Bruce Wallace, Lea Gozdzialski, Abdelhakim Qbaich, Azam Shafiul, Piotr Burek, Abby Hutchison, Taylor Teal, Rebecca Louw, Collin Kielty, Derek Robinson, Belaid Moa, Margaret-Anne Storey, Chris Gill and Dennis Hore
While there is increasing interest in implementing drug checking within overdose prevention, we must also consider how to scale-up these responses so that they have significant…
Abstract
Purpose
While there is increasing interest in implementing drug checking within overdose prevention, we must also consider how to scale-up these responses so that they have significant reach and impact for people navigating the unpredictable and increasingly complex drug supplies linked to overdose. The purpose of this paper is to present a distributed model of community drug checking that addresses multiple barriers to increasing the reach of drug checking as a response to the illicit drug overdose crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
A detailed description of the key components of a distributed model of community drug checking is provided. This includes an integrated software platform that links a multi-instrument, multi-site service design with online service options, a foundational database that provides storage and reporting functions and a community of practice to facilitate engagement and capacity building.
Findings
The distributed model diminishes the need for technicians at multiple sites while still providing point-of-care results with local harm reduction engagement and access to confirmatory testing online and in localized reporting. It also reduces the need for training in the technical components of drug checking (e.g. interpreting spectra) for harm reduction workers. Moreover, its real-time reporting capability keeps communities informed about the crisis. Sites are additionally supported by a community of practice.
Originality/value
This paper presents innovations in drug checking technologies and service design that attempt to overcome current financial and technical barriers towards scaling-up services to a more equitable and impactful level and effectively linking multiple urban and rural communities to report concentration levels for substances most linked to overdose.
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It is now fashionable to suggest that the Celtic regions of the United Kingdom are the internal colonies of the central English state and that they have been, particularly since…
Abstract
It is now fashionable to suggest that the Celtic regions of the United Kingdom are the internal colonies of the central English state and that they have been, particularly since the rapid industrialization of the nineteenth century, subject to a penetrating anglicization of their culture and institutions. In terms of the internal colonialism thesis, it can be argued that the cultural nationalism of Scotland which was developed in the nineteenth century was an attempt to maintain the distinctiveness of civil society in Scotland in the context of massive regional economic imbalance. The Scottish intelligentsia, dominated by Edinburgh lawyers and Presbyterian ministers, can thus be compared with the intelligentsia of Third World societies undergoing a process of de‐colonization where separate cultural identities have to be preserved or, if necessary, constructed.
Bernie Pauly, Bruce Wallace and Kathleen Perkin
The purpose of this paper is to provide rationale, methodological guidance and clarity in the use of case study designs and theory driven approaches to evaluation of interventions…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide rationale, methodological guidance and clarity in the use of case study designs and theory driven approaches to evaluation of interventions to end homelessness.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an evaluation of a transitional shelter program aiming to support permanent exits from homelessness as an example, the authors show how case study designs and theory driven evaluation is well suited to the study of the effectiveness of homelessness interventions within the broader socio-political and economic context in which they are being implemented.
Findings
Taking account of the context as part of program evaluation and research on homelessness interventions moves away from blaming programs and individuals for systemic failures to better understanding of how the context influences successes and failures. Case study designs are particularly useful for studying implementation and the context which influences program outcomes. Theory driven evaluations and the use of realist evaluation as an approach can provide a broader understanding of how homelessness interventions work particularly for whom and under what conditions. These methodological and theoretical approaches provide a consistent strategy for evaluating programs aimed at ending homelessness.
Originality/value
There is a need for greater capacity in the homelessness sector to apply approaches to evaluation that take into account the broader socio-political and economic context in which programs are being implemented. Through the use of a case example, the authors provide guidance for application of case study design and theory driven approaches as a strategy for approaches programs aimed at ending homelessness.
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In 2011, the World Bank announced its intention to conduct a holistic review and reform of its procurement framework. This reform was intended to ensure that its procurement…
Abstract
In 2011, the World Bank announced its intention to conduct a holistic review and reform of its procurement framework. This reform was intended to ensure that its procurement system, which is the means through which the Bank disburses developmental loans and grants is in line with modern trends in procurement, is flexible enough to respond to unforeseen challenges and is coherent. This paper examines both how Bank procurement has evolved since the first formal regulations were issued in 1964 and the implications of the recent reforms for the Bank and its borrowers. Readers will see that ongoing reforms evidence a significant change for the Bank's approach to procurement and its relationship with its borrowers and will dramatically affect the way the Bank-funded procurements are conducted.
