Journal articles on the topic 'Hommes – Socialisation'

Résumé L’analyse des entretiens d’une enquête exploratoire sur la socialisation masculine conduit à émettre l’hypothèse que la socialisation des hommes martiniquais est marquée par la quasi-absence d’apprentissage de l’expression de l’intime et la sur-expression codifiée de la virilité ostentatoire. Ainsi, le jeune mâle ne bénéficierait pas de la transmission d’un mode de communication lié à l’intime, les cadres traditionnels de l’apprentissage relationnel constituant des vecteurs de répression ou de refoulement de l’intime. Ce non-apprentissage ou ce refoulement de l’expression de l’intime ont un coût élevé en termes de mal-être personnel et de conflictualité interpersonnelle.

Cet article condamne la pratique habituelle de mettre les personnes âgées dans une seule catégorie sans sexe, et faire croire que le vieillissement est principalement une question féminine. Il argumente que la différence cruciale entre les femmes âgées et les hommes est que les hommes ont perdu leur vie professionnelle mais gardé la même situation familiale, alors que la plupart des femmes ont perdu leur emploi et leur vie familiale en devenant veuves. Après avoir donné des exemples spécifiques qui sont particuliers aux femmes âgées, l'auteure démontre que la plupart d'entre eux ne sont pas inévitables, mais sont plutôt le produit de la socialisation à des rôles sexués.

RÉSUMÉLes femmes fournissent généralement plus que les hommes dans les soins des enfants. La prédominance numérique des aidantes féminines a été expliquée de telle façon que la diversité chez les aidants masculins a été négligée. C’est à dire que les explica-tions internes, qui mettent l’accent sur l’expérience de socialisation divergentes des femmes et des hommes, ont la tendance à homogénéiser l’expérience de soins du groupe de chaque sexe. Pourtant, les explications externes, qui permettent de faire ressortir les facteurs divers qui motivent les femmes et les hommes à s’occuper des soins, réduisent les acteurs aux agents passives dont la compréhension subjective des soins au fil du temps est ignorée. Les deux explications détournent l’attention de la diversité dans les soins de sexe masculin. Cet article présente des données qualitatives dérivées des entrevues avec 48 des fils de soins pour fournir des preuves de cette diversité. Certains thèmes sont communs aux hommes aidants mariés et aidants jamais mariés, mais il y a également des différences systématiques entre les deux expériences des soins. Pour les fils mariés les soins étaient plus limités; les soins pour les fils jamais mariés étaient un élément plus central dans leurs vies.

Au moyen d'entrevues de groupe auprès d'élèves de troisième secondaire de la région de Québec, nous avons voulu vérifier, d'une part, comment se manifestent dans l'expérience scolaire des élèves les rapports sociaux de classe et de sexe et, d'autre part, quelle dynamique sous-tend la production et la reproduction de ces rapports sociaux. Nous avons regardé à la fois du côté des représentations sociales que se font les filles et les garçons de leur identité de sexe et du côté de leurs interactions au sein de l'école. Peu importe le milieu ou le niveau de rendement scolaire, les filles interrogées témoignent d'une conscience des inégalités entre les hommes et les femmes. Chez les garçons, la représentation de l'identité de sexe montre une soumission aux valeurs de la masculinité, notamment une compréhension des relations hommes - femmes à travers le prisme de la sexualité et une difficulté à penser la masculinité en dehors de l'hétérosexualité. Peu importe le milieu ou le niveau de rendement scolaire, ces garçons partagent des stéréotypes sexuels, sexistes et hétérosexistes.

Il y a un consensus à l’effet que le suicide soit un problème social. Mais quelle est la contribution de la sociologie à la recherche sur le suicide ? Cet article présente un bref survol des bases historiques de la sociologie du suicide et de son évolution à travers l’étude de la déviance et de l’exclusion. Sur le plan de l’application, la sociologie du genre a notamment contribué à mieux comprendre comment certains aspects de la socialisation masculine, comme le rapport rigide aux normes masculines, agissent comme des facteurs de risque suicidaire ou comme des pistes de rétablissement.

Résumé Le modèle matrifocal d'organisation familiale reste toujours prépondérant dans les Petites Antilles malgré une confrontation ancienne au modèle nucléaire occidental. Il doit ses particularités aux conditions de son développement initial dans le contexte de l'esclavage et son maintien est favorisé par certaines dispositions sociales dans les Antilles françaises. Dans ce modèle les pères semblent graviter à la périphérie de la famille sans toutefois être invisibles, ni absents ou en conflit. Leur présence au domicile peut même être intermittente, mais de manière prévisible et régulière, rassurante pour l'enfant auquel ils accordent toute leur attention à ces moments-là. Le rôle dit paternel est assuré de manière plus complexe, non seulement par le père mais aussi par d'autres personnages masculins ou même féminins et même par l'ensemble du réseau social lorsque celui-ci garde une bonne cohésion. Lorsqu'il est fonctionnel, ce modèle est tout aussi à même qu'un autre de répondre aux besoins affectifs, éducatifs et de socialisation d'un enfant. Après un rappel des conditions historiques et économiques ayant donné naissance à ce type très particulier d'organisation familiale, cet article présente à travers l'étude de trois cas cliniques comment les deux modèles (nucléaire et matrifocal) se côtoient dans les Antilles françaises, et comment les professionnels de santé mentale procèdent aux raccommodages en cas d'accrocs.

Dans les sociétés modernes, le fait de mener de front un travail domestique ou familial et une vie professionnelle, notamment un travail salarié, constitue pour la majorité des femmes une réalité sociale : une double charge, mais aussi une double expérience, dans la mesure où la socialisation des femmes et le développement de leurs compétences s'opèrent dans deux domaines clés de la société, celui de la reproduction et celui de la production. Les femmes se distinguent ainsi de la majeure partie des hommes et sont ainsi confrontées au conflit de domaines qui ont en réalité partie liée, aussi bien du point de vue de la logique temporelle et spatiale que du point de vue de la hiérarchie sociale.

Résumé À partir des pratiques de l’organisme communautaire Action Séro Zéro, cet article propose une réflexion sur le travail de proximité à l’égard d’enjeux reliés à la vie privée. Sont prises en considération des conceptions de la prévention du VIH qui mettent en lumière les risques d’ingérence dans la vie privée. Le contexte des milieux de socialisation fréquentés par les hommes gais et bisexuels est ensuite présenté, ainsi que des exemples du travail de proximité réalisé dans ces milieux. Dans ces exemples d’intervention de proximité, le risque d’outrepasser les limites du respect de la vie privée des individus serait contrebalancé par l’utilisation de méthodes dialogiques et participatives, ainsi que par l’ancrage dans les démarches de démocratisation d’accès dans les services de santé.

Abstract.In the 1960s, the gender gap in subjective political competence was assumed to reflect women's lack of socioeconomic resources, their confinement to the domestic sphere and their gender role socialization. Since then, women have moved into the labour force in vast numbers and conceptions of gender roles have been radically altered under the influence of the feminist movement. Yet, the gender gap in subjective political competence persists. This paper uses the Canadian Election Studies (1965–2008) to analyze gender differences in subjective political competence across time. Not only is the association between affluence and subjective political competence weaker for women, but the effect of affluence has weakened over time for women but not for men. Few generational effects are found; this suggests that the politicizing role of feminist socialization is much weaker than had been anticipated.Résumé.Depuis les années 1960, la littérature en science politique assume que l'écart entre les hommes et les femmes en matière de compétence politique subjective était dû au manque de ressources financières des femmes, à leur confinement à la sphère domestique et au rôle traditionnel que la société leur accordait. Depuis, les femmes ont intégré le marché du travail en masse et le contexte social a changé sous l'influence du mouvement féministe. Pourtant, l'écart entre les hommes et les femmes en matière de compétence politique subjective persiste. À l'aide des Études Électorales Canadiennes (1965–2008), cet article analyse les différences entre hommes et femmes en matière de compétence politique subjective à travers le temps. Les résultats montrent que non seulement le lien entre l'affluence économique et la compétence politique subjective est plus faible chez les femmes que chez les hommes mais que ce lien s'est affaibli au cours des années chez les femmes. De plus, peu d'effets générationnels sont constatés. Cela suggère que l'effet sur les attitudes politiques de la socialisation féministe s'avère beaucoup plus faible qu'anticipé.

Résumé L'hystérie de masse se déduit comme l'occurrence épidémique d'une série de symptômes physiques en l'absence de désordre organique et d'agent pathogène identifiables. En dépit de larges variations individuelles et contextuelles, une étonnante similarité unit les différents épisodes rapportés dans la littérature : présence d'un événement déclencheur, progression et régression rapide de symptômes diffus et prédominance de femmes parmi les cas. Nous résumons les recherches dans ce domaine et discutons de la surreprésentation des femmes à travers les hypothèses rattachées à : 1- la biologie et le poids de la socialisation différentielle des hommes et des femmes ; 2- la mauvaise évaluation des risques environnementaux, organisationnels et ergonomiques dans les milieux où l'on assiste à l'hystérie de masse. L'interprétation féministe, en filigrane, s'attaque au préjugé de la vulnérabilité féminine pour mettre en lumière la sous-estimation de la pénibilité des conditions de travail des femmes.

Résumé Cet article présente une synthèse de l’analyse de contenu sociologique quantitative (thématique) et qualitative (textuelle) de la presse québécoise pour adolescentes publiée au cours de l’année scolaire 2005-2006. L’objectif était de mettre en évidence les modèles proposés dans cette presse et liés aux représentations sociales de la féminité, de la masculinité et des rapports entre les sexes dans le contexte de l’hypersexualisation et de la sexualisation précoce des filles. L’orientation théorique articule l’approche de la socialisation différentielle des sexes avec la thèse de l’assignation des femmes à la sexualité dans le système hétéropatriarcal. Les principaux résultats de l’analyse indiquent que les revues valorisent principalement le modèle du girl power à travers la culture du rêve. Parallèlement, le contenu relié à des problématiques majeures pour l’atteinte des objectifs d’égalité entre femmes et hommes est marginalisé. Plus fondamentalement, cette presse dépolitise des enjeux cruciaux pour les femmes et les filles, enjeux liés pour la plupart au contrôle du corps, en particulier la violence masculine.

Résumé Cet article rapporte les résultats d’une recherche réalisée auprès de 141 professionnels en santé mentale pratiquant au Québec et ayant vécu le suicide d’un patient. Les professionnels ont réagi à cet événement différemment en fonction de leur sexe. Les femmes y ont répondu par un niveau de stress élevé au cours du premier mois, alors que les hommes ont dévoilé un niveau de stress faible. Le niveau élevé de stress relevé chez les femmes était accompagné de répercussions initialement plus intenses sur leur pratique professionnelle : tendance accrue à hospitaliser des patients suicidaires ou précautions accrues dans leur traitement, évaluation d’un plus grand nombre de patients comme présentant un risque de suicide, sentiment accru d’impuissance lors de l’évaluation ou du traitement de patients suicidaires, consultation plus fréquente de collègues et de superviseurs, attention accrue aux aspects légaux dans la pratique. L’article tente de mieux comprendre les différences entre les réactions des professionnels observées selon leur sexe, à la lumière des théories de la socialisation et du développement professionnel.

RésuméL'absence de la nationalité, en tant que concept anthropologique ou juridique, avant 1789, reste une idée recue. Mais les lettres de naturalité aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siécles, en depit de leur format stéréotypé, nous offrent une source importante d'idées et de pratiques de la nationalité sous l'Ancien Régime. Les étrangers cherchaient à se faire naturaliser pour échapper à leurs incapacités civiles en France, telle 1'interdiction d'obtenir un office ou de recevoir un bénéfice ecclésiastique, et surtout leur incapacité, par le droit d'aubaine, a transmettre un patrimoine ou à héater. Dans les préambules de leurs lettres, ces étrangers — et les descendants d'émigrés français — développent toute une gamme de récits qui insistent tantot sur l'intérêt privé des requérants, tantôt sur les services qu'ils ont rendus à la Couronne, mettant en avant l'appartenance familiale ou la « naissance accidentelle » hors de France. Ces centaines de naturalises revelent ce que devenir Français signifiait pour les étrangers à l'époque moderne, produisant ainsi un discours vernaculaire de la nationalité. Insistant sur le rôle de la famille comme cadre critique de la socialisation, les hommes et surtout les femmes qui cherchaient à être naturalisés, ont produit un modele de nationalité à l'intérieur de laquelle ils s'incluaient, modéle davantage fondésur une idée « essentialiste » de l'identité francaise, et plus déterminé par la culture que par les régies purement juridiques de l'Ancien Régime.

A lack of socialisation is often referred to as a predisposing factor for the problem behaviours that companion animal owners report in their cats and dogs. Yet, many of the kittens and puppies that found new homes during 2020 will have experienced limitations in, or disruptions to, their opportunities for socialisation as a result of the complexities of the ‘normal’ environment both inside and outside their homes. This article examines the terms ‘socialisation’ and ‘socialise’ that are often used interchangeably when discussing the social competencies of companion animals. In addition, it considers the likely outcome of limited opportunities for comprehensive socialisation for the kittens and puppies of 2020, and whether such shortcomings in early development may be overcome.

Résumé C'est dans le sillage du mouvement critique psychiatrique, lancé par Eric Berne, que le Collectif de psychiatrie radicale s'est formé à Berkeley, en Californie, au début des années 70. À partir de l'analyse de l'aide thérapeutique dominante, perçue comme aliénante, et son résultat, une oppression dont la personne n'est pas consciente, le Collectif enseigne une nouvelle pratique représentée par l'équation suivante : conscience de son oppression + contact avec d'autres gens dans la même situation +action = libération. Cette équation entend répondre à la précédente : oppression +non-conscience de son oppression + isolement = aliénation. Utilisant les concepts de composantes de la personnalité élaborés en analyse transactionnelle, soit les trois états de l'ego : le Parent, l'Adulte et l'Enfant, le Collectif montre que certaines composantes des rôles sociaux, apprises à travers le processus de socialisation, sont inégalement et différemment développées chez les hommes et les femmes, et qu'une rencontre harmonieuse est, par conséquent, impossible. Pour résoudre ces difficultés, le Collectif dirige des groupes mixtes d'aide thérapeutique et des groupes de femmes. Ces derniers, formés surtout par Hogie Wyckoff, tiennent compte de l'oppression spécifique des femmes et les aident à travailler sur leurs composantes, qui sont insuffisamment développées ou sous-estimées par une société capitaliste inégalitaire. Le courant de psychiatrie radicale met en relation les caractéristiques fondamentales de la société capitaliste, principalement les rapports humains et les problèmes de vécus individuels. Il démontre également l'agencement logique des rôles sociaux - limitatifs et insatisfaisants, mais fonctionnels - à l'intérieur d'une telle société. L'approche est fort intéressante pour une pratique thérapeutique auprès des femmes en général, et, plus spécifiquement, auprès des clientes des services sociaux et de santé. Toutefois, l'approche ne doit pas se limiter à ne considérer que les facteurs concrets et interactionnels de la relation entre une intervenante de classe moyenne éduquée et une cliente de milieu populaire souvent démunie à divers niveaux. Les répercussions de différence de classe sur une relation qu'on veut egalitaire demeurent encore inconnues, les intervenants en psychiatrie radicale travaillant principalement avec une clientèle de classe moyenne. Cette lacune constitue la limite principale de l'approche observée, limite qui devrait être davantage sondée et analysée.

