Search results

The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that property rights can have on the implementation of circular waste economies, in which waste is reused, recycled or recovered, within the European Union’s Waste Framework Directive.

A theoretical lens is applied to the legal definition as well as production and treatment cycle of waste to understand the property rights that can exist in waste.

This paper argues that even though different property rights regimes can apply to waste during its creation, disposal and recovery, the waste management regulatory and legal system is currently predominantly set up to support waste within classic forms of private property ownership. This tends towards commodification and linear systems, which are at odds with an approach that treats waste as a primary wanted resource rather than an unwanted by-product. It is recommended that adopting state or communal property approaches instead could affect systemic transformative change by facilitating the reconceptualisation of waste as a resource for everyone to use.

The property rights issues are only one dimension of a bigger puzzle. The roles of social conceptualisation, norms, regulations and policies in pursuing circular strategies are only touched upon, but not fully explored in this paper. These provide other avenues that can be underpinned by certain property regimes to transition to circular economies.

The literature focused on property rights in waste has been very limited to date. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to consider this question in detail from a legal perspective.

Contracts are a framework for commercial activity, a foundation that is firm and sure to which the parties can point, if disputes arise. For this the contract must mean what it says, and say what it means. The goal is certainty. When it comes to insurance contracts, whether the line is personal or commercial, the goal is the same. The insurer wants to know his exposure, which depends in part on the risks he has written. The insured wants to know that he is covered.

Attempts to construct consumer typologies are an enduring feature of retailing research and frequently centre on economic and demographic characteristics. Such research highlights the relatively poor understanding of real‐life consumer behaviour and, in particular, the need to develop more appropriate methods of examining the behaviour of consumers within real‐life retail settings. As a first step in a study designed to assess the role of group identity in fashion clothing purchasing, this paper outlines an innovative methodological approach. Based on the experience of a project examining customer behaviour in a major menswear fashion retailer in the UK, the paper outlines a technique involving video observation, coupled with individual in‐depth interviews, as an effective means of generating valid referential accounts of in‐store customer behaviour. The paper considers the ethical and practical problems associated with utilising such a methodology, and points out the managerial and marketing implications of the approach.

Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an increasingly important role in delivering healthcare today. Healthcare professionals, including consultants, doctors and nurses, are engaged in what is seen as a radical action plan for improving the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. A major focus of this plan is the greater empowerment of the patient, and providing them with more information about their health needs and care. Information and communication technology has the potential to effectively support the complexities involved in the communication that takes place both amongst healthcare workers themselves and between healthcare workers and their patients in both primary and secondary care both in the UK and elsewhere. This paper explores the challenges involved in human interaction and describes how AIDMAN, a clinical information system, allows for richer communication between the patient and those involved in their health.

In order to improve the diagnosis and subsequent care given to patients, health‐care workers involved in the management of their care, as well as the treatment itself, are increasingly looking at the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in supporting the complex interactions between patient, doctor or nurse, consultant and medical equipment. Effective communication both amongst health‐care workers and between health‐care workers and their patients in both primary and secondary care is vital; ICTs can play an important role in this. In this paper possible interpretations given to the term “telemedicine” are discussed, and then attention is turned to the challenges involved in human interaction and the role of ICTs. An example of a clinical ICT system (AIDMAN) is used to illustrate how face‐to‐face interaction has usefully been supported by way of a “virtual” consultation, which facilitates remote medical diagnosis and can provide improved case management.

The aim of this paper is, first, to discuss how the risk perceptions of computer end‐users may be influenced by improving the process of risk communication by embedding symbols and graphics within information security messages. The second aim is to describe some pilot study research that the authors have conducted in an attempt to ascertain whether the embedding of symbols and graphics within information security messages achieves a shift in the risk perceptions of computer end‐users.

Two pilot studies were undertaken. The objective of each study was to establish whether the embedding of a relevant graphic relating to some known aspect of information security, when placed inside an information security message, would have any influence on the information security risk perceptions of any individual to whom the message was being communicated. In both studies, the method of eliciting a response from each participant involved the use of a type of semantic differential (SD) grid.

On completing an analysis of the responses to the SD grid survey for both studies, no statistically significant differences were detected between the groups with respect to any of the six relevant scales. Nevertheless, it seems that the differences were large enough for the present authors to be convinced that the SD measures used are an appropriate survey technique for future studies in a workplace environment.

The research subjects (i.e. survey participants) for both pilot studies were students of the University of South Australia. There are many ways in which information risk communication could be made more effective and this paper only attempts to show how graphics and symbols could be used to convey risk messages more effectively. This paper does not in any way attempt to provide any “silver‐bullet” solutions for management in terms of what they can do towards managing information risk.

The ultimate objective of this research is to subsequently advise management on how they can communicate information risk simply and more effectively to achieve the final outcome, i.e. the mitigation of actual risks.

It is believed that, if the effectiveness of the various forms of risk communication within an organisation can be increased, then the general perception of the risks to the information systems will be more realistic.

Accident and emergency (A&E) departments experience a secondary peak in patient length of stay (LoS) at around four hours, caused by the coping strategies used to meet the operational standards imposed by government. The aim of this paper is to build a discrete‐event simulation model that captures the coping strategies and more accurately reflects the processes that occur within an A&E department.

A discrete‐event simulation (DES) model was used to capture the A&E process at a UK hospital and record the LoS for each patient. Input data on 4,150 arrivals over three one‐week periods and staffing levels was obtained from hospital records, while output data were compared with the corresponding records. Expert opinion was used to generate the pathways and model the decision‐making processes.

The authors were able to replicate accurately the LoS distribution for the hospital. The model was then applied to a second configuration that had been trialled there; again, the results also reflected the experiences of the hospital.

This demonstrates that the coping strategies, such as re‐prioritising patients based on current length of time in the department, employed in A&E departments have an impact on LoS of patients and therefore need to be considered when building predictive models if confidence in the results is to be justified.

As far as the authors are aware this is the first time that these coping strategies have been included within a simulation model, and therefore the first time that the peak around the four hours has been analysed so accurately using a model.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides: