The Socrates café at ‘Cuan’ day centre is a nonformal educational initiative. The café is loosely based on the Socratic method of seeking the truth through questioning and dialogue. The participants include people who attend the day centre, staff and students on placement. The Socrates café aims to treat older people as ‘elders’, providing intellectual challenge and opportunity for learning. Based on participant observation and interviews with participants and organisers, the paper will examine the purposes, benefits and use of community philosophy as an empowering tool. Social justice demands that we seek to create the conditions for people to flourish. Yet, our elder care services often treat older people as passive and incapable. Services for older people have traditionally adopted a care and health focus and there has been little emphasis on adult learning especially for people in the 'fourth' age. The findings suggest that the café provides an important forum for learning in a convivial environment with positive impacts for participants and benefits for the organisation itself. The café succeeded in integrating and linking participants with wider communities and promoting further learning opportunities. Located at the intersection of social care work and adult education, the paper argues that the Socrates café helps the participants to be self-advocates and to create the conditions for their own social inclusion. Drawing on the experiences of participants at the Socrates café the paper considers the potential of Community Philosophy to promote greater social engagement in an elder care setting.
{"title":"The Socrates Café: Community Philosophy as an empowering tool in a day care centre for older people","authors":"Carmel Gallagher","doi":"10.21427/D7FH9T","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7FH9T","url":null,"abstract":"The Socrates café at ‘Cuan’ day centre is a nonformal educational initiative. The café is loosely based on the Socratic method of seeking the truth through questioning and dialogue. The participants include people who attend the day centre, staff and students on placement. The Socrates café aims to treat older people as ‘elders’, providing intellectual challenge and opportunity for learning. Based on participant observation and interviews with participants and organisers, the paper will examine the purposes, benefits and use of community philosophy as an empowering tool. Social justice demands that we seek to create the conditions for people to flourish. Yet, our elder care services often treat older people as passive and incapable. Services for older people have traditionally adopted a care and health focus and there has been little emphasis on adult learning especially for people in the 'fourth' age. The findings suggest that the café provides an important forum for learning in a convivial environment with positive impacts for participants and benefits for the organisation itself. The café succeeded in integrating and linking participants with wider communities and promoting further learning opportunities. Located at the intersection of social care work and adult education, the paper argues that the Socrates café helps the participants to be self-advocates and to create the conditions for their own social inclusion. Drawing on the experiences of participants at the Socrates café the paper considers the potential of Community Philosophy to promote greater social engagement in an elder care setting.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68648640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The analysis of newspaper discourse offers valuable insights into how society represents or misrepresents certain social participants and their actions. In view of the bias claimed to exist in journalistic prose (Bednarek, 2006; White, 2006), it is not uncommon to find evidence of the mistreatment directed towards particular minorities (Baker et al., 2008; Fowler, 1991). In this paper, the ideological stance associated with a specific minority group (i.e. homosexuals) is brought to the forefront in 2008, when Ireland’s vibrant economy took a dramatic turn for the worse. Incidentally, this coincided with homosexuality taking centre stage in Ireland’s political agenda, as 2008 marked the final stage of the long drawn-out debate on the Civil Partnership Bill. This paper is designed to offer insights into how evaluative language may reflect the mentality of Irish society in relation to the LGBT community. Martin & White’s (2005) APPRAISAL theory is highly relevant and applicable for this purpose, as it covers the idea of social esteem, social sanction, personal attitude and appreciation, which can be powerful indicators of a society’s take on current affairs. The methodology employed here is that of corpus-assisted discourse analysis (Stubbs, 1996). The dataset comprises over 200,000 words taken from three different newspapers: Two tabloids and one broadsheet. Our dataset is annotated on the basis of the categories in Martin & White’s (2005) subsystem of ATTITUDE (AFFECT, JUDGEMENT and APPRECIATION). The application of this taxonomy uncovers a remarkably negative stance towards the Irish LGBT community in the sample analysed. This is particularly evident in the predominance of evaluative and emotive language associated with the categories of negative JUDGEMENT and AFFECT. Previous research on the same sample, looking at metaphor, transitivity and modality (e.g. Bartley & Hidalgo-Tenorio, 2015), has cast light on how homosexuals are repeatedly discriminated against and vilified in the Irish public arena. This study confirms the results so far obtained through the analysis of evaluative language.
{"title":"Evaluation and Attitude towards Homosexuality in the Irish Context: A Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis of APPRAISAL Patterns in 2008 Newspaper Articles","authors":"L. Bartley, Miguel-Ángel Benítez-Castro","doi":"10.21427/D7XH8S","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7XH8S","url":null,"abstract":"The analysis of newspaper discourse offers valuable insights into how society represents or misrepresents certain social participants and their actions. In view of the bias claimed to exist in journalistic prose (Bednarek, 2006; White, 2006), it is not uncommon to find evidence of the mistreatment directed towards particular minorities (Baker et al., 2008; Fowler, 1991). In this paper, the ideological stance associated with a specific minority group (i.e. homosexuals) is brought to the forefront in 2008, when Ireland’s vibrant economy took a dramatic turn for the worse. Incidentally, this coincided with homosexuality taking centre stage in Ireland’s political agenda, as 2008 marked the final stage of the long drawn-out debate on the Civil Partnership Bill. This paper is designed to offer insights into how evaluative language may reflect the mentality of Irish society in relation to the LGBT community. Martin & White’s (2005) APPRAISAL theory is highly relevant and applicable for this purpose, as it covers the idea of social esteem, social sanction, personal attitude and appreciation, which can be powerful indicators of a society’s take on current affairs. The methodology employed here is that of corpus-assisted discourse analysis (Stubbs, 1996). The dataset comprises over 200,000 words taken from three different newspapers: Two tabloids and one broadsheet. Our dataset is annotated on the basis of the categories in Martin & White’s (2005) subsystem of ATTITUDE (AFFECT, JUDGEMENT and APPRECIATION). The application of this taxonomy uncovers a remarkably negative stance towards the Irish LGBT community in the sample analysed. This is particularly evident in the predominance of evaluative and emotive language associated with the categories of negative JUDGEMENT and AFFECT. Previous research on the same sample, looking at metaphor, transitivity and modality (e.g. Bartley & Hidalgo-Tenorio, 2015), has cast light on how homosexuals are repeatedly discriminated against and vilified in the Irish public arena. This study confirms the results so far obtained through the analysis of evaluative language.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67751823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines deprivedmale migrants’ conceptions and performative expressions of hegemonic masculinity in Ireland.It explores their widespread propensity to develop hypermasculine self-images based on ideals of cultural loyalty and economic prosperity that are, in fact, compensatory for their sense of emasculation, marginalization and social failure as a result of economic difficulties within their host societies.The first section surveys perceptions and preconceptions about migrant men and young male immigrants in a variety of Irish media, political and social discourses. The second section considers recent research and the development of theoretical perspectives about migrant masculinity in Ireland. In the third section, it is argued that these broad discourses and preconceptions are accentuated and encapsulated in a corpus of Irish theatre and film productions, such as Jimmy Murphy’s play about Irish emigrants in London,The Kings of the Kilburn High Road (2001), which was subsequently adapted by Tom Collins in the Irish language film Kings (2007). Bisi Adigun’s Arambe Productions has appropriated and complicated the Kings of the Kilburn High Road storyline in turn. Adigun reenacted the play withWest African immigrants rather than Irish emigrants in London (2006). He subsequently adapted its storyline to a contemporary London setting in Home, Sweet Home (performed in Lagos, 2010), and then he reset the play in Dublin with an African-Irish immigrant cast in The Paddies of Parnell Street (2013). In these different versions of the Kings plotline, ideals of migrant masculinity, the image of the “alien” and the meaning of the play/film perceptibly shift depending on whether it is performed by an English-speaking Irish cast, a cast of Irishlanguage speakers, or an African immigrant cast in Arambe’s productions. Yet, together, these works suggest that immigrants to Ireland and returning Irish emigrants, as well as marginalized Gaelic speakers, face similar gender specific constraints in achieving recognition and gaining acceptance in modern Irish society. Each version is based on competing conceptions and performances of hegemonic masculinity that come into conflict at the culmination of the plot’s development. Both on stage and on screen, they give expression to migrant masculine ideals in Ireland that are defined by wider political and social tensions which they seek to resolve in their respective performances.
本文考察了爱尔兰被剥夺的男性移民对霸权男性气质的观念和表现。它探讨了他们普遍倾向于发展基于文化忠诚和经济繁荣理想的超男性化自我形象,事实上,这是对他们在东道国社会中由于经济困难而产生的阉化感、边缘化感和社会失败感的补偿。第一部分调查了各种爱尔兰媒体、政治和社会话语中对移民男性和年轻男性移民的看法和先入之见。第二部分考虑了爱尔兰移民男子气概的最新研究和理论观点的发展。在第三部分,我们认为这些广泛的话语和先入之见在爱尔兰戏剧和电影作品的语料中得到了强调和浓缩,例如吉米·墨菲关于伦敦爱尔兰移民的戏剧《基尔本大路之王》(2001),随后由汤姆·柯林斯改编为爱尔兰语电影《国王》(2007)。Bisi Adigun的Arambe Productions反过来借鉴并复杂化了《Kilburn High Road》的故事情节。2006年,阿迪贡在伦敦用西非移民而不是爱尔兰移民重演了这出戏。随后,他在《家,甜蜜的家》(2010年在拉各斯上演)中改编了故事情节,以当代伦敦为背景,然后在《帕内尔街的农场》(2013年)中,他在都柏林重新设置了一个非洲裔爱尔兰移民演员。在这些不同版本的《国王》情节中,移民男子气概的理想、“外星人”的形象和戏剧/电影的意义明显地发生了变化,这取决于它是由讲英语的爱尔兰演员、说爱尔兰语的演员还是由阿拉姆作品中的非洲移民演员来表演。然而,这些作品共同表明,爱尔兰移民和返回的爱尔兰移民,以及边缘化的盖尔语人士,在现代爱尔兰社会中获得认可和接受方面面临着类似的性别特定限制。每个版本都是基于相互竞争的概念和表现霸权的男子气概,在情节发展的高潮发生冲突。无论是在舞台上还是在银幕上,他们都表达了爱尔兰移民的男性理想,这些理想是由更广泛的政治和社会紧张局势所定义的,他们试图在各自的表演中解决这些紧张局势。
{"title":"Three Kings: Migrant Masculinities in Irish Social Practice, Theoretical Perspective and Theatre Performance","authors":"J. King","doi":"10.21427/D7ST6W","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7ST6W","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines deprivedmale migrants’ conceptions and performative expressions of hegemonic masculinity in Ireland.It explores their widespread propensity to develop hypermasculine self-images based on ideals of cultural loyalty and economic prosperity that are, in fact, compensatory for their sense of emasculation, marginalization and social failure as a result of economic difficulties within their host societies.The first section surveys perceptions and preconceptions about migrant men and young male immigrants in a variety of Irish media, political and social discourses. The second section considers recent research and the development of theoretical perspectives about migrant masculinity in Ireland. In the third section, it is argued that these broad discourses and preconceptions are accentuated and encapsulated in a corpus of Irish theatre and film productions, such as Jimmy Murphy’s play about Irish emigrants in London,The Kings of the Kilburn High Road (2001), which was subsequently adapted by Tom Collins in the Irish language film Kings (2007). Bisi Adigun’s Arambe Productions has appropriated and complicated the Kings of the Kilburn High Road storyline in turn. Adigun reenacted the play withWest African immigrants rather than Irish emigrants in London (2006). He subsequently adapted its storyline to a contemporary London setting in Home, Sweet Home (performed in Lagos, 2010), and then he reset the play in Dublin with an African-Irish immigrant cast in The Paddies of Parnell Street (2013). In these different versions of the Kings plotline, ideals of migrant masculinity, the image of the “alien” and the meaning of the play/film perceptibly shift depending on whether it is performed by an English-speaking Irish cast, a cast of Irishlanguage speakers, or an African immigrant cast in Arambe’s productions. Yet, together, these works suggest that immigrants to Ireland and returning Irish emigrants, as well as marginalized Gaelic speakers, face similar gender specific constraints in achieving recognition and gaining acceptance in modern Irish society. Each version is based on competing conceptions and performances of hegemonic masculinity that come into conflict at the culmination of the plot’s development. Both on stage and on screen, they give expression to migrant masculine ideals in Ireland that are defined by wider political and social tensions which they seek to resolve in their respective performances.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67748634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Almost 2 million people in the North and South of Ireland identify as Irish speakers and an estimated 70 million around the globe can claim Irish heritage. While Irish ancestry may be distant for many, the Irish language is active in numerous locations in the diaspora, as documented in research profiling communities across the globe (e.g. Callahan, 1994; Garland 2008; Giles 2016; Kallen 1984, 1994; Noone, 2012a; Ó hEadhra, 1998;Ó Conchubhair 2008; Walsh & NíDhúda 2015 inter alia) and evidenced by the existence of many cultural and language groups. Census figures indicate that at least25,000 people currently speak the language in Canada, the United States and Australia alone (Statistics Canada, 2013; United States Census Bureau, 2015; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012), yet very few in-depth general accounts of Irish-language use in the diaspora exist. Linguistic practices within Irish communities worldwide vary widely with regard to Irish-language use and language ideologies, with each community subject to distinct concerns, histories and discourses. As such, each has distinct possibilities for creating social and cultural meaning, possibilities that are fundamentally shaped by the socio-cultural and politico-historical contexts within which the Irish language has existed in the last 200 years. This paper investigates how the Irish language is recruited in constructions of cultural authenticity in three sites in the Irish diaspora: Boston, U.S.; Melbourne, Australia; and St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Research is based on open-ended qualitative interviews with 41 learners and speakers regarding the Irish language and their own language practices, and in extensive participant observation of cultural and language-related activities in each site. Thematic content analysis of interview data provides the basis for ethnographic descriptions of each site. A Foucauldian understanding of discourse (e.g. Pennycook, 1994; Foucault, 1981, 1972) affords the identification and delineation of predominant discourses within which Irish-language use is implicated as a meaningful social act, and that are enacted or actively resisted within and across communities, as well as key subject positions made available within these discourses. This approach provides the basis for an exploration of (i) the processes of authenticating a cultural practice within discourse; (ii) how such processes shape the changing configurations of who is included and who is excluded within dominant politico-cultural discourses; and (iii) the various formations of community that exist within and across the diaspora space. The paper shows that the role of the Irish language in authenticating Irish cultural identity is subject to reworkings across time and space, as exemplified in the variety of local meanings it has taken on across the three diaspora sites featured.