La notion de pouvoir économique, en soi, ne suscite guère d'intérêt : elle est trop vague. Mais elle peut devenir intéressante si on se demande qui utilise le pouvoir économique, par quels moyens, à quelles fins. En somme, il faut relier la notion imprécise de pouvoir économique à la notion concrète de contrôle. Le monde des affaires est animé d'une dynamique tendue vers le contrôle ou vers la recherche de moyens propres à contrôler, à limiter ou à utiliser la faculté que possèdent les autres de prendre des décisions ou de s'immiscer dans le mécanisme des décisions. Les façons d'accéder au contrôle peuvent varier avec les divers groupes qui recherchent le contrôle. Le public, sorte de pouvoir amorphe et diffus, constitue une cible que tous les groupes s'efforcent d'atteindre mais d'une façon particulière. On le considère ordinairement comme passif et malléable, et c'est à cause de ce pouvoir latent qu'il représente que les groupes tendus vers le contrôle attachent tant d'importance à la presse et au clergé, deux puissances capables de le noyauter et de le canaliser en fonction de quelque contrôle. Le meilleur des énergies visant le contrôle demeure quand même tourné vers le gouvernement, car celui-ci représente à la fois une source de pouvoir et un champ de bataille. Que les hommes d'affaires essaient de le contrôler, directement ou indirectement, par la voie de l'opinion publique, ou par quelque groupe de pression susceptible d'influencer le cours des décisions, les deux principaux concurrents dans la recherche du contrôle demeurent les dirigeants d'entreprises et les gouvernants. Les hommes d'affaires essaient de refouler la vague montante des interventions gouvernementales, d'éviter les règlements ou de brimer une législation susceptible d'entraver les mouvements de l'entreprise. De son côté, le gouvernement essaie de développer ses fonctions, de se tenir en forme, de se maintenir aussi efficace que la direction des affaires prétend l'être. L'un et l'autre groupes soutiennent qu'ils ne veulent rien d'autre que le bien-être du peuple. C'est par le moyen des groupes de pression que l'on tend à influencer l'action politique et c'est une tension qui veut s'installer en permanence et non comme simple rouage d'élection. Les élections ne représentent plus qu'un épisode dans le processus politique, surtout lorsque s'affrontent, au niveau de l'entreprise, des groupes incarnant deux philosophies différentes de propriété et de contrôle, l'un favorisant la socialisation, l'autre la libre entreprise en tout et partout. Et qui niera l'importance de la grande entreprise moderne comme moyen de contrôle, puisque, par sa structure légale et financière, elle diffuse à l'extrême la propriété, source potentielle de pouvoir, et centralise à l'extrême aussi le contrôle qui est source de gouvernement ? A partir de ces constatations préliminaires, nous pouvons élaborer un outillage rudimentaire qui nous tiendra lieu de modèle d'analyse historique et dont les éléments nous amènent à poser le problème par rapport au concept de conflit. Ces éléments sont les suivants : 1° Les champs d'opération ou, en termes plus abstraits, les espaces économiques propres à chaque engagement ou à chaque conflit ; 2° Les organisations ou les institutions en cause ; 3° Les objectifs ; 4° Les tactiques et les règles administratives du conflit. On pourrait ajouter un cinquième élément : la référence à quelque schème de valeur, si celui-ci n'était pas déjà sous-entendu. L'exposé qui suit comprend trois parties : I. Le destin des contrôles économiques dans la société pré-industrielle du Québec — ce qui veut être une réflexion sur la situation de contrôle du gouvernement que privilégie une société à prédominance rurale. IL Les contrôles économiques et les fonctions politiques dans l'évolution industrielle et commerciale du Québec — ce qui comporte une étude sommaire de deux cas, dans l'optique indiquée précédemment : a) l'énergie électrique ; b) l'industrie des pâtes et du papier. III. L'origine, le fondement et les objectifs du contrôle économique exercé par les grandes entreprises des pâtes et du papier et de l'hydroélectricité — ce qui sous-entend que les deux types d'entreprises peuvent être envisagés dans l'optique d'un contrôle qu'ils visent en commun.

A total of 40 target children, ranging in age from 10 months to 4 years 10 months (mean age 31 months) and their mothers, took part in a study, involving a game of "feeding fish" with different sized marbles in order to test the relation between maternal praise and performance in children. The mothers and children were videotaped in their homes. It was established that children improved their performance on the task as they grew older, that at a mean age of 35.1 months they smiled selectively more often when performing at their higher levels of capability and that mothers praised the highest level of performance relatively more often than lower levels of performance. Furthermore, mothers praise directed to younger children included reference to the person and the performance of the actor. Praise directed toward older children, however, included only reference to the performance of the child. The implications of these observations for the socialisation of pride are discussed.

Video calls using software such as Skype, Zoom and FaceTime can improve socialisation among older people and family, however it is unknown if video calls are able to improve socialisation among older people and their peers. Twenty-two residents across three British care homes engaged with each other using ‘Skype quiz’ sessions with the support of staff once a month over an eight-month trial. Video calls were accessed via a ‘Skype on Wheels’ intervention that comprised a wheeled device that could hold an iPad, or through Skype TV. Residents met other residents from the three care homes to build new friendships and participate in a thirty-minute quiz session facilitated by eight staff. Staff were collaborators who recruited older people, implemented the intervention and provided feedback that was analysed using thematic analysis. Residents enjoyed being able to see other residents’ faces and surroundings. Analysis of the field notes revealed five themes of: residents with dementia remember faces not technology, inter and intra connectedness, re-gaining sense of self and purpose, situational loneliness overcome and organisational issues create barriers to long-term implementation. Inter-care home connection through video calls to reduce feelings of loneliness in residents seems acceptable and a feasible, low cost model, especially during times of public crisis such as COVID-19.

Les enquêtes statistiques relatives aux pratiques culturelles de loisir des Français-e-s font apparaître leur forte dimension genrée : écriture de journaux intimes, chant en chorales ou danse pour les femmes, instruments de musique, rock ou photographie pour les hommes. Comment expliquer que chacun-e s'oriente de manière principale vers l'une ou l'autre pratique de loisir ? Une réflexion sur les modes de construction d'une pratique de loisir comme « féminine » ou « masculine » – des socialisations de l'enfance aux dispositifs constitutifs de cette pratique en passant par les imaginaires associés à ces loisirs – sera ici engagée à la lumière d'une observation prolongée du jazz vocal amateur en France. Sera décrite et expliquée la différenciation genrée observée entre femmes chanteuses et hommes instrumentistes amateurs, et ce alors même qu'aucune règle sexuée ne détermine a priori la place, le rôle et les pratiques musicales des unes et des autres.

Cet article examine quelques médiations principales qui, de l'enfance à l'âge adulte ont pu surdéterminer pour un homme ou une femme l'accès à une carrière scientifique. À partir d'extraits d'histoires de vie et d'entrevues en profondeur l'auteure propose une lecture relativisant l'impact de l'origine sociale et du milieu culturel d'origine. Dans le cas des scientifiques, les conditions du choix du modèle parental identificatoire dominant, sembleraient plus importantes; tout comme semble particulièrement l'être pour la petite fille une relation privilégiée à son père ou à une instance paternelle. Par la suite, à l'adolescence, puis au début de l'âge adulte, la possibilité qu'aura ou non le-la jeune étudiant(e) à retrouver avec un(e) maître une relation permettant l'identification, sera également déterminante. Enfin, l'auteure propose quelques hypothèses théoriques préliminaires qui, dans une optique féministe devraient faire l'objet de travaux épistémologiques approfondis : elles concernent la différence entre les identifications inconsciente et consciente au masculin et à l'instance paternelle, par opposition aux identifications inconsciente et consciente au féminin et à l'instance maternelle.

Since the mid-1980s, several Indian women novelists have enriched mainstream English literature with stories of educated, middle-class, Indian women migrating to and settling in North America. The novels assert that by migrating to North America, the protagonists were able to find ‘freedom’. In this paper, I question whether international migration necessarily leads to ‘freedom’ for this cohort of Indian women and argue that it their histories and experiences of subjugation and emancipation are not necessarily in binary opposition, and that there may be a space for multiplicity. Based on their changing power positions, the respondents were placed simultaneously at the centre and at the margins in their own homes, at work and at the places of socialisation.

179 male and female UK adolescents in full-time education, aged 16–18, answered open-ended questions about basic economics and closed questions about pocket money practices; pertinent background variables were also recorded. There was widespread ignorance about ‘interest rates' and ‘inflation’ and only 34% knew what the letters ‘APR’ stood for. The results suggest that greater education in economic competency is required. Pocket money practices may indeed have an influence on economic socialisation as those who received pocket money regularly during childhood were economically more competent at the age of 16–18. Adolescents in wealthier, middle class homes were more likely to receive pocket money regularly; payments to boys were more regular than to girls. Suggestions are made for further research.

Activities and interactions of Israeli and US mothers and their 5-month-old infants were observed in the natural setting of their homes. This report examines infant visual and tactual exploration and vocalisation as well as maternal stimulation and speech. First, similarities and differences in activities between Israeli and US infants and mothers are assessed. Next, coherence in infant activities and in maternal activities within each society are evaluated, and resultant patterns of coherence between the two societies are compared. Last, correspondences between infant and maternal activities in each society are analysed, and resultant patterns of mother-infant interactions between the two societies are compared. Identification and description of activities, interactions, and developmental processes which are similar and different in comparable segments of Israeli and US society are discussed, and crosscultural tests of developmental issues related to coherence and to correspondence of activity in mother-infant dyads are evaluated. Israeli and US mothers may follow culture-specific paths in striving to meet infants' needs and in achieving socialisation goals.

This paper reports on an action research study whose aim was to elicit the health needs of older people as part of a wider health needs assessment exercise. The sample consisted of twelve older people (n=12) who lived in East Lancashire. Focus groups were used to identify perceived health needs. The majority of older people in the sample expressed concern about access to primary care, lengthy out‐patient department appointments and poor transport facilities to access health resources. An indirect consequence of their perceived health needs was reduced socialisation due to fear of going out, particularly at night. The findings raise issues to do with developing a more considered view of methods for eliciting the views, beliefs and attitudes of older people about health needs. The study has implications for primary care trusts and statutory services regarding the provision of health care to older people.

Cet article porte sur l'étude d'un cas des rapports ville-campagne au Québec, plus précisément ceux de Montréal avec un terroir de la plaine environnante, les terres noires de Napierville-Châteauguay. L'urbanisation de cette campagne se manifeste par des modifications de la structure sociale et de la structure de production, l'une et l'autre étant évidemment liées puisqu'elles constituent les structures pratiques fondamentales de la société. Le peuplement de ce terroir agricole est issu d'une création volontaire, c'est-à-dire d'un mouvement de colonisation qui, à partir de 1945, a regroupé des éléments de population d'origines géographiques et ethniques variées, réunissant par le fait même des capacités démographiques de mutation fort originales. Cette collectivité rurale, récente de formation, était toute désignée pour connaître rapidement les processus dynamiques d'intégration à la société urbaine, processus identifiés comme étant la socialisation à l'intérieur du groupe et l'acculturation à l'extérieur. Cette évolution socio-culturelle est indissociable de la participation des producteurs à une agriculture industrialisée. Leur activité agricole repose avant tout sur un très fort potentiel agro-pédologique, mis en valeur par une culture de légumes de plein champ spécialisée. Tour à tour sont analysés : l'alliance terre noire-terre franche, l'importance des bâtiments fonctionnels, la variation de l'alliance homme-machine, le poids de la main-d'oeuvre infantile . . . , caractéristiques propres à une agriculture de banlieue et conformes aux forces de la collectivité présente. Ce terroir de plaine fonctionne de façon autonome sur la base d'une activité de production originale, sur la base de forces de travail familiales et industrielles, sans que des formes directes d'urbanisation ne soient venues s'immiscer, mais subissant inévitablement et subrepticiment l'influence urbaine.

Elena Bogdanova – PhD (Kandidat Nauk) in Sociology, Research Fellow, Centre for Independent Social Research; Visiting Lecturer, University of Eastern Finland, European University at St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. Email: bogdanova.nova@gmail.com This article examines how Russian SOS Villages are undergoing foster reform, which prescribes a transition from institutional care for children deprived of parental care to family care model. The article analyses the problems and transformations experienced by SOS Villages, outlining the aims, instruments, and priorities of the reform. Empirically, the article is based on qualitative investigation of two Russian SOS Villages. Officially, SOS villages have the status of non-state children’s homes. However, they were originally conceptualised as a means to implement family care by specially arranged SOS families (headed by SOS mothers). Comparing the activities of SOS Villages with the theoretical concepts of development, resilience, and attachment shows that children raised in SOS Villages avoid the typical problems associated with institutional care. SOS families provide favourable conditions for socialisation, protection, overcoming of social isolation, while maintaining sustainable contact with a significant adult. The normative context created by Decree 481, which changed the status of children’s homes, alongside innovations in family policy and the general upsurge of traditionalist discourse, has made SOS Villages vulnerable. As a result, they are forced to protect both forms of their existence: institutional and family. Despite their conceptual adherence to the goals of the reform, in the eyes of the state the SOS Villages remain institutional entities targeted for closure or transformation into temporary residences for children. My research shows that under these new conditions SOS Villages have developed various strategies of involuntary mimicry. The most significant is the re-registration of SOS families as foster families. This helps keep children with their SOS families but significantly increases the level of responsibility and risks for SOS mothers. SOS Villages have also developed new activities, which may be useful in these new conditions. The establishment of consulting service platforms is one of these. The transformations taking place with the SOS Villages show that the reform is directed mainly, or solely, towards correcting the institutional level of the system. Due to multiple formal conflicts with newly emerging conditions, one of the most successful and experienced providers of family care for children without parental care has been left in a vulnerable position.

