Mothers as Advocates of Social Inclusion for Children With Communication Disorders

Social inclusion is based on acceptance and belonging irrespective of any status, disability, or disadvantage. The ability to communicate empowers humans in their quest for social inclusion. However, children challenged by communication disorders struggle to form friendships and make inroads into social groups. Mothers, the primary caregivers in most instances, with their intimate knowledge of their children, are considered the best advocates. This study set out to identify strategies that mothers engage in to pave the way for successful social inclusion of children with communication disorders. An online survey was conducted in different geographical locations. Mothers with children aged 6-13 years who had received speech therapy or are currently receiving speech therapy were invited to participate. Data were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Outcomes suggest that all mothers believe in social inclusion despite facing a range of inclusion and exclusionary practices. Undeterred by these responses, mothers advocate for social inclusion by engaging in a range of strategies.

Ethnographies of Organized Crime

This chapter discusses how the ethnographic method has been used to study organized crime (OC). The first part defines OC, the mafia, and ethnography. The second section reviews early field studies, and the third focuses on the seminal contribution by W.F. Whyte, Street Corner Society (1943/1993). Whyte has set the model for subsequent ethnographies of OC and the mafia as involving (1) extensive periods in the field, (2) a project that is independent of authorities, (3) developing an intimate knowledge of the place or an organization, (4) the observation of interactions, and (5) a concern for the validity and the reliability of the data collected, including the impact of the ethnographer’s position on the information gathered. The fourth section offers a selective review of subsequent ethnographies of OC which are compared and contrasted with Street Corner Society. The final section discusses risk, the use of official data, the issue of anonymity, “rapid ethnographies,” and the limitations of fieldwork.

Nunatsiavut, ‘Our beautiful land’: Inuit landscape ethnoecology in Labrador, Canada

For Inuit in the subarctic transition zone of northeastern Canada, an intimate knowledge of the environment and local biodiversity is crucial for successful traditional activities. This study examines what kinds of landscape features and habitats Inuit of Nunatsiavut recognize and name. During interviews, community members (mostly Elders) were shown photographs from the region, and were asked to describe and name salient types of places in Labrador Inuttitut. The most frequently reported geographical units dealt with the region’s topography (e.g., ‘mountain’, ‘island’, ‘flat-place’), hydrology (e.g., ‘river’, ‘bay’), and superficial characteristics (e.g., ‘bedrock’, ‘permanent snow patch’). Ecological considerations were also prominent, such as plant associations and animal habitats (e.g., ‘shrubby-place’, wetland’, ‘caribou-return-to-place’). Areas were often characterized by a dominant species or substrate type, being named using the plural form of the species/substrate (e.g., napâttuk ‘tree’/ napâttuit ‘forest’, siugak ‘sand’/siugalak ‘sandy-area’). Some types of places reported by Inuit were significant mainly for traditional activities (e.g., ‘berry-patch’, ‘seal-place’, ‘dry-wood-place’, ‘danger-place’), aiding navigation and resource finding. Integrating Inuit conceptions of ecosystems and their component landscape units with those of contemporary science can improve our understanding of subarctic ecology, benefit climate change adaptation strategies and Inuit language/culture conservation initiatives.

Enhanced Ecologies and Ecosystem Engineering

Anthropological and archaeological representations of Aboriginal Australians as hunter-gatherers adapting to the natural availability of food resources are simplistic and inconsistent with ethnographic records of active, strategic, and sociopolitically meaningful resource enhancement. Scholarship over the past four decades has documented plant and animal food resource enhancement by Aboriginal Australians that blur socioeconomic boundaries with agricultural societies of New Guinea. Enhancements were achieved by using intimate knowledge of local ecological processes to modify ecosystems through a range of strategies such as landscape burning, animal translocation, protected rearing, shelter creation, and restocking. These strategies were embedded within broader sociocultural and sociopolitical domains that were often accompanied by ritual. Such engineered food enhancement practices reveal that many documented and modelled associations between environment and behaviour are in fact correlations between behaviour and the products of behaviour. The uneven distribution of animal resource enhancement practices across Australia indicates considerable regional diversity and supports existing views that many enhancements are related to regionally specific and historically contingent developments in social complexity.

"Desperate Fictions": Space, Identity and Indeterminacy in William Gaddis and Don DeLillo

<p>Don DeLillo has frequently acknowledged William Gaddis as a significant influence, particularly in his concern with the vagaries of self-identity. DeLillo's The Body Artist (2001) and Gaddis's Carpenter's Gothic (1985) both thematically explore the relationship between self and space, employing gothic motifs and metafictional devices which intersect with the dramatic content of the novel, in which characters experience disruption to the stability of the known and located. In both, even the most intimate knowledge of relationships and environments is portrayed as a contingent construction, open to radical revision. As has been acknowledged by a number of critics, the transitory nature of postmodern spatiality is a central thematic preoccupation of both writers. The novels of both writers confront postmodern space by the way they complicate processes of identification and communication through a formalist evocation of indeterminacy. However differences become apparent in a careful comparison of their larger works. In Gaddis's J R (1975) Gaddis attempts to govern this indeterminacy in the service of cultural critique; rhetorically manipulating readerly identification in the service of an overall vision of decline. DeLillo's Underworld (1997), on the other hand, destabilizes meaning, and as a result the reader is directed towards a more ambivalent relationship to postmodern existence.</p>

