The many faces of disability in evidence for policy and practice: embracing complexity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Rivas ◽  
Ikuko Tomomatsu ◽  
David Gough
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
Research Recruitment ◽  
Combined Application ◽  
Models Of Disability ◽  
People With Disability ◽  
The Many ◽  
Evidence For Policy ◽  
Existing Data

Background: This special issue examines the relationship between disability, evidence, and policy.Key points: Several themes cut across the included papers. Despite the development of models of disability that recognise its socially constructed nature, dis/ableism impedes the involvement of people with disability in evidence production and use. The resultant incomplete representations of disability are biased towards its deproblematisation. Existing data often homogenise the heterogeneous. Functioning and impairment categories are used for surveys, research recruitment and policy enactments, that exclude many. Existing data may crudely evidence some systematic inequalities, but the successful and appropriate development and enactment of disability policies requires more contextual data. Categories and labels drawn from a deficit model affect social constructions of identity, and have been used socially and politically to justify the disenfranchisement of people with disability. Well rehearsed within welfare systems, this results in disempowered and devalued objects of policy, and, as described in one Brazilian paper, the systematic breakup of indigenous families. Several studies show the dangers of policy developed without evidence and impact assessments from and with the intended beneficiaries.Conclusions and implications: There is a need to mitigate barriers to inclusive participation, to enable people with disability to collaborate as equals with other policy actors. The combined application of different policy models and ontologies, currently in tension, might better harness their respective strengths and encourage greater transparency and deliberation regarding the flaws inherent in each. Learning should be shared across minority groups.

scholarly journals The Neolithic greenstone industry of Chiomonte (northwestern Italy): mineralogy, petrography and archaeometric implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Roberto Giustetto ◽  
Stefania Padovan ◽  
Luca Barale ◽  
Roberto Compagnoni
Keyword(s):  
Energy Dispersive Spectrometry ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
Western Alps ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Combined Application ◽  
The Many ◽  
Stone Industry

Abstract. The polished stone industry of Chiomonte (Piedmont region, northwestern Italy), dating back to the middle to late Neolithic, has been studied with a multi-analytical approach, including mineralogical, petrographic and morpho-typological issues, with the aim of providing information about the sources of the raw materials and determining the function of this particular settlement in the prehistoric Western Alps. Most of the lithic tools are made of sensu stricto greenstones (i.e. “Na pyroxene rocks” and “Na pyroxene and garnet rocks”), though a large number of serpentinite tools (25 %) also exist. The combined application of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), polarising microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) led to the detection of specific mineral and chemical “markers”, pointing to the Chiomonte tools likely having come from the Monviso area. However, other closer supply sources, e.g. small meta-ophiolite units in the Orsiera–Rocciavré mountain range or in the lower Susa valley, cannot be ruled out. The presence, on the many retrieved roughouts and broken tools, of raw, yet unpolished surfaces that are ascribable to pebbles and cobbles from alluvial or glacial deposits, suggests that these rocks had been picked up from local “secondary” sources. The abundance of roughouts and broken tools identifies Chiomonte as a second-order manufacturing site, although it is still unclear whether such an activity was restricted to serving local needs or if it contributed to the circulation of greenstone implements on a wider scale.

scholarly journals Safeguarding Adults Reviews: Prompting practice and policy

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Jill Manthorpe ◽  
Stephen Martineau
Keyword(s):  
Review Process ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
User Group ◽  
Children's Services ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Practice Analysis ◽  
Children’S Services ◽  
The Many ◽  
Practice Development

Abstract: As a whole there was remarkably little controversy in England over the Care Act 2014, once debates over funding caps had been kicked into the long grass. After all, who could oppose the idea of better information, clearer entitlements, and more support for carers? Among the non-contentious areas were specific proposals for Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) to become Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs). In light of the many concerns in children’s services about the dominance of SCRs in policy and practice debates this lack of interest and discussion may seem surprising. In this paper we explore why such reviews concerning adults are largely seen as non-contentious and frame our analysis around four different ‘prompts’; those from Parliament, from earlier SCRs, from practice analysis and from practice development. We draw on our own wider research programme on Adult SCRs and subsequently SARs. This programme of research has explored different facets of the review process and undertaken different thematic analyses by location or user group.

