Academic literature on the topic 'Northern ireland, social life and customs'

Introduction: Older men aged 50 years and over are the fastest-growing cohort in the prisons of the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). This reflects wider demographic change, such as increased life expectancy, as well as harsher sentencing policies, and an increased eagerness of courts to pursue historical offenses particularly relating to sexual crimes. Research has shown that older men in prison often experience poorer physical health than younger prisoners and those with similar age in the general public. However, to date, no such study has explored the health-related needs of older men held in Northern Ireland prisons. The aim of this research was to explore the health and wellbeing needs of older men held in custody in NorthernIreland.Method: A questionnaire was completed by 83 men aged 50 years or over, who were in prison in Northern Ireland in 2016. Comparisons were made with similar community-based surveys.Results: The data showed that on many indicators, older prisoners experience worse health than their peers living in the community.Conclusion: These findings suggest that there is a need for appropriate healthcare planning for older men in prison which recognizes how their health may differ from other age cohorts within prison, as well as from those living outside a custodial establishment.

Inserting a border where one did not previously exist transforms the mental and physical map of individuals and communities. Those who live along the Irish Border regard themselves as distinct from the rest of Northern Ireland or Ireland – ‘a third country’, that is neglected, and distinct from both Belfast and Dublin. This paper explores the neglect and belated ‘discovery’ of the problems facing border areas: the local impact of partition on population and the economy, the image of the border as a zone of violence and lawlessness, and the importance of the parish and community identities, together with the question of sectarianism. Official interest in the border (apart from security matters), only emerged in 1983 when the Economic and Social Committee of the EEC issued a report on Irish Border Areas highlighting the serious socio-economic problems. Since the 1990s border communities, both north and south, have benefited significantly from an array of programmes funded by the EU, the British and Irish governments and international donors. Most of the practical difficulties of life along the border, such as customs and security posts, were removed during the 1990s, with the introduction of the EU Single Market and the end of paramilitary violence. This has enabled some restoration of traditional cross-border networks. Britain’s decision to leave the EU threatened to restore these administrative barriers, but concerted efforts by the Irish government and the strong support from the EU ensured that this was avoided. Although the Irish border has practically disappeared on the ground, legacies remain. Over the past century it has reconfigured community and personal identities, and it remains a potent political symbol for both nationalists and unionists.

In recent years, the prospect of deportation after sentence has become an almost inevitable part of foreign national prisoners’ experience in the UK. Since 2006, the year of the so-called ‘foreign national prisoner scandal’, the development of increasingly stringent laws and deportation policies has been relentless. This included the introduction of ‘automatic deportation’ for certain categories of offences and lenghts of sentences; the development of a raft of early removal schemes, allowing for removal of prisoners during a sentence; the imposition of limits to legal aid in deportation cases and, most recently, an introduction of the ‘deport first, appeal later’ rule which limits the number of cases in which deportation can be challenged before the actual removal of the person beyond UK’s borders takes place. The perception of those prisoners as a particular ‘problem’ to be ‘managed’ rather than as individuals who need additional assistance and support, results in an overfocus on deportation to the detriment of their treatment while in prison custody. Foreign national prisoners regularly report lack of access to services in prisons, lack of interpretation and translation, confusion about the criminal justice process, isolation and loneliness. Both during and at the end of their sentences, they often receive little to no support with their re-integration needs. Foreign national prisoners often report difficulties in access to independent immigration legal advice and are rarely provided with any assistance at the time of deportation. This article is based on the author’s doctoral research with male Polish prisoners serving their sentences in Northern Ireland. In the course of the study, seventeen prisoners were interviewed either individually or in small groups between late 2013 and early 2015. The interviews took place in Maghaberry (high security) and Magilligan (medium security) prisons. In addition to interviews with prisoners, a small number of core prison staff responsible for equality and diversity policies were also interviewed, together with representatives of prison monitoring and oversight bodies. The study also included observations of aspects of the prison regime, and in particular the quarterly Foreign National Forum in each of the prisons. Although the main research did not specifically focus on the experiences or processes of deportation, this theme – inevitably – run through a number of research encounters. When speaking about their plans for life after release, most Polish prisoners linked those to staying in Northern Ireland; they wanted to go back to work, continue or re-establish relationships with their families and friends; settle back into the routines outside of the prison. They were, however, very mindful that their plans might come to an abrupt end if they were to be deported at the end of their sentences. The deportation process is complex and the anxiety experienced by Polish prisoners was often heightened by the lack of understanding of immigration law and procedures. Concerns about the lack of interpretation and translation of immigrationrelated documents; gaps in legal advice and confusion about the actual physical process of deportation defined the prisoners’ experience. Stories and advice about preparation for deportation were often exchanged in small group interviews during the research, with prisoners reflecting on previous experiences of people they knew to have been deported. The fact that much information was exchanged in that way, and on other ‘social’ occassions in the prison where the prisoners could meet in a group, meant that it was often contradictory and partial. The overall anxiety was made worse by the fact that prisoners had to often wait for a long time for their deportation decisions, only made aware of what they were towards the very end of their sentences, leaving them with little time to make practical preparations for removal. Adding to apprehension about the deportation process was the possibility of spending additional time in immigration custody in detention centres after their sentence has finished. Those who did not contest deportation were particularly keen to be removed directly from the prison to Poland and the potential for extended detention was a clear source of frustration. Overall, the research showed that Polish prisoners were still provided with minimal support, including at the time when they struggled to understand and navigate the deportation system. They appeared to be left almost entirely at the mercy of the prison and immigration systems, where information from solicitors can be scarce and where their experience is dominated by waiting – waiting for contact with lawyers; waiting for the deportation decision; waiting to be deported. While they wait, their plans for release are put on hold and their re-integration into the community is jeopardised as they are unable to prepare for their life after release while not knowing where that life will be.

