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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of prison experience in ex-political prisoners in Northern Ireland in the context of changing and conflicting master narratives.

A series of nine interviews were conducted with Loyalist and Republican political ex-prisoners in Northern Ireland. Eight were male and one was female. All had been in prison for substantial sentences relating to the Troubles.

This study highlighted the challenges faced by political ex-prisoners regarding the changing conflicting master narratives in Northern Ireland and identified how they deal with these challenges. The participants adapted to post-conflict society by attempting to understand and make sense of their experiences, including justifying their actions as appropriate for the era and identifying positive changes in society resulting from the conflict.

A narrative approach can be beneficial for understanding the experiences of political ex-prisoners. It enables a theoretical perspective to look not only at the personal but also at social elements of why people behave as they do. The findings demonstrate that political ex-prisoners do have different experiences to non-political ex-prisoners. The sample size was small and was drawn from a specific group of political ex-prisoners who were actively seeking reconciliation. The findings may be different for other groups.

A narrative approach can help the practitioner understand the context in which a person lives; ex-political prisoners may be very different from ordinary ex-prisoners because of the context in which they were imprisoned and the reasons for which they were imprisoned. They are likely to continue with the narrative of the conflict they fought in and may still have the same aims (e.g. Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland), though they may or may not believe in the same means. These are issues that should be discussed and elaborated when working with ex-political prisoners.

The master narratives active in the society into which the political ex-prisoner is released may impact the success or otherwise of their re-integration into society.

Understanding the role of conflicting master narratives in dealing with the implications of being an ex-political prisoner.

Many aspects of the self are lost as a consequence of having multiple sclerosis (MS). A person's identity can be altered by negative self-concepts, which are associated with poor psychological wellbeing and can lead individuals to reconstruct their sense of self. The Social Identity Model of Identity Change argues that previously established identities form a basis of continued social support, by providing grounding and connectedness to others to facilitate the establishment of new identities. Family support is a salient factor in adjustment to MS and may enable the establishment of new identities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate identity reconstruction following a diagnosis of MS.

A meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature was conducted to examine the relationship between identity change and family identity of people with MS and other family members.

In all, 16 studies were identified that examined identity change and the family following a diagnosis of MS. Coping strategies used by people with MS and their wider family groups, affect the reconstruction of people's identity and the adjustment to MS. Receiving support from the family whilst a new identity is constructed can buffer against the negative effects of identity loss.

The family base is strengthened if MS-related problems in daily life are adapted into the individual and family identity using positive coping styles.

This review provides an interpretation and explanation for results of previous qualitative studies in this area.

THE TIMING of the Library Association's new statement on ‘Public Lending Right’ (just before a Christmas when most of the country switched off mentally for a fortnight) was in contrast to the substance.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of the commitment between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their banks in Nigeria from the perspective of the senior SME employees. The antecedents to, and outcomes from, commitment that underpin these crucial business-to-business (B2B) relationships are quantified as part of a proposed relationship model.

In total, 850 SMEs located across three Nigerian regions were targeted leading to the achievement of 491 complete surveys. The data collected comprised various validated items from which scales were developed. Data collection was supported by means of face-to-face interviews with senior SME representatives. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations modelling (SEM) were employed to validate the research model and quantify the associated relationships.

Two dimensions of commitment are relevant here, namely, the affective and calculative components. The key respective antecedents to these commitment dimensions are trust and social bonding for affective commitment and costs related to benefit loss for calculative commitment. Affective commitment has the greater marginal effect on SMEs’ behavioural intentions towards their banks.

The research could be expanding further in future studies through consideration of the banks’ perspectives alongside those of the SMEs as consumers.

This lies in the assessment of the relationships’ strengths and characteristics from the perspectives of SMEs as clients, a sector under-represented in relationship marketing research and in a location where B2B relationships have perhaps not been fully supported by their banking sector.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework on interfirm conflicts in tourism value chains. The framework includes types of conflict, triggers of conflict and their preconditions, consequences of conflict and measures for preventing conflict.

The framework is developed from a review of literature that is focused largely on tourism value chains, interfirm conflicts and interorganizational relations. It draws on the ideas, concepts and empirical evidence offered in the literature.

Conflicts can be distinguished by their level of explicitness and by the motives on which they are grounded. They may be triggered by opportunistic behaviours, coercive demands, perceptions of unfairness or dissatisfaction with partner’s performance. Preconditions include exogenous events, asymmetrical power distribution, antagonism of goals and differences in perceptions of reality and serve as a breeding ground for the triggers. Consequences are typically destructive but may also offer opportunities for constructive outcomes. Joint implementation of formal contracting and relational governance may be used to prevent conflicts.

This paper provides a conceptual framework that can be used by scholars wishing to conduct more detailed empirical research on the subject. It can also be used by practitioners to assess interorganizational relations within their tourism value chains and to develop appropriate measures for preventing interfirm conflicts.

This study proposes a novel method utilising a speech-word pair bipartite network to examine the correlation structure between members of parliament (MPs) in the context of the UK- China relationship.

We construct MP-word pair bipartite networks based on the co-occurrence relationship between MPs and words in their speech content. These networks are then mapped into monopartite MPs correlation networks. Additionally, the study calculates correlation network indicators and identifies MP communities and factions to determine the characteristics of MPs and their interrelation in the UK-China relationship. This includes insights into the distribution of key MPs, their correlation structure and the evolution and development trends of MP factions.

Analysis of the parliamentary speeches on China-related affairs in the British Parliament from 2011 to 2020 reveals that the distribution and interrelationship of MPs engaged in UK-China affairs are centralised and discrete, with a few core MPs playing an integral role in the UK-China relationship. Among them, MPs such as Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, David Cameron, Lord Hunt of Chesterton and Lord Howell of Guildford formed factions with significant differences; however, the continuity of their evolution exhibits unstableness. The core MP factions, such as those led by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon and David Cameron, have achieved a level of maturity and exert significant influence.

The research has several limitations that warrant acknowledgement. First, we mapped the MP-word pair bipartite network into the MP correlation network for analysis without directly analysing the structure of MPs based on the bipartite network. In future studies, we aim to explore various types of analysis based on the proposed bipartite networks to provide more comprehensive and accurate references for studying UK-China relations. In addition, we seek to incorporate semantic-level analyses, such as sentiment analysis of MPs, into the MP-word -pair bipartite networks for in-depth analysis. Second, the interpretations of MP structures in the UK-China relationship in this study are limited. Consequently, expertise in UK-China relations should be incorporated to enhance the study and provide more practical recommendations.

Firstly, the findings can contribute to an objective understanding of the characteristics and connotations of UK-China relations, thereby informing adjustments of focus accordingly. The identification of the main factions in the UK-China relationship emphasises the imperative for governments to pay greater attention to these MPs’ speeches and social relationships. Secondly, examining the evolution and development of MP factions aids in identifying a country’s diplomatic focus during different periods. This can assist governments in responding promptly to relevant issues and contribute to the formulation of effective foreign policies.

First, this study expands the research methodology of parliamentary debates analysis in previous studies. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to study the UK-China relationship through the MP-word-pair bipartite network. This outcome inspires future researchers to apply various knowledge networks in the LIS field to elucidate deeper characteristics and connotations of UK-China relations. Second, this study provides a novel perspective for UK-China relationship analysis, which deepens the research object from keywords to MPs. This finding may offer important implications for researchers to further study the role of MPs in the UK-China relationship.

This study proposes a novel scheme for analysing the correlation structure between MPs based on bipartite networks. This approach offers insights into the development and evolving dynamics of MPs.

Newly appointed as director of technology for the Aerospace & Defence group of Smiths Industries is Nigel Hughes, who joins the company from the Defence Research Agency. Mr. Hughes succeeds John Hollington, who retires at the end of September after 36 years service, a period which has seen a considerable enhancement in the company's reputation as a leader in technological development.

Ambulance services staff worldwide have long been at risk of encountering violence and aggression directed towards them during their work. Verbal forms of violence and aggression are the most prevalent form, but sometimes incidents involve physical injury, and on rare occasions homicides do occur. Exposure to such violence and aggression can have a lasting negative impact upon ambulance staff and has been associated with increased levels of stress, fear, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and burnout syndrome. Despite the significance of this issue, little progress has been made to tackle it. The purpose of this paper is to describe this multi-agency approach being taken in Wales (UK) to reduce such harms from violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff.

An interpretative post-positivist narrative methodology and policy analysis approach was followed. Snowball methods of gathering data were used to construct this narrative involving meetings, telephone calls, review of policy documents, legislation and academic literature.

The authors report how tackling violence and aggression directed towards emergency workers has become a priority within Wales (UK), resulting in policy developments and initiatives from groups such as the UK and Welsh Government, the Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Services (NHS) Trust, Health Boards, the NHS Wales Anti-Violence Collaborative and the Joint Emergency Services Group (JESG) in Wales. This has included changes in legislation such as the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 that came into force on 13th November 2018 and policy changes such as the obligatory responses to violence in health care and the JESG #WithUsNotAgainst Us campaign. Our study however reflects the complexity of this issue and the need for further high-quality research.

The experiences and activities of Wales (UK) reported in this paper adds to the international body of knowledge and literature on violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff.