Family support services aim to support parents and carers with the task of bringing up children; these services consistently report problems, however, in attracting helpseekers. Despite recent developments within child-welfare towards the provision of family-friendly services, self-referral rates remain low constituting at best 30% of all referrals. Agencies also report that families are reluctant to take up services following third party (frequently professional) referral. Despite these consistent findings the extant literature on help-seeking offers few insights into how social actors, in the face of family problems, make choices between the available sources of help. Within the extant literature studies consistently report that families prefer 'informal' support but few insights are offered about how such decisions are made and how preference is organised in relation to diverse sources of support. In this thesis and focusing on talk about `help-seeking' in focus group and interview settings, analysis centres on exploring the accountable properties of situated decision-making. From analysis of situated talk, the study offers insights and raises questions for further research that may assist family support agencies to more appropriately tailor their services to meet the needs of service users. The present study is much inspired by the work of Harvey Sacks in particular his development of Membership Categorisation Analysis. In making use of Hester and Eglin's occasioned model of MCA (1997) it has been possible to explore practical reasoning in and through the local, sequential and categorical organisation of talk. Analysis of situated decision-making, in relation to the topic 'help-seeking', finds decision-making a highly organised practical activity such that any social actor canmake an 'educated' guess about who, another, would suggest as a first category for help. Research participants, in deciding who should hypothetically be approached first for help, constituted a socially sanctioned order to help-seeking characterised by first-position category pairs and last-position category pairs. Use of, or reference to, prior knowledge of help-seeking encounters was also identified as a key decision making resource. This thesis concludes with a policy discussion and raises a number of speculative comments arising from the study that are relevant for the development of child welfare services. A number of avenues are suggested for further research, in particular questions are asked about the continued practice and emphasis within child-welfare services on professional social diagnosis, with the attendant neglect of help-seeking as a socially organised activity. The study suggests that future research might centre on further analysis of how 'family support' is organised within the family and prior to professional intervention. It is also suggested that further research examine the possibilities of response to requests for help as a better starting point for service delivery, rather than professional detection of 'problems'.

The relationship between ethnic origin and inclusion in British personnel departments has never been fully explored or explained. This thesis draws upon an exploratory questionnaire survey of personnel practitioners of ethnic minority origin, and case studies of personnel departments in five organisations in Britain, to identify how and why people are included in British personnel departments and the role of ethnic origin in determining that inclusion. In order to do this the thesis draws upon a range of models of inequality, including both Marxist and Weberian. For various reasons, however - such as a failure to overcome the separation of action and structure, an inability to articulate change, and a failure to recognise that closure is an ongoing process - none of the existing models are found to be able to articulate or explain filly the processes and structures of inclusion identified by the research. The thesis therefore develops a new model, focusing upon the microlevel, which overcomes the limitations of those existing models. The research reveals that inclusion is afforded to those who are able to symbolise to those with power over inclusion the type of potential which the latter parties desire them to possess. The ethnic categorisation individuals are accorded, it is shown, can function as one such symbol. However, where ethnic categorisation would not symbolise the potential desired, individuals may win inclusion by ensuring that they are categorised according to other criteria. Differences in inclusion between different personnel departments are found to reflect the relative power of different parties in the organisations concerned to ensure that those included in personnel departments symbolise to them the type of potential which they desire of them. As a consequence, the relationship between ethnic minority categorisation and inclusion, and between other criteria and inclusion, can vary between different departments and different situations. The model thus permits explanation of who is included in a particular part of an organisation and how that inclusion has been achieved.

No description available.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 15-19 year-olds account for a large segment for the growing population. The region has the world's highest rates of early child-bearing, with more than 50 percent giving birth before the age of 20. Adolescents who become pregnant must drop out of school. Health problems, lack of education and the responsibilities of parenthood combine to further restrict their life options. Sierra, Leone, being a Sub-Saharan country does not only perpetuate the same problems, but the situation is exacerbated by her adverse economy, political instability, endemic corruption, inequalities to access resources and the generally very low literacy rates to which females contribute the most. In this thesis, the author's argument is that despite the government's intention to improve female education in particular, administrative inequalities and financial constraints experienced all over the country will prove inhibitive, as girls will continue to be excluded from enrolment ratios as well as drop out from the school system. A field study was undertaken to investigate whether teenagers who drop out of the system because of pregnancy or related issues would welcome the continuation of formal education to achieve their desired goals. Questionnaires for In-school and Out-of-school Respondents were used to investigate perceptions and actualities. Problems encountered included limitations to the field study caused by the war which was current. Lack of proper and concise data in the country constituted a great obstacle to the researcher's work progress. The findings revealed that researches into education for young women who drop out of school needs to be given more attention by the government and academics, for the development of a structured approach which would be integrated into the education system. Education is central to social progress and national developmental and unless education is provided in its entirety, the country's development will continue to stagnate

