Papers by Anne-maree Sawyer
Journal of Women & Aging, Apr 13, 2021
ABSTRACT This study investigates how the wellbeing trend in popular media regulates women’s bodie... more ABSTRACT This study investigates how the wellbeing trend in popular media regulates women’s bodies and their selves through establishing norms around successful aging. We report on an exploratory qualitative content analysis of representations of wellbeing and aging from The Australian Women’s Weekly (AWW) magazine. While some articles emphasized self-care and self-responsibility, many articulated relational and social/structural understandings of wellbeing. Compared with an earlier analysis of the AWW, our study found largely positive views of experiences of aging, associated with new opportunities and increased self-acceptance. These findings demonstrate how magazines both reflect and reinforce subtle processes of social change.
Driven by contemporary public policy, the individualisation of care forms an integral part of the... more Driven by contemporary public policy, the individualisation of care forms an integral part of the institutional apparatus that manages and contains risky welfare others who are framed as ‘damaged’, ‘deficient’ or ‘dangerous’. In this chapter, we examine the social misery that is generated and often disguised by risk-thinking in the provision of person-centred mental health care. We do this by presenting examples from our research with people recovering from mental health problems who experienced significant challenges in navigating the interface between their own sense of self-care and community services’ management of risks and care. We draw attention to the subjective experience of abjection that derives from risk-dominated practices: experiences of living with loss, humiliation and heightened anxiety. Significantly, we demonstrate that the lived reality of suffering, engendered by risk-focused responses and procedures, both creates and compounds the pain of inequality and injustice. This understanding provides us with an opportunity to consider changes to organisational and practice strategies of care that could address the wounded ‘self’ of people experiencing mental health problems.
Sociology Compass, Aug 31, 2018
As the baby boomers enter later life, unprecedented numbers of women are retiring. The first gene... more As the baby boomers enter later life, unprecedented numbers of women are retiring. The first generation of women to encounter retirement since its institutionalisation as an expected male life course transition in the mid-20th century, these women are leaving the labour force at a time when the meanings associated with "retirement" are changing. Longer life expectancy, improved health outcomes, and transformations in work driven by globalisation have produced greater diversity in when, why, and how people exit the labour force. Many boomer women are disadvantaged in later life by their histories of discontinuous employment and care-giving. Consequently, we argue, opportunities to engage in "retirement" projects of their own choosing are unequal across this population. This essay reviews qualitative studies in sociology that examine boomer women's experiences of retirement and is organised in terms of the three main approaches that inform this under-studied field: critical/feminist gerontology, identity theory, and life course approaches. Based on our review, we posit the need for socially inclusive research, beyond the prevailing emphasis on White, middle-class professional women; more studies examining the impact of earlier life course transitions on women's later years; and attention to the effects of "successful ageing" discourses on women's lived experiences. 1 | INTRODUCTION An ageing population, longer life expectancy, improved health outcomes, reduced social protections, and the removal of age-mandated retirement regulations in many western democracies are changing the meaning of retirement. Work has also been transformed over recent decades. Globalisation and rapid advances in digital communication technologies; deindustrialisation and the revolution in services; the growth of insecure and "contingent" employment; and
Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness: An A-to-Z Guide, Mar 17, 2014
Just policy: a journal of Australian social policy, Dec 1, 2008
Changes in society have forced community service organisations to amend their functioning in orde... more Changes in society have forced community service organisations to amend their functioning in order to minimise the exposure to uncertainty and risk. The various hurdles that organisations have faced and suggestions to overcome these are presented.
Australian Social Work, Mar 16, 2016
ABSTRACT Reducing suicide rates is a national mental health priority as over 2,200 people die fro... more ABSTRACT Reducing suicide rates is a national mental health priority as over 2,200 people die from suicide each year in Australia. Increasingly, nongovernment organisations (NGOs) provide services to people experiencing severe and persistent mental illnesses—a significant cohort at risk of suicide. While clinical services are generally seen as the arbiters of risk, little is known of how suicide risk assessments are undertaken in NGOs. This article reports the findings of a survey-based pilot study of 44 frontline workers in mental health-focused NGOs in Tasmania, Australia, with the aim of sketching a preliminary picture of this under-studied terrain. We identified the assessment practices utilised by workers, and the challenges and dilemmas they experienced in navigating issues of trust in suicide risk assessment in contexts where they often felt vulnerable and under-prepared. We argue that these early findings demonstrate the need for organisations to foster cultures of trust to facilitate both the activities of relationship building between practitioners and clients, and those of monitoring risk.
