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En s'intéressant à l'expérience de la maladie comme on s'intéresse à la construction d'une expérience professionnelle, cet article montre que les sujets en soin ne sont pas seulement des bénéficiaires du soin, mais qu'ils sont des producteurs de care . Ces activités de care qu'ils déploient à l'égard des soignants, de leurs proches et de la collectivité participent au développement humain et au bien-être social. Cet article ouvre un questionnement sur la nécessité de reconnaître et de catégoriser les activités de care produits par les malades dans les dispositifs de validation des acquis mis en œuvre dans les parcours et formations diplômantes ouvertes aux malades chroniques

La prise en compte des savoirs du vécu de la maladie est aujourd'hui avérée par quatre familles de preuves (lois, diplômes, pratiques et théories). Pourtant, la maladie est perçue, pour le sens commun, comme une perte de puissance d'agir. La perception qui est celle des sciences de l'éducation et de la pédagogie médicale qui consiste à la voir comme une expérience formative est donc paradoxale. Ce paradoxe ne peut se résoudre que par le rattachement à l'idée d'un dépassement de l'épreuve de la maladie dans une appropriation de savoirs nouveaux de soi, des autres et du monde. L'article donne des exemples de ces mécanismes et situations en s'intéressant particulièrement aux stratégies dites d' empowerment d'abord dans le domaine de la santé mentale. Sont ainsi rappelées sur plusieurs exemples situés à trois échelles différentes les bases empiriques de ces méthodes.

It is a commonly held belief among sociologists that the 'Western' world is developing towards increased individualisation. According to this individualisation thesis, processes of individualisation are linked to the development of a risk society and have profound effects on family life. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews, this article explores the transition to parenthood among couples who are presumably at the front of individualisation processes (university-educated urban people with highly skilled jobs in the information technology field). The aim is to show that risk was a central theme in relation to parenting in two ways that are both linked to individual autonomy and the couple relationship. First, the decision to have a baby was considered a risk project. It was minutely planned, not least to avoid the risk of divorce or separation. Second, the changes in everyday life that took place with the birth of the child represented new kinds of risk, associated with lack of time and a changing economy of care.

Despite encouragement from policy and research for drug services to involve family members in drug users' treatment and support families and carers in their own right, family members' involvement with services remains limited. Research to date offers limited insights into why barriers and tensions are perceived the way they are and reveals little about values and perspectives that underpin relationships between family members and drug services. This qualitative study aimed to generate a fuller understanding of the relationships that carers have with adult drug services and how this might affect involvement. The findings suggest that by reinforcing stereotypes, perpetuating stigma and fuelling self-fulfilling prophecies, the dominant narrative of 'family as part of the problem' frames and constrains family members' involvement with drug services. Recommendations for policy and practice need to focus on strengthening the narrative that family members' involvement with drug services is achievable, necessary and worthwhile.

Modernity has often been understood as being irreconcilable with the persistence of kinship. Personal networks are said to have become less centred on kinship, and instead, more contracted and individualised. Portugal, a country that has witnessed tremendous social and economic change in the last four decades, was selected as the subject of this study on the salience of kinship in contexts of social change. A large survey on family and personal ties of three cohorts of Portuguese people born in different periods and facing different transitions in life was used to investigate the salience of kinship in personal relationships. The results show that kinship remains a major pillar of personal networks in Portuguese society. However, the findings also show a segmentation of its salience according to the biographical, normative and structural contexts in which individuals are embedded. The translation of individualisation trends to everyday relational scenarios reveals complex processes of differentiation.

In Western sociology, much has been made of the impact of rapid social change on sexual lives over the last half century, represented as a consequence of modernity and often as a story of progress, or, in Weeks's (2007) words, 'the world we have won'. The 'world', however, generally means the Western world. This article is based on comparative qualitative research in Britain and Hong Kong, and explores how the sexuality of young women is managed and negotiated within families, particularly between mothers and daughters. In outlining similarities and differences between Britain and Hong Kong, we argue that these are not simple outcomes of the progress of modernity, or of cultural differences alone, but are related to the material conditions of life in each locale. In making this argument we hope to contribute to moving debates on sexuality and modernity beyond their currently Eurocentric focus.

The United Arab Emirates, an oil-wealthy Gulf nation, has undergone significant social changes since the discovery of oil. Although many changes have been positive, there has also been an increase in social problems, including divorce. The rising divorce rate is alarming, considering that divorce is detrimental to Emirati families, where commitment to Islam, strong family ties and a sense of tradition are highly valued. This article presents findings from a qualitative study in which I interviewed 10 divorced Emirati women, using phenomenology as my methodological framework. Data were collected through one-to-one in-depth interviews. Several issues being common to the respondents emerged, including family interference, early marriage, the desire to know more about the partner before marriage, domestic violence, controlling spouses and the social stigma of divorce. Social exchange theory of divorce is presented in an effort to analyse why divorce is an option for some of today's Emirati women.

This article aims to investigate the way low-income married women utilise informal saving networks – commonly known as gamiyyaat – as a social mechanism to correspond to the contemporary, socially mediated conception of 'good mothering' in Egypt. Using qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews with a sample of women involved in gamiyyaat, the article argues that although gamiyyaat may be treated as a financial solution for familial economic hardships, they act as tools through which women emphasise their motherhood and gain social status in their households and communities. The article concludes that despite their adverse impact on mothers' consumer behaviour, gamiyyaat as a form of informal women's associations, perform several functions in women's lives and intensify positive social networks of relationships among women.

Family and child-focused policies, including parenting support, have been of continued concern for governments in the United Kingdom (UK) from New Labour to the Conservative-led coalition. This article considers these policy arenas through the narratives of professionals who work with children and parents in a local authority in Wales. Rising pressures on local services are undermining efforts to provide multi-agency early intervention for families. Alongside this challenge, the use of parenting education programmes to attend to a wide range of complex family difficulties is questioned. Arguing that 'more-than-local' solutions will be required to attend to the situation, the prospect of Welsh government family support agendas is considered in relation to national UK coalition government social policy in an age of austerity.

Abstract:South Carolina's tidal rice fields are significant historic and cultural landscapes. A critical piece of the cultural significance is continuity in the process of using the land. This essay provides an overview of how collaboration among historic preservationists, archaeologists, biologists, federal and state agencies, consultants, and plantation managers resulted in new methods of permitting work in historic tidal rice fields and new understandings of rice fields as significant historic properties.