bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Management of metacarpal shaft fractures: a survey of current UK practice
Authors: Taha R , Davis TR , Montgomery AA , Karantana A
Published: October 2024

Introduction

Metacarpal shaft fractures (MSF) are common injuries that predominantly affect young, economically active people. However, there is limited evidence to guide their management. The aims of this study were to: evaluate the management of extra-articular MSF of the fingers; assess equipoise for surgical and nonsurgical treatments; and explore factors influencing clinician decision making to inform the design of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) comparing surgical and nonsurgical treatments.

Methods

A cross-sectional, web-based survey was distributed to UK hand surgeons using membership directories of different professional networks. Practice setting, clinical experience, management strategies, willingness to participate in a RCT and factors affecting suitability for randomisation were recorded.

Results

There were 108 responses eligible for analysis. Distribution of clinical experience ranged from <5 to >20 years. A variety of treatments were used for transverse, long oblique/spiral and comminuted MSF. Rotational deformity (90%), step-off deformity (5%) and angulation (5%) were the most important indications for surgical fixation. Acceptable limits of fracture angulation and shortening varied among surgeons. Over 85% expressed interest in participating in a RCT and most showed equipoise and were willing to offer operative or nonoperative treatment as part of a research study.

Conclusions

This survey demonstrates that UK hand surgeons have varying views on treatments, acceptable parameters of deformity and indications for surgical fixation of displaced MSF. There is equipoise for surgical and nonsurgical treatments, variability in factors influencing clinical decision making and support for RCTs to investigate best practice.
The Fight Against Islamophobia in Madrid, Paris and London. A Comparative and Qualitative Analysis on Muslim Activism in Three Cities
Authors: Eseverri-Mayer Cecilia
Published: October 2024

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This research focuses on new courses of action taken by Muslims in their fight against Islamophobia in global cities like London, Paris, and Madrid. Employing Putnam’s Social Capital Theory, this article demonstrates that the most effective actions against Islamophobia are those carried out by organizations deploying both bonding and bridging

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social capital. Bonding social capital reinforces primary solidarity, which allows Muslim movements to survive in hostile contexts, while bridging social capital generates links outside the group and adds diversity to the movement. Using qualitative methods such as specific observations, biographical interviews and focus groups, this comparative research identifies a typology of anti-Islamophobia actions in each city. In addition, it shows the ideological and generational tensions that can arise from the myriad ways Muslim leaders incorporate religion into their activism, and the types of alliances they build inside and outside the primary group. This research also shows how both youth and women’s groups are trying to break away from these ideological confrontations by proposing new spaces of mobilization where it might be possible to turn a particular interest (the fight against Islamophobia) into a general one (the fight against extremist ideas and the defense of individual and collective rights).
Islamophobia and Conversion: The Role Anti-Racism Plays in White Converts’ Experience of Islam Post 9-11
Authors: Huxtable Mohr Sarah
Published: October 2024

There are prominent stories in the media, as well as countless personal stories in the greater Muslim community, of white people whose response to Islamophobia, for varying reasons, has been not to reject Islam but to embrace it. The contradictory nature of this response reinforces the complexity of knowledge production and the critical subject in the post 9-11 world. The rejection of the media narratives both undermines the perceived power of Islamophobia, as well as highlighting the tendency of Islamophobic representations of Islam and Muslims to drive people towards Islam rather than away from it. Using a case series, this article seeks to explore the connection between Islamophobia as a media and societal narrative and the conversion stories of white converts post 9-11. The hypothesis of the article is that the violence of Islamophobic rhetoric is a form of knowledge production that regularly produces the opposite effect that it intends in white people, due to its tendency towards misinformation and misrepresentation of Islam and Muslims. As part of the discussion of the case series, the article seeks to illuminate connections between anti-racism and the stories of white converts to further clarify the nature of their path of conversion to Islam and the impact of Islamophobia on white converts self-understanding. The article also explores the consequence of anti-racist white converts producing pro-Islamic narratives following their rejection of Islamophobic tropes, memes, and disinformation as a form of knowledge production functioning as resistance.
Policy responses and public discourses: the neglect of young fathers
Authors: Neale Bren , Tarrant Anna
Published: October 2024