在爱尔兰北部和南部,大约有200万人认为自己是说爱尔兰语的人,据估计,全球有7000万人可以声称自己是爱尔兰血统。虽然爱尔兰血统对许多人来说可能很遥远,但爱尔兰语在散居的许多地方都很活跃,正如全球各地的研究分析社区所记录的那样(例如Callahan, 1994;加2008;贾尔斯2016;Kallen 1984,1994;没有人,2012;Ó hEadhra, 1998;Ó Conchubhair 2008;Walsh & NíDhúda 2015),许多文化和语言群体的存在证明了这一点。人口普查数据表明,目前仅在加拿大、美国和澳大利亚就至少有25,000人说这种语言(加拿大统计局,2013;美国人口普查局,2015;澳大利亚统计局(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012),但很少有深入的关于海外爱尔兰语使用情况的一般性报告。世界各地爱尔兰社区的语言实践在爱尔兰语的使用和语言意识形态方面差别很大,每个社区都有不同的关注、历史和话语。因此,每一种语言都有创造社会和文化意义的不同可能性,这些可能性基本上是由爱尔兰语在过去200年里存在的社会文化和政治历史背景所塑造的。本文研究了爱尔兰语如何在三个爱尔兰散居地的文化真实性建构中被吸收:美国波士顿;澳大利亚墨尔本;以及加拿大纽芬兰的圣约翰。研究基于对41名爱尔兰语学习者和演讲者的开放式定性访谈,内容涉及爱尔兰语和他们自己的语言实践,以及对每个地点的文化和语言相关活动的广泛参与观察。访谈数据的主题内容分析为每个地点的民族志描述提供了基础。福柯式的话语理解(如Pennycook, 1994;福柯(Foucault, 1981,1972)提供了主要话语的识别和描述,在这些话语中,爱尔兰语的使用被认为是一种有意义的社会行为,并且在社区内部和社区之间被制定或积极抵制,以及这些话语中可用的关键主体立场。这种方法为以下探索提供了基础:(1)在话语中验证文化实践的过程;(ii)这些过程如何塑造主导政治文化话语中谁被包括、谁被排除的不断变化的结构;(三)存在于散居空间内外的各种社区形态。本文表明,爱尔兰语在验证爱尔兰文化身份方面的作用受到时间和空间的影响,正如它在三个散居地所呈现的各种地方意义所体现的那样。
{"title":"Landscapes of the Irish Language: Discursive Constructions of Authenticity in the Irish Diaspora","authors":"Jill Vaughan","doi":"10.21427/D7JB0M","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7JB0M","url":null,"abstract":"Almost 2 million people in the North and South of Ireland identify as Irish speakers and an estimated 70 million around the globe can claim Irish heritage. While Irish ancestry may be distant for many, the Irish language is active in numerous locations in the diaspora, as documented in research profiling communities across the globe (e.g. Callahan, 1994; Garland 2008; Giles 2016; Kallen 1984, 1994; Noone, 2012a; Ó hEadhra, 1998;Ó Conchubhair 2008; Walsh & NíDhúda 2015 inter alia) and evidenced by the existence of many cultural and language groups. Census figures indicate that at least25,000 people currently speak the language in Canada, the United States and Australia alone (Statistics Canada, 2013; United States Census Bureau, 2015; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012), yet very few in-depth general accounts of Irish-language use in the diaspora exist. Linguistic practices within Irish communities worldwide vary widely with regard to Irish-language use and language ideologies, with each community subject to distinct concerns, histories and discourses. As such, each has distinct possibilities for creating social and cultural meaning, possibilities that are fundamentally shaped by the socio-cultural and politico-historical contexts within which the Irish language has existed in the last 200 years. This paper investigates how the Irish language is recruited in constructions of cultural authenticity in three sites in the Irish diaspora: Boston, U.S.; Melbourne, Australia; and St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Research is based on open-ended qualitative interviews with 41 learners and speakers regarding the Irish language and their own language practices, and in extensive participant observation of cultural and language-related activities in each site. Thematic content analysis of interview data provides the basis for ethnographic descriptions of each site. A Foucauldian understanding of discourse (e.g. Pennycook, 1994; Foucault, 1981, 1972) affords the identification and delineation of predominant discourses within which Irish-language use is implicated as a meaningful social act, and that are enacted or actively resisted within and across communities, as well as key subject positions made available within these discourses. This approach provides the basis for an exploration of (i) the processes of authenticating a cultural practice within discourse; (ii) how such processes shape the changing configurations of who is included and who is excluded within dominant politico-cultural discourses; and (iii) the various formations of community that exist within and across the diaspora space. The paper shows that the role of the Irish language in authenticating Irish cultural identity is subject to reworkings across time and space, as exemplified in the variety of local meanings it has taken on across the three diaspora sites featured.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67743085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Schinkel, Marguerite (2014) Being Imprisoned; Punishment, Adaptation and Desistance","authors":"Cindy O'Shea","doi":"10.21427/D7613J","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7613J","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68644284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article presents the findings of a case study which explored how English language competency may impact on the academic achievement of migrant students in higher education in Ireland. The research was conducted on a group of first year Social Studies students at an Institute of Technology. A qualitative approach was used as data was analysed from questionnaires completed by lecturers, and interviews with non-native speakers of English on the impact of language competency on their performance. The emerging issues in the context of language impacting on equality of opportunity for students from migrant backgrounds include firstly the higher likelihood of gaining access to institutes of technology rather than universities; secondly, English language deficits become particularly apparent in the area of academic writing and engagement does not always translate into successful outcomes in the examination process; thirdly, underperformance at third level will also impact on opportunities to pursue postgraduate studies and accessing the labour market. The main inequality identified in this article is one of outcomes rather than of opportunities.
