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In his discussions of life as narrative, and identity as narrative identity, Paul Ricoeur has claimed that we learn to become narrators and heroes of our own stories, without actually becoming the authors of our own lives. This idea, that we cannot be the author of our own life-story in the same way that the author of fictional narrative is the author of that story, seems at first incontestable, given that we are caught up within the enactment of the narrative that is our life, unlike the author of a fictional story who also has an independent existence outside that story. This asymmetry leads Ricoeur to pronounce that an ineradicable difference exists between fictional and life narratives. But is this difference in fact ineffaceable, or is there a sense in which we can be said to be the authors of our own lives? In this article I suggest that there are more points of similarity than Ricoeur explicitly recognizes between what authors do in writing fictional narratives and what we do in figuring, prospectively, our lives. These similarities are brought to light by a revision of the naïve, received concept of author and, once acknowledged, serve to bridge the purportedly 'unbridgeable gap' between fictional narratives and life narratives. I then consider how bridging this gap — establishing ourselves as authors as well as narrators — has ethical implications with regard to creating our own lives: a creation which authoring implies, but which is — given the revised notion of author — limited, both by the reciprocity of the other as co-author and by those events in life which the life-author is not fully able to plot.

This article examines the development of the claims to property rights in Rwanda, describing both the colonial system & traditional system, neither of which normally provide direct land ownership to citizens. The article describes how the importance of land in an otherwise economically underdeveloped country is the central factor in violent conflict between ethnic groups in Rwanda. The article describes solutions offered by Arusha Accords & other means & changes in policy which frequently occur to fit changing situations in refugee status. The article discusses the government policy of arranging villagization to organize & manage quick growth of groups of people without bringing about more conflict. E. Miller

Purpose
Calls for the development and dissemination of evidence-based programs to support children and families have been increasing for decades, but progress has been slow. This paper aims to argue that a singular focus on evaluation has limited the ways in which science and research is incorporated into program development, and advocate instead for the use of a new concept, "scientific accompaniment," to expand and guide program development and testing.


Design/methodology/approach
A heuristic is provided to guide research–practice teams in assessing the program's developmental stage and level of evidence.


Findings
In an idealized pathway, scientific accompaniment begins early in program development, with ongoing input from both practitioners and researchers, resulting in programs that are both effective and scalable. The heuristic also provides guidance for how to "catch up" on evidence when program development and science utilization are out of sync.


Originality/value
While implementation models provide ideas on improving the use of evidence-based practices, social service programs suffer from a significant lack of research and evaluation. Evaluation resources are typically not used by social service program developers and collaboration with researchers happens late in program development, if at all. There are few resources or models that encourage and guide the use of science and evaluation across program development.

This article explores the ways in which students' voices can be used to analyse the process of moving schools, at a time outside of those that young people normally change schools. The paper is based on a study in a secondary school and uses qualitative data collected by researchers and student co‐researchers. Two areas were raised by students as important about being at a new school: the perceived challenges and their perceptions of learning in a new environment. It is argued that to respond to issues that arise due to mobility, an engagement with students' views is necessary. Furthermore, this can facilitate policy‐makers, school leaders and educators in providing more effective support for those young people.

There is an increasing interest in improving youth digital citizenship through education. However, the term 'digital citizenship' currently covers a broad range of goals. To improve education, the current article argues for a narrower focus on (1) respectful behavior online and (2) online civic engagement. Using this definition, a digital citizenship scale was developed and assessed with a sample of 979 youth, aged 11–17 years, and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) supported measurement of both constructs: online respect (7 items, Cronbach's α = .92) and online civic engagement (4 items, Cronbach's α = .70). Online respect scores decreased with youth age, and scores on both subscales were higher among girls than boys. Both online respect and civic engagement were negatively related to online harassment perpetration and positively related to helpful bystander behaviors, after controlling for other variables. Implications of the study findings for developing and evaluating digital citizenship educational programs are discussed.

Substantiated cases of child maltreatment have declined more than 20% since a peak in 1993. However, although sexual abuse and physical abuse showed significant declines during the 1990s (47% and 36%, respectively), neglect fluctuated, with only a small overall decline during this period (7%). Available data suggest that at least part of the declines in sexual and physical abuse is likely to be real. Some evidence also suggests that a decline in neglect may have been masked in some states. Possible sources for declines in child maltreatment include direct prevention efforts, economic improvements, more aggressive criminal justice efforts, dissemination of psychiatric medication, and generational changes. Public health models suggest that population-level prevention initiatives are the most promising options for further reducing maltreatment rates. However, better epidemiological and evaluation research will be needed to identify the key factors.