Sommaire L'histoire de la dernière encyclique, MATER ET MAGISTRA, illustre d'une façon dramatique, dans notre société contemporaine, la division du travail entre les relations publiques et le domaine académique. Dans le monde anglo-saxon au moins cette encyclique est celle qui a connu la plus large diffusion et qui a été la mieux reçue de toutes les encycliques sociales. Par ailleurs, il semble évident que moins qu'à toutes les autres on a apporté un intérêt soutenu. On a pas à chercher bien loin pour trouver la raison de cette indifférence générale. MATER ET MAGISTRA n'est pas seulement un document à l'occasion d'une crise ou, d'un problème. Elle est l'aboutissement de tout un siècle de développements académiques. D'une part, la doctrine sociale est seulement un segment d'une demi-douzaine de champs théologiques revitalisés. D'autre part, le fossé entre les sciences sociales et les champs de pensée plus traditionnels s'est graduellement rétréci. RERUM NOVARUM (1891) a ouvert la théologie à la science politique, QUADRAGESIMO ANNO (1931) a évidemment utilisé les principes économiques modernes et maintenant MATER ET MAGISTRA (1961) utilise la sociologie. Les experts en sciences sociales sont bien conscients de l'intérêt croissant chez leurs collègues depuis plusieurs générations au sujet du bien-être, des valeurs, des lois naturelles, des insuffisances du pragmatisme. Lorsque les dimensions proprement académiques de cette encyclique sont reconnues, il s'en suit immédiatement que cette doctrine nécessite pour son exposition un statut académique approprié. En premier lieu, il ressort de la structure de MATER ET MAGISTRA que l'étudiant de la théologie sociale doit nécessairement s'appuyer sur le spécialiste en sciences sociales. En second lieu, l'étudiant de la théologie sociale doit reconnaître que l'homme moderne désire une philosophie sociale adéquate. C'est une exigence beaucoup plus englobante que celle des encycliques précédentes. Il ne suffit plus maintenant de condamner l'individualisme et le scientisme du XIXe siècle, ou d'encourager davantage l'association — une union par-ici, une coopérative par là. Comme le préconise avec insistence le Pape Jean, une option morale positive de l'organisation ou de la socialisation est nécessaire à tout homme dans la société moderne. Alors qu'il est évident pour celui qui analyse ces questions que tout le pouvoir moral de la religion sera nécessaire afin de dissiper l'ensemble des accréditations religieuses et de la loi naturelle acceptées par l'individualisme de notre société industrielle ou le socialisme des autres traditions, la question présente de nouveaux aspects. Il y a déjà une évidence abondante que les professeurs des matières philosophiques et théologiques traditionnelles ne réaliseront pas la nécessité actuelle d'une philosophie sociale articulée s'ils n'empruntent pas aux spécialistes des sciences sociales la signification et l'importance de la socialisation aujourd'hui. De plus, c'est seulement de l'esprit en sciences sociales que le philosophe social apprendra l'apport réaliste de la remarque du Pape Jean à l'effet que dans le milieu social moderne un certain déterminisme ne cause pas de préjudice à la liberté. La récente étude de Robert A. Brady sur la place des standards dans la civilisation en est un excellent exemple (Organization, Automation, and Society, ch. IV). L'importance croissante de l'étudiant des sciences sociales est aussi un autre indice du rôle croissant de l'apostolat laïc pour l'avenir de la doctrine sociale.

RÉSUMÉLe mouvement de sortie précoce d'activité observé ces dernières années en Europe résulte d'autres mécanismes de protection sociale que ceux de l'assurance vieillesse et n'est pas dû à une simple avance du calendrier de l'âge de départ à la retraite.Deux systèmes ont été particulièrement sollicités pour assurer la prise en charge des travailleurs âgés: l'assurance invalidité et l'assurance chômage. Des dispositifs de «préretraite» ont également facilité, par une indemnisation, les sorties anticipées de ces travailleurs, actifs ou au chômage.L'édifice de protection sociale des pays européens a été ainsi profondément intransformé, les risques et les logiques de prise en charge, se mêlant de manière inextricable.De plus, ces nouvelles formes de transition entre activité et retraite sont révélatrices de réorganisations en cours, sur tous les parcours des âgées. Une des implications du mouvement massif de sortie précoce d'activité a été que le cycle de vie ternaire marqué par des seuils (âge de scolarité, âge de droit à la retraite …), facteur important de socialisation, se décompose. Il est remplacé progressivement par une nouvelle flexibilité de l'organisation de la fin du cycle de vie. Une telle évolution incite à repenser le système de protection sociale dans le sens d'une moindre articulation à une division ternaire du cycle de vie. Dans cette perspective le concept même de retraite et de transferts sociaux pour l'inactivité définitive perd de sa pertinence.

RÉSUMÉLes personnes âgées constituent, en proportion, la population la plus importante parmi les joueurs (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation [OLG], 2012). Les joueurs célibataires seraient plus isolés socialement et solitaires (Dykstra & de Jong Gierveld, 2004), et plus susceptibles de s’engager dans le jeu, présentant ainsi des risques accrus pour le jeu compulsif (McQuade & Gill, 2012). Cette étude a examiné si des motivations sociales (jeu associé à la socialisation ou à la solitude) et le contexte social (sorties au casino avec des amis ou la famille) expliquent la relation entre le statut matrimonial et le jeu compulsif chez les personnes âgées. Nous avons aussi exploré si ces associations diffèrent en fonction du genre. Les données ont été extraites d’un échantillon aléatoire de 2103 adultes âgés de 55 ans et plus qui ont été contactés dans des sites de jeu du sud-ouest de l’Ontario. Ces données ont indiqué que le jeu en compagnie de la famille ou d’amis et le jeu associé à la solitude médient la relation entre le statut matrimonial et le jeu compulsif. Les personnes âgées célibataires étaient moins susceptibles de jouer avec de la famille ou des amis, comparativement aux aînés qui étaient mariés; ils étaient plus susceptibles d’utiliser le jeu pour contrer la solitude et leur profil de jeu était davantage compulsif. Les initiatives de prévention et de traitement devraient examiner les moyens permettant de diminuer la solitude et l’isolement social chez les personnes âgées, et offrir des activités sociales alternatives.

Background: Physical activity is of particular interest due to its potential for improving quality of life and reducing health care costs. The contribution of this paper is to analyse the correlates of physical activity (PA) among individuals aged 50-70 years old. We differentiate between physical activity during leisure time (LTPA) and total physical activity (Total PA) and besides we offer potential policy advice to increase PA. Methods: We use a cross-sectional survey from a sample of Spanish individuals between 50 and 70 years of age. We analyse the correlates of LTPA and Total PA by estimating ordered probit models including socio-demographic characteristics, health and emotional wellbeing and social support. Results: The covariates explain in different ways LTPA and Total PA levels. In particular, the accomplishment of a minimum of LTPA is positively related to partner participation in LTPA (p<0.01), a good life satisfaction (p<0.01), being male (p<0.01) and secondary education completion (p<0.02); and it is negatively related to working status (p<0.01). On the contrary, very high levels of total PA are positively associated with partner participation (p<0.01), self-perceived health (p<0.01), women (p<0.01) and working status (p<0.05). Conclusions: It is important to increase male energy expenditure in other life domains besides leisure time. Regarding women, social support seems necessary to reach minimum levels of LTPA. Finally, the socialisation effect that we have obtained as well as the positive impact of the extrinsic social support variables might suggest the necessity to take into account couple and family variables.Resumen. Introducción: La realización de actividad física (AF) es de una indudable importancia social dado sus efectos positivos sobre la salud. Este trabajo pretende analizar los determinantes de la AF de individuos de 50-70 años. Metodología: Se emplea un estudio observacional transversal a partir de una muestra de españoles entre 50 y 70 años. Se analizan los determinantes de la AF en el tiempo libre y el total de AF mediante modelos probit ordenados, incluyendo las características sociodemográficas, de percepción de la salud física, del estado emocional y del apoyo social. Resultados: Los determinantes del total de AF y la AF realizada en el tiempo libre son distintos. La realización de un mínimo de AF en el tiempo libre está relacionada positivamente con ser hombre (p<0.01) y tener estudios secundarios (p<0.02), la participación de la pareja (p<0.01) y una buena satisfacción ante la vida (p<0.01); y negativamente con el estatus laboral (p<0.01). Por otro lado, altos niveles de AF están asociados a ser mujer (p<0.01), el estatus laboral (p<0.05), el nivel de salud percibida (p<0.01) y la participación de la pareja (p<0.01). Conclusiones: En el caso de los hombres, es importante incrementar la AF en otros ámbitos fuera del tiempo libre. En el caso de la mujer, el apoyo social resulta necesario para alcanzar unos niveles saludables de AF. Finalmente, el efecto de la socialización y el apoyo social extrínseco resultan variables relevantes que plantean la necesidad de desarrollar políticas de promoción teniendo en cuenta la situación familiar y de la pareja.

Cadre de la recherche : La famille est un lieu important de la socialisation genrée, de la manière dont les individus se construisent en tant qu’êtres sexués au sein d’un contexte social et culturel normatif. La famille contribue à la reproduction des masculinités, mais elle peut aussi constituer un lieu d’émancipation et de subversion par rapport aux normes de genre. Objectifs : Cet article introductif du numéro sur les masculinités et les familles de la revue Enfances Familles Générations vise à présenter un état de la recherche et des pistes de réflexion sur l’articulation entre les réalités masculines et celles des familles. Méthodologie : L’article introductif s’appuie sur une recension des écrits ayant porté sur le développement de la recherche sur les masculinités et des pratiques auprès des hommes. Cette analyse est mise en relation avec le champ des études sur les familles, notamment quant aux transformations actuelles qui les traversent. Résultats : Les études sur la famille et sur les hommes sont des champs de recherche politisés et étroitement liés. Malgré la reconnaissance des transformations en présence, la volonté de savoir si les masculinités au sein des familles se réinventent ou si elles participent au contraire à la reproduction d’un ordre social genré demeure un enjeu complexe à approfondir dans les recherches à venir. Conclusions : Plusieurs thématiques reliées aux masculinités restent peu explorées dans la recherche. Les contributions de ce numéro permettront de combler en partie ces manques. Ces thématiques touchent aux nouvelles réalités des hommes dans la famille, par exemple les pères au foyer, les pères d’enfants prématurés et l’évolution des discours sociaux sur le masculin. Contribution : Cet article fait une revue des enjeux des transformations de la masculinité et des pluralités familiales, et identifie des pistes à approfondir pour la recherche sur ces thèmes.

The increase in the number of betting terminals over the years has attracted many people to watch matches and stake odds. Since live matches have been found to provide more money for betting companies, betting companies are providing more options for people to stake live bets by establishing many terminals. Sports fans have also taken the opportunity to watch free live matches in the betting terminals. The current study examined the reasons why football fans prefer watching live matches in betting terminals instead of at the stadia. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) the views of six football fans (bettors) were examined in betting terminals. Findings revealed that fans are attracted to watch matches at betting terminals based on cost-effectiveness and financial benefits, socialisation/atmosphere, watching many matches at the same time, and proximity (nearness of betting terminals to their homes). While the respondents foresaw the establishment of betting terminals as a threat to promote gambling among the youths they don’t support the ban on the establishment of betting terminals as they see it as an avenue to generate extra revenue. Suggestions and discussions for the future can be found in the appropriate section in this paper.

In many countries, risky sexual behaviour appears to have become more common among sexually active young adults due to increasing acceptance of pre-marital sexual behaviour. This poses threat to the sexual and reproductive health of those who engage in same. This study investigated the possible influence of school and parental factors such as time of sexual debut (before or after admission), institutional type, accommodation type (whether campus or off-campus), parental marriage type, parental counselling and family of socialisation on three risky sexual behaviours. These are one-night stand, condom use at first sex and multiple sexual partners. The study adopted cross-sectional survey method. A total of 433 respondents were selected from three stratified tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study found that institutional type and parents' marriage significantly influenced involvement in one-night stand. The age at sexual debut and parents' marriage type are associated with the use of condom at first sex. Also, while students of polytechnic had more sexual partners than their counterparts in the university and college of education (F: 16.849; p: 0.001), those living inside campus were significantly more likely to have multiple sexual partners than those outside campus (T: -1.995; p: 0.047). The study recommends the need for the management of institutes of higher learning and accommodation providers to improve their physical environment to discourage risky sexual behaviours, and to sensitise young people. Also, parent-child discussion on sex-related matters from both parents especially in polygynous homes is encouraged.

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has engendered changes in previously unimaginable timeframes, leading to new ways of working, which can quickly become the “ordinary” way of working. Many traditional workplace and educational practices and environments, however, are disadvantageous to people with disability and consequently are under-represented in the workforce and higher education.Design/methodology/approachContributing factors include exclusionary societal and employer attitudes and inaccessible built environments including lack of attention to paths of travel, amenities, acoustics, lighting and temperature. Social exclusion resulting from lack of access to meaningful work is also problematic. COVID-19 has accelerated the incidence of working and studying from home, but the home environment of many people with disability may not be suitable in terms of space, privacy, technology access and connection to the wider community.FindingsHowever, remote and flexible working arrangements may hold opportunities for enhancing work participation of people with disabilities. Instigating systemic conditions that will empower people with disability to take full advantage of ordinary working trajectories is key. As the current global experiment in modified work and study practices has shown, structural, organisational and design norms need to change. The future of work and study is almost certainly more work and study from home. An expanded understanding of people with disabilities lived experience of the built environment encompassing opportunities for work, study and socialisation from home and the neighbourhood would more closely align with the UNCRPD's emphasis on full citizenship.Originality/valueThis paper examines what is currently missing in the development of a distributed work and study place continuum that includes traditional workplaces and campuses, local neighbourhood hubs and homes.

Abstract Background Green spaces (greenness) have been reported as beneficial to health, mainly mitigating air pollution, hot spots, noise and promoting socialisation, biodiversity and physical activity (PA). This study aims to examine the association between greenness and oxidative stress (OS) in children and to evaluate interaction with PA. Methods The cross-sectional study involved 323 subjects (9-11 yrs.) from five schools in Asti (Italy). Parents completed a questionnaire providing home-address, parental education, and PA of children. Urinary samples were collected to measure OS by isoprostane (15-F2t-IsoP). Time-weighted exposure to greenness was calculated from satellite images (Sentinel2 L2A) by Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), within buffers around participants' homes and schools, accounting for the individual multi-site exposure during the day. Results Overall 323 subjects were included in the analyses, 50% females. An inverse correlation was found between greenness and OS (Pearson -0.162, p = 0.003). A generalised linear mixed model, age-adjusted with schools as random effect, tested the association between greenness and log-transformed(15-F2t-IsoP), reporting decreased OS levels for each unit of increase in greenness (β: -0.50, 95%CI-0.98 to -0.02, p = 0.041). After adding PA in the model, greenness was no longer significant (β: -0.42, 95%C.I.-0.90 to 0.07, p = 0.092), but children reporting low-PA and high-PA showed the highest increase in OS (β: +0.19, 95%CI 0.04 to 0.43, p = 0.02; β: +0.25, 95%CI 0.04 to 0.46, p = 0.018) compared to those with moderate-PA. Conclusions Greenness positively impacts health by reducing OS in children. Our findings suggest that PA is partly mediating this association. Noticeably, this is the first study assessing a multi-site greenness exposure and its association with OS accounting for PA in children. The management of urban greenness should be included as preventive Public Health intervention for health and well-being promotion. Key messages Greenness exposure may benefit health by reducing oxidative stress in children. The association between greenness and oxidative stress seems partly mediated by physical activity.