{"title":"Inequality in the Irish higher education system: a case study of the the views of migrant students and their lecturers on how English language proficiency impacts their academic achievement in an Institute of Technology","authors":"Ruth Harris, B. N. Chonaill","doi":"10.21427/D79T55","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D79T55","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents the findings of a case study which explored how English language competency may impact on the academic achievement of migrant students in higher education in Ireland. The research was conducted on a group of first year Social Studies students at an Institute of Technology. A qualitative approach was used as data was analysed from questionnaires completed by lecturers, and interviews with non-native speakers of English on the impact of language competency on their performance. The emerging issues in the context of language impacting on equality of opportunity for students from migrant backgrounds include firstly the higher likelihood of gaining access to institutes of technology rather than universities; secondly, English language deficits become particularly apparent in the area of academic writing and engagement does not always translate into successful outcomes in the examination process; thirdly, underperformance at third level will also impact on opportunities to pursue postgraduate studies and accessing the labour market. The main inequality identified in this article is one of outcomes rather than of opportunities.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"16 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68646585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper provides background to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland and outlines the particular Irish dimensions to the problem. It argues that a systemic perspective offers best promise to conceptualise the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and outlines. In turning to how the problem has been investigated by statutory and church commissioned inquiries and commissions of investigation (Murphy, 2009; Ryan, 2009) it becomes apparent that how the past is investigated and framed is not merely a neutral matter, but one that is complexly interwoven with present politic and changing social conditions. In offering a critique of the Murphy Report into the Handling of Abuse Complaints in the Archdioceses of Dublin (Murphy, 2009), as one example of a statutory commission of investigation in Ireland, some significant legal and methodological issues are raised that give cause for concern regarding some of the findings and judgements made. What cannot be disputed however is the fact that thousands of children were abused by Catholic clergy in Ireland and worldwide. We owe it to them to get to the full truth of what occurred and to prevent its re-occurrence. In considering a way forward for the church, victims of clergy must be placed at the centre of the church’s response, other key actors must be brought together in dialogue and the church must deal with the systemic genesis of the problem in a spirit of institutional reform and transformation. Introduction My interest in Roman Catholic clergy who had perpetrated child sexual abuse developed when I, along with two colleagues, set up a community-based treatment programme for child sexual offenders in Ireland in 1996, which attracted a large number of Catholic clergy for treatment (see Keenan, 2012). Apart from offering treatment, I was interested in understanding how priests and religious brothers who had sexually abused minors understood those aspects of their lives that had contributed to their sexual offending. Usually people join the ranks of Catholic clergy for a number of reasons, and while there is no evidence to suggest that the main reason for joining is the betterment of the human race, my experience of working with clergy in Ireland for over two decades had led me to believe that the motivation for many was to be of service and to help others. Therefore I wanted to know what had gone so terribly wrong. Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 65 The most comprehensive research ever carried out on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, conducted by researchers in the United States (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2004, 2006, 2011), reports that whatever else formed the priests’ motivation for joining, gaining access to children to abuse them was not part of it. My own experience confirmed this. The more I met with the clerical men who had abused, the more intrigued I became. Put simply, I was not in the presence of “monsters”, nor was I in the presence of individua
{"title":"Masculinity, relationships and Context: Child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church","authors":"M. Keenan","doi":"10.21427/D77T5J","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D77T5J","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides background to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland and outlines the particular Irish dimensions to the problem. It argues that a systemic perspective offers best promise to conceptualise the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and outlines. In turning to how the problem has been investigated by statutory and church commissioned inquiries and commissions of investigation (Murphy, 2009; Ryan, 2009) it becomes apparent that how the past is investigated and framed is not merely a neutral matter, but one that is complexly interwoven with present politic and changing social