Jeremy Woodcock and Jamie Gill
The purpose of this paper is to describe the attempts by one youth homelessness service to implement the conceptual ideas of the psychologically informed environment (PIE) into a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the attempts by one youth homelessness service to implement the conceptual ideas of the psychologically informed environment (PIE) into a practical and beneficial service for very challenging young people who have been homeless, are leaving care or have left custody.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach of the paper is descriptive, outlining the thinking behind a PIE with young people and the operationalising of this understanding in the day-to-day practice of the service.
Findings
Although homelessness and housing support staff are not therapists, the nature of the work entails a need for understanding and sensitivity, and the activities of the service are designed to create positive opportunities and relationships. Reflective practice, supervision and evaluation are then essential tools in developing a “learning organisation”, where the collective dynamics at an organisational level support the psychological work of the PIE.
Research limitations/implications
The implications for homelessness work that can be drawn from the outcome of this project is to better understand how the PIE linked to the concept of a learning organisation can provide a truly robust framework for providing a service that can evolve harmoniously, tying in disparate funding streams to offer very challenging young people an outstanding service that addresses their homelessness and its underlying causes.
Practical implications
The practical implications shown are the psychological skills that can be developed in housing workers; the limits of those skills and how they are complemented by partnership work with other voluntary sector organisations and mainstream health providers; how the ideas of the learning organisation can naturally underpin the work of the PIE.
Originality/value
The combination of the concept of the learning organisation, reflective practice and the PIE provides a highly original and truly robust framework for providing housing workers with the psychological tools to make a transformative difference in the lives of especially vulnerable young homeless people.
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Laura Ramsay, Jamie S. Walton, Gavin Frost, Chloe Rewaj, Gemma Westley, Helen Tucker, Sarah Millington, Aparna Dhar, Gemma Martin and Caitriona Gill
The purpose of this paper is to outline the qualitative research findings of the effectiveness of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service Programme Needs Assessment (PNA) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the qualitative research findings of the effectiveness of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service Programme Needs Assessment (PNA) in supporting decision making regarding selection onto high-intensity offending behaviour programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data analysis was used through the application of thematic analysis. Results were pooled using principles from meta-synthesis in order to draw conclusions as to whether the PNA was operating as designed.
Findings
Four overarching themes were identified, which have meaning in guiding decision making into, or out of high-intensity programmes. These were risk, need and responsivity, the importance of attitudes, motivation and formulation and planning.
Research limitations/implications
The majority of data were collected from category C prisons. Generalisability of findings to high-intensity programmes delivered in maximum security prisons and prisons for younger people aged 18–21 years is limited. The research team had prior knowledge of the PNA, whether through design or application. Procedures were put in place to minimise researcher biases.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that the PNA is effective in guiding clinical decision making. Practitioners and policy makers can be assured that the processes in place to select into high-intensity programmes are effective, and aligned with the What Works in reducing re-offending.
Originality/value
This is the first evaluation into the effectiveness of the PNA designed to support clinical decision making regarding participant selection onto accredited offending behaviour programmes. Implications for practice have been discussed.
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Nicklas Neuman, Lucas Gottzén and Christina Fjellström
The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of men relate to food celebrities in the contemporary Swedish food-media landscape, especially celebrity chefs on TV.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of men relate to food celebrities in the contemporary Swedish food-media landscape, especially celebrity chefs on TV.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 men in Sweden (22–88 years of age), with different backgrounds and with a variety of interest in food.
Findings
The paper demonstrates different ways in which the men relate to food celebrities. The men produce cultural distinctions of taste and symbolic boundaries, primarily related to gender and age, but also class. Through this, a specific position of “just right” emerged. This position is about aversion to excess, such as exaggerated gendered performances or pretentious forms of cooking. One individual plays a particularly central role in the stories: Actor and Celebrity Chef Per Morberg. He comes across as a complex cultural figure: a symbol of slobbish and tasteless cooking and a symbol of excess. At the same time, he is mentioned as the sole example of the exact opposite – as a celebrity chef who represents authenticity.
Practical implications
Scholars and policy makers must be careful of assuming culinary or social influence on consumers from food celebrities simply based on their media representations. As shown here and in similar studies, people relate to them and interpret their performances in a variety of ways.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies that target the role of food celebrities in contemporary Western consumer culture from the point of view of the consumers rather than analyses of media representations.
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Marie Claire Annette Van Hout, Flavia Zalwango, Mathias Akugizibwe, Moreen Namulundu Chaka, Charlotte Bigland, Josephine Birungi, Shabbar Jaffar, Max Bachmann and Jamie Murdoch
Women experience a triple burden of ill-health spanning non-communicable diseases (NCDs), reproductive and maternal health conditions and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in…
Abstract
Purpose
Women experience a triple burden of ill-health spanning non-communicable diseases (NCDs), reproductive and maternal health conditions and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in sub-Saharan Africa. Whilst there is research on integrated service experiences of women living with HIV (WLHIV) and cancer, little is known regarding those of WLHIV, diabetes and/or hypertension when accessing integrated care. Our research responds to this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The INTE-AFRICA project conducted a pragmatic parallel arm cluster randomised trial to scale up and evaluate “one-stop” integrated care clinics for HIV-infection, diabetes and hypertension at selected primary care centres in Uganda. A qualitative process evaluation explored and documented patient experiences of integrated care for HIV, diabetes and/or hypertension. In-depth interviews were conducted using a phenomenological approach with six WLHIV with diabetes and/or hypertension accessing a “one stop” clinic. Thematic analysis of narratives revealed five themes: lay health knowledge and alternative medicine, community stigma, experiences of integrated care, navigating personal challenges and health service constraints.
