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Background: The ageing population is generating increasing concern over the occurrence and associated costs of falls in healthcare settings. Supplementary to the investigation of strategies to prevent falls, is the consideration of ways to reduce the number of injuries resulting from falls in these settings.Aims: This overview assesses the status of research on flooring in healthcare settings to reduce the incidence of injury resulting from falls.Methods: A comprehensive literature search, carried out in conjunction with a Cochrane Systematic Review on hospital environments for patient health‐related outcomes, identified the available evidence. Searches were also conducted in Medline and Scopus specifically to identify studies on flooring types, falls, and injuries. Reference lists of relevant studies and reviews were scanned and relevant authors were approached for further information.Conclusions: Flooring should be considered as a possible intervention for reducing injuries from falls, however, more rigorous and higher quality research is needed to identify the most appropriate materials for use.

“Global education involves (1) the study of problems and issues which cut across national boundaries and the interconnectedness of cultural, environmental, economic, political, and technological systems and (2) the cultivation of cross-cultural understanding, which includes development of the skill of “perspective-taking,” that is, being able to see life from someone else's point of view. Global perspectives are important at every grade level, in every curricular subject area, and for all children and adults.(Tye & Tye, 1992)The literature generally suggests that the best way to infuse global perspectives into teacher education programs is by modeling pedagogy through the use of not just readings and lectures, but role plays, case studies, and collaborative investigation of useful resources among colleagues. Merryfield (1997) sets out methods for pedagogy for global perspectives that include exploration of self-knowledge, cross-cultural experiences and skills, perspective consciousness, values analysis, and authentic learning. Given the wide range and capacities for educating large numbers of new teachers in many countries, infusing global perspectives into otherwise technically oriented training programs is often poorly managed.

The role of policy in the development of education is crucial. So much rests on the decisions, support, and most of all resources that policymakers either give or withhold in any given situation. This volume of International Perspectives on Education and Society highlights the valuable role that educational policy plays in the development of education and society around the world.

David P. Baker is Professor of Education and Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University. He studies the role of education in the social construction of modern society. He publishes widely on the comparative and historical analysis of schooling and higher education. He frequently assists in the planning of large cross-national studies of academic achievement for multi-national agencies and individual national governments.

There was no mention of ‘environmental rights’ in the Council of Europe, European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) of 1950, comprised of civil and political rights. ‘In the 1950s, the universal need for environmental protection was not yet apparent.’ Environmental values have since evolved in response to societal change and increased public awareness. The turning point was the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment of 1972, which associated environ mental quality and well being with fundamental rights, and which declares that: ‘Man has a fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well being ...’

This paper proposes to evaluate the heart of the concept of citizenship of the European Union: namely, freedom of movement and residence. The evolution of citizenship, from its inception in the Maastricht Treaty, as a political concept will be treated. Freedom of movement and residence, with its rights and limitations, historically and legally accrued to economically active persons. Non‐economically ac tive per sons have been given rights in secondary legislation to move and to reside subject to specified conditions and limitations. The jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, in accordance with which the link with economic in dependence and the freedom to move and reside has been broken, will be critically appraised. Resort to the principle of non discrimination on grounds of nationality in Article 12 of the European Community Treaty, read in conjunction with the citizenship provisions in Articles 17 and 18 EC, has resulted in legal rights for nationals of European Union Member States who are lawfully resident in, and who do not become an unreasonable burden on, the host Member State. Enforceable at the suit of individuals, EU citizenship has given rise to social advantages for non‐economic actors. Citizenship has become a legal source of rights be yond those agreed to by the Member States, the legitimacy for which lies with the degree of financial solidarity accorded under the principle of non‐discrimination and the level of integration of a particular EU citizen into the society of the host Member State. The need to establish a real link and the proportionate legitimate interests of the Member State are limits to citizenship as a source of rights. Nevertheless, it is the intention of this paper to examine the potential for citizenship to transform the polity of the European Union, from one based on economic and social rights, to one based on fundamental rights.

Virtual organizations present numerous challenges for managers, especially in regards to organizational identity formation. This paper aims to address this gap in the extant literature by exploring how organizational narratives can foster identification with the virtual organization. Moreover, information technology can further catalyze the positive effects of narratives on identity formation.

Qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 18 members of a nonprofit, virtual organization – DiverseCS – were collected. Participants were asked about their roles in the organization, challenges and collaborative efforts. Grounded theory methodology was used to analyze the data.

Efforts to instill a sense of identity and community through the adoption of information technology was met with resistance. Rather, senior leaders encouraged and institutionalized the creation of organizational narratives. Novel use of information technology – social media and hyperlinks – became a means to amplify the positive effects of narrative creation and sharing by organizational members.

This study investigates how some members of a virtual organization use information technology in novel ways to further spread organizational narratives to other organizational members and also to external collaboration partners. This research contributes to the extant literature on virtual organizational identity and also proposes a research agenda.