British Experience (british + experience)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Food and Poverty: Insights from the ,North'

DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5-6 2003
Elizabeth Dowler
The role that food and nutrition play in the material definitions of poverty are contrasted with the social construction of malnutrition and poverty, drawing largely on British experience. The consequences for poor health and premature death are briefly examined; in particular, the connection is made to the world-wide growth in obesity, and in cardio-vascular disease, cancers and diabetes. The lived experience of those defined as poor in the North, and the implications of contemporary policy initiatives and responses by state, private and voluntary sectors, are explored. The challenges of the dominant policy framework remain consumer and individual choice, rather than public health and citizenship, which militates against the realisation of true food security. [source]


Health risk appraisal for older people in general practice using an expert system: a pilot study

HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 1 2005
S. Iliffe
Abstract The prevention of disability in later life is a major challenge facing industrialised societies. Primary care practitioners are well positioned to maintain and promote health in older people, but the British experience of population-wide preventive interventions has been disappointing. Health risk appraisal (HRA), an emergent information-technology-based approach from the USA, has the potential for fulfilling some of the objectives of the National Service Framework for Older People. Information technology and expert systems allow the perspectives of older people on their health and health risk behaviours to be collated, analysed and converted into tailored health promotion advice without adding to the workload of primary care practitioners. The present paper describes a preliminary study of the portability of HRA to British settings. Cultural adaptation and feasibility testing of a comprehensive health risk assessment questionnaire was carried out in a single group practice with 12 500 patients, in which 58% of the registered population aged 65 years and over participated in the study. Eight out of 10 respondents at all ages found the questionnaire easy or very easy to understand and complete, although more than one-third had or would have liked assistance. More than half felt that the length of the questionnaire was about right, and one respondent in 10 disliked some questions. Of those who completed the questionnaire and received tailored, written health promotion advice, 39% provided feedback on this with comments that can be used for increasing the acceptability of tailored advice. These findings have informed a wider exploratory study in general practice. [source]


The difficulties of empire: present, past and future*

HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 205 2006
Linda Colley
Although empire is now an intensely fashionable subject of enquiry, much contemporary comment is relatively uninformed and lacks historical context. This is particularly significant in the light of the United States' purported new imperialism. This article considers the problems faced by those attempting to define empire, whether in the past or the present. It traces the origins of American imperialism to the beginnings of the republic and before, and compares it with the British experience, arguing in all cases for the importance of a wide-ranging and comparative approach to empire. Finally, it urges historians and political commentators to move beyond a concentration on dead European empires, to look as well at other and at present-day versions of the phenomenon, and to re-examine the overlap between nation and empire. [source]


The symbolic state: a British experience

JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2003
Nicholas O'Shaughnessy
Abstract This paper aspires to introduce a new word into the political lexicon. It argues that Britain's ,New' Labour Government embodies a phenomenon for which the word ,spin' is descriptively inadequate. New Labour actually represents something much more radical and important than this,an entire regime whose core competence has lain in the generation of imagery. Its directors recognise that, in a sense, words speak louder than actions, and that the production of the correct imagery is politically more significant than the creation and execution of policy, the old concept of governing. While the paper discusses the ethical and the social consequences of this evolution, it also suggests that such symbolic government is the almost inevitable response of governing elites to an inquisitorial and relentless modern media. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications [source]