Abstract Background Shielding of high-risk groups from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been suggested as a realistic alternative to severe movement restrictions during the COVID-19 epidemic in low-income countries. The intervention entails the establishment of ‘green zones’ for high-risk persons to live in, either within their homes or in communal structures, in a safe and dignified manner, for extended periods of time during the epidemic. To our knowledge, this concept has not been tested or evaluated in resource-poor settings. This study aimed to explore the acceptability and feasibility of strategies to shield persons at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, during the COVID-19 epidemic in six communities in Sudan. Methods We purposively sampled participants from six communities, illustrative of urban, rural and forcibly-displaced settings. In-depth telephone interviews were held with 59 members of households with one or more members at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. Follow-up interviews were held with 30 community members after movement restrictions were eased across the country. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using a two-stage deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Results Most participants were aware that some people are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes but were unaware of the concept of shielding. Most participants found shielding acceptable and consistent with cultural inclinations to respect elders and protect the vulnerable. However, extra-household shielding arrangements were mostly seen as socially unacceptable. Participants reported feasibility concerns related to the reduced socialisation of shielded persons and loss of income for shielding families. The acceptability and feasibility of shielding strategies were reduced after movement restrictions were eased, as participants reported lower perception of risk in their communities and increased pressure to comply with social commitments outside the house. Conclusion Shielding is generally acceptable in the study communities. Acceptability is influenced by feasibility, and by contextual changes in the epidemic and associated policy response. The promotion of shielding should capitalise on the cultural and moral sense of duty towards elders and vulnerable groups. Communities and households should be provided with practical guidance to implement feasible shielding options. Households must be socially, psychologically and financially supported to adopt and sustain shielding effectively.

The negative implications of children’s use of the Internet, particularly their loss of innocence through access to pornography, is a topic frequently addressed in public discussions and debate. These debates often take on a technologically determinist point of view and assume that technology directly influences children, usually in a harmful fashion. But what is really happening in the Australian family home? Are parents fearful of these risks, and if so what are they doing about it? A recent exploration of the everyday Internet lives of Australian families indicates that families manage these perceived risks in a variety of ways and are not overly troubled about this issue. Findings from the research project indicate that Australian parents are more concerned about some children’s excessive use of the Internet than about pornography. They construct the Internet as interfering with time available to carry out homework, chores, getting adequate sleep or participating in outdoor (fresh air) activities. This disparity, between public discourse regarding the protection of children in the online environment and the actual significance of this issue in the everyday lives of Australian families, reflects the domestic dynamics within the “moral economy of the household” (Silverstone et al. 15) whereby family relationships and household practices inform the manner in which technology is consumed within any given household. The research project described here (Family Internet: Theorising Domestic Internet Consumption, Production and Use Within Australian Families) is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant and investigates Internet use within Australian homes with specific reference to families with school-aged children. It explores how individual family members make sense of their family’s engagement with the Internet and investigates ways in which the Internet is integrated within Australian family life. Public Debates The relationship between children and technology is often addressed in public debates regarding children’s health, safety, social and educational development. Within these debates technology is usually held responsible for a variety of harmful consequences to children. These technological ‘effects’ range from the decline of children’s social relationships (with both peers and family); through sedentary lifestyles which impinge on fitness levels and the weight (body mass index) of children; to the corruption of children (and their loss of innocence) through access to unsuitable materials. These unsuitable texts include “soft and hardcore porn, Neo Nazi groups, paedophiles, racial and ethnic hatred” (Valentine et al. 157). Other digital technologies, such as computer and video games, are sometimes seen as exacerbating these problems and raise the spectre of the ‘Nintendo kid’, friendless and withdrawn (Marshall 73), lacking in social skills and unable to relate to others except through multi-player games – although this caricature appears far removed from children’s normal experience of computer gaming (Aisbett: Durkin and Aisbett). Such debates about the negative implications of the Internet and video games run simultaneously alongside government, educational and commercial promotion of these technologies, and the positioning of digital skills and connectivity as the key to children’s future education and employment. In this pro-technology discourse the family: …is being constructed as an entry point for the development of new computer-related literacies and social practices in young people … what is discursively produced within the global cultural economy as digital fun and games for young people, is simultaneously constructed as serious business for parents (Nixon 23). Thus, two conflicting discourses about children’s Internet use exist simultaneously whereby children are considered both “technically competent and at risk from their technical skills” (Valentine et al. 157). This anxiety is further exacerbated by the fear that parents are losing control of their children’s Internet activities because their own (the parents’) technical competencies are being surpassed by their children. Such fear may well be based on misleading information, particularly in the Australian context. The Australian Broadcasting Authority’s 2001 Internet@ home report “challenges the popular belief that parents lag behind their children in their interest and proficiency with online technology. Most often the household Internet ‘expert’ is an adult” (Aisbett 4). Nonetheless, this public anxiety is underscored by a concern that parents may not be sufficiently Internet-savvy to prevent their children’s access to pornography and other undesirable Internet content. This leads to the fundamental anxiety that parents’ natural power base will be diminished (Valentine et al. 157). In the case of children’s access to Internet porn it may well be that: although parents still occupy the role of initiated with regard to sexuality, if they are uninitiated technologically then they lose the power base from which to set the markers for progressive socialisation (Evans and Butkus 68). These popular fears do not take into consideration the context of Internet use in the real world—of children’s and parents’ actual experiences with and uses of the Internet. Parents have developed a variety of ways to manage these perceived risks in the home and are not usually overly concerned about their children’s exposure to unsuitable or inappropriate content on the Internet. Families’ everyday experiences of Internet consumption The home Internet is one site where most parents exercise some degree of care and control of their children, supervising both the quantity and quality of their children’s Internet experiences. When supervising their children’s access to particular Internet sites, parents in this study use a variety of strategies and approaches. These approaches range from a child-empowering ‘autonomous’ approach (which recognises children’s autonomy and competencies) to more authoritarian approaches (with the use of more direct supervision in order to restrict and protect children). At the same time children may use the Internet to affirm their autonomy or independence from their parents, as parents in this study affirm: He used to let me see the [onscreen] conversations but he won’t let me see them now. But that’s fine. If I come up and talk to him, he clicks the button and takes the screen off. (Kathy, pseudonyms used for interviewee contributions) Parents who tend to favour a child-empowering approach recognise their children’s autonomy, while at the same time having relatively high expectations of their children’s psychosocial competence and ability to handle a variety of media texts in a relatively sophisticated manner. When asked about her son’s access to adult Internet content, single mum Lisa indicated that Henry (17) had openly accessed Internet pornography a few years earlier. She expected (and allowed for) some exploration by her son. At the same time, she was not overly concerned that these materials would corrupt or harm him as she expected these explorations to be a transitory phase in his life: It doesn’t bother me at all. If he wants to do that then he can do it because he’ll get sick of it and I think initially it was ‘let’s see what we can do’. I remember once, he called me in and says ‘Mum, come and look at her boobs’ and I looked at it and I said ‘it’s disgusting’ or something and walked away and he laughed his head off. But I’ve never come in [lately] and found him looking at that stuff … It’s just not something that I’m … really worried about. It’s up to him (Lisa). As with this exchange, families often use media texts as tools in the socialisation of children. The provision of shared topics of conversation allows for discussions between generations: Such materials serve an agenda-setting role … [playing] an important role in providing a socioemotional context for the household within which learning takes place. Technoculture is consequently a critical tool for socialisation … ICTs also construct a framework on/with which to differentiate one member from another, to differentiate between generations, and to differentiate ways in which power and control can be asserted (Green 58). In this case, Lisa’s comment to her teenage son (‘it’s disgusting’) and her actions (in walking away) doubtlessly provided Henry with a social cue, an alternative attitude to his choice of online content. Further, in initiating this exchange with his mother, Henry is likely to have been making a statement about his own autonomy and transition into (heterosexual) manhood. In his interview, Henry openly acknowledged his earlier exploration of adult porn sites but (as his mother anticipated) he seems to have moved on from this particular phase. When asked whether he visited adult sites on the Internet Henry responded in his own succinct manner: Henry: Like porn and stuff? Not really. I probably did when I was a bit younger but it’s not really very exciting. Interviewer: That was when you first got it [the Internet] or when? Henry: Yeah, [two to three years earlier] all your friends come around and you check out the sites. It’s nothing exciting anymore. Sexual experiences and knowledge are an important currency within teenage boy culture (Holland et al. 1998) and like other teenage boys, Henry and his friends are likely to have used this technology in order to “negotiate their masculinity within the heterosexual economy of [their] peer group social relations”(Valentine et al. 160). In this case, it seemed to be a transitory stage within Henry’s peer (or community of interest) group and became less important as the teenagers grew into maturity. Many children and young people are also exploring the social world of Internet chat, with the potential risk of unwanted (and unsafe) face-to-face contact. Leonie, mother of teenage girls, explained her daughters’ ability to negotiate these potentially unsafe contacts: I suppose you just get a bit concerned about the chat lines and who they’re talking to sometimes but really they usually tell me … [to 17-year old daughter in the room] Like on the chat lines you, when, had that idiot … that one that was going to come over here. Just some idiots on there. A lot of the kids are teenagers. I know Shani’s [14] gotten on there a few times on the chat line and there’s been obviously someone asking them lewd questions and she’s usually blocked them and cut them off …(Leonie). Daughter Shani also discusses her experiences with unsafe (unwanted) Internet contact: “They go on about stuff that you don’t really want to talk about and it’s just ‘No, I don’t think so’” (Shani, 14). Shani went on to explain that she now prefers to use instant messaging with known (offline) friends—a preference now taken up by many teenagers (Holloway and Green: Livingstone and Bober). Electronic media play an important role in children’s transition to adulthood. The ubiquitousness of the World Wide Web, however, makes restriction and protection of children increasingly difficult to realise (Buckingham 84-5). Instead, many parents in this study are placing more importance on openness, consultation and discussion with their children about the media texts they encounter, rather than imposing restriction and regulation which these parents believe may well be “counter-productive” (Nightingale et al. 19). Of greater disquiet to many parents in this study than their children’s access to unsuitable online content is concern about their children’s possible excessive use of the Internet. Parents were typically more concerned about the amount of time some of their children were spending chatting to friends and playing online games. One mother explains: They [my daughters] started to use MSN whilst they were doing school work and obviously kids are able to listen to music, watch television, do a project. They can multi-task without all the confusion that I [would have] but we actually now, they’re not able to do MSN during the school week at all … so we now said to them, “if you want to ring somebody, give them a call, that’s fine, we don’t mind, but during the week no MSN” … we’ve actually restricted them (Stephanie). Parental concern about children’s excessive use of the Internet was most marked for parents of teenage children: adolescence being a time when “rules about media consumption can be an early site of resistance for young adults keen to take more power for themselves and their own lives” (Green 30). Father of two, Xavier, expressed his concern about (what he perceived as) his teenage son’s excessive use of the Internet: Well I think there’s far too much time … Gavin’ll spend a whole day on it. I try to get him to come to the footy on Sunday. No. He’s available for friends [for online gaming and chat on the Internet]. He’ll spend all day on the computer (Xavier). Son Gavin (16), in a separate interview, anticipated that this criticism had been made and felt compelled to counter it: Well he [dad] makes comments like saying I’m not fit enough ‘cause I spent too much time on the computer but I play soccer a lot. Like, I do sport perhaps everyday at school … I mean, I think, such a piece of crap (Gavin). Thus, the incorporation of the Internet into the domestic sphere often sees previously established boundaries (who uses what, when, where and for how long) redefined, challenged, resisted and defended by various family members. In this way the Internet (and other new media) helps shape (and is shaped by) the temporal and spatial boundaries within the home. Conclusion While all parents in the Family Internet study construct the Internet as a site which requires some level of care and control over their children’s online use, they use a variety of approaches when carrying out this supervisory role. Some parents tend to allow for children’s free exploration of the Internet and are relatively confident that their children are able to negotiate adult texts such as pornography in a comparatively sophisticated manner. Other parents, those inclined to protect their children from the dangers of adult content and unsafe Internet contact, choose to monitor and restrict their children’s access to the Internet to varying degrees. More consistent is parental concern about excessive use of the Internet, and the assumption that this displaces constructive use of children’s time. Public anxieties about children’s use of the Internet make assumptions about children’s media practices. Children (and their families) are often assumed to be less able to differentiate between suitable and unsuitable Internet texts and to deal with these potential dangers in a sensible manner. These fears presuppose a variety of negative impacts on children’s and young peoples’ lives which may have little to do with daily reality. Our exploration of families’ everyday experiences of Internet consumption highlights the disparity between public anxieties about Internet use and the importance of these anxieties in the everyday lives of families. The major concern of families – ill-disciplined and excessive Internet use – barely registers on the same scale as the public moral panic over children’s possible access to online pornography. These findings say less about the Internet as a locale in cyberspace than they do about the domestic dynamics of the household, parenting styles, relationships between parent(s) and children, and the sociocultural context of family life. References Aisbett, Kate. The Internet at Home: A Report on Internet Use in the Home. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Authority, 2001. Buckingham, David. After the Death of Childhood: Growing up in the Age of Electronic Media. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2000. Durkin, Kevin and Kate Aisbett. Computer Games and Australians Today. Sydney: Office of Film and Literature Classification, 1999. Evans, Mark and Clarice Butkus. “Regulating the Emergent: Cyberporn and the Traditional Media.” Media International Australia 85 (1997): 62-9. Green, Lelia. Technoculture: >From Alphabet to Cybersex. Crows Nest Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2002. Holland, Janet and Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson. The Male in the Head: Young People, Heterosexuality and Power. London: Tufnell Press, 1998. Holloway, Donell and Lelia Green. “Home Is Where You Hang Your @: Australian Women on the Net.” Communications Research Forum. Canberra: Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, 2003. Livingstone, Sonia and Magdalena Bober. UK Children Go Online: Listening to Young People’s Experiences. London: London School of Economics and Political Science, 2003. Marshall, P. David. “Technophobia: Video Games, Computer Hacks and Cybernetics.” Media International Australia 85 (1997): 70-8. Nightingale, Virginia, Dianne Dickenson and Catherine Griff. “Harm: Children’s Views About Media Harm and Program Classification.” Forum. Sydney, Australia, 2000. Nixon, Helen. “Fun and Games Are Serious Business.” Digital Diversions: Youth Culture in the Age of Multi-Media. Ed. J Sefton-Green. London: UCL Press, 1998. Silverstone, Roger, Eric Hirsch and David Morley. “Information and Communication and the Moral Economy of the Household.” Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces. Eds. Roger Silverstone and Eric Hirsch. London: Routledge, 1992. 17-31. Valentine, Gill, Sarah Holloway and Nick Bingham. “Transforming Cyberspace: Children’s Interventions in the New Public Sphere.” Children’s Geographies: Playing, Living, Learning. Eds. Sarah L. Holloway and Gill Valentine. London: Routledge, 2000. 156 – 93. MLA Style Holloway, Donell, Lelia Green & Robyn Quin. "What Porn?: Children and the Family Internet." M/C Journal 7.4 (2004). 10 October 2004 <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0410/02_children.php>. APA Style Holloway, D., Green, L. & Quin, R. (2004 Oct 11). What Porn?: Children and the Family Internet, M/C Journal, 7(4). Retrieved Oct 10 2004 from <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0410/02_children.php>

