Diversity, identity and belonging: women's spaces of sociality

Questions of identity, diversity and senses of belonging have been central to debates about multiculturalism, citizenship and social cohesion. However, there are few studies which specifically examine women’s spaces of sociality and how these have contributed to new formations of identities. Developed from feminist and post-colonial theorisations, and drawing on empirical interview data from a research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, this paper explores identities for (primarily) ‘White’ and ‘South Asian’ women through the intersections of gender, ‘race’ and ethnicity with culture, religion and sexuality. It asks what aspects of identities, affiliations, ambivalences or antagonisms are manifested in particular contexts of socialising, and explores how the processes of social identification are played out in informal contexts of socialising. Through a rich source of interviews carried out in London, it demonstrates how postcolonial spaces of sociality in a major international city can be places of intimacy and bonding for women as well as places where ‘difference’ is constructed, enforced, resisted and performed

Supporting part-time learners in higher education: equalities and inequalities

Higher education institutions are working in times of change, including a changing student body, changing demographics, and the challenges of globalization. In the UK and many Western countries, part-time enrolments in universities are expected to rise at a much faster rate than full-time, with the mix between part-time and full-time shifting substantially. Whilst policies and practices have often denied opportunities to part-time learners, the changing landscape of UK higher education – with many similarities to the landscapes in much of the developed world – are opening more flexible opportunities to participate in higher education. However, those possibilities are too often marginal, with full-time and younger learners dominating the discourses and practices of higher education institutions. This paper will discuss ways of supporting academic learning for diverse groups of part-time learners, showing how pedagogic approaches can be developed that enhance and support more flexible and effective learning. Institutions face particular challenges in ensuring that the voices of diverse groups of students are heard. This article will argue that to enhance social inclusion, institutions need to ‘speak’ to mature students and part-time students – and many currently do not. However, it will conclude that there are pedagogic approaches which enable more inclusive practices in higher education to be mainstreamed

"Just coming in the door was hard": supporting students with mental health difficulties

A student in your writing center displays such high level of anxiety that it also begins to impact on those working in the writing center. The student's behavior might tip over into the unacceptably aggressive and thus provoke a sharp response from the writing center director. Is this just everyone having a bad day or could it indicate a much deeper problem?. Students with mental health difficulties have been a growing concern for us in recent years in our study support team in a UK university. The UK Higher Education Statistics Agency indicates that, in 2003-4, 12.03% of the total numbers of students declaring a disability disclosed a mental health problem. In our college, LCC (London College of Communication, University of the Arts London), our statistics showed that 29.5% of our students, declaring a disability, had disclosed a mental health issue by the end of the same academic year. We are at present half way through our 2005-6 academic year and that number has increased to 37.14% of our students with disabilities. Students will frequently not disclose their disability before they apply because they are worried that they may not be accepted onto the program or even because the initial onse

Proofing rural lifeling learning

The countryside covers 85% of England’s land surface and the people who live and work in it comprise one fifth of the population. Yet in lifelong learning discourse, (as so often elsewhere) the countryside rarely receives much specific attention as the focus for elaboration and critique of policy. This Occasional Paper builds on a recent ‘rural proofing’ study undertaken for the Countryside Agency, which reviewed the application of government lifelong learning policies in, and their implications for, rural areas. In particular it attempted to identify and examine existing evidence for differential impacts of lifelong learning policies for rural people and businesses compared to their urban counterparts. The Countryside Agency study shows how little attention has to date been paid specifically to rural aspects of lifelong learning policy. It emphasises well known and long standing problems of access to learning opportunity, to do with inadequate and localised provision within a dispersed population, which are exacerbated by poor transport, concealed poverty (and other dimensions of social exclusion) and (for vocational training) by the specific difficulties faced by small rural enterprises. Beyond this, however, it confirms how little information exists regarding rural needs and uptake, which might allow such problems to be addressed in policy terms. It argues that existing research activities, (for example those of the Centre for the Wider benefits of Learning) should accommodate the rural dimension. In particular, local plans of the 47 regional Learning and Skills Councils (LSC) currently in production should be monitored to see to what extent they take the rural dimension into account, and how. It asserts that Non Departmental Public Bodies outside DfES (including Defra funded agencies such as the Countryside Agency) also have a role to play, in incorporating lifelong learning into their own policies (in the case of the CA especially within protected landscapes which are the focus of a number of new initiatives related to sustainable rural governance). Alongside these conclusions, however, lie other considerations. Neither lifelong learning nor rural proofing are unproblematic categories. This paper examines some of the political and ideological assumptions and constructs which underpin the categories of ‘lifelong learning’ and ‘rural proofing’. It argues that rural proofing (a government commitment to subjecting all its policies to scrutiny for rural relevance or bias) needs to reflect on its own assumptions as well as recognise contested paradigms of lifelong learning (as an umbrella term for all post school ‘adult learning’). It argues that the distinction between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ needs to be mapped onto contested paradigms of lifelong learning, and, with them, seen in an historical context. Within New Labour, lifelong learning and rural governance are both subsets of a broader agenda that has to do with entrepreneurship and competitiveness; economic well-being and environmental quality; social inclusion, citizenship, civic participation and social engagement. It concludes that the new administrative and funding structures of lifelong learning may permit a closer strategic focus on perceived regional needs, particularly those to do with skills and employment. However they are unlikely to encourage a revival and re-focusing of non-vocational (and especially non-formal) learning opportunities. Moreover to the degree that the emphasis on widening participation and social inclusion may secure access to work for some, they do little in themselves to address structural problems of rural inequality and poverty. Current instrumental trends in lifelong learning are closely focused on perceived ‘human capital’ requirements but do not necessarily take into account the specific requirements either of rural enterprises or of the diversity of rural people and their needs. Any radical developments in rural areas will need to be part of a new rural settlement in which longstanding social and economic problems of rural areas are addressed

