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Workings
Kinds of Workings Terms modified by Workings Selected AbstractsEducation and the Dangerous Memories of Historical Trauma: Narratives of Pain, Narratives of HopeCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 2 2008MICHALINOS ZEMBYLAS ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to explore the meanings and implications of dangerous memories in two different sites of past traumatic memories: one in Israel and the other in Cyprus. Dangerous memories are defined as those memories that are disruptive to the status quo, that is, the hegemonic culture of strengthening and perpetuating existing group-based identities. Our effort is to outline some insights from this endeavor,insights that may help educators recognize the potential of dangerous memories to ease pain and offer hope. First, a discussion on memory, history and identity sets the ground for discussing the meaning and significance of dangerous memories in the history curriculum. Next, we narrate two stories from our longitudinal ethnographic studies on trauma and memory in Israel and Cyprus; these stories are interpreted through the lens of dangerous memories and their workings in relation to the hegemonic powers that aim to sustain collective memories. The two different stories suggest that collective memories of historical trauma are not simply "transmitted" in any simple way down the generations,although there are powerful workings that support this transmission. Rather, there seems to be much ambivalence in the workings of memories that under some circumstances may create openings for new identities. The final section discusses the possibilities of developing a pedagogy of dangerous memories by highlighting educational implications that focus on the notion of creating new solidarities without forgetting past traumas. This last section employs dangerous memories as a critical category for pedagogy in the context of our general concern about the implications of memory, history and identity in educational contexts. [source] Anti-Politics as Political Strategy: Neoliberalism and Transfrontier Conservation in Southern AfricaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2010Bram Büscher ABSTRACT Studies on conservation and development often point out that interventions rely on anti-political manoeuvring to acquire legitimacy and support. Recent ,aidnography', in particular, has done much to expand and add nuance to our understanding of the complex, micro- (anti-)politics at work in conservation and development interventions. In doing this, however, aidnography seems to have led the focus away from two crucial, broader issues related to conservation and development interventions: how they are regulated through the wider, neoliberal political economy, and how this fuels and obscures (global) inequality. Drawing on empirical research on a transfrontier conservation and development intervention in Southern Africa, this article argues that the differential workings of anti-politics in practice warrant a renewed appreciation and a more explicit political operationalization of the concept. This is done by re-emphasizing anti-politics as an essential political strategy within conservation and development interventions and as an intrinsic element of the wider political economy of neoliberalism. [source] The interaction of age and unconditioned stimulus intensity on long-trace conditioned flavor aversion in ratsDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2002James R. Misanin Abstract To see if the neural representation of the conditioned stimulus (CS) is available to old-age rats beyond the time it is available to young adults, the intensity of the unconditioned stimulus (US) and the length of the CS,US interval were systematically varied in a trace conditioning experiment. Results indicated that increasing US intensity extends the interval over which trace conditioning is evident in old-age rats but not in young adults, suggesting that trace decay occurs more rapidly in young rats. Results were interpreted in terms of age differences in the workings of hypothesized biochemical timing mechanisms that may directly influence the ability to associate stimuli over trace intervals in conditioned taste-aversion procedures. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 40: 131,137, 2002. DOI 10.1002/dev.10018 [source] Folcwin of Rankweil: the world of a Carolingian local officialEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 1 2005Katherine Bullimore This article examines charters from the St Gall archive which are valuable for the light they throw on the secular society of the settlement of Rankweil in Rhaetia and the surrounding area. The centrepiece is the rare collection of early ninth-century grants and sales made to the centenarius Folcwin and the article uses these and other related documents to examine the workings of Carolingian local society, the activities of local officials, and the patterns of landholding and transfer amongst secular individuals of relatively modest standing. [source] Trading options before Black-Scholes: a study of the market in late seventeenth-century London1ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2009ANNE L. MURPHY This article uses data from the ledgers of the financial broker Charles Blunt to explore the market in equity options that emerged in London during the stock market boom of the early 1690s. Blunt's ledgers provide a unique opportunity to observe the workings of an early modern derivatives market. They reveal a broadly based and highly active trade in options. The market functioned well, determined value using agreed criteria, and was utilized by a diverse range of individuals to facilitate