conditions. In offering a critique of the Murphy Report into the Handling of Abuse Complaints in the Archdioceses of Dublin (Murphy, 2009), as one example of a statutory commission of investigation in Ireland, some significant legal and methodological issues are raised that give cause for concern regarding some of the findings and judgements made. What cannot be disputed however is the fact that thousands of children were abused by Catholic clergy in Ireland and worldwide. We owe it to them to get to the full truth of what occurred and to prevent its re-occurrence. In considering a way forward for the church, victims of clergy must be placed at the centre of the church’s response, other key actors must be brought together in dialogue and the church must deal with the systemic genesis of the problem in a spirit of institutional reform and transformation. Introduction My interest in Roman Catholic clergy who had perpetrated child sexual abuse developed when I, along with two colleagues, set up a community-based treatment programme for child sexual offenders in Ireland in 1996, which attracted a large number of Catholic clergy for treatment (see Keenan, 2012). Apart from offering treatment, I was interested in understanding how priests and religious brothers who had sexually abused minors understood those aspects of their lives that had contributed to their sexual offending. Usually people join the ranks of Catholic clergy for a number of reasons, and while there is no evidence to suggest that the main reason for joining is the betterment of the human race, my experience of working with clergy in Ireland for over two decades had led me to believe that the motivation for many was to be of service and to help others. Therefore I wanted to know what had gone so terribly wrong. Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 65 The most comprehensive research ever carried out on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, conducted by researchers in the United States (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2004, 2006, 2011), reports that whatever else formed the priests’ motivation for joining, gaining access to children to abuse them was not part of it. My own experience confirmed this. The more I met with the clerical men who had abused, the more intrigued I became. Put simply, I was not in the presence of “monsters”, nor was I in the presence of individua","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"64-77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68645387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sexual abuse is a problem affecting the psychosocial development of many children all over the world. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that sexual abuse is spread across all demographic, ethnic and family groups, in both males and females, and perpetrators can include those outside the family circle as well as within it. In the last decade the whole new phenomenon of Internet-based sexual offending against minors has brought new challenges for those working in both the clinical and prevention fields. In the world today, most victims of child sexual abuse still remain silent, alone and without help. At the same time, most children and teens do not receive basic sex education, preventive information and life skills that they need to grow up healthy, safe and happy. And after the promotion of programmes targeting children, there is growing evidence that perpetrators also need to become a target for prevention. If they are detected, recognized and helped at an early stage of their abusing career, extinction of their sexual drive towards children can be promoted effectively and with positive longterm effects. This paper describes what has been done to date in the field of schoolbased primary prevention to decrease victimisation risks among the new generations. It discusses how primary prevention has been developed in the past and the new prevention needs of children and teens belonging to the “digital natives” generation. Despite the lack of clear evidence derived from studies of effectiveness to show that concerted action in schools is the best resource for primary prevention in this field, to date the available meta-analyses and guidelines confirm that this is one of the methods with the best potential for effectiveness in this field. In the light of these remarks, the article also discusses how the contribution of the neurosciences has made possible the promotion of new procedures for preventive activities with children and adolescents, with particular reference to the Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) model adopted by the World Health Organisation as the paradigm for the implementation of prevention projects aimed at children and adolescents. Introduction Sexual abuse is one of the most widespread yet underestimated social pathologies in the world. There is no unequivocal and universally recognised definition of child sexual abuse and this has created not a few problems in the prevention, clinical and epidemiological fields. Nevertheless, many specialists working in this area agree on the definition put forward by the American Medical Association, “the engagement of a Primary prevention of child sexual abuse: Child focused interventions 26 child in sexual activities for which the child is developmentally unprepared and cannot give informed consent” (AMA, 1992, p. 10). In Europe, there is a legal definition Council of Europe member States in the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Se
