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11 – 20 of 131The purpose of this paper is to present the unreported phenomenon of migrants with sight loss who experience unsupportive behaviour and attitudes from their own ethnic community…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the unreported phenomenon of migrants with sight loss who experience unsupportive behaviour and attitudes from their own ethnic community due to their disability. In presenting specific case studies from a wider PhD study which investigated the previously undocumented experiences of migrants with sight loss in Ireland, the intention is to raise awareness among service providers of the additional vulnerability of this minority group.
Design/methodology/approach
Migrants representing diverse ethnicities (Angolan, Algerian Nigerian, Zambian, Polish, Czech Republic, Malaysia Bangladeshi) described their experiences accessing disability services Ireland and discussed comparative attitudes towards disability in their home and host country. Service providers from the national organization working with people with sight loss were interviewed to gain an understanding of their attitudes and views on access and provision for migrants. By adopting a qualitative method following a constructivist grounded theory approach, migrants' own perceptions, beliefs, views and experiences of the sensitive subject of adjusting to sight loss while away from home were prioritised. Analysis of data was facilitated through qualitative software Atlas.ti and three core interrelated categories emerged most prominently: cultural perceptions of disability; support networks; and cultural barriers. The focus for this paper draws most significantly from the second category, support networks, most specifically the impact of absence or withdrawal of support for the migrant at the most vulnerable time of sight loss away from home.
Findings
From grounded theory data analysis, three core interrelated categories emerged most prominently. They are: cultural perceptions of disability; support networks; and cultural barriers. This paper focuses most directly from findings related to support networks specifically highlighting two migrant case studies to report the impact of absence or withdrawal of support for migrant at the most vulnerable time of sight loss away from home. Service providers interviewed report inadequate information about migrants with sight loss. Evidence of stigma related to cultural perception of disability in the home community as trigger for discrimination from migrant's own network is reported by service providers. Findings are examined within an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, combining intercultural studies theories with disability models to facilitate a holistic understanding of the migrants' experience.
Practical implications
The challenge of coping with disability for a migrant whose ethnic community network is absent, or withdraws its support owing to an individual's disability, have implications for alerting service providers to increased vulnerability of migrant service users. Consequently, this study has implications for programs and policies and can inform the development of culturally sensitive and appropriate services.
Social implications
This study raises awareness of the compounded challenge for migrants with sight loss who are unsupported by their own ethnic group while living in a host country.
Originality/value
This study reveals the previously unreported case of migrants who experience unsupportive behaviour from their own ethnic community following acquired disability. Evidence from migrants and their service providers demonstrates the impact of cultural perceptions of disability to influence the level of ethnic community support offered.
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Beatrice Godwin and Fiona Poland
The purpose of this paper is to examine the self-experience of people with moderate to advanced dementia. While people with dementia are widely assumed to lose their sense of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the self-experience of people with moderate to advanced dementia. While people with dementia are widely assumed to lose their sense of self, emotions are preserved long into dementia and some can still discuss their lives, enabling exploration of respondents’ own self-conceptualisation of experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Ten people, purposively sampled, living in long-term residential or nursing care. A mixed methods design with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach used semi-structured empathetic interviews to explore their experience and continuing goals, using supplementary information from family and others to contextualise core data. Data analysis identified emerging themes and superordinate concepts.
Findings
Sustained well-being and resistant ill-being emerged as major themes. Findings demonstrated continuity in sense of self, moral awareness and diversity of emotional reactions to living with dementia, associated with their emotional capital.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was small and limited to well- and moderately funded care homes. How to provide such support in less-well-funded homes needs further research as do reasons for resistant ill-being in advanced dementia.
Practical implications
Findings suggest care provision for people with advanced dementia which acknowledges individual feelings may support their sustained well-being. Psychological assessments should take closer account of multiple factors in individuals’ situations, including their emotional capital.
Social implications
Findings suggest everyday care of people with advanced dementia, may sustain their sense of self, well-being and emotional capital.
Originality/value
By empathically facilitating in-depth expression of individuals’ feelings and views, this research illuminates the personal self-experience of advanced dementia, hitherto little explored.
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Deirdre Horgan, Shirley Martin and Catherine Forde
This chapter draws on data from a qualitative study examining the extent to which children and young people age 7 to 17 are able to participate and influence matters affecting…
Abstract
This chapter draws on data from a qualitative study examining the extent to which children and young people age 7 to 17 are able to participate and influence matters affecting them in their home, school, and community. It was commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in Ireland to inform the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015–2020. Utilising Lundy’s (2007) conceptualisation of Article 12 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Leonard’s (2016) concept of generagency, this chapter will examine children and young people’s everyday lives and relationships within the home and family in the context of agency and structure.
In the study, home was experienced by children generally as the setting most facilitative of their voice and participation in their everyday lives reflecting research findings that children are more likely to have their initiative and ideas encouraged in the family than in school or their wider communities (Mayall, 1994). Key areas of decision-making included everyday consumption activities such as food, clothes, and pocket money as well as temporal activities including bed-time, leisure, and friends. This concurs with Bjerke (2011) that consumption of various forms is a major field of children’s participation. Positive experiences of participation reported by children and young people involved facilitation by adults whom they respected and with whom they had some rapport. This locates children as relational beings, embedded in multiple overlapping intergenerational processes and highlights the interdependency between children’s participation and their environment (Leonard, 2016; Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010).
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Deirdre E. McGhee and Julie R. Steele
The purpose of this paper is to measure the breast volume of a large sample of women and their corresponding correctly fitted bra size, in order to demonstrate the range of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to measure the breast volume of a large sample of women and their corresponding correctly fitted bra size, in order to demonstrate the range of volumes within each size and the variation amongst different bra sizes.
Design/methodology/approach
Breast volume of 104 women was measured via water displacement and was compared to their professionally fitted bra size, in the one style and brand of bra.
Findings
The mean breast volume of the left and right breast was 642 and 643 ml, ranging from 125 (size 10A) to 1,900 ml (size 24DD). The average professionally fitted bra band size was 12 (range size 10‐24; Australian sizing) and cup size was DD (range A‐G). A range of breast volumes was found to correspond to the same bra size and the volume of any one cup size was not homogenous amongst different band sizes.
Practical implications
Appreciating the range of breast volumes that correspond to each bra size is important in terms of both bra structure and design in order to provide adequate breast support. The large variation in cup volumes associated with different band sizes suggests women should not consider themselves to be an isolated cup size, but rather a combination of a band and cup size.
Originality/value
This is the first study to publish normative breast volume data, and the corresponding correctly fitted bra sizes, for a large sample of women. This is important information for bra design and to assist women achieve correct bra fit and support.
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It's not enough to simply acquire alternative and small‐press materials. They must also be made easily accessible to library users by means of accurate, intelligible, and thorough…
The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes to employment law and the consequent impact of legislation on Irish employment relations practice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes to employment law and the consequent impact of legislation on Irish employment relations practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a comparative approach using two separate pieces of employment law governing race equality, and employee information and consultation, respectively. Semi‐structured interviews with key informants are the main data source, augmented in the case of the information and consultation legislation by focus groups in individual workplaces.
Findings
The empirical evidence presented suggests that legislation is not the primary initiator of change. In the case of race equality the market was found to be a key determinant of practice (termed “market‐prompted voluntarism”). However, it is argued that regulation can influence change in organisations, depending on the complex dynamic between a number of contingencies, including the aspect of employment being regulated, the presence of supportive institutions, and organisation‐specific variables.
Practical implications
The comparative findings in this research allow some important inferences to be made regarding the use of law to mandate change in employment relations practice. They, in turn, provide useful lessons for future policy makers, managers, trade unionists and workers.
Originality/value
This paper is unique in its comparison of two separate pieces of legislation. In both cases considered, the legislation was prompted by EU Directives, and the obligation on member states to transpose these Directives into national law. The findings suggest that readiness for legislation, based on length of national debate and acceptance of the underlying concept, can influence its impact. The concept of equality seems to have gained widespread acceptance since the debate provoked by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, understanding and acceptance of the concept of employee voice has been much less pronounced in the Anglo‐Saxon world.
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