Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2014
The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the wo... more The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the world led to experiences of over-indebtedness that are associated with very considerable distress and suffering. This article explores critical perspectives that situate personal debt, material deprivation and suffering, and specific ways of knowing and acting, within the context of recent political and economic practices. There is a need to focus on positioning people's experiences of debt within a broader matrix of factors of national and international practices and policies, including globalisation, changing labour markets, and poorly regulated financial industries. These factors appear to have allowed a network of international financial institutions to adopt practices that have proved successful in creating personal debt. Yet, an individualised discourse of financial capability has been propagated, configuring personal debt as a problem of irresponsible individual consumption. In order to explore ways of resisting reactionary and individualised modes of addressing personal debt, proposals will be made of alternative paradigms for responding to personal debt, defined by two dimensions of community psychological practice, with examples. This article aims to increase collective awareness of the systemic character of debt and the collective responses required.
... MICHAEL KING1*, LOUISE JONES1, KELLY BARNES1, JOSEPH LOW1, CARL WALKER1, SUSIE WILKINSON1, CH... more ... MICHAEL KING1*, LOUISE JONES1, KELLY BARNES1, JOSEPH LOW1, CARL WALKER1, SUSIE WILKINSON1, CHRISTINA MASON2, JULIETTE SUTHERLAND1 AND ... termed it pragmatism in that it would consider any hypothesis worth testing if consequences useful to life ...
Although gender-role stereotyping in children’s books is a consistent focus of research, the stud... more Although gender-role stereotyping in children’s books is a consistent focus of research, the study of the gender role stereotyping of parenting in particular is less common, despite a developing academic interest in the changing social meanings of fathering and mothering in contemporary societies. Previous analysis has suggested that fathers are under-represented in children’s books and when present, are less likely than mothers to be featured expressing affection towards, or caring for, children. This paper reports the results of a content analysis of a sample of best-selling young children’s picturebooks in the UK which feature representations of parents. It was predicted that fathers would feature less often, particularly at home, and be less likely to be depicted sharing physical contact with other family members, involved in domestic chores or childcare activity, or expressing emotion. The results upheld a number of the hypotheses, indicating that fathers remain ‘invisible’ in an important sense. However scenes featuring fathers with children, some forms of physical contact, or caring for children were not significantly less likely to feature in these picturebooks than equivalent scenes featuring mothers; perhaps reflecting a more progressive portrayal of ‘involved’ fatherhood. The findings are discussed in terms of their methodological, social, and political implications.
Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2014
The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the wo... more The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the world led to experiences of over-indebtedness that are associated with very considerable distress and suffering. This article explores critical perspectives that situate personal debt, material deprivation and suffering, and specific ways of knowing and acting, within the context of recent political and economic practices. There is a need to focus on positioning people's experiences of debt within a broader matrix of factors of national and international practices and policies, including globalisation, changing labour markets, and poorly regulated financial industries. These factors appear to have allowed a network of international financial institutions to adopt practices that have proved successful in creating personal debt. Yet, an individualised discourse of financial capability has been propagated, configuring personal debt as a problem of irresponsible individual consumption. In order to explore ways of resisting reactionary and individualised modes of addressing personal debt, proposals will be made of alternative paradigms for responding to personal debt, defined by two dimensions of community psychological practice, with examples. This article aims to increase collective awareness of the systemic character of debt and the collective responses required.
... MICHAEL KING1*, LOUISE JONES1, KELLY BARNES1, JOSEPH LOW1, CARL WALKER1, SUSIE WILKINSON1, CH... more ... MICHAEL KING1*, LOUISE JONES1, KELLY BARNES1, JOSEPH LOW1, CARL WALKER1, SUSIE WILKINSON1, CHRISTINA MASON2, JULIETTE SUTHERLAND1 AND ... termed it pragmatism in that it would consider any hypothesis worth testing if consequences useful to life ...
Although gender-role stereotyping in children’s books is a consistent focus of research, the stud... more Although gender-role stereotyping in children’s books is a consistent focus of research, the study of the gender role stereotyping of parenting in particular is less common, despite a developing academic interest in the changing social meanings of fathering and mothering in contemporary societies. Previous analysis has suggested that fathers are under-represented in children’s books and when present, are less likely than mothers to be featured expressing affection towards, or caring for, children. This paper reports the results of a content analysis of a sample of best-selling young children’s picturebooks in the UK which feature representations of parents. It was predicted that fathers would feature less often, particularly at home, and be less likely to be depicted sharing physical contact with other family members, involved in domestic chores or childcare activity, or expressing emotion. The results upheld a number of the hypotheses, indicating that fathers remain ‘invisible’ in an important sense. However scenes featuring fathers with children, some forms of physical contact, or caring for children were not significantly less likely to feature in these picturebooks than equivalent scenes featuring mothers; perhaps reflecting a more progressive portrayal of ‘involved’ fatherhood. The findings are discussed in terms of their methodological, social, and political implications.
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