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The paper aims to assess the effects of taxes and benefits on inequality and poverty in five African countries: Ghana, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

The authors use newly developed micro-simulation models to analyse the distribution and composition of incomes.

The study's results suggest that income-based measures result in higher levels of poverty and inequality than consumption-based measures. The country with the most effective system in terms of reducing income inequality and poverty is South Africa; in Ghana, the tax-benefit system was found to have the smallest impact on inequality. The systems of Uganda, Mozambique and Zambia were estimated to have no poverty-reducing properties; many individuals remain largely unaffected by them as they are too poor to pay direct taxes, and benefits are very modest and narrowly targeted.

While consumption data are crucial for measuring poverty, income data are becoming vital for assessing the extent to which tax-benefit policies achieve redistribution in economies where own-consumption is becoming less significant and the share of people in employment is increasing. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study where poverty and inequality are measured in both terms, for several African countries in a common framework.

Influential social and recovery models, de‐emphasising mental illness understandings, form key mandates for mental health education today. This paper, however, aims to question how responsive these perspectives may be to service users, and seeks to review the value of mental illness concepts to social model approaches.

In the context of recovery model concerns with the associations of mental illness notions to stigma and disempowerment, the paper first reviews research concerning service users' experiences of mental illness. It then investigates the roots of mental illness stigma, tracing these back to socio‐historical discourses predating mental illness concepts. Against this background, the evolution of mental illness theories and their value to service users is appraised.

The paper finds that mental illness experiences, linked to experiences of social inequalities, can devastate and form major barriers to recovery approaches; however, the finding that mental illness stigma connects to discourses predating mental illness concepts suggests that the value of the latter can potentially be considered afresh. Against this background, the paper draws out the significance of historical theories of mental illness and contemporary developments, for the promotion of service users' rights and recovery.

The findings have implications for the development of social approaches in mental health education which embrace mental illness alongside social understandings which are just as important in recovery.

The paper advances recognition of mental illness stigma and mental illness concepts as distinct in their origins, and in this context reviews the significance of mental illness experiences and theories for service users and mental health education.

‘Active ageing’ was once a term associated mainly with a physically active, even sporty, retirement. In recent years, economic and demographic circumstances, together with employment trends, have given it another important meaning. This is the prolonging of work, whether paid or in useful unpaid roles such as grandparenting or community‐based activity. This conception of ageing is not just about people keeping moving to keep healthy, but about continuing to make clear economic and social contributions.

This chapter investigates how we have come to know what we know, in the United States, about the terms “ability” and “disability” through the story of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy. What is the narrative of Helen Keller as told through children’s literature? How might the ways in which her life is presented contribute to stereotypes of what it means to be disabled? What, if any, are the ways in which authors of these books resist writing about her as someone who “overcame” her disabilities? How is Helen Keller’s relationship with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, portrayed and what might this representation contribute to the concepts of dependence and interdependence?

This project provides a sociological analysis of common themes through a content analysis of 20 children’s books on Helen Keller.

The theme of the widely circulating “story of the water pump moment” (when Keller realizes that hand movements signify language) depicts a one-sided relationship of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy. This informs the narrative representations of Anne Sullivan Macy as “miracle worker” and Helen Keller as “miracle child.” Another theme is the “complexities of resistance,” which shows how these narratives uphold the stereotype that Helen Keller needed to “overcome” her disabilities while also resisting this notion and showing how she also helped Anne Sullivan Macy.

This demonstrates how widely circulating stories such as those about Helen Keller shape what we know about what it means to be abled or disabled, challenges simplistic binary understandings of the disability experience, and points to the power of narratives to shape systems of beliefs.

State and national initiatives provide teachers opportunities for interdisciplinary units with increased significance of non-fiction in English Language Arts and decreased reliance on the textbook in history and social studies. In these three disciplines, beginning in elementary school, students are expected to scrutinize multiple trade books of the same event, era, or person to construct understandings. Trade books are a logical curricular link between these three curricula. The initiatives, however, do not prescribe specific curricular materials; teachers rely on their own discretion when selecting available trade books. Historical misrepresentations have been found to emerge within trade books to varying degrees, yet only a few empirical studies have been conducted. We empirically evaluated trade books centered on the Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller’s teacher. Celebrated as the Miracle Worker, she remains a relatively obscure figure. As a child, Macy faced the desertion or death of every family member and struggled to overcome poverty and isolation. Macy’s story, thus, complements Keller’s in consequential ways. We report various historical misrepresentations within the trade books and provide ancillary primary sources for teachers interested in addressing the historical omissions.

In this chapter, we consider how the character of Rob Titchener has been developed in The Archers, moving him from hero of the hour to villain of the piece. We draw on a critical disability studies’ perspective to argue that ability and disability have been crucial in turning the character of Rob from the desirable and attractive man who first arrived in the village into a national hate figure, despised by all. We begin this analysis by introducing critical disability studies and studies of ableism as fields of academic inquiry. We then draw on these resources to offer an analysis of the ways in which ability and disability were used as a narrative device to develop Rob’s character. We question the ways in which ability and disability are used to denote ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in the development of characters in cultural texts like The Archers, and end with a plea to scriptwriters to engage differently with dis/ability and to consider the impact of the stories we tell on the everyday lives of disabled people.

MELVYN BARNES, Borough Librarian & Arts Officer of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (London), was asked to prepare a report for his libraries committee on the possibility of selling withdrawn library books to the public—that rumbling bandwagon which inevitably looks attractive to local authorities in hard times.

This paper seeks to evaluate the particular conditions informing locational decision making and related network planning in the charity retail sector. Its purpose is to identify both differences and commonalities with related debates that have been focussed very largely on the grocery sector and the superstore format. Its wider purpose is to contribute to the growing literature on charity retailing which has not considered this aspect of retail management in detail.

Details the particularities of charity retailing locational decision making and network planning through a detailed case‐study consideration of a hospice charity's emerging retail store network.

Finds that existing conceptual and practical considerations pertaining to locational decision making in retailing require a nuanced re‐revaluation in relation to the locational and network planning of charity retailers. Identifies the importance of supply chain (stock donators) and workforce factors together with the customer demand in informing locational decision making.

Detailed academic consideration of location planning in the charity shop sector is absent in the literature. The paper addresses this.