New adoption figures released.

I know there are a number of students who are interested in issues surrounding adoption in the UK. The release of new adoption figures this week resulted in dismay in many parts of the media, as the statistics suggested a fall in the number of babies and children being adopted.

In amongst the general hubbub of strained and opinionated voices I enjoyed the approach of Polly Curtis in the Guardian. Her online debate ran for several hours on Thursday as people added statistics and opinions to her live Reality Check blog. It's fascinating and I'd love to steal the idea and use it here one day!

In addition, there was a piece on the adoption debate on the Today programme. It's worth sharing as it touches on the specific sticking point of black children being adopted by white families, something I know several students have made the subjects of their dissertations in recent years.

"The healing power of lust"

Firstly, notice the quotation marks in the title. I'll explain the title shortly.

I'm a white bloke. You may have noticed. My parents were white and their parents were white. As far as I know my genetic make up is wholly unremarkable. The reason for mentioning this is that the BBC are about to run a series of programmes on BBC2 concerning different aspects of what it means to be mixed-race.

There's a three part series coming up called Mixed Race Britain as well as programmes about specific aspects of growing up mixed-race. And in case you're still wondering the title of this post refers to something I heard Steven Jones, a world renowned expert in genetics, say this morning as a trailer for the series. He was interviewed, along with a woman who is mixed-race on the Today programme this morning. It's a great interview.

One more thing. If you're interested in reading more about issues around race we've loads of e-books on the subject. You probably know how to access the e-books already but if you need help you know where I am.

Google+

I haven't mentioned any new Web developments much recently. That's mainly because everything I've come across was just too sad to share - even for me! But now Google+ has arrived and it might just change things a bit.
Google+ is Google's attempt to muscle in on Facebook's action. The big selling point is that with Facebook you only have one category of contacts-you have to call everyone 'friends'. So everyone gets equal billing. Your sister, wife and some bloke you met once at a party 8 years ago who you got on with quite well are now all 'friends'.

Google+ offers more flexibility. You can customise different areas of your Google+ homepage and keep different areas of your social life separate. So, in theory you could even use it to organise yourself around projects which require groupwork. And that area could be just for academic information sharing. It's all in the very early stages but I wouldn't be surprised if you see lots of changes on Facebook in the next 6 months as they decide to steal lots of Google's features. That's what usually happens.

If you feel like learning a bit more about it, Rory Cellan-Jones is the technology correspondent for the BBC and he wrote a succinct piece about Google+ yesterday. Alternatively, there are already 1000's of video reviews on YouTube.

We've got a new psychology database.

It's called PsycARTICLES and I have to say it's a pretty impressive thing.

Before you email me to point out you're not studying psychology, can I just mention that amongst the 78 completely full-text journals are a number that cross over into a likely area of interest; mental health, child development, family studies and health are all represented.

It's another database that comes via ebsco so if you've created your own account you'll be able to sign in and use the folder as normal.
If you'd like a tutorial on how to get the best from the databases or just a refresher be sure to email and ask.

UNICEF report concludes that kids favour parental attention over material wealth

When I looked this week at the UNICEF report on child well-being I was reminded of why I'd first decided to call this blog 'Bedtimes and Deadlines'. If you've never heard me explain, it was so named as an acknowledgement of the problems I've had since 2001 in making time for study, children, work and relationships.

When I was trying to finish off my teaching qualification this year EVERYBODY in our house suffered. I was grumpy, unreasonable and tired. More than once as an apology for being unable to play with my boys I'd get them something from Amazon rather than find the time to just sit down and play.

The new UNICEF report is a follow up study to their 2007 offering which placed children in the UK at the  bottom of a 'well being scale'. The 2007 sample concentrated on developed countries. The new report compares the well being of children from Sweden, Spain and the UK. It's qualitative with a sample size of 250 children aged between 8 and 13. The issues discussed centre on materialism, the working week, social inequality and factors arising from parenting styles.

As always with research, it is crucial to be critical. Never accept any findings at face value. That said, I do think that the report is worth half an hour of your time today.

Things Evan says: No 2...

On seeing me go in the fridge for a beer...

Evan: Daaa-aaad? I keep telling you that beer will make you fat. You'll get fat and then you won't be able to play tennis and then you'll be grumpy.

Thomas, aged 10, walking past: Evan, you talk rubbish. And anyway you shouldn't say fat, you should say obese.

Evan: Daaa-aad? Thomas says if you drink beer you'll be a beast.


Cue suppressed sniggering from the living room where my wife was listening.