This chapter traces policy developments and popular discourses on young fatherhood over the last 20 years. The main focus is on the UK policy context, with particular reference to New Labour’s ten-year Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood (TPS) Strategy, and more recent responses under the Coalition and Conservative governments. The discussion shows how the idea of young parenthood as a social problem has taken root in policy circles and in the popular imagination. This has fostered pejorative views of young fathers as ‘feckless’ and ‘hard to reach’ and led to their marginalisation in mainstream policy and professional practice. The chapter also traces policies in relation to disadvantaged young people and their families. More focused policy domains that impact on young fathers are briefly flagged up here and discussed in later chapters of the book: Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) provision; welfare support; education, employment and housing policies; and specialist support services for young parents.
Co-parenting: the gendered dynamics of young relationships
Authors: Neale Bren , Tarrant Anna
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the nature and quality of the young men’s relationships with the mothers of their children. Tracing the relationship journeys of these young men, it explores the extent to which they were able to forge workable co-parenting relationships with the mothers, as the basis for maintaining a relationship with their children. The different experiences of young men who are partnered or single, or living with or apart from their children are highlighted here, along with the barriers to co-parenting, including cases where contact is curtailed by the mothers. The quality of co-parenting relationships emerges as a key issue, with implications for the provision of family support and relationship education services. New insights are presented on shifts in gendered patterns of parenthood over time, and how tensions may arise between the ethos of engaged fatherhood and the enduring notion of a mother-child dyad. The latter is based on a deeply ingrained notion that mothers are the primary carers of their children, with the right to determine how a child will be raised and by whom.
Professional support for young fathers: support, surveillance, sidelining?
Authors: Neale Bren , Tarrant Anna
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers the support needs of young fathers, with a focus on their varying engagements with universal services, through to specialist services that provide holistic guidance. Drawing on multi-perspective insights from young fathers and selected accounts from professionals, we explore the extent to which young men feel welcomed and supported within diverse service contexts. These accounts unveil the varied challenges faced by young fathers and those who support them. We consider how practitioners balance support with surveillance (the safeguarding agenda), but also how they may engage in side-lining and exclusion, based on unclear remits, limited resources, and a view that young fathers are ‘hard to reach’ i.e., that they are not interested in or necessarily deserving of a parental role and identity. The contexts and circumstances that encourage young fathers to proactively access support and resources are also explored. The chapter concludes by examining the importance of specialist provision for young fathers, which, when combined with peer models of support, acts as a stabilising force that promotes the social engagement of young fathers.
Reflection
Authors: Leigh Jennifer
Published: October 2024

Reflection, reflective practice, and reflexivity are found across qualitative research, art, education, and therapy. This chapter sets out why reflection is important; examines the kind of training researchers receive and why developing an effective reflective practice is often missing; explores the concept of reflective practice and the connection between self-awareness, rumination, and effective reflection; looks at reflection in education, and finally turns to reflexivity and how this can be taught through embodied awareness.
Awareness
Authors: Leigh Jennifer
Published: October 2024

Reflection is most effective when it results from embodied self-awareness. This chapter explores the discourses of embodiment, bodies, and moving bodies, before investigating somatics as a tool for developing awareness and how it can be used both therapeutically and educationally as well as for research. It ends with an example that uses somatics to teach young children to become more aware and reflective.
Lessons from ethics
Authors: Leigh Jennifer
Published: October 2024

Research, particularly research with the self or with people, presents many challenges and constraints. This chapter considers how research ethics meets or diverges from the kinds of ethical considerations and guidelines for therapeutic work, and uses the example of working with children to explore the ethics of conducting embodied and creative research which approached a therapeutic boundary to explore the ethics of relationships, touch, and awareness.
Working with artists and researchers
Authors: Leigh Jennifer
Published: October 2024

This case study draws from work on and later following up of a multidisciplinary project evaluating the use of improvised drama with autistic children. It exemplifies the borders of qualitative research where it meets with art, education, and therapy. This case study also highlights the ways in which researchers reflect and position themselves in their research.
Working with embodied academics
Authors: Leigh Jennifer
Published: October 2024

This case study draws from a study that used a range of creative approaches to explore embodied academic identity. It highlights issues around positionality, anonymity, autoethnography, ownership, and dissemination in research, and exemplifies the boundaries of qualitative research with art and with therapy. It considers the outcomes of research such as dissemination and the conflicting pressures on academics to produce outputs that ‘count’ and are not messy.
The three schools
Authors: Abrahams Jessie
Published: October 2024

