Good Intentions (good + intention)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The Road to Exercise Is Filled With Good Intentions: Why Don't My Proximal Exercise Intentions Match My Actions?

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008
Candace D. Bloomquist
Difficulty in following through with proximal exercise intentions (PIs) may be associated with experiencing frequent, limiting perceived reasons (factors causing indecision) and low self-regulatory efficacy (SRE) to cope. Differences in reason frequency, limitation, and SRE between adults whose PI frequency matched their exercise frequency and adults whose PI frequency was higher than their actual frequency (mismatched) were examined. Participants (N = 163) completed Web-based measures of reason frequency, limitation, coping strategies and related SRE, intention, and exercise for the prior 4 weeks. A multivariate analysis of variance comparing matched (n = 89) with mismatched (n = 74) groups was significant. Matched participants reported significantly lower reason limitation and higher SRE, suggesting that they may have the SRE to buffer negative effects of limiting reasons. [source]


The UK climate change levy: good intentions but potentially damaging to business

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2004
Ann Hansford
The climate change levy (CCL) is an important part of the UK Government's response to being a signatory to the Kyoto agreement. Prior to the introduction of the levy there were sharply contrasting views, which ranged from Sir Robert May's view that it was ,an opportunity, not a threat' to the CBI's view that it should be an option of last resort. In order to consider the impact of the CCL on UK businesses, interviews were undertaken within one ,not for profit' and two commercial organizations to explore reactions to its introduction. The findings from the study suggest the primary foci of concerns are based upon increases to the cost base and threats to international competitiveness. Further, there is doubt that the ambitious targets signed up to by the UK Government are likely to be achieved, unless there are fundamental changes in support for businesses, or the targets are revised. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


The Birth of the CAP Die Geburt der GAP La naissance de la PAC

EUROCHOICES, Issue 2 2008
David R. Stead
Summary The Birth of the CAP Fifty years ago, a Conference was held at Stresa which could be said to be the single event that most appropriately marks the birth of the CAP. Although five policy objectives had been written into the 1957 Treaty of Rome, these have been widely criticised for being vague and contradictory, and the Treaty contained very few stipulations on the specific policy instruments to be adopted. The Stresa Conference made important, but incomplete, progress towards finalising the policy framework. Most notably, it was generally agreed to avoid a level of price support that created unwanted commodity surpluses and inhibited structural adjustment. But these good intentions, and the positive ,European spirit' of the Conference, began to unravel as soon as the fraught decisions were taken on the details of unifying the protectionist agricultural policies of six different countries. In particular, the decision to fix the initial level of common cereals prices at the upper end of the national spread set an unsatisfactory reference point for other support prices; and an attempt to introduce a genuine common structural policy was rejected. At the turn of the 1970s, the CAP was clearly unbalanced and protectionist, but the Community's first fully-fledged common policy had been constructed. Il y a cinquante ans, s'est tenue à Stresa une Conférence qui pourrait être considérée comme l'évènement unique qui marque le mieux la naissance de la PAC. Bien que cinq objectifs pour l'action publique aient été inscrits dans le Traité de Rome en 1957, leur caractère imprécis et contradictoire a fait l'objet de nombreuses critiques et le Traité ne comportait que de très rares indications sur les instruments de politique à adopter. La Conférence de Stresa a permis de réaliser des progrès importants mais incomplets dans la définition du cadre de l'action publique. Intéressant à noter, il a généralement été convenu d'éviter un niveau de soutien des prix qui engendrerait des surplus excessifs de produits de base et empêcherait l'ajustement structurel. Mais ces bonnes intentions, ainsi que l'esprit "européen" positif de la Conférence, ont commencéà se dissoudre dès que des décisions problématiques furent prises sur le détail de l'uniformisation des politiques agricoles protectionnistes de six pays différents. En particulier, la décision consistant à fixer le niveau initial des prix communs des céréales à la borne supérieur du spectre des prix nationaux a constitué un point de référence peu satisfaisant pour les autres prix de soutien; et la tentative d'introduire une vraie politique commune des structures a avorté. Au tournant des années soixante dix, la PAC était nettement déséquilibrée et protectionniste, mais la première politique complètement commune de la Communautéétait en place. Vor 50 Jahren fand in Stresa eine Konferenz statt, bei welcher es sich wohl um das einzige Ereignis handelt, welches am zutreffendsten als Geburtstag der GAP betrachtet werden kann. Obgleich die politische Zielsetzung bereits 1957 in den Römischen Verträgen festgelegt worden war, standen diese wegen ihrer vagen Formulierung und Widersprüchlichkeit häufig im Kreuzfeuer der Kritik. Die Verträge enthielten nur sehr wenige konkrete Vereinbarungen im Hinblick auf die einzuführenden politischen Instrumente. Durch die Konferenz in Stresa konnten wichtige, jedoch unvollständige, Fortschritte bei der Ausarbeitung der politischen Rahmenbedingungen erzielt werden. Vor allem gab es den allgemeinen Konsens, dass es aufgrund der Preisstützung nicht zu unerwünschten Überschüssen bei Agrarprodukten und zu einer Hemmung der Strukturanpassungen kommen dürfe. Diese guten Absichten und die "europäische Gesinnung" der Konferenz schwanden jedoch, als die bedeutsamen Entscheidungen hinsichtlich der Einzelheiten für die Vereinheitlichung der protektionistischen Agrarpolitiken der sechs verschiedenen Länder getroffen wurden. Insbesondere die Entscheidung, das Anfangsniveau der gemeinsamen Preise für Getreide an der oberen Grenze der nationalen Preisspannen festzumachen, legte einen unbefriedigenden Referenzpunkt für die übrigen Stützpreise fest. Der Vorschlag, eine originär gemeinsame Strukturpolitik einzuführen, wurde abgelehnt. Um 1970 war die GAP eindeutig unausgewogen und protektionistisch; der Entwurf der ersten vollständigen gemeinsamen Politik der Gemeinschaft war jedoch abgeschlossen. [source]


