verified by comparing to a derivation based technique. The result is the initial version of a Matlab Toolbox that successfully automates the computation of the inverse Jacobian Matrix for a cluster of robots

The role of the non-human in relations of care: baby things

In this paper we argue that the non-human plays a vital role within networks of care. We do this through a consideration of the forms of work done by baby things in the giving and receiving of young-child care. We extend existing understandings of human-nonhuman relations by arguing that beyond the work of warming babies’ bodies and providing comfort, baby things function within care assemblages as both a means and a metric of parental care. Within the consumption literature, the work of home provisioning (typically undertaken by mothers) has been cast as an expression of love for others. We build on this by exploring the forms of participation and “caring capacities” of matter itself – objects such as blankets, soft-toys and pacifiers- in the caring-for of babies and young children. We attend to the flows and stoppages of baby things across networks of early childhood caregiving to consider what these patterns of movement suggest about how such artefacts participate within relations of care, and how they are used as a means to reflect on the care practices of others. Analysis is based on 30 interviews with mothers and ethnographic and survey work at 14 children’s clothing exchanges in different parts of England and Scotland. Drawing on scholarship from the New Materialism as well as Mary Douglas’s conceptual work on dirt and cleanliness,1 we advance conceptual work within and beyond Cultural Geography by arguing that analytical attention to the role of the more than human leads to richer and more nuanced understandings of how care relations work

The personal tutor as a role model for students: humanising nursing care.

This article explores how nurse academics in one British university uphold and role model the humanising framework developed by Todres et al (2009). It gives a brief overview of nurse education in the UK. Next it outlines the nature of the personal tutor role. It then offers an overview of the humanising framework, its background and embodiment in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. It explores how nurse academics role model humanisation and how this influences and impacts on students’ ability to live and apply the humanising dimensions of nursing to enhance patients’ lived experience of care. It concludes with examples of how this encourages positive meaningful relationships between students and tutors