Towards critical child protection: for a relationship-based and humane practice with children and families

In the UK social work with abused children and their families has long been subject to changing conceptions, policies and practices. Post-war concerns about child cruelty, ‘battered child syndrome’ and non-accidental injury have been superseded by the current concern with child protection. Such changes are linked to the dominance of neo-liberalism and associated managerialism, resulting in a narrower, truncated role for social work as practitioners concentrate on speedily completing bureaucracy. Now the overall priority is to ration resources and assess/manage risk together with changing the behaviour and lifestyles of parents/carers under the threat of losing their child(ren) to adoption. In contrast, this article calls for a critical child protection, a relationship-based practice which acknowledges social justice issues and works towards a more just and equal society. Despite challenges arising from the neo-liberal world, such critical social work involves a humane practice of working alongside children and families with parents/carers supported and encouraged regarding the issues of concern.

Post-migration social adaptation and normalisation: educational needs of Syrian women in Türkiye

Türkiye, a pivotal junction in global migration, has undertaken the responsibility of hosting a significant number of Syrian refugees since 2011. The ability of these asylum-seekers to benefit from education services effectively is of utmost importance for their post-migration adaptation and normalisation processes. This research focuses on the educational needs of Syrian women, who a dually disadvantaged group due to being women refugees, and who still carry important traumatic experiences such as war and migration in their memories. Adhering to the qualitative paradigm, this study employs a descriptive case study method and explores the experiences and perspectives of eight Syrian women actively participating in various training programs at the Zonguldak Fatih Public Education Centre through semi-structured interviews. Revealing that language acquisition and vocational training stand as the primary drivers for these women attending Public Education Centres, the findings underscore an urgent demand for expanded vocational courses, enhanced Turkish language programmes, interpreter services in public institutions, and counselling support.

Advancing regional and community planning in Australia: the contribution of the Office of Frank Heath 1939–1948

Australian postwar reconstruction in the 1940s saw idealistic synergies between decentralization, regional development, and ‘new town’ planning. Two architect-planners associated with this modernising impulse were Frank Heath and Ernest Fooks. Collaborating within Heath’s eponymous practice they proposed a series of plans for the expansion of 13 regional towns during and immediately after the Second World War. Melbourne-trained Heath and Viennese-educated Fooks drew on a consistent vocabulary of planning and design concepts, notably neighbourhood unit principles or as they sometimes described them ‘rayons’ following Soviet practice. Their work integrated a blend of decentralization ideology, continental European and British modes of city building, and progressive Soviet planning ideas into an Australian rural context. Their accompanying schemes and reports enhanced planning propaganda and exhibitions throughout the 1940s. Yet for a variety of reasons, the most important of which was the unwillingness of state and federal government to invest in urban decentralization strategies after the fervour of postwar reconstruction quickly receded, none of these plans was comprehensively implemented.

Generational perspectives on the biafra emancipation movement: analyzing attitudes, beliefs, and activism across political generations in Nigeria

This qualitative study explores the perspectives of the Biafran Emancipation Movement across political generational cohorts in Nigeria. Employing a qualitative phenomenological research design, the research utilized semi-structured interviews and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to examine the attitudes, beliefs, and activism within the political generational cohorts—MASSOB, IPOB, and BRGIE/USB—drawing on Whittier ( 1997 ) framework of political generations. The findings revealed both similarities and differences in the attitudes, beliefs, and activism among these cohorts, indicating cohort replacement and turnover thereby enhancing continuity within the movement. Additionally, the data reveals a continued involvement of minority ethnic groups in the South-East/South-South besides the Igbos, as they did during the Nigeria/Biafra war, although the extent of their participations are yet to be fully determined.

Celebrity, publicity, and the career of Major General ‘Sir William “the Conqueror” Waller’, 1642 to 1645

During the early years of the English civil war, Sir William Waller’s series of notable victories encouraged his emergence as one of the earliest military celebrities of the conflict, thanks in part to press reports of his actions. This article traces this development through an examination of contemporary pamphlets and selected newsbooks, by entries in official records, private diaries, and memoirs. It assesses the value of Waller’s reputation for generating supplies and recruiting men for his armies. It concludes with a consideration of evidence in print of hostility within the parliamentary military towards Waller, to which his celebrity status and political factionalism contributed. The article throughout considers the reception of Waller’s celebrity in royalist circles based on evidence from the Oxford newsbook Mercurius Aulicus . It contends that Waller’s favourable public persona depended on military victory, political support, and enthusiastic press coverage, factors that proved ephemeral in the short term.

Profiles in intelligence: an interview with 11th Mossad director Tamir Pardo

This article is based on an interview with Tamir Pardo, the 11th Director of the Mossad (2011–2016), conducted in Herzliya, Israel, in the summer of 2023 as part of a broader oral history project on Israeli intelligence culture and leadership. Pardo discusses his background in the military and intelligence sectors and offers perspectives on leadership and the strategic issues that influence Israel’s role in the region. His observations illuminate key patterns in Israel’s national security thinking, particularly the relationship between tactical effectiveness, long-term strategy, and the balance between secrecy, ethics, and political communication. This interview also provides an insider perspective on the Mossad’s institutional history and intelligence culture in the period preceding the surprise attack of 7 October 2023. That event is often described as a watershed moment comparable to Pearl Harbor (1941), the Yom Kippur War (1973), and 11 September 2001.

Uncertain threats: the FBI, the New Left, and Cold War intelligence by Jason Ross Arnold, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2025, 234 pp., £109.99 (hardback), ISBN 978-3-031-98086-2.

Reading espionage fiction: narrative, conflict and commitment from World War I to the contemporary era by Martin Griffin, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2023, 248 pp., £80.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9781474488946.

Revisiting German Vietnamese Relations in Art and Literature: Khuê Phạm and Sung Tiêu

As interest in the history of German Vietnamese relations since the 1950s has gathered momentum, this essay explores how contemporary art and literature have played a key role in representing the different strands of this history. These range from the German Democratic Republic’s employment of contract workers, to the Federal Republic of Germany’s granting of asylum to refugees from the Vietnam War, and xenophobic attacks on Vietnamese communities after Germany’s reunification in 1990. This essay focuses on two recent works whose form and content have been prominent in providing a more nuanced understanding of German Vietnamese relations to wider international audiences: Khuê Phạm’s novel, Brothers and Ghosts (2020/2024), and Sung Tiêu’s multimedia exhibition, One Thousand Times (2023/2024). Drawing attention to how Phạm and Tiêu shift beyond identity discourses and biographical accounts, this essay argues that they develop a mode of narrational and visual revisitation. The history of German Vietnamese relations, in their works, is dissected to show the powerful interplay of national agendas, bureaucracies, economic pursuits, and familial ties in shaping lived experiences.

Female students’ learning momentum in the aftermath of the war: the case of upper primary schools of Habru Woreda, Ethiopia

The purpose of the study was to examine how upper primary school female students motivated to learn in the aftermath of the Tigrian War. To do so, a case study design was used; 40 upper primary school female students, 40 teachers, 5 school principals, and a Woreda education office head were used as data sources by using snowball, purposive, and comprehensive sampling techniques respectively. Focused group discussions (FGD), interviews, and observation were employed as the study’s data collection methods. The collected data was then thematically analysed, and the results show that female students’ post-war learning involvement was ineffectual; the schools were not suitable for carrying out educational activities. To learn successfully, according to the findings, students require ongoing psychosocial training and financial assistance. As a result, damaged schools need to be rebuilt, students need a variety of psychosocial training, and both the federal and regional governments must ensure society and put a stop to the Tigrian junta’s ongoing fighting.