Search results

The Outlook project based in Manchester offers a range of activities, support and skills training to people over the age of 17 with ongoing or previous drug or alcohol issues. The programme was originally implemented in 2002 in response to identified need for a comprehensive dedicated outreach service to cater for the diverse needs of problematic drug and alcohol users across the east Manchester area (Iredale, 2002). The catchment area for service users has since been extended to include the rest of Manchester city centre (ONS census 2003 estimates that the Manchester city area has a population of approximately 432,400 people).The programme is based on a community model, reaching out especially to ‘hard to reach’ groups of local people in many socially excluded areas of Manchester. The indices of Multiple Deprivation show that Manchester has an exceptionally low ranking position in the North West compared with the rest of the UK when accounting for factors of income, employment, education, health, skills and training, barriers to housing and services, and crime.

The past five years have seen a growth in studies of police body-worn cameras (BWCs). A large share of the research focused on individual officer attitudes toward these new law enforcement tools. The scholarship, however, focused almost exclusively on their positive and negative perceptions of body cameras or correlations between those attitudes and general officer characteristics. This study examined whether the influence of negative or “concerning” policing attitudes toward body cameras is mediated by other variables, such as officer outlooks toward law enforcement, officers' perceptions of citizen cooperation or their opinions of the public.

An online survey was distributed to a convenience sample of police offices from two Northeastern police agencies.

Findings indicate that the relationship between experience and concerning perceptions of body cameras is mediated by distrust in citizens and perceived civilian cooperation. Further, an office's outlooks regarding aggressive law enforcement tactics do not have a direct effect on concerning perceptions of body cameras, nor do they serve as a mediator between years of experience and concerning perceptions of body cameras.

Findings uncover the nuance and complexity of studying and understanding police officer outlooks and perceptions of BWCs. Future experimental designs should include general outlook measures.

This paper examines the divergent reactions of the two most prominent Turkish-Islamic movements to a crisis in the Parliament that centered on an elected Deputy's right to wear the headscarf. After the crisis, the National Outlook movement protested, while the Gülen movement became more conciliatory. Drawing on the Multi-Institutional Politics model, we argue that conflicting views on the nature of domination explain the disparate forms of collective action taken by the two movements. We introduce the concept “strategic nonconfrontation” as a type of nonviolent strategy to help understand the Gülen's movement's actions. We expand the nonviolent civil resistance literature by arguing that strategic nonconfrontation as a form of nonviolent resistance only becomes visible when we move beyond an exclusive focus on state power to understand the ways in which multiple systems of authority and power are constituted in society and perceived by activists. We analyze the discourse in newspapers produced by the movements in order to examine how each movement understood and defined the target of action and how that influenced their subsequent strategies.

Chinese-listed firms with Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) play a crucial role in advancing the outward investment policy of China. Board diversity can be vital, and intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) showing future earnings can build investor confidence in these firms. This study examines these two relationships in Chinese-listed firms with BRI projects during a predictable business outlook period (2019, pre-Covid period) and unpredictable business outlook period (2020, Covid period).

The study used least squares regression that analysed the target population comprising 79 listed Chinese firms with BRI projects in 2019 and 2020. The China Stock Market and Accounting Research (CSMAR) database provided board diversity data. Analysing annual reports using content analysis provided the ICD data, collected by following an established intellectual capital (IC) coding framework in the literature. After collecting board-related data, the study calculated the diversity between boards in firms (diversity of boards – DOB) using cluster analysis. The study estimated the diversity within each board (diversity in boards – DIB) using Blau's Index.

The findings indicate that in the predictable business outlook environment, DOB positively associates with ICD, and DIB negatively associates with ICD. In the unpredictable business outlook environment, the DIB and DOB interaction negatively associates with ICD, and DOB positively associates with ICD.

The findings apply to Chinese-listed firms with BRI projects and further research is required to generalise findings beyond them. This study used annual reports to collect ICD, but a future study could examine BRI firms' social media and website disclosures. The attributes selected for board diversity dimensions can contribute to bounded findings, and future studies could expand the board diversity attributes included.

The findings provide insights into firms' board composition and structure associated with ICD.

This is one of the first studies providing empirical evidence about board diversity and ICD of Chinese-listed firms with BRI projects.

The objectives of this research were to examine how officer perspectives on body-worn cameras (BWCs) are patterned by broader occupational attitudes, and to analyze stability and change in officers' attitudes toward BWCs before and after the deployment of the technology.

The authors analyze panel survey data on individual officers in the Albany (New York) Police Department (APD).

Pre-BWC deployment, officers varied in their occupational attitudes and BWC perspectives, and the officers' BWC outlooks bore relationships to several occupational attitudes. BWC outlooks were largely stable following deployment. Individual changes in BWC perspectives were related to officers' assignments and unrelated to officers' occupational attitudes.