Relational Group Autonomy: Ethics of Care and the Multiculturalism Paradigm

HYPATIA, Issue 1 2010
FIONA MacDONALD
In recent decades, group autonomy approaches to multiculturalism have gained legitimacy within both academic and policy circles. This article examines the centrality of group autonomy in the multiculturalism debate, particularly in the highly influential approach of Will Kymlicka. I argue that his response to the dilemmas of liberal-democratic multiculturalism relies on an underdeveloped conceptualization of group autonomy. Despite presumably good intentions, his narrow notion of cultural group autonomy obscures the requirements of minority group members' democratic capabilities and thereby works against the kind of transformative change that "accommodated" groups are seeking from the state. Although some critics (Young 1990; Benhabib 2002) have gone so far as to reject autonomy-based approaches to accommodation altogether (Young 1990, 251), I suggest that this position goes too far. In response, I offer an intermediary position between those that defend and those that reject an autonomy-based approach. Instead of fully rejecting autonomy as a guiding principle for multiculturalism, I develop an ethics of care approach to group autonomy based on relationality, which addresses the inadequacies of the dominant approach to multiculturalism. Such an account of group autonomy is a vital step toward reconciling multiculturalism with the necessary components of liberal-democratic citizenship. [source]


Correcting misconceptions about the development of social work in China: a response to Hutchings and Taylor

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2008
Cunfu Jia
Hutchings and Taylor, in their article entitled ,Defining the profession? Exploring an international definition of social work in the China context'[International Journal of Social Welfare 16: 381,389], no doubt had good intentions in offering their account of the development of social work in China, as the opening and concluding sections of the article show. Within the text, however, their critique of contemporary social work in China is, in my opinion, unfair in relation to, among other things, (i) the undemocratic nature of the Chinese political system, which they say hinders the development of social work in China; (ii) the ideology of the Communist Party, the government, and traditional Chinese culture, which they say are at odds with Western social work's value system and methodology; thus concluding that (iii) it is doubtful whether social work development in China could integrate with that of the international community. In this response, I comment on (i) the information base of the authors; (ii) the disconnection between their conceptualisation and historical facts; and (iii) their use of the international definition of social work. [source]


ESDP as a Transatlantic Issue: Problems of Mutual Ambiguity,

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2004
Ingo Peters
European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) has become a contentious subject in transatlantic security relations. This essay identifies the ambiguities that have occurred in the policymaking on both sides of the Atlantic that appear to have generated a basic lack of confidence and trust in the other side's good intentions and commitment to cooperation. It does so by sketching three historical time periods,1981,1986, 1988,1996, and 1998,2004,that convey the recurrent patterns and outcomes in the ESDP dispute. These three cases cover the periods (1) from the London Report on European Political Cooperation to the Single European Act and the Western European Union Security Platform, (2) the Maastricht Negotiations on a Common Foreign and Security Policy, and (3) the evolution of ESDP from St. Malo to Brussels. [source]


Summer learning and its implications: Insights from the Beginning School Study

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, Issue 114 2007
Karl L. Alexander
There is perhaps no more pressing issue in school policy today than the achievement gap across social lines. Achievement differences between well-to-do children and poor children and between disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities and majority whites are large when children first begin school, and they increase over time. Despite years of study and an abundance of good intentions, these patterned achievement differences persist, but who is responsible, and how are schools implicated? The increasing gap seems to suggest that schools are unable to equalize educational opportunity or, worse still, that they actively handicap disadvantaged children. But a seasonal perspective on learning yields a rather different impression. Comparing achievement gains separately over the school year and the summer months reveals that much of the achievement gap originates over the summer period, when children are not in school. The authors review Beginning School Study research on differential summer learning across social lines (that is, by family socioeconomic level) and its implications for later schooling outcomes, including high school curriculum placements, high school dropout, and college attendance. These studies document the extent to which these large summer learning differences impede the later educational progress of children of low socioeconomic status. Practical implications are discussed, including the need for early and sustained interventions to prevent the achievement gap from opening wide in the first place and for high-quality summer programming focused on preventing differential summer learning loss. [source]


Loyal but ignored: The benefits and costs of constructive communication behavior

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 1 2010
NICKOLA C. OVERALL
The consequences of exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect behavior were examined using retrospective questionnaires (Study 1) and 2 social interaction diary studies (Study 2). Exit and neglect were generally associated with more negative partner responses and reduced feelings of value and closeness, and were reported to be more harmful to the relationship. Voice was associated with more positive partner responses and greater value and intimacy, and was perceived to be most beneficial to the relationship. In contrast, loyalty was perceived to have the same detrimental consequences as destructive behaviors (Study 1) and did not predict more positive outcomes within daily interactions (Study 2). These results indicate that, despite good intentions, loyal intimates are often left feeling ignored and unappreciated. [source]


Achieving Health Equity on a Global Scale through a Community-Based, Public Health Framework for Action

THE JOURNAL OF LAW, MEDICINE & ETHICS, Issue 3 2010
Laura Anderko
Despite good intentions and decades of discussion addressing the need for transformative changes globally to reduce poverty and improve health equity, little progress has been made. A fundamental shift in framing the current conversation is critical to achieve "health for all," moving away from the traditional approaches that use the more narrowly focused medical model, which is intent on treating and curing disease. A public health framework for action is needed, which recognizes and confronts the complex, and often-times difficult-to-achieve social determinants of health. A restructuring of global health policy development and implementation will be ineffective unless key areas are addressed including primary education and the environment, in addition to economic considerations. A public health framework that embraces a community-based participatory approach would provide a comprehensive platform for identifying critical components that impact health, and for developing effective strategies for change. A participatory approach would encourage dialogue and problem-solving for region-specific issues among those most affected by the broader health and social justice issues, with those who create policy. [source]


Neo-Colonial Aspects of Global Intellectual Property Protection

THE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 1 2009
Andreas Rahmatian
An essential instrument in the process of neo-colonialism by economic means is the establishment of a legal framework of international trade that confers legally enforceable rights that support and safeguard economic penetration and control. This includes, in a similar way as in colonial times, the guarantee of protection of foreign property rights in dependent regions. Today, intellectual property rights fulfil this colonizing role to a large extent. It will be shown that the implementation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is one major device that drives such an economic neo-colonialism forward. This is reflected in the history of the making of this treaty, as well as in the methods of enforcement of intellectual property rights, which will be demonstrated in the example of China. Besides this international expansion of Western-style intellectual property rights, there is another, seemingly contrasting and alternative non-proprietarian, legislative project, which nevertheless has neo-colonial effects: the protection of traditional cultural expressions in the context of "traditional" arts. The article discusses that, despite presumably good intentions, this measure reflects colonial features, such as the concept of indirect rule, and invites segregationist legislation. [source]


