A common problem in all affluent societies, particularly in the retail sector, is the burgeoning issue of food waste. In this, Australia is no exception. However, to a large extent, the main focus of research in Australia to date has been on food waste at the household level. This paper focuses on the previous stage in the food life‐cycle and examines the freegan practice of collecting and redistributing food discarded as ‘worthless’ by supermarket chains, in particular. For freegans, this is an act of choice, not need, to protest against issues of overconsumption and waste. The practice of freeganism has had multiple manifestations throughout history. It represents an alternative ethics of consumption and has multiple forms, embracing such issues as pesticide contamination, excessive labour exploitation, packaging and more. This paper reports on ongoing ethnographic research into two freegan subcultures in Australia: dumpster‐divers and participation in the activities associated with ‘Food Not Bombs’. It complements freegan research conducted across the world while its analysis, applying theories of alternative food networks, food justice, diverse economies and concepts of autonomy, provides insights into contemporary forms of activism and social change around issues of food waste in Australia.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to derive from an on-going, innovative, project to explore the concept, and application, of “recovery” in the care and clinical management of patients detained in one UK high-security hospital. Design/methodology/approach – Utilising a qualitative, action research, methodology the aim was to involve forensic mental health nurses in a collaborative, client-centred approach to identification and resolution of dilemmas in the process of planning care for offender-patients. Findings – In this context the authors identify constraints and contradictions involved in employing recovery principles in institutions critics refer to as part of the disciplinary apparatus of psychiatric and social control; where the taken for granted lives, and relations, of an incarcerated population are measured by the calendar, not the clock. Research limitations/implications – Protective practices remain highly relevant in high-secure practice. Safety, an important value for all can by and large be achieved through recovery approaches. The humanistic elements of recovery can offer up safe and useful methods of deploying the mental health nurse on the ward. Many nurses have the prerequisite approach but there remains a wide scope to enhance those skills. Many see the approach as axiomatic though nurse education often prepares nurses with a biomedical view of the ward. Practical implications – Currently, philosophical tenets of recovery are enshrined in contemporary health policy and professional directives but, as yet, have not been translated into high-secure settings. Drawing on preliminary findings, attention is given to the value of socially situated approaches in challenging historic dominance of a medical model. Social implications – It is concluded that recovery could be a forerunner of reforms necessary for the continued relevance of high-secure care into the twenty-first century. Originality/value – This research is located in high-secure setting. The social situation is marked by the extent of the isolation involved. A value is in this situation. First it is akin to the isolation of the tribe utilised by many anthropologists for their ability to adopt the “social laboratory” status to test out theories of behaviour in industrial society. The authors urge others to utilise this research in this way. Second, the situation represents the locus of so many of societies dilemmas, paradoxes and fears that moral issues morph from what is the mundane in wider society. In this way humanistic approaches are tested via action research with nurses in some rigouous ways.

This article presents findings from a discourse analytic study into the constructive nature and textual variations of language in a high-security hospital. It explores how mental health nurses, and men convicted of sexual offences who also have a diagnosis of personality disorder, talked about pornography and sexual crime in the context of forensic provision. Access to sexually-explicit media, in relation to treatment environments for people convicted of sexual offences, has become a cause for professional and political concern in the UK. Data collection and analysis, undertaken concurrently, were informed by a discursive design. Semistructured interviews, as co-constructed accounts with nursing staff and detained patients, were audio-taped and transcribed. Data were coded to identify the discursive repertoires, or collective talk, of respondents. In contrast to empirical inquiry into pornography and sexual violence, methodology shifted attention from measurement to meaning, and situated research in a clinical domain. The findings focus on performative language use, where talk about pornography textured the treatment environment, contributed to an overtly masculine discourse, framed the ward as male space, and promoted gendered inequality. The discussion questions the legitimacy of the therapeutic enterprise.

The vignette is a valuable and flexible research tool in behavioural sciences and health care. Joel Richman and Dave Mercer outline the variable application of this method and propose a classification in terms of the form and use of the vignette. The discussion is illustrated with an example of the way that vignettes provided access to the discursive structures of forensic mental health nurses in one maximum secure psychiatric hospital. It is suggested that this methodology, within the broader aims of the study, revealed an ordered and taxonomic discourse of evil, with significant implications for professional practice.