Prison and university: a tale of two institutions?

For many years prisons have had a reputation as universities of crime providing novice criminals with opportunities to learn from more experienced criminals. Over the last 20 years, as prison populations have grown there has been a simultaneous expansion of university places and of courses specialising in studying crime. Academic criminology has experienced rapid growth with some suggesting that there are more students studying criminology now than sociology. There have never been more criminology courses on offer, or institutions offering them. Amidst this growth, there are indications that there are significant numbers of criminologists with more personal experiences of both crime and prison, combining experience of the Academy and its poorer relation at the opposite end of the social structure. What accompanies the transition from crime and prison to criminology and university? The instrumental relationships between prisons and criminology are notorious, long-standing and controversial, but rarely examined at the personal level. In this paper the author reflects on such an experience of prison, conducting research, studying and teaching criminology. The intention is to foster a reflexive exploration of relations, both institutional and structural as well as personal, between prison and university

Literature review on the dynamics of social movements in fragile and conflict-affected states

This literature review assesses the available academic and policy-oriented literature on social movements in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. It examines who becomes involved in collective action and why, the barriers to mobilisation and, where social movements do emerge, how these are able to sustain mobilisation and broaden their membership base to reflect the interests of the wider community. Evidence from this review suggests the importance of considering the interplay of movement activity and state stability, and of taking into account existing state-society relationships. Donors could focus on creating a supportive environment for social movements

‘Padres de la Patria’ and the ancestral past: commemorations of independence in nineteenth-century Spanish America

This article examines the civic festivals held in nineteenth-century Spanish America to commemorate independence from Spain. Through such festivals political leaders hoped, in Hobsbawm's words, ‘to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past’. But when did the ‘past’ begin? If in nineteenth-century France the French Revolution was the time of history, in Spanish America there was no consensus on when history began. The debates about national origins embedded within the nineteenth-century civic festival not only suggest how political elites viewed their Patrias but also shed light on the position of indigenous culture (usually separated hygienically from indigenous peoples themselves) within the developing national histories of post-independence Spanish America

Is breast best?: breastfeeding, motherhood and identity

Is Breast Best?: breastfeeding, motherhood and identity is concerned with how breastfeeding is both a personal and a political issue. Earle begins with a cross-cultural analysis of the prevalence of breastfeeding, considering differences between and within countries and cultures and highlighting the presumed physical and psychological advantages for mothers and their babies. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to data derived from a qualitative study concerned with the body in pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood. Earle argues that there are competing discourses which serve to structure women's experiences and perceptions of breastfeeding. Furthermore, she argues that gendered expectations and conflict in relation to women's sexual and maternal identities can cause tension, as can the competing pressure to breastfeed versus the importance of including the father in childcare. In conclusion, Earle leaves us with a question, namely: is the breastfeeding women empowering herself by doing what comes naturally or is the mother who uses formula milk making positive choices about her life and the care of her children

Teaching Sociology within the Speech and Language Therapy Curriculum

In the United Kingdom, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists suggests that sociology should be included within the speech and language therapy curriculum. However, in spite of this, sociology is seldom given priority. Although the role of sociology with the curricula of other professions has been discussed, the role of sociology within speech and language therapy has not. Given the contemporary climate of competence-based training, the position of subjects such as sociology is being compromised. This paper sets out three reasons in support of including sociology within speech and language therapy by drawing on the distinction between a ""personal education"" and a ""semantic conjunction"" model of the relationship between theory and professional practice. First, it is argued that sociology makes a valid contribution to an holistic approach to care–which is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of speech and language therapy practice. Second, this paper suggests that the inherent reflexivity within the discipline provides health professionals with an invaluable tool with which to engage in reflexive practice. Finally, it is argued that given the global emphasis on evidence-based practice, the study of sociology and sociological research methods equips therapists to interpret and conduct empirical research. This paper concludes by arguing that sociology should be viewed as an essential component of the speech and language therapy curriculum

Disability and stigma: an unequal life

Disabled people are half as likely to go to university, half as likely to get qualifications, and half as likely to get a job. The Disability Rights Commission campaign asks - is a disabled person only half a person? This article suggests that a 'cure and care' approach can inadvertently contribute to the process of disablement, and explores ways in which barriers of inequality can be broken down while at the same time playing an important role in treatment and rehabilitation. Definitions of disability and social models of disability are discussed as well as the concept of disability as a form of social oppression and stigma. The implications for speech and language therapists are discussed

Modification rule of monodromies in R_2-move

An R_2-move is a homotopy of wrinkled fibrations which deforms images of indefinite fold singularities like Reidemeister move of type II. Variants of this move are contained in several important deformations of wrinkled fibrations, flip and slip for example. In this paper, we first investigate how monodromies are changed by this move. For a given fibration and its vanishing cycles, we then give an algorithm to obtain vanishing cycles in one reference fiber of a fibration, which is obtained by applying flip and slip to the original fibration, in terms of mapping class groups. As an application of this algorithm, we give several examples of diagrams which were introduced by Williams to describe smooth 4-manifolds by simple closed curves of closed surfaces.Comment: 34 pages, 15 figure

Consumption and excess in Spanish America (1700-1830)

It may be said without exaggeration, that the finest stuffs made in countries, where industry is always inventing something new, are more generally seen in Lima than in any other place; vanity and ostentation not being restrained by custom or law. With this grand overstatement the Spanish travellers Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa summed up their account of fashion in 1740s Lima. Dress in the capital of colonial Peru, according to these men, differed from that of Europe only in its extravagance. European goods and clothing, they insisted, were widely available, which allowed the ladies of Lima to indulge their immoderate taste for Flemish lace and pearls, to the ruination of their husbands. Such was these women’s passion for finery that they often succumbed to uterine cancer, brought on, the travellers were certain, by ‘their excessive use of perfumes’