We are enslaved by speed and have succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods. -- Manifesto of the Slow Food movement In Australia, we like our food fast. We spend more than a third of our average weekly household budget eating out or on takeaway food, a figure that may jump to 50% in the next five years (Macken). An ever increasing proportion of the food we do prepare at home has been processed for convenience, so that now we manage to spend just an hour and a half eating and drinking each day, or less time than we spend watching television (ABS, How Australians). If the sharing of food fosters family and social ties, and strong family and social relationships are an integral part of civil society, statistics such as these should give us pause. While it is beyond the scope of this article to give this topic the full attention it deserves, the article will nonetheless briefly examine some of the implications of life on the fast-food track. But first, why have we become so reliant on convenience foods? One reason is that significant numbers of women have entered the workforce during the last few decades and today, more than 60 percent of Australian women who are married work outside the home (ABS, Labour Force). As the value of women's labour in the market increases, their time becomes a more precious commodity and they seek ways to use it more efficiently (Bourdieu). Because women have traditionally been responsible for the preparation of family meals, and continue to shoulder most of the responsibility regardless of their role in the workforce, they naturally look for ways to save time buying and cooking food. However, this is not a trend confined solely to working women with families, but rather one that crosses many demographic and economic lines. We all seem to feel our time is at a premium, even though we are actually working less (ABS, Social Trends). That is because we are increasingly placing a greater value on our leisure time, and although we have more of it because of the shorter hours we work and the multitude of time-saving devices we use, we do not want to spend our free time shopping for food (Cheeseman & Breddin) or cooking it. Instead, our preferred activities are watching television and videos, socialising and talking, listening to the radio and reading (ABS, Social Trends). Interestingly, we have placed socialising and the family meal into completely separate categories. But first, why have we become so reliant on convenience foods? One reason is that significant numbers of women have entered the workforce during the last few decades and today, more than 60 percent of Australian women who are married work outside the home (ABS, Labour Force). As the value of women's labour in the market increases, their time becomes a more precious commodity and they seek ways to use it more efficiently (Bourdieu). Because women have traditionally been responsible for the preparation of family meals, and continue to shoulder most of the responsibility regardless of their role in the workforce, they naturally look for ways to save time buying and cooking food. However, this is not a trend confined solely to working women with families, but rather one that crosses many demographic and economic lines. We all seem to feel our time is at a premium, even though we are actually working less (ABS, Social Trends). That is because we are increasingly placing a greater value on our leisure time, and although we have more of it because of the shorter hours we work and the multitude of time-saving devices we use, we do not want to spend our free time shopping for food (Cheeseman & Breddin) or cooking it. Instead, our preferred activities are watching television and videos, socialising and talking, listening to the radio and reading (ABS, Social Trends). Interestingly, we have placed socialising and the family meal into completely separate categories. While the nutritional benefits derived from 'replaced' meals may be questionable, there are more important considerations at stake. People who have come to feel they do not have time to cook are not likely to feel they can spare much time to eat, either. 'Eating on the run' has now become part of our lexicon. And truthfully, who would want to linger over a meal made from reconstituted foods? But more importantly, what message do meals such as these impart to those who eat them? The social engagement, for example, that occurs over a frozen dinner "is very different to that which occurs over a long meal that has been carefully prepared and is shared with family or friends" (Finkelstein). The message inherent in quickly prepared or purchased foods that are in turn quickly consumed, often at different times by different members of the family or household, is that the family or communal meal is not an occasion worthy of much attention. Nothing can be farther from the truth. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, food is at the very core of sociality. Humans evolved as food-sharing animals (van den Berghe), and the origin of the family can be traced in large part to the necessity of sharing meals. Today, meal times not only serve to strengthen family and social ties, but also to acculturate children into the norms of 'civilised' behaviour" (Lupton). Yet, they are under attack as family members are increasingly left to forage for food on their own. We need to consider what social and emotional skills our children are developing as they nibble on leftover pizza by the kitchen sink or unwrap their microwaved meal in front of the television. In an interview with Psychology Today, Ruth Reichl, renowned food writer and current editor of Gourmet magazine, said that the trend for family members to eat five-minute meals on their own will have a profound psychological impact on future generations of children, who will have missed out on a vital part of the socialisation process (Toufexis). Perhaps the Slow Food movement, then, has hit upon something. Its manifesto states, "a firm defense of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life... . Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors and savors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food" (Slow Food). The movement was founded in Italy in 1986 by Carlos Petrini as a reaction to the establishment of a McDonald's near Rome's historic Spanish Steps. While global fast food colonisation is certainly a rallying point, the movement also encourages members to eat seasonal foods, support and protect regional cuisines, reinstate the ritual of family dining and educate children's palates. Mostly, however, Slow Food is about taking the time to enjoy a meal, to value the ingredients that go into it, and to share it with friends and family. It is appropriate, then, that the movement's symbol is a snail, "a talisman against speed" (Slow Food). While speed may be exciting, fast foods are not, and the idea of slowing down to savour meals with family and friends is one that is gaining momentum. The Slow Food movement, which started with a few delegates from 15 countries just over a decade ago, has now grown to 60,000 members in 35 countries, complete with 400 convivia, or local branches. Australia hosts eight of these chapters. Maggie Beer, the well-known Barossa Valley chef, entrepreneur and food writer, is also a Slow Food member. Her solution to the daily dinner dilemma is simple: by planning ahead and keeping a well-stocked pantry, it is possible for time-constrained cooks to have at hand many of the ingredients they need to make simple and nutritious meals in as much time as it takes to go get takeaway food (Beer). Nonetheless, keeping the pantry well-stocked with quality foods instead of dinners-in-a-packet means deciding that meals matter, that they are worthy of consideration and of time spent in preparation and consumption, and that the long-term rewards of Slow Food are worth far more than the short-term benefits of Fast Food. As the training grounds for future generations and important sites of reconnection for current ones, meals should be welcomed as opportunities for interaction rather than chores to be completed as quickly as possible. They should make people want to linger, while enjoying the company, the conversation and the food. As the French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in the early nineteenth century: One may find round a single table all the modifications which extreme sociability has introduced into our midst: love, friendship, business, speculation, influence, solicitation, patronage, ambition, intrigue; that is why conviviality affects every aspect of human life, and bears fruits of every flavour. (Brillat-Savarin). Reviving the ritual of a family meal does not mean returning to 'traditional' 1950s household dynamics, but rather, adopting a modern view that meals are important, even vital, and that all members of a family should contribute to making them special. The preparation of a meal can become part of the social process; Italo-Australians, for example, have turned the making of tomato sauce into a very communal and social event that draws friends and family closer together. It is a type of meal preparation that can be replicated on a far smaller scale by simply involving family members, housemates and partners in the making of a meal, which can be accomplished in a myriad of ways by people of varying ages and skills. However, it means periodically suspending time, for a good meal that satisfies body and soul cannot be rushed. The evidence suggests, however, that many of us are not yet able to jump off the treadmill, even though the current trend toward faster and faster foods may have a significant impact on the structure of the family and the nature of our relationships with each other. If we continue to eat on the run, if we consistently eat meals that do not make us want to linger, then we may find ourselves in danger of losing that uniquely human ritual of sharing food, which is a cornerstone of our sociality, the bedrock of family life and a building block of our collective spirit. Much does, indeed, depend on dinner. References Australian Bureau of Statistics. How Australians Use Their Time. Canberra: ABS, 1998. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families, Australia. Canberra: ABS, 1999. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Social Trends 1999. Canberra: ABS, 1999. Beer, Maggie. "Advance Australia's Fare." The Australian Magazine 1-2 Jan. 2000: 40. Van den Berghe, Pierre. "Ethnic Cuisine: Culture in Nature." Ethnic and Racial Studies 7.3 (1984): 387-97. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984. Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme. The Philosopher in the Kitchen. Trans. Anne Drayton. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970. Cheeseman, Noel, and Robyn Breddin. Food Retailing in Australia. Brisbane: Queensland Department of Primary Industries, 1995. Finkelstein, Joanne. "Fast Foods: The Dangers of Eating Too Quickly." Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy: Much Depends on Dinner. Melbourne, 1991. 173-7. Lupton, Deborah. Food, the Body and the Self. London: Sage, 1996. Macken, Deirdre. "The Death of the Kitchen: Will Cooking Survive the 1990s?" Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum 7 Sep. 1996: 10s. Mangosi, Sandro. "Pie-and-Sandwich Corner Shop Threatened by Dynamics of Fast Food Industry." BIS Shrapnel News Release. 18 May 2000. Slattery, Geoff. "Accept No Imitations." The Age Food 11 May 1999. Slow Food. "Manifesto." 2000. 1 June 2000 <http://www.slowfood.com/>. Toufexis, Anastasia. "Dishing with Ruth Reichl." Psychology Today 31.6 (Nov.-Dec. 1998): 48. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Gwendolyn Stansbury. "Arresting Fast Food." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.3 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0006/food.php>. Chicago style: Gwendolyn Stansbury, "Arresting Fast Food," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 3 (2000), <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0006/food.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Gwendolyn Stansbury. (2000) Arresting fast food. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(3). <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0006/food.php> ([your date of access]).

