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Investigates the reasoning behind the CONDAM regulations which have recently come into force. Posits that all surveyors, engineers and architects in the construction industry have a responsibility for health and safety of both employees and the public. Concludes that the designer can play a key role in the reduction of accidents and thereby financial expenditure.

This paper examines the domestic division of labour in relation to food preparation in the early months of marriage/cohabitation. A total of 22 heterosexual couples from central Scotland, all childless and in full‐time employment or education took part in in‐depth interviews shortly after setting up home together. In more than half of the cases, the woman prepared most of the main meals, seven couples took equal part in food preparation and in two cases the man was the main meal preparer. There was evidence of role conflict among those women who prepared most of the meals, and of a trade‐off between the disadvantage of the tasks’ burdens and the advantage of control over food choice. This represents a significant departure from earlier work on food preparation in households with dependent children, in which men rarely cooked main meals, and women showed little evidence of resentment and considerable deference to their partners’ tastes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of trust, cynicism and efficacy on young peoples' (non)voting behaviour during the 2005 British general election.

Survey data were gathered from 1,134 interviewer‐administered questionnaires with young first‐time voters during the three‐week period following the British general election in May 2005. Validated attitudes statements were used to measure their levels of trust, cynicism and efficacy.

The research shows that young people are generally distrusting of and very cynical about politicians and the Prime Minister (Tony Blair) Thus, in part, the data support the existing evidence that cynicism contributes to feelings of political alienation. However, the paper's findings also indicate that while young people can be highly distrusting and cynical, they can also be interested in the election and vote.

Current, negative evaluations of young people and electoral politics need to be reviewed. While, it cannot be denied that this age group are highly cynical, and their electoral participation is in decline, for some, this cynicism, when combined with personal efficacy, can act as a positive force to stimulate “monitorial” interaction with election offerings. Consequently, further research is needed to understand young peoples' perceptions of democracy and electoral politics, how their personal efficacy can be increased and what feeds their cynicism.

This paper offers a contemporary understanding of young people as an interested and critical citizenry and raises a number of important questions that set a new agenda for political marketers researching youth electoral engagement in the future.

The application of short‐term forecasting techniques to the prediction of commercial rental values generates valuable information about the dynamics of rent movements. It also captures short‐run trends more effectively than do other forecasting procedures. Makes use of ARIMA models to provide one‐step‐ahead predictions. The results show that ARIMA models perform better in the case of retail and office sectors. The forecasts for these sectors are satisfactory. Retail rents bear a relationship to their past values, whereas office rents are influenced by shocks in the market – demand or supply driven. The results of the present study are useful for incorporation in more general models of rent forecasting. Also presents a full methodology which facilitates its application.

Presents the findings of the first comparative econometric investigation into the influence of demand side forces on retail rent determination in European cities. Examines five major retail centres ‐ Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, London and Paris ‐ over the period 1980 to 1994. Estimates for each city a theory consistent model which tests influences of GDP, retail sales and consumer expenditure on changes in retail rents. Univariate and multivariate regressions show that the relative explanatory capabilities of these influences exhibit a notable degree of variation between the cities. A time series cross‐sectional analysis demonstrates that contemporaneous changes in GDP are the most important common determinant of retail rents across the cities and that the process of rent determination in Paris is influenced by different structural factors from the other cities examined.

The more recent history of the National Health Service, especially the Hospital Service, has been in the nature of a lumbering from one crisis to another. From the moment of its inception it has proved far more costly than estimated and over‐administered, but in the early years, it had great promise and was efficient at ward level, which continued until more recent times. As costs increased and administration grew and grew, much of it serving no useful purpose, there appeared to be a need for reorganisation. In 1974, a three‐tier structure was introduced by the establishment of new area health authorities, the primary object of which was to facilitate — and cheapen — decision making; to give the district bodies and personnel easier access to “management”. It coincided with reorganisation of Local Government, which included the transfer of all the personal health services and abolition of the office of medical officer of health. At the time and in looking back, there was very little need for this and reviewing the progress and advances made in local government, medical officers of health who had advocated the transfer, mainly for reasons of their own status, would have achieved this and more by remainining in the local government service; the majority of health visitors appear to have reached the same conclusion. They constitute a profession within themselves and in truth do not have all that much in common with day‐to‐day nursing. The basic training and nursing qualification is most essential, however. It has been said that a person is only as good a health visitor as she is a nurse.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

To examine consumers' beliefs about organic foods and their relationship with socio‐demographics and self‐transcendence (universal, benevolence) personal values.

A random questionnaire‐based mail survey of 500 Australian (Victorian) adults (58 per cent response) was used. The questionnaire included items on organic food beliefs, the importance of self‐transcendence values as guiding principles in life, and socio‐demographics. Statistical analyses included cross‐tabulations of organic food beliefs by socio‐demographics and multiple regression analyses of positive organic food beliefs with personal value and socio‐demographic items as the independent variables.

The majority of participants believed organic food to be healthier, tastier and better for the environment than conventional food. However, expense and lack of availability were strong barriers to the purchasing of organic foods. Generally, women were more positive about organic food than men (e.g. women were more likely to agree that organic food has more vitamins/minerals than conventional food). The personal value factor related to nature, environment and equality was the dominant predictor of positive organic food beliefs, followed by sex. These predictors accounted for 11 per cent of the variance.

A survey response bias needs to be taken into account. However, the response rate was adequate for reporting and differences in age and education between participants and the Victorian population were taken into account in data presentation. Future understanding of consumers' use of organic foods will require the inclusion of a fairly extensive set of potential influences.

Communication appeals based on psychographics may be a more effective way to alter consumers' beliefs about organic foods than those based on demographic segmentation.

To the best of one's knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between personal values, socio‐demographics and organic food beliefs in a random population sample. This study is relevant to producers, processors and retailers of organic food and those involved with food and agricultural policy.

This paper aims to shed light on the emerging position of companies taking stances on sociopolitical issues and the impact this has on consumers.

The paper uses focus groups, interviews and consumer experiments in various countries, to provide insights as to why brands are taking sociopolitical stances.

Consumers expect brands to take a stance on sociopolitical issues. However, to be credible, a stance needs to be rooted in a long-term commitment that aligns with the brand’s strategy and values. Perceived authenticity is key.

Future studies should aim at broader generalizability and should address various industries.

Differentiating a brand through a sociopolitical stance requires a strategic approach. Brand managers need to identify which issues they should support, how to engage with them and the risks and opportunities involved.

While the impact of brands adopting a sociopolitical stance has been discussed in the mainstream media, there has been a lack of empirical evidence to support the arguments. The results of the four studies discussed in the paper provide insights and demonstrate the brand-related opportunities and risks of taking a sociopolitical stance.