both risk-seeking and risk-averse investment strategies. [source] ,Riches beyond the dreams of avarice?': commerical returns on British warship construction, 1889-1914ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 2 2001A.J. Arnold The contracts for naval warships placed in private shipyards in the nineteenth century provide an early example of state procurement policy. It has been widely argued that these contracts allowed the firms concerned to earn unusually high profits, although the evidence provided has been very limited. This article analyses the effects of naval warship contracts on the profitability of the dominant suppliers during the ,naval arms race' of 1889-1914 in order to provide new and more systematic evidence on the workings of an early form of regulation and on a tangible aspect of the relationship between firms and the British government. [source] THIRD-PARTY ACCESS TO INFRASTRUCTURE: THE CASE OF THE MT NEWMAN RAIL LINE IN THE PILBARAECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 4 2007PAUL KOSHY Australia is continuing to develop a legal and administrative framework for facilitating third party access to important infrastructure. This paper examines the workings of the organisation charged with assessing requests for access,the National Competition Council,in the context of the Council's Final Recommendation on an application by the Fortescue Metals Group for access to the Mt Newman Rail Line, owned and operated by BHP Billiton Iron Ore. The discussion draws on submissions to the Council and the recent literature on rail access in order to critique this decision. It concludes by observing that further research is needed to develop a methodology for a more formal approach to determining certain key questions. [source] Towards second-generation proteome analysis of murine enamel-forming cellsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORAL SCIENCES, Issue 2006Jonathan E. Mangum Proteome analysis of rat enamel-forming cells, initiated over a decade ago, has provided valuable insights to enamel biology. In preparation for a more comprehensive, second-generation proteomic exploration, we evaluated an updated microsample-profiling strategy that comprises sequential extraction of enamel epithelium, parallel one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and mass spectrometric sequence analysis. The results indicated that several hundred proteins, representing various cellular compartments (including membranes), are amenable to identification with a starting tissue volume of <,10 µl. With its increased proteomic depth and breadth, this straightforward approach constitutes a major advance from the first-generation work (10-fold increased proteome coverage), although care was needed to ensure a comparably high stringency of protein identification. Expression proteomics has an exciting potential to elucidate the inner workings of murine enamel epithelial cells, leading to an improved understanding of enamel in health and disease. [source] Non-governmental Organisation Participation in the EU Law-making Process: The Example of Social Non-governmental Organisations at the Commission, Parliament and CouncilEUROPEAN LAW JOURNAL, Issue 5 2008Israel De Jesús Butler The Commission's current transparency initiative has focused attention on the rules (or lack of) governing access to the Commission as the initiator of legislation. This article examines more broadly, on the basis of interviews, both the formal and informal means of accessing not only the Commission, but also the European Parliament (in particular through intergroups) as well as the Council. By using specific examples of legislation it illustrates the routes by which ,social' non-governmental organisations currently interact with these institutions, offering examples of how their work may impact on the output of the Commission, Council and Parliament. The article avoids an overly legalistic analysis with an original glimpse at the ,hidden' workings of the EU law-making process which has hitherto received little attention among legal academics and practitioners. [source] Defining Factors of Successful University-Community Collaborations: An Exploration of One Healthy Marriage ProjectFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 1 2009Erik L. Carlton This study explored university-community collaborations by examining the workings of 1 healthy marriage initiative. An ethnographic case study research strategy was used to study the process of this initiative, specifically looking at how participants worked through and overcame traditional university-community collaboration challenges. Data consist of qualitative interviews with key initiative collaborators. Findings are organized into a model that offers a new way of looking at university-community collaborations in light of challenge points to be addressed and either resolved or unresolved. The model provides implications for other collaborative efforts and outreach scholarship. [source] Investment Decisions and Managerial Discipline: Evidence from the Takeover MarketFINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005Ralph Scholten This article focuses on the relative importance of boards of directors and the hostile takeover market in disciplining managers who make poor acquisition decisions. The evidence shows a weak inverse relationship between acquisition performance and the likelihood of becoming a takeover target, but only after it becomes clear that the internal control mechanism has failed. A forced turnover of a top executive was more likely in the 1990s, the more negative the abnormal return associated with an acquisition announcement. The relationship between forced turnover and negative acquisition returns