The authors use panel survey data to test hypotheses about the effect of broad occupational attitudes on officers' receptivity to BWCs and to analyze change pre-/post-BWC deployment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between family wealth, positive outlook, and support from significant others, including parents and friends, on self-efficacy and happiness.

The impact of family wealth, social support, and positive outlook on self-efficacy and one’s own happiness is analyzed through the partial least squared method.

There are five essential points that can be drawn from the statistical results. First, parents’ support tends to be more important than friends’ support for individuals’ happiness. Second, individuals that receive more support from parents tend to develop a higher level of self-efficacy. Third, individuals that are in a less wealthy family tend to develop a higher level of self-efficacy. Fourth, parents’ support plays a more important role in developing a higher level of self-efficacy for individuals that are in a less wealthy family than for individuals that are in a wealthier family. Finally, the positive link between happiness and self-efficacy was stronger for individuals in a wealthier family than for individuals in a less wealthy family.

In particular, although individuals in a wealthier family tend to exhibit a lower level of self-efficacy, and happiness alone had no significant impact on self-efficacy, happiness significantly promoted self-efficacy more for individuals in a wealthier family than for individuals in a less wealthy family.

In conclusion, the results from this research provide essential recommendations for individuals regarding the approach to happiness and self-efficacy. The results indicated how significant the role of parents’ support is in one’s happiness and that support from parents is more important for one’s self-efficacy and happiness than support from friends. Furthermore, individuals should be aware that money is not the ultimate answer for happiness and self-efficacy. Individuals in less wealthy families were able to enjoy a higher level of self-efficacy given that they were receiving sufficient support from their parents.

This study found that although individuals in a wealthier family tend to exhibit a lower level of self-efficacy, and happiness alone has no significant impact on self-efficacy, happiness significantly promote self-efficacy more for individuals in a wealthier family than for individuals in a less wealthy family. However, in the less-wealthier family, parents play more significant role and can generate high level of self-efficacy for their children.

The textiles and clothing sector employs millions of people in the European Union (EU) and has a combined annual turnover of more than €200 billion. Over the last decade or so, more than a million jobs have been lost in the industry, partly through modernisation, but mainly as a result of international competition, especially from developing countries. This competition is set to intensify with the abolition of import quotas in 2005, leaving the EU industry facing an uncertain future. This article explores five key drivers that are likely to affect the sector profoundly over the coming decade. For each driver, three “outlooks” have been articulated: an extrapolation of current trends and drivers (“Alpha” outlook), a situation where many things “go wrong” (“Beta” outlook), and a situation involving more visionary outcomes (“Delta” outlook). The aim is not to forecast the future, but rather to explore plausible outcomes for the industry over the coming decade. On this basis, a number of policy areas have been identified where the European Commission (EC) and Member States will need to address future threats and opportunities.

On 1 April 1978, the Israeli peace movement burst into world consciousness when an estimated 25,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv to urge the administration of Prime Minister Menachem Begin to continue peace negotiations with Egypt. A grassroots group called Peace Now is credited with organizing and leading that demonstration. Today, the “peace camp” refers to left‐wing political parties and organizations that hold dovish positions on the Arab‐Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue. While some figures in the Labor Party view themselves as the peace movement's natural leader, political parties further to the left like the Citizens Rights Movement (CRM) and Mapam are more dovish. In the last 10 years, many grassroots peace organizations have, like Peace Now, formed outside the political party system, with the goal of influencing public opinion and eventually having an impact on policy makers. Peace Now is still the largest, most visible and influential of those organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether credit ratings issued by Fitch predict auditor’s opinion for the Tunisian financial companies. It studies the association between Fitch’s credit rating and the audit opinion.

The whole population was analyzed. It is composed of 35 banks, leasing companies and factoring companies in Tunisia. The hand-collected data over 11 years (2005–2015) were used and a multiple-ordered logistic regression was performed.

The findings show that firms with a high short-term grade, a high long-term grade or a positive outlook are more likely to receive an unqualified audit opinion. In addition, companies with a stable outlook are more likely to receive an explanatory paragraph, a qualification or a going-concern opinion.

Studies examining the relationship between credit ratings and audit opinion are rare. This piece of research adds to knowledge about the relationship between different components of agency ratings and the auditor’s opinion in a developing country. Previous studies have investigated the case of developed countries and have been interested in the only impact of the long-term credit rating. This study analyzes three components of credit rating, namely long-term credit rating, short-term credit rating and rating outlook. In addition, it sheds light on the effect of various rating grades issued by rating agencies on the audit opinion. It gives a broader view of the relationship between credit ratings and audit opinion.