Magdalena Nowak, Yvonne Jeanes and Sue Reeves
Leisure centres and health clubs are ideal places for promoting healthy lifestyle. They promote physical exercise and many activities for children, such as swimming, soft play…
Abstract
Purpose
Leisure centres and health clubs are ideal places for promoting healthy lifestyle. They promote physical exercise and many activities for children, such as swimming, soft play areas, crèche, and team sports. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the food environment for children in leisure centres and health clubs in London.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 67 venues were visited. All food and drink options were recorded and the proportion of “healthy” options was calculated according to the School Food Trust criteria and Nutrient Profiling Model.
Findings
In total, 96 per cent of the venues had vending machines and 51 per cent had onsite restaurants/cafés. According to The School Food Trust criteria, only 13 per cent of vending machine drinks, 77.2 per cent of meals, and 24 per cent of snacks would be allowed in school canteens.
Research limitations/implications
The study revealed that a low proportion of healthy foods and drinks were offered to children in Leisure centres in London. However, the survey was only extended to venues in the capital.
Practical implications
The results of the study suggest that new recommendations such as the Healthy Food Code of Good Practice, omitted leisure centres. The findings presented here could provide scientific evidence for campaigns and interventions aimed at improving the quality and the appropriateness of foods and drinks offered to children.
Originality/value
The paper shows that health campaigns and legislation should target leisure centres and health clubs, in order to improve the food and drinks facilities and promote healthy eating, particularly in light of the upcoming Olympic Games in London 2012.
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To determine how nutritional knowledge and residential status influences the diets of a group of young professional football players and compare them to controls of the same age.
Abstract
Purpose
To determine how nutritional knowledge and residential status influences the diets of a group of young professional football players and compare them to controls of the same age.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven day dietary records and nutritional knowledge questionnaires were analyzed and anthropometric measurements were taken mid‐way through the competitive season.
Findings
The football players, with a mean body mass index of 23.6 ± 1.2 kg m2 and body fat of 15.3 ± 3 per cent were significantly lighter than the controls. They also consumed significantly fewer calories than the controls (10.26 + 1.8 v. 13.89 + 0.7 MJ per day), and less than the recommended amounts for soccer players. Both groups could benefit from increasing their carbohydrate intakes, although fat and protein intakes were appropriate. Nutritional knowledge had little impact on dietary intakes. However, players who resided in the soccer club hostels had significantly greater energy intakes, consumed more carbohydrate and less fat (p < 0.05) than players who lived in their parental home.
Originality/value
It was identified that youth players require assistance in the implementation of their knowledge of nutrition to their own diets. In particular they need to increase their nutritional intakes inline with recommendations, in order to optimize their playing ability and provide the energy they need for growth. This is particularly true for those who live away from the scrutiny of the football club.
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Maria Caprile, Mina Bettachy, Daša Duhaček, Milica Mirazić, Rachel Palmén and Angelina Kussy
Universities are large, complex and highly hierarchical organisations with deeply engrained gendered values, norms and practices. This chapter reflects on the experiences of two…
Abstract
Universities are large, complex and highly hierarchical organisations with deeply engrained gendered values, norms and practices. This chapter reflects on the experiences of two universities in initiating structural change towards gender equality as supported by the TARGET project. A common aspect thereby is the lack of a national policy in higher education and research providing specific support for implementing gender equality policies. The process of audit, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the first gender equality plan (GEP) in each of these universities was conceived as a first step in a long journey, providing a framework for engaging different institutional actors and fostering reflexive, evidence-based policy making. The analysis deals with reflexivity and resistance and seeks to draw lessons from bottom-up and top-down experiences of GEP implementation. It is the result of shared reflection between the GEP ‘implementers’ in the two universities and the team who provided support and acted as ‘critical friends’.
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Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the…
Abstract
Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the region's instability and the United States' role in it. This “crisis” in Central America has generated a barrage of publications. Perhaps an appropriate title for this article would have been “Central America: Crisis in the Library.” The growing number of publications on Central America is matched by growing demand for them in both public and academic libraries. This bibliography will help librarians build an adequate and balanced collection on Central America without having to locate and examine each book.
Angela Wroblewski and Rachel Palmén
Gender equality plans (GEPs) are currently the preferred approach to initiate structural change towards gender equality in research organisations. In order to achieve structural…
Abstract
Gender equality plans (GEPs) are currently the preferred approach to initiate structural change towards gender equality in research organisations. In order to achieve structural change, GEPs have to be more than just a formally adopted institutional policy. Effective GEPs lead to a transformation of gendered practices and thus to structural change. This chapter presents the innovative approach developed for an H2020 structural change project and its theoretical background. We argue that due to the dual logic, which characterises academic organisations, the organisational logic and the academic logic, change is a complex endeavour. To deal with this complexity, one of the main functions of a GEP is to provide space and initiate reflexivity at an individual as well as at an institutional level. A theory of change approach supports reflexivity in all stages of a GEP as it ensures that basic assumptions of the institutional change process are questioned and reflected on by the different stakeholder groups involved in the implementation.
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One of the urgent questions in the field of diversity is the knowledge about effective diversity practices. This paper aims to advance our knowledge on organizational change…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the urgent questions in the field of diversity is the knowledge about effective diversity practices. This paper aims to advance our knowledge on organizational change toward diversity by combining concepts from diversity studies and organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
By employing a social practice approach to organizational learning, the author will be able to go beyond individual learning experiences of diversity practices but see how members negotiate the diversity knowledge and how they integrate their new knowledge in their day-to-day organizational norms and practices. The analysis draws on data collected during a longitudinal case study in a financial service organization in the Netherlands.
Findings
This study showed how collective learning practices took place but were insufficiently anchored in a collective memory. Change agents have the task to build “new” memory on diversity policies and gender inequality as well as to use organizational memory to enable diversity policies and practices to be implemented. The inability to create a community of practice impeded the change agenda.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could expand our knowledge on collective memory of knowledge on diversity further and focus on the way employees make use of this memory while doing diversity.
Practical implications
The current literature often tends to analyze the effectiveness of diversity practices as linear processes, which is insufficient to capture the complexity of a change process characterized with layers of negotiated and politicized forms of access to resources. The author would argue for more future work on nonlinear and process-based perspectives on organizational change.
Originality/value
The contribution is to the literature on diversity practices by showing how the lack of collective memory to “store” individual learning in the organization has proven to be a major problem in the management of diversity.