Use of data to inform expert evaluative opinion in the comparison of hand images—the importance of scars

Evaluation of a likelihood ratio is widely recognised as the most logical and appropriate means of assessing and expressing the weight of expert scientific evidence. This paper describes the application of such an approach to cases involving the comparison of images of hands that contain visible scars. Such evidence is frequently provided in cases of alleged child sexual abuse in which images of the perpetrator’s hand are compared with images of the suspect/accused’s hand. We illustrate how data provided from a database of hand images can be used to inform the probabilities that are an essential part of evaluating a likelihood ratio and, hence, how data have a bearing on the appraisal of the weight of evidence that can be attributed when scars are present within an image

Education and practice, let's move on: introducing the education zone team

The role of the academic in clinical practice has long been debated with no consensus on either what it is or what it should be. This paper suggests that we need to move on from the debate and implement ways of working that are commensurate with the needs of the students in individual organisations whilst fulfilling the requirements of curricula and individual roles. Within one university, a new way of working with partnership placement providers was implemented. This paper outlines the process, experience and outcomes of the initiative and attempts to provide an honest account of the achievements and complexities of such a project

Organic farm incomes in England and Wales 1999/00 and 2000/01

This report presents results from research work carried out for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on the financial performance of organic farms for 1999/00 and 2000/01 financial years. The aim of the report is to collate financial data for organic farms differentiated by farm type, in order to provide continuity between previous studies (project code: OF 0190) on the economics of organic farming covering years 1995/96 to 1998/99 and new research work carried out by the Institute of Rural Sciences, UWA, to obtain financial information for organic farms for the period 2001/02 to 2003/04 (project code: OF 0189). The financial data in this report were not collected directly, but were derived from other DEFRA-funded studies. Data are from farms of varied sizes within the samples for each farm type and not always of adequate sample size. This was particularly the case for horticulture while other datasets mainly comprised five farms or more per farm type. A cautious approach is required when viewing smaller farm samples as it is not possible to draw conclusions on the organic sector from these results; but may permit observation of data trends for the particular set of farms within the sample. Where possible, to provide an idea of economic trends over time, continuous farm data for 1998/99 and in some cases for 2001/02 are shown alongside the 1999/00 and 2000/01 data. The report highlights results for organic cropping, horticulture, dairy, lowland and LFA cattle and sheep farms and one set of results for in-conversion dairy farms. Comparable conventional farm datasets are shown alongside some organic datasets for comparison. This was the case for both organic and in-conversion dairy farms and LFA and lowland cattle and sheep farms for 2000/01 datasets only. From this report, the financial data show that most farm types under organic management had positive net farm incomes (NFI) with the exception of the in-conversion dairy farm sample. Management and investment incomes (MII) were positive values for all farm types with the exception of lowland and LFA cattle and sheep farms from the FBS sample. The financial trends varied by farm type between 1999/00 and 2000/01 with the organic cropping farm sample experiencing over 60% reduction in NFI, whilst organic dairy and LFA cattle and sheep farm incomes increased at varying levels over the two years. For all farm types where comparable data are shown alongside the organic farm sample, the organic sample showed higher NFI and MII values with the exception of the in-conversion dairy farm sample where income values were lower than the comparable dataset. Gross margin data are presented for organic dairy herds, LFA suckler cows and finished beef stock and LFA breeding ewe flocks. Arable gross margins are shown for winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, beans and potatoes crops and horticultural data are available for potatoes, carrots, beetroot and calabrese