Findings
WLHIV described patient pathways navigating HIV and diabetes/hypertension, with caregiving responsibilities, poverty, travel time and cost and personal ill health impacting on their ability to adhere to multi-morbid integrated treatment. Health service barriers to optimal integrated care included unreliable drug supply for diabetes/hypertension and HIV linked stigma. Comprehensive integrated care is recommended to further consider gender sensitive aspects of care.
Originality/value
This study whilst small scale, provides a unique insight into the lived experience of WLHIV navigating care for HIV and diabetes and/or hypertension, and how a “one stop” integrated care clinic can support them (and their children) in their treatment journeys.
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Kinship structures in Ambridge have been analysed using social network analysis (SNA) showing a network of a ‘small world’ type with 75 individual people linked by birth or…
Abstract
Kinship structures in Ambridge have been analysed using social network analysis (SNA) showing a network of a ‘small world’ type with 75 individual people linked by birth or marriage. Further, the network shows four major cliques: the first two centred on Aldridge and Archer matriarchies and the second where through the marriages of the third generation the Grundies, Carters, Bellamies and Snells connect together. The chapter considers the possible futures for kinship networks in the village, arguing either a version of the status quo or The Headlam Hypothesis through which Archers assume less importance and the strength of the weak ties in the network assume more prominence.
This paper examines the social and ideological significance of selfies as a manifestation of networked culture and individualism. The aim is to illustrate the meaning and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the social and ideological significance of selfies as a manifestation of networked culture and individualism. The aim is to illustrate the meaning and affordances of selfies by investigating their potential for (post)feminist empowerment.
Methodology/approach
The analysis entails an exploration of the form, content, and context of (post)feminist selfies. This includes a review of popular expressions of selfie-empowerment as well as an in-depth ideological analysis of several revealing case studies.
Findings
As a result, this paper identifies a (dis)empowerment paradox marked by a divide between material and affective conceptions of empowerment. According to this paradox, self(ie)-expressions may feel empowering to the individual(s) controlling the camera while concurrently conforming to hegemonic norms – a trend which is particularly pertinent to many networked selfies shared via social media. Accordingly, the paper concludes by critiquing the discourse of selfie-empowerment and considering the significance of cultural context in shaping meaning and ideology.
Originality/value
By addressing these implications in light of broader shifts toward networked individualism and post-feminism, this paper critically examines the ideological significance of selfies and demonstrates a need to reconsider what sociological perspectives can contribute to the study of selfies within the context of networked cultures.
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The purpose of this paper is to advocate for greater use of ethnographic research methods in entrepreneurship studies to produce more contextualized research. An argument for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advocate for greater use of ethnographic research methods in entrepreneurship studies to produce more contextualized research. An argument for getting “up-close” and “hands-on” is presented to better understand how context shapes action in entrepreneurship than is presently achieved under the present entrepreneurship research orthodoxy. The need for contextualized research is particularly acute in the domain of social innovation. For its maturation as a field of research, it also requires stronger critical perspectives into the agendas and impacts of practitioners and other field-shaping actors. Ethnographic approaches are potentially powerful methods for revealing truths of this nature. Ethnographic methods are, however, problematic for professional researchers. The challenges of conducting such research are discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual paper regarding research methods in social innovation and social entrepreneurship studies.
Findings
Social entrepreneurship that happens within established organizations is a hybrid social innovation activity that is informed, constrained, and compelled by idiosyncratic social contexts which are fashioned by institutional logics, identities, organizational culture, and history. With its contestable conceptualizations, priorities, models, purposes, and approaches, it arguably defies researchers’ ability to build a deep understanding, from arm’s length, of how the activity is undertaken for theory building purposes. Ethnographic methods enable deeper insight than traditional entrepreneurship research methods, and this research illustrates the differences between the espoused intentions, beliefs, and attitudes of managers and the lived experience of staff.
Originality/value
Social entrepreneurship is a micro-level, hybrid social innovation activity that challenges embedded social, structural, and cultural norms when undertaken within established organizations. Ethnographic methods are under-utilized in exploring this and other forms of entrepreneurial action. This paper illustrates the value of ethnography for contextualizing social innovation research and that eschewing “arm’s length” objectivity for “hands-on” insight is a powerful approach to empirically contextualizing social innovation and contributing to more critical perspectives and sophisticated theory building.
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Jamie P. Halsall, Roopinder Oberoi and Michael Snowden
Social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are concepts that have a real effect on social change. The strategies associated with social enterprise and social entrepreneurship…
Abstract
Social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are concepts that have a real effect on social change. The strategies associated with social enterprise and social entrepreneurship have become popular in public policy circles, as they have a real aptitude for solving many societal problems. This popularity has led to the rapid development of social innovation and a rethinking of the interconnecting relationships of social entrepreneurship. The authors of this chapter present a model for social enterprise and innovation approaches, and critically explore these aspects and the ways in which they can be conceptualized within corporate social responsibility.