Recognising an ecological ethic of care in the law of everyday shared spaces

Law plays a vital role in the life and loss of open shared spaces, used and enjoyed on an everyday basis by local people. In this article, we adopt an analytical framework based on an ethic of care to critique the registration of land as a ‘town or village green’, using the example of an inquiry into the greens status of an ancient woodland. Analysing written and oral witness statements in this inquiry makes clear the centrality of such places in many people’s lives, giving rise to community-based, and forward-looking, interests. However, the legal focus upon quantitative assessments of individuals’ use of land in the recent past means that the prospective consequences of losing such valued areas are currently poorly acknowledged, and accounted for, in the registration process. This leads to the question whether an ethic of care towards everyday shared spaces may be better recognised via more deliberative plan-making regimes

Bringing environmental justice to the centre of environmental law research: developing a collective case study methodology

Drawing on classic studies of environmental justice, as well as our smaller scale experience of using case studies to research environmental assessment and the protection of open green spaces, we suggest that collective case studies (also known as multisite or multiple case studies) offer an opportunity to map out and realise common concerns and losses and the similar experiences of legal hurdles and challenges on the part of geographically disparate local communities. The collective nature of these studies helps to build up a picture of environmental injustices across different, but related, cases and are capable of revealing broad discriminatory and unfair practices in environmental decision making which may form part of a pattern of experiencing discrimination and lack of influence and participation in decision making extending beyond the specifics of a particular site, environmental conflict or legal dispute. In this respect, the development of collective case studies provides a method of research practice but may also contribute to the generation or development of theories of environmental justice, crossing the line between specificity/context of experience in a locality and generality/unity of theory

Gender differences in emotionality and sociability in children with autism spectrum disorders

BackgroundFour times as many males are diagnosed with high functioning autism compared to females. A growing body of research that focused on females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) questions the assumption of gender invariance in ASD. Clinical observations suggest that females with ASD superficially demonstrate better social and emotional skills than males with ASD, which may camouflage other diagnostic features. This may explain the under-diagnosis of females with ASD.MethodsWe hypothesised that females with ASD would display better social skills than males with ASD on a test of friendship and social function. One hundred and one 10- to 16-year-olds (ASD females, n&thinsp;=&thinsp;25; typically developing (TD) females, n&thinsp;=&thinsp;25; ASD males, n&thinsp;=&thinsp;25; TD males, n&thinsp;=&thinsp;26) were interviewed (using the friendship questionnaire (FQ)) with high scores indicating the child has close, empathetic and supportive relationships. One parent of each child completed the FQ to assess whether there are differences in perception of friendships between parents and children.ResultsIt was found that, independent of diagnosis, females demonstrated higher scores on the FQ than males. Further, regardless of gender, children with ASD demonstrated lower scores than TD children. Moreover, the effect of ASD was independent of gender. Interestingly, females with ASD and TD males displayed similar scores on the FQ.ConclusionsThis finding is supported by clinical reports that females with ASD have more developed social skills than males with ASD. Further research is now required to examine the underlying causes for this phenomenon in order to develop gender-appropriate diagnostic criteria and interventions for ASD.<br /

The management of adolescents at risk of suicide by Australian general practitioners: issues in practice and confidence

This study involved an anonymous survey of 41Victorian GPs regarding their diagnostic and treatment practices with adolescent patients with depression and/or suicide ideation. The results indicated that the majority of respondents correctly diagnosed the level of depression and the risk of suicide in a case scenario. Although they commonly asked some of the questions related to an assessment of suicide risk, they rarely conducted a comprehensive risk assessment and the level of referral to telephone and internet crisis services was poor. Most GPs indicated a lack of confidence in their ability to detect and manage depression and suicide in this population and strongly emphasized a need for more training.<br /