{"title":"Primary prevention of child sexual abuse: Child focused interventions","authors":"A. Pellai, Myriam Caranzano-Maitre","doi":"10.21427/D7N427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7N427","url":null,"abstract":"Sexual abuse is a problem affecting the psychosocial development of many children all over the world. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that sexual abuse is spread across all demographic, ethnic and family groups, in both males and females, and perpetrators can include those outside the family circle as well as within it. In the last decade the whole new phenomenon of Internet-based sexual offending against minors has brought new challenges for those working in both the clinical and prevention fields. In the world today, most victims of child sexual abuse still remain silent, alone and without help. At the same time, most children and teens do not receive basic sex education, preventive information and life skills that they need to grow up healthy, safe and happy. And after the promotion of programmes targeting children, there is growing evidence that perpetrators also need to become a target for prevention. If they are detected, recognized and helped at an early stage of their abusing career, extinction of their sexual drive towards children can be promoted effectively and with positive longterm effects. This paper describes what has been done to date in the field of schoolbased primary prevention to decrease victimisation risks among the new generations. It discusses how primary prevention has been developed in the past and the new prevention needs of children and teens belonging to the “digital natives” generation. Despite the lack of clear evidence derived from studies of effectiveness to show that concerted action in schools is the best resource for primary prevention in this field, to date the available meta-analyses and guidelines confirm that this is one of the methods with the best potential for effectiveness in this field. In the light of these remarks, the article also discusses how the contribution of the neurosciences has made possible the promotion of new procedures for preventive activities with children and adolescents, with particular reference to the Life Skills Based Education (LSBE) model adopted by the World Health Organisation as the paradigm for the implementation of prevention projects aimed at children and adolescents. Introduction Sexual abuse is one of the most widespread yet underestimated social pathologies in the world. There is no unequivocal and universally recognised definition of child sexual abuse and this has created not a few problems in the prevention, clinical and epidemiological fields. Nevertheless, many specialists working in this area agree on the definition put forward by the American Medical Association, “the engagement of a Primary prevention of child sexual abuse: Child focused interventions 26 child in sexual activities for which the child is developmentally unprepared and cannot give informed consent” (AMA, 1992, p. 10). In Europe, there is a legal definition Council of Europe member States in the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Se","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67745533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rapid changes in the control of health and social services have led to the increased adoption of narrow practice approaches driven by contemporary funding priorities, often running contrary to the wisdom, accumulated knowledge, experience, evidence and ethics of social and community development approaches. The Primary Healthcare Programme (PHCP) for Travellers has been developed nationally over the past two decades with the aim of improving the health of the Irish Traveller community. A particular emphasis has been placed upon the provision of health promotion, information, support and outreach through a range of peer delivered community based approaches. This study took place within one such PHCP for Travellers in County Offaly which found itself under increasing pressure from funders to prioritise nationally driven programmes over locally driven community-responsive work. Specifically, questioning the value of more supportive, relational interventions such as emotional support whilst encouraging the delivery of interventions which produced statistical information aligned to national health operational plan targets, which the funding officers were in turn under pressure to provide to national offices. This study aimed to explore the value of emotional support, relationship building and trust building in relation to the provision of this Primary Healthcare Programme for Travellers, from the perspective of the community members engaging with the programme. The study reflected the value of emotionally supportive relationships expressed by service users and the importance placed upon the subsequent building of trust. Multiple occurrences of positive shifts in health related behaviours, significant benefits to the mental health of respondents and uptake of appropriate support services are reported and discussed. The study suggests that the increased pressure being placed upon social and community practice by management control mechanisms introduced by funding bodies is rapidly eroding the hard earned experience and knowledge accumulated through decades of social and community work. A particularly negative impact upon marginalised groups such as the Traveller community who experience a complexity of health needs is found. Recommendations include a re-investment in relationship and trust building, and in flexible, responsive, community driven responses to achieving national health priorities within marginalised communities.
