Gendered spaces and practice,relationality, emotion and affect at the Marian shrine of Ta Pinu, Gozo, Malta

In this chapter the case study of Ta’ Pinu, Gozo, a site of pilgrimage for Marian devotion and the national shrine of Malta, is analysed as a gendered assemblage and an example of the intersection of gender and religion, with attention to the spatial and power relations associated with these flows and processes. Islands have functioned as places of spiritual retreat and subsequent pilgrimage throughout the history of the Christian faith, the liminal character of their coastal landscapes and environments creating particular intertwinings of experience and spiritual practice; yet, whilst this experiential nexus may be extraordinary for visitors, it is the everyday context of daily life for inhabitants (see Maddrell 2011, 2013, Maddrell and della Dora 2013, Maddrell et al 2015, Maddrell and Scriven (forthcoming)). Here my attention is turned to the island of Gozo in Malta, analysing the Roman Catholic shrine of Ta’ Pinu, in order to offer a spatial perspective on gender and religion within this specific context and arena. Whilst the journeys to this island shrine can have significance, drawing on feminist theories of embodiment, my focus here is less on the journey per se and more on the spaces and practices of religious performance and related geographies of spiritual encounter, emotion and affect, with particular attention to the gendered dimensions of these practices at Ta’ Pinu. This will be set within the wider context of an overarching analysis of faith practices as embodied in everyday spaces and practices, reflecting a need for more scholarly attention to examining those pilgrimages which are embedded in everyday practice rather than a stand-alone extraordinary event (Maddrell 2013). It is hoped that this meshing of perspectives and themes will yield fresh understanding of the specific place-time dynamics of gender and religion at Ta’ Pinu, and in turn contribute to a spiritually-inflected understanding of gendered discourses and practices. Before turning to the core discussion, Marian veneration as a form of pilgrimage practice and the history of the Ta’ Pinu shrine are briefly outlined, and fieldwork methodologies explained

Why place Māori children with Māori caregivers? : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work (Applied) Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This qualitative study explores the concepts of customary care, recognising the Maori worldview and emphasising the value of placing Maori children with Maori caregivers. It examines the establishment of the Matua Whangai Programme in the context of the social/political issues of the 1980-1990s and the impact of legislation and reports on the placement of Maori children outside of whanau. The participants in this study were three caregivers m the Matua Whangai Programme. They each had experience of customary care practice in their own whanau and who generalised this experience in the context of the Matua Whangai programme. In this community, the Matua Whangai programme ran from 1985 to 1991. The study shows that when the programme was disestablished, not only did Maori children lose access to whanau whangai (foster families), the community also lost tribal linkages, both locally and nationally, along with effective networks with other social and governmental agencies established by Matua Whangai within the Lower South Islan

Labour as a constraint to increases in agricultural production : a comparative study of three distinctive farming environments within one agricultural system : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography at Massey University

A critical question facing economic policymakers today is whether agriculture will be able to play its traditional role in lifting export earnings through increases in the volume of production. One factor which is thought to have constrained agricultural development is the availability and price of farm labour. The following study examines the dimensions of the "labour problem" and attempts to assess the impact of this problem on an expansion of agricultural output. The research draws extensively on geographical principles for the spatial design. One farming system is selected, and within this, the farm labour problem is examined in three distinctive environments, differentiated by topographical criteria and a gradient of isolation from a major urban area. The labour problem, conceptualised in the four dimensions of cost, availability, retention and efficiency, is assessed within these environments. From the empirical research, the labour problem appears to be of greater magnitude in the hill country farm environment, which is considered by recent agricultural appraisals as having the potential for immediate, sustainable and sizable production increases. This raises implications for future policy formulation. The study arrives at two principal conclusions. Firstly, the cost of the labour unit is the major inhibiting factor to increased employment on farms. Secondly, the on-farm shortage of skilled labour does not appear to have a limiting impact on production levels between farms, but it does elicit a certain management response towards less labour-intensive systems of production. The short and long term production consequences of this are as yet uncertain, and should provide a major focus for research in the 1980's

