|
| ||
|
|
||
Broad Consensus (broad + consensus)
Selected AbstractsCONSUMING CLASS: Multilevel Marketers in Neoliberal MexicoCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2008PETER S. CAHN ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, Mexican leaders have followed other Latin American countries in pursuing neoliberal economic policies designed to stimulate foreign investment, reduce public spending, and promote free trade. Recent studies of indigenous movements and popular protests challenge the idea that these market-based economic reforms enjoy a broad consensus and suggest that elites impose them by force. By turning the focus to middle-class Mexicans, I argue that some nonelite sectors of society avidly welcome the reign of the free market. Although they do not profit directly from unregulated capitalism, the middle class looks to neoliberalism to ensure access to the material markers of class status. The rising popularity of multilevel marketing companies in Mexico, which glorify consumption and celebrate the possibilities of entrepreneurship, demonstrates the appeal of neoliberalism to citizens fearful of diminished purchasing power. By tying consumption to globalized free markets, neoliberalism does not need coercion to win acceptance. [source] Charity Basket or Revolution: Beliefs, Experiences, and Context in Preservice Teachers' Service LearningCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2000David M. Donahue Given what one observer calls the "vast disparity of definitions that faculty can bring to service learning,from what is basically the charity basket approach to the revolutionary," service learning can varytremendously, from reading to elderly residents of a nursing home to organizing a boycott of a sneaker company. With such diversity before teachers, what influences them in the way they design service learning? How do preservice teachers, for whom so many ideas about teaching are emerging, make such choices? Two case studies suggest that preservice teachers' beliefs, experiences, and the context where they teach play an important role related to if and how they use service learning. Beliefs and experiences are especially important because, although service learning is often presented as supporting apolitical values,empowerment and responsibility, for example,for which broad consensus exists, such values are also ambiguous and open to interpretation. Teacher educators and advocates of service learning need to acknowledge the ambiguous political nature of service and service learning. By doing so, they have an opportunity to make the political context of teaching explicit for preservice teachers. Such education in service learning for new teachers goes beyond "training" in the logistical and technical details of implementing a new pedagogy to thoughtful reflection on the value-laden act of teaching. [source] Assessing environmental risks of transgenic plantsECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 2 2006D. A. Andow Abstract By the end of the 1980s, a broad consensus had developed that there were potential environmental risks of transgenic plants requiring assessment and that this assessment must be done on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the transgene, recipient organism, intended environment of release, and the frequency and scale of the intended introduction. Since 1990, there have been gradual but substantial changes in the environmental risk assessment process. In this review, we focus on changes in the assessment of risks associated with non-target species and biodiversity, gene flow, and the evolution of resistance. Non-target risk assessment now focuses on risks of transgenic plants to the intended local environment of release. Measurements of gene flow indicate that it occurs at higher rates than believed in the early 1990s, mathematical theory is beginning to clarify expectations of risks associated with gene flow, and management methods are being developed to reduce gene flow and possibly mitigate its effects. Insect pest resistance risks are now managed using a high-dose/refuge or a refuge-only strategy, and the present research focuses on monitoring for resistance and encouraging compliance to requirements. We synthesize previous models for tiering risk assessment and propose a general model for tiering. Future transgenic crops are likely to pose greater challenges for risk assessment, and meeting these challenges will be crucial in developing a scientifically coherent risk assessment framework. Scientific understanding of the factors affecting environmental risk is still nascent, and environmental scientists need to help improve environmental risk assessment. [source] Predicting autonomous and controlled motivation to transfer trainingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2009Andreas Gegenfurtner In spite of a broad consensus on the importance of motivation for the transfer of learning from training to the job in work organizations, studies investigating motivation to transfer are limited. This study combines the self-determination theory, the expectancy theory and the theory of planned behaviour to provide a theoretical framework for investigating attitudes towards training content, relatedness and instructional satisfaction as predictors of two dimensions of transfer motivation: autonomous motivation to transfer and controlled motivation to transfer. A