Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insights into urban household perceptions and (in)action towards the perceived impacts of climate change, based on a case study in Kensington, Victoria, Australia. This case utilises households as sites of active agency, rather than as passive recipients of climate change or associated governance.

This research trialled an approach to engaging a community in the context of disaster risk reduction (DRR). It involved a two-stage quantitative door-knocking survey (reported elsewhere), followed by a qualitative interview with interested households. In total, 76 quantitative surveys contextualise 15 qualitative interviews, which are the focus of this analysis. The findings are presented comparatively alongside the current literature.

Heatwaves are understood to be the most concerning hazard for the households in this sample who associate their increasing frequency and severity with climate change. However, subsequent (in)action is shown to be situated within the complexities of day-to-day activities and concerns. While respondents did not consider themselves to have “expert” knowledge on climate change, or consider their actions to be a direct response to climate change, most had undertaken actions resulting from experience with heatwaves. These findings suggest there may be an under-representation of DRR, which includes climate change adaptation actions, within the existing research.

While this sample justifies the arguments and conclusions, it is not a representative sample and therefore requires follow-up. It does however challenge traditional approaches to risk management, which focus on awareness raising and education. The research highlights the unique contexts in which households perceive and act on risk, and the need for risk “experts” to consider such contexts.

This research provides empirical evidence of urban household responses to perceived climate change-related risk, an often-neglected dimension of heatwave and adaptation studies in Australia. The findings also suggest promise for the methodological approach.

The Missouri State Library was transferred from the Department of Higher Education to the Secretary of State's office in 1992. The State Library has been involved at some level in all of the technology projects and programs described in this article.

An overview of the various selection tools currently available for building a better jazz recording collection on compact disc. Evaluative guides, select discographies, general reference works, reviews in periodicals, and World Wide Web sites are suggested to aid in this process. Together, these resources can aid librarians and media selectors in building well‐rounded collections that cover different styles and movements of jazz over the last century, from the latest reissues of albums of historical importance to the best in contemporary recordings. The author concludes with a list of 30 (or so) sound recordings that should be found in any core jazz collection.

Efforts to recruit and train ethnic minorities for the nursing profession have been slow. The barriers to diversity in nursing education can be grouped into three categories: negative perceptions of nursing as a career, use of traditional recruitment approaches, and the presence of aversive academic environments. National nursing or ganisations such as Sigma Theta Tau International, the Federal Division of Nursing, and the American Association of Colleges (AACN) agree that recruiting under‐represented groups into nursing as a priority. In response to the need for diversity in nursing education and practice, a framework for viewing nursing within the broader context of ethnic diversity in health professions is crucial. The Leadership Enhancement and Development (LEAD) for Minority Nurses in the New Millennium model provides a contemporary framework for increasing ethnic diversity and leadership in nursing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how flood management practitioners rationalise the emergence of sustainable flood management. Key to this analysis are differences rooted in assumptions over what flood management is and should do.

The popularity of natural flood management offers a case with which to explore how a dominant framing persists and how individuals at the government-public interface negotiate different visions of future flood management. The authors draw on the perceptions of flood experts, elucidating a deep hold amongst a professional community “grounded” in science and economics, but also their desire to innovate and become more open to innovative practices.

The authors show how the idea of “sustainable” and “natural” flood management are understood by those doing flood management, which is with reference to pre-existing technical practices.

This paper explores the views of expert decision making, which suffers from challenges associated with small sample size. As such, the findings must be tempered, but with recognition for the influence of a small group of individuals who determine the nature of flood management in Scotland.

The authors conclude that, in the context of this study, a technical framing persists by predetermining the criteria by which innovative techniques are judged.

Broadly, these findings contribute to debates over the evolution of flood management regimes. This recognises the importance of events while also emphasising the preparations that shape the context and norms of the flood management community between events.

Anyone can start a drama school. All they have to have is a room in which to hold their classes — it could be their own sitting room — and some way of tempting students in to part with their money. All through history one‐man schools have proliferated. The old adage If you can't do it, teach it is sadly true of a great many of these retired and resting actors. There is never any shortage of young, stage‐struck people anxious to learn the tricks of the trade. Vast numbers are turned away by the top drama schools and form an equally vast market for the others to capitalise on.

Progressive era debates about politics and economics featured a concern for the effects of political and economic institutions on the civic vitality of democratic regimes. Similarly, over the course of his scholarly work on public administration and management, Woodrow Wilson developed a civic or “constitutive” conception of administration in a constitutional democracy. An examination of Wilson’s most well‐known works, as well as his lectures on administration and public law, reveals the development of Wilson’s thinking on this score. Taking Wilson’s ideas into consideration can enrich current debates about public management and its impact on the quality of democratic governance.

How often do we use the word “academic” to mean irrelevant or inconsequential to real life issues? Research from the academic community is often treated with the same reservations. Reports how the Department of Construction Management and Engineering at Reading University is linking up with commercial organizations in collaborative FM related research. Like other UK universities involved in FM, it is seeking to break down the academic‐industrial divide. Despite having a strong reputation in the construction sector, Reading has often been accused of being ambivalent about its position in facilities management. Claims that some light may be shed on this confusion from this discussion.

The article introduces Edmund Burke’s world‐view and its implications for public administration. From Burke’s idea about human nature, tradition, law and representation, it has been argued that in a Burkean world, administrative discretion is essential and inevitable. By using their discretionary power, Burke emphasized that public administrators as virtual representatives will meet the ends of the law made by elected representatives. Also to build a tradition and ethical foundation for administration, Burke argued for a unified administration. Given human fallibility and self‐interest such a unified body can internally check administrative actions. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of Burke’s thought, the paper compares and contrasts this Burkean view of public administration with the views of other influential scholars in public administration. Important similarities exist that show that his views continue to demonstrate fruitful application in the art of governance.