This chapter introduces the three schools where this research was based: Grand Hill Grammar (an independent fee-paying school), Einstein High (a ‘high performing’ academy in a wealthy part of the city) and Eagles Academy (an ‘under-performing’ academy in a socioeconomically deprived part of the city). The first half of the chapter charts each school’s history (in relation to the development of English educational policy); current management and governance structure; demography (including size and type of students on roll); and admissions policy. The second half of the chapter presents some descriptive statistics of pupils’ self-reporting of their parents’ occupations and experience of higher education alongside whether their parents are homeowners or not. These variables are used as indicators of levels of parental economic and cultural capital. Overall, this chapter highlights the differences between the schools and the young people who attend while also drawing out the fascinating points of connection across each school. In this way it begins the discussion through exploring the contrasting and unequal contexts under which young people experience compulsory schooling in England.
Knowledge, familiarity and physical proximity: “Everyone in my family has gone to university, I don’t see why I shouldn’t”
Authors: Abrahams Jessie
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks at young people’s discussions of university. I present findings which show that, in contrast to political rhetoric around the need to ‘raise aspirations’, most pupils I spoke to from all schools and year groups wanted to attend university, and for similar reasons. Nevertheless, as will be shown in this chapter, there remain distinct social class differences in how certain the pupils were that university would be on their horizons. This chapter also explores inequalities in relation to pupils’ knowledge and familiarity with the university field. While universities and policy makers have attempted to narrow the gap in ‘information, advice and guidance’ distributed to pupils from different backgrounds around university, this chapter argues that there remain distinctive inequalities in relation to proximity to, and familiarity with, the university sphere, something which it is argued cannot be solved through abstract sponsorship by an elite university.
Institutional concerted cultivation
Authors: Abrahams Jessie
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks at the institutional practices and ‘aspiration work’ undertaken primarily by careers advisors which arguably reproduce inequalities across the three schools. This is done through analysis of fieldnotes taken from an observation of a careers event for sixth-form pupils at Grand Hill. The event saw alumni in leading positions in society return to the school to offer support and guidance to current pupils. This chapter discusses the schooling of young people in how to construct themselves as ‘well rounded’, how to ‘network’ and how to ‘get around the systems’. Inspired by the work of Annette Lareau (2011), I introduce and unpack the concept of institutional concerted cultivation as a tool to understand the way in which Grand Hill, equipped with an advantaged position in the field, works to cultivate a particular disposition towards success. I show how the institution picks up where parents leave off, utilising their resources to cultivate young people in a concerted fashion to enable them to ‘get ahead’ in the competition for university places and professional careers.
Positioning female teachers in the context of India
Authors: Samuel Ruth
Published: October 2024

This chapter sets out ways in which female teachers are marginalised and continually displaced. Social, economic and education contexts of female teacher displacement examine restrictions placed on women’s work and income levels, educational opportunities for girls and their role within the household, as well as the impact of educational culture and policy on the teacher’s role. Chapter 1 concludes with an argument for the lived experiences of low-income female teachers to be taken into account to respond to a lack of representation within policy and education development within India.
Teachers’ attitudes to transformation
Authors: Samuel Ruth
Published: October 2024

This chapter centres upon teachers’ understanding of Habermas’s notion of authentic knowledge and what teachers believe is transformation for their students and themselves. The chapter draws upon teacher responses to examine their social praxis, as defined by a form of distributed personhood, to pass on knowledge to their students.
Citizenship and diversity: challenging the conceptual framework
Authors: Gregory Lee , Iafrati Steve
Published: October 2024

Setting out the broader conceptual framework and debates, this chapter considers the central influence of citizenship as a concept in the development of the welfare state. Exploring the development of citizen rights and the emergence of the imagined communities of nation-states provides a historic overview on the formation of contemporary citizenship narratives. This is then contested for the often male, heteronormative, cis, White and able-bodied assumptions within citizenship narratives to explore the centrality of diversity within citizenship status. Drawing on Hoffman’s (2004) account of citizenship as a momentum concept, the chapter seeks to set out a critical framework which can be drawn through the various chapters and revisited in the Conclusion.
Widening the gaze: institutional racism, social policy and conceptual diversification
Authors: Iafrati Steve , Gregory Lee
Published: October 2024

With Social Policy’s rich academic history of analysing the causes and impacts of inequality, it might be expected that concepts of race and ethnicity sit firmly in the centre of the discipline. Surprisingly, however, this axis of inequality is somewhat peripheral within contemporary Social Policy, despite popular recognition of concepts such as institutional racism. Using a critical realist-informed approach, this chapter argues that for Social Policy to be more equipped to analyse inequalities associated with race and ethnicity, the discipline needs to develop a broader conceptual base. This may include looking at concepts more readily associated with other disciplines and, in doing so, place it in a better position to recognise government’s actions and policies as indicative of a broader political and ideological landscape.
Racialised institutions in the UK welfare state
Authors: Eseonu Temidayo
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses key theories of racialisation applied to the UK welfare state. These theories suggest that racialisation occurs when racial categories grounded in histories of oppression manifest in contemporary social institutions, resulting in racial hierarchies in society (Omi and Winant, 2015; Feagin, 2006, Bonilla-Silva, 1997). Consequently, the core argument is that institutions are racialised when formal rules, informal conventions (practices) and narratives (Lowndes and Roberts, 2013) perpetuate the exclusion and subordination of racially minoritised people at the macro, meso and micro levels (Phillips, 2011). This chapter uses Universal Credit as a case to illustrate how institutions in the UK welfare state are racialised. It concludes with reflections on how these institutions could be reimagined.
Scroungers, shirkers and the sick: disability and welfare in the 21st century
Authors: Grant Aimee
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers moralistic lenses applied to disabled people who claim financial support from the UK government. The history of classifying benefit claimants as undeserving is outlined both historically and theoretically. This sets up a discussion of changes to UK benefits for sick and disabled people over time, in relation to both financial aid for not being able to work (currently Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit) and for the extra costs faced from disability (currently Personal Independence Payments). The policy landscape is further contextualised through changes to the employment context, through the closing of Remploy, austerity following the 2008 financial crash and the COVID-19 pandemic. The lived experiences of 21 disability benefit claimants from Wales during the early austerity period are described, with additional claimant experiences from more recent research also outlined. The penultimate section of the chapter reflects on the author’s lived experience as a disabled benefit claimant.
Conclusion
Authors: Iafrati Steve , Gregory Lee
Published: October 2024

This chapter highlights the recurring themes of the contributions to this text: that below the veneer of celebrating diversity, there is still a long way to travel before we reach a place that even closely resembles equality. It revisits some of the key debates explored in Chapters 2 and 3 to explore the complex interplay of ideology, policy, legislation and the positionality of specific groups which shapes welfare provision. Further, the chapter draws out some of the book’s key contributions to debates regarding citizenship and welfare, to highlight how citizenship provides access to services and the provision that people need to ensure a level playing field, but it also challenges the assumption that welfare improves lives, by recognising a series of increasingly evident fracture lines within society.
Examining for the purpose of knowing: Ngaabigi Winhangagigu
Authors: Grant Uncle Stan , Green Sue , Evans Deb , Murray Donna , Harris Letitia , Lambshead Harry
Published: October 2024

This chapter outlines how culturally centred and community-led research is renewing Wiradyuri language, history and culture. Indigenous nation building involves research by, for and with Indigenous peoples, and is being applied to demystify knowledge production, recognising Wiradyuri Elders and their allies as having the ability to undertake research into areas, topics and issues that are important to them. The authors explain that Ngaabigi Winhangaguigu (or, in English, ‘research’) only exists in its relationship with the researcher, and describe how Ngaabigi Winhangaguigu is rebuilding nationhood, enabling cultural renewal and strengthening identity. The multi-award-winning Graduate Certificate in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage at Charles Sturt University exemplifies the Indigenous nation building that has been undertaken by key community spirited Wiradyuri Elders and others they co-opted to support their vision, to examine their knowledge systems to solve their own problems, and determine, for themselves, futures of their own design.
Lived experience perspectives on a co-design process: the ‘Under the Radar’ men’s suicide prevention project
Authors: Lake Stephen , Anonymous Lived Experience Advisors  , Clerke Campbell , Crompton William , Stevens Norman , Ma Ivan , O’Loughlin John , Sutton Peter , Whitten Matt
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the co-design process undertaken during a men’s suicide prevention research project in Sydney, Australia. The chapter conveys the perspectives of 11 of the 16 men with lived experience of suicide attempts (Lived Experience Advisors) who worked with academics and other professionals to develop ideas for strategies intended to reach men at risk of suicide who do not have contact with mental health services – those who ‘fly under the radar’. The Lived Experience Advisors (including four who chose to remain anonymous) felt that the co-design process failed to consider pivotal issues related to their lived experiences. Along with thoughts on their individual experiences of the project, they share individual creative reflections on their suicidal ideation and on other reasons why they fall ‘under the radar’.
Co-researching with persons with disabilities: reflections and lessons learned
Authors: Kusumowardoyo Chrysant Lily , Wulansari Husna Yuni , Songgoua Irmansyah , Katapi Elias , Zainab  , Ali Hadu Yassin
Published: October 2024

Research on disability issues should be done with or by Persons with Disabilities as experts with lived experience. As such, a collaboration that uses participatory methods is significant to ensure Persons with Disabilities can meaningfully participate in research co-production. This chapter shares reflections and takeaways of co-researching with Persons with Disabilities as co-researchers in Indonesia in a post-disaster context through dialogue. The authors met via videoconferencing and had collaborative conversations to reflect on co-researching processes, including expectations, successes, challenges, impacts of co-research, and the learning from using participatory methods. The authors write with six individual voices to emphasise different positionalities and experiences. By using a dialogical approach, the authors seek to demonstrate the dynamics of managing a participatory co-production of research, which entails some complexities in shared decision-making and power relations among collaborators from different backgrounds.
Combating colonially pathologised universalisation: a transwoman’s Indo-Australian lived experience
Authors: Ramaswamy Estelle Keerthana
Published: October 2024