Front and Back Covers, Volume 23, Number 3.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2007
June 200
Front & back cover caption, volume 23 issue 3 PARTISAN ,ANTHROPOLOGY' The cover of this issue reproduces a Republican Party campaign poster from 1900, which claims that between 1896 and 1900 the American flag was being planted on foreign soil not ,to acquire more territory' but ,for humanity's sake'. The poster contrasts an image of economic decline at home and poverty in the Spanish colony of Cuba, alleged to be the Democratic legacy in 1896, with one of prosperity in the US and progress in its new dominion after four years of Republican rule. The next US presidential elections will take place in November 2008, and campaigning for nomination is already under way. Partisan proclamations that territories are occupied for ,humanity's sake' suggest good intentions, but anthropology researches and seeks to connect with humanity as a whole, not to serve one party or one nation over another. Bush's ,war on terror' has divided the world, generating a renewed interest in partisan use of the social and behavioural sciences, including anthropology, in the hope that these might help succeed where force has failed. The 2007 annual meeting of the Association of Social Anthropologists resolved that a research proposal by our principal research funding agency endangered lives and was in violation of our professional ethics. History will not judge us kindly if funding agencies proceed unilaterally, or if our professional associations fail to give clear guidance on the circumstances under which it is appropriate for professional anthropologists to be involved in such activities, if at all. Everyone supports non-partisan use of academic research for ,humanity's sake'. However, since anthropologists cannot research without first gaining and then retaining the trust of the peoples they engage with in the course of fieldwork throughout the world, in open and willing long-lasting relationships, partisan deployment of our research in war constitutes a potentially life-threatening development for the peoples we befriend, for ourselves, our students, our profession and for our family and colleagues. As part of an ongoing engagement with how our research, and that of other social and behavioural sciences, is being appropriated in war, this issue of ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY features discussions on their use in two areas of warfare, with contributions on counterinsurgency, by Roberto González, David Kilcullen and Montgomery McFate, and unwitting input into interrogation techniques, by David Price. [source]


Moving beyond good intentions: Indigenous participation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 5 2005
Emma Kowal
Indigenous participation in every aspect of health research is increasingly recognised as an important element of any research project that aims to improve Indigenous health. Despite the acceptance of its importance, when the concept of ,Indigenous participation' is mentioned, authors are often imprecise as to the nature and purpose of participation, and its relationship to improved health outcomes. This report attempts to bring some clarity to the variety of meanings we might give Indigenous participation in research. For the purposes of stimulating further debate, we identify four distinct, but overlapping, rationales: pragmatic, moral, interventionist, and epistemological. Each has different implications for how Indigenous participation should be implemented and evaluated. More debate on the meanings and purposes of Indigenous participation will contribute to a refined understanding of its potential benefits to health research. [source]


Paved with good intentions: the Hampstead and Clapton schools, 1873,1878

BRITISH JOURNAL OF LEARNING DISABILITIES, Issue 2 2000
David S. Stewart
Summary In terms of the history of education, most people think that 1870 saw the beginning of universal elementary education in the UK, yet few consider what provision was made for those with learning disabilities. The present paper seeks to throw light on the provision made by one authority in London, the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Prior to the establishment of the schools at Darenth in 1878, later known as Darenth Park, the Board established a school in Hampstead, and later, at Clapton for pauper children with learning disabilities. Equipped with classrooms and teachers, these were the first such schools to be funded by rates, as opposed to charitable giving. The present study will reveal that there was, in fact, a strong link with the School Board for London and that certain individuals, frustrated by constraints put on them by one authority, used their considerable skills to make provision through other routes. It was not until the 1970 Education Act that all children became entitled to education in the UK, but the example of the Hampstead and Clapton Schools reveal that attempts were being made 100 years earlier to provide rate-funded education for children with learning disabilities. It might be regarded as a tragedy that philosophies in the intervening years did not reflect the optimism which policy makers in London held in the 1870s [source]