The Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s College London undertook this research project to examine the nature and impact of GYO schemes, with particular focus on their role in widening access to the social work profession. The research was supported by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) via the Gateways to the Professions development fund. It was co- funded and overseen by a Project Board of stakeholders led by the General Social Care Council (GSCC). The findings from the project have been used to develop a toolkit aimed at sharing good practice for the development of GYO schemes.
The report also highlights the government's commitment to widening access to the social work profession, not least through the establishment of flexible routes to training and qualification and options for employers to more effectively plan for and meet workforce needs within their local communities.
Miervaldis Polis is perhaps best known in Latvia for his Bronze Man performances of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Less discussed are the paintings he created in the 1970s, during his student days as well as those from the 1980s, all of which may be seen as a precursor to his performances in terms of the artist's approach and the effects of the images. By using the technique of trompe l'oeil and the genre of photorealism, Polis compelled his viewers to become actively involved in looking at the image, and in the creation of meaning, much in the same way that performance art does. In the context of Soviet Latvia, this empowerment of the viewer took on a certain significance, in that Polis's paintings provided an alternative space, outside of the official political one, for viewers to look critically, distrust and dispute the trompe l'oeil appearances, and seek the truth behind them. Throughout his career Polis has used his art to engage in a dialogue not only with his viewers, but also with artists and art history itself. From his early paintings, which are pastiches of travel diaries, to his later appropriations of photographs and prints of paintings from Western art history, the artist employs his images to compel viewers to carefully consider the forms that they are presented with, and fully engage with them. His paintings are a puzzle that the viewer must unravel himself, through active looking and careful consideration of the image.
please cite as: Katja Mayer (2009) On the sociometry of search engines: a historical review of methods, in: K. Becker, F. Stalder (Eds.): Deep Search. The politics of search beyond Google, Edison, NJ: Transaction, p. 54-72
Having an identity unconnected to their status is one of the challenges facing refugees. It is a challenge to create an alternative to the definitional context of being and belonging since the refugee phenomenon is arguably the largest migratory movement among all forms of human mobility. In South Africa, refugees often suffer in silence with little or no help even as they go through painful experiences. These and related phenomena pose a praxical challenge to theology and raise questions on the practice of diakonia in light with the refugee phenomenon. The question could, therefore, be asked: “how can the church respond to the growing migratory trend?” This article demonstrates how the church as an agent of hope can translate the multi-layered dynamics of vulnerability experienced by refugees into a diaconal opportunity so they can be able to say with confidence, for example, in South Africa, “we live, and move, and have our being”. The article uses the findings from a recently completed doctoral research on the health and wellbeing of refugees in Cape Town, South Africa. The data on which this article is based were collected qualitatively through interviews and focus group discussions.
This article focuses on friendship and its controversial enactments in touristic Cuba, paying particular attention to its moral implications. It starts by considering how the issues of authenticity, transience and inequality played out and informed the possibilities for friendship between foreign tourists and members of the Cuban population, leading the protagonists involved to formulate their moral assumptions about friendship, outline its main challenges in the tourism context, and envisage possible solutions to those challenges. The second part of the article examines how notions and experiences of friendship were worked over in response to such difficulties, most notably the tension between ‘interest’ and ‘affection’, alternatively leading to the formation of ‘hybrid’ or ‘purified’ versions of friendship. By drawing attention to the moral, idealistic and aspirational qualities of friendship in touristic Cuba, the article contributes to the current anthropological literature on friendship, showing some of its limits as well as possible analytical pathways for the future research.
Kira Thurman