Wider Understanding (wider + understanding)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


,Scaling-up' in Emergencies: British NGOs after Hurricane Mitch

DISASTERS, Issue 1 2001
Sarah Lister
This article examines research on NGO ,scaling-up' in a disaster context and links it to a broader discussion on whether scaling-up is a useful concept for understanding NGO processes in an emergency. Using concepts of scaling-up from development literature, research findings from a study of the responses of British NGOs to Hurricane Mitch in Central America are presented. The article assesses the extent and type of scaling-up that occurred, constraints faced by the agencies and the impact of scaling-up on support to partners. Broader issues relating to scaling-up post-Mitch are also explored. The conclusion suggests that while the concept of scaling-up is useful, the tendency for its use to refer to organisational growth has limited a wider understanding and evaluation of the role of Northern NGOs in humanitarian crises. [source]


Networks of Empire: Linkage and Reciprocity in Nineteenth-Century Irish and Indian History

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2009
Barry Crosbie
Recent debates surrounding Ireland's historical relationship with the British empire have focused almost exclusively upon its constitutional and political ties with Britain. The question of Ireland's colonial status continues to be heavily debated in Irish historiography and has been a contributing factor in obscuring our wider understanding of the complexity of Ireland's involvement in empire. For over 200 years, Ireland and India were joined together by an intricate series of networks that were borne out of direct Irish involvement in British imperialism overseas. Whether as migrants, soldiers, administrators, doctors, missionaries or educators, the Irish played an important role in administering, governing and populating vast areas of Britain's eastern empire. This article discusses new approaches to the study of Ireland's imperial past that allow us to move beyond the old ,coloniser-colonised' debate, to address the key issue of whether Ireland or the varieties of Irishness of its imperial servants and settlers made a specific difference to the experience of empire. By highlighting the multiplicity of Irish connections within the context of the nineteenth-century British empire in India, this article describes how imperial networks were used by contemporaries (settlers, migrants and indigenous agents) as mechanisms for the exchange of a whole set of ideas, practices and goods between Ireland and India during the colonial era. [source]


Pre-ICD Illness Beliefs Affect Postimplant Perceptions of Control and Patient Quality of Life

PACING AND CLINICAL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
CLAIRE N. HALLAS Ph.D.
Background: The implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a device used in the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias and the prevention of sudden cardiac death. However, the ICD has been associated with negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety, depression, panic, and poor quality of life (QoL). Recent studies suggest that the preimplantation psychology of patients, combined with their postimplantation perceptions about their cardiac condition, are greater contributory factors than their medical status to a poor outcome. Method: Our study employed an interview-based qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore whether medical history hetereogeneity and illness beliefs impact on the QoL of 13 ICD patients. Results: Perceived control emerged as the core category related to QoL with three subsystem themes related to control: (1) illness beliefs, attributions, and appraisals; (2) coping resources and strategies; and (3) the social world. Patients at risk for the poorest adaptation were younger (<45), unemployed, and with an acute onset cardiac history. These patients interpreted their illness as severe, utilized emotion-focused coping (e.g., avoidance of situations), and believed themselves to be socially excluded. Adjusted patients used proactive problem-focused coping (e.g., normalizing) and minimized consequences of the device. Conclusions: The data developed a theoretical model of QoL, which identified perceived control, illness beliefs, and coping impacting on adjustment. From our study, we have a wider understanding of the combination psychological issues relevant to ICD patients and are able to treat those at risk with interventions to promote adjustment in the context of a society that values health and well-being. (PACE 2010; 33:256,265) [source]


,From awareness to practice': children, domestic violence, and child welfare

CHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 4 2006
Mark Rivett
Abstract This paper traces the development of social care practice in relation to child witnesses of domestic violence. It suggests that this development has been dominated by subsuming the needs of these children into a child protection process. The paper outlines how this has led to significant (but often unclear) legal and policy initiatives which have failed, as yet, to be translated into practice. The paper argues that there are a number of important reasons why child witnesses of domestic violence should not always be assumed to need the response of a child protection system and that a future practice, legal and policy response should be based on a wider understanding of their needs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Historical Geographies of Showing Livestock: a Case Study of the Perth Royal Show, Western Australia

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
RICHARD YARWOOD
Abstract This paper examines changes in the entries of livestock to competitions at the Perth Royal Show in the course of the twentieth century. It identifies trends in the showing of animals at the Show and explains these with reference to the wider geographies of state and national agricultural change in Western Australia (WA). In doing so, it provides a longitudinal perspective on the socioeconomic contexts of farming in WA and identifies some of the key cultural and economic drivers that have influenced livestock farming in that locality. In turn, these findings contribute to wider understandings of the global countryside and of the imagined ruralities that exist within and beyond the spaces of showgrounds. [source]