This chapter narrates the lived experience of the author, a researcher who publicly identifies as a transwoman/transfemme or Thirunangai (Tamil equivalent of transwoman) from Chennai, India. Using an autoethnographic approach, the author acts against the universalisation and homogenisation of sexual and gender diversity and trans and gender diverse lived experience. Estelle first establishes her positionality as related to lived experience-led research and how such approaches can be decolonised and disrupted. Then, she talks about her experiences at different stages of her life and explains her reasons for wanting and choosing to become a researcher on sexual and gender diversity and trans and gender diverse people. Finally, Estelle shares her lived experience as a researcher. She takes a stand on research ethics and the current issues in relation to research on sexual and gender diversity and provides suggestions for researchers who may be interested in pursuing research on these topics.
Responding collaboratively to COVID-19 and our health needs across Pacific communities: CORE Pacific Collective
Authors: Ravulo Jioji , Afeaki Seini , Fruean Malaemie , Va’a Donina , Arona Maherau
Published: October 2024

This chapter reflects on the creation and implementation of the CORE Pacific Collective, a group of Pacific leaders from five Pacific initiatives working together to support a collaborative response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Pacific communities in New South Wales, Australia, were deemed a priority health group. Health services and local community groups were keen to create a rapid response to ensure co-morbidities including higher rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity did not negatively impact Pacific community members if they contracted COVID-19. This response was hampered by limited awareness on the severity of the virus and mistrust in the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines. The chapter explores intersecting themes of lived experience, including the role of Pasifika elders [[AQ: Elders?]], leaders and loved ones play in supporting the mobilisation of communities, and the commitment to nurturing vā (sacred spaces) with family and community through a whole-of-community and whole-of-government approach.
Human connection, community and love
Authors: Forrester Donald
Published: October 2024

The chapter starts by considering the idea that rights tend to individualise people rather than seeing them in connection. It is argued that because rights are closely tied to human needs, and humans need connection, that this is an artificial distinction. The point is illustrated in relation to social work practice, with support for family time, retaining connections and working with the wider network being examples of rights based work that moves beyond the individual. The chapter then turns to examine the nature of the relationship between workers and children and adults they work with. bell hooks idea of a love ethic is introduced and explored as a basis for rights focused social work through a case study
Humanist social work
Authors: Forrester Donald
Published: October 2024

Key theories to underpin rights focused practice are introduced in this second part of the Book. The first is the Humanist tradition. This is traced back through psychology into social work. The key features of a Humanist orientation, its historical antecedents and the challenges and opportunities it poses for contemporary social work practice are presented. It is argued that it is consistent with rights focused practice because it emerges from the same broad Enlightenment tradition as individual rights, but that it can result in a tendency to over individualise problems. This leads to the next chapter.
Rights beyond the individual and the family
Authors: Forrester Donald
Published: October 2024

This chapter emphasises the social in rights focused practice. It underscores the importance of social workers thinking beyond the individual. Ways of doing this are reviewed, including Family Group Conferences, Contextual Safeguarding and working to change policy. Conundrums about focusing on the individual or to change society are considered. It is argued that these conundrums, like so many in the book, can not be resolved. Instead, we need wise, thoughtful and caring social workers to wrestle with such dilemmas. Throughout the chapter provides examples of innovative changes championed by social workers actively putting the social into their work.
Visibility and foot patrol
Authors: O'Reilly Carina
Published: October 2024

This chapter critically assesses the public appetite for foot patrol against its effectivenesss at reducing crime and disorder and providing public reassurance. It then looks at other elements of ‘visibility’, such as the accessibility of officers to the communities they serve and their familiarity both to residents and with the local area. The chapter argues that the success of and public desire for police visibility is tied to the expressive nature of public confidence and its roots in a desire for tangible guardianship of local communities.
Social justice as tool and process in research: progressing insight into children’s right to participation through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Authors: O’Driscoll Breda , Kirwan Gloria
Published: October 2024

