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A growing stream of consumer research has examined the intersection of family dynamics, consumption practices and the marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to make sense of the complex nature of family for senior families (adult children and their elderly parents) who employ the use of elder care services and facilities.

This research analyses data gathered from in-depth interviews with adult siblings and their elderly parents through the lens of assemblage theory.

This paper advances a conceptulisation of the family as an evolving assemblage of components, including individual members; material possessions and home(s); shared values, goals, memories and practices; prominent familial attributes of love and care; and marketplace resources. Three features of the assemblage come to the fore in senior families: the fluid meaning of independence for the elderly parent, the evolution of shared family practices and the trajectory of the assemblage that is a function of its history and future.

This research focuses on a stage of family life that has been under-theorised; applies assemblage theory to the family collective, demonstrating that a family can be conceptualised as an ever-evolving assemblage of human and non-human components, and this is a useful lens for understanding how senior families “do” family; and argues for a broader notion of family – one that is not household-centric or focused on families with young children, that encompasses members and materiality and that foregrounds the dynamic, evolving nature of family life.

The prevalence of pregnancy discrimination is highlighted by the fact that pregnancy discrimination charges are the fastest‐growing type of discrimination complaints filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Inspite of a strong legal framework for the protection of women from pregnancy discrimination, it is extremely difficult to prove the cases in our court system. The role of women has changed in our society in the last 50 years. Women are increasingly complaining about pregnancy discrimination despite the fact that they form almost half of the workforce in the United States. There is a need for educating businesses and society at large so that we respect and support a woman’s right to fair treatment during her pregnancy.

Women are, in increasing numbers, participating in the labour market and are an important part of an organisation’s human resource pool. Nevertheless, women still face inappropriate treatment at work. One cause of this is family‐related issues. In particular, pregnancy and child birth present special challenges for working women. Discrimination towards pregnant women is commonplace in work settings. Problems are often related to individual work relationships, for example, the one between the pregnant follower and her manager. It is important to understand problems that impact on women in working life that can disturb their job satisfaction, their performance and willingness to give their best for the organisation. Therefore, for the benefit of both employer and employee, existing practices in leader follower relationships during pregnancy are worth studying in more depth. In leadership studies, the Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) theory is focused on dyadic leader‐follower relationships and is thus used here to understand this phenomenon. In the present article, the literature on pregnancy and work as well as on LMX is re viewed. On the basis of these reviews, a future research agenda is offered.

This chapter uncovers the destabilizing and transformative dimensions of a legal process commonly described as assimilation. Lawyers working on behalf of a marginalized group often argue that the group merits inclusion in dominant institutions, and they do so by casting the group as like the majority. Scholars have criticized claims of this kind for affirming the status quo and muting significant differences of the excluded group. Yet, this chapter shows how these claims may also disrupt the status quo, transform dominant institutions, and convert distinctive features of the excluded group into more widely shared legal norms. This dynamic is observed in the context of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, and specifically through attention to three phases of LGBT advocacy: (1) claims to parental recognition of unmarried same-sex parents, (2) claims to marriage, and (3) claims regarding the consequences of marriage for same-sex parents. The analysis shows how claims that appeared assimilationist – demanding inclusion in marriage and parenthood by arguing that same-sex couples are similarly situated to their different-sex counterparts – subtly challenged and reshaped legal norms governing parenthood, including marital parenthood. While this chapter focuses on LGBT claims, it uncovers a dynamic that may exist in other settings.

Sets out the US laws that give women protection from discrimination when pregnant. Defines the scope of pregnancy disability and outlines the responsibilities that employers have under the law. Focuses on pregnancy regulations in California, describing the provisions made for pregnancy leave, the medical certification needed, the right to reinstatement, the employer’s right to transfer a pregnant employee, and the pregnant employee’s right to transfer. Sets down the policy developed by UCLA concerning pregnancy discrimination. Briefly outlines the evidence a woman would need to show to win a case of discrimination because of pregnancy.

