Heather Tunender, Lisa Tatum, Ellen Purcell, Peter Murray and Margaret Tapper
Margaret Grieco and Mhinder Bhopal
This article aims to explore the use of new information communication technology by the Malaysian labour movement. New information communication technologies are undoubtedly…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explore the use of new information communication technology by the Malaysian labour movement. New information communication technologies are undoubtedly globalising, but these same technologies can also be used by labour to retrieve and re‐achieve a more equitable balance between labour and capital. The low transaction costs of the new information communication technology, and the universal reach of these same technologies, provide the labour movement with a critical new tool for organising and bargaining. Malaysia provides us with a useful example of this new context.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors e‐interviewed Malaysian labour activists and reviewed Malaysian labour and human rights web sites to develop a framework in which the discussion of global counter‐coordination by labour could be situated. This article provides case material from Malaysian web sites to demonstrate the importance of this technology in labour advocacy within Malaysia and in its connection with the outside world. These demonstrations of connectivity support the proposition of the paper that the new information technology affords the opportunity for the development of global union practices.
Findings
The article finds that the Malaysian labour movement is aware of the power of global relay that the technology provides it with and harnesses this power in its interaction with the state.
Research limitations/implications
The level of electronic activity by the labour movement may be under‐recorded in this assessment, as the resources were not available to determine the volume of electronic mailing which takes place within the Malaysian labour relations environment.
Practical implications
This article provides the international labour movement with a perspective of the new information communication technology, which can have practical consequences for action: meta‐coordination structures are required at the level of information exchange.
Originality/value
This article draws attention to the “power of global relay” as a new feature in the politics of labour. This insight requires further theorisation and should be of interest within a range of disciplines concerned with critical approaches to change and power.
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Margaret Elizabeth Loughnan, Nigel J. Tapper, Thu Phan and Judith A. McInnes
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a spatial model of population vulnerability (VI) capable of identifying areas of high emergency service demand (ESD) during extreme…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a spatial model of population vulnerability (VI) capable of identifying areas of high emergency service demand (ESD) during extreme heat events (EHE).
Design/methodology/approach
An index of population vulnerability to EHE was developed from a literature review. Threshold temperatures for EHE were defined using local temperatures, and indicators of increased morbidity. Spearman correlations determined the strength of the relationship between the VI and morbidity during EHE. The VI was mapped providing a visual guide of risk during EHE. Future changes in population vulnerability based on future population projections (2020-2030) were mapped.
Findings
The VI can be used to explain the spatial distribution of ESD during EHE. Mapping future changes in population density/demography indicated several areas currently showing high risk will continue to show increased risk.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations include using outdoor temperatures to determine health-related thresholds. Due to data restrictions three different measures of morbidity were used and aggregated to postal areas.
Practical implications
Identifying areas of increased service demand during EHE allows the development of proactive as-well-as reactive responses to heat. The model uses readily available data, is replicable in larger urban areas.
Social implications
The model allows emergency service providers to work with high risk communities to build resilience to heat exposure and subsequently save lives.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge this triangulated approach using heat thresholds, ESD and projected changes in risk in a spatial framework has not been presented to date.
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Chronicles the shift from “collegial academy to corporate enterprise” in higher education institutions. Examines the major political, economic and educational reasons given for…
Abstract
Chronicles the shift from “collegial academy to corporate enterprise” in higher education institutions. Examines the major political, economic and educational reasons given for this shift and relates them to the gradual decline of the liberal educational tradition. Notes that with the present government’s growing belief in a market model of higher education, a new form of education is emerging which is more extrinsic and instrumental in outlook. States that, while acknowledging the contribution made by the “new model of education and training”, there are lecturers in higher education institutions ‐ including the author ‐ who are determined to preserve the liberal education tradition.
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The issues raised in this chapter are primarily those of obfuscation regarding social and economic inequality in the UK. The chapter is about the way discourse in various forms…
Abstract
The issues raised in this chapter are primarily those of obfuscation regarding social and economic inequality in the UK. The chapter is about the way discourse in various forms serves to disguise and justify the huge inequalities in this society; legitimising and ‘naturalising’ them, or in Arendt's words ‘lying’ about them so that they are seen as ‘natural and self-evident’ (Alvesson & Deetz, 2006, p. 261). Issues looked at are the institutional arrangements by which government ministers give or withhold resources to and from certain categories of its citizens. This includes the UK Treasury in relation to which economic groups the Chancellor of the Exchequer decides how much to tax or not to tax. In particular what are examined are the discourses justifying these measures and establishing certain ‘truths’ about how things are economically and socially; which categories are entitled to or deserving of certain kinds of resources and which are not – argued here as constituting obfuscations of the ‘actual’ situation. Obfuscation has been defined as the action of making something obscure, unclear, or unintelligible. This, arguably, is not far removed, from the action of being deliberately untruthful or lying. The question then arises as to how close these discourses come to lying and how serious the inequalities are.
