Themes Of Autonomy Research Articles

EXPLORING FEMALE IDENTITY IN KATE CHOPIN’S NOVELS

This study delves into the profound exploration of female identity in the works of Kate Chopin, focusing on key novels such as "The Awakening" and "The Story of an Hour." Through a meticulous analysis of Chopin's characters, themes, and narrative techniques, this research sheds light on the complexities of female identity, autonomy, and self-discovery in a patriarchal society.By closely examining the characters of Edna Pontellier and Louise Mallard, this study reveals the depth of complexity in Chopin's portrayal of women who defy societal norms and grapple with the tensions between personal desires and societal expectations. Themes of autonomy, agency, and the quest for self-realization emerge as central motifs in Chopin's exploration of female identity, inviting readers to contemplate the challenges faced by women seeking to define themselves outside of traditional roles.Drawing upon literary criticism, historical context, and feminist theory, this research offers a comprehensive analysis of how Kate Chopin's novels challenge and redefine traditional notions of female identity. Through a nuanced examination of female characters' struggles, aspirations, and triumphs, this study highlights the enduringrelevance of Chopin's works in inspiring conversations about gender, autonomy, and the complexities of female identity in literature and society.

Shamanic Healing and Altered States of Subconscious in Murakami’s Fictions

Shamanism, a universal phenomenon, originated in Inner Asia and has evolved over time. Haruki Murakami, a renowned Japanese author, has crossed cultural divides and gained attention with his works of fiction. His belief in protecting the individual for society's benefit is what appeals to and offends people about him. Murakami's works often convey a sense of loneliness and dislocation through characters that are often lonesome and alone. He uses magical realism to explore the subconscious, a metaphysical part of the mind that is unavailable to the conscious self. Murakami's daily writing routine reaches the surface, focusing on human solitude, loneliness, yearning, nostalgia, and the slender borders between existence and reality. Murakami's short fiction The Elephant Vanishes explores the complexity of human pleasure and voting rights, with the narrator's obsession with an elderly elephant and its keeper as a metaphor for the town's negative changes. His works, like Kafka on the Shore and First Person Singular, explore themes of perception, memory, and existence, often connecting readers' subconscious and influencing our lives. His works, often resembling American culture, have gained critical recognition in Japan. Murakami's fiction explores themes of autonomy and individuality, particularly for a generation of Japanese people who lack an identity and are subsumed by commercialism. His characters face existential crises, alienation from society, and the need to find their true identity to rebel against an oppressive system.

FROM FRONT TO BACK SEAT DRIVER: INVESTIGATING DRIVING RETIREMENT DECISION-MAKING WITH THE 85+

Abstract It is impossible to consider personal transportation in the United States without engaging with the topic of driving. Over 90% of U.S. households own cars, while 83% of people report they drive several times a week. A critical but often overlooked component of the driving narrative particularly among older adults is the decision of when or if to forfeit the car keys, a topic which is both complex and, for many individuals and families, a source of stress and conflict. With a rapidly growing population of the oldest of older adults, the 85+ age demographic, it is crucial to understand the attitudes and behaviors of this diverse age group regarding the experience of driving retirement. Utilizing four semi-structured focus groups (n=17) and a 48-item survey of original and adapted measures (n=34) with a panel of the 85+, this study sought to understand people’s perspectives on driving, how current drivers think about and plan for driving retirement – or not, and participants’ general perceptions and attitudes toward the future of technology and driving. The data suggest four different vignettes or transportation paths with respect to driving among this age group that intersect with themes of autonomy, the experience of physical aging, the role of family, and key inflection points. Implications of this research highlight the need for targeted solutions and materials for people at varying levels of acceptance with their driving stage and underscore the need for more research and greater involvement of different stakeholders in conversations around transportation and aging.

A systemic approach to supporting motivation and behaviour in secondary classrooms during COVID: a professional development intervention using self-determination theory

ABSTRACT This exploratory study employed mixed-methods to investigate outcomes associated with an online self-determination theory (SDT) based teacher professional development (PD) intervention, and explored teachers’ perspectives about re-engaging students following COVID-19. Participants were 33 secondary school teachers from across England and Wales. Quantitative data from a single group pre-test-post-test design were analysed, and a range of teacher outcomes were analysed through paired (dependent) sample t-tests. Qualitative data from teachers’ written responses were analysed using framework analysis (FA). Quantitative findings indicated significant increases in teachers’ self-efficacy, and personal responsibility, and moderate teacher control beliefs, and significant reductions in teachers’ negative beliefs about student misbehaviour, and high teacher control beliefs. The overarching themes within the framework included a priori generated themes of autonomy, relatedness, and competence, as well as an emergent theme highlighting the importance of prioritising psychological needs. The combined findings have important implications for practice and suggest the need for approaches that put the psychological needs of students first. Further research is suggested to expand the evidence base, and to address the limitations of the current research.

Abortion decision-making process trajectories and determinants in low- and middle-income countries: A mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis.

SummaryBackgroundAbout 45.1% of all induced abortions are unsafe and 97% of these occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Women's abortion decisions may be complex and are influenced by various factors. We aimed to delineate women's abortion decision-making trajectories and their determinants in LMICs.MethodsWe searched Medline, EMBASE, PsychInfo, Global Health, Web of Science, Scopus, IBSS, CINAHL, WHO Global Index Medicus, the Cochrane Library, WHO website, ProQuest, and Google Scholar for primary studies and reports published between January 1, 2000, and February 16, 2021 (updated on June 06, 2022), on induced abortion decision-making trajectories and/or their determinants in LMICs. We excluded studies on spontaneous abortion. Two independent reviewers extracted and assessed quality of each paper. We used “best fit” framework synthesis to synthesise abortion decision-making trajectories and thematic synthesis to synthesise their determinants. We analysed quantitative findings using random effects model. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO number CRD42021224719.FindingsOf the 6960 articles identified, we included 79 in the systematic review and 14 in the meta-analysis. We identified nine abortion decision-making trajectories: pregnancy awareness, self-reflection, initial abortion decision, disclosure and seeking support, negotiations, final decision, access and information, abortion procedure, and post-abortion experience and care. Determinants of trajectories included three major themes of autonomy in decision-making, access and choice. A meta-analysis of data from 7737 women showed that the proportion of the overall women's involvement in abortion decision-making was 0.86 (95% CI:0.73–0.95, I2 = 99.5%) and overall partner involvement was 0.48 (95% CI:0.29–0.68, I2 = 99.6%).InterpretationPolicies and strategies should address women's perceptions of safe abortion socially, legally, and economically, and where appropriate, involvement of male partners in abortion decision-making processes to facilitate safe abortion. Clinical heterogeneity, in which various studies defined “the final decision-maker” differentially, was a limitation of our study.FundingNuffield Department of Population Health DPhil Scholarship for PL, University of Oxford, and the Medical Research Council Career Development Award for MN (Grant Ref: MR/P022030/1).

The CRISPR Revolution in Genome Engineering: Perspectives from Religious Ethics

ABSTRACTThis focus issue considers the normative implications of the recent emergence in genome editing technology known as CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) or CRISPR‐associated protein 9. Originally discovered in the adaptive immune systems of bacteria and archaea, CRISPR enables researchers to make efficient and site‐specific modifications to the genomes of cells and organisms. More accessible, precise, and economic than previous gene editing technologies, CRISPR holds the promise of not only transforming the fields of genetics, agriculture, and human medicine, but also heralding a new era of democratized biotechnology. However, the speed with which developments in the field have progressed threatens to overwhelm our normative sensibilities about the long‐term practical and ethical implications. The contributors to this focus issue attempt to think through some of the more salient moral and practical consequences of CRISPR in the context of religious ethics, particularly as they relate to themes of autonomy, human flourishing, social justice, and the ethics of enhancement.

Using nominal group technique among resident physicians to identify key attributes of a burnout prevention program.