Volatile substance abuse (VSA, solvent abuse, ‘glue sniffing’), carries a risk of sudden death (some 700 deaths in the UK, 1996-2006). However, mortality data take no account of the social cost of the habit. From press cuttings we have identified 508 instances (569 individuals: 507 male, median age 25 yr, range 8-51 yr and 62 female, median age 18 yr, range 11-36 yr) where VSA, either alone or together with alcohol/other drugs, was reported in association with criminal or antisocial behaviour that resulted in a criminal conviction or caution. The frequency of reports decreased from 84 per annum (1997 and 1998) to 20 (2007). The agents reported (17 individuals, two agents) were ‘glue’ (225), LPG/‘butane’/aerosol propellants (176), ‘solvents’ (158), and petrol (gasoline) (27). The offences cited (most serious crime) were: homicide (35), rape or other sexual assault (34), arson (25), assault or serious threat of assault (192), child neglect/cruelty (6), attempting to pervert the course of justice (2), criminal damage (41), burglary/robbery/theft/shoplifting (100), nuisance/breach of the peace/breach of antisocial behaviour order (104), driving whilst impaired and other vehicle-related offence (22), and supply (non-retail) (8). Thirty offenders were given life sentences or detained indefinitely under mental health legislation. Reports came from all parts of the UK, although most were from Northern England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. There were many reports of recidivists; one 34-year-old male had made 113 court appearances, and had spent approximately nine years in custody. Although there are severe limitations to data derived from press cuttings and not-withstanding that in some cases VSA may have been raised in mitigation, these data provide an additional insight into the problem posed by VSA in the UK.

BackgroundIn Northern Ireland, abortion is illegal except in very limited circumstances to preserve a woman’s life or to prevent permanent or long-term injury to her physical or mental health. Abortions conducted outside the law are a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment. We assessed the impacts of Northern Ireland’s abortion laws on women’s decision-making and experiences in accessing abortion.MethodsBetween April 2017 and February 2018 we interviewed 30 women living in Northern Ireland who had sought abortion by travelling to a clinic in Great Britain or by using online telemedicine to self-manage a medication abortion at home. We interviewed women both before and after a policy change that allowed women from Northern Ireland access to free abortion services in Great Britain. We used a semi-structured in-depth approach and analysed the interviews using grounded theory methodology to identify key themes.ResultsFour key findings emerged from our analysis: (1) women experience multiple barriers to travelling for abortion services, even when abortion is provided without charge; (2) self-management is often preferred over travel, but its criminalisation engenders fear and isolation; (3) obstruction of import of abortion medications by Northern Ireland Customs contributes to stress, anxiety, a higher risk of complications, and trial of ineffective or unsafe methods; and (4) lack of clarity surrounding the obligations of healthcare professionals in Northern Ireland causes mistrust of the healthcare system.ConclusionsNorthern Ireland’s abortion laws negatively affect the quality and safety of women’s healthcare and can have serious implications for women’s physical and emotional health. Our findings offer new perspectives for the current policy debate over Northern Ireland’s abortion laws and suggest a public health rationale for decriminalising abortion.

Abstract Local government in Northern Ireland has undergone a significant reform process in terms of both the number of councils (from twenty-six to eleven) and their functional responsibilities. Councils in Northern Ireland have always been regarded as the ‘poor relation’ of central government or non-departmental public bodies which deliver many of the services performed by local government in other parts of the UK (education, social services, housing). The reforms in Northern Ireland, while devolving relatively minor additional functions, offer councils a significant role in community planning – the legal power to hold central departments to account for services provided by them in local areas. This paper argues that councils can use this power to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants.

Knowledge of a group's death customs can provide insight into their social system. The wake and funeral of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland have been said to provide the most dramatic revelation of community life during those times. In the early days of Irish emigration when the journey to North America was considered to be a final separation, Irish society developed an institution known as the American wake. Among other things, it provided a mechanism for ventilating the grief associated with this special type of bereavement. This article examines the similarities between the American wake and a wake for the dead and is concerned with how the emigrant wake reflected the Irish view of life and death.

For more than a decade the Peace Process has fundamentally changed Northern Irish society. However, although socioreligious integration and ethnic mixing are high on the political agenda in Northern Ireland, the Peace Process has so far failed to address the needs of some of the most vulnerable young people, for example, those who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Public debates in Northern Ireland remain hostile to same-sex-attracted people. Empirical evidence from the annual Young Life and Times (YLT) survey of 16-year-olds undertaken by ARK shows that same-sex-attracted young people report worse experiences in the education sector (e.g., sex education, school bullying), suffer from poorer mental health, experience higher social pressures to engage in health-adverse behavior, and are more likely to say that they will leave Northern Ireland and not return. Equality legislation and peace process have done little to address the heteronormativity in Northern Ireland.

Abstract Although many scholars have characterized nostalgia as a counterproductive modern malaise, members of one North Irish community demonstrate that nostalgia can be essential for evaluating the present through contrast with the past and for reasserting the ideal of community in the midst of sectarian division. By preserving and displaying local material culture of the past, Catholics and Protestants alike grant seemingly obsolete objects new life as symbols necessary for inspiring critical thought that may lead to positive social change.

To understand the complexity of life in a city one needs to consider a spectrum of experience. Belfast has a history of conflict and division, particularly in relation to the Troubles, reflected in comprehensive academic studies of how this has affected, and continues to affect, the citizens. But this is a particular mode of representation, a vision of life echoed in fictional literature. People's quotidian lives can and do transcend the grand narratives of the Troubles that have come to dominate these discourses. Anthropology has traditionally accorded less epistemological weight to fleeting and superficial encounters with strangers, but this mode of sociality is a central feature of life in the city. The modern stranger navigates these relationships with relative ease. Communicating with others through narrative – personal stories about our lives – is fundamental to what it is to be human, putting storytelling at the heart of anthropological study. Engagements with strangers may be brief encounters or build into acquaintanceship, but these superficial relationships are not trivial. How we interact with strangers – our public presentation of the self to others through the personal stories we share – can give glimpses into the private lives of individuals. Listening to stories of quotidian life in Belfast demonstrates a range of people's existential dilemmas and joys that challenges Troubled representations of life in the city. The complexity, size and anonymity of the city means the anthropologist needs different ways of reaching people; this thesis is as much about exploring certain anthropological methodologies as it is about people and a place. Through methods of walking, performance, human-animal interactions, my body as a research subject, and using fictional literature as ethnographic data, I interrogate the close relationship between method, data and analysis, and of knowledge-production and knowledge-dissemination. I present quotidian narratives of Belfast's citizens that are Not-the-Troubles.

This thesis seeks to delineate what change in divided societies such as Northern Ireland is possible. Two steps are necessary to answer this question: first, to explain the potency of nationalism. I contend that taking the evolutionary history of humans and a human need to belong into account is essential for an understanding of A.D. Smith's ethno-symbolist approach to nationalism. We need to acknowledge that human beings emerged from small-scale settings and are therefore conservative beings who seek those patterns of familiarity that make up the ordinary ‘everyday'. They are also prejudiced beings, as prejudice helps to break down a complex world into digestible pieces. The ethnic state excluding an ethnic ‘other' is an answer to these calls for simplicity. By establishing an apparent terra firma, a habitus, symbols of an ethnic past and national present speak of nationalist narratives that provide a sense of ontological security. In (Northern) Ireland, ethno-national communities based on prejudiced understandings of history have long been established. In this second step I maintain that change that violates the core potent national narratives cannot be achieved. The Provisional IRA's change from insurrection to parliament became feasible because a radical break with republican dogmas was avoided. Sinn Féin, despite a rhetorical move towards ‘reconciliation', still seek to outmanoeuvre the unionist ‘other'. The history of Irish socialism, on the other hand, has been a failure, as it embodied a radical attempt to banish the ‘other' from the national narrative. Regarding ‘post-conflict' Northern Ireland, I argue for a peacebuilding approach that leaves the confinements of hostile identity politics, as these mass guarantors of ontological security possess only limited potential for relationship transformation. We need to appreciate those almost invisible acts of empathy and peace that could be found even in Northern Ireland's darkest hours.

This thesis is an investigation of the ways in which activities of house-building are woven into the histories and biographies of the people of Ngamiland in nothern Botswana. Criticising those approaches in anthropology that have tended to see forms of buildings as the symbolic expressions of (or metaphors for) aspects of social order, the thesis argues that building practices are themselves embedded in the current of social activity - that is, of dwelling - which, over time, is generative of both persons and places. Just as every inhabitant enfolds within his or her person a set of relations with others, which are played out in the manifold tasks of everyday dwelling (including building), so every place (including the buildings found there) embodies a set of relations with other places. The first set of relations, essentially social, are captured by the notion of the taskscape, the second set, essentially material, by the notion of landscape. The thesis seeks to demonstrate the dynamic interplay between taskscape and landscape, or between social and material relations over time. The thesis argues for several important ways in which this dynamic relationship can be considered anthropologically. The first is the notion of the 'otherplaceness' of dwelling, in which the inherent interconnectedness of the landscape is highlighted, describing the ways in which both personal biographies and the material biographies of places are mutually creative over time. This is extended to investigate the relationship between social and material permanence in the landscape through an analysis of the ways in which building with concrete has affected everyday dwelling. Another key notion is that dwelling involves a wide range of social practices that can be understood as containing both forces of a centrifugal (movement away from a centre) and centripetal (movement toward a centre) nature, being an important aspect of how social practice and homestead form are interrelated over time. This is also extended in the final chapter through an exploration of the ways in which the materiality of the homestead is interwoven with memory, biography and personal history.

The Dene are a subarctic people indigenous to northern Canada. The indirect and direct contact the Dene had with the European traders and Christian missionaries who came to their land around the turn of the 20th century triggered profound changes in their society and economy. This study focuses on some of these changes, and, particularly, on how they have affected the lives of Dene women who inhabit the small community of Fort Liard, which is located in the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories.
Using as context the formal and informal economy and the concept of the model of production, the author proposes two main ideas: first, "nurturing" or "social reproduction" and "providing" or "production" are vital and integral to the Dene's subsistence economy and concept of work; second, it is through the custom of "seclusion" or female puberty rites that the teaching and learning of these responsibilities occurred. Dene women played a pivotal role in this process. The impositions of external government, Christianity, capitalism, and free market economics have altered Dene women's concept of work.
The Dene women of Fort Liard are presently working to regain the social and economic status they once had. However, reclaiming their status in current times involves recognizing conflicting and contradictory ideologies in the workplace. The goal of these Dene women is, ultimately, to overcome economic and ideological obstacles, to reinforce common cultural values, and to reaffirm the primacy of their own conceptions of family and community. The goal of this study is to identify and examine the broad spectrum of factors and conditions that play a role in their struggles.

Reducing gender inequalities by enabling women's empowerment is a major focus of the literature and practices of gender and development. The work of this thesis contributes to debates about female empowerment, especially for peasant women in peripheral capitalist economies. The central themes of enquiry are power relations of gender and space in the socio-economic processes in which peasant households and their members are embedded. The focus of investigation is the extent to which commodity exchange outside the household reinforces, or reduces, women's position of power/disempowerment. The central question taken for analysis is whether income earning via trading empowers women, thus reducing their subordination. This hypothesis is widely accepted. Many NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and other development institutions base efforts around the notion that income earning is liberating for women. This hypothesis is investigated for rural Hausa women in Northern Nigeria who are secluded within their homes by the religio-cultural practice of purdah, but who engage in trade, often through the agency of children. The major empirical part of the study develops and applies an original framework for analysis of empowerment that identifies and maps gender divisions of labour and space in the spheres of production, reproduction and circulation in which rural Hausa men and women are embedded. The overall conclusion reached is that gender divisions of work, both inside and outside rural Hausa households, and especially in trade, reflect and sustain the subordination of women and their inferior position relative to men, especially through the control of space. The notion of income earning as universally empowering for women does not hold because rural Hausa women engaged in the market are not significantly empowered by their income earning because of the complex realities of patriarchy whereby women have weak bargaining powers.

Not having the feeling of presenting a clearly identifiable product, I will explain some of the basic impressions that motivated this thesis, point out the targets it is aimed at, the polemics it engages in or opens and indicate something of the design of the work.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is a missiological assessment of the evangelization of the Mano of Northern Liberia. The study considers the historical record of Liberia, the transmission of Christianity through the Americo-Liberian community, and the movement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to and through the Mano of Northern Liberia. As a foundation, a theoretical and missiological framework of evangelization is explored on a biblical, theological, and social understanding. How does one measure the extent and evangelization? Definitions and theories are presented along with expressions of evangelization. In regards to transmission, what was the approach of the initiating missionaries? How and through what impetus did a transition occur to local agents? Understanding evangelization involves identifying the contextual process resulting in the community of God expressed as the local church. This dissertation argues that the intent of the American Colonization Society and the immigrants who sailed to Liberia in 1822 was to establish a Christian presence in Africa that would serve as an impetus for evangelization of the continent. The Americo-Liberians, however, became entangled in a cultural Christianity that proved to be a barrier to evangelization of the indigenous people of the region. Other barriers included geographical isolation, the societal structure of governance, and the absence of a contextual witness. Sociological analysis is given to the all-inclusive nature and governance of the Poro Society which stymied the evangelization process. This study explored the influencing factors towards evangelization of the Mano and Gio and the acceptance of the good news of Jesus Christ. The influencing factors included the collapse of the Liberian governmental structure, the empowerment of local agent through theological education, the role and necessity of leadership caused by the coup, and the subsequent diaspora of the Civil War. Over 50% of the Baptist Churches among the Mano and Gio were started after the coup in 1980 and during the civil war which lasted from 1989 – 2004. This study utilized the methodology of qualitative researching through interviews, observations, and empirical surveys to evaluate the process of evangelization. The first gospel witness came to the Mano and Gio in 1926. The next fifty years of evangelization revolved around missionaries, mission stations, schools, and humanitarian enterprises. More recently, the Gospel has spread rapidly through the influence of contextual witness and local agents. The delimitations of the study focused on the role of Baptist Churches affiliated with Nimba Baptist Union. Prior to 1970, there were few indigenous led, linguistically Mano or Gio Baptist churches. Today, there are almost a hundred churches and missions affiliated with the Nimba Baptist Union, most started after the coup and during the war. A crucial component of the study was to determine whether or not this was a contextual indigenous movement of evangelization. The evidence of such a movement is determined by the presence of churches in the local villages, acts of personal and community transformation associated with the church, and reproductive patterns in regards to leadership and church starting. The movement of evangelization was a collaborative effort of the missionaries and local agents facilitated by political, social, and spiritual transitions. On this basis, the study proposes an Interpretative Model of Evangelization to serve as a useful tool in attempting to understand how to interpret the extent of evangelization. From this study, it is clear that evangelization is an imperfect process, but the movement towards contextualization of the gospel infuses deeper levels of transformation. As the Apostle Paul concluded in the Acts of the Apostles, the Gospel continued unhindered (Acts 28:31). The unhindered manner did not reflect the absence of barriers, but the onward movement propelled by the Holy Spirit, through proclamation of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by local empowerment through contextualization of methods, message, and leadership. The study is evaluative in nature and has implications for missiological strategy, cross-cultural understanding, and contextual methods of evangelization.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif is ʼn sendingkundige assessering van die evangelisasie van die Mano-stam in Noord-Liberië. Die studie ondersoek die geskrewe geskiedenis van Liberië, die oordrag van die Christendom deur die Amerikaans-Liberiese gemeenskap en die verspreiding van die evangelie van Jesus Christus aan en deur die Mano-stam van Noord-Liberië. Om ʼn grondslag vir die studie te lê, is ʼn teoretiese en sendingkundige raamwerk vir evangelisasie ondersoek vanuit ʼn Bybelse, teologiese en sosiale perspektief. Dit is gedoen deur die volgende vrae te beantwoord: Hoe meet ʼn mens die reikwydte van evangelisasie? Definisies en beskrywings van, asook teorieë oor, evangelisasie word hiervoor aangebied. Wat was die benadering deur die aanvanklike sendelinge om die evangelie aan ander oor te dra? Hoe en deur watter impetus het oordrag na plaaslike agente plaasgevind? Om evangelisasie te verstaan, moet die kontekstuele proses geïdentifiseer word wat lei tot die gemeenskap van God, soos uitgedruk deur die plaaslike kerk. In hierdie proefskrif word daar geargumenteer dat die oogmerk van die American Colonization Society en die immigrante wat in 1822 na Liberië gevaar het, was om ʼn Christelike teenwoordigheid in Afrika te vestig wat sou dien as ʼn impetus vir evangelisasie van die kontinent. Die Amerikaans-Libiërs het egter in ʼn kulturele vorm van Christenskap verstrik geraak wat ʼn hindernis gevorm het vir die verspreiding van die evangelie onder die inheemse bevolking van daardie streek. Ander hindernisse was geografiese isolasie, die gemeenskapstruktuur van die regering en die afwesigheid van ʼn plaaslike getuie. Die allesomvattende aard en regering van die Poro-gemeenskap, wat die evangelisasieproses gestuit het, is gevolglik in hierdie studie geanaliseer. Hierdie studie het verder die faktore ondersoek wat evangelisasie van die Mano- en Gio-stamme, asook hul aanvaarding van die blye boodskap van Jesus Christus, beïnvloed het. Hierdie faktore sluit in die ineenstorting van Liberië se regeringstruktuur, die bemagtiging van plaaslike agente deur teologiese opvoeding, die rol en noodsaaklikheid van leierskap wat deur die staatsgreep veroorsaak is en die diaspora na aanleiding van die burgeroorlog. Meer as 50% van die Baptistekerke onder die Mano- en Gio-stamme is gestig na die staatsgreep in 1980 en tydens die burgeroorlog wat van 1989 tot 2004 geduur het. In hierdie studie is daar van kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodologie, deur middel van onderhoude, waarnemings en empiriese opnames, gebruik gemaak om die evangelisasieproses te evalueer. Die eerste evangeliese getuie het in 1926 die Mano- en Gio-stamme besoek. Vir vyftig jaar daarna het evangelisasie om sendelinge, sendelingstasies, skole en humanitêre inisiatiewe gewentel. Meer onlangs het die evangelie vinnig versprei as gevolg van die invloed van gekontekstualiseerde getuies en plaaslike agente. Die afbakening van hierdie studie was om te fokus op die rol van die Baptistekerke wat met die Nimba Baptist Union geaffilieer is. Voor 1970 was daar min Baptistekerke wat deur mense van die inheemse bevolking gelei is en waar daar in Mano of Gio gepreek is. Vandag is daar amper ʼn honderd kerke en sendinggenootskappe wat met die Nimba Baptist Union geaffilieer is. Meeste van hierdie kerke is na die staatsgreep en tydens die burgeroorlog gestig. ʼn Belangrike komponent van die studie was om te bepaal of hierdie ʼn kontekstuele, inheemse evangelisasiebeweging was. Bewyse van so ʼn beweging sal wees die teenwoordigheid van kerke in plaaslike dorpies, persoonlike en gemeenskapstransformasie wat met die kerk geassosieer word en reproduserende patrone met betrekking tot leierskap en kerkvestiging. Die evangelisasiebeweging was ʼn samewerkingspoging tussen die sendelinge en plaaslike agente wat gefasiliteer is deur politieke, sosiale en geestelike oorgangstadiums. Op grond hiervan, stel die proefskrif ʼn interpretatiewe model van evangelisasie voor om te dien as ʼn nuttige hulpmiddel om die omvang van evangelisasie te probeer verstaan. Uit hierdie studie kan daar duidelik gesien word dat evangelisasie ʼn onvolmaakte proses is, maar dat dieper vlakke van transformasie bewerkstellig kan word, namate die evangelie gekontekstualiseer word. Soos die apostel Paulus ook in die Handelinge van die Apostels opmerk, het die verspreiding van die evangelie onverstoord (soos in Handelinge 28:31) in Liberië voortgegaan. Dié onverstoorde wyse het egter nie die afwesigheid van hindernisse weerspieël nie en die voorwaartse beweging het plaasgevind danksy voortdrywing deur die Heilige Gees, deur die verkondiging van die blye boodskap van die evangelie van Jesus Christus, en as gevolg van plaaslike bemagtiging deur middel van die kontekstualisering van metodes, die boodskap en leierskap. Hierdie studie was evaluerend van aard en hou gevolge in vir die bewerkstelliging van sendingkundige strategieë, transkulturele begrip en kontekstuele evangelisasiemetodes.

Funded by Nellis Air Force Base (NAFB), my thesis research and analysis examined Native American knowledge of heritage foods and how diminished access to food resources has affected Native American identity and health. NAFB manages the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), land and air space in southern Nevada, which includes Native American ancestral lands. During a research period of 3 months in the spring/summer of 2012, I interviewed members of Native American nations culturally affiliated with ancestral lands on the NTTR, the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah (PITU) and the Bishop Paiute Tribe. My research included participant observation and 31 interviews with tribal members considered knowledge holders by tribal leaders. In dialogue with the literature of the anthropology of food, political economy, and Critical Medical Anthropology, my analysis focused on the role of heritage foods in everyday consumption, taking into account the economic, social, environmental, and political factors influencing heritage foods access and diet. My work explored the effects of structural forces and rapid changes in diet and social conditions on Native American health. I found shifts in concepts of food-related identity across ethnic groups, tribes, ages, and genders. I also found evidence of collective efforts to improve diet-related health at tribal and community levels. Through the applied aspects of my research, participants and their families had the opportunity to share recipes and food dishes containing heritage foods as a way to promote human health and knowledge transmission.

Abstract When the troubles broke out in 1968, there was very little literature available on the community divide in Northern Ireland. Back in 1947, John M. Mogey had published a book for the Northern Ireland Council of Social Service entitled Rural Life in Northern Ireland: Five Regional Studies. Intended as ‘an attempt to describe the way of life of the country people of Northern Ireland’ (p. I), it contains much fascinating detail; but it focuses mainly on standards of living and patterns of work, and contains only incidental information on community relations. In 1960 a geographer then lecturing at Queen’s University, Emrys Jones, published A Social Geography of Belfast, which contains much relevant information, including a chapter on religion; but it covered only one city in Northern Ireland, albeit much the largest. Some other books contained apposite information-for instance, Ulster under Home Rule, edited by Thomas Wilson (1956), and R. J. Lawrence’s The Government of Northern Ireland (1965).

Abstract Meeting Mennonites Was For Me an oasis in the dry and barren desert. A Presbyterian from birth and elder in my local congregation, this “new” denomination came into my frame of reference in casual conversation in 1980 with a colleague who was working with youth on urban justice issues in England. He had visited the London Mennonite Centre and counted among his friends Alan and Eleanor Kreider. He spoke of a quality of community life, worship where justice and peace issues were not on the edge but central, and a people who took Jesus’ call to peacemakers as a serious call for today. To say I was interested would be an understatement. I read John Howard Yoder’s Politics of Jesus (1972), and I knew then I had to learn more about this church. At that point in my life, I was youth director of the Belfast YMCA, at that time a mainly Protestant and evangelical youth organization. I was responsible for running a social education and recreation program for several hundred youth in the sixteen to twenty-five age group, mostly from low-income inner city backgrounds, with a healthy mix of male and female, Catholic and Protestant. Young people with regular jobs were the exception, as the youth often came from neighborhoods where over 70 percent of the people were on welfare. Few experiences in my life had prepared me for the hopeless injustice faced by those youth. I understood in stark terms the connection between social deprivation and political violence. Many of the young people I worked with had lives outside the YMCA in the junior ranks of paramilitary organizations on both sides of our divided society.

The departure of Marmier and Gyldenstolpe from Stockholm to join La Recherche at Trondheim marked the beginning of the 1838 expedition of the Commission du Nord, and Marmier was appointed to write the official report. This part of his journey is described in some detail in the Relation du voyage of the official publication, which is full of historical data about the sites described, details of local customs, folklore, climate, population, political organisation, public institutions, statistics, different modes of transport, local curiosities, monuments, and various other information. This chapter notes the apparent ease with which Marmier seems to make the transition from life in presumably fairly luxurious and sophisticated circles at court, or intellectual circles in Uppsala, to contact with some of the least privileged in that society. He seems to have made friends on his travels at all social levels; he recorded those contacts in his official reports.

Palliative social work in the United Kingdom is woven into the fabric of palliative care and the modern hospice movement. UK palliative social workers are employed by various statutory and third-sector organizations. They undertake diverse roles and work with people of all ages. The four UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) register and regulate professional social workers. Legislation, codes of ethics, and a commitment to an evidence base govern practice. Core tenets include a focus on the wider social system of the person who has a serious or life-limiting condition, social justice, improving/disseminating specialist knowledge and expertise, and promoting a community-based, public health approach to end-of-life care. Palliative social workers use therapeutic skills and creativity to enable individuals and their families to process emotions and make informed decisions. They contribute to professional education and research and increasingly hold leadership positions from which they influence national policy.

This chapter shows how magic as practiced and perceived had shifted since the inception of the church in the first century. For example, communal celebrations of pagan deities and open public ritual had disappeared or metamorphosed into barely recognizable folk habits. The range of what spiritual specialists defined as magic had expanded. Pagan divination and superstitions aimed at navigating the personal and political vicissitudes of social life in late antiquity had been effectively vitiated and recast as demonic and aberrant. Some customs, unique to northern Europe, had come within the orbit of Roman clerical proscription. By and large, however, the theological assessment of superstition (including sorcerous trickery) and divination remained consistent.

To assess and compare the four care systems of the four nations in the UK it is important to have a clear sense of what they are trying to achieve. This chapter focuses on how policy documents in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland frame social care, and how care policy supports the aim of improving social care. It looks at what policy makers have set out in the documents as being their vision of sustainable care and a good life for people with care needs. Despite the definitional ambiguities and boundary issues, policy documents from the four nations have a similar vision of what social care policy is aiming to achieve. The overarching principle in all four systems is that care policy should maximise individual and collective wellbeing. It will do this by being fair, rights-based and high-quality – and ensuring these goals are achieved for everyone in the system (people who use services, unpaid carers and care workers). These elements combined are expected to deliver sustainability. We look in turn at wellbeing, fairness, rights, quality and sustainability, as well as at the tensions that can arise when all of them are in focus at once.

Negative trends among risk factors in the categories of memory (Chapter 3) and governance (Chapter 4) shackle a society in the bonds of fragility. This can lead to, as well as be the result of, an increased susceptibility to social disharmony and isolation. This state of disconnect between the larger society and the groupings of some members of that society is known as fragmentation. While fragmentation can manifest itself along economic, institutional, or geographic lines, this chapter focuses on risk factors related specifically to social fragmentation. In everyday life in contemporary Northern Ireland, social fragmentation undeniably rules over the full spectrum of the lived experience. This chapter examines five specific risk factors related to social fragmentation: (1) identity-based social divisions, (2) demographic pressures, (3) unequal access to basic goods and services, (4) gender inequalities, and (5) political instability.

The Policing Board sits at the heart of the intersection between human rights law and politics. As a corporate body, the Policing Board has a statutory duty to monitor police compliance with the HRA. This chapter argues that regardless of the Policing Board’s statutory duty to monitor policing based on the standards of the HRA, for the political members on the Policing Board, human rights are a vessel harbouring deep sentiments and concerns at the heart of which are competing histories of the conflict, legacies of policing and understandings of Northern Ireland’s imperfect peace. These narratives swirl around, and at times directly contradict, the official police voice, further demonstrating the elasticity of human rights to stretch to fit the visions of different actors. The examination of alternative official narratives by political parties in Northern Ireland is developed across three sections, inspired by the dimensions of the ‘political life’ of human rights set out in Chapter 1. These three dimensions are: the role historical context plays in structuring the ambit and style of human rights contestation involving social actors; human rights as an articulation of a much wider array of interests, fears and aspirations that find expression through rights narratives; and how human rights can be used by groups to actively construct claims with the hope of achieving legal gains in specific fields

Nirex is the organisation responsible for long-term radioactive waste management in the UK. Our mission is to provide the UK with safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. Nirex is therefore researching various options for the long-term management of radioactive wastes/materials in order to identify the relevant issues with regard to the feasibility of options, and the research, development and stakeholder dialogue necessary to address these issues. The UK policy for the long-term management of solid radioactive waste is currently undergoing review. In September 2001, the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Devolved Administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland launched a public consultation on ‘Managing Radioactive Waste Safely’ (MRWS) [1]. The aim of this consultation was to start a process that will ultimately lead to the implementation of a publicly acceptable radioactive waste management policy. The MRWS programme of action proposed by Government includes a “stakeholder” programme of public debate backed by research to examine the different radioactive waste management options, and to recommend the preferred option, or combination of options. The options of storage above ground and underground are expected to be among the options examined. In the UK, radioactive wastes are currently held in surface stores, at over 30 locations in the UK, pending a decision on their long-term management. These stores were originally designed to have lifetimes of up to 50 years, but due to uncertainty regarding the longer term management of such wastes, extending the life of stores to 100 years is now being considered. This paper describes a preliminary scoping study to identify the long-term issues associated with surface storage of intermediate-level radioactive waste (ILW), and certain low-level waste (LLW) indefinitely in the UK. These wastes contain radionuclides with half lives that can range up to a million years or more, it was therefore assumed, for the purposes of this scoping study, that wastes would need to be managed over a period of at least one million years. An indefinite surface storage concept will require institutional stability and encompasses the principle of guardianship. It is based on a rolling present where each generation is required to monitor and, as necessary, repackage the waste and refurbish/replace storage buildings over a period of at least one million years. Each generation will also need to decide whether to continue with surface storage or implement another long-term management option. The aims of the scoping study were to: i) Investigate the implications of indefinite surface storage of waste packages through consideration of the facility specification, design and assessment. This framework is common to all Nirex radioactive waste management option studies, and provides a common basis for comparison. ii) Identify the social and ethical issues related to indefinite storage, including the principles and values that some stakeholders believe are met by the surface storage option.