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The paper articulates common organizing narratives which recur within alternative movements in law, and posits the art of dispute resolution as an experimental reconstructive methodology for engaging conflicts, while incorporating a critique of classical liberal thought. The paper offers a reading of conflict resolution approaches, including Alternative Dispute Resolution; Therapeutic Jurisprudence; Restorative Justice, and Transitional Justice, in search of a new legal culture or jurisprudence which emerges from the following narratives: emphasis on process; emphasis on constructive conflict intervention; deconstruction and hybridization; a search for an underlying layer; emphasis on relationship and acknowledgment of emotions; community work and bottom-up development.

The purpose of this paper is to detail the impact and efficacy of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service ((HMPPS) Therapeutic Communities (TCs) (both democratic and hierarchical). This paper outlines recent developments in the TC literature, to provide readers with an up-to-date overview of the outcomes of prison-based TC treatment, while highlighting the strengths and challenges of this treatment approach. Trends within the research are discussed, and the authors draw attention to any gaps in the current knowledge.

This paper uses a narrative literature review approach to review the most current literature around the effectiveness of prison-based TCs in HMPPS. Academic literature published predominantly from 2010 onwards is discussed because of limited literature review publications on this topic post-2010. To obtain literature, searches of relevant databases were conducted, and/or clinical leads at prison sites were contacted for relevant publications.

There is a body of research which demonstrates that TCs are an effective form of treatment for people with an offending history and personality difficulties. Evidence indicates that Democratic TC treatment plays a part in reducing reoffending rates, as well as improving psychological features. Further research is needed in a number of areas, specifically with female offenders and individuals who undertake treatment in hierarchical TCs in the UK. It is also suggested that TC treatment aftercare may help to further the positive outcomes identified.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no up-to-date review of the impact and efficacy of HMPPS TC treatment. This paper reflects on available research within the current context of TC treatment and provides an original overview of the current UK TC practice. It has value in recommending areas for further research and consideration.

The purpose of this current study is to follow the development of preservice kindergarten teachers during the practicum phase of their teacher education studies in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and following the first period of lockdown.

The sample included 38 preservice kindergarten teachers in their third and final year of studies who worked in kindergartens as student teachers. Data were collected using reflective journals written by the participants during their studies, after returning to work following the first lockdown. The author analyzed the data using the life-story narrative method.

The analysis identified four different types of early education preservice teachers based on their ability to cope with the shift in work conditions. The discussion offers insight into participants’ ability to effectively implement the professional tools they had acquired in the program and during the practicum.

Limitations include reliance on data from reflective journals, which may be missing details that would have been collected face-to-face. The study has important implications for the functioning of kindergarten teachers in times of crisis, which should be taken into account in the design of the teachers’ training programs.

The effect of the pandemic on the quality of the preservice kindergarten teachers’ training process, and its implications for functioning in other types of crises are discussed.

The Mental Health Recovery Star (MHRS) has received focus at a national policy level in consideration of outcome measurement within mental health services. The purpose of this paper is to seek the views of mental health professionals about its use within clinical practice.

The paper employed a qualitative, exploratory design to interview 12 participants. Thematic analysis was used.

Four main themes were identified: “the utility of the Recovery Star”; “not for everybody”; “service user involvement”; and “the status of the Recovery Star within the Trust”. A range of factors was found to influence participants’ use of the tool with service users.

The paper involved a small number of participants due to a low response rate. Future research could include larger studies and more detailed exploration of factors identified as limiting the use of the MHRS.

The MHRS is a potentially useful tool but its limitations and the influence of organisational context must be considered as part of any plan to systematically implement its use within services.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of the views of mental health professionals about the MHRS. As it is professionals who are likely to determine whether and how the tool is used, the paper is seen as a valuable initial investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of “resilience” by disentangling the contentious interactions of various parameters that define and guide resilience trajectories, such as the physical infrastructure, socio-spatial inequalities, path dependencies, power relationships, competing discourses and human agency. This socio-political reconstruction of “resilience” is needed for two reasons: the concept of resilience becomes more responsive to the complex realities on the ground, and the discussion moves toward the promotion of more dynamic recovery governance models that can promote socially just allocated redundancy in housing actions, which could be seen as a key to incubating resilience.

This is a conceptual paper that mobilizes theories of urban political ecology, social innovation and housing with the aim to examine the tensions between various discourses that steer housing production during post-disaster recovery processes, and put a spotlight on the heterogeneity in the transformative capacity of the various actors, institutions and visions of housing systems that preexist or emerge in the post-disaster city. This heterogeneity of actors (i.e. growth coalitions, neighborhood associations and housing cooperatives) consequently leads the discussion toward the investigation of “new” roles of the state in formulating relevant disaster governance models and housing (re)construction systems.

The initial stress produced by a natural event is often extended because of long-term unmet housing needs. The repercussion of this prolonged stress is a loss of social progress partly due to the reiterated oppression of alternative housing production propositions. In this paper, the authors conclude that an asset-based community development approach to recovery can provide an antidote to the vicious cycles of social stress by opening up diverse housing options. This means that the recovery destiny is not predetermined according to pre-set ideas but is molded by the various bottom-up dynamics that democratically sketch the final socially desirable reconstruction outcome(s).