The need to develop knowledge on how children can participate in important decisions that affect their lives serves as the backdrop to this chapter. This chapter demonstrates how the adoption of a social justice lens can inform methodological and research design decisions in the context of social research regarding children’s participation in decisions that will affect their current and future life experiences. The chapter draws from the ‘Standing Tall with Children’ study (O’Driscoll, 2023) which investigated social workers’ views on children’s participation in decisions in the context of child protection and welfare investigations. The study revealed this area as overladen and interjected with strongly held views and highly charged emotions driven by feelings of protection, empathy, responsibility, fear and accountability. In this chapter, the authors chart how a research approach informed by a social justice perspective helped to elucidate and interpret the meanings and practices reported by the study participants.
From Poverty to Well-Being and Human Flourishing (Volume 1)
Authors: Boltvinik Julio
Published: October 2024

This book integrates my best texts on poverty conceptualisation/measurement over 35 years, presenting an innovative approach practically unknown in English. The core breakthrough is the holistic view that culminates in the Integrated Poverty Measurement Method (IPMM). The book provides the critique to support this approach, reflected in conceptual discussions and critical appraisals that constitute the Critique of the Political Economy of Poverty (CPEP), including systematised criticism of salient poverty measurement methods. I appropriated positive ideas from many authors and intertwined them with the concepts I developed to build the narrative, which becomes transparent in principles and good practices. Three distinctive features delineate. a) It includes free time (FT) – going beyond combined methods that include only income/consumption and unsatisfied basic needs (UBN) – thus broadening the range of phenomena considered, including domestic chores, caring, and leisure activities. b) It avoids dichotomic indicators by cardinalising ordinal variables, allowing the calculation of a synthetic final metric indicator and the more elaborated aggregate poverty measures (APM). Chapter 9 discusses existing APM, interprets them innovatively, shows the conceptual flaws of those that are sensitive to distribution among the poor, and proposes an APM that integrates social inequality. c) Regarding income, IPMM introduces innovations and calculates a specific poverty line for each household.
Principles and good practices of poverty conceptualisation
Authors: Boltvinik Julio
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the following principles of poverty conceptualisation. 1.Totality. Identifying active restrictions on needs (N) satisfaction requires accepting that it involves all N, satisfiers (S) and well-being sources (WBS). Corollary: poverty is inability to satisfy all N. This negates the Political Economy of Poverty (PEP), which only recognises material/survival N, goods and services (G&S), and only conventional economic resources/income. 2. Comparability of well-being (WB). WBS and S are not the right spaces to appraise WB. Indicators must be re-expressed in the objective WB (OWB) space. Apparent non-comparability between indicators derives from not having made explicit their common nature: being WB dimensions. Building OWB scales is this methodological principle’s main purpose. 3. Poverty, an entangled concept. If one believes that only research activities devoid of value judgements, are scientific, poverty study would not be scientific, as it compares observed conditions with norms/thresholds that are value judgements. Poverty is (according to Putnam) a gross ethical concept, a moral issue requiring taking reasoned moral arguments seriously. 4. Dignity in threshold setting. Dignity can be thwarted but not extinguished. I endorse Altimir’s statement that ‘the absolute norm that defines the irreducible core of [poverty] is born of our current notion of human dignity and the universality of human rights’ (Altimir, 1979, p 11). We should reject thresholds that violate dignity. 5. Poverty is part of the conceptual standard of living axis (SLA). Poverty studies must adopt the same OWB as the study of the standard of living. 6. Full normativity. Dimensions and thresholds must be normatively based. Using observed parameters as norms reflects rejecting principle 3, assuming an uncritical position and frequently acting in defence of the status quo.
Principles and good practices of poverty measurement
Authors: Boltvinik Julio
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the principle (Pr) of decreasing marginal objective well-being (OWB) and the Pr of the existence of a maximum OWB. OWB-scales require: 1) defining normative-thresholds and identifying maximum OWB; 2) normalising scales, equalising ranges, and setting normative thresholds at the same point (score 1); 3) applying these Pr above normative thresholds on the bases of satiation reality of most needs (N), and the fact that consumption (C) results from concurrent time (T) and goods and services (G&S): as T cannot be increased/accumulated, when G&S increase, effective C is limited by fixed T, which generates decreasing marginal OWB and maximum OWB. It goes on to discuss the Pr of minimum error (PME). Most researchers exclude non-income indicators or do not cardinalise them, assigning excluded indicators a zero weight: the largest-possible- error. Regarding the Pr of complete and replicable cardinalisation (PrCRC) /generalised dichotomisation (GD), usually, non-cardinal variables are dichotomised: the worst solution gets a 0 score; the normative solution scores 1; intermediate solutions are also given a 0 score although they deserve intermediate scores, resulting in a huge information loss and a violation of PME. In the Integrated Poverty Measurement Method (IPMM), PrCRC is applied, rescuing intermediate values and respecting PME. I developed PrCRC, which is an algorithm. Scores are cardinal, which allows calculation of all aggregate poverty measures (APM). PrCRC generates equidistant CCRD. PrCRC does not mean eliminating normative judgements; these are present in the ordering of solutions and in defining the true thresholds. Compared to dichotomisation, GD reduces measurement errors substantially. Finally, the chapter examines the Pr of symmetry. Truncated poverty lines (PL) which reflect only the cost of one or a few N, cannot be compared with total current income (Y); truncated PL should be compared with available Y to meet the N it includes. Comparing truncated PL with total household income (HHY), is the asymmetry error.
Aggregate poverty measures (APM)
Authors: Boltvinik Julio
Published: October 2024