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John A. Bower and Jessica Ferguson
The purpose of this paper is to ascertain children's perception of fruit and fruit snacks and the influences on their choice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to ascertain children's perception of fruit and fruit snacks and the influences on their choice.
Design/methodology/approach
One hundred primary school children (the majority aged 7‐11 years), from three schools, were surveyed or interviewed. A quota sample was taken with a balance of age and gender. A questionnaire survey (n = 50) plus a series of focus groups (n = 50) were carried out.
Findings
The questionnaire results showed that the children perceived fruit as likeable, healthy, convenient, low cost and available. Dried and packed fruits were of lower levels on these attributes but newer manufactured snacks were likeable and convenient, but viewed as unhealthy and costly. Focus groups revealed similar perceptions except in the case of fresh fruit which was seen as lacking convenience in terms of poor storage properties and waste.
Research limitations/implications
The paper uses a convenience sample with no socio‐economic variation.
Originality/value
The paper offers new information on new fruit snack forms.
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The death was announced on 21st December 1964 of Mr H. R. Verry, who was known to many members of Aslib. Up to his retirement in 1963 Mr Verry was Adviser on Photographic and…
Abstract
The death was announced on 21st December 1964 of Mr H. R. Verry, who was known to many members of Aslib. Up to his retirement in 1963 Mr Verry was Adviser on Photographic and Allied Processes to the O & M Section of the Treasury. He was the author of a number of textbooks on photographic reproduction techniques and often contributed to the book reviews in the Journal of Documentation.
Mr R. H. Collins, of Harold Cartwright Grammar School, Solihull, told the conference of current progress in bringing a new ‘O’‐level syllabus in Mathematics into operation. Over…
Abstract
Mr R. H. Collins, of Harold Cartwright Grammar School, Solihull, told the conference of current progress in bringing a new ‘O’‐level syllabus in Mathematics into operation. Over the years an ever‐widening gulf had been developing between the mathematics taught in schools and that taught in the universities, colleges of technology and used in industry and life in general. We have always forced children to follow adult ways of reasoning — very different from their own; now a child‐centred mathematics was required in which whatever is being developed as a topic must have roots in the immediate and past experience of the children.
The thirteenth annual report of the Ministry of Health, 1931–1932 (H.M. Stationery Office, price 5s. net), states that during the year the appointments of 23 Public Analysts were…
Abstract
The thirteenth annual report of the Ministry of Health, 1931–1932 (H.M. Stationery Office, price 5s. net), states that during the year the appointments of 23 Public Analysts were approved. The number of samples of food and drugs submitted to Public Analysts in the year 1931 was 136,169. This was a decrease of 346 as compared with the number for the previous year, which was the highest recorded; 6,324 samples were reported as adulterated or not up to standard, being 4·6 per cent. of the number examined. This is the lowest percentage recorded and compares with 4·8 per cent. in 1930 and 5·4 per cent. in 1929. The detailed statement in regard to the samples analysed is as follows:—
The purpose of this paper is to review the reasons underlying the slow rate of progress towards developing a comprehensive policy underpinning for adult safeguarding in England…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the reasons underlying the slow rate of progress towards developing a comprehensive policy underpinning for adult safeguarding in England and proposes long-term solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a model of policy change to argue that adult safeguarding has been over-reliant on case histories to define its policy problems and influence its politics, while making insufficient progress on data collection and analysis. It uses examples from the parallel discipline of public health to explore four challenges, or “problems”, relevant to the further development of the knowledge base underpinning adult safeguarding policy.
Findings
Four recommendations emerge for closing the adult safeguarding “knowledge gap”, including the development of a national research strategy for adult safeguarding. In a fifth recommendation the paper also proposes a clearer recognition of the contribution that local public health professionals can make to local adult safeguarding policy making and programme development.
Practical implications
The first four recommendations of this paper would serve as the basis for developing a national research strategy for adult safeguarding. The fifth would strengthen the contribution of local public health departments to safeguarding adults boards.
Originality/value
The author is unaware of the existence of any other review of the limitations of the adult safeguarding knowledge base as a foundation for policy making, or which proposes strategic solutions. The work is valuable for its practical proposals.