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Social work in extremis: human rights, necropolitics, and post-human onto-ethics

  • Authors: Ottmann, Goetz , Brito, Iris
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Social work theory and ethics : ideas in practice p. 479-497
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  • Description: International social workers inserted into crises contexts in the global South need concepts and theories in order to make sense of local circumstances and conditions and to inform their practice. This chapter applies a critical posthumanist lens to such conflict situations. Post-humanism, as shall emerge, deconstructs the term ‘human’ and its associated socio-political significance viewing ‘human’ as a contested hierarchical category (Braidotti, 2013) at the core of a biopolitics involving “life itself” (Agamben, 1998). Employing a critical post-humanist lens could expose decisions such as ending the Western military intervention in Afghanistan as acts of necropolitics, Mbembe’s term denoting policies that decide over life and death (Mbembe, 2019). A post-humanist analysis could be used to highlight the fragility of supposedly inalienable human rights. The question raised in this chapter is whether this kind of deconstruction of humanist universals that brings to light ethno-centric arrogance as well as brutality and cruelty can assist social workers to make sense of the events unleashed by militants in Afghanistan or Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province and ultimately lead to better social work practice.

Stepping into a shared vulnerability

  • Authors: McDonough, Sharon , Lemon, Narelle
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Creating a place for self-care and wellbeing in higher education : finding meaning across academia Chapter 14 p. 187-196
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  • Description: Those working in higher education face challenging and complex work environments, with academic staff subject to multiple accountability demands. In this chapter we engage in dialogic writing to examine ways to create and promote self-care and wellbeing in the space of higher education. We begin with a brief narrative about our own collaborative relationship before exploring strategies and provocations for ways to create authentic spaces for wellbeing. In doing so, we critique the concept of self-care and wellbeing as a performative tool that functions to reinforce individual responsibility and contend that creating space for self-care and wellbeing is a shared, collective and systemic responsibility that invites us to stand in a shared vulnerability.

Tai Chi exercise to improve balance and prevent falls among older people with dementia

  • Authors: Barrado-Martín, Yolanda , Polman, Remco , Nyman, Samuel
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Exercise to Prevent and Manage Chronic Disease Across the Lifespan Chapter 27 p. 363-372
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  • Description: The number of people affected by dementia across the world is estimated to grow over the coming decades. It is a condition that leads to global and nonreversible cognitive impairment. As well as creating dependency in everyday activities, dementia increases the risk of older people experiencing a fall. Falls are globally recognized as a public health problem, given their high prevalence and severe consequences among older people. Several interventions have been developed to prevent falls, with robust evidence to support exercise-based interventions and in particular Tai Chi. Tai Chi exercise is a mind-body exercise that has evidence to support its potential to improve physical, cognitive, and mental health more generally as well as prevent falls. Most exercise trials to date have excluded people with dementia, and so there is little evidence to guide the use of Tai Chi for this patient group. Further, the methodological quality and heterogeneity of approaches used in Tai Chi studies such as the exercise dose, outcomes measured, and how adherence was reported, makes it difficult to make firm conclusions. Emergent evidence suggests Tai Chi is an enjoyable and safe form of exercise for community-dwelling older people with mild to moderate dementia and their informal carers. It has strong potential to improve quality of life and prevent falls among this patient group. The mechanism for its effectiveness is not clear but it is potentially via a positive impact on both cognitive and physical functioning. Clinical practice recommendations for exercise prescribers are provided with an emphasis on how to attract and sustain high levels of adherence. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Talkin’ Bout my generation: The utility of different age cohorts to predict antisocial behaviour on social media

  • Authors: Branson, Molly , March, Evita , Marrington, Jessica
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Social media and technology across the lifespan p. 27-42
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  • Description: Experiencing antisocial online behaviour such as cyberbullying and internet trollingcyberbullying and internet trolling is associated with a range of negative psychological and physical outcomes. To understand why people are motivated to engage in antisocial online behaviour, researchers have explored a variety of individual differences including traitstraits, motivations, and cognitions. In the current study, we adopted developmental frameworks to explore antisocial use of social media across different age cohorts. Participants (N = 665, 51% female) with an average age of 28 years (SD = 8.86) completed an online questionnaire assessing antisocial use of social media. Adopting previous guidelines, participants were categorised as emerging adults (aged 18–25 years; 50%), adults (aged 26–44 years; 42%), and middle age (aged 45–59 years; 8%). A one-way ANOVA showed a statistically significant effect of age cohort on antisocial use; however, contrary to expectations, adults reported higher antisocial use of social media compared to emerging adults and middle-aged adults. There was no statistically significant difference between emerging adults and middle-aged adults. Results are discussed through the lens of Erikson’s psychosocial theoryErikson’s psychosocial model and Social Convoy ModelSocial Convoy Model and recommendations are provided to manage and prevent perpetration of antisocial online behaviour.