“...children’s play seems to become more and more a product of the educational and cultural orientation of parents...” — Stephen Kline, The Making of Children’s Culture We live in a world saturated by design and through design artefacts, one can glean unique insights into a culture's values and norms. In fact, some academics, such as British media and film theorist Ben Highmore, see the two areas so inextricably intertwined as to suggest a wholesale “re-branding of the cultural sciences as design studies” (14). Too often, however, everyday objects are marginalised or overlooked as objects of scholarly attention. The field of material culture studies seeks to change that by focussing on the quotidian object and its ability to reveal much about the time, place, and culture in which it was designed and used. This article takes on one such object, a mid-century children's toy tea set, whose humble journey from 1968 Sears catalogue to 2014 thrift shop—and subsequently this author’s basement—reveals complex rhetorical messages communicated both visually and verbally. As material culture studies theorist Jules Prown notes, the field’s foundation is laid upon the understanding “that objects made ... by man reflect, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, the beliefs of individuals who made, commissioned, purchased or used them, and by extension the beliefs of the larger society to which they belonged” (1-2). In this case, the objects’ material and aesthetic characteristics can be shown to reflect some of the pervasive stereotypes and gender roles of the mid-century and trace some of the prevailing tastes of the American middle class of that era, or perhaps more accurately the type of design that came to represent good taste and a modern aesthetic for that audience. A wealth of research exists on the function of toys and play in learning about the world and even the role of toy selection in early sex-typing, socialisation, and personal identity of children (Teglasi). This particular research area isn’t the focus of this article; however, one aspect that is directly relevant and will be addressed is the notion of adult role-playing among children and the role of toys in communicating certain adult practices or values to the child—what sociologist David Oswell calls “the dedifferentiation of childhood and adulthood” (200). Neither is the focus of this article the practice nor indeed the ethicality of marketing to children. Relevant to this particular example I suggest, is as a product utilising messaging aimed not at children but at adults, appealing to certain parents’ interest in nurturing within their child a perceived era and class-appropriate sense of taste. This was fuelled in large part by the curatorial pursuits of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, coupled with an interest and investment in raising their children in a design-forward household and a desire for toys that reflected that priority; in essence, parents wishing to raise modern children. Following Prown’s model of material culture analysis, the tea set is examined in three stages, through description, deduction and speculation with each stage building on the previous one. Figure 1: Porcelain Toy Tea Set. Description The tea set consists of twenty-six pieces that allows service for six. Six cups, saucers, and plates; a tall carafe with spout, handle and lid; a smaller vessel with a spout and handle; a small round bowl with a lid; a larger oval bowl with a lid, and a coordinated oval platter. The cups are just under two inches tall and two inches in diameter. The largest piece, the platter is roughly six inches by four inches. The pieces are made of a ceramic material white in colour and glossy in texture and are very lightweight. The rim or edge of each piece is decorated with a motif of three straight lines in two different shades of blue and in different thicknesses, interspersed with a set of three black wiggly lines. Figure 2: Porcelain Toy Tea Set Box. The set is packaged for retail purposes and the original box appears to be fully intact. The packaging of an object carries artefactual evidence just as important as what it contains that falls into the category of a “‘para-artefact’ … paraphernalia that accompanies the product (labels, packaging, instructions etc.), all of which contribute to a product’s discourse” (Folkmann and Jensen 83). The graphics on the box are colourful, featuring similar shades of teal blue as found on the objects, with the addition of orange and a silver sticker featuring the logo of the American retailer Sears. The cover features an illustration of the objects on an orange tabletop. The most prominent text that confirms that the toy is a “Porcelain Toy Tea Set” is in an organic, almost psychedelic style that mimics both popular graphics of this era—especially album art and concert posters—as well as the organic curves of steam that emanate from the illustrated teapot’s spout. Additional messages appear on the box, in particular “Contemporary DESIGN” and “handsome, clean-line styling for modern little hostesses”. Along the edges of the box lid, a detail of the decorative motif is reproduced somewhat abstracted from what actually appears on the ceramic objects. Figure 3: Sears’s Christmas Wishbook Catalogue, page 574 (1968). Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Sears) is well-known for its over one-hundred-year history of producing printed merchandise catalogues. The catalogue is another important para-artefact to consider in analysing the objects. The tea set first appeared in the 1968 Sears Christmas Wishbook. There is no date or copyright on the box, so only its inclusion in the catalogue allows the set to be accurately dated. It also allows us to understand how the set was originally marketed. Deduction In the deduction phase, we focus on the sensory aesthetic and functional interactive qualities of the various components of the set. In terms of its function, it is critical that we situate the objects in their original use context, play. The light weight of the objects and thinness of the ceramic material lends the objects a delicate, if not fragile, feeling which indicates that this set is not for rough use. Toy historian Lorraine May Punchard differentiates between toy tea sets “meant to be used by little girls, having parties for their friends and practising the social graces of the times” and smaller sets or doll dishes “made for little girls to have parties with their dolls, or for their dolls to have parties among themselves” (7). Similar sets sold by Sears feature images of girls using the sets with both human playmates and dolls. The quantity allowing service for six invites multiple users to join the party. The packaging makes clear that these toy tea sets were intended for imaginary play only, rendering them non-functional through an all-capitals caution declaiming “IMPORTANT: Do not use near heat”. The walls and handles of the cups are so thin one can imagine that they would quickly become dangerous if filled with a hot liquid. Nevertheless, the lid of the oval bowl has a tan stain or watermark which suggests actual use. The box is broken up by pink cardboard partitions dividing it into segments sized for each item in the set. Interestingly even the small squares of unfinished corrugated cardboard used as cushioning between each stacked plate have survived. The evidence of careful re-packing indicates that great care was taken in keeping the objects safe. It may suggest that even though the set was used, the children or perhaps the parents, considered the set as something to care for and conserve for the future. Flaws in the glaze and applique of the design motif can be found on several pieces in the set and offer some insight as to the technique used in producing these items. Errors such as the design being perfectly evenly spaced but crooked in its alignment to the rim, or pieces of the design becoming detached or accidentally folded over and overlapping itself could only be the result of a print transfer technique popularised with decorative china of the Victorian era, a technique which lends itself to mass production and lower cost when compared to hand decoration. Speculation In the speculation stage, we can consider the external evidence and begin a more rigorous investigation of the messaging, iconography, and possible meanings of the material artefact. Aspects of the set allow a number of useful observations about the role of such an object in its own time and context. Sociologists observe the role of toys as embodiments of particular types of parental messages and values (Cross 292) and note how particularly in the twentieth century “children’s play seems to become more and more a product of the educational and cultural orientation of parents” (Kline 96). Throughout history children’s toys often reflected a miniaturised version of the adult world allowing children to role-play as imagined adult-selves. Kristina Ranalli explored parallels between the practice of drinking tea and the play-acting of the child’s tea party, particularly in the nineteenth century, as a gendered ritual of gentility; a method of socialisation and education, and an opportunity for exploratory and even transgressive play by “spontaneously creating mini-societies with rules of their own” (20). Such toys and objects were available through the Sears mail-order catalogue from the very beginning at the end of the nineteenth century (McGuire). Propelled by the post-war boom of suburban development and homeownership—that generation’s manifestation of the American Dream—concern with home décor and design was elevated among the American mainstream to a degree never before seen. There was a hunger for new, streamlined, efficient, modernist living. In his essay titled “Domesticating Modernity”, historian Jeffrey L. Meikle notes that many early modernist designers found that perhaps the most potent way to “‘domesticate’ modernism and make it more familiar was to miniaturise it; for example, to shrink the skyscraper and put it into the home as furniture or tableware” (143). Dr Timothy Blade, curator of the 1985 exhibition of girls’ toys at the University of Minnesota’s Goldstein Gallery—now the Goldstein Museum of Design—described in his introduction “a miniaturised world with little props which duplicate, however rudely, the larger world of adults” (5). Noting the power of such toys to reflect adult values of their time, Blade continues: “the microcosm of the child’s world, remarkably furnished by the miniaturised props of their parents’ world, holds many direct and implied messages about the society which brought it into being” (9). In large part, the mid-century Sears catalogues capture the spirit of an era when, as collector Thomas Holland observes, “little girls were still primarily being offered only the options of glamour, beauty and parenthood as the stuff of their fantasies” (175). Holland notes that “the Wishbooks of the fifties [and, I would add, the sixties] assumed most girls would follow in their mother’s footsteps to become full-time housewives and mommies” (1). Blade grouped toys into three categories: cooking, cleaning, and sewing. A tea set could arguably be considered part of the cooking category, but closer examination of the language used in marketing this object—“little hostesses”, et cetera—suggests an emphasis not on cooking but on serving or entertaining. This particular category was not prevalent in the era examined by Blade, but the cultural shifts of the mid-twentieth century, particularly the rapid popularisation of a suburban lifestyle, may have led to the use of entertaining as an additional distinct category of role play in the process of learning to become a “proper” homemaker. Sears and other retailers offered a wide variety of styles of toy tea sets during this era. Blade and numerous other sources observe that children’s toy furniture and appliances tended to reflect the style and aesthetic qualities of their contemporary parallels in the adult world, the better to associate the child’s objects to its adult equivalent. The toy tea set’s packaging trumpets messages intended to appeal to modernist values and identity including “Contemporary Design” and “handsome, clean-line styling for modern little hostesses”. The use of this coded marketing language, aimed particularly at parents, can be traced back several decades. In 1928 a group of American industrial and textile designers established the American Designers' Gallery in New York, in part to encourage American designers to innovate and adopt new styles such as those seen in the L’ Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (1925) in Paris, the exposition that sparked international interest in the Art Deco or Art Moderne aesthetic. One of the gallery founders, Ilonka Karasz, a Hungarian-American industrial and textile designer who had studied in Austria and was influenced by the Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, publicised her new style of nursery furnishings as “designed for the very modern American child” (Brown 80). Sears itself was no stranger to the appeal of such language. The term “contemporary design” was ubiquitous in catalogue copy of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, used to describe everything from draperies (1959) and bedspreads (1961) to spice racks (1964) and the Lady Kenmore portable dishwasher (1961). An emphasis on the role of design in one’s life and surroundings can be traced back to efforts by MoMA. The museum’s interest in modern design hearkens back almost to the institution’s inception, particularly in relation to industrial design and the aestheticisation of everyday objects (Marshall). Through exhibitions and in partnership with mass-market magazines, department stores and manufacturer showrooms, MoMA curators evangelised the importance of “good design” a term that can be found in use as early as 1942. What Is Good Design? followed the pattern of prior exhibitions such as What Is Modern Painting? and situated modern design at the centre of exhibitions that toured the United States in the first half of the nineteen-fifties. To MoMA and its partners, “good design” signified the narrow identification of proper taste in furniture, home decor and accessories; effectively, the establishment of a design canon. The viewpoints enshrined in these exhibitions and partnerships were highly influential on the nation’s perception of taste for decades to come, as the trickle-down effect reached a much broader segment of consumers than those that directly experienced the museum or its exhibitions (Lawrence.) This was evident not only at high-end shops such as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. Even mass-market retailers sought out well-known figures of modernist design to contribute to their offerings. Sears, for example, commissioned noted modernist designer and ceramicist Russel Wright to produce a variety of serving ware and decor items exclusively for the company. Notably for this study, he was also commissioned to create a toy tea set for children. The 1957 Wishbook touts the set as “especially created to delight modern little misses”. Within its Good Design series, MoMA exhibitions celebrated numerous prominent Nordic designers who were exploring simplified forms and new material technologies. In the 1968 Wishbook, the retailer describes the Porcelain Toy Tea Set as “Danish-inspired china for young moderns”. The reference to Danish design is certainly compatible with the modernist appeal; after the explosion in popularity of Danish furniture design, the term “Danish Modern” was commonly used in the nineteen-fifties and sixties as shorthand for pan-Scandinavian or Nordic design, or more broadly for any modern furniture design regardless of origin that exhibited similar characteristics. In subsequent decades the notion of a monolithic Scandinavian-Nordic design aesthetic or movement has been debunked as primarily an economically motivated marketing ploy (Olivarez et al.; Fallan). In the United States, the term “Danish Modern” became so commonly misused that the Danish Society for Arts and Crafts called upon the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to legally restrict the use of the labels “Danish” and “Danish Modern” to companies genuinely originating in Denmark. Coincidentally the FTC ruled on this in 1968, noting “that ‘Danish Modern’ carries certain meanings, and... that consumers might prefer goods that are identified with a foreign culture” (Hansen 451). In the case of the Porcelain Toy Tea Set examined here, Sears was not claiming that the design was “Danish” but rather “Danish-inspired”. One must wonder, was this another coded marketing ploy to communicate a sense of “Good Design” to potential customers? An examination of the formal qualities of the set’s components, particularly the simplified geometric forms and the handle style of the cups, confirms that it is unlike a traditional—say, Victorian-style—tea set. Punchard observes that during this era some American tea sets were actually being modelled on coffee services rather than traditional tea services (148). A visual comparison of other sets sold by Sears in the same year reveals a variety of cup and pot shapes—with some similar to the set in question—while others exhibit more traditional teapot and cup shapes. Coffee culture was historically prominent in Nordic cultures so there is at least a passing reference to that aspect of Nordic—if not specifically Danish—influence in the design. But what of the decorative motif? Simple curved lines were certainly prominent in Danish furniture and architecture of this era, and occasionally found in combination with straight lines, but no connection back to any specific Danish motif could be found even after consultation with experts in the field from the Museum of Danish America and the Vesterheim National Norwegian-American Museum (personal correspondence). However, knowing that the average American consumer of this era—even the design-savvy among them—consumed Scandinavian design without distinguishing between the various nations, a possible explanation could be contained in the promotion of Finnish textiles at the time. In the decade prior to the manufacture of the tea set a major design tendency began to emerge in the United States, triggered by the geometric design motifs of the Finnish textile and apparel company Marimekko. Marimekko products were introduced to the American market in 1959 via the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based retailer Design Research (DR) and quickly exploded in popularity particularly after would-be First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy appeared in national media wearing Marimekko dresses during the 1960 presidential campaign and on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine. (Thompson and Lange). The company’s styling soon came to epitomise a new youth aesthetic of the early nineteen sixties in the United States, a softer and more casual predecessor to the London “mod” influence. During this time multiple patterns were released that brought a sense of whimsy and a more human touch to classic mechanical patterns and stripes. The patterns Piccolo (1953), Helmipitsi (1959), and Varvunraita (1959), all designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi offered varying motifs of parallel straight lines. Maija Isola's Silkkikuikka (1961) pattern—said to be inspired by the plumage of the Great Crested Grebe—combined parallel serpentine lines with straight and angled lines, available in a variety of colours. These and other geometrically inspired patterns quickly inundated apparel and decor markets. DR built a vastly expanded Cambridge flagship store and opened new locations in New York in 1961 and 1964, and in San Francisco in 1965 fuelled in no small part by the fact that they remained the exclusive outlet for Marimekko in the United States. It is clear that Marimekko’s approach to pattern influenced designers and manufacturers across industries. Design historian Lesley Jackson demonstrates that Marimekko designs influenced or were emulated by numerous other companies across Scandinavia and beyond (72-78). The company’s influence grew to such an extent that some described it as a “conquest of the international market” (Hedqvist and Tarschys 150). Subsequent design-forward retailers such as IKEA and Crate and Barrel continue to look to Marimekko even today for modern design inspiration. In 2016 the mass-market retailer Target formed a design partnership with Marimekko to offer an expansive limited-edition line in their stores, numbering over two hundred items. So, despite the “Danish” misnomer, it is quite conceivable that designers working for or commissioned by Sears in 1968 may have taken their aesthetic cues from Marimekko’s booming work, demonstrating a clear understanding of the contemporary high design aesthetic of the time and coding the marketing rhetoric accordingly even if incorrectly. Conclusion The Sears catalogue plays a unique role in capturing cross-sections of American culture not only as a sales tool but also in Holland’s words as “a beautifully illustrated diary of America, it’s [sic] people and the way we thought about things” (1). Applying a rhetorical and material culture analysis to the catalogue and the objects within it provides a unique glimpse into the roles these objects played in mediating relationships, transmitting values and embodying social practices, tastes and beliefs of mid-century American consumers. Adult consumers familiar with the characteristics of the culture of “Good Design” potentially could have made a connection between the simplified geometric forms of the components of the toy tea set and say the work of modernist tableware designers such as Kaj Franck, or between the set’s graphic pattern and the modernist motifs of Marimekko and its imitators. But for a much broader segment of the population with a less direct understanding of modernist aesthetics, those connections may not have been immediately apparent. The rhetorical messaging behind the objects’ packaging and marketing used class and taste signifiers such as modern, contemporary and “Danish” to reinforce this connection to effect an emotional and aspirational appeal. These messages were coded to position the set as an effective transmitter of modernist values and to target parents with the ambition to create “appropriately modern” environments for their children. 