In a professional and business-social context such as that of global hotel brands in the United Kingdom, intercultural communication, contacts and relationships are found at the heart of daily operations and of customer service. A large part of the clientele base of hotels in the United Kingdom is formed by individuals who belong to different cultural groups that travel in the country either for leisure or business. At the same time, the global workforce which is recruited in the hotel industry in the United Kingdom is a reality here to stay. Global travelling and labor work mobility are phenomena which have been generated by changes which occur on a socio-economic, cultural and political level due to the phenomenon of globalization. The hotel industry is therefore well acquainted with the essence of different cultures either to be accommodated within hotel premises, as in the case of external customers, or of diversity management where different cultures are recruited in the hotel industry, as in the case of internal customers. This thesis derives from research conducted on eight different global hotel brands in the United Kingdom in particular, with reference to three, four and five star categories. The research aimed to answer the question of how hotels are organized in order to address issues of intercultural communication during customer service and if intercultural barriers arise during the intercultural interaction of hotel staff and global customers. So as to understand how global hotel brands operate the research carried out focused in three main areas relating to each hotel: organizational culture, customer service–customer care and intercultural issues. The study utilized qualitative interviews with hotel management staff and non-management staff from different cultural backgrounds, public space observations between customers and staff during check-in and checkout in the reception area and during dining at the café-bar and restaurant. Thematic analysis was also applied to the official web page of each hotel and to job advertisements to enhance the findings from the interviews and the observations. For the process of analysis of the data interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology of Martin Heidegger has been applied. Generally, it was found that hotel staff quite often feel perplexed by how to deal with and how to overcome, for instance, language barriers and religious issues and how to interpret non verbal behaviors or matters on food culture relating to the intercultural aspect of customer service. In addition, it was interesting to find that attention to excellent customer service on the part of hotel staff is a top organizational value and customer care is a priority. Despite that, the participating hotel brands appear to have not yet, realized how intercultural barriers can affect the daily operation of the hotel, the job performance and the psychology of hotel staff. Employees indicated that they were keen to receive diversity training, provided by their organizations, so as to learn about different cultural needs and expand their intercultural skills. The notion of diversity training in global hotel brands is based on the sense that one of the multiple aims of diversity management as a practice and policy in the workplace of hotels is the better understanding of intercultural differences. Therefore global hotel brands can consider diversity training as a practice which will benefit their hotel staff and clientele base at the same time. This can have a distinctive organizational advantage for organizational affairs in the hotel industry, with potential to influence the effectiveness and performance of hotels.

Major sporting competitions, such as the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games have become global events. For the organisers of such events, they are much more than a short-term competition, they present the opportunity to ‘re-imagineer’ nations and cities. Scholars have discussed the commercialisation and financial opportunities of such sporting events, and their links to neoliberalism. But recent official claims about the social benefits and carbon neutrality have received much less attention. This thesis addresses this under-researched area. It documents and analyses the social and environmental claims made in the context of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and explores how these played out in the rural state of Mato Grosso. This study is primarily based on documentary research and ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Mato Grosso. It is informed by a critical management studies perspective and draws specifically on a neo-Gramscian approach to environmental governance. This enabled me to go behind the environmental discourse in Mato Grosso and understand the realities on the ground. The findings illustrate how regional elites co-opted environmental governance mechanisms and appropriated the socio-economic benefits of the FIFA World Cup. I focus particularly on a carbon offsetting project which was supposed to plant 1. 4 million trees along the Cuiabá River in order offset the CO emissions generated by the construction of the new Pantanal football Stadium. As I show, this project was organised by an NGO manufactured by Mato Grosso based agro-industrial elites, who used it as a vehicle to further their interests at the expense of local subsistence fishing communities and the environment.

This PhD thesis focuses on women’s lived, embodied experiences of working in the lap dancing industry. It has been established within the literature on this industry that dancers portray heightened depictions of femininity (Mavin & Grandy, 2013) and engage in work on their bodies and aesthetic labour (Colosi, 2008; Colosi, 2010; Mavin & Grandy, 2013; Sanders et al, 2013) as part of their role, however little attention has been paid to how and why specific modes of sexuality become valued in this working role and how the portrayal of sexuality in the lap dancing industry is experienced and negotiated as dancers age. This study aims to build on previous research by considering the context and space in which dancers perform, embody and negotiate the role of a lap dancer in order to enrich our understanding of their lived experiences. The research takes the form of a retrospective auto-ethnography and incorporates three phases of data collection: website analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. These phases of data collection have been selected to focus, respectively, on understanding how the lap dancing industry is encoded, embedded and embodied. Ultimately, this aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the industry and how it is encoded and landscaped through its online presence, how it is embedded in its situated context and finally, how this is reflected in, understood, and embodied by, women working in the lap dancing industry. The findings suggest that the landscape of the lap dancing industry and material setting in which the work is performed both encourages an ambiguous exchange relationship between dancers and customers and compels dancers to perform and embody heteronormatively prescriptive images of youthful sexuality.

This thesis explores the translation of post human ontologies into a relational epistemological approach, taking the case study of men who have sex with men’s (MSM’s) digital sexual practices. It reports the findings from a connective ethnography, utilising a mixture of digital observation and insider-ethnographic accounts, to explore the inter-relationship between media as MSM engage in digital sexual practices. The main aim driving this study was to explore how social practices – in this case MSM’s digital sexual practices – could be researched differently, and what a different perspective brings to the study of such practices, and to the practices themselves. Though the literature exploring MSM’s use of digital media to engage in sexual activities is diverse, to date it has been dominated by anthropocentric methodologies and analyses e.g. through a focus on human meaning making and representation. Taking the example of MSM’s digital sexual practices therefore provided a body of literature that formed a counterpoint from which to explore the knowledge produced by different methodologies. The choice of post humanism as a way of enacting this difference – specifically the conceptual frameworks of assemblages (Deleuze and Guattari 2000, 2005) and networks (Latour 2005), or what I term “network-assemblages” – was therefore strategic. It countered the anthropocentricism dominating the field of MSM’s digital sexuality research, and also afforded the materiality of these practices greater agency in the research process. The contribution of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it adds methodologically to the social sciences through the application of a post human ontology/epistemology to empirical research. By mapping linkages between venues as they form a network-assemblage, and by examining a single venue within this as a relational web of concepts, words, and things, it demonstrates different ways through which post human relational ontologies can be actualised in the study of phenomenon. Secondly this thesis contributes original insight into MSM’s digital sexual practices themselves. Specifically however, it explores the influence of capitalism on emergent forms of digital sexual enunciations, taking the case study of MSM’s commercial sex activities. Furthermore, it highlights the different ways in which sexuality is actualised within digital materiality; as aesthetic values, as sets of systems, as flows of words and images, and finally as lived territories.

This commentary examines six of my publications, which collectively create an innovative strategy of learning. It is concerned with engaging mental health practitioners and learners more fully with service user lived experience through guided exposure to selected media narratives. The primary intention of this is to facilitate attitudinal change amongst health care professionals, promoting a greater sense of understanding and connectedness with those experiencing mental health difficulties. My learning strategy is concerned with the following elements:  The media narrative  Facilitation / guided learning  Reflective practice  Collaborative learning / co-production The media narrative as a learning resource is critically reviewed and gauged to have huge learning potential where facilitative input is offered at distinct stages of access: before, during and after. It is demonstrated that through engaging with this process over a succession of cycles the development of reflective and reflexive practitioners can be promoted. An essential part of my learning strategy concerns the ‘testing out’ of learning, undertaken through a collaborative inquiry process with service users in practice as well as classroom settings. This fosters empathic understanding, an essential component of professional practice. 9 My learning strategy contributes significantly to the existing knowledge and practice base concerning the educational use of media narratives, service user engagement and lived experience learning. It has much to offer in terms of promoting empathic understanding and emotional intelligence, developing reflective practitioners and creating closer working partnerships with service users. The impact from my work has been verified through widespread adoption of my teaching resources, complimentary reviews, numerous citations, and invitations to present at conferences and community workshops. Future directions involve furthering my collaborative engagement with service users and engaging in coproduction work, as well as facilitating narrative sharing amongst those with communicative restrictions, and extending the educative process beyond the healthcare arena, influencing attitudes through encouraging dialogue and reflection around mental health experience.

Introduction The use of occupation in occupational therapy has been regularly debated in the profession’s literature. More recently there has been a shift to consider occupation as the core construct of occupational therapy, which informs assessments, interventions and outcomes; this can be described as occupational practice. Studies exploring occupational practice have been limited; this study has sought to address this gap. Methods This was a mixed methods study. First, a United Kingdom survey of occupational therapy practice in children and young people’s mental health was conducted (n=27). The survey findings were analysed using descriptive statistics. The survey was used as a sampling platform for the second stage of the study. Underpinned by an ethnographic approach, the second study used an observer of participant, interview and document collection methods to explore occupational practice (n=2). A grounded theory approach was taken to data analysis. Findings The participants of the survey were 89% female, 49% were at a senior grade and 68% had been qualified for over 10 years. 81% worked in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services tier 3 or 4. 52% participants had an undergraduate degree in occupational therapy; 64% had no further specialist formal qualifications. Additional training in sensory integration therapy was reported by 34% of participants. The Model of Human Occupation was identified as the most frequently used model of practice. The Sensory Profile was the most regularly used assessment. The participants reported that their interventions commonly focused on talking style therapies, psycho-education and group work. The ethnographic study revealed a tension at the study sites between the medical psychological and occupational practice discourses. To manage this tension, the participants used a generic and profession-specific practice to negotiate being ‘one of the team’ and being a ‘real occupational therapist’. Enacting occupational practice included using the Model of Human Occupation, referrals for occupational problems, conducting assessments of occupation, concluding occupational formulations, and using occupation as an intervention. Interventions were characterised as ‘talking about doing’ or ‘doing occupation’ and utilised strategies such as modelling, goal setting and setting a challenge. Conclusion The survey has offered a snapshot of occupational therapy practice. This may help the profession understand the demography and practices of the participants. The Occupational Practice Model for Children and Young People’s Mental Health, which has emerged from the ethnographic findings of this study, is presented as a tool to guide the use of occupation at the level of theory, perspective and intervention. Further qualitative studies are recommended to support the study findings and a systematic review is suggested to examine occupational therapy interventions in the field.