Einsteinian practice and Newtonian discourse: An ethical crisis in mediation

Book reviews in this article:
John Haynes and Christine Haynes , Mediating Divorce: Casebook of Strategies for Successful Family Negotiations .
Kenneth Kressel and Dean Pruitt , Mediation Research; The Process and Effectiveness of Third Party Intervention .
Nancy Rogers and Craig McEwen , Mediation: Law, Policy, Practice .     

Campus Feminisms

Drawing from a long history of feminist writing grounded in personal reflection and informal dialogue between feminist thinkers, Cobb and Godden-Rasul present an email-based conversation with Jess Lishak, the outgoing Women’s Officer at the University of Manchester Students’ Union (2014–2016). The conversation draws on Cobb and Godden-Rasul’s experience as feminist academics engaged in critical institutional practice through such initiatives as editing the Inherently Human blog, organising the Inspirational Women of Law exhibition, and participating in university working groups on campus-based harassment and violence. In asking Lishak to reflect on her journey to feminism and her experiences of activism, the conversation ranges over such issues as personal influences and experiences, strategies for securing institutional support, encouraging student engagement with feminism, and campaigning tactics. The conversation developed out of a “Campus Feminisms” event in March 2016, which explored the rise of exciting new grassroots single-issue campaigns and political mobilisations by students in higher education, and was organised by Cobb and Godden-Rasul at Newcastle University, UK. Undergraduate and postgraduate students shared their personal struggles and achievements in bringing feminist ideas and campaigns to their university campuses. Lucy Morgan, the Gender Equality Officer at Newcastle University Students’ Union, offered inspiring reflections on her efforts to reinvigorate the ‘F’ word, in the face of simultaneous student apathy and backlash. Many of these campus-based mobilisations have demanded better institutional responses to sexual violence against women. At around the same time, Cobb was beginning a new role as the co-chair of the University of Manchester’s first Task & Finish Group on Sexual Violence and Harassment on Campus. This followed Universities UK’s decision to create a taskforce to consider options for improving institutional responses to student safety. In the process, Cobb crossed paths with Lishak, who had been appointed a member of the UUK Taskforce in light of her path-breaking students’ union work addressing violence against women. Since Lishak was an exemplar of this new feminist wave in higher education, one that was still inadequately understood by feminist academics despite often working side-by-side within the same institutions, the authors embarked on this conversation in order to better understand the relationship between academic and student feminist activism on campus. As Lishak makes clear in her own reflections, there is nothing inevitable about the synergies between these movements, but there is potentially a great deal that could be achieved through their closer engagement.     

Women arrested for partner violence and substance use: an exploration of discrepancies in the literature

Discrepancies exist in research examining substance problems within groups of women arrested for intimate partner violence (IPV). In some studies women IPV arrestees have been found to be at high risk for substance-related problems, whereas in others they are found to be at low risk for substance-related problems. The current study explores these discrepancies then compares a sample of women court ordered to a domestic violence diversion program (n = 78) to a matched sample of men (n = 78) in the same program using police report information, self-report measures, the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3, and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III alcohol and drug subscales. Women IPV arrestees had a low occurrence of substance use during the arresting incident, a low incidence of substance-related diagnoses, and fewer substance-related problems than did men IPV arrestees. However, women demonstrated personality structures susceptible to nondiagnosable, hazardous drinking patterns.     

A model of cross-cultural training in the transfer of technology

During the past few decades, many aspects of the transfer of technology from developed to less-developed countries have been examined in detail. Although much of the transfer has been done by transnational corporations (TNCs), one area that has received scant attention in the literature is the cross-cultural training of workers in the host country. A model is developed to show how critical training the worker is to the success of the TNC in the host country. This model emphasizes the need for workers to be trained to understand and use the new (foreign) technology and to understand the culture of the foreign corporation. Thomas S. Barker is a Ph.D. student in higher education with a concentration in management and economics at the University of North Texas.     

Histories of now: listening to women in British film

ABSTRACT

The research project ‘Calling the Shots: Women and contemporary film culture in the UK, 2000–2015’ investigates contemporary women's film history through two primary routes: the statistical analyses of the numbers of women in six key above-the-line professions (director, writer, producer, executive producer, cinematographer and editor), and interviews with 50 women in those same roles (by August 2018 we had interviewed 58). This paper focuses specifically on the permutations of the interview process for constructing women's film history in the contemporary period. Taking into consideration the theoretical, methodological and political issues at stake in recording oral histories of working women filmmakers, we contemplate the consequences of collecting and writing history that is still in medias res.     

Legal aid reform: its impact on family law

This paper seeks to give an overview of the Legal Aid reform leading to the enactment of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (“LASPO”). It provides a context for the reforms heralded by consultation in 2010, and discusses the interplay with the simultaneous Family Justice Review. The paper goes on to look at the structural and constitutional changes brought about by the LASPO Act 2012, the impact on the Courts, and the removal of many cases from the 'scope' of public funding leading to the increase in the numbers of Litigants in Person. The paper discusses the ‘exceptional’ cases, the cases in which children are joined as parties, and mediation. The article looks briefly at the impact on the legal profession brought about by the legal aid reforms together with the reduction in fees under the Family Advocacy Scheme (also introduced in 2011).