This chapter considers the mobilities of families subject to child protection involvement at the threshold of the birth of a new baby. The author presents data arising from an ethnographic study of child protection social work with unborn babies. This study aimed to draw near to social work practice within the Scottish context through mobile research methods and included non-participant observations of a range of child protection meetings with expectant families. Research interviews were sought with expectant mothers and fathers, social workers and the chair persons of Pre-birth Child Protection Case Conferences. Case conferences are formal administrative meetings designed to consider the risks to children, including unborn children. This chapter focusses on the experiences of expectant parents of navigating the child protection involvement with their as yet unborn infant. The strategies that parents adopted to steer a course through the multiple possibilities in relation to the future care of their infant are explored here. Three major strategies: resistance, defeatism and holding on are considered. These emerged as means by which expectant parents responded to social work involvement and which enabled their continued forwards motion towards an uncertain future.

This chapter is a qualitative study on how an Early Childhood Educator Professional Development grant impacted early childhood educators and their literacy practices. This chapter also discusses how the grant impacted the researcher who was also an instructional specialist working with the educators as part of the professional development.

The professional development changed practitioners’ literacy practices by encouraging them to improve children's access to books, to increase read alouds, to change literacy activities and to improve access to writing materials. These changes were also reflected in the experiences of the instructional specialist who also altered her own life.

Purpose – The purpose of this work is to explore ways in which parents of children with disabilities actively seek to create a place for themselves and their children within supportive communities of others – despite structural and attitudinal barriers.

Methodology – Semi-structured, interactive interviews were conducted with six mothers and six fathers of older teens and young adults with severe impairments. Interview transcripts were analyzed for themes related to barriers to social participation and strategies used to create and sustain communities of supportive others.

Findings – Results suggest that, while there are indeed many barriers to social participation, these mothers and fathers have successfully utilized a variety of strategies in order to create a sense of community for themselves and their children including: garnering support from family; creating enclaves of “wise” individuals; and active social networking. Findings also suggest that children with disabilities can provide opportunities for parental community involvement in unexpected ways.

Limitations, implications and value – The sample is small and selective and the study used retrospective interviews to examine parental memories. Despite these limitations, the narratives of these parents provide a provocative look at the potential role of personal agency in the community experiences of parents of children with disabilities. The stories told by these parents clearly suggest that it takes concerted effort to construct a village in the face of significant barriers to social participation. Once created, however, that village of supportive others can provide life enhancing support for children with disabilities and their families.

This paper examines the accounts of three women, taken from the general population, who will not seek help for their alcohol problems. The narrative construction of their drinking forms a bricolage from the babble of discourses around alcohol that they encounter in their everyday lives. Much of the literature on alcohol & alcohol problems is written from the point of view of subjective experience mapped onto an objective definition which may show that they are not offering a true account of themselves, that they are in denial, or that they are displacing their (real) problem with alcohol onto something else. In this scenario, a cure can only be effected by first making the women understand, & then admit, what their real problem is. It is suggested that the reason these women, & possibly others, do not seek help is precisely because they fear that their own stories will be denied as untrue & that in this process, their own identities & personal accounts will be lost. In the confusion & difficulty they experience in defining the problem, they need an open space where they can explore their drinking & increase their knowledge from the many knowledges available, but free from the constraints & risks that they feel access to these knowledges would inevitably involve.

This research investigates the changes in the types of advertised food products and the use of nutritional versus consumer appeals in children’s advertising from 2000 to 2005.

Content Analysis.

Results indicate that food processors and restaurants have not changed their advertising messages to children in response to the multitude of pressures the industry is facing. Specifically, this pre‐post longitudinal comparison shows no significant change regarding types of food products advertised and type of appeals used in the ads directed to children.

Limitations include the sample studied. While the ads recorded all came from television programming aimed specifically at children, there was no specification or ability to classify the consumers according to the age of the viewer. Additionally, duplicate exposures of the ads were not included in the study.

Obesity is a serious and expanding concern for our children’s health. As past advertising research and socialization theory suggest, children’s exposure to advertising has impact. It is important to monitor changes in food advertising to children in the future to ascertain whether and to what extent food companies are able to change both what they advertise and the appeals they use to gain consumers’, in this case, children’s attention.

This study provides a useful baseline (prior to 2001) and benchmark (post 2001) to longitudinally examine the food product and appeal usage in food advertising directed to children. This will be useful information for advertisers, for parents, for regulators and for special interest groups, all of whom have a common goal – healthy kids.