First, I describe and innovatively interpret the most important APM and explain how to use them best. Next is a critique of APM sensitive to distribution among the poor, based on two questions: a) Why should the relevant inequality for an APM be the inequality among the poor excluding the non-poor? and b) Why should decreasing marginal well-being start from the very bottom, from the second soup spoon? Nutritional evidence is shown to prove that this assumption is false; in food intake there is a stage of increasing marginal well-being to food additions. Dasgupta has called this the high fixed cost of living. APM sensitive to distribution among the poor are thus demolished, and I propose two new APM sensitive to total social inequality. One focuses on the inequality between the poor and the non-poor, which follows the logic of Sen’s poverty index but instead of the Gini coefficient (G) among the poor introduces what I call the relative gap between the average achievement score (A) of the poor (AP) and that of the non-poor (AR): which is GPR = (AR − AP) / AR. The second replaces G among the poor by G among the whole population in Sen’s APM. Illustrative results for Mexico are presented.
Epilogue
Authors: Boltvinik Julio
Published: October 2024

Abstract and Keywords to be supplied.
Who are behavioural public policy experts and how are they organised globally?
Authors: Straßheim Holger
Published: October 2024

Behavioural public policy has spread internationally over recent years. Worldwide, expert units are translating insights from behavioural sciences into policy interventions. Yet, behavioural expert networks are a puzzling case. They seem to oscillate between two modes of collective action: as an epistemic community, they are based on the consensual belief that biases in behaviour pose a problem for policymaking. As an instrument constituency, they bring together a diversity of actors, unified not by consensual beliefs about problems but by practices of promoting behavioural instruments as solutions. Drawing on a review of literature, this chapter provides a systematic analysis of the relation between epistemic communities and instrument constituencies. It argues that there has been an ‘agency shift’ from one mode to the other. The implications are that experts should be aware of the fact that the instruments they are proposing might develop a political life of their own.
What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?
Authors: Lee Don S. , Park Soonae
Published: October 2024

The aim of this chapter is to explore the motivations of street-level bureaucrats when implementing change initiated by elected politicians. We analyse experimental data on more than 1,800 local civil servants from all 243 local governments in South Korea and find that street-level bureaucrats are more likely to implement change instigated by local elected politicians when their own policy positions are reflected in the reforms. Moreover, the degree to which street-level bureaucrats are likely to execute reforms instigated by local politicians is greater when bureaucrats perceive themselves as having more freedom to exercise discretion. These findings reveal a behavioural insight into the conditions in which bureaucrats are more likely to respond to change championed by elected politicians versus conditions where they are more likely to follow existing rules in the policy implementation process.
Abortion in Malaysia: challenges and necessity
Authors: Adibah Syarifatul
Published: October 2024

This chapter situates the positioning of abortion in Malaysia, a Muslim majority country, within a broader examination of women’s rights and health status in the country. Evidence is examined as to the accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion, and to related matters such as comprehensive sexuality education. In tracing the impact of colonial laws and the Islamic revivalism in the 1980s, the authors observe that, while the legal framework provides for abortion services, conservative interpretations of religious texts impede women the right to self-determination on the matter of pregnancy and abortion. The chapter examines the work by organisations such as Sisters in Islam and other non-governmental organisations in raising awareness and advocate on sexual reproductive health and rights issues in a highly regulated moral and religious-conscious society.
Abortion and faith in Latin America: an interfaith perspective
Authors: Roberto María de los Ángeles
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides an analysis of the alliances established between feminist movements, faith-based organisations, female pastors, and activists from Protestant and Pentecostal faith communities in Latin America and the Caribbean in favour of the decriminalisation and legalisation of abortion. It focuses on the period between 2018 and 2020, a phase that commenced with a public debate in the National Congress of Argentina and culminated when Law No. 27,610, Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law, was passed in Argentina on 30 December 2020. The chapter reflects on the influence the passing of this law has had in countries like Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. The success of feminist Christian grassroots movements, working alongside other feminisms, highlights the strength that Latin American feminist theology has acquired by making arguments in the face of the conservative reaction in the region. The premises of female theologians and feminist Bible scholars were shared on social networks, at conferences and in public debates. This chapter investigates the academic training of women in the area of theology in Latin America, its intersection with the field of feminist theology and its contribution to Latin American feminisms on the issue of abortion.
Deconstructing racialised and cultural otherisation with young people through pluralistic arts-based social work
Authors: Mikkonen Enni
Published: October 2024