PurposeTo identify preferred burnout interventions within a resident physician population, utilizing the Nominal Group Technique. The results will be used to design a discrete choice experiment study to inform the development of resident burnout prevention programs.MethodsThree resident focus groups met (10–14 participants/group) to prioritize a list of 23 factors for burnout prevention programs. The Nominal Group Technique consisted of three steps: an individual, confidential ranking of the 23 factors by importance from 1 to 23, a group discussion of each attribute, including a group review of the rankings, and an opportunity to alter the original ranking across participants.ResultsThe total number of residents (36) were a representative sample of specialty, year of residency, and sex. There was strong agreement about the most highly rated attributes which grouped naturally into themes of autonomy, meaning, competency and relatedness. There was also disagreement on several of the attributes that is likely due to the differences in residency specialty and subsequently rotation requirements.ConclusionThis study identified the need to address multiple organizational factors that may lead to physician burnout. There is a clear need for complex interventions that target systemic and program level factors rather than focus on individual interventions. These results may help residency program directors understand the specific attributes of a burnout prevention program valued by residents. Aligning burnout interventions with resident preferences could improve the efficacy of burnout prevention programs by improving adoption of, and satisfaction with, these programs. Physician burnout is a work-related syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of reduced personal accomplishment [1]. Burnout is present in epidemic proportions and was estimated to occur in over 50 percent of practicing physicians and in up to 89 percent of resident physicians pre-COVID 19. The burnout epidemic is growing; a recent national survey of US physicians reported an 8.9 percent increase in burnout between 2011 and 2014 [2]. Rates of physician burnout have also increased [3] during the COVID-19 pandemic with a new classification of “pandemic burnout” experienced by over 52 percent of healthcare workers as early as June of 2020 [4]. Physician burnout can lead to depression, suicidal ideation, and relationship problems that may progress to substance abuse, increased interpersonal conflicts, broken relationships, low quality of life, major depression, and suicide [5–7]. The estimated rate of physician suicide is 300–400 annually [8–10].

AUTONOMIA E TUTELA NO AMBIENTE ESCOLAR

ABSTRACT The theme of autonomy has been present since the beginnings of education. In today’s society, student’s autonomy in school practices can determine the political and social participation of young people. This study seeks to problematize autonomy and tutelage in formal education from an integrative review of scientific literature. The proposal implies contextualizing these concepts, tracing a historical scenario from which educational practices that relate to autonomy and tutelage are delineated. The work includes the analysis of eleven scientific articles published in the Portal Periódicos Capes database between 2000 and 2019. The results point to three axes: the construction of the concepts of autonomy and tutelage from a historical and philosophical trajectory; critical analysis of society based on political guidelines; and, finally, the relationship between the political character of autonomy and tutelage and the educational practices that emerge from everyday school life.

Autonomous People: Identity, Agency, and Automated Driving

ABSTRACT The prevailing discourse on autonomous vehicles (AVs) has not yet developed a sophisticated conceptualization of autonomy and has given insufficient attention to the autonomy of people. In response, this article shifts our attention away from the AV’s autonomy and towards that of its user. Autonomy is conceived here as the socially and materially situated capacity of an individual to identify and act on one’s own values and desires, a capacity that is desirable for collective political life. This definition is drawn selectively from a survey of thought illustrating the richness of this concept. I then examine how studies of transportation have already made use of certain themes of autonomy in understanding mobility practices beyond dominant utilitarian models. This sets up an examination of AVs, where the existing literature tends to use a narrow conceptualization of autonomy. I then briefly examine two examples of unsettled questions in AV development, discretionary user controls and shared ride systems, in light of autonomy. The goal of this article is both to show how autonomy can be productive in understanding mobility practices, and to argue for personal autonomy as a normative value worth pursuing in the technical, political, and social development of automated mobility systems.

Delegating decision-making to autonomous products: A value model emphasizing the role of well-being

Given the rapid growth of autonomous technologies it is important to understand how consumers attribute value to them. Such technologies require consumers to give up control to a machine by delegating decision-making power. To better understand value perceptions, and ultimately adoption, this paper proposes a conceptual model that explains the value attributed to autonomous cars as an archetypal consumer autonomous technology. The model is developed from literature around the theme of autonomy and two qualitative studies, which identify consumers’ perceived individual benefits (Freeing Time, Overcoming Human Weaknesses, Outperforming Human Capacities), risks (Loss of Competencies, Security and Privacy risk, Performance risk) and their proximal antecedents (Perceived Expertise, Attitude toward the Delegated Task, Previous Engagement in Delegation). The model is tested on a national sample of French drivers using a quantitative methodology and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This research contributes to literature on technological forecasting of autonomous technologies by developing and testing a conceptual model, which includes salient predictors of perceived value and highlights the mediating role of improvement in subjective well-being that consumers anticipate from adoption. The model can be used by managers to predict how users are likely to react to their products and communications about them.