Featureless Data Clustering

2010 ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson Wong
Keyword(s):  
Data Clustering ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Clustering Algorithms ◽  
Adaptive Clustering ◽  
Feature Based ◽  
Clustering Approach ◽  
Semantic Computation ◽  
The Many ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Existing Data

Feature-based semantic measurements have played a dominant role in conventional data clustering algorithms for many existing applications. However, the applicability of existing data clustering approaches to a wider range of applications is limited due to issues such as complexity involved in semantic computation, long pre-processing time required for feature preparation, and poor extensibility of semantic measurement due to non-incremental feature source. This chapter first summarises the many commonly used clustering algorithms and feature-based semantic measurements, and then highlights the shortcomings to make way for the proposal of an adaptive clustering approach based on featureless semantic measurements. The chapter concludes with experiments demonstrating the performance and wide applicability of the proposed clustering approach.

The Social Integrative Meaning of Sport: A Critical and Comparative Analysis of Policy and Practice in the Netherlands

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Elling ◽  
Paul De Knop ◽  
Annelies Knoppers
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Sports Clubs ◽  
Physically Challenged

The diversity of sport participants in the Netherlands is beginning to reflect the diversity within the general population. Sport as a whole is becoming more accessible, and participation in sport of different social groups takes place within both mainstream and “separate” sports clubs and in differently organized sports groups. In our paper we critically analyze the broader social integrative functions ascribed to sport by policy makers. We attempt to show that the ongoing democratization of sport participation is not always positively correlated, let alone causally related, to a broader social integrated society. We argue that social integration in itself is a multidimensional process and distinguish three dimensions of integration (structural, social-cultural, and social-affective), which can all occur in and through the practice of sport. Furthermore we argue that the integrative meanings of sport depend on which social groups and which of the dimensions of integration are examined. The complementary and contradictory aspects of the dimensions of social integration with regard to four different social minority groups (ethnic minorities, the elderly, the physically challenged, gays and lesbians) are examined.

scholarly journals Uncovering Recovery: The Resistible Rise of Recovery and Resilience

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Harper ◽  
Ewen Speed
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Health Service Providers

Discourses of recovery and resilience have risen to positions of dominance in the mental health field. Models of recovery and resilience enjoy purchase, in both policy and practice, across a range of settings from self-described psychiatric survivors through to mental health charities through to statutory mental health service providers. Despite this ubiquity, there is confusion about what recovery means. In this article we problematize notions of recovery and resilience, and consider what, if anything, should be recovered from these concepts. We focus on three key issues, i) individualization, ii) the persistence of a deficit model, and iii) collective approaches to recovery. Through documentary analysis we consider these issues across third sector organizations, and public and mental health policy. Firstly, definitional debates about recovery reflect wider ideological debates about the nature of mental health. The vagueness of these concepts and implicit assumptions inherent in dominant recovery and resilience discourses render them problematic because they individualize what are social problems. Secondly, these discourses, despite being seen as inherently liberatory are conceptually dependent on a notion of deficit in that talk of “positives” and “strengths” requires the existence of “negatives” and “weaknesses” for these concepts to make sense.  We argue that this does little to substantially transform dominant understandings of psychological distress. Thirdly, these issues combine to impact upon the progressive potential of recovery. It comes to be seen as an individualistic experiential narrative accompaniment to medical understandings where the structural causes of distress are obscured. This in turn impacts upon the potential for recovery to be used to explore more collective, political aspects of emotional distress. Drawing on the work of Fraser, we use this critique to characterize “recovery” as a “struggle for recognition,” founded on a model of identity politics which displaces and marginalizes the need for social, political and economic redistribution to address many of the underlying causes of emotional distress. We conclude by stating that it is only when the collective, structural experiences of inequality and injustice are explicitly linked to processes of emotional distress that recovery will be possible. 

scholarly journals Emergence of the Individual as an International Juristic Entity: Enforcement of International Human Rights

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 534-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Cassidy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Norm ◽  
State Practice ◽  
International Rights ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Individual

In this article it is contended that state practice, as evidenced in the declarations of the judiciary and the many treaties and conventions guaranteeing human rights, reveals a consensus of opinion acknowledging the individual to be an international juristic entity. So extensive is this practice that it could be seen as marking the emergence of a new customary international norm; or at least a general principle of international law, yet to crystallise into a custom; acknowledging the individual as the beneficiary of international rights. This is important for individuals and minority groups because if they possess international rights independently of the State, enforcement of their rights will no longer depend on the interests of the State. Where the State is often the offender of human rights, international law will not effectively confer any real rights unless the individual is so recognised as an inter- national juristic entity.

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