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Old age is a time of increased spiritual and existential awareness. Ageing throws up many challenges and older people may rely on the help of those around them to maintain hope and purpose. However, most professionals and caregivers do not have the experience or skills to adequately deal with the sorts of spiritual questions that often arise. Leadership, at all levels, in this area could result in a more compassionate environment for elderly people who are struggling with important issues.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a centre to promote the spiritual care of older people in New Zealand.

The spiritual scene in New Zealand is described and “spirituality” defined. The history of the Selwyn Centre for Ageing and Spirituality (SCAS) is illustrated by case studies in three areas: research, education and advocacy, noting challenges in providing spiritual care to older people.

The number of New Zealanders claiming a religious affiliation is dropping but spirituality is of interest and relevance to many people. The acknowledgement of Maori spirituality has affected government policy. The SCAS has supported research and provided education throughout the country. Advocacy is difficult where care focuses on the physical and funding for frail older people is limited.

While the importance of good spiritual care for older people is clear, this is not easy to achieve. However, an organisation like SCAS has brought the issue to national awareness and made some contribution to increased understanding and improved practice.

As the population ages and expressions of spirituality diversify, a deeper understanding of spirituality beyond Christian religion is required.

While the SCAS focuses on older people, it has formed a nexus of people more widely interested in spirituality at all ages, in different cultures and throughout the country.

This is the first description of a New Zealand organisation specifically addressing the spiritual care of older people.

The West Midlands region has been poorly represented in national media and especially in fictional media forms. The Archers is therefore a very important part of representation of the region to the nation. These two representational elements — regional and national culture — are part of the BBC’s duties under the Royal Charter. As such, they form a core obligation for the BBC. For many years arguments have raged over whether Ambridge is located in Worcestershire or Warwickshire. This is, of course, largely a matter of interest within the region, but does have some wider implications about narrative fiction. Whilst, in one sense Ambridge and Borsetshire are purely fictional, they simultaneously have a potential impact on the national image of the West Midlands and especially its rural areas. This chapter will consider both reasons to suggest that The Archers is specifically drawn from the county of Worcestershire and issues of identity formation that may arise from the representations offered by The Archers of the county and the West Midlands region.

We take a state-stewardship view on corporate governance and executive compensation in economies with strong political involvement, where state-appointed managers act as responsible “stewards” rather than “agents” of the state.

We test this view on China and find that Chinese managers are remunerated not for maximizing equity value but for increasing the value of state-owned assets.

Managerial compensation depends on political connections and prestige, and on the firms’ contribution to political goals. These effects were attenuated since the market-oriented governance reform.

Economic reform without reforming the human resources policies at the executive level enables the autocratic state to exert political power on corporate decision making, so as to ensure that firms’ business activities fulfill the state’s political objectives.

As a powerful social elite, the state-steward managers in China have the same interests as the state (the government), namely extracting rents that should adhere to the nation (which stands for the society at large or the collective private citizens).

As China has been a communist country with a single ruling party for decades, the ideas of socialism still have a strong impact on how companies are run. The legitimacy of the elite’s privileged rights over private sectors is central to our question.

Chinese executive compensation stimulates not only the maximization of shareholder value but also the preservation of the state’s interests.

One benefit is that the firm pays about half what comparable companies do for insurance