The contribution of this paper is twofold. By using theoretical insights from urban political ecology, housing studies and social innovation, the paper first builds up onto the current reconstruction of the notion of disaster resilience. Second, by identifying a heterogeneity of “social resilience cells”, the paper leads the discussion toward the investigation of the “new” role of the state in formulating relevant recovery governance models. In this respect, the paper builds a narrative of social justice in terms of the redistribution of resources and the cultivation of empowerment across the various housing providers who struggle for their right to the reconstruction experiment.

While web logs often are taken to be “Internet diaries,” unlike diaries that are private and serve only the needs of their authors, public blogs serve as a technological tool, allowing for the formation of Internet communities and challenges to institutional and/or cultural narratives.

I analyzed narratives constructed in two years of blog posts for each of five individuals with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). I sought to understand the relationship between personal stories of contested illness and broader illness narratives.

My findings suggest these personal illness stories operate within the artificial confines of the dominant models of a given society. Blogs are used not only as a chronicle of day-to-day happenings, but as a means of engaging with traditional illness narratives, challenging cultural narratives about CFS, and of resisting institutional narratives concerning the illness process.

This study brings voices of people with contested illnesses into the discourse on disability, where their perspectives have historically been poorly represented. The study also suggests that blogs can become sites of resistance and social change by providing a space in which counternarratives can be constructed and circulated.

This paper aims at revealing the process of identity reconstruction for individuals who have acquired sensory disabilities, as well as the contribution of consumption to this process.

The data was collected through both interviews conducted in France and autobiographical accounts.

When disability occurs, individuals go through a rite of passage that shapes their identity reconstruction process. Two forms of liminality appear: acute and sustained liminality. These phases can foster or hamper individuals’ identity reconstruction.

The mechanisms leading from one stage of the identity reconstruction process to another should be deepened through further research.

Given the fluctuating behaviors of consumers with disabilities, especially in view of their identity reconstruction process, this research encourages retailers and public policy actors not to consider them as a homogeneous consumer segment.

While scholars dealing with consumers with disabilities have mainly focused on the accessibility of the marketplace, this research disentangles their identity issues.

This paper aims to detail how consumers can harness the power of brands to reconstruct their lives.

The authors followed five brand devotees over several years, using various data collection methods (long interviews, observations, videos, photographs and secondary data) to study how they reconstructed their lives with a brand.

Consumers transform their existence through a distinctive form of brand appropriation that the authors call brand magnification, which unfolds: materially, narratively and socially. First, brand devotees scatter brand incarnations around themselves to remain in touch with the brand because the brand has become an especially positive dimension of their lives. Second, brand devotees mobilize the brand to craft a completely new life story. Finally, they build a branded clan of family and friends that socially validates their reconstructed identity.

The research extends more muted depictions of brands as soothing balms calming consumer anxieties; the authors document the mechanism through which consumers remake their lives with a brand.

The research helps rehabilitate the role of brands in contemporary consumer culture. Organizations can use the findings to help stimulate and engage employees by unveiling the brand’s life-transforming potential for consumers.

The authors characterize a distinctive, extreme and unique form of brand appropriation that positively transforms consumer lives.

The purpose of this paper is to proffer a reconstructed theoretic model of entrepreneurial generatively that accounts for personal and social identities in the narrative construction of entrepreneurial identity..

The authors followed general analytically structured history processes using the life of Andrew Carnegie to understand how generativity scripts aid in aligning personal and social identities in the formation of entrepreneurial identity.

The authors argue that Carnegie used entrepreneurial generativity as a form of redemptive identity capital during the narrative reconstruction of his entrepreneurial identity.

This paper extends Harvey et al.’s (2011) model of entrepreneurial philanthropy motivation by including forms of self-capital (psychological capital and self-identity capital) as part of the co-construction of entrepreneurial identity and proposing a reconstructed capital theoretic model of entrepreneurial generativity.

In the context of desistance, employment has been described as a contributing factor in the formation of a non-offending identity. This study aims to examine the lived experiences of adult male ex-offenders who had served a custodial sentence in the UK, to explore the potential influence of employment as a desistance-promoting factor in the construction of a new, non-offending identity.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to eight semi-structured interview transcripts, up to 12 months after release from prison, from which five themes emerged.

Findings showed that lawful income through employment is associated with a shift in the values and goals of former prisoners, but only after transformation from an offending identity into a pro-desistance identity had taken place. The early days of prison, soon after induction, were reported as critical to catalyzing identity reconstruction. Once committed to a non-offending identity, desistance was then consolidated by employment and external support.

External support soon after arrival at prison may be useful in helping offenders to develop a non-offending identity. Professionals within the prison service could initiate identity reconstruction strategies in the days immediately following arrival at prison. This was shown to be a potential key phase of reflection for offenders, which could result in life-changing identity reconstruction.

The findings challenge previous research, which suggests that identity change occurs on release from prison or after sourcing regular employment. The application of identity reconstruction strategies, immediately following arrival at prison, might provide a useful approach when supporting the development of a non-offending identity among adult men serving a custodial sentence.