Search results

I have been asked by Professor Lonnie Athens to shed light upon those parts of my academic career that may be of interest to sociologists working within the tradition of symbolic interactionism. With this in mind, the present essay offers an account of how I became a scholar whose main focus has for many years been the philosophy and social psychology of George Herbert Mead (1863–1931).

This paper focuses on the British company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which is a relatively new debtor rehabilitation process particularly intended to help financially troubled small firms resolve their difficulties. Based on a survey that is the largest and most comprehensive on the subject of British CVAs, this paper has three principal objectives: (i) to outline the characteristics of CVAs; (ii) to examine the relationships between CVA success and context; and (iii) to provide managerial and policy recommendations based on these findings. Among other things, the study finds that the overwhelming majority of CVAs are employed by small firms and that they can be particularly successful as a means of recovery when the economic fundamentals of the business are sound, regardless of the line of activity of the firm. Higher levels of success might be achieved, however, if the fixed costs of CVAs were subsidised in the case of very small firms and if more time were allowed during the process.

Signs of a new period of theoretical and methodological ferment – consequent real growth – are finally appearing on the horizon. Old theoretical and methodological issues that have merely been papered over in the past, stymieing progress for decades, are now undergoing long-awaited resolution. New burning issues necessary to stimulate theoretical and methodological growth are now being raised for resolution in the future. Perhaps, no better evidence of this potential renewal of interactional thought can be provided than in the seven chapters published in this edition of the “Blue-Ribbon Papers.” The first three of these chapters aim to resolve, or – at least – reframe long-standing theoretical and methodological controversies.

This article describes the evaluation of the ACE club, a service for younger people with dementia in North Wales. The evaluation was conducted by the ACE club members and conducted through a relationship‐centred approach expressed through the Senses Framework (achievement, belonging, continuity, purpose, security, significance) (Nolan et al, 2006). Members of the ACE club found the sense of significance to be the most important and meaningful ‘sense’ in helping to structure their evaluation and use of the ACE club. The clinical interventions outline is shared within the text to help provide a grounded and inductively generated practice structure. The funding of ‘normalising’ activities for younger people with dementia is an area of dementia care that needs urgent attention.

This chapter seeks to evaluate the charges made by a number of Herbert Blumer's critics who claim that he has in various ways misconstrued or misapplied the social psychological ideas of George Herbert Mead. My examination of these charges leads me to conclude that numerous passages in which Blumer discusses Mead's thought are in fact open to several legitimate objections: Blumer seldom documents or supports his discussions of Mead's ideas by means of specific references to relevant passages in Mead's lectures or writings; he fails to note that his own theoretical project typically begins where Mead's project ends; he often uses the concepts of meaning, interpretation, and “taking the role of the other” in ways that differ somewhat from the uses Mead makes of these notions in his theorizing. Nevertheless, these shortcomings and differences by no means support the arguments of those critics who exaggerate the significance of Mead's so-called behaviorism or of Blumer's alleged subjectivism; nor do they justify the claims of those who fail to see how Blumer's theory of experiential objects, despite its inadequate formulation and development, is a legitimate attempt to extend the account of such objects one finds in Mead's later writings. Blumer, in short, may not always have been a completely accurate interpreter of Mead, but he was in most important respects a faithful, creative, and effective champion of Mead’s social psychological ideas.

The first phase of this study developed a multi‐professionally agreed list of adverse events for clinical incident reporting in Trauma and Orthopaedics. This follow‐up study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the adverse event list.

Two follow‐up questionnaires were sent to healthcare professionals working in Trauma and Orthopaedics in two of the participating National Health Service (NHS) Trusts (n=247 for the first questionnaire and n=240 for the second questionnaire). Trends in routine incident reporting data were also monitored over a two‐year period to determine the impact of the adverse event list on levels of adverse event reporting.

The questionnaires indicated that awareness about the adverse event list was good and improved between questionnaires. However usage of the adverse event list appeared to be poor. Multiple regression analysis with the dependent variable count of orthopaedic incidents suggested that the adverse event list had little, if any impact on levels of reporting in Trauma and Orthopaedics.

The results of this study suggest that a practical tool, such as the adverse event list has little impact on incident reporting levels.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of delivering healthy eating messages through an interactive health corner (HC) on improving healthy dietary habits in participants.

Self-administered questionnaires were administered to participants after the education session. In total, 5,292 valid questionnaires were obtained, yielding a response rate of 93.3 per cent. In the last three months of the pilot study, a random sample of 305 from 1,493 participants was chosen and followed up six months later. Bivariate analysis was used to study the association of knowledge gained and attitude. Behavioural change was measured in terms of whether participants had reported an increase in their consumption of healthier food.

Majority (>98 per cent) of participants reported that the HC corner was useful, and had helped increase their awareness and knowledge of creating healthier meals and making healthier food choices. 95.7 per cent were willing to make changes after visiting the HC. At six months follow-up, 84 per cent of the participants reported positive changes in their dietary habits. Those who made positive changes were younger (mean age: 58.0 years) compared with those who did not (mean age 61.0 years, p=0.035).

Incorporating cooking demonstrations as part of nutrition education is effective in inculcating healthy eating practices and changing self-reported eating habits in the short term. Further research is needed to verify actual change in eating habits and to determine if this change is sustainable in the long run.

Currently, no similar initiative has been implemented and studied to evaluate the effectiveness of this mode of health promotion in a primary care setting. This study will help the authors to evaluate if the intervention was effective in changing attitudes and behaviours after an education session at the HC.

When Albemarle Corporation was created as a $2.2 billion spin off of Ethyl Corporation's specialty chemical businesses in 1994, president and COO Gary Cook found himself at the helm of a company that lacked viable strategies for growth. Its production processes were driven by tradition, not the marketplace. Manufacturing and R&D barely communicated, and no one spoke to marketing. Worst of all, no one paid attention to the customer. Clearly radical change was in order, and the order of the day in 1994 was reengineering. Learning as he went, Cook discovered what he called the “seven really obvious” truths about the much maligned, often mismanaged, and sometimes successful practice of reengineering.