In the Nordic context, young asylum seekers of colour are often presented as potential societal threats through racialised risk-based discourses, which contrasts with the anti-racist principles of social work. Nevertheless, social work has shortcomings in effectively addressing cultural and racial otherisation. This results in contributing to and maintaining White normativity as well as Eurocentric and colonial epistemologies in professional settings. This chapter discusses arts-based social work research with young people from asylum-seeking backgrounds. It combines theoretical perspectives from critical Whiteness studies, decolonial and Indigenous paradigms. The findings suggest arts-based entry points that integrate social and environmental aspects and centralise the knowledge, creativity, capabilities, and agency of youths. Ultimately, the chapter discusses ways to strengthen an anti-racist stance and advance epistemological pluralism in social work.
Transcultural mental health as the colonisation of racialised bodies: a personal insight
Authors: Dayib Fadumo , Clarke Kris
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the notion of transcultural psychiatry in Finland through an experiential lens through the personal observations of the first author, who describes her encounters navigating Whiteness and White supremacy structures as a racialised professional working in Finnish mental health services. It argues that transcultural mental health (also known as ethnopsychiatry) perpetuates colonialism by othering, incarcerating, controlling and medicalising racialised bodies that come into contact with these kinds of services. The chapter presents a brief overview of the historical development of ethnopsychiatry and transcultural mental health, and explores the effects of structural racism and microaggression when unleashed on racialised bodies and how that leads to epistemic injustice.
Intersectional knowledge practices in academia from marginal positions: testimonios from researchers of colour in Finland
Authors: KC Smarika , Osei Priscilla , Clarke Kris
Published: October 2024

This chapter is written as a collaboration between two doctoral students of colour and their White supervisor through the method of testimonio to broaden the perspective on who gets to participate in the conversations to enhance epistemic justice. It explores how emerging social work scholars of colour in the Finnish academy critically consider their own identities and the role of intersectionality in their research in relation to their research participants. The concepts of epistemic injustice and intersectionality are used to show how systemic silencing and exclusion rooted in the dominant power structures form the basis of ways of research, practice and knowledge production. Challenging the epistemic injustice and intersectional disadvantages that are pervasive in Finnish social work is key to decolonising social work knowledge and practice.
Introduction: Framing the Study
Authors: Ganapathy Narayanan
Published: October 2024

This chapter introduces the readers to the thesis of the book in the sense of how and why the Omega, a prison gang comprising Malay Muslims, was able to transform itself from a prison protection group into a transnational organized crime group in just over two decades. Positioning itself as a defender of Malay Muslim rights, the Omega gang was able to successfully marshal and capitalise on the disproportionate representation of Malay Muslims in prison leading to an expansion of the gang’s influence and membership base. The chapter also discusses the competing theoretical paradigms of structural functionalism and racial bias in an attempt to explain the problem of racial disparity in the criminal justice system, and sets out the reasons for settling for the former. Taking the Omega gang (and gangs in general) as an exemplar of the broader socioeconomic and political dynamics of a postcolonial society, the functionalist-structuralist perspective provides important context to understanding how the forces of colonization, its historical and structural impacts, as well as the effects of modernization and socioeconomic deprivation, taken together, have created an underclass of ethnic Malays. This introductory chapter also acquaints readers with the organization of the book.
Omega as Organized Crime?
Authors: Ganapathy Narayanan
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical, structural, cultural and institutional factors that have contributed to the rise of the Omega gang, a group distinct from traditional Chinese secret societies. While there are observable differences between the two, it is arguable that they also share some common characteristics, including their aspirations to function as organized criminal enterprises. By referencing Chinese secret societies, the chapter offers valuable analytical and empirical insights. This reference helps to highlight the motivations behind the formation of a powerful monoethnic gang among a segment of Malays. The established symbiotic relationships between Chinese secret societies and mainstream institutions provide a backdrop against which these motivations can be better understood. The chapter also emphasizes the significant role played by prisons in facilitating the formation of the Omega gang, particularly due to the over-representation of Malays within the penal system. Furthermore, the chapter critically examines the suitability of the term ‘organized crime’ when applied to the Omega gang.