Over the last few decades, public opinion has been traumatised by revelations of child abuse on a mass scale. It has become the major human rights story of the 21st century in Western society. This ground-breaking book explores the relationship between the media, child abuse and shifting adult–child power relations which, in Western countries, has spawned an ever-expanding range of laws, policies and procedures introduced to address the ‘explosion’ of interest in the issue of child abuse. Allegations of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland – and its ‘cover-up’ by Church authorities – have given rise to one of the greatest institutional scandals of modern history. Through in-depth analysis of 20 years of media representation of the issue, the book draws significant insights on the media’s influence and its impact on civil society. Highly topical and of interest and relevance to lecturers and researchers in the areas of childhood studies, sociology of childhood, child protection and social work, social and public policy and human rights, as well as policymakers, this book provides an important contribution to the international debate about child abuse as reflected to the public through the power of the media.
Continuing professional development has become an important and widespread practice in twenty-first-century social work. This volume traces its emergence and evolution, identifying the characteristics of continuing professional development, the barriers to undertaking it, and the way social workers view it. Drawing on an international survey of practitioners and interviews with social workers and their managers, the authors provide unique insight into the possibilities and challenges of continuing professional development for newly qualified and experienced social workers alike.
This volume details the development and initial evaluation of a supplemental literacy course intended to support at-risk high school students in the US. Developed using design based research (DBR), the course combines argument writing and knowledge building literacy routines to support academic literacy development. Acknowledging the demand for US students to meet academic literacy standards that emphasize explanatory and argumentative writing, the text foregrounds knowledge building as key to effective writing development. Chapters trace the development and implementation of course literacy routines designed using DBR and use whole-class and individual case studies to demonstrate how informational reading, discussion, and argument writing become an activity system to support literacy development. Ultimately, the text has important implications for literacy course design, and the use of knowledge building analysis and DBR in research. The text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in academic literacy education, writing and composition, and secondary education more broadly. Those specifically interested in methodologies relating to classroom teaching and learning as well as argumentation and argument writing will also benefit from this book.
Despite the high aspirations of young people from disadvantaged communities, they face barriers that are frustrating the realisation of their educational ambitions. This book analyses the ‘left-behind’ phenomenon and shows how education has become the new divide in Western society. It explains how denied educational equality and frustrated opportunity are undermining social cohesion and what we can do about it. It challenges meritocratic thinking and the efficacy of widening participation as a policy for social inclusion. Combining analysis of educational disadvantage at an international level and among Travelling communities with empirical data derived from fieldwork with parents, teachers and students in the European Union (Ireland), this book offers fresh thinking and new hope in relation to young people left behind in the opportunity structure.
Using interviews and activities, this report examines, with children, how they negotiate their involvement in family functioning, rule-making and day-to-day decision making.
Rights are often invoked in contemporary moral and political debates, yet the nature of rights is contested. Rights and Demands provides the first full-length treatment of a central class of rights: demand-rights. To have such a right is to have the standing or authority to demand a particular action of another person. How are such rights possible? Everyday agreements are generally acknowledged to be sources of demand-rights, but what is it about an agreement that accounts for this? The central thesis of this book is that joint commitment is a ground of demand-rights, and that it may be the only ground. In developing this thesis Margaret Gilbert argues in detail for joint commitment accounts of both agreements and promises. The final chapter explains the relevance of its argument to our understanding of human rights. Engaging where appropriate with contemporary rights theory, Gilbert provides an accessible route into this area for those previously unfamiliar with it.
Margaret Gilbert offers an incisive new approach to a classic problem of political philosophy: when and why should I do what the laws of my country tell me to do? Beginning with carefully argued accounts of social groups in general and political societies in particular, the author argues that in central, standard senses of the relevant terms membership in a political society in and of itself obligates one to support that society's political institutions. The obligations in questionare not moral requirements derived from general moral principles, as is often supposed, but a matter of one's participation in a special kind of commitment: joint commitment. An agreement is sufficient but not necessary to generate such a commitment. Gilbert uses the phrase 'plural subject' to referto all of those who are jointly committed in some way. She therefore labels the theory offered in this book the plural subject theory of political obligation.The author concentrates on the exposition of this theory, carefully explaining how and in what sense joint commitments obligate. She also explores a classic theory of political obligation --- actual contract theory --- according to which one is obligated to conform to the laws of one's country because one agreed to do so. She offers a new interpretation of this theory in light of a theory of plural subject theory of agreements. She argues that actual contract theory has more merit than has beenthought, though the more general plural subject theory is to be preferred. She compares and contrasts plural subject theory with identification theory, relationship theory, and the theory of fair play. She brings it to bear on some classic situations of crisis, and, in the concluding chapter,suggests a number of avenues for related empirical and moral inquiry.Clearly and compellingly written, A Theory of Political Obligation will be essential reading for political philosophers and theorists.
