How can psychotherapists improve their practice with service users from minoritised ethnicities? An application of the Declarative-Procedural-Reflective (DPR) model of clinical skill development

Many white psychotherapists may lack the skills required to work effectively with service users from minoritised ethnicities. This article proposes that the nature of this skills deficit can be understood through applying the Declarative-Procedural-Reflective (DPR) model of therapist skill development. The DPR model has been used in a range of psychotherapeutic contexts, and it provides a systematic account of how therapists from all modalities develop and can improve their skills. Adapting this model to white therapists’ skills in working with service users from minoritised ethnicities allows the identification of specific areas of skills deficit, and therefore clear recommendations as to how to address those deficits. The application of the DPR model to this context suggests that there are clear areas of skills deficit in terms of knowledge base, the practical skills of carrying out therapy, and the ability of therapists to reflect on their work with service users from minoritised ethnicities. I conclude by making a number of suggestions as to how those deficits could be addressed, both by individual therapists and at a systemic level. Key learning aims (1) To explore why some white psychotherapists find it more difficult to work effectively with service users from minoritised ethnicities. (2) To conceptualise difficulties in working with service users from minoritised ethnicities as an issue of clinical skill, knowledge and attitude development, where therapists’ skills can be improved if specific deficits are appropriately addressed. (3) To use the structure of the DPR model to better understand how deficits in therapists’ skills, knowledge and reflective ability may have an impact on their work with service users from minoritised ethnicities. This allows the identification of specific areas of deficit, and therefore clear recommendations as to how to address those deficits. (4) This is primarily addressed at CBT therapists, but the points raised in this article apply to all schools of therapy.

God-Self-World Continuum in Tribal Religion

This article draws on the religions of the indigenous tribes in order to show that religion does not have to be a site of domination and exclusion (human or non-humans). It is not a systematic account of the minutiae of tribal religions. It primarily discusses the god-self-world continuum within a tribal paradigm and looks at the ethical implications of various metaphysical commitments that it instructs. Looking at tribal earth-centred spirituality uncovers many ways to consider “nature” and the place of humans, and contributes to overcoming problems of binary dualisms.

Limited Demand or Unreliable Supply? A Bibliometric Review and Computational Text Analysis of Research on Energy Policy in India

Although India has made significant progress towards the sustainable development goal on energy (SDG 7), further policy innovations are essential for closing the gap, addressing geographic disparities, and harnessing energy for transformative change. Research can support this process by creating policy-relevant knowledge regarding the energy transition, but there is no systematic account of the literature pertaining to energy policy in India to map the research area and suggest key avenues for future research. In this study, I conduct a bibliometric review and computational text analysis of over 2700 publications to identify the key themes, geographies, and public policy concepts (not) examined in the research on energy policy in India. I find that: (i) the literature is dominated by topics in energy supply and less attention is paid to demand-side management, energy efficiency, and electricity distribution; (ii) existing studies have hardly examined subnational policy (-making), especially in the case of eastern and north-eastern India; and (iii) research on both analysis for policy and analysis of policy is limited. I conclude that the current foci lack the breadth and depth necessary for supporting the Indian energy transition and urge scholars to diversify the thematic, geographic, and conceptual engagement in future research.

Back to Basics with Labor-Power

Ted Striphas recently called for a return to the “problem of culture” within cultural studies. This is a political as much as a methodological provocation: “culture” became an object of analysis among mid-twentieth century scholars in dialogue with Marxist accounts of ongoing political crises. Taking a cue from this past, this essay rethinks culture in relation to the ongoing crisis in social reproduction via Social Reproduction Theory (SRT). Within some Marxist feminist currents, “social reproduction” refers to the reproduction of labor-power, Marx’s term for the capacity to work sold on the market in exchange for wages. Marxist feminists have theorized such matters at length via their analyses of the practices undergirding the reproduction of labor-power. SRT is not unfamiliar to cultural studies scholars, but those engaged with it tend to explore the representation of socially reproductive practices within culture rather than the ways culture itself contributes to labor-power’s reproduction. This is unsurprising. Historically, the field has discussed labor-power in terms of its circulation rather than its reproduction, detailing culture’s role in reproducing social systems. Drawing upon Michael Denning’s “labor theory of culture,” recent work in SRT, and Marx, I argue that culture functions in a socially reproductive capacity within the logic of capitalism. In doing so, it casts cultural struggle as a form of social reproduction struggle at the intersection of labor-power’s reproduction and that of the society that requires it. This essay constructs a systematic account of culture’s socially reproductive before using it to consider its historical expression in the current moment.