{"title":"Relationship and trust as a vehicle to improved health outcomes: A qualitative study of a Primary Health Care Programme for Travellers","authors":"M. York, Marcella Stakem","doi":"10.21427/D7QT5W","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7QT5W","url":null,"abstract":"Rapid changes in the control of health and social services have led to the increased adoption of narrow practice approaches driven by contemporary funding priorities, often running contrary to the wisdom, accumulated knowledge, experience, evidence and ethics of social and community development approaches. The Primary Healthcare Programme (PHCP) for Travellers has been developed nationally over the past two decades with the aim of improving the health of the Irish Traveller community. A particular emphasis has been placed upon the provision of health promotion, information, support and outreach through a range of peer delivered community based approaches. This study took place within one such PHCP for Travellers in County Offaly which found itself under increasing pressure from funders to prioritise nationally driven programmes over locally driven community-responsive work. Specifically, questioning the value of more supportive, relational interventions such as emotional support whilst encouraging the delivery of interventions which produced statistical information aligned to national health operational plan targets, which the funding officers were in turn under pressure to provide to national offices. This study aimed to explore the value of emotional support, relationship building and trust building in relation to the provision of this Primary Healthcare Programme for Travellers, from the perspective of the community members engaging with the programme. The study reflected the value of emotionally supportive relationships expressed by service users and the importance placed upon the subsequent building of trust. Multiple occurrences of positive shifts in health related behaviours, significant benefits to the mental health of respondents and uptake of appropriate support services are reported and discussed. The study suggests that the increased pressure being placed upon social and community practice by management control mechanisms introduced by funding bodies is rapidly eroding the hard earned experience and knowledge accumulated through decades of social and community work. A particularly negative impact upon marginalised groups such as the Traveller community who experience a complexity of health needs is found. Recommendations include a re-investment in relationship and trust building, and in flexible, responsive, community driven responses to achieving national health priorities within marginalised communities.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67747038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper, drawing on UK and international experiences, suggests that the key components of an effective national system of services to safeguard children from being maltreated have to not only be in place but also functioning effectively in an integrated manner if they are to achieve their aims. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) provides a common international framework for all governments, organisations and professionals to work within. It should be incorporated into domestic legislation, which is supported by national frameworks and protocols that are underpinned by a commitment to multi-disciplinary, multi-agency working. Effective implementation of services that are based on the most up to date evidence requires the allocation of adequate resources, both human and financial. Organisations providing services to children and families require competent staff who have opportunities for training at all levels, including continuing professional development. All staff, no matter how senior, benefit from good quality, regular professional supervision and consultation. Effective data collection systems are required to collect information to support planning the allocation of adequate services to meet the needs of children and families both locally and nationally as well as the evaluation of these services. Research and ongoing evaluation are essential to enhance practitioners, managers and politicians understanding of whether the services being provided are preventing abuse and neglect and protecting children from further harm. The voices of children help keep key stakeholders fully informed about the quality of service provision, and their views provide the best indicators of how well the system is meeting their needs and upholding their rights. Above all it is important that all parts of the system work effectively together and maintain their focus on improving outcomes for children.
{"title":"Developing safeguarding services to protect children – what are the key components?","authors":"J. Gray","doi":"10.21427/D7CM7G","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7CM7G","url":null,"abstract":"This paper, drawing on UK and international experiences, suggests that the key components of an effective national system of services to safeguard children from being maltreated have to not only be in place but also functioning effectively in an integrated manner if they are to achieve their aims. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) provides a common international framework for all governments, organisations and professionals to work within. It should be incorporated into domestic legislation, which is supported by national frameworks and protocols that are underpinned by a commitment to multi-disciplinary, multi-agency working. Effective implementation of services that are based on the most up to date evidence requires the allocation of adequate resources, both human and financial. Organisations providing services to children and families require competent staff who have opportunities for training at all levels, including continuing professional development. All staff, no matter how senior, benefit from good quality, regular professional supervision and consultation. Effective data collection systems are required to collect information to support planning the allocation of adequate services to meet the needs of children and families both locally and nationally as well as the evaluation of these services. Research and ongoing evaluation are essential to enhance practitioners, managers and politicians understanding of whether the services being provided are preventing abuse and neglect and protecting children from further harm. The voices of children help keep key stakeholders fully informed about the quality of service provision, and their views provide the best indicators of how well the system is meeting their needs and upholding their rights. Above all it is important that all parts of the system work effectively together and maintain their focus on improving outcomes for children.","PeriodicalId":30337,"journal":{"name":"Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68646807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}