is stronger when hostile takeover activity is less intense. Hence, it appears that being disciplined for making a poor acquisition is a function more of the internal control mechanism than of the workings of the takeover market. [source] ,A Literature of Substitution': Vicarious Sacrifice in the Writings of Gertrud Von Le FortGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 2 2000Helena M. Saward Vicarious sacrifice and substitution are among the central ideas to emerge in Gertrud von le Fort's prose and verse after her conversion to Catholicism in 1926. The doctrine plays an important thematic role in her writing, but this article will demonstrate how le Fort incorporates its theological ramifications into her fiction as a means of developing a ,sacramental realism' within which divine grace is shown to be at work. A precedent for this is to be found in many writings from the French literary renouveau catholique, thus a treatment of Paul Claudel's drama L'Annonce faite a` Marie (1910) will elucidate an analysis of le Fort's use of the doctrine of substitution, taking her inner emigration Novelle Die Abberufung der Jungfrau von Barby (1940) as a sample text. An appreciation of the workings of substitution is prerequisite to a reading of le Fort's creative work, particularly during her inner emigration in the Third Reich, and to an assessment of her overall contribution to twentieth-century German literature. [source] Simulating Seepage into Mine Shafts and Tunnels with MODFLOWGROUND WATER, Issue 3 2010Jacob Zaidel In cases when an equivalent porous medium assumption is suitable for simulating groundwater flow in bedrock aquifers, estimation of seepage into underground mine workings (UMWs) can be achieved by specifying MODFLOW drain nodes at the contact between water bearing rock and dewatered mine openings. However, this approach results in significant numerical problems when applied to simulate seepage into an extensive network of UMWs, which often exist at the mine sites. Numerical simulations conducted for individual UMWs, such as a vertical shaft or a horizontal drift, showed that accurate prediction of seepage rates can be achieved by either applying grid spacing that is much finer than the diameter/width of the simulated openings (explicit modeling) or using coarser grid with cell sizes exceeding the characteristic width of shafts or drifts by a factor of 3. Theoretical insight into this phenomenon is presented, based on the so-called well-index theory. It is demonstrated that applying this theory allows to minimize numerical errors associated with MODFLOW simulation of seepage into UMWs on a relatively coarse Cartesian grid. Presented examples include simulated steady-state groundwater flow from homogeneous, heterogeneous, and/or anisotropic rock into a vertical shaft, a horizontal drift/cross-cut, a ramp, two parallel drifts, and a combined system of a vertical shaft connected to a horizontal drift. [source] Markers of ,Authentic Place'?HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2001Awards, Qualifications in the Analysis of Higher Education Systems, The Significance of Degrees Although the power to award degrees lies at the heart of the concept of a university, neither it nor degrees themselves have attracted much scholarly attention. The paper contends that award-conferment provides an interface of major importance between higher education and its environment; and that the awards themselves can serve as rich and informative (yet often coded) indicators of the relationship between the two. For awards to be seen in this way, the paper argues, two conditions are required: the conceptual independence of awards in their own right has to be recognised as entities distinct from courses of study; and instrumentalist views have to be sufficiently prevalent to make it meaningful to treat an award as specifying a set of purposes and intended outcomes (that is to say, as an ,end'potentially achievable by various ,means'). These conditions, it is suggested, only tend to arise in particular social circumstances, specifically those of mass higher education. Having illustrated these points by considering certain changes of usage in the terms used for higher education awards (degree, qualification, etc), the paper concludes with a tentative sketch of a framework by which to analyse the various ways in which awards might contribute to the workings of HE as a system. [source] Natural killer cells: integrating diversity with functionIMMUNOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Kuldeep Cheent Summary The key role of natural killer cells in many aspects of the immune response is now being recognized. The last decade has seen an exponential increase in our understanding of the workings of these cells. Receptor diversity is crucial in allowing natural killer cells to respond effectively to a variety of different pathogens. This article reviews aspects of natural killer cell diversity that combine to generate populations of functional natural killer cells that exist within both the individual and throughout the population at large. [source] Co-determination and working time accounts in the German finance industryINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2004Richard Croucher ABSTRACT This article examines the workings of co-determination in the German finance industry through two case studies examining the introduction of working time accounts. It is shown that the accounts posed important new challenges for employees and works councillors that represented variants of long-existing negotiations around working time issues. The problems were clear and similar in both cases, giving rise to complaints to councillors, though not to managers. Councillors' responses