Search results

With the increased concentration of populations in urban areas and the consequent occupation of marginal land, largely by the poor, the need for effective means of understanding and managing urban risk is immense. This paper explores the existence and variability of fire risk in the informal settlement of “Imizamo Yethu”, an informal settlement situated in Cape Town, South Africa. The case study mainly analyses the factors influencing the conditions of risk. It highlights the need for a shift away from the hegemonic dialogue around so-called natural disasters and goes further to challenge the view of risk as an interaction between external, natural hazards and internally generated vulnerability. The paper explores how different factors affecting fire risk operate at different scales and the resulting importance of recognising and understanding intra-community and even intra-household variability of risk. In so doing, it becomes evident that for risk reduction strategies to be effective, focus cannot simply be placed on structural interventions, but must encompass elements of social development which are sensitive to current livelihood strategies.

As opposed to other subjects in the Arts and Social Sciences, there does not seem to have been the same extensive questioning of universal assumptions about human behaviour and emotions within Drama as an academic discipline. To some extent, a belief in a common universality of human experience has its roots in modern acting practice, particularly with the widespread application of rehearsal exercises developed from the work of Russian director Konstantin Stanislavski. Here, through a long process of improvisation based on imaginative, emotional recreation, it is assumed that the actor can enter fully into a character that, in terms of its cultural background, is perhaps very different from her/his own, that experience is somehow universally translatable. In avant‐garde theatre, too, interculturalist practices (for example, the borrowing of oriental ritual patterns and the use of multi‐ethnic casts in the work of practitioners such as Eurgenio Barba, Peter Brook and Richard Schechner) have led to a homogenising, and in many cases distinct westernising, of individual cultural behaviours.

This paper aims to present an investigation of the climate adaptation planning and implementation process undertaken by the municipal government of Cape Town, South Africa, situating the findings within the broader literature on governance-related barriers to adaptation.

By developing an in-depth case study using methods of organizational ethnography, the research traces phases of climate adaptation planning and implementation in Cape Town. Applied thematic analysis surfaces issues of coordination, decision-making, resource constraints and tracking progress as key constraints to urban climate adaptation.

While considerable progress has been made on developing a citywide climate adaptation plan for Cape Town, implementation is constrained by poor monitoring and feedback within and between departments and a lack of oversight and impetus from central authorities within the government hierarchy.

Further research is needed on the interface between technical and political decision-making, governance arrangements that facilitate coordination and iterative adjustment and the organizational uptake of externally commissioned work on climate adaptation.

The paper points to the need for a climate adaptation coordination function situated higher up in the municipal government structure than the environment department to implement, monitor, evaluate and revise measures to reduce climate risks and vulnerabilities citywide.

The paper is of value to those seeking to understand local government decision-making, as it pertains to climate adaptation and those looking for means to address climate risks and vulnerabilities in cities, especially in South Africa.

Explores the way that men and women through autobiography have charted the private self. Shows the depiction of life as a voyage or journey to self‐perception. Looks at the value and purpose of using autobiographical accounts and life reviewing in adult educational work especially with older women. Suggests this can be used extremely effectively within this area and provides a number of examples of its usage.

The volume and range of food law enforcement in the field of purity and quality control has grown dramatically in recent times. Only those able to recall the subject from upwards of half a century ago can really appreciate the changes. Compositional control now appears as more of a closely knit field of its own, keeping pace with the advances of food processing, new methods and raw materials. It has its problems but enforcement agencies appear well able to cope with them, e.g. the restructuring of meat, excess water content, fat content, the application of compositional standards to new products, especially meat products, but the most difficult of all areas is that of securing and maintaining acceptable standards of food hygiene. This is one of the most important duties of environmental health officers, with a considerable impact on health and public concern; and one of the most intractible problems, comparable in its results with the insidious onslaught of the ever‐growing problem of noise, another area dependent on the reactions of people; to use an oft repeated cliche — “the human element”.

WHEN librarians meet and talk “shop,” it isn't usually long before someone is trying to argue about the provision of lighter material— the ephemeral novels, travel, and biography, the stocking of which none of us is prepared to justify on their merits, but for which there is steady, and heavy, public demand. It is, perhaps, a pity that “shop” is much less often concerned with the old than the new. The omission may be due to the fact that many librarians have become unduly obsessed with new books. We are told that a public library is judged by its service of new books. It might be better, I think, to judge it by its service of books.

The current pilot study explored food insecurity, food waste, food related behaviours and cooking confidence of UK consumers following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Data were collected from 473 UK-based consumers (63% female) in March 2020. A cross-sectional online survey measured variables including food insecurity prevalence, self-reported food waste, food management behaviours, confidence and frequency of use of a range of cooking methods, type of food eaten (ultra-processed, semi-finished, unprocessed) and packaging type foods are purchased in.

39% of participants have experienced some food insecurity in the last 12 months. Being younger, having a greater BMI and living in a smaller household were associated with food insecurity. Green leaves, carrots, potatoes and sliced bread are the most wasted of purchased foods. Polenta, green leaves and white rice are the most wasted cooked foods. Food secure participants reported wasting a smaller percentage of purchased and cooked foods compared to food insecure participants. Overall, participants were most confident about boiling, microwaving and stir-frying and least confident with using a pressure cooker or sous vide. Food secure participants were more confident with boiling, stir-frying, grilling and roasting than insecure food participants.

This has implications for post lockdown policy, including food policies and guidance for public-facing communications.

We identified novel differences in self-report food waste behaviours and cooking confidence between the food secure and insecure consumers and observed demographics associated with food insecurity.

With leadership education expanding at an unprecedented rate, there is an acute need for an evidence-based leadership pedagogy that can bridge the gap between leadership theory and student practice both in the classroom and beyond its boundaries. This paper will give an overview of the Intentional Emergence Model as a way to teach leadership to emerging adults that specifically addresses this gap between theory and practice. It will discuss the model, research and evaluation data associated with the model, training requirements for instructors and teaching assistants, and the implications for leadership education as a result of the research on, and application of, the model.