Representational tactics: approaching two Scottish performances of mental illness through the work of Michel de Certeau

This article uses the ideas of ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ drawn from Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life in order to examine two specific Scottish performances and determine their conception of mental illness, their approach to performance, and how these performances relate to the structures surrounding them. The first, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, was written by Anthony Neilson, premièred at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2004, and was directly supported by the Scottish Executive’s National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well Being. The second, Does Anyone Know, is a short film resulting from work with prisoners with mental health problems in the High Dependency Unit at HMP Edinburgh by the charity Theatre NEMO, and includes performances by prisoners themselves. Taken together, these performances give some sense of the contingent position of performances of mental illness, the ways in which actors, writers, and service users act within the structures of theatres, prisons, and hospitals, to work around and within the ‘strategies’ which constitute psychiatric discourse.Publisher PD

Stability of matter-wave solitons in a density-dependent gauge theory

We consider the linear stability of chiral matter-wave solitons described by a density-dependent gauge theory. By studying the associated Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations both numerically and analytically, we find that the stability problem effectively reduces to that of the standard Gross-Pitaevskii equation, proving that the solitons are stable to linear perturbations. In addition, we formulate the stability problem in the framework of the Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion and provide supplementary numerical simulations which illustrate the absence of instabilities when the soliton is initially perturbed.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Comments are welcom

Resolution through Devolution: Policing, Youth Justice and Imprisonment in Wales

Debate Forum: Responses to Position Paper 2: [Jackie Jones The Next Stage of Devolution? A (D)evolving Criminal Justice System for Wales Crimes and Misdemeanours (2008) 1-39]Criminal justice was not devolved to the Welsh Assembly but the process of devolution has resulted in de facto differences emerging between England and Wales. In the previous edition of this journal, Jackie Jones argued that these differences would lead to the eventual devolution of criminal justice to the Assembly. This response article concentrates on three distinct areas of criminal justice policy – policing, youth justice and imprisonment – and seeks to situate the Welsh concerns in a broader context. The conclusion draws together what I see as the two central themes of Jones‘ paper: the inevitability of a Welsh criminal justice system and the desirability of this

Face masks for the public during Covid-19: an appeal for caution in policy

As the Covid-19 crisis deepens, some researchers have argued for the widespread routine use of face masks in community settings, despite acknowledged gaps in the evidence base for the effectiveness of such a measure. We argue that such calls are premature, and risk neglecting important potential harms and negative consequences, known and unknown. We identify potential unintended consequences at multiple levels, from individual-behavioural to macrosocial, and suggest that it is far from clear that the benefits of widespread uptake of face masks, whether encouraged or enforced by public authorities, outweigh the downsides. Finally, we make the case for caution in communicating unequivocal messages about the scientific evidence for face mask use to policy, practitioner and public audiences, given continued scientific disagreement on the questio

Generic Ethics Principles in Social Science Research

The written output of a series of three symposia held in the spring of 2013 on the topic of Generic Ethics Principles in Social Science Research. The format for each symposium was the same: a main speaker introduced a paper that had been circulated in advance and this was followed by two formal discussants and then participation from the floor. Discussion in groups took place in the afternoon and there was then a brief plenary session. The stimulus paper from each event is reproduced in this publication along with papers from discussants and a summary of each discussion

Managing sleep and wakefulness in a 24 hour world

This article contributes to literature on the sociology of sleep by exploring the sleeping practices and subjective sleep experiences of two social groups: shift workers and students. It draws on data, collected in the UK from 25 semi-structured interviews, to discuss the complex ways in which working patterns and social activities impact upon experiences and expectations of sleep in our wired awake world. The data show that, typically, sleep is valued and considered to be important for health, general wellbeing, appearance and physical and cognitive functioning. However, sleep time is often cut back on in favour of work demands and social activities. While shift workers described their efforts to fit in an adequate amount of sleep per 24-hour period, for students, the adoption of a flexible sleep routine was thought to be favourable for maintaining a work–social life balance. Collectively, respondents reported using a wide range of strategies, techniques, technologies and practices to encourage, overcome or delay sleep(iness) and boost, promote or enhance wakefulness/alertness at socially desirable times. The analysis demonstrates how social context impacts not only on how we come to think about sleep and understand it, but also how we manage or self-regulate our sleeping patterns