differed in the two companies. In one, they successfully re-negotiated the agreement under which the accounts had been introduced. In the other, they did not succeed in doing so. The differences between the two representative bodies are analysed to reflect on a theory of employee representative influence. [source] Sliding mesh algorithm for CFD analysis of helicopter rotor,fuselage aerodynamicsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS, Issue 5 2008R. Steijl Abstract The study of rotor,fuselage interactional aerodynamics is central to the design and performance analysis of helicopters. However, regardless of its significance, rotor,fuselage aerodynamics has so far been addressed by very few authors. This is mainly due to the difficulties associated with both experimental and computational techniques when such complex configurations, rich in flow physics, are considered. In view of the above, the objective of this study is to develop computational tools suitable for rotor,fuselage engineering analysis based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). To account for the relative motion between the fuselage and the rotor blades, the concept of sliding meshes is introduced. A sliding surface forms a boundary between a CFD mesh around the fuselage and a rotor-fixed CFD mesh which rotates to account for the movement of the rotor. The sliding surface allows communication between meshes. Meshes adjacent to the sliding surface do not necessarily have matching nodes or even the same number of cell faces. This poses a problem of interpolation, which should not introduce numerical artefacts in the solution and should have minimal effects on the overall solution quality. As an additional objective, the employed sliding mesh algorithms should have small CPU overhead. The sliding mesh methods developed for this work are demonstrated for both simple and complex cases with emphasis placed on the presentation of the inner workings of the developed algorithms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Market based debt reduction agreements: a case study on Mexican and Polish Brady bondsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2001Luca Barbone F34; G14 Abstract This paper analyzes some aspects of the workings of the Brady bond (restructured Less Developed Countries debt) market. It concentrates on the effects of the December 1994 Mexican crisis on the risk assessment (as measured by the stripped spread) of Poland, another Brady country. The main findings are: (i) over the sample period, the unit root hypothesis on the risk premium (measured by the stripped spread) of Mexico and Poland cannot be rejected; this is consistent with the idea that the risk premium reflects new information accruing to the market; (ii) comovements in stripped spreads between Mexico and Poland were stronger during the period of the Peso crisis: we do not reject the null of cointegration for the year that includes the crisis (July 1994,July 1995), but we do reject the null for the year starting 6 months after the crisis (July 1995,July 1996); (iii) the crisis has had a strong permanent effect on the risk assessment of Mexico with respect to the one of Poland (550 basis points circa). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Task-Based Assessment Centers: Empirical support for a systems modelINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT, Issue 2 2010Duncan J. R. Jackson Task-based assessment centers (TBACs) have been suggested to hold promise for practitioners and users of real-world ACs. However, a theoretical understanding of this approach is lacking in the literature, which leads to misunderstandings. The present study tested aspects of a systems model empirically, to help elucidate TBACs and explore their inner workings. When applied to data from an AC completed by 214 managers, canonical correlation analysis revealed that extraversion, abstract reasoning, and verbal reasoning, conceptualized as inputs into a system, explained around 21% of variance in manifest assessment center behavior. Behavior, in this regard, was found to consist of both general and situationally specific elements. Results are discussed in terms of their support for a systems model and as they pertain to the literature on TBACs. [source] The Militarization of Urban Marginality: Lessons from the Brazilian MetropolisINTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Loïc Wacquant This article examines the workings and effects of the penalization of poverty in urban Brazil at century's turn to uncover the deep logic of punitive containment as state strategy for the management of dispossessed and dishonored populations in the polarizing city in the age of triumphant neoliberalism. It shows how ramifying criminal violence (fed by extreme inequality and mass poverty), class and color discrimination in judicial processing, unchecked police brutality, and the catastrophic condition and chaotic operation of the carceral system combine to make the aggressive deployment of the penal apparatus in Brazil a surefire recipe for further disorder and disrespect for the law at the bottom of the urban hierarchy and steers the country into an institutional impasse. The policy of punitive containment pursued by political elites as a complement to the deregulation of the economy in the 1990s leads from the penalization to the militarization of urban marginality, under which residents of the declining favelas are treated as virtual enemies of the nation, tenuous trust in public institutions is undermined, and the spiral of violence accelerated. Brazil thus serves as a historical revelator of the full consequences of the penal disposal of the human detritus of a society swamped by social and physical insecurity. Drawing parallels between penal activity in the Brazilian and the U.S. metropolis further reveals that the neighborhoods of urban relegation wherein the marginal and stigmatized fractions of the postindustrial working class concentrate are the prime targets and proving ground upon which the neoliberal penal state is concretely being assembled, tried, and tested. Their study is therefore of urgent interest to analysts of international politics and state power at the dawn of the twenty-first century. [source] On The Frontlines or Sidelines of Knowledge and Power?INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2006Feminist Practices of Responsible Scholarship This presidential address challenges IR scholars to reflect on their scholarly responsibility in what some have termed a new age of empire and in which critics of US foreign policy,academics and otherwise,are increasingly under attack. Using the metaphor of frontlines and sidelines, the question is raised as to whether we can or should engage directly in the policy world or remain at a critical distance from it. This essay focuses on some ways in which feminist scholarship is responding to these questions and challenges. Claiming that knowledge and practice cannot be separated, feminists argue that the foundations of modern knowledge, built during an earlier age of empire, are implicated, often unconsciously, in the ways in which scholars and policymakers construct and respond to global events today. The divisive gendered dimensions of the clash of civilizations and the gendered workings of the global economy and the way we analyze it are presented to illustrate this claim. The essay presents some feminist reformulations that could contribute to more inclusionary theory and practice. [source] World Commission on Dams: implications for food and irrigation1,IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE, Issue 2 2001Chris Perry barrages; l'irrigation; securité d'alimentation Abstract The World Commission on Dams has now published its report. Insights into the workings and conclusions of the Commission were published in the last edition of this Journal. While the WCD report brings together a number of important existing and new recommendations on ameliorating the negative impacts of large dams, it pays inadequate attention to the impacts in the major area (food production and security) for which dams have been built. Consideration of data presented by the WCD would suggest a more positive impact, and a brief review of national and world trends in food production suggests that irrigation , of which large dams are an intrinsic and central component , has underlain if not dominated the vast improvement in food availability that occurred in the second half of the last century. With water in crisis in many countries, planners, policymakers and politicians will continue to face challenging decisions on the allocation of limited freshwater supplies, and demands to increase the level of water resources development. Some guidance from the WCD is helpful, and some is flawed. Most importantly, much is missing, and to be useful, guidance must reflect rational and balanced, expert and rigorous assessment of all the impacts of the available options. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. La Commission Globale des Barrages a maintenant publiée son rapport. Quelques apercus sur les méthodes et les conclusions de la commission ont été données dans la dernière edition de ce journal. Quant le rapport CGB a se rassemblé quelques recommendations nouveaux et actuels pour amèliorer les impacts négatifs des grands barrages, il n'y a pas d'attention suffisante donnés aux impacts sur les questions importantes (comme le production et la sécurité d'alimentation) pour qui les barrages ont étés construits. Penser aux donnés du CGB suggère un impact plus positif et un critique des tendances nationale et globale du production d'alimentation denote que l'irrigation (dont les grands barrages sont un composant central et intrinsèque) a soutienne si non dominée l'immense amélioration de la disponibililité d'alimentation dans la dernière partie du XXe siècle. Avec la crise actuèlle de l'eau en beaucoup de pays, les planificateurs, les dirigants de politique et les politiciens se continuent de faire face aux decisions difficile sur les questions d'allocation d'eau limitée et les demands pour une augmentation de développement des resources en eau. Quelques conseils du CGB sont util mais quelques uns sont en défaut. Les plus importantes problèmes sont que le rapport manque beaucoup de choses et que, pour être utile, les conseils doivent réfléchir les impactes de tous les choix dans une façon rationale et équilibrée avec une évaluation experte et rigoureuse. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Electroconvulsive Therapy and the Fear of DevianceJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2002James Giles After reaching the verge of obsolescence, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is once again on the increase. There remains, however, no sound theoretical basis for its use. By 1948 at least 50 different theories had been proposed to account for the workings of ECT. Today there are numerous more. Further, there is no good evidence for its therapeutic effectiveness. Although some studies show what are claimed to be positive results, others show significant amount of relapse, even with severe depression (the disorder against which ECT is supposed to be most effective), while even other studies show ECT to have little more effect than a placebo. Finally, there is much evidence for ECTs damaging effects, particularly to cognitive functioning like memory, general intelligence level, and perceptual