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Folkmann, Mads Nygaard, and Hans-Christian Jensen. “Subjectivity in Self-Historicization: Design and Mediation of a ‘New Danish Modern’ Living Room Set.” Design and Culture 7.1 (2015): 65–84. Hansen, Per H. “Networks, Narratives, and New Markets: The Rise and Decline of Danish Modern Furniture Design, 1930–1970.” The Business History Review 80.3 (2006): 449–83. Hedqvist, Hedvig, and Rebecka Tarschys. “Thoughts on the International Reception of Marimekko.” Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashions, Architecture. Ed. Marianne Aav. Bard. 2003. 149–71. Highmore, Ben. The Design Culture Reader. Routledge, 2008. Holland, Thomas W. Girls’ Toys of the Fifties and Sixties: Memorable Catalog Pages from the Legendary Sears Christmas Wishbooks, 1950-1969. Windmill, 1997. Hucal, Sarah. "Scandi Crush Saga: How Scandinavian Design Took over the World." Curbed, 23 Mar. 2016. <http://www.curbed.com/2016/3/23/11286010/scandinavian-design-arne-jacobsen-alvar-aalto-muuto-artek>. Jackson, Lesley. “Textile Patterns in an International Context: Precursors, Contemporaries, and Successors.” Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashions, Architecture. Ed. Marianne Aav. Bard. 2003. 44–83. Kline, Stephen. “The Making of Children’s Culture.” The Children’s Culture Reader. Ed. Henry Jenkins. New York: NYU P, 1998. 95–109. Lawrence, Sidney. “Declaration of Function: Documents from the Museum of Modern Art’s Design Crusade, 1933-1950.” Design Issues 2.1 (1985): 65–77. Marshall, Jennifer Jane. Machine Art 1934. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2012. McGuire, Sheila. “Playing House: Sex-Roles and the Child’s World.” Child’s Play, Woman’s Work: An Exhibition of Miniature Toy Appliances : June 12, 1985–September 29, 1985. St. Paul: Goldstein Gallery, U Minnesota, 1985. Meikel, Jeffrey L. “Domesticating Modernity: Ambivalence and Appropriation, 1920–1940.” Designing Modernity; the Arts of Reform and Persuasion. Ed. Wendy Kaplan. Thames & Hudson, 1995. 143–68. O’Brien, Marion, and Aletha C. Huston. “Development of Sex-Typed Play Behavior in Toddlers.” Developmental Psychology, 21.5 (1985): 866–71. Olivarez, Jennifer Komar, Jukka Savolainen, and Juulia Kauste. Finland: Designed Environments. Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Nordic Heritage Museum, 2014. Oswell, David. The Agency of Children: From Family to Global Human Rights. Cambridge UP, 2013. Prown, Jules David. “Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method.” Winterthur Portfolio 17.1 (1982): 1–19. Punchard, Lorraine May. Child’s Play: Play Dishes, Kitchen Items, Furniture, Accessories. Punchard, 1982. Ranalli, Kristina. An Act Apart: Tea-Drinking, Play and Ritual. Master's thesis. U Delaware, 2013. Sears Corporate Archives. “What Is a Sears Modern Home?” n.d. <http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/index.htm>. "Target Announces New Design Partnership with Marimekko: It’s Finnish, Target Style." Target, 2 Mar. 2016. <http://corporate.target.com/article/2016/03/marimekko-for-target>. 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IntroductionAccounts of mentoring relationships inevitably draw attention to hierarchies of expertise, knowledge and learning. While public concerns about both the risks and benefits for young people of social media, little attention has been given to the nature of the mentoring role that parents and families play alongside of schools. This conceptual paper explores models of mentorship in the context of family dynamics as they are affected by social media use. This is a context that explicitly disrupts hierarchical structures of mentoring in that new media, and particularly social media use, tends to be driven by youth cultural practices, identity formation, experimentation and autonomy-seeking practices (see for example: Robards; boyd; Campos-Holland et al.; Hodkinson). A growing body of research supports the notion that young people are more skilled in navigating social media platforms than their parents (FOSI; Campos-Holland et al.). This research establishes that uncertainty and tension derived from parents’ impression that their children know more about social media they do (FOSI; Sorbring) has brought about a market for advice and educational programs. In the content of this paper it is notable that when family dynamics and young people’s social media use are addressed through notions of digital citizenship or cyber safety programs, a hierarchical mentorship is assumed, but also problematised; thus the expertise hierarchy is inverted. This paper argues that use of social media platforms, networks, and digital devices challenges traditional hierarchies of expertise in family environments. Family members, parents and children in particular, are involved in ongoing, complex conversations and negotiations about expertise in relation to technology and social media use. These negotiations open up an alternative space for mentorship, challenging traditional roles and suggesting the need for cooperative processes. And this, in turn, can inspire new ways of relating with and through social media and mobile technologies within the family.Inverting Expertise: Social Media, Family and MentoringSocial media are deeply embedded in everyday routines for the vast majority of the population. The emergence of the ‘networked society’, characterised by increasing and pervasive digital and social connectivity, has the potential to create new forms of social interactions within and across networks (Rainie and Wellman), but also to reconfigure intergenerational and family relations. In this way, social media introduces new power asymmetries that affect family dynamics and in particular relationships between young people and their parents. This relatively new mediated environment, by default, exposes young people to social contexts well beyond family and immediate peers making their lived experiences individual, situational and contextual (Swist et al.). The perceived risks this introduces can provoke tensions within families looking to manage those uncertain social contexts, in the process problematising traditional structures of mentorship. Mentoring is a practice predominantly understood within educational and professional workplace settings (Ambrosetti and Dekkers). Although different definitions can be found across disciplines, most models position a mentor as a more experienced knowledge holder, implying a hierarchical relationship between a mentor and mentee (Ambrosetti and Dekkers). Stereotypically, a mentor is understood to be older, wiser and more experienced, while a mentee is, in turn, younger and in need of guidance – a protégé. Alternative models of mentorship see mentoring as a reciprocal process (Eby, Rhodes and Allen; Naweed and Ambrosetti).This “reciprocal” perspective on mentorship recognises the opportunity both sides in the process have to contribute and benefit from the relationship. However, in situations where one party in the relationship does not have the expected knowledge, skills or confidence, this reciprocity becomes more difficult. Thus, as an alternative, asymmetrical or cooperative mentorship lies between the hierarchical and reciprocal (Naweed and Ambrosetti). It suggests that the more experienced side (whichever it is) takes a lead while mentoring is negotiated in a way that meets both sides’ needs. The parent-child relationship is generally understood in hierarchical terms. Traditionally, parents are considered to be mentors for their children, particularly in acquiring new skills and facilitating transitions towards adult life. Such perspectives on parent-child relationships are based on a “deficit” approach to youth, “whereby young people are situated as citizens-in-the-making” (Collin). Social media further problematises the hierarchical dynamic with the role of knowledge holder varying between and within the family members. In many contemporary mediated households, across developed and wealthy nations, technologically savvy children are actively tailoring their own childhoods. This is a context that requires a reconceptualisation of traditional mentoring models within the family context and recognition of each stakeholder’s expertise, knowledge and agency – a position that is markedly at odds with traditional deficit models. Negotiating Social Media Use within the FamilyIn the early stages of the internet and social media research, a generational gap was often at the centre of debates. Although highly contested, Prensky’s metaphor of digital natives and digital immigrants persists in both the popular media and academic literature. This paradigm portrays young people as tech savvy in contrast with their parents. However, such assumptions are rarely grounded in empirical evidence (Hargittai). Nonetheless, while parents are active users of social media, they find it difficult to negotiate social media use with their children (Sorbring). Some studies suggest that parental concerns arise from impressions that their children know more about social media than they do (FOSI; Wang, Bianchi and Raley). Additionally, parental concern with a child’s social media use is positively correlated with the child’s age; parents of older children are less confident in their skills and believe that their child is more digitally skillful (FOSI). However, it may be more productive to understand social media expertise within the family as shared: intermittently fluctuating between parents and children. In developed and wealthy countries, children are already using digital media by the age of five and throughout their pre-teen years predominantly for play and learning, and as teenagers they are almost universally avid social media users (Nansen; Nansen et al.; Swist et al.). Smartphone ownership has increased significantly among young people in Australia, reaching almost 80% in 2015, a proportion nearly identical to the adult population (Australian Communications and Media Authority). In addition, most young people are using multiple devices switching between them according to where, when and with whom they connect (Australian Communications and Media Authority). The locations of internet use have also diversified. While the home remains the most common site, young people make use of mobile devices to access the internet at school, friend’s homes, and via public Wi-Fi hotspots (Australian Communications and Media Authority). As a result, social media access and engagement has become more frequent and personalised and tied to processes of socialisation and well-being (Sorbring; Swist et al.). These developments have been rapid, introducing asymmetry into the parent-child mentoring dynamic along with family tensions about rules, norms and behaviours of media use. Negotiating an appropriate balance between emerging autonomy and parental oversight has always featured as a primary parenting challenge and social media seem to have introduced a new dimension in this context. A 2016 Pew report on parents, teens, and digital monitoring reveals that social media use has become central to the establishment of family rules and disciplinary practices, with over two thirds of parents reporting the use of “digital grounding” as punishment (Pew). As well as restricting social media use, the majority of parents report limiting the amount of time and times of day their children can be online. Interestingly, while parents engage in a variety of hands-on approaches to monitoring and regulating children’s social media use, they are less likely to use monitoring software, blocking/filtering online content, tracking locations and the like (Pew). These findings suggest that parents may lack confidence in technology-based restrictions or prefer pro-active, family based approaches involving discussion about appropriate social media use. This presents an opportunity to explore how social media produces new forms of parent-child relationships that might be best understood through the lens of cooperative models of mentorship. Digital Parenting: Technological and Pedagogical Interventions Parents along with educators and policy makers are looking for technological solutions to the knowledge gap, whether perceived or real, associated with concerns regarding young people’s social media use. Likewise, technology and social media companies are rushing to develop and sell advice, safety filters and resources of all kinds to meet such parental needs (Clark; McCosker). This relatively under-researched field requires further exploration and dissociation from the discourse of risk and fear (Livingstone). Furthermore, in order to develop opportunities modelled on concepts of cooperative mentoring, such programs and interventions need to move away from hierarchical assumptions about the nature of expertise within family contexts. As Collin and Swist point out, online campaigns aimed at addressing young people and children’s safety and wellbeing “are often still designed by adult ‘experts’” (Collin and Swist). A cooperative mentoring approach within family contexts would align with recent use of co-design or participatory design within social and health research and policy (Collin and Swist). In order to think through the potential of cooperative mentorship approaches in relation to social media use within the family, we examine some of the digital resources available to parents.Prominent US cyber safety and digital citizenship program Cyberwise is a commercial website founded by Diana Graber and Cynthia Lieberman, with connections to Verizon Wireless, Google and iKeepSafe among many other partnerships. In addition to learning resources around topics like “Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World”, Cyberwise offers online and face to face workshops on “cyber civics” in California, emphasising critical thinking, ethical discussion and decision making about digital media issues. The organisation aims to educate and support parents and teachers in their endeavor to guide young people in civil and safe social media use. CyberWise’s slogan “No grown up left behind!”, and its program of support and education is underpinned by and maintains the notion of adults as lacking expertise and lagging behind young people in digital literacy and social media skills. In the process, it introduces an additional level of expertise in the cyber safety expert and software-based interventions. Through a number of software partners, CyberWise provides a suite of tools that offer parents some control in preventing cyberbullying and establishing norms for cyber safety. For example, Frienedy is a dedicated social media platform that fosters a more private mode of networking for closed groups of mutually known people. It enables users to control completely what they share and with whom they share it. The tool does not introduce any explicit parental monitoring mechanisms, but seeks to impose an exclusive online environment divested of broader social influences and risks – an environment in which parents can “introduce kids to social media on their terms when they are ready”. Although Frienedy does not explicitly present itself as a monitoring tool, it does perpetuate hierarchical forms of mentorship and control for parents. On the other hand, PocketGuardian is a parental monitoring service for tracking children’s social media use, with an explicit emphasis on parental control: “Parents receive notification when cyberbullying or sexting is detected, plus resources to start a conversation with their child without intruding child’s privacy” (the software notifies parents when it detects an issue but without disclosing the content). The tool promotes its ability to step in on behalf of parents, removing “the task of manually inspecting your child's device and accounts”. The software claims that it analyses the content rather than merely catching “keywords” in its detection algorithms. Obviously, tools such as PocketGuardian reflect a hierarchical mentorship model (and recognise the expertise asymmetry) by imposing technological controls. The software, in a way, fosters a fear of expertise deficiency, while enabling technological controls to reassert the parent-child hierarchy. A different approach is exemplified by the Australian based Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, a “living lab” experiment – this is an overt attempt to reverse deliberate asymmetry. This pedagogical intervention, initially taking the form of an research project, involved four young people designing and delivering a three-hour workshop on social networking and cyber safety for adult participants (Third et al.). The central aim was to disrupt the traditional way adults and young people relate to each other in relation to social media and technology use and attempted to support learning by reversing traditional roles of adult teacher and young student. In this way ‘a non-hierarchical space of intergenerational learning’ was created (Third et al.). The result was to create a setting where intergenerational conversation helped to demystify social media and technology, generate familiarity with sites, improve adult’s understanding of when they should assist young people, and deliver agency and self-efficacy for the young people involved (7-8). In this way, young people’s expertise was acknowledged as a reflection of a cooperative or asymmetrical mentoring relationship in which adult’s guidance and support could also play a part. These lessons have been applied and developed further through a participatory design approach to producing apps and tools such as Appreciate-a-mate (Collin and Swist). In that project “the inclusion of young people’s contexts became a way of activating and sustaining attachments in regard to the campaign’s future use”(313).In stark contrast to the CyberWise tools, the cooperative mentoring (or participatory design) approach, exemplified in this second example, has multiple positive outcomes: first it demystifies social media use and increases understanding of the role it plays in young people’s (and adults’) lives. Second, it increases adults’ familiarity and comfort in navigating their children’s social media use. Finally, for the young people involved, it supports a sense of achievement and acknowledges their expertise and agency. To build sustainability into these processes, we would argue that it is important to look at the family context and cooperative mentorship as an additional point of intervention. Understood in this sense, cooperative and asymmetrical mentoring between a parent and child echoes an authoritative parenting style which is proven to have the best outcome for children (Baumrind), but in a way that accommodates young people’s technology expertise.Both programs analysed target adults (parents) as less skilful than young people (their children) in relation to social media use. However, while first case study, the technology based interventions endorses hierarchical model, the Living Lab example (a pedagogical intervention) attempts to create an environment without hierarchical obstacles to learning and knowledge exchange. Although the parent-child relationship is indubitably characterised by the hierarchy to some extent, it also assumes continuous negotiation and role fluctuation. A continuous process, negotiation intensifies as children age and transition to more independent media use. In the current digital environment, this negotiation is often facilitated (or even led) by social media platforms as additional agents in the process. Unarguably, digital parenting might implicate both technological and pedagogical interventions; however, there should be a dialogue between the two. Without presumed expertise roles, non-hierarchical, cooperative environment for negotiating social media use can be developed. Cooperative mentorship, as a concept, offers an opportunity to connect research and practice through participatory design and it deserves further consideration.ConclusionsPrevailing approaches to cyber safety education tend to focus on risk management and in doing so, they maintain hierarchical forms of parental control. Adhering to such methods fails to acknowledge young people’s expertise and further deepens generational misunderstanding over social media use. Rather than insisting on hierarchical and traditional roles, there is a need to recognise and leverage asymmetrical expertise within the family in regards to social media.Cooperative and asymmetrical mentorship happens naturally in the family and can be facilitated by and through social media. The inverted hierarchy of expertise we have described here puts both parents and children, in a position of constant negotiation over social media use. This negotiation is complex, relational, unpredictable, open toward emergent possibilities and often intensive. Unquestionably, it is clear that social media provides opportunities for negotiation over, and inversion of, traditional family roles. Whether this inversion of expertise is real or only perceived, however, deserves further investigation. This article formulates some of the conceptual groundwork for an empirical study of family dynamics in relation to social media use and rulemaking. The study aims to continue to probe the positive potential of cooperative and asymmetrical mentorship and participatory design concepts and practices. The idea of cooperative mentorship does not necessarily provide a universal solution to how families negotiate social media use, but it does provide a new lens through which this dynamic can be observed. Clearly family dynamics, and the parent-child relationship, in particular, can play a vital part in supporting effective digital citizenship and wellbeing processes. Learning about this spontaneous and natural process of family negotiations might equip us with tools to inform policy and practices that can help parents and children to collaboratively create ‘a networked world in which they all want to live’ (boyd). ReferencesAmbrosetti, Angelina, and John Dekkers. "The Interconnectedness of the Roles of Mentors and Mentees in Pre-Service Teacher Education Mentoring Relationships." 