The diagnosis of human and companion animal Strongyloides stercoralis infection : challenges and solutions. A scoping review

  • Authors: Buonfrate, Dora , Tamarozzi, Francesca , Paradies, Paola , Watts, Matthew , Bradbury, Richard , Bisoffi, Zweno
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Advances in Parasitology: Advances in Automated Diagnosis of Intestinal Parasites of Animals and Humans Chapter 1 p. 1-84
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  • Description: Strongyloidiasis is the infection caused by soil-transmitted nematodes of Strongyloides species, infecting humans and some animals. Strongyloides stercoralis is the species with most clinical and epidemiological relevance in humans and dogs, due to its high prevalence and its capacity of inducing a life-threatening hyperinfection. Diagnosis of strongyloidiasis is challenging, due to the absence of a single reference standard test with high sensitivity and specificity, which also hampers the estimation of the accuracy of other diagnostic tests. In this chapter, we review the deployment and performance of the parasitological, immunological, molecular tests for the diagnosis of strongyloidiasis in humans and in dogs. Further, we comment the available evidence from genotyping studies that have addressed the zoonotic potential of S. stercoralis. Finally, we discuss the use of different diagnostic methods in relation to the purpose (i.e., screening, individual diagnosis, inclusion in a clinical trial) and the setting (endemic/non-endemic areas) and report the accuracy figures reported by systematic reviews on either parasitological, serological or molecular techniques published in literature. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

The Keynesian school and the neoclassical synthesis

The social context of osteosarcopenia : risk factors and social impact

  • Authors: Brennan-Olsen, Sharon , Anderson, Kate , Beauchamp, Alison , O’Connor, Jordan , Duckham, Rachel
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Osteosarcopenia Chapter 17 p. 287-306
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  • Description: This multidisciplinary chapter discusses the social context of osteosarcopenia: often a neglected area of consideration for this geriatric condition. It begins by discussing the evidence regarding associations between social conditions and lifestyle risk factors for osteosarcopenia. It then argues that lifestyle risk factors during childhood and adolescence may predispose individuals to present with this geriatric condition later in life. The notion of lifecourse accumulation for osteosarcopenia risk is further explored as a conceptual model based on the psychosocial and lifestyle-related exposures beginning in utero and continuing across the lifespan. This social-biological model posits how relationships between social factors, adversity, psychological stress, inflammation, adaptation, and changes to the epigenetic signature over the lifecourse may contribute to the development of osteosarcopenia in later life. Evidence regarding a key role for health literacy in osteosarcopenia risk, prevention, and treatment is presented. Finally, a discussion of the social impact of osteosarcopenia, including identity and social isolation, brings the chapter to a close. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Thirty years of competency-based training : how Australia painted itself into a curriculum corner in vocational education and training

  • Authors: Smith, Erica
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: International Encyclopedia of Education: Fourth Edition p. 491-503
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  • Description: This chapter chronicles the 30 years of competency-based training (CBT), a curriculum approach which characterized the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system, during that time. The chapter draws upon and brings up to date two previous published accounts by the author, of 10 years and 20 years of CBT, and covers key events, significant policy changes and debates in each 10 year period, including a detail description of current processes for competency standards and curriculum development. CBT has become increasingly narrowly defined, to the detriment of the VET system and of learners, and so the chapter ends by suggesting specific possibilities for improvement. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

“We’re in it for the long haul” : connection, generation and transformation through a school-university partnership

  • Authors: Goriss-Hunter, Anitra , Burke, Jenene , Sellings, Peter
  • Date: 2022
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: School-University Partnerships-Innovation in Initial Teacher Education Chapter 7 p. 91-108
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  • Description: This paper investigates a transformational school-university partnership project designed to provide authentic learning experiences for pre-service teachers (PSTs); broaden aspirations for regional students in disadvantaged areas; and, work within government policies. Initiated in 2012, the Activity Day project involved two regional secondary colleges and their Years 8 and 9 students who took part in a learning event organised and implemented by second year PSTs as part of their teacher education program. The project has endured ten years of delivery and changes of personnel, having been developed from the learnings of a similar project. A qualitative mixed methods approach was used to evaluate and report on this project. Collaborative self-study combined with semi-structured interviews and feedback from PSTs, teachers and students were used to examine the benefits and challenges of the project. The findings indicate that all parties felt the project was beneficial to them and that there was also scope for future expansion and enhancement. A model known as the RESET model is presented in this chapter. This model draws on our years of school and university partnership activities to highlight important factors that we believe are vital to the success of any school and university partnership. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