"Desperate Fictions": Space, Identity and Indeterminacy in William Gaddis and Don DeLillo

<p>Don DeLillo has frequently acknowledged William Gaddis as a significant influence, particularly in his concern with the vagaries of self-identity. DeLillo's The Body Artist (2001) and Gaddis's Carpenter's Gothic (1985) both thematically explore the relationship between self and space, employing gothic motifs and metafictional devices which intersect with the dramatic content of the novel, in which characters experience disruption to the stability of the known and located. In both, even the most intimate knowledge of relationships and environments is portrayed as a contingent construction, open to radical revision. As has been acknowledged by a number of critics, the transitory nature of postmodern spatiality is a central thematic preoccupation of both writers. The novels of both writers confront postmodern space by the way they complicate processes of identification and communication through a formalist evocation of indeterminacy. However differences become apparent in a careful comparison of their larger works. In Gaddis's J R (1975) Gaddis attempts to govern this indeterminacy in the service of cultural critique; rhetorically manipulating readerly identification in the service of an overall vision of decline. DeLillo's Underworld (1997), on the other hand, destabilizes meaning, and as a result the reader is directed towards a more ambivalent relationship to postmodern existence.</p>

How care holds humanity: the myth of Cura and theories of care

Modern medicine has often struggled to grasp the cultural aspects of interpersonal care. The medical humanities, on the other hand, have struggled to grasp the embodied, intimate character of care. In a recent appeal to the medical humanities, Julia Kristeva et al argue that care can be a point of crossing between these two ‘ontological domains’. They evoke the myth of Cura, referring to previous utilisations by such diverse thinkers as Heidegger and Kleinman, as well as Kristeva’s previous work. This study adds to these bodies of work by using the original text from Hyginus in much greater detail. Textual analysis, theoretical discussions and autotheoretical work unpack care as (1) a fundamental aspect of the human condition, (2) a holding-together of different domains of knowledge, (3) a withholding from these domains and (4) the site of intimate knowledge that both ‘ontological domains’ struggle to grasp.

Host Plants Association with Longhorn Beetles of Food Value: Traditional Knowledge of the Guaraní as Cultural Identity Keepers

The study of plant-insect interactions and how cultural groups perceive and manage them constitutes one of the interests of ethnoentomology. This work describes the association between host plants and longhorn beetles (Order: Coleoptera; Family: Cerambycidae), an important food among the Guaraní peoples of the province of Misiones, Argentina. Different management methods of host tree species are analyzed in order to promote the rearing of larvae for edible use. We also discuss a story about the mythical origin of cerambicids relayed by the Ava Chiripa Guaraní community. We reflect on the importance of the local worldview in the maintenance of ancestral practices, such as the cultural tasks involved in slash-and-burn agriculture and the intimate knowledge of biological relationships between the cerambycids and their woody host plants.

Model of Mitigation: Strategies to Utilise Unique Insider Research Opportunities

Insider research has in the past challenged researchers in terms of blurred lines, objectivity, bias confidentiality and maintaining professional working relationships. The opportunities it presents however include access to information, trust in the data collection, insider and intimate knowledge, and the ability for rich inside data collection. This paper discusses these opportunities and challenges, then makes recommendations for ten strategies to assist in data collection by an insider researcher. These strategies include communication, mixed methods, reflections, debrief, distance, confidentiality, interview technique, social network, voluntary and objectivity. The research concludes with the creation of a Model of Mitigation, which posits the ten mitigation strategies along with the four opportunities to assist insider researchers to overcome obstacles when conducting insider research, as insider research has been shown to collect rich data and enable organisations to reflect on the research findings and to implement recommendations made on an individual but organisation wide basis.

Why Indigenous Canadians on reserves are reluctant to complain about the police

Recent widespread protests and intensive media coverage of actual and alleged acts of police misconduct against members of vulnerable populations (e.g., Indigenous and racialized persons, mentally ill and/or addicted persons) overrepresented in the criminal justice system have renewed interest internationally in the factors influencing civilian complaints against police. In Canada, a major concern exists regarding how Indigenous persons who feel improperly treated by the police perceive and confront barriers to making formal complaints about such treatment. This study focuses on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the police agency providing services to the majority of rural and northern reserve communities. Our survey and interviews with influential “community informants” (in this instance community court workers) with intimate knowledge of such local communities, shared culture and language, and vicarious appreciation of the experiences of community members support the view that Indigenous persons do encounter significant barriers to launching formal complaints and are consistent with other research literature. We discuss our findings, raise policy considerations for decision makers such as police leaders and police complaints bodies, and outline implications for future research.