Sunny Parker takes pride in her community at the Del Mar Garden Apartments, an affordable housing complex, but when an abandoned school in her neighborhood is proposed for new affordable housing, she discovers not everyone appreciates the community she calls home and becomes an advocate for her neighborhood.
This new essay collection by distinguished philosopher Margaret Gilbert provides a richly textured argument for the importance of joint commitment in our personal and public lives. Topics covered by these diverse essays range from marital love to patriotism, from promissory obligation to the unity of the European Union.
Striving to Save will inform and inspire social policy with its breakthrough approach in understanding how low-income families make ends meet while striving to make a better life for themselves and their families. Scholarly work in savings, debt, household finance, and behavior economics will benefit from this pioneering study that provides real-life context for some of the most important issues of our day." ---Tom Shapiro, Brandeis University "The central contribution of the book is to use original qualitative research to provide readers with a nuanced understanding of the financial difficulties facing low-income households, their financial decision-making processes, and their paths to saving and building assets over time. The book provides an essential corrective to the unidimensional view of poor households as unable and unwilling to save." ---Michael Barr, University of Michigan In Striving to Save, Margaret Sherrard Sherraden and Amanda Moore McBride examine savings in eighty-four working families with low incomes, including fifty-nine families who participated in a groundbreaking program of matched savings and financial education. In-depth interviews with these families, along with savings and survey data, shed light on saving in low-income households. The book concludes with recommended public policy approaches for increasing savings in households that are striving to save. Margaret Sherrard Sherraden is Professor of Social Work at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Amanda Moore McBride is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Washington University, St. Louis.
This newly updated, user friendly Primary English Encyclopedia addresses all aspects of the primary English curriculum and is an invaluable reference for all training and practising teachers. Now in its fifth edition, entries have been revised to take account of new research and thinking. The approach is supportive of the reflective practitioner in meeting National Curriculum requirements in England and developing sound subject knowledge and good classroom practice. While the book is scholarly, the author writes in a conversational style and includes reproductions of covers of recommended children’s books and examples of children’s writing and drawing to add interest. The encyclopedia includes: over 600 entries , many expanded and entirely new for this edition, including entries on apps, blogging and computing; short definitions of key concepts; input on the initial teaching of reading including the teaching of phonics and the other cue-systems; extended entries on major topics such as speaking and listening, reading, writing, drama, poetry, non-fiction, bilingualism and children’s literature; information on new literacies and new kinds of texts for children; discussion of current issues and input on the history of English teaching in the primary years; extended entries on gender and literacy; important references for each topic, advice on further reading and accounts of recent research findings; and a Who’s Who of Primary English and lists of essential texts, updated for this new edition. This encyclopedia will be ideal for student teachers on BA and PGCE courses preparing for work in primary schools and primary school teachers. Anyone concerned with bringing about the informed and imaginative teaching of primary school English will find this book helpful and interesting.
Life in Groups: How We Think, Feel, and Act Together develops and applies the author's perspective on topics she relates to joint commitment. This kind of commitment unifies those who participate in it, guides their actions going forward, and determines their relations to one another in important ways. In particular, it grounds in each of the parties a set of rights and obligations of a central kind. This volume contains thirteen essays, together with a substantial introduction, which serves both to explain joint commitment for those unfamiliar with it and to advance discussion in light of some questions it has prompted, and a reflective conclusion. The essays range over collective beliefs and intentions; rational choice and collective preference; group lies and corporate misbehavior; remorse and other emotions in a group context; rights, obligations, and freedom.
Physician Assisted Suicide is a cross-disciplinary collection of essays from philosophers, physicians, theologians, social scientists, lawyers and economists. As the first book to consider the implications of the Supreme Court decisions in Washington v. Glucksburg and Vacco v. Quill concerning physician-assisted suicide from a variety of perspectives, this collection advances informed, reflective, vigorous public debate.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.