A critical eye on british economic policy

  • Authors: Millmow, Alex
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: The gypsy economist: the life and times of Colin Clark Chapter 14 p. 243-255
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  • Description: This chapter looks at two pamphlets written by Colin Clark in the 1960s which outlined his criticisms of British economic policy. In Growthmanship (1961), Clark assailed the popular convention that Britain simply needed to invest more to achieve higher growth rates. Capital, he argued, was created by growth rather than growth being a function of investment. Moreover, productivity growth came more from ‘human factors’ such as knowledge, organisation, education and enterprise. All this this meant a revival of the competitive spirit, fewer restrictive practices and lower taxation. In Taxmanship (1964). Clark recycled his views that high taxation impaired productivity and aggregate supply, as well as his espousal of the 25% tax limit. Elsewhere he was aghast that the British Labour Party was embracing ‘ancient errors’ such as the idea that services ‘do not really count’ and that ‘only material goods constitute the national product’. Clark was unimpressed with the Wilson Government’s espousal of planning and growth targets, likening it to reducing economic policy to medieval alchemy or witchcraft. He was also sceptical about the efficacy of incomes or wages policy. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

A seamless wedding : comedy, diversity, and the international

Advances in the discovery and development of anthelmintics by harnessing natural product scaffolds

  • Authors: Herath, H. M. P. Dilrukshi , Taki, Aya , Sleebs, Brad , Hofmann, Andreas , Nguyen, Nghi , Preston, Sarah , Davis, Rohan , Jabbar, Abdul , Gasser, Robin
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Advances in Parasitology p. 203-251
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  • Description: Widespread resistance to currently-used anthelmintics represents a major obstacle to controlling parasitic nematodes of livestock animals. Given the reliance on anthelmintics in many control regimens, there is a need for the continued discovery and development of new nematocides. Enabling such a focus are: (i) the major chemical diversity of natural products; (ii) the availability of curated, drug-like extract-, fraction- and/or compound-libraries from natural sources; (iii) the utility and practicality of well-established whole-worm bioassays for Haemonchus contortus—an important parasitic nematodes of livestock—to screen natural product libraries; and (iv) the availability of advanced chromatographic (HPLC), spectroscopic (NMR) and spectrometric (MS) techniques for bioassay-guided fractionation and structural elucidation. This context provides a sound basis for the identification and characterisation of anthelmintic candidates from natural sources. This chapter provides a background on the importance and impact of helminth infections/diseases, parasite control and aspects of drug discovery, and reviews recent work focused on (i) screening well-defined compound libraries to establish the methods needed for large-scale screening of natural extract libraries; (ii) discovering plant and marine extracts with nematocidal or nematostatic activity, and purifying bioactive compounds and assessing their potential for further development; and (iii) synthesising analogues of selected purified natural compounds for the identification of possible ‘lead’ candidates. The chapter describes some lessons learned from this work and proposes future areas of focus for drug discovery. Collectively, the findings from this recent work show potential for selected natural product scaffolds as candidates for future development. Developing such candidates via future chemical optimisation, efficacy and safety evaluations, broad spectrum activity assessments, and target identification represents an exciting prospect and, if successful, could pave the way to subsequent pre-clinical and clinical evaluations. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

After work? Understanding older women’s portfolio life transitions

  • Authors: Taylor, Philip , Earl, Catherine , Brooke, Elizabeth , McLoughlin, Christopher
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Retiring women : work and post work transitions Chapter 7 p. 111-119
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  • Description: Chapter 7 reports qualitative interviews with older women about the pursuit of an active, fulfilling and productive retirement, and the mechanisms that promote these outcomes. Contrary to notions of the blended lifecycle, analysis reveals a stark division between paid work and retirement for many women at the same time as an ongoing commitment to socially valued and productive albeit unpaid activities that form a portfolio career. Furthermore , analysis reveals an increased sense of autonomy and control over decision making among retired women that contrasts with their experiences of paid employment.

Anabolic androgenic steroids : the shortcut to the wrong way

  • Authors: Grace, Fergal
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: The Dynamics of Modern Rugby p. 74-83
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  • Description: The introduction of structured professionalism into all aspects of the game requires the aspirational rugby union player to possess high levels of muscle power and aerobic fitness. Anti-doping regulators became wise to these practices by adding so-called masking agents to the list of prohibited substances which is updated annually and published online. Research into the prevalence of doping of any kind in elite sport has not been conducted to date. It is quite surprising, given it is such a regular topic of debate. Yet, it is unlikely for a currently active athlete to reveal that they are doping and findings from population studies or regional samples cannot be applied to elite athletes. Randomized reporting technique is a method of protecting anonymity of the interviewee and more reliable than traditional questionnaires. Although rarely used, this shows distinct promise to estimate intentional doping in elite athletics. There have been some extraordinary advancements in gene therapy for the prevention and treatment of disease. © 2021 Taylor & Francis.

