Sociology - Journal Articles

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    The disrupted sociologies of young people with harmful sexual behaviours
    (Taylor & Francis, 2019-05-06) Balfe, Myles; Hackett, Simon; Masson, Helen; Phillips, Josephine; Economic and Social Research Council
    Few studies, particularly few qualitative studies, have focused on the family and social contexts of young people with harmful sexual behaviours. This article, therefore, seeks to provide insight into the more detailed, lived experience of this group of young people. The article involved a thematic analysis of 117 cases, identified from nine services that work with children with sexual behaviour problems. While a number of young people were from stable backgrounds, others were from highly disrupted sociological situations characterised by chaotic families, erratic living situations, poor family relationships, unstable parental backgrounds, generalised neglect and abuse, sexual abuse and school/social problems. Many of these young people's lives appear to be characterised by varying degrees of liminality and chaos. Such chaos may not only be traumatic, it may potentially be traumagenic, and contribute to the emergence of sexual behaviour problems in some young people.
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    Experiences of young people with harmful sexual behaviors in services: A qualitative study
    (Taylor & Francis, 2019-03-06) Balfe, Myles; Hackett, Simon; Masson, Helen; Phillips, Josie; Economic and Social Research Council
    Young people are responsible for a significant number of the sexual offenses that are committed every year. These young people are generally referred to specialist services for treatment. This article explores the health characteristics and service experiences of 117 young people with sexual behavior problems, and the issues that services face when working with them. The study is based on analysis of 117 case files, identified from nine specialist services in the UK. The case files were thematically analyzed. Case files provided information on the following topics: the reasons why the young people were referred to harmful sexual behavior services; the young people’s personal characteristics; their medical and mental health problems; the young people’s interests and aspirations; their attitudes toward services and interventions; continued problematic sexual incidents in services; progress in services; and post-service experiences. Overall, the findings of the study indicate that these young people have a number of strengths, but often have problems across a range of personal and health domains. A number of them continue to remain sexually and generally violent in services, particularly in residential settings, which has risk management implications for staff.
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    A tale of three transitions: a year in the life of electricity systems transformation narratives in the Irish media
    (BMC. Part of Springer Nature, 2016-01-29) Mullally, Gerard; Byrne, Edmond P.
    Background: This paper focuses on discourses of transition in the electricity system in the Irish print media, with particular attention to both the framing and the scalar referents of the debate. We characterise some of the key contextual drivers for system transformation and suggest that too sharp a distinction between existing electricity infrastructure and systems of the future forecloses the possibility of social learning. Our central question research question is: What lessons can emergent techno-optimistic solutions to electricity system transitions learn from contemporary infrastructure controversies? Using a reconstruction based on print media coverage over a 12-month period in Ireland, we present three contrasting short stories to suggest that there are some commonalities that might provide cues and clues for promoting solutions for transitions to a low-carbon economy and society. Methods: We divide our methods section into a discussion of theory and methods. In the theory part, we explore the literatures on sustainable electricity transitions, critical infrastructures and social acceptability of energy solutions. In the methods part, we begin from the assertion that storylines help constitute reality allowing constellations of actors to coalesce around certain narratives. We outline the methodological approach to the reconstruction of mediated narratives based on three short stories of electricity system transformations in Ireland. Results: The three short stories recounted here, the future is smart; blurred lines; and policy versus place, show how narratives of economic recovery and economic growth risk occlude sustainable electricity system transition narratives, generating conflict rather than consensus on the decarbonisation of the Irish economy and society. Conclusions: Although the public discourse on smart grid technologies is very much in its infancy in Ireland, its rhetorical framing is very similar to that in both the wind farm and infrastructure controversies. The lack of attention to issues of scale, ownership, rhetorical framing and the perceived distribution and fairness of costs and benefits in these controversies could become equally problematic in the roll of smart grid strategies. Smarter green transitions in regions and cities do not depend on technological innovation alone but require social and institutional innovation to ensure constructive public engagement in sustainable electricity system transitions.
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    Becoming a woman doctor in Iran: the formation of classed and gendered selves
    (Taylor and Francis, 2016-12-14) Fathi, Mastoureh; University of East London
    This paper analyses the pedagogical pathways of a group of first-generation Iranian migrant doctors in the UK. It explores the complex system of class production and growing up as a classed subject in Iran, a process that ties young women’s educational aspirations to female independence on the one hand and to the modern feminine, heterosexual identity that sees women as part of the patriarchal family system on the other. By using Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and habitus [Bourdieu 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul] and Foucault’s theory of surveillance [Foucault 1984. “The Means of Correct Training.” In The Foucault Reader, edited by Paul Rabinow. London: Penguin Books, pp. 188-205], this paper analyses how migrant women’s trajectories of becoming highly educated are translated into their roles as mothers. Three major aspects of pedagogical trajectories are identified in the formation of classed selves: the first is the generational surveillance within families, particularly of girls by their mothers; the second is the normalisation of pathways and the importance of destined pathways that separate certain families, practices and choices in superior positions; the third is the moralising of educational choices, which distance being a doctor from classed consciousness, giving rise to an altruistic self as opposed to a selfish one.
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    Young men with harmful sexual behaviour problems: a qualitative exploration of the nature and characteristics of their violence
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020-04-21) Balfe, Myles; Hackett, Simon; Masson, Helen; Phillips, Josie; Economic and Social Research Council
    There is a lack of exploratory data describing the offences and violent acts of young people with harmful sexual behaviour problems. Such research is necessary to provide realistic insight into the nature of this group and their behaviours; and to help to illustrate and inform practice with them. This study involved a thematic analysis of 111 case files of young men with sexual behaviour problems to analyse their violent actions. Seven violence-related themes were identified in the data. There was evidence that harmful sexual behaviours could sometimes last for considerable amounts of time before services intervened. As well as harmful sexual behaviours, services need to assess whether self-directed and more general forms of violence need to be targeted.