Systematic studies on the Holothuroidea of the New Zealand region

<p>A systematic account of the holothurians of the New Zealand region is given, together with diagnoses of orders, families, sub-families, genera and species. The report is based on a total of 970 specimens, which comprise 18 genera, including Mensamariella n.g., and 25 species, including Protankyra rigida, Chiridota alleni, Chiridota mortenseni, Neothyonidium armatum, and Trachythyone squamata, spp.nov. Genera and species known in the fauna, but not encountered during the course of the present study, are diagnosed, and their systematic positions and distribution patterns are briefly considered. The distribution of known holothurians within the New Zealand region is discussed, as also are the external relationships and ultimate derivation of the group. The taxonomic state of the Class as a whole is indicated, and comments are made on the reliability of systematic characters within each group, together with some suggestions for modification and possible improvement of the present-day situation.</p>

Systematic studies on the Holothuroidea of the New Zealand region

<p>A systematic account of the holothurians of the New Zealand region is given, together with diagnoses of orders, families, sub-families, genera and species. The report is based on a total of 970 specimens, which comprise 18 genera, including Mensamariella n.g., and 25 species, including Protankyra rigida, Chiridota alleni, Chiridota mortenseni, Neothyonidium armatum, and Trachythyone squamata, spp.nov. Genera and species known in the fauna, but not encountered during the course of the present study, are diagnosed, and their systematic positions and distribution patterns are briefly considered. The distribution of known holothurians within the New Zealand region is discussed, as also are the external relationships and ultimate derivation of the group. The taxonomic state of the Class as a whole is indicated, and comments are made on the reliability of systematic characters within each group, together with some suggestions for modification and possible improvement of the present-day situation.</p>

Socratic Irony and Argumentation

Socratic irony can be understood independently of the immortal heroics of Plato’s Socrates. We need a systematic account and criticism of it both as a debate-winning strategy of argumentation and teaching method. The Speaker introduces an issue pretending to be at a lower intellectual level than her co-debaters, or Participants. An Audience looks over and evaluates the results. How is it possible that the Speaker like Socrates is, consistently, in the winning position? The situation is ironic because the Participants fight from a losing position but realize it too late. Socratic irony compares with divine irony: divine irony is a subtype of Socratic irony since you lose when you challenge gods. Socratic irony is also, prima facie, a subtype of dramatic irony when the Audience knows more than the Participants on the stage. We must distinguish between the ideal and realistic elements of Socratic Irony. The very idea of Socratic irony looks idealized, or it is an ideal case, which explains the Speaker’s consistently winning position. In real life, the debate must be rigged, or the Dutch Book argument applies to the Participants, if the Speaker is so successful.

The evolution of the noun class system of Ngwi (West-Coastal Bantu, B861, DRC)

In this paper we offer a first systematic account of the noun class system of Ngwi, a West-Coastal Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. First, we describe the synchronic system of noun class prefixes and the agreement patterns they trigger on constituents of the noun phrase and the verb. Second, we provide a diachronic analysis of the innovations the synchronic Ngwi noun class system underwent with respect to the noun class system reconstructed for the most recent common ancestor of all Narrow Bantu languages. Finally, we compare the morphological innovations found in the Ngwi noun class system with those identified in the noun class systems of other West-Coastal Bantu varieties and assess whether some of these could be diagnostic for internal classification within this western Bantu branch.

Economic Inequality and Political Responsiveness: A Systematic Review

Do political outcomes respond more strongly to the preferences of the rich? In an age of rising inequality, this question has become increasingly salient. Yet, although an influential literature has emerged, no systematic account exists either of the severity of differentials in political responsiveness, the potential drivers of those differentials, or the variation across democracies. This article fills that gap. We analyze 1,163 estimates of responsiveness from 25 studies and find that, although this research collectively suggests that political outcomes better reflect the preferences of the rich, results vary considerably across models and studies. The divergence in results is partly driven by partisanship and the model specification, while we find no significant variation across either policy domains or general/specific measures of political outcomes. Finally, and against theoretical expectations, published research suggests that differentials in responsiveness are weaker in the United States compared to other developed democracies. The article contributes to our understanding of differential responsiveness by clarifying the main debates and findings in the literature, identifying issues and gaps, and pointing to fruitful avenues for future research.