abilities, and quite possibly to brain functioning. Some studies even suggest that the alleged therapeutic effects of ECT are essentially the effects of organic brain damage. The question, then, is why, despite these problems, does ECT continue to be used? ECTs salient features suggest an answer here. These are the features of dehumanization, power, control, punishment, and others, all of which can be traced back to the fear of deviant psychotic behavior. [source] Ethiopia's Coffee Sector: A Bitter or Better Future?JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 2 2007NICOLAS PETIT Coffee, Ethiopia's largest export crop, is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. The Ethiopian coffee sector is highly dependent on international prices and affected by the structure and workings of the world coffee market. In this context, this paper seeks to identify what can be done in Ethiopia to improve the performance of the sector so as to yield benefits for the government and the estimated 15 million people dependent on coffee in the country. The paper argues that despite a limited room for manoeuvre, Ethiopia has not yet fully exploited its position as the producer of some of the best coffees in the world. A number of competitive advantages may still be seized if quality and consistency are guaranteed. In order to maximize this potential, and on the basis of a critical analysis of government policies and donor interventions in the sector, a number of recommendations are made. [source] ,It Takes Two Hands to Clap': How Gaddi Shepherds in the Indian Himalayas Negotiate Access to GrazingJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 1 2007RICHARD AXELBY This article examines the effects of state intervention on the workings of informal institutions that coordinate the communal use and management of natural resources. Specifically it focuses on the case of the nomadic Gaddi shepherds and official attempts to regulate their access to grazing pastures in the Indian Himalayas. It is often predicted that the increased presence of the modern state critically undermines locally appropriate and community-based resource management arrangements. Drawing on the work of Pauline Peters and Francis Cleaver, I identify key instances of socially embedded ,common' management institutions and explain the evolution of these arrangements through dynamic interactions between individuals, communities and the agents of the state. Through describing the ,living space' of Gaddi shepherds across the annual cycle of nomadic migration with their flocks I explore the ways in which they have been able to creatively reinterpret external interventions, and suggest how contemporary arrangements for accessing pasture at different moments of the annual cycle involve complex combinations of the formal and the informal, the ,traditional' and the ,modern'. [source] Teaching critical psychology of ,race' issues: problems in promoting anti-racist practiceJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Bipasha Ahmed Abstract The aim of this paper is to illustrate the difficulties faced by teachers of issues related to ,race' and racism in psychology when trying to develop anti-racist practice in their teaching. I argue that the promotion of anti-racist practice can be impeded by the institutionalised cultures of some psychology departments and that such cultures have developed out of an over-reliance on positivist ideas. Positivism obscures the fact that knowledge is constructed from positions of power and privilege, which in turn obscures the social and ideological construction of ,race'. This is clearly a problem when trying to develop anti-racist practice in teaching. It also leads to fixed ideas about what should be included in teaching content and what can be considered as good pedagogical practice, where notions of ,balance' and ,neutrality' are advocated, effectively overriding arguments for understanding the dynamics of knowledge production. It also obscures the power and privilege associated with workings of ,whiteness'. I illustrate this by presenting examples from my own experiences of teaching ,race' issues on undergraduate degree courses. I conclude with suggestions for developing anti-racist teaching by proposing a collective reflexive approach to changing institutional cultures that are currently at odds with anti-racist practice. I also invite further discussion and suggestions on how best to achieve such collective conscientisation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Identifying patterns in primary care consultations: a cluster analysisJOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 3 2009Joachim P. Sturmberg MBBS DORACOG MFM FRACGP PhD Abstract Background, A literature review revealed that little is known about the systems context of general practice consultations and their outcomes. Objectives, To describe the systems context and resulting underlying patterns of primary care consultations in a local area. Design, Cross-sectional multi-practice study based on a three-part questionnaire. Cluster analysis of data. Setting, Stratified random sample of general practices and general practitioners , NSW-Central Coast, Australia. Participants, A total of 1104 adults attending 12 general practitioners between February and November 1999. Results and Conclusions, The study identified seven subgroups within the study population uniquely defined by variables from the health system, individual doctor and patient, consultation and consultation outcomes domains. A systems approach provides a framework in which to track and consider the important variables and their known and/or expected workings and thus offer a contextual framework to guide primary care reform. [source] Coping