total of 444 subjects, trained in 23 occupational health and safety training courses, completed multi-item questionnaires immediately following training. Structural equation modelling procedures indicate that controlled motivation to transfer was affected by attitudes towards training content and that autonomous motivation to transfer was affected by attitudes, relatedness and instructional satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for training effectiveness associated with the interplay of motivation and transfer in professional training. [source] A New Social Security Reform Consensus?INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2000The ISSA's Stockholm Initiative At a meeting of the ISSA Bureau in Stockholm in 1996, theInternational Social Security Association under the author's presidency launched what became known as the Stockholm Initiative, under the title "The social security reform debate: In search of a new consensus". The objective was to bring together the often contrasting views of national and international experts involved in the social security reform debate, in a first phase with particular regard to public pensions. A broad consensus emerged among specialists about the need to balance social goals and macroeconomic requirements when designing and implementing reforms. This article reviews the background to the Initiative, outlines its achievements and surveys the issues which need to be faced. [source] An Empirical Analysis of Strike Durations in Ghana from 1980 to 2004LABOUR, Issue 3 2009Anthony Y. Baah The empirical approach uses a set of well-known parametric accelerated failure time strike duration models. There is a broad consensus among the different empirical models about the role exerted on average strike duration by strike size, the rate of inflation, enterprise ownership, and political governance. However, evidence on the relationship between strike durations and business cycle activity in Ghana is less clear-cut. [source] Policy options for responding to the growing challenge from obesity (PorGrow) in PolandOBESITY REVIEWS, Issue 2007L. Szponar Summary To explore the perspectives of stakeholders towards a range of policy options to respond to obesity in Poland, a multi-criteria mapping method was used. During structured interviews, stakeholders were invited to appraise policy options by reference to criteria of their own choosing. They also provided relative weightings to their criteria, generating overall rankings of the policy options in relation to each other. Efficacy, feasibility and societal benefits were the groups of criteria deemed most important. There was most consensus in favour of options related to health education, particularly in schools, compared with options that aimed at modifying the environment to prevent obesity, i.e. options around physical activity, modifying the supply and demand for food products, and information-related options. There was little support for technological solutions or institutional reforms. There was broad consensus that to reverse the rising trend in the incidence of obesity, it will be necessary to implement a portfolio of measures, but options related to behaviour change through education are most highly regarded. It will also be necessary to invest in improved surveillance and monitoring of Polish dietary practices, levels of physical activity and obesity in terms of data on height, weight and body mass indexes. [source] No evidence for germ-line transmission following prenatal and early postnatal AAV-mediated gene deliveryTHE JOURNAL OF GENE MEDICINE, Issue 5 2005Marcus Jakob Abstract Background Recombinant adeno-associated viruses have been used successfully in a number of pre-clinical and clinical gene therapy studies. Since there is a broad consensus that gene therapy must not lead to germ-line transmission, the potential of such vectors for inadvertent gene transfer into germ cells deserves special attention. This applies in particular to pre- or perinatal vector application which has been considered for diseases presenting with morbidity already at birth. Methods AAV serotype 2 derived vectors carrying a ,-galactosidase reporter gene or human clotting factor IX cDNA were injected intraperitoneally or via a yolk sac vein into mouse fetuses or administered intravascularly to newborn mice. Tissue samples of the treated animals including the gonads as well as sperm DNA, obtained by differential lysis of one testis of each male animal, and the offspring of all treated mice were investigated for the presence of vector DNA by nested PCR. In positive samples, the copy number of the vector was determined by quantitative real-time PCR. Results AAV vectors administered intraperitoneally or intravascularly to fetal or newborn mice reached the gonads of these animals and persisted there for time periods greater than one year. Intravascular injection of the vector resulted more frequently in gene transfer to the gonads than intraperitoneal injection. Vector copy numbers in the gonads ranged from 0.3 to 74 per 104 cell equivalents. However, neither in isolated sperm DNA from the treated animals nor in their offspring were vector sequences detectable. Conclusions These data suggest the risk of inadvertent germ-line transmission following prenatal or early postnatal AAV type 2 mediated gene delivery to be very low. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||