Learning beyond compliance: a comparative analysis of two cohorts undertaking a first year social work module

This paper addresses a current gap in education for sustainable development (ESD), an international educational movement, with a particular focus on teaching and learning innovations. Reflecting upon the mainstream 'business as usual' approaches in the ESD discourse, theories and practices of transformative social work are considered to make a significant contribution to that end. Empirical research was conducted to examine a new pedagogical approach introduced within an established module taught in 9 different groups to first year UK Social Work students during the academic year of 2007/8. The core change investigated was the replacement of detailed weekly instructions for teaching staff. The new guide articulated a pedagogical framework for the course and outlined themes and objectives, leaving detailed planning and delivery to individual teachers. Explorations were made through a comparative analysis of the responses of teaching staff and students for pre- 2007/8 academic years and 2007/8 year respectively. Data were collected using both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The research findings include students' positive view towards the classroom-based learning and some indications of deeper and wider understanding of social justice. Staff reported a renewed sense of professionalism. This research illuminates the potential for learning beyond compliance within existing curriculum frameworks

Creating cohesive citizens in England? : exploring the role of diversity, deprivation and democratic climate at school

Over the past decade, cohesion and integration have been a key concern for policymakers in countries across Europe and North America. The rapid increase in immigration, coupled with the perception of rapid social change and instability, is seen to have presented communities and governments with a range of ‘new’ challenges. In the attendant debates, schools are often presented as part of the solution to these challenges, but much remains unknown about the relationship between schools and community cohesion. This article therefore explores the role of schools as a site of socialisation for children and young people and their role in fostering the attitudes, behaviours and norms that are typically associated with citizens in a cohesive society. This article focuses in particular on the role of school demographics and school climate and uses longitudinal data from students in England to examine these relationships

On the use of simulated experiments in designing tests for material characterization from full-field measurements

The present paper deals with the use of simulated experiments to improve the design of an actual mechanical test. The analysis focused on the identification of the orthotropic properties of composites using the unnotched Iosipescu test and a full-field optical technique, the grid method. The experimental test was reproduced numerically by finite element analysis and the recording of deformed grey level images by a CCD camera was simulated trying to take into account the most significant parameters that can play a role during an actual test, e.g. the noise, the failure of the specimen, the size of the grid printed on the surface, etc. The grid method then was applied to the generated synthetic images in order to extract the displacement and strain fields and the Virtual Fields Method was finally used to identify the material properties and a cost function was devised to evaluate the error in the identification. The developed procedure was used to study different features of the test such as the aspect ratio and the fibre orientation of the specimen, the use of smoothing functions in the strain reconstruction from noisy data, the influence of missing data on the identification. Four different composite materials were considered and, for each of them, a set of optimized design variables was found by minimization of the cost function

A computational model of quantification in natural language

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36).Natural languages have various ways of expressing quantification, such as the English words "some" and "all." Different such words exist in different languages, and the same word can communicate quite different quantities depending on the context. This thesis presents a computational framework for modeling quantificational meanings and their use in communication. The model can represent meanings that depend on absolute amounts (e.g., two) as well as relative amounts (e.g., half of the total) and context-dependent amounts. It can also represent meanings with presuppositions. Communication between a speaker and a listener is modeled as single exchanges in which both participants have noisy perception of the actual state of the world, the speaker tries to communicate some quantity to the listener by using some word chosen to be informative, and the listener tries to infer the quantity using the word and the assumption that the speaker was being informative. The usage patterns predicted by the model are qualitatively similar to how the words are actually used. The model also shows that the sets of words in real languages result in more efficient communication than randomly selected sets of words with comparable meanings.by Avril Kenney.M.Eng

Iodine and Thyroid Cancer in Goa

There is a low papillary to follicular ratio in iodine deficient areas. A study of malignant thyroid tumors done over a period of 4 years in Goa shows that the ratio of papillary to follicular carcinoma in Goa conforms to a iodine deficient status of the population