strategies in developed and developing societies: the workings of the informal economyJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 8 2000Madeleine Leonard The purpose of this paper is to examine the persistence and significance of informal economic activity in both the developed and developing world. Drawing on empirical work carried out in Belfast, the paper suggests that many similarities exist between the informal economic activities of people on low incomes in Belfast and the poor in developing countries. The paper illustrates these connections through an examination of three aspects of the informal economy: reciprocity between households, informal self-employment and informal paid employment. By examining the variety of ways in which people at the lower end of the economic scale attempt to secure their economic livelihoods in the absence of formal employment opportunities, the paper demonstrates the global nature of the informal economy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Cultivating Sentimental Dispositions Through Aristotelian HabituationJOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 4 2004Jan Steutel The beliefs both that sentimental education is a vital part of moral education and that habituation is a vital part of sentimental education can be counted as being at the ,hard core' of the Aristotelian tradition of moral thought and action. On the basis of an explanation of the defining characteristics of Aristotelian habituation, this paper explores how and why habituation may be an effective way of cultivating the sentimental dispositions that are constitutive of the moral virtues. Taking Aristotle's explicit remarks on ethismos as a starting point, we present habituation as essentially involving (i) acting as virtue requires, (ii) both frequently and consistently, and (iii) under the supervision of a virtuous tutor. If the focus is on the first two characteristics, habituation seems to be a proper method for acquiring skills or inculcating habits, rather than an effective way of cultivating virtuous sentimental dispositions. It will be argued, however, that even if only the first two characteristics are taken into account, habituation may be an efficacious means of moderating, reducing or restricting the child's affective dispositions where these are somehow excessive. But contrary to Aristotle's view, the effectiveness of processes of habituation that are directed at strengthening, deepening or broadening the child's sentimental dispositions where these are somehow deficient seems to be a function of the third characteristic, especially of the affective responses of the virtuous tutor to the child's behaviour. At the end of the paper, this predominantly non-cognitive account of the workings of Aristotelian habituation will be compared with Nancy Sherman's primarily cognitive view. [source] Too much of a good thing: the ,problem' of political communications in a mass media democracyJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2007Ivor Gaber Francis Fukuyama asks: ,,,is liberal democracy prey to serious internal contradictions, contradictions so serious that they will eventually undermine it as a political system?' This paper argues that one of these ,internal contradictions' is the political communications process and it can be sufficiently serious to undermine the democratic system,but such an undermining is not inevitable. The problem can be described as follows: Democratic systems require that citizens are kept fully informed by governments (and others) in the interests of transparency and ultimately accountability. Hence, all political communications have, as their final objective, the accountability of politicians at the ballot box. Thus all political communications have what can be described as ,above' and ,below' the line content. The above-the-line is the actual content of the message, the below-the-line is the implicit one of ,think better of me and my colleagues think worse of my opponents'. Consequently, no matter how personally honest and open an individual politician might be, the democratic system requires her or him to be always thinking about securing a successful result at the ballot box. Thus we have the ,political communications paradox'. Voters want politicians to be honest and accountable but this very demand means that politicians, implicitly, always have to have another agenda in operation when they are communicating with the public, i.e. securing their approval and then their support. As a result the trust which is a fundamental to the workings of a democratic system is constantly being undermined. This has two effects. First, that governments are obliged to make communications, rather than delivery, their real priority and second trust, not just in politicians but in the political system as a whole, tends to wane over time, which in turn endangers the very system it was designed to underpin. But this decline is not inevitable because the system has some in-built self-correcting mechanisms These include: the rise of new parties and/or leaders who portray themselves as ,new' and ,untainted',New Labour, New Conservatives, etc., an almost regular ,re-balancing' of the power relationship that exists between politicians and the civil service, particularly in the communications field, the rise of new forms of communication that seek to by-pass the institutional roadblocks that are perceived as being the cause of the problems and finally increased attention by journalists and academics to the process of political communications makes it more difficult for politicians to continue with ,business as usual' as far as their communication activities are concerned. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||