Did you hear John Humphries' piece on Luton?

John Humphries has been in Luton interviewing people as part of a series of reports commemorating the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. The broader scope is investigating how attitudes have changed towards muslims since 2001. I'm not sure how long the audio will be live for so follow the link here soon if you want to listen to it.

I think we should start reading other people

Do you follow any other blogs? I've recently picked up a 'follower' who is a fellow blogger and it made me think I should probably show you how to search specifically for blogs online.

Blogging is colossal in scope and size. People will blog about anything. And I mean anything. I tend to dip in and out of the political blogosphere but there are many professionals, authors and theorists within the social sciences who maintain blogs.

The easiest way to purely search for blogs is to use the Google filter to exclude other web sites. Just try some keywords and see what you find. If you do come across somebody whose blog you think is particularly good then by all means let me know.

"And now on BBC1 we go live to the Old Bailey to cover the sentencing of Coldplay for crimes against music"

I've probably just alienated the vast majority of you reading this but I just can't stand Coldplay.

Anyway, I was reading this morning about the proposal to televise court proceedings and it got me thinking. I appreciate this won't be relevant to everybody, but anyone who's studying criminology or is likely to end up as a witness as part of their job may have an opinion. My concern would simply be that being filmed changes people's behaviour. Always. The X-Factor would be a wholly different experience without the cameras in there to whip people up into a big, lumpy frenzy.

The argument that it would demystify the legal process might well be true, but surely there'd be some negative effects along the way.
There was a nice debate yesterday I heard between Clive Anderson, TV personality and ex-barrister, and crime writer M.R. Hall which you listen to again via the Radio 4 website.
As always, this is purely my opinion. If you'd like some other opinions to read I'd recommend Torin Douglas's piece on the BBC website.

Finally, if you've ever observed court proceedings and are prepared to share it I'd love to read it as I've never been in a courtroom.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

When I see you for the new induction sessions in October/November time my role will have changed a bit so I thought I'd give you some information now to explain how things are likely to pan out.

As you may know I currently support applied social studies and human resource management. Well from the middle of October my subject responsibilities are being adjusted.

I'll still be responsible for applied social studies, but I'm gaining the major addition of psychology. I'll also be gaining criminology and social care whilst giving up human resource management.

You're unlikely to notice any difference at all in how I support you, but I may decide to broaden the scope of the blog to include both social and psychological issues. Or I may keep the focus of this blog as it is and do something separate for the psychology students. If you've an opinion on this then tell me.

As a psychology graduate this is all quite exciting, although don't think for a second I'll be favouring psychology over applied social studies! Never fear, you've been brilliant in helping me get this blog off the ground and just generally lovely, so I won't be getting distracted by the bright lights and shiny things that the psychology department are bound to offer.

When does an overweight family become a news story?

I was coming in on the bus this morning and trying to think of a blogging topic when I heard the story of the family in Dundee who have been threatened with having their obese children taken away from them. Surely, there'd need to be more going on here than just allowing their children to become overweight? 


The Today website on Radio 4 is playing up at present so I can't link to it (they had an interview with Hilton Dawson, the chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers) but to give you a sense (if sense isn't entirely the wrong word...) of how The Telegraph has been commenting on the story take a look at this. Warning: It's liberal-baiting craziness from the Jeremy Clarkson school of sensitivity.


I've read social work guidelines on how children come to be removed from parents and I'm sure I remember that it's more complicated than just putting kids on a weighing machine. 
But that doesn't make a good headline, does it?

The Class Ceiling.

Good morning. How's thing?

Have been on holiday in Dorset with the family fossil-hunting and trying to avoid hypothermia, hence the lack of postings. I know the point of holidays is to 'get away from it all' but a cottage with no mobile signal, electricity that you could charitably call wilful and a TV with three channels is pretty far removed from our usual situation. It was great!
Anyway, I digress.

I'd like to recommend a radio programme from earlier this morning (Monday the 1st) on Radio 4.
Polly Toynbee is a journalist who writes for The Guardian with an interest in social justice and politics who's presenting a 2 part series on how class is still a massive indicator of a person's social attainment. There's some more information on the BBC website and the first part of the series is already on BBC's i-player.

As the first person from his family to go to university and as someone who regularly wrestles with the notion of what class even means ( I have great problems with the idea that a university education and love of the arts automatically imposes a middle-class status on an individual), I really enjoyed the first episode. Me and my wife have been having the class 'debate' for 12 years now. Next time you see me in the university stop me and ask who wins the argument!