The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a Diaspora in Transition by Stanley Mirvis

Reviewed by: The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a Diaspora in Transition by Stanley Mirvis Trevor Burnard (bio) The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a Diaspora in Transition. By Stanley Mirvis. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. 285 pp. The old saying is that you wait for a bus for ages, and then two come along at once. For scholars of Jewish history in the Caribbean, two buses have just arrived, both superb and thought-provoking. In Jewish Autonomy in a Slave Society: Suriname in the Atlantic World, 1651–1925 (2020), Aviva Ben-Ur has written a compelling social and religious history of Jews in colonial Suriname, focusing on the twin themes of autonomy and creolization. Stanley Mirvis's extensively researched analysis of the history of Jamaican Jews in both seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Jamaica (the title, along with being off-puttingly narrow in conception, is misleading in its chronology) examines similar themes for the Jews in Jamaica. Together, these books extend our knowledge of this remarkable subcommunity of Jews in the Caribbean. Mirvis's book is extremely valuable not only for the light it sheds on a still little-understood aspect of Jewish history but also for demonstrating the heterogenous and diverse [End Page 447] nature of Jamaica during the period of slavery. He shows, in particular, how Jews generally thrived and prospered in Jamaica despite living in a fiercely antisemitic society in which Jews were distrusted for their commercial acumen and forced to endure political ostracization and economic discrimination. Mirvis's Jewish community was both part of and separate from the white Protestant society that ruled Jamaica and which subjected enslaved Africans to perhaps greater oppression than anywhere else in the Atlantic world. The easiest thing for Mirvis to have done in this study would have been to show a religious and ethnic community that became incorporated through ideologies of whiteness into the dominant minority ruling class. One noticeable characteristic of Jews in both Suriname and Jamaica is that their religious adherence was often skin deep—an adherence to rituals and ceremonies but not much of an engagement with faith. It is also noticeable that Jews were as devoted to the institution of slavery as the white population in general. They were seldom numbered among the biggest slave holders, as they tended to congregate in Port Royal and Kingston and engage in commerce, largely with Spanish America but also drawing on their contacts in Europe, notably and remarkably with the Jewish community of Bayonne in France. But Jews frequently owned slaves, disposed of enslaved people regularly in their wills to their families, established irregular unions with enslaved women and free women of color, and showed little to no antislavery inclination. Mirvis is especially good on what is sometimes a sensitive topic: Jews and Caribbean slavery. He shows the extent to which Jamaican Jews' acceptance of the slave system contributed to their creolization within white society without succumbing to the tendency to see Jamaican Jews solely through a prism of slavery. What fascinates Mirvis most is how Jamaican Jews maintained and shaped community life. It is this area where wills are extremely useful, as they show family patterns in great detail and sophistication, if explored with the skill which Mirvis deploys in this book. A particularly valuable section of the book is a lengthy appendix which outlines testamentary dispositions and shows the variety of inheritance practices possible within a rather rigid institutional framework. He pays a lot of attention to women and has some penetrating insights into the role of women in fostering Jewish customs over the generation. His analysis might have been helped by comparing Jews more explicitly to other Jamaican populations. What strikes me most about Jamaican Jews is that they did not suffer as much as Blacks and white Jamaicans from demographic disaster. They, alone of groups in Jamaica save perhaps free people of color (to whom they are often compared as communities that achieved [End Page 448] creole identities in the face of legal discrimination), were demographically self-sustaining. From a tiny base population, extensively interrelated family groupings of mostly Portuguese Jews increased in numbers and in...

Peer-teaching at the University of Rwanda - a qualitative study based on self-determination theory

BackgroundPeer-teaching is an educational format in which one student teaches one, or more, fellow students. Self-determination theory suggests that intrinsic motivation increases with the enhancement of autonomy, competence and relatedness.AimsThis qualitative study sought to explore and better understand the lived experiences, attitudes and perceptions of medical students as peer-teachers at the University of Rwanda when participating in a peer-learning intervention in the pediatric department.MethodsStudents participated in a 3-h peer-taught symposium, supervised by a pediatric specialist or resident. Students worked in small groups to deliver a short didactic presentation related to acute illness in children. The symposium prepared the students for simulation-based teaching activities. In-depth, semi-structured, interviews were then employed to explore the students’ experiences of the peer-teaching symposium. We specifically aimed to scaffold the analysis of these experiences on the themes of autonomy, competence and relatedness.ResultsSaturation was achieved after interviews with ten students. Students described developing their own autonomous learning strategies, but despite developing this autonomy had a desire for support in the delivery of the sessions. Competence was developed through enhanced learning of the material, developing teaching skills and confidence in public speaking. Students valued the different aspects of relatedness that developed through preparing and delivering the peer-teaching. Several other themes were identified during the interviews, which are not described here, namely; i. Satisfaction with peer-teaching; ii. Peer-teaching as a concept; iii. Practical issues related to the peer-teaching session, and iv. Teaching style from faculty.ConclusionsThis is the first study to assess peer-learning activities in Rwanda. It has used qualitative methods to deeply explore the lived experiences, attitudes and perceptions of medical students. The peer-teaching strategy used here demonstrates the potential to enhance intrinsic motivation while increasing knowledge acquisition and teaching skills. We postulate that students in resource-limited settings, similar to Rwanda, would benefit from peer-teaching activities, and in doing so could enhance their intrinsic motivation.

Enactivism and Robotic Language Acquisition: A Report from the Frontier

In this article, I assess an existing language acquisition architecture, which was deployed in linguistically unconstrained human–robot interaction, together with experimental design decisions with regard to their enactivist credentials. Despite initial scepticism with respect to enactivism’s applicability to the social domain, the introduction of the notion of participatory sense-making in the more recent enactive literature extends the framework’s reach to encompass this domain. With some exceptions, both our architecture and form of experimentation appear to be largely compatible with enactivist tenets. I analyse the architecture and design decisions along the five enactivist core themes of autonomy, embodiment, emergence, sense-making, and experience, and discuss the role of affect due to its central role within our acquisition experiments. In conclusion, I join some enactivists in demanding that interaction is taken seriously as an irreducible and independent subject of scientific investigation, and go further by hypothesising its potential value to machine learning.

Psychosocial consequences of gastrointestinal symptoms and dietary changes in people receiving automated peritoneal dialysis.

Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are associated with poor psychosocial wellbeing among people receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD). The mind-gut axis represents one possible explanatory mechanism for this relationship. Despite existing evidence, the individual's experience of GI symptoms and their potential psychosocial consequences have not been explored. To understand the experiences of people receiving peritoneal dialysis regarding their gastrointestinal health and psychosocial wellbeing. Ten people undergoing automated PD (five females, five males) aged 31-77 years (Mean = 59.3, SD = 15.67) participated in a single one-on-one qualitative interview. Interviews ceased at thematic saturation. Transcripts were analysed using the framework approach. A central theme of Autonomy emerged from the data representing participants' experiences of the psychosocial consequences of dialysis, GI symptoms, and dietary changes. This overarched two main themes: 1) Loss of Autonomy [Sub-themes: Interference to Daily Life (Dialysis process and sleep, Impacts on relationships), Powerlessness, Frustration, Food Aversion, and Restriction (Friendships and social life, Impacts on partner)] and 2) Attempts to Gain Autonomy (Sub-themes: Coping Well, Pragmatism, and Maintaining Normality). A related sub-theme of Partner as a Carer emerged as part of Loss of Autonomy. GI symptoms and diet and fluid restrictions have psychosocial consequences resulting in multiple losses of autonomy for people receiving PD, who employ strategies to attempt to regain autonomy in the face of these issues. Dietary and GI symptom management advice should aim to enhance patient autonomy within the confines of PD therapy and thus reduce its psychosocial impacts.

Teacher autonomy development through reading teacher research: agency, motivation and identity

ABSTRACTThis study highlights the need to promote more personal and informal processes in Teacher Autonomy and focuses on university Language Teachers’ processes in reading Teacher Research (TR) in order to understand how this impacts their autonomy development processes. In particular, it addresses teachers’ interactions with TR articles during the reading process, and aims to gain insights into autonomy development from the teachers’ reflection during the process. This study uses two well-known research tools, Think Aloud Protocol (TAP) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for an innovative purpose: to fulfil both research and teacher education purposes, thus exemplifying a particular way to promote and investigate critical reading in teacher education. The analysis of the TAPs, and follow-up focus group discussions reveal the key theme of autonomy. Three autonomy-related sub-themes emerged: gaining agency, developing motivation and gaining awareness of a more democratic form of teacher development. 11 participants undertook a task that allowed a highly personalized interpretation of all aspects of the text. It is argued that conditions for autonomy development were created by offering freedom to choose and interpret a text that is comprehensible and relevant. Teachers were entirely free to interpret their texts, and responsible for their learning from it. Teachers interpreted the articles in a variety of ways, and differed according to their emphasis on the particular aspects: motivation, agency and identity. The study concludes that the task provided an opportunity for autonomy to emerge according to the developmental needs of the individual.

Autonomous Individuals in Autonomous Vehicles: The Multiple Autonomies of Self‐Driving Cars

We take the polysemy at the heart of autonomy as our focus, and explore how changing notions of autonomy are experienced and expressed by users of self‐driving cars. Drawing from work‐practice studies and sociomaterial approaches to understanding technologies, we discuss how driving as a task is destabilized and reconfigured by the introduction of increasingly automated systems for vehicle control. We report on the findings of a hybrid ethnographic experiment performed at Nissan Research Center – Silicon Valley, in which we video recorded interactions of 14 participants inside a simulated autonomous vehicle, and conducted semi‐structured post‐interviews. We look at the responses of our participants in light of three different themes of autonomy, which emerged through the analysis of the study data in the context of a broader program of ethnographically informed research: autonomy as freedom from the task of driving; autonomy as independence and individual labor; and machinic autonomy's ironic opposite, an increasing interdependence with human‐machine systems that raises new issues of trust and control. We argue that AV development will have to address the social dimensions of roadway experience, and that this will require a multi‐perspective approach (speculative work alongside other empirical examinations) to the specific ways human autonomy and sociality is aided, altered, or undercut by these systems.

Autonomy and Creativity in the Artisan Economy and the New Spirit of Capitalism

Small artisan businesses have been promoted as a liberatory alternative to large-scale enterprise. We analyze advice manuals for aspiring artisan entrepreneurs by extending Boltanski and Chiapello’s framework. While they analyze the transformation of large firms, we show the same themes have been adopted by small businesses. Focusing on themes of autonomy and creativity, we reveal that the artisan economy promoted by these texts represents a further evolution in capitalism’s co-option of the artistic critique.

650 Jahre Universität Wien—Aufbruch ins neue Jahrhundert ed. by Friedrich Stadler

Reviewed by: 650 Jahre Universität Wien—Aufbruch ins neue Jahrhundert ed. by Friedrich Stadler Janek Wasserman Friedrich Stadler, ed., 650 Jahre Universität Wien—Aufb ruch ins neue Jahrhundert. 4 vols. Vienna: V&Runipress, 2015. 2131 pp. This sprawling, encyclopedic study of the University of Vienna during the "long twentieth century"—between 1848 and the present—offers an impressive account of the university and its development. Drawing on a trove of recent research, the editors have presented a multifaceted picture of the institution, both within its walls and in its interactions with the broader world. With over a hundred contributors and two thousand pages, the work will serve as the primary reference text on the subject for some time. Divided into four major parts, 650 Jahre examines the university as a site of research and instruction and as a locus of academic politics inflected by social, cultural, and political trends. The first volume, "Universität, Forschung und Lehre," traces the evolution of the university as an institution of higher education, using Kant's Streit der Fakultäten and Bourdieu's Homo Academicus to explore themes of autonomy and academic freedom. A meditation as much on contemporary university politics as on history, the volume offers insights for debates about the role of the university in today's knowledge society. The second volume, "Universität—Politik—Gesellschaft," situates the university in a dynamic relationship with its social, political, and economic contexts. The first half of the volume places the university within the turbulent political events of the twentieth century, especially between 1914 and 1945. A collection of twenty-seven biographical portraits offers case studies of university figures in their myriad academic and political involvements. The second half connects the university with social and economic developments through quantitative researches into questions of inclusion and social mobility. The third volume, "Reichweiten und Außensichten," offers images of the university from national, transnational, and international perspectives. Moving beyond traditional, internalist descriptions of the university, it provides [End Page 154] an innovative interpretation by deploying cultural and social lenses that raise questions about the university's supposed political neutrality and its promotion of social mobility. The final volume, "Reflexive Innensichten," consists of a collection of disciplinary histories, told by academics active within those departments, faculties, and institutes. Given the length of this work, a series of more general observations and selective analyses must suffice. The biographical sketches of Volume 2 and the disciplinary studies of Volume 4 will receive little attention. Although the former evince the invaluable archival research done in recent years, they contribute little to the work's argument. Likewise the disciplinary histories will primarily interest practitioners and aficionados of those fields. While the multivolume set contains a diverse array of contributions, its structure, ordering, and coherence leave something to be desired. The first volume presents significant new information about the university's intellectual and organizational development. Thematically, however, the volume divides into two complementary, yet not fully integrated parts—one that focuses on theoretical and philosophical questions about the meaning of the university, one that delves into the historical particularities of the University of Vienna itself. The lead essay by Nemeth and Stadler, which examines the concepts of education and instruction, autonomy and state intervention, and pure and applied research stands as a powerful example of the first direction. The subsequent essay of Dahms and Stadler, which tracks the internal transformations of the philosophical faculty, represents the second tendency. While the theoretical essays orient the discussion, the historical essays do not always take up those themes. Feichtinger's essay engages in a compelling historical treatment of the "verletzte Autonomie" of science at the university before 1938, yet Svatek's chapter on Raumforschung maintains an internalist focus that is probably best suited to another volume. The second volume contains some of 650 Jahre's richest material, yet its imposing size and unusual structure make it less efficacious. Given the short length of the third volume and its eclecticism, reorganization may have helped. Ash's virtuoso exploration of the university at moments of political upheaval is really a book unto itself, dwarfing all other contributions in the second volume. After the oddly placed biographical...

Service user led organisations in mental health today

Background: Since 1990, health policy in England has stressed the importance of user involvement in shaping and delivering services.Aims: To explore mental health service user-led organisations (ULOs) in England, as they interact with decision-makers to bring about change desired by them with a focus on institutional norms behaviour and specialised knowledge impacting service users’ relationships with services.Method: An ethnography of five ULOs in two provider organisations (NHS Trusts) including observing their meetings and interactions with decision-makers, conducting in-depth interviews and collecting reflective diaries kept by two members of each group.Results: During the study, one group ceased to operate. This was a group which refused to adopt the institutional rules and norms of managerial discourse. The other four groups survived by navigating the changing environment which existed at the time of the study, although often at some cost. Themes of autonomy and leadership were also identified.Conclusion: The current environment is one of the organisational complexity and change and the place of ULOs is an ambiguous one as they strive to maintain autonomy whilst at the same time being an acceptable voice to managers.

Gestão do trabalho: implicações para o cuidado na Atenção Primária à Saúde

Objetivo: Describir las implicaciones de la gestión del trabajo en el cuidado en la Atención Primaria a la Salud.<br />Método: Investigación cualitativa, un estudio de caso. La unidad de análisis fue una Unidad de Salud Familiar de un municipio de Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Se realizaron observaciones, entrevistas con los trabajadores y usuarios e ivestigaciones en documentos y en registros. El periodo de la colecta de datos fue de febrero a julio de 2012 y el análisis conforme orientación de estudio de caso.<br />Resultados: La gestión de la unidad se caracterizó por la falta de escucha y singularidad con el equipo y autoritarismo; el equipo se sintió abandonado por la gestión y las Agentes Comunitarias de Salud por las enfermeras. Hubo discontinuidad en el cuidado.<br />Discusión: La gestión en salud necesita pautar el tema de la autonomía y responsabilidad del trabajador. La no responsabilización es un efecto de la postmodernidad. La gestión del trabajo está relacionada con la continuidad del cuidado.<br />Conclusiones: Los conceptos de pluralidad humana y de potencial de poder pueden ayudar en la construcción de ambientes de trabajo más humanos. Se apunta a la integración con la comunidad como camino para la transformación de la realidad. La investigación de la temática debe responsabilizarse de la producción de la salud, individual o colectivamente