Organic farm incomes in England and Wales 2001/02

Financial results from research work carried out for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) by the Organic Farming Research Unit at the IRS, UWA on the economic performance of organic farms in 2001/02 are presented in this report. A fundamental aim of this work is to assess the financial performance of organic farms differentiated by farm type, in order to inform DEFRA policy-making with respect to economics of organic farming, and to provide a basis for assessments by farmers, advisers and other interested parties of the farm-level implications of conversion to and continued organic farming. This research area builds on previous economics work on organic farming carried out by IRS, UWA (Project OF0190, covering 1995/961 to 1998/992). Here, data is shown for the 2001/02 financial year, which is the first of a series of three reports covering the financial performance of organic farm types including cropping, horticulture, lowland and LFA dairy, lowland and LFA cattle and sheep and mixed farming systems for 2001/02 up to 2003/04. In comparison with the earlier reports, there has been a significant improvement in the numbers of farms for which data have been obtained. Summarised and detailed financial input, output, income, liabilities and assets and some physical performance measures are presented based on current Farm Business Survey data collection and collation guidelines. The samples of organic farms per robust farm type are sufficiently large to give a reasonable level of confidence in the data; however, it should be noted that the organic farm samples are not statistically representative of their type, although the results can be seen as a reasonable indication of farm income levels for organic farms. An additional element of this work is the inclusion of comparable conventional farm data for the farm types shown. Each organic farm within this study was matched with the averaged results for a comparable cluster of conventional farms based on the resource endowment of individual organic farms. Broadly speaking, the parameters used to select comparable farm clusters included farm type, FBS region, LFA status, utilisable agricultural area, milk quota holding (where applicable) and farm business size. For each farm type, the results for each cluster were averaged and compared with the average for the individual organic farms. Overall, organic farms showed a similar or higher level of net farm income for all farm types compared to the conventional farms. The greatest differences were seen in the cropping, horticulture, LFA dairy and mixed farm types. Both organic and conventional lowland dairy types performed similarly. For management and investment income, only the organic lowland and LFA cattle and sheep farms showed a negative value. Conversely, the comparable conventional farm types showed a negative value with the exception of the lowland dairy farms. Gross margin data is presented for organic dairy herds including the top and bottom 5 performing herds. Cattle and sheep gross margins are shown for lowland and LFA farm types in addition to breeding pig gross margins. Crops shown include winter and spring wheat and barley, spring oats, beans and potatoes and a further five horticultural crops

‘A Hybrid In All Sorts of Ways’: Teaching Women’s Studies in the Academy

Introduction: There has been much discussion of late of the decline in women’s studies in the British academy. Discussion has ranged around the institutional closing down of women’s studies departments and programmes, and around the experiences of students on women’s studies degrees. What is it like, though, to be a lecturer in women’s studies in an academy, which often feels like an alien and unwelcoming place to be. What brought lecturers in women’s studies to their discipline, and how do they see their future? What constrains do they face on their current work? Can women’s studies challenge traditional academic structures? What is the role of women’s studies in the academy? I have documented the briefer views of women’s studies lecturers on these issues elsewhere (Jackson, (1999(a)); Jackson (2000(a)). This article is based on in depth interviews with the lecturers in one women’s studies department in a ‘new’ university in London (see appendix 1 for the interview questions). As with any group of women (albeit a very small group of four), the lecturers have differences between them, as well as similarities they share. I have here, for reasons of confidentiality, chosen to say little about the lecturers individually in terms of social class, age, sexuality etc. Nevertheless, these differences are issues, which the lecturers discussed during the interviews, and they will be included here. I have on the whole chosen to write their comments collectively rather than separately, again because of issues of confidentiality. Some of the lecturers commented that their positions are well known within their department, and this alone might identify them. Although then my collective and nameless writing up might appear to distance the lecturers and seems not to acknowledge them as people this is not my intention. The lecturers all work within women’s studies, some full-time, whilst others work part-time in women’s studies and part-time in other disciplines, and have been working at the university for a varying number of years