Australian Social Work, Dec 1, 2010
Since the mid-1980s, Australian governments have focused on expanding community and home-based se... more Since the mid-1980s, Australian governments have focused on expanding community and home-based services for older people. This has led to increased levels of dependency, vulnerability, and complexity to be managed in the community. Consequently, aged care services have had to develop mechanisms for regulating and managing these increased risks, and risk management has become more central to the practices of
Australian Social Work, Feb 5, 2016
As we write this editorial, the Australian Government has launched a major reform of the Australi... more As we write this editorial, the Australian Government has launched a major reform of the Australian mental health system. According to Professor Ian Hickie, one of the National Mental Health Commissioners, these reforms constitute a "radical departure" from a model that funds individual practitioners "to do what they're trained to do" to one that is funded on the basis of the needs of people with mental health problems (Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), 2015). Media releases tell us that services in the redesigned system are to be integrated and well-coordinated, locally situated, and responsive to the people using them (ABC, 2015). Yet, these ideals of individualised care provision are not new. Mental health policy development in Australia has appeared very progressive since deinstitutionalisation with its focus on the human rights and social inclusion of people with mental disorders, and an emphasis on the "active" participation of service users and carers in treatment decisions, "recovery," and service planning (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). However, the translation of these principles into practice has been contentious (Sawyer, 2011). Since deinstitutionalisation, national surveys have reported significant areas of unmet need and user and carer dissatisfaction with services (Mental Health Commission, 2012). The new reforms aim to address these issues, to prevent people "falling through the cracks," by providing services in new ways. Mental health social workers often occupy complex and contradictory spaces that are shaped by a range of legal, policy, and societal drivers. Although there are broad, commonly understood definitions of mental health social work in Australasia, the United Kingdom, and North America, practitioners often need to adjust their interventions to take account of the particularities of local and national politics. The articles presented in this Special Issue illuminate a range of challenges and dilemmas in contemporary mental health practice in the broader context of intersections between the imperatives of recovery-focused practices and the risk and regulatory regimes that shape and constrain these practices. The issue opens with Mike Titterton and Helen Smart's paper on the challenges confronting mental health social work in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, particularly the increased burdens of mental illness experienced by people as a consequence of political and social upheaval, together with the very recent development of community care in these areas. Titterton and Smart emphasise the need for culturally-specific models of risk and resilience in these very distinctive forms of "risk society" and for "narratives of positive risk-taking and resilience." The subsequent papers concentrate on the Australian context and cover the themes of legal/involuntary contexts of care, diagnosis and therapeutic treatments, and community-based practice. Mandated roles associated with mental health law in the UK and Australia have been subject to considerable debate. For example, whereas a prescribed set of functions has been
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, Sep 30, 2018
Since the late twentieth century, the rise of the internet and online support groups (OSGs) has r... more Since the late twentieth century, the rise of the internet and online support groups (OSGs) has revolutionised the way individuals obtain health information and support (Mo and Coulson 2014, p. 984). This chapter situates the phenomenon of OSGs socially and historically, in relation to the rise of therapy culture and other developments. It provides an overview of the key features of health-related OSG participation, utilising recent studies from clinical/health sciences and pertinent insights from our participants, and outlines our particular contribution to the sociological study of infertility and online support. By approaching the Stronger Together OSG as a very particular narrative environment, we aim to show throughout this book how broader cultural narratives of self, infertility and motherhood are inscribed in participants’ online exchanges.
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, Sep 30, 2018
This chapter examines the destabilisation of key relationships in the women’s lives in the contex... more This chapter examines the destabilisation of key relationships in the women’s lives in the context of their experiences of infertility. Specifically, we focus on how these experiences affected their interactions with family, friends and work colleagues. (The women’s accounts of their relationships with their spouses are explored in Chap. 6.) The Stronger Together site offered the women a secure place to “vent” about their interactions with significant others—the pain and indignation of confronting others’ seemingly unfeeling reactions; whether or not to disclose their struggles with infertility; how to deal with the news of other women’s pregnancies; and how to regard the infertility “advice” proffered by relatives and close friends.
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, Dec 8, 2007
Social Policy and Society, Feb 21, 2013
Some Useful Sources J e n s O . Z i n n ∗, S i m o n B i g g s ∗∗, D i n a B o w m a n ∗∗∗, A n n... more Some Useful Sources J e n s O . Z i n n ∗, S i m o n B i g g s ∗∗, D i n a B o w m a n ∗∗∗, A n n e M a r e e S a w y e r † a n d D a n W o o d m a n ‡ ∗School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne E-mail: [email protected] ∗∗School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne E-mail: [email protected] ∗∗∗Research and Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence E-mail: [email protected] † School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University E-mail: [email protected] ‡ School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne E-mail: [email protected]
Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, Sep 30, 2018
Why does this baby making business have to be so damn hard!?!?! I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL, UNIVERSE!... more Why does this baby making business have to be so damn hard!?!?! I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL, UNIVERSE!!!' (Sophie) 'Infertility has taken away the dream of what it means to get pregnant and feel excited about it … Our struggle has become all we talk about, think about, save money for, cry about and dream about.' (Patricia)
Australian Social Work, Dec 1, 2009
Following deinstitutionalisation and the shift to models of community care, mental health practic... more Following deinstitutionalisation and the shift to models of community care, mental health practice has become increasingly focused on managing the risks posed by service users. However, the effects of risk management on workers’ professional identities have not been investigated empirically in Australia. Drawing on in-depth interviews with mental health workers from Victoria, Australia, this paper explores the diverse ways in
Journal of Sociology, Feb 19, 2023
As the Covid-19 pandemic caused schools, workplaces, and childcare centres to close, pressures in... more As the Covid-19 pandemic caused schools, workplaces, and childcare centres to close, pressures in the home increased. Much of the additional unpaid work required under these conditions was done by women. Most women's magazines at this time urged women to stay positive and develop wellbeing routines to help them flourish. This approach reinforces normative neoliberal subjectivity with its roots in therapeutic culture and the happiness industry. While the focus on self-care may seem empowering, it puts more pressure on women in times of upheaval. Based on a thematic analysis of pandemic-related content in Australia's most popular women's magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly, we identified three key themes: ‘finding the silver lining’, ‘making lifestyle choices’, and ‘recognising hardships and social divides’. While self-responsibilising discourses were prominent, some articles acknowledged the broader structural issues impacting women, revealing a tension between competing discourses.
Womens Studies International Forum, May 1, 2022
Looking Back, Moving Forward I am delighted to present the fourth issue of the ACG Case Reports J... more Looking Back, Moving Forward I am delighted to present the fourth issue of the ACG Case Reports Journal, which culminates our first year of publication. Over the past year, we received 470 submissions, of which 81 were selected for publication. Our success would not be possible without the efforts of the authors, reviewers, and editors, as well as ACG Publications Committee and ACG support staff, and we owe them all a great deal of gratitude.
Uploads
Papers by Anne-maree Sawyer