Katie Hughes

The adult children of divorce: Pure relationships and family values?

Giddens and Beck-Gernsheim argue that there has been a shift from stable family formations to relationships that are inherently fragile and temporary. Both propose that intimate relationships in late modernity have been marked by reflexivity and contingency. Although these are not new propositions, little empirical work has been done on the contours of such relationships and the meanings that they have for individuals. This article explores Giddens’ and Beck-Gernsheim’s contentions through looking at the perceptions of relationships, and the family values, of members of Generation X whose parents divorced and who subsequently grew up in a single-parent, step-, or blended family. In particular it discusses the suggestion that we are moving into an era in which ‘the normalisation of fragility’ will become central to people’s intimate relationships.

When discourse defies belief: anti-abortionists in contemporary Australia

This article considers the role of the Australian anti-abortion movement in the discursive practices of the worldwide pro-life franchise. It is based on in-depth interviews with key members of the moment located in four similar organizations. It examines the ways in which they perceive their cause and the ways in which they might influence both public conversations about abortion and individual pregnant women. It specifically focuses on the ways in which new medical imaging technologies are drawn upon to facilitate a renewed view of the separateness of a foetus, explores the participants’ views of motherhood and mothering, and the ways in which the abortion rate is seen as indicative of the fragmentation of contemporary society.

Health-Inclusive Higher Education: Listening to Students with Disabilities or Chronic Illnesses.

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a small-scale project undertaken with tertiary students who identified as having an impairment either at enrolment or by registering with the universitys Disability Support Unit (DSU). The aim of the study was to explore with these students ways in which the university was currently meeting their academic support needs and the ways in which these needs might be better met. Consistent with the definition of disability within the Australian Disability Discrimination Act, it became apparent that a significant number of students who identified with that definition, or sought help from disability services, also presented with needs arising from chronic illness. The majority of participants cited an emotional or psychological illness, rather than a physical, intellectual or sensory one, as a possible precursor to difficulties in engagement with the university. We conclude by considering whether commonly used institutional categories are apposite to an understanding of the ways in which students perceive themselves and, importantly, their engagement with the university and success within it.

The social inclusion meme in higher education: are universities doing enough?

Universities in the developed world have engaged in many attempts to transform unequal social relations, inherited from the past, through restructuring their tertiary education systems. On the whole, this endeavour has been generated by national governments. Discourses about ‘diversity’ and ‘social inclusion’ have driven this policy drive, and they present as a moral imperative whilst obscuring the socio-cultural dynamics which generate both academic success and failure. Whilst all universities are required to embrace social inclusion rhetorically, their practices vary enormously. This paper examines the foundation of the arguments which employ both social and individual benefits of mass tertiary education, and discusses the impact of massification on universities themselves. It explores the ways in which low socio-economic status (LSES) students experience universities, and argues that a socio-cultural impasse has generated a strongly stratified tertiary sector where non-elite institutions cater for disproportionally high numbers of LSES students. Finally, the paper makes a judgement about the collective responsibility universities should have for increasing the participation of LSES students.

Feminism and the academy

R.D. Klein and D.L. Steinberg (eds) Radical Voices. A Decade of Feminist Resistance from Womens Studies International Forum’ (Pergamon Press) Oxford, 1989. M. Paludi and G.A. Steuernagel (eds) Foundations for a Feminist Restructuring of the Academic Disciplines (Haworth Press), New York, 1990. L. Stanley (ed) Feminist Praxis. Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology (Routledge), London, 1990.

The rise and sprawl of breast cancer pink: an analysis

There has been enormous growth over the last 10 years in breast cancer culture (BCC), a culture that uses unique discourses about gender, consumerism and the disease itself. This article explores the concomitant commodification of BCC where products are branded and sold with ‘breast cancer’ signage of various kinds – in particular, the colour pink. Unlike other cancers, breast cancer appears to have been utilised by both corporations and campaigns for profit, using an array of methods. The article discusses the ways in which this has been achieved using an analysis of imagery connoting femininity since 1950 and connecting this to contemporary theories about marketing and consumer choice. It finds that multinational corporations have been uniquely successful in building market share through the use of colour and imagery associated with BCC, and that consumers are equally interested in associating themselves with the cause through acts of ‘prosociality’ (buying products) that signify philanthropy. These linkages are, in turn, becoming weaker with products gesturing towards breast cancer via colour without contributing to breast cancer research, which marked earlier marketing campaigns. It concludes that breast cancer pink is a signifier of a number of gendered discourses that are utilised by both marketeers and breast cancer organisations to increase profit and membership, respectively. This leads to an unparalleled complex web of consumerism and marketing distinctive to this particular cancer.

Anthony Giddens: The Reflexive Self and the Consumption of Alternative Medicine

This chapter explores some of the work of Anthony Giddens with regard to its application to biomedicine and complementary medicine. It begins with a brief biographical outline of Giddens’ career to date, following with an overview of his central themes and concepts. The theme of self-identity and the concepts of the reflexive self, trust, risk, expert systems and claims of truth, offer a way to interrogate the field of modern healthcare. It is proposed that the notion of the reflexive self, in particular, has the capacity to explain some of the ways in which contemporary individuals contemplate not only their health but also medical care in general. These ideas are applied to the notion of consumer choice and the view that there are a number of competing health service providers from whom consumers may choose the best fit therapy for their ‘lifestyle’. The corollary of this is a sense of relativism, where the historical authority of the medical and pharmaceutical industries is challenged by increasingly popular competing healthcare industries, which contest the scientific method and offer alternative epistemologies through which to contemplate health, and treat illness.