scholarly journals Preserving and memorialising relationships: exploring young people’s experiences of foster care through the lens of social capital

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Rogers

This article presents findings from research into how young people growing up in foster care in the UK manage the relationships in their social networks and gain access to social capital. It is a concept that highlights the value of relationships and is relevant to young people in care as they have usually experienced disruptions to their social and family life. Qualitative methods were used and the findings show that despite experiencing disruption to their social networks, the young people demonstrated that they were able to maintain access to their social capital. They achieved this in two ways. Firstly, they preserved their relationships, often through what can be seen as ordinary practices but in the extraordinary context of being in foster care. Secondly, they engaged in creative practices of memorialisation to preserve relationships that had ended or had been significantly impaired due to their experience of separation and movement. The article highlights implications for policy and practice, including the need to recognise the value of young people’s personal possessions. Furthermore, it stresses the need to support them to maintain their relationships across their networks as this facilitates their access to social capital.

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinithi Wijedasa

There is a paucity of research on the locus of control of children and young people growing up in foster care in England. Based on secondary analyses of data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), this article explores the locus of control of fostered young people during adolescence compared to those in adoptive care, those growing up in disadvantaged circumstances and young people in the general population. As the questions asked of the young people in the LSYPE did not form part of a standardised locus of control scale, the dimensionality of the items was first verified through a principal components analysis (PCA). The fostered young people scored significantly higher on external locus of control items compared to those in adopted and general population groups, and were similar to young people in the disadvantaged group. Reasons for the high external scores in the fostered group and implications for policy and practice are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-70
Author(s):  
Sarah Jamieson ◽  
Jenepher Lennox Terrion

This paper explores the experiences of new part-time professors (instructors hired on a semester-by-semester basis that have been working at the institution for less than five years) and considers the phenomenon of how they connect with peers. It examines whether a lack of connection exists among part-time professors at the University of Ottawa and how this may affect their experience (i.e. teaching and career), lead to barriers to connection, and affect their social capital (i.e., their ability to access or use resources embedded in their social networks). Using Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological approach for collecting and analyzing data and Creswell’s (2007) approach for establishing validity, we uncovered several thematic patterns in participants’ experience that indicate barriers to connection and affect the ability to access and mobilize social capital: Feeling uncertain or impermanent, isolated, overwhelmed, and like second-class citizens. The paper concludes that inadequate social capital may not only influence part-time professors – it may also have problematic implications for students, the department, and the University as a whole. Keywords: Social capital, barriers to communication, phenomenology, qualitative methods, part-time professors


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atanas Tomovski ◽  
Josh Finegan ◽  
Simran Rughani

Younger cohorts want changes in the environments they live in. They want to live in interconnected environments that provide fluidity between work, home and recreational spaces. Interconnected environments are conducive to young people building connections and social networks, creating interconnected communities. These interconnected communities provide flexibility in work–life balance, improve accessibility to amenities, build latent support networks and social capital, and provide environmental benefits that are congruent with compact living.


Author(s):  
Nathalie Huegler ◽  
Natasha Kersh

AbstractThis chapter focuses on contexts where public discourses regarding the education of young adults have been dominated by socio-economic perspectives, with a focus on the role of employment-related learning, skills and chances and with active participation in the labour market as a key concern for policy makers. A focus on ‘employability’ alone has been linked to narrow conceptualisations of participation, inclusion and citizenship, arising in the context of discourse shifts through neoliberalism which emphasise workfare over welfare and responsibilities over rights. A key critique of such contexts is that the focus moves from addressing barriers to participation to framing social inclusion predominantly as related to expectations of ‘activation’ and sometimes, assimilation. Key target groups for discourses of activation include young people not in education, employment or training (‘NEET’), while in- and exclusion of migrant and ethnic minority young people are often framed within the complex and contradictory interplay between discourses of assimilation and experiences of discrimination. These developments influence the field of adult education aimed at young people vulnerable to social exclusion. An alternative discourse to ‘activation’ is the promotion of young people’s skills and capabilities that enables them to engage in forms of citizenship activism, challenging structural barriers that lead to exclusion. Our chapter considers selected examples from EduMAP research in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland which indicate that as well as framing the participation of young people as discourses of ‘activation’, adult education can also enable and facilitate skills related to more activist forms of citizenship participation.


2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Mather ◽  
Marko Kerac

Growing up is never easy. For children separated not only from their birth families but from their countries of origin, it can be a long, hard struggle to achieve even the basic levels of good health that are so often taken for granted. Mary Mather and Marko Kerac focus on the health needs of two particular groups of young people: intercountry adoptees and unaccompanied refugee and asylum-seeking children. They discuss the limitations of Department of Health Guidance and identify in some detail the range of health problems which frequently go unrecognised in intercountry adopted children. Although the same problems apply to refugee and asylum-seeking children, these already traumatised young people carry the double burden of the problems they arrive with and the problems that arise once they are in the UK. The authors provide practical suggestions towards easing this burden in the effort to make health care for this group in particular, at once ethical, humane and acceptable. They end with a plea for tolerance and sensitivity, and the need to recognise that health goes way beyond the remit of the National Health Service. The aspiration to and attainment of health is determined by education, politics, the micro-climate of attitudes and the very fabric of our society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Valsa Koshy ◽  
Carole Portman Smith ◽  
Joanna Brown

International evidence demonstrates the importance of engaging parents in the education of their ‘high-potential’ children, yet limited research has focused on the involvement of parents from differing economic strata/backgrounds. The current study explored the dilemmas of parenting academically high-ability children from economically deprived urban areas in the UK. Data were gathered from a sample of parents whose children attended a university-based sustained intervention programme for designated ‘gifted’ pupils aged 12–16. Parental perceptions were sought in relation to (a) the usefulness/impact of the intervention programme, (b) parents’ aspirations for their children growing up in economically deprived urban areas and (c) parents’ views on the support provided by the extended family, peer groups and the wider community. The findings have significant implications for both policy and practice and, more specifically, for engaging parents in intervention programmes offered by universities and schools to children in order to increase their access to higher education and for enhancing their life chances.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199
Author(s):  
Kelly Devenney

This article explores the family social networks of unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people in the UK. While significant attention has been paid to their experiences, few studies have considered family relationships. The findings in this article, based on empirical research with unaccompanied young people, suggests that they are engaged in complex and fluid family relationships both within the UK and transnationally. The young people in this study felt significant obligations towards family members and sought to provide care and support to those in the UK and abroad. However, they faced significant barriers to achieving these aims.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-136
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Nosek-Kozłowska

Economic migrations are a phenomenon that extends to many Polish families, causing changes in their structure and functioning. The effects of migration that affect the lives of children and young people brought up in transnational families seem to be particularly important. Children from transnational families have specific family experiences because they are related to the economic migration of one of the parents, which is associated with his longer absence. The motives for the trip, time of separation, and everyday life in each transnational family are different, therefore children from these families have various life experiences and create images of family life in various ways.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-111
Author(s):  
Ayu Musliha

: In fact, the development of a business does not only talk about how economic capital is managed by business actors. Cultural capital and social capital are also important aspects in the process of developing a business. This research uses qualitative methods with data collection techniques through interviews and participatory observation. The informant investigates the business owner and one of the customers. The results of the study indicate that the capital owned by the business owner benefits the business actor for running his business. Meanwhile, social capital in the form of trust can enhance existing social networks and build new social networks. The maintenance process is carried out by business owners through loyalty to sales / bosses and buyers. So, it can be concluded that social capital and cultural capital also play an important role in the process of developing a business.


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