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IllegitimacyBack in 1987, Gregory Bateson argued that:Kurt Vonnegut gives us wary advice – that we should be careful what we pretend because we become what we pretend. And something like that, some sort of self-fulfilment, occurs in all organisations and human cultures. What people presume to be ‘human’ is what they will build in as premises of their social arrangements, and what they build in is sure to be learned, is sure to become a part of the character of those who participate. (178)The human capacity to marginalise and discriminate against others on the basis of innate and constructed characteristics is evident from the long history of discrimination against people whose existence is ‘illegitimate’, defined as being outside the law. What is inside or outside the law depends upon the context under consideration. For example, in societies such as ancient Greece and the antebellum United States, where slavery was legal, people who were constructed as ‘slaves’ could legitimately be treated very differently from ‘citizens’: free people who benefit from a range of human rights (Northup). The discernment of what is legitimate from that which is illegitimate is thus implicated within the law but extends into the wider experience of community life and is evident within the civil structures through which society is organised and regulated.The division between the legitimate and illegitimate is an arbitrary one, susceptible to changing circumstances. Within recent memory a romantic/sexual relationship between two people of the same sex was constructed as illegitimate and actively persecuted. This was particularly the case for same-sex attracted men, since the societies regulating these relationships generally permitted women a wider repertoire of emotional response than men were allowed. Even when lesbian and gay relationships were legalised, they were constructed as less legitimate in the sense that they often had different rules around the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual couples. In Australia, the refusal to allow same sex couples to marry perpetuates ways in which these relationships are constructed as illegitimate – beyond the remit of the legislation concerning marriage.The archetypal incidence of illegitimacy has historically referred to people born out of wedlock. The circumstances of birth, for example whether a person was born as a result of a legally-sanctioned marital relationship or not, could have ramifications throughout an individual’s life. Stories abound (for example, Cookson) of the implications of being illegitimate. In some social stings, such as Catherine Cookson’s north-eastern England at the turn of the twentieth century, illegitimate children were often shunned. Parents frequently refused permission for their (legitimate) children to play with illegitimate classmates, as if these children born out of wedlock embodied a contaminating variety of evil. Illegitimate children were treated differently in the law in matters of inheritance, for example, and may still be. They frequently lived in fear of needing to show a birth certificate to gain a passport, for example, or to marry. Sometimes, it was at this point in adult life, that a person first discovered their illegitimacy, changing their entire understanding of their family and their place in the world. It might be possible to argue that the emphasis upon the legitimacy of a birth has lessened in proportion to an acceptance of genetic markers as an indicator of biological paternity, but that is not the endeavour here.Given the arbitrariness and mutability of the division between legitimacy and illegitimacy as a constructed boundary, it is policed by social and legal sanctions. Boundaries, such as the differentiation between the raw and the cooked (Lévi-Strauss), or S/Z (Barthes), or purity and danger (Douglas), serve important cultural functions and also convey critical information about the societies that enforce them. Categories of person, place or thing which are closest to boundaries between the legitimate and the illegitimate can prompt existential anxiety since the capacity to discern between these categories is most challenged at the margins. The legal shenanigans which can result speak volumes for which aspects of life have the potential to unsettle a culture. One example of this which is writ large in the recent history of Australia is our treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and the impact of this upon Australia’s multicultural project.Foreshadowing the sexual connotations of the illegitimate, one of us has written elsewhere (Green, ‘Bordering on the Inconceivable’) about the inconceivability of the Howard administration’s ‘Pacific solution’. This used legal devices to rewrite Australia’s borders to limit access to the rights accruing to refugees upon landing in a safe haven entitling them to seek asylum. Internationally condemned as an illegitimate construction of an artificial ‘migration zone’, this policy has been revisited and made more brutal under the Abbot regime with at least two people – Reza Barati and Hamid Khazaei – dying in the past year in what is supposed to be a place of safety provided by Australian authorities under their legal obligations to those fleeing from persecution. Crock points out, echoing the discourse of illegitimacy, that it is and always has been inappropriate to label “undocumented asylum seekers” as “‘illegal’” because: “until such people cross the border onto Australian territory, the language of illegality is nonsense. People who have no visas to enter Australia can hardly be ‘illegals’ until they enter Australia” (77). For Australians who identify in some ways – religion, culture, fellow feeling – with the detainees incarcerated on Nauru and Manus Island, it is hard to ignore the disparity between the government’s treatment of visa overstayers and “illegals” who arrive by boat (Wilson). It is a comparatively short step to construct this disparity as reflecting upon the legitimacy within Australia of communities who share salient characteristics with detained asylum seekers: “The overwhelmingly negative discourse which links asylum seekers, Islam and terrorism” (McKay, Thomas & Kneebone, 129). Some communities feel themselves constructed in the public and political spheres as less legitimately Australian than others. This is particularly true of communities where members can be identified via markers of visible difference, including indicators of ethnic, cultural and religious identities: “a group who [some 585 respondent Australians …] perceived would maintain their own languages, customs and traditions […] this cultural diversity posed an extreme threat to Australian national identity” (McKay, Thomas & Kneebone, 129). Where a community shares salient characteristics such as ethnicity or religion with many detained asylum seekers they can become fearful of the discourses around keeping borders strong and protecting Australia from illegitimate entrants. MethodologyThe qualitative fieldwork upon which this paper is based took place some 6-8 years ago (2006-2008), but the project remains one of the most recent and extensive studies of its kind. There are no grounds for believing that any of the findings are less valid than previously. On the contrary, if political actions are constructed as a proxy for mainstream public consent, opinions have become more polarised and have hardened. Ten focus groups were held involving 86 participants with a variety of backgrounds including differences in age, gender, religious observance, religious identification and ethnicity. Four focus groups involved solely Muslim participants; six drew from the wider Australian community. The aim was to examine the response of different communities to mainstream Australian media representations of Islam, Muslims, and terrorism. Research questions included: “Are there differences in the ways in which Australian Muslims respond to messages about ‘fear’ and ‘terror’ compared with broader community Australians’ responses to the same messages?” and “How do Australian Muslims construct the perceptions and attitudes of the broader Australian community based on the messages that circulate in the media?” Recent examples of kinds of messages investigated include media coverage of Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) activities (Karam & Salama), and the fear-provoking coverage around the possible recruitment of Australians to join the fighting in Syria and Iraq (Cox). The ten focus groups were augmented by 60 interviews, 30 with respondents who identified as Muslim (15 males, 15 female) and 30 respondents from the broader community (same gender divisions). Finally, a market research company was commissioned to conduct a ‘fear survey’, based on an established ‘fear of rape’ inventory (Aly and Balnaves), delivered by telephone to a random sample of 750 over-18 y.o. Australians in which Muslims formed a deliberative sub-group, to ensure they were over-sampled and constituted at least 150 respondents. The face-to-face surveys and focus groups were conducted by co-author, Dr Anne Aly. General FindingsMuslim respondents indicate a heightened intensity of reaction to media messages around fear and terror. In addition to a generalised fear of the potential impact of terrorism upon Australian society and culture, Muslim respondents experienced a specific fear that any terrorist-related media coverage might trigger hostility towards Muslim Australian communities and their own family members. According to the ‘fear survey’ scale, Muslim Australians at the time of the research experienced approximately twice the fear level of mainstream Australian respondents. Broader Australian community Australian Muslim communityFear of a terrorist attackFear of a terrorist attack combines with the fear of a community backlashSpecific victims: dead, injured, bereavedCommunity is full of general victims in addition to any specific victimsShort-term; intense impactsProtracted, diffuse impactsSociety-wide sympathy and support for specific victims and all those involved in dealing with the trauma and aftermathSociety-wide suspicion and a marginalisation of those affected by the backlashVictims of a terrorist attack are embraced by broader communityVictims of backlash experience hostility from the broader communityFour main fears were identified by Australian Muslims as a component of the fear of terrorism:Fear of physical harm. In addition to the fear of actual terrorist acts, Australian Muslims fear backlash reprisals such as those experienced after such events as 9/11, the Bali bombings, and attacks upon public transport passengers in Spain and the UK. These and similar events were constructed as precipitating increased aggression against identifiable Australian Muslims, along with shunning of Muslims and avoidance of their company.The construction of politically-motivated fear. Although fear is an understandable response to concerns around terrorism, many respondents perceived fears as being deliberately exacerbated for political motives. Such strategies as “Be alert, not alarmed” (Bassio), labelling asylum seekers as potential terrorists, and talk about home-grown terrorists, are among the kinds of fears which were identified as politically motivated. The political motivation behind such actions might include presenting a particular party as strong, resolute and effective. Some Muslim Australians construct such approaches as indicating that their government is more interested in political advantage than social harmony.Fear of losing civil liberties. As well as sharing the alarm of the broader Australian community at the dozens of legislative changes banning people, organisations and materials, and increasing surveillance and security checks, Muslim Australians fear for the human rights implications across their community, up to and including the lives of their young people. This fear is heightened when community members may look visibly different from the mainstream. Examples of the events fuelling such fears include the London police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian Catholic working as an electrician in the UK and shot in the month following the 7/7 attacks on the London Underground system (Pugliese). In Australia, the case of Mohamed Hannef indicated that innocent people could easily be unjustly accused and wrongly targeted, and even when this was evident the political agenda made it almost impossible for authorities to admit their error (Rix).Feeling insecure. Australian Muslims argue that personal insecurity has become “the new normal” (Massumi), disproportionately affecting Muslim communities in both physical and psychological ways. Physical insecurity is triggered by the routine avoidance, shunning and animosity experienced by many community members in public places. Psychological insecurity includes fear for the safety of younger members of the community compounded by concern that young people may become ‘radicalised’ as a result of the discrimination they experience. Australian Muslims fear the backlash following any possible terrorist attack on Australian soil and describe the possible impact as ‘unimaginable’ (Aly and Green, ‘Moderate Islam’).In addition to this range of fears expressed by Australian Muslims and constructed in response to wider societal reactions to increased concerns over radical Islam and the threat of terrorist activity, an analysis of respondents’ statements indicate that Muslim Australians construct the broader community as exhibiting:Fear of religious conviction (without recognising the role of their own secular/religious convictions underpinning this fear);Fear of extremism (expressed in various extreme ways);Fear of powerlessness (responded to by disempowering others); andFear of political action overseas having political effects at home (without acknowledging that it is the broader community’s response to such overseas events, such as 9/11 [Green ‘Did the world really change?’], which has also had impacts at home).These constructions, extrapolations and understandings by Australian Muslims of the fears of the broader community underpinning the responses to the threat of terror have been addressed elsewhere (Green and Aly). Legitimate Australian MuslimsOne frustration identified by many Muslim respondents centres upon a perceived ‘acceptable’ way to be an Australian Muslim. Arguing that the broader community construct Muslims as a homogenous group defined by their religious affiliation, these interviewees felt that the many differences within and between the twenty-plus national, linguistic, ethnic, cultural and faith-based groupings that constitute WA’s Muslim population were being ignored. Being treated as a homogenised group on a basis of faith appears to have the effect of putting that religious identity under pressure, paradoxically strengthening and reinforcing it (Aly, ‘Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism’). The appeal to Australian Muslims to embrace membership in a secular society and treat religion as a private matter also led some respondents to suggest they were expected to deny their own view of their faith, in which they express their religious identity across their social spheres and in public and private contexts. Such expression is common in observant Judaism, Hinduism and some forms of Christianity, as well as in some expressions of Islam (Aly and Green, ‘Less than equal’). Massumi argues that even the ways in which some Muslims dress, indicating faith-based behaviour, can lead to what he terms as ‘affective modulation’ (Massumi), repeating and amplifying the fear affect as a result of experiencing the wider community’s fear response to such triggers as water bottles (from airport travel) and backpacks, on the basis of perceived physical difference and a supposed identification with Muslim communities, regardless of the situation. Such respondents constructed this (implied) injunction to suppress their religious and cultural affiliation as akin to constructing the expression of their identity as illegitimate and somehow shameful. Parallels can be drawn with previous social responses to a person born out of wedlock, and to people in same-sex relationships: a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of denial.Australian Muslims who see their faith as denied or marginalised may respond by identifying more strongly with other Muslims in their community, since the community-based context is one in which they feel welcomed and understood. The faith-based community also allows and encourages a wider repertoire of acceptable beliefs and actions entailed in the performance of ‘being Muslim’. Hand in hand with a perception of being required to express their religious identity in ways that were acceptable to the majority community, these respondents provided a range of examples of self-protective behaviours to defend themselves and others from the impacts of perceived marginalisation. Such behaviours included: changing their surnames to deflect discrimination based solely on a name (Aly and Green, ‘Fear, Anxiety and the State of Terror’); keeping their opinions private, even when they were in line with those being expressed by the majority community (Aly and Green, ‘Moderate Islam’); the identification of ‘less safe’ and ‘safe’ activities and areas; concerns about visibly different young men in the Muslim community and discussions with them about their public behaviour and demeanour; and women who chose not to leave their homes for fear of being targeted in public places (all discussed in Aly, ‘Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism’). Many of these behaviours, including changing surnames, restricting socialisation to people who know a person well, and the identification of safe and less safe activities in relation to the risk of self-revelation, were common strategies used by people who were stigmatised in previous times as a result of their illegitimacy.ConclusionConstructions of the legitimate and illegitimate provide one means through which we can investigate complex negotiations around Australianness and citizenship, thrown into sharp relief by the Australian government’s treatment of asylum seekers, also deemed “illegals”. Because they arrive in Australia (or, as the government would prefer, on Australia’s doorstep) by illegitimate channels these would-be citizens are treated very differently from people who arrive at an airport and overstay their visa. The impetus to exclude aspects of geographical Australia from the migration zone, and to house asylum seekers offshore, reveals an anxiety about borders which physically reflects the anxiety of western nations in the post-9/11 world. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat have rarely had safe opportunity to secure passports or visas, or to purchase tickets from commercial airlines or shipping companies. They represent those ethnicities and cultures which are currently in turmoil: a turmoil frequently exacerbated by western intervention, variously constructed as an il/legitimate expression of western power and interests.What this paper has demonstrated is that the boundary between Australia and the rest, the legitimate and the illegitimate, is failing in its aim of creating a stronger Australia. The means through which this project is pursued is making visible a range of motivations and concerns which are variously interpreted depending upon the position of the interpreter. The United Nations, for example, has expressed strong concern over Australia’s reneging upon its treaty obligations to refugees (Gordon). Less vocal, and more fearful, are those communities within Australia which identify as community members with the excluded illegals. The Australian government’s treatment of detainees on Manus Island and Nauru, who generally exhibit markers of visible difference as a result of ethnicity or culture, is one aspect of a raft of government policies which serve to make some people feel that their Australianness is somehow less legitimate than that of the broader community. AcknowledgementsThis paper is based on the findings of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0559707), 2005-7, “Australian responses to the images and discourses of terrorism and the other: establishing a metric of fear”, awarded to Professors Lelia Green and Mark Balnaves. 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