From an emic perspective: Exploring consent in forced marriage law

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Sowey

Forced marriage was criminalised in Australia in March 2013, putting the issue on the agenda of policy-makers and social service providers. Increasingly, however, it is being recognised that criminal laws alone cannot address the practice; protective and preventative strategies are also needed. This paper argues that strategies to address forced marriage will be most effective if they are informed by contextualised and emic understandings of the phenomenon, that is, by the perspectives of individuals, families and communities who are directly affected by forced marriage. Primary research is required to obtain such perspectives. Research into forced marriage in Australia is still in its infancy, and primary research is almost non-existent. This paper, then, looks to primary research from the UK and other comparable Western multicultural nations, offering a critique of this body of literature before drawing out what is revealed about why marriages are forced, how marriages are forced, and what people in forced marriage situations want. The implications of criminal prosecution are then considered in light of this emic understanding. The legal definition of forced marriage hinges on the concept of consent: it is consent that distinguishes an arranged marriage from a forced one. In the UK, the notion of consent has been robustly problematised. However this is not the case in Australia at present, and this paper critiques the value of the concept of consent given the social contexts of forced marriage described above. The implications of this critique for the application of Australia’s forced marriage law are then considered. Finally, from a place of contextualised and emic understanding of forced marriage, this paper considers how protective and preventative strategies might be enhanced.

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Agyemang

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the development of a needs‐based funding formula for resource allocation incorporates the needs of funders or the needs of the service providers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses interview data and documentary evidence gathered from a UK local education authority about the creation of a “needs‐based” formula for sharing resources to schools. It employs and extends a framework developed by Levačić and Ross to evaluate needs‐based formula funding.FindingsAlthough formula funding is purported to be a more objective method of resource allocation, the paper finds that as with other resource allocation methods the power relations between the funder and the service provider impacts on the extent to which service provider needs are incorporated into the funding formula.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper considers only the funding of schools. Further work is needed to investigate formula funding for other public services.Practical implicationsDebates between funders and service providers should be encouraged by policy makers to ensure that allocations based on the funding formula are acceptable to service providers.Originality/valueThe paper provides a useful analysis of a needs‐based funding formula for resource allocation in schools and whether this incorporates the needs of funders or the needs of the service providers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Velleman ◽  
Lorna J. Templeton

SummaryWe review how research over the past decade both supports existing knowledge about the risk factors that children in the UK affected by parental substance misuse face, and adds to our knowledge about the protective factors, protective processes and evidence of resilience which can reduce the likelihood that children will experience poor outcomes. Further research is needed to understand what areas of resilience are most important to target and how other variables, such as gender or age, may influence how protective factors affect the development of resilience. Longitudinal research is also needed to better understand how an individual's resilience may change over time. Finally, there remain many considerable challenges which practitioners, service providers, commissioners and policy makers face in better meeting the needs of this population of children.


Target ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-326
Author(s):  
Joanna Drugan

Abstract Interpreting and translation are increasingly provided in the public sector via large-scale outsourced framework contracts (Moorkens 2017). In the UK, one of the largest recent framework agreements for interpreting and translation was introduced between 2016 and 2017 in critical contexts for justice, including the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the police. These agreements involve new types of collaboration between new partners and agents in the delivery of interpreting and translation, who each have different aims, expectations, standards and working methods. This contribution examines these emerging complex collaborations, and is the result of a rare type of complex collaboration between academic researchers, framework contract-holders and managers, interpreters and translators, language service providers, professional associations, and users of translation and interpreting services, within the Transnational Organised Crime and Translation (TOCAT) project. The article reports on original research conducted during the TOCAT project, and outlines and evaluates some novel, complex and ethically challenging ‘translaborations’ in police settings. The collaborations discussed are complex because of the range of parties and actors involved and because of the challenging content and settings in which the police rely on interpreting and translation. ‘Translaboration’ is used here to encompass multiple evolving collaborations between different providers and users of interpreting and translation, policy makers, trainers and researchers. Important questions of translation quality and ethics in the management of large-scale framework contexts for public service delivery are raised.


2021 ◽  
pp. 445-477
Author(s):  
Carmelo Danisi ◽  
Moira Dustin ◽  
Nuno Ferreira ◽  
Nina Held

AbstractThe previous chapters have offered an in-depth, empirically and theoretically informed analysis of a broad range of issues affecting SOGI asylum claimants and refugees in Europe, with a focus on Germany, Italy and the UK. This analysis has applied new insights to findings unearthed by previous research and shone light on issues that have so far been relatively neglected. But the question often posed to us as academics is ‘so what?’ To address this question, this chapter offers a range of recommendations addressed to decision-makers, policy-makers, governments, NGOs and service providers, aimed at improving the socio-legal framework that applies to SOGI asylum. These apply mainly at a domestic level, but also refer to the European level, where relevant, to offer proposals that recognise the intersections of national, European and international frameworks. As in the previous analysis, we are strongly guided by our participants’ voices, complemented by broader scholarly debates and our analysis and views of these. Our data and analysis thereof also shed light on broader issues in the asylum system, and many of the recommendations set out here would benefit non-SOGI asylum claimants and refugees as well. We hope they will be of wider value in this way.


Author(s):  
Deanna Edwards ◽  
Kate Parkinson

This concluding chapter argues for the potential of family group conferences (FGCs) to lead to positive outcomes for families in a diverse range of social work practice areas. The research and evidence base, while patchy, is clear on this. Policy makers, practitioners, and advocates of the FGC process have a responsibility to ensure that the practice does not become marginalised by austerity measures and increasingly risk-averse practice contexts. After all FGCs not only embody the key principles of key social work legislation and policy in the UK but also the values of social work practice. Indeed, the principles of FGCs are clearly aligned to the International Federation of Social Work definition of social work and the model provides the opportunity for local authorities to become increasingly reflective of the holistic approach to social work practice.


Author(s):  
Hannah Lambie-Mumford

Chapter 8 focuses on the consequences of the rise of emergency food provision for the progressive realisation of the human right to food in the UK. The chapter discusses the opportunities that the right to food approach provides and its appropriateness in the current context and sets out three key conclusions. The first is that there is a need to challenge minimalist approaches to the definition of food insecurity, ways in which responses are framed and solutions understood. The second conclusion relates to the importance of rights-based policies to move us forward from the current situation, where the findings suggest there is an increasing reliance on emergency food provision in the context of a retrenched welfare state. The third conclusion relates to the important social and political role emergency food charities could have in the realisation of the right to food. The conclusion chapter ends with recommendations for a range of stakeholders including emergency food charities, policy makers, NGOs, the food industry, communities and individuals and researchers.


2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Axford

The concept of social exclusion has become ubiquitous in the discourse of children's services in the UK over the last ten years. But is it a useful concept? Nick Axford sets out a definition of social exclusion and examines the extent to which it applies to looked after children, since they are commonly referred to as being ‘excluded’ or ‘vulnerable to exclusion’. He discusses the implications for how service providers define and help these children and for how childhood social exclusion is studied.


2011 ◽  
pp. 879-897
Author(s):  
Mark Xu ◽  
Ravni Rohatgi ◽  
Yanqing Duan

The lack of anticipated engagement in e-business by Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) is a rising concern to the UK government and service providers alike. This article is based on the e-adoption model to examine the current practice of e-business technology adoption in SMEs and the driving forces for and against the adoption. Through interviews with 40 owner managers in the electronic components industry, the article reveals that most of the small firms in this industry are at the lower level of the “e-adoption ladder”—predominantly using the Internet and e-mail. SMEs in this industry have not yet widely engaged in online transactions. The current level of adoption is driven by both internal and external factors, including operational benefits, industry common practice, and peer pressure. External forces such as a lack of push from suppliers and customers and a lack of strategic vision of using advanced e-business technology for competitive advantages have determinant effects on the level and scale of e-adoption in SME sector. The e-adoption ladder model is modified by incorporating the influential factors identified within this study. The findings have many implications for researchers, service providers, and policy makers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aijaz A. Shaikh ◽  
Heikki Karjaluoto

A great deal of conceptual confusion surrounds the notions of digital banking and innovative alternative delivery channels that support banking and other financial transactions globally. The authors contend that the concepts of digital banking and associated delivery channels are ambiguous and restrictive; their usability has been undermined and their purpose and objective have, to a large extent, been misunderstood. Against this backdrop, the authors offer an inclusive definition of digital banking and delivery channels and provide logical explanations of these terms that can benefit scholars, the telecommunication sector, the banking industry, policy makers, and service providers (in terms of developing digital banking and marketing strategies). This article discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of the study results and presents recommendations for future research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-484
Author(s):  
Daithí Mac Síthigh

From 2010 to 2015, video-on-demand services in the UK were regulated by the Authority for Television on Demand (ATVOD), under an agreement with the statutory regulator Ofcom and applying the pan-European standards introduced through the 2007 EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive. A key question for the regulators and for service providers was whether any given service fell within the ‘scope’ of the law – that is, which services met the legal definition of an on-demand audiovisual media service. This is a study of how Ofcom exercised its role as the final arbiter of that definition, through a close examination of its fifteen decisions in appeals against initial determinations by ATVOD. The use of the legal test for ‘comparability’ with conventional television services, and the regulatory focus on ‘TV-like’ on-demand services, has demonstrated the significance of production and aesthetics as a determinant of regulation. In particular, production decisions regarding titles, credits and duration, as well as a range of issues of perceived quality (audio, video, voice-over, editing and the like), have been taken into account. It is contended that Ofcom has relied on focus group research rather than on wider insights from television studies research in assessing these factors, and that the underlying Directive may have been flawed in its concepts and definitions.


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