Search results

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”.

Racism occurs in many ways and varies across countries, evolving and adapting to sociocultural history, as well as contemporary economic, political and technological changes. This chapter discusses the multilevel dimensions of racism and its diverse manifestations across multiracial societies. It examines how different aspects of racism are mediated interpersonally, and embedded in institutions, social structures and processes, that produce and sustain racial inequities in power, resources and lived experiences. Furthermore, this chapter explores the direct and indirect ways racism is expressed in online and offline platforms and details its impacts on various groups based on their intersecting social and cultural identities. Targets of racism are those who primarily bear the adverse effects. However, racism also affects its perpetrators in many ways, including by limiting their social relations and attachments, and by imposing social and economic costs. This chapter thus analyses the many aspects of racism both from targets and perpetrators' perspectives.

Risky alcohol use can reduce productivity at work and impact employees’ mental health and wellbeing. Several risk factors converge in male-dominated industries, which can increase risky drinking and deteriorate mental health. This paper aims to explore the prevalence of risky drinking and psychological distress in a male-dominated industry compared with that in the general population.

Data were collected from four manufacturing sites in Australia. In total, 450 workers were invited to participate in a survey that measured drinking behaviours using AUDIT-C and psychological distress using the K10, along with demographics including age, gender, job role and ethnicity. The observed outcome measures were compared with general population data available through publicly available data sets.

Surveys were returned by 341 employees, of which 319 completed AUDIT-C. AUDIT-C and K10 scores were significantly correlated (R = 0.31, p < 0.0001). Hazardous drinking was more prevalent among workers than in Australian general population (66.1% vs 23.6%). Binge drinking was greater among workers than in the general population (25.4% vs 26.5%). The difference was higher among female workers than among male workers (35.1% vs 10.8%).

The findings of this study show a significantly greater risk of alcohol-related harm among workers in male-dominated industries compared with that in the general population. This risk is more pronounced among women, who also experienced greater rates of moderate and high psychological distress compared with those experienced by the general population. A fitness-for-work approach is proposed to minimise alcohol-related harm among workers in male-dominated industries. Moreover, male-dominated industries are proposed to consider the interconnectivity of other workplace health and safety factors.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the notion of collaborative practice from theoretical and empirical bases.

The research analysed the concepts of collaboration, reflective practice and the primary task. It also examined the ways of working of 18 primary schools in Wales where the level of student attainment in national test scores was high, despite the pupils experiencing considerable social and economic disadvantage.

From the conceptual analysis, we contend that established models of joint working accord insufficient significance to the work task and that reflective practice is essentially a social process, which requires a task focus to be successful. In the schools we studied, there was a particular way of working which we have called “collaborative practice”. It contributed substantively to their success. Collaborative practice is highly developed and inclusive joint working on a clearly defined main task, or primary task, in a reflective way. There are thus three elements to collaborative practice: collaboration, reflective practice and focus on the primary task. All three elements must be present for collaborative practice to be successful.

The collaborative practice model provides a straightforward framework for analysing work in schools. It also gives a secure foundation on which to base successful practice in educational institutions. The collaborative practice model therefore has implications for research and practice in educational settings, for the practice of educational leaders and managers, and for the professional development of those who work in schools.

The purpose of this paper is to inspect disaster risk reduction (DRR) challenges from a political economy (PE) perspective and to explore how PE determinants facilitate or hinder effective DRR in Bangladesh.

A qualitative case study, using semi-structured in-depth interviews, official documents and literature review has been conducted to explore the current process and practices of DRR in Bangladesh. The specific focus is on the distribution of public spending on flood shelters implemented by the Department of Disaster Management.

The study revealed a number of findings, including that the interest and incentives of influencing decision makers matter; formal and informal institutions have influence; and the values and ideas of dominating stakeholders’ impact on decisions regarding public spending of DRR in Bangladesh. These PE factors often hinder efficiency by leading to overlapping efforts and inefficient use of scarce resources. DRR planners and practitioners need to take steps to mitigate potential risks from PE processes in the allocations of DRR funding by implementing improved distribution arrangements.

Despite many successes in dealing with disasters, Bangladesh faces several challenges, including better governance of funds. DRR challenges can be considered as a problem of PE, which concerns the distribution of resources, and includes how powerful decision makers affect economic choices. Prior research examining the challenges in DRR-related funding distribution from a PE perspective is limited. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap in the literature by focusing on the situation in Bangladesh from this perspective. The authors elaborate how PE determinants can function as both barrier and opportunities on the ground in DRR-related fund distribution and in the selection of project locations and beneficiaries.

There is increasing evidence of the inadequacy of ‘rational’ explanations of asset pricing. It has been established empirically that mood, induced by such natural phenomena as lunar phases or sunshine, affects asset prices. This paper provides evidence from one‐day cricket international (ODI) matches played by India that there is a significant negative impact on the daily stock market returns when the national team loses. Empirically, losing in India matters somewhat more than losing outside. The mood induced by losing a match appears conditioned by history, in that losing to nations that represent the ‘colonizers’ matters but losing to nations that share India's experience of being ‘colonized’ does not.

In the past few decades, service offshoring industry has been developing globally, and in the past few years its dynamic growth has been observed in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Intensive process migrations have been influenced by the primary goal of minimizing operational expenses, at the same time improving service efficiency and gaining access to wide talent pools. The chapter summarizes current state and key development trends of the offshore service delivery sector in the CEE region. Moreover, it aims at contributing to the understanding of corporate culture at the CEE service delivery organizations, which has been the dominant factor influencing their effectiveness and quality of delivery. The exploratory, pilot study conducted at the sample of three organizations from three countries in the region was supposed to examine the organizational culture at CEE nearshore delivery centres, by applying analysis based on seven factors, broken into 26 cultural artefacts. With minor exceptions, the results highlight positive perception of key organizational culture's elements across employees (e.g. communication, goal setting, team work, reward orientation, innovativeness standards). The only negatively assessed element is the performance standards, including their clear definition, coaching for personal improvement of employees and emphasizing good performance of the organizations. The quantitative study is limited to only three sample companies from three countries, therefore extending the research scope is recommended, as well as exploring the link of national culture elements to the employees' perception of organizational relations and culture.

In this opening chapter the authors analyse current scholarship on teacher emotion and leader emotion produced almost entirely in western countries, and call for contextualising this research by juxtaposing emotion with basic characteristics of traditional and transitional societies. Some attention is given to the meaning of emotion across national culture, including those of developing countries.