Angling for Australia

  • Authors: Millmow, Alex
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: The gypsy economist: the life and times of Colin Clark Chapter 17 p. 305-313
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  • Description: This chapter looks at Colin Clark’s continuing critique of Australian economic policy notwithstanding his eventual return to take up a research position there in 1969. During the late 1950s Clark had applied unsuccessfully for high level posts at Australian universities. His identification with the extreme elements within the Catholic church were not helpful nor was his libertarian views about the Australian economy, particularly on protectionism and welfare reform. His book, Australian Hopes and Fears (1958) gave an opinionated history of Australian society, history and economics and damaged his credibility and standing with its intended audience. He attributed Australia’s mediocre growth performance to the cult of protection. Favouring industry at the expense of agriculture led to chronic trade deficits and suppressed productivity growth; Australian business culture, too, had an aversion towards competition. The main problem affecting agricultural development, Clark argued, was the Australian tradition of wage fixation which allowed high wages to persist, made permissible by an economy kept in a state of excessive demand and protection. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Asset management journey for realising value from assets

At heaven’s gate

  • Authors: Millmow, Alex
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: The gypsy economist: the life and times of Colin Clark Chapter 19 p. 341-357
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  • Description: This chapter looks at the final decade of Colin Clark’s life, marked by public recognition by Australian economists of his achievements as an eminent applied economist. It came against a major illness and the decrepitude of old age. Clark felt vindicated that dire prophecies about world resource depletion and population growth had proven false and was optimistic about human ingenuity overcoming future challenges. He felt that the principal social and economic problem for future generations would be how to make cities tolerable places in which to live. His last work Regional and Urban Location (1982) expressed reservations about letting market criteria guide the location of industry and human settlements. His last attempt at an econometric model suggested a theoretical compromise between Keynes and Friedman, believing in short-term Keynesianism but that, in the long-term the size of the public sector had to be wound back. He framed the period between 1945 and 1973 as one of economic boom, propelled by trade and investment flows rather than the successful application of Keynesian economics. The chapter ends with an appraisal of his life and career. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Becoming the world’s economic statistician

  • Authors: Millmow, Alex
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: The gypsy economist: the life and times of Colin Clark Chapter 4 p. 55-70
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  • Description: This chapter considers Colin Clark’s role as one of the leading creators of national income accounting. His first book, The National Income, 1924–1931, mapped the gyrations of the business cycle with quarterly estimates of national income. Making a distinction between national product and national income, it included the generation of total money income, its distribution among the classes and the contributions made by the productive factors. It also highlighted the increasing role of services in a modern economy. His next book National Income and Outlay (1937) measured aggregate economic activity for Britain over the three dimensions of income, expenditure, and production from the years 1929–1936. It presented aggregates such as output, consumers’ expenditure, investment expenditure, government revenue and expenditure and macroeconomic relationships. Intrigued by the interwar revival of Malthusianism Clark uncovered striking increases in agricultural productivity in developed and developing countries alike that queried the validity of that doctrine; it portended an interest about the true extent of world hunger as well as his intrinsic interest in demography and agricultural systems. Like Keynes, Clark held that population growth made for a vibrant and competitive society. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Brilliant beginnings

  • Authors: Millmow, Alex
  • Date: 2021
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: The gypsy economist: the life and times of Colin Clark Chapter 2 p. 17-38
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  • Description: This chapter looks at Colin Clark’s early career. He was strongly influenced by his father, James, whom he emulated by becoming an entrepreneur in ideas, rather than merchandise. Clark attended Winchester College where his contemporaries, as later at Oxford, included Sir Kenneth Clark and Hugh Gaitskell. He won a scholarship to read chemistry at Brasenose College, Oxford before becoming entranced by economics. Clark fell into the orbit of former Guild socialist, G. D. H. Cole and was a member of the Cole group of young men and women formed after the 1926 General Strike to discuss the socialist issues of the day. Professionally, Clark was hired by William Beveridge, Director of the London School of Economics (LSE), as a research assistant for both him and Alwyn Young who, in turn, introduced him to the power of increasing returns. In 1930 Clark was appointed to the Economic Advisory Council because of his statistical prowess and watched some of Britain’s top economists grapple with the issue of the depression. He prepared figures for an early version of the multiplier which Keynes and Richard Kahn would use to justify the case for public works to address the British economic slump. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Broadening the men's shed movement