Scottish Publishers Association
Describes the background to publishing in Scotland and outlines the nature and range of current Scottish publishing houses. Sets Scottish publishing within its UK and European…
Abstract
Describes the background to publishing in Scotland and outlines the nature and range of current Scottish publishing houses. Sets Scottish publishing within its UK and European context and indicates a number of major trends. Presents broad statistics of current Scottish publishing. Describes the nature, activities and achievements of 30 Scottish publishing houses, from large to small and from general to specialist.
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Contemporary literature has paid scholarly attention to financial criminal practice from a variety of competing perspectives. However, this paper seeks to encourage reflections on…
Abstract
Purpose
Contemporary literature has paid scholarly attention to financial criminal practice from a variety of competing perspectives. However, this paper seeks to encourage reflections on some questionable practices of the political and economic elite which increase their capital accumulation but harm citizens.
Design/methodology/approach
Within a socio‐political framework, this study adopts the theories of the developmental state and globalisation in order to understand the relationship between social agency and society, and focuses on the institutional structures and the role of social actors.
Findings
The paper used publicly available documents to construct case studies to provide some evidence of the strategies and tactics used by political elite to facilitate their capital accumulations. Evidence is provided to show that large sums of government revenue have been undermined by the financial criminal practices of the Nigerian political and economic elite (both local and international), which have enriched a few, but impoverished most, Nigerians.
Practical implications
Financial criminal practices have played a major role in causing serious damage to the economic and social landscape of Nigeria, which in turn, has undermined social welfare and also investment in the public services, thereby eroding the quality of life and producing a decline in average life expectancy. As a consequence of recurring corrupt practices by the political and economic elites in Nigeria, there is a need for reform in order to curb the practice which has had and continues to have, a serious effect on Nigeria and its future development.
Originality/value
Broader accounts of the impact of financial criminal practices on development in developing countries are relatively scarce. Previous studies have tended to individualise the problem.
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NOT for a long time have books and libraries featured in the correspondence columns of The Times and other newspapers as regularly as they have in 1960. Earlier in the year Sir…
Abstract
NOT for a long time have books and libraries featured in the correspondence columns of The Times and other newspapers as regularly as they have in 1960. Earlier in the year Sir Alan Herbert's lending rights' scheme had a good run, and we have clearly not yet heard the last of it. Indeed, a Private Member's bill on the subject is to have its second reading in Parliament on December 9th. More recently, the Herbert proposals have had a by‐product in the shape of bound paperbacks, and a correspondence ensued which culminated in Sir Allen Lane's fifth‐of‐November firework banning hard‐covered Penguins for library use.
Raymond Harbridge and Pat Walsh
The labour markets of Australia and New Zealand have been regulated in similar ways, through industrial conciliation and arbitration, since the early 1900s. Globalization and…
Abstract
The labour markets of Australia and New Zealand have been regulated in similar ways, through industrial conciliation and arbitration, since the early 1900s. Globalization and market deregulation generally have led to intense pressure for greater labour market flexibility in both countries. In New Zealand, flexibility was achieved by a radical dismantling of the industrial relations system. What had been essentially a multi‐employer bargaining system was replaced with a system that supported individual employment contracting. In Australia, conciliation and arbitration remained protected by the constitution; however, industrial relations reforms aimed at severely weakening the system were implemented in the 1990s. This paper compares various labour market outcomes across both countries. The trends in both countries are similar despite maintaining different systems. Collective bargaining coverage has dropped. Collective bargaining outcomes have seen reductions in benefits, and significant changes in working time arrangements. Union density has dropped, as also has public sector employment.
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Contemporary literature has paid scholarly attention to corruption from a variety of competing perspectives. However, broader accounts of the impact of corruption on development…
Abstract
Purpose
Contemporary literature has paid scholarly attention to corruption from a variety of competing perspectives. However, broader accounts of the impact of corruption on development in developing countries are relatively scarce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of corruption as a social impediment to development, which has a devastating effect on developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the relevant literature and the different perspectives that have been developed and conducted for investigating corruption in developing countries. The paper uses publicly available evidence to show that political, economic elite engaged in corrupt practices.
Findings
The evidence shows that socio‐political and economic development, politics, power, history and globalisation have continued to reproduce and transform the institutional structures and actors which have facilitated corrupt practices in developing countries. The review shows that large sums of government revenue have been undermined by the corrupt practices of the political and economic elite (both local and international), which have enriched a few, but impoverished most.
Practical implications
The paper seeks to bring the anti‐social activities of political, economic and professionals under scrutiny and offers some suggestions for reforms.
Social implications
Corruption has played a major role in causing serious damage to the economic and social landscape in developing countries. This in turn, has undermined social welfare and also investment in the public services, thereby eroding the quality of life and producing a decline in average life expectancy.
Originality/value
The paper is a general review of literature and evidence on contemporary issues.