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Around 60 per cent of people with dementia in the UK live at home. The experience of caring for a family member with dementia can be rewarding and positive, but it can also be significantly stressful. Current healthcare policy is encouraging greater provision to support family carers. Along with respite-care, day-care and support group-based initiatives, there has also been a focus on developing dementia-specific communication training. The paper discusses this issue.

The authors outline a new initiative “Empowered Carers” which is being piloted in the North of England. Empowered Carers is an online support and communication training service for family carers who are caring for someone with dementia at home. It utilises online video conference-calling technology to connect carers with support workers, and also allows for simultaneous interactions involving other family members. A central tenet of the approach is a theoretically grounded support model, based on the concept of mentalisation.

The authors describe the background to Empowered Carers, and how a conventional evaluation strategy for the initiative is being used alongside a socio-linguistic approach (Conversation Analysis – CA). This aims to provide empirical evidence about how the assimilation of mentalisation is reflected in the structuring of speech patterns in carers during support sessions.

The authors explain the CA method, how it has been applied to similar talk-based therapeutic settings, and why its ability to explore sequential linguistic patterns across extremely large data-sets is particularly suited to studying interaction in emerging online arenas.

This paper examines the British fashion retailer Jigsaw in its strategy of “individualising” its outlets in the highly competitive British high street environment. In order to distinguish itself in the marketplace as an independent retailer with an acute sense of site and to maximise the impact of its outlets in a diverse range of locations, Jigsaw has deliberately commissioned a series of designers to create a series of memorable and challenging interiors with much resulting critical and financial success. This paper examines the work of two contrasting architects and their interior work, highlighting the individualistic approach to the high street taken by Jigsaw. This proactive attitude taken to both the place and face of design in its outlets has allowed Jigsaw both to tailor its image as required and to add perceived value to its merchandise. This paper examines the impact that design has had in facilitating this success.

These are the days of falling standards and sagging morale, nowhere more apparent than in the one‐time efficient public service. The division between management and workers in the field in the large public enterprises has grown wider and wider and we tend to blame the lower strata of the structure for most of the ills which beset us, mainly because its failures are more obvious; here, the falling standards of work and care speak for themselves. The massive reorganization of the National Health Service and local authorities has made evident, especially in the first, that the upper strata of the colossi which dominate our everyday lives have their ills too. Local authorities have been told “The party is over!” and the National Health Service has been told of the urgent need for the strictest economy in administration; that the taking over of personal health services from local authorities was wrongly attributed to “managerial growth” instead of a mere “transfer of functions”, but, nonetheless, new authorities were created, each with fast‐growing administrative organs operating services—doctors, nurses and patients—which had remained unchanged. Very large local authorities, with many functions lost to others, one would have expected to have resulted in economy of administration, has all‐too‐often been the opposite. Hardly surprising that those who pay for it all, distinct from those who receive of its largesse, are being stirred to rebellion, when they have been overtaxed, ill‐used and what is more important, ignored for so long.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

In this account of our long-term ethnographic investigation of the Burning Man Project, we examine the emergence of nomadic spirituality among the citizens of Black Rock City, Nevada. We describe this emergence as a reaction to consumers’ increasing dissatisfaction both with conventional religious denominations and with consumption as an existential ground of meaning. We provide an emic view of the pilgrimage experience at Black Rock City, from the perspective of participants in and organizers of the event. We propose a theory of the comedy of the commons to interpret the surface structure of the moment, and embed our deep structural interpretation of the nomadic spirituality of the phenomenon within the context of new religious movements (NRMs). In so doing, we shed new light on the topic of the sacred and profane in consumer experience.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the qualitative relationship between cannabis and the most commonly used antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) through the narratives of depressed individuals who have used both drugs at one point during their lifetime. Despite their prevalence, depression, cannabis use, and SSRI use have not been previously studied together through the perspective of those who have experienced them. Using a exploratory approach, this paper investigates and compares the user experiences of these drugs.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted involving participants who were between the ages of 16–59 in the UK and have used both SSRIs and cannabis either simultaneously or at any point in their lives. Five interviews were conducted either via telephone or in person, and the method of analysis was an inductive approach which was inspired by grounded-theory.

While the two drugs were used by participants in order to relieve symptoms of depression, they were used for very different reasons and typically at different stages of their lives. Though participants did not state that the drugs were interchangeable for improving mood, their responses indicated that these drugs were viewed as two alternatives to alleviate symptoms of depression. Participants’ relationships with their doctors also played a crucial role and affected interviewees’ decisions to use either SSRIs or cannabis, as well as perceptions of the medical industry.

This research shows the importance of doctor and patient interactions as they were crucial influences on patients’ decisions related to drugs. Participants’ experiences with SSRI and cannabis were subjective and varied, therefore, the value of personalised treatment (which may or may not include psychotropic drugs) is highlighted. These findings can help health practitioners gain a better understanding of the rationale of depressed patients in choosing treatments and thereby improve healthcare outcomes.

Given that depression is stigmatised, and cannabis use is both illegal and stigmatised, this paper examines the opinions of a difficult to reach population. Previous work involving cannabis, antidepressants and mood-elevating effects is primarily written with a biochemical or medical perspective which paid more focus on the efficacy of these drugs and had less emphasis on the beliefs of the users. This paper highlights the opinions of cannabis and SSRI users regarding these two drugs specifically, which had not been previously explored.