Working with and for the citizens

This article argues that a better management of increasingly complex socio-ecological systems would require to adopt evidence-based policy-making and improve the science–policy interface by means of participatory action research involving scientists, citizens and policy-makers. The connectivity between the production of scientific evidence by experts and the delivery of policies by policy-makers is currently unsatisfactory. There is the need to find more effective knowledge mechanisms between researchers and policy-makers. A new way of connecting scientists and policy-makers is to invite a “third player” to the game, i.e. the citizens and stakeholders who are interested in or affected by policy decisions, to perform pilot experiments of participatory research. Participatory research combines different forms of knowledge. “Objective” knowledge produced by scientific disciplines is needed to describe, explain or understand a phenomenon, but participatory research brings in the contribution of citizens' everyday knowledge, e.g. their intimate familiarity with their environment and social context. The approach is illustrated with the aid of examples provided by a number of EU-funded participatory research projects coordinated by ISIS: RAISE (www.raise-eu.org), MOVE TOGETHER (www.move-together.net) and AWARE (www.aware-eu.net).     

Funding large-scale qualitative sociology

Myrna Silverman, Edward Mulvey, and Barry Glassner helped us with thoughtful critiques of earlier drafts.     

Analysis of the spread of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus in an urban area,using GIS techniques: a study case in Central Italy

Urban Ecosystems - The spread of the red palm weevil is now a very severe problem on a global scale. In this paper, we investigate its spread during the 2007–2013 period in a coastal urban...     

Head Canting in Paintings: An Historical Study

Head canting, a lateral shift of the head toward the shoulder axis, was examined in 1498 figures in the complete works of 11 painters from the XIV to the XX century: Martini, van Eyck Hubert and Jan, Holbein, Carracci, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Degas, Cèzanne, Klimt, and Modigliani. All figures (up to 9 in any one painting) that were not in complete profile and that were not depicted bowing or shifting their bodies were selected for analysis. Our analysis found a higher frequency (49%) of head canting in paintings than previously reported in naturalistic settings. Head canting was significantly higher in female figures than male figures. If a figure's head was facing laterally, head canting was more likely to be to the contralateral side. Head canting was lower in older figures than in children, youths, and adults. The highest level of head canting was seen in religious and mythological figures. Head canting was lower in figures of artists and professionals and virtually absent in depictions of nobles. Figures in pose were depicted with less head canting than those in natural settings. Head canting was lower in figures gazing toward the observer. Single-figure portraits head canted less than subjects in multiple-figure paintings. Author analysis revealed that head canting was pronounced in painters of religious subjects and in modern painters, whereas its degree was reduced in official portrait painters. These results are discussed in terms of dominance theory.     

Use of quantitative ultrasound as bone mineral density evaluation in an Italian female population living with HIV: A real-life experience

This is a multicenter cross-sectional study where we aimed to detect the rate of osteopenia/osteoporosis in an HIV female population (WLWHIV) by means of “heel quantitative ultrasound” (QUS) measurement. We enrolled 273 patients, mean age 48.1 years, 36% menopausal, 96% on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Calcaneal measure of bone mass index by QUS revealed osteopenia and osteoporosis in 76 (27.8%) and 16 (5.9%) WLWHIV. Our data underline the correlation between low QUS parameters and traditional risk factors for osteoporosis rather than with cART exposure, thus suggesting the crucial importance of detection and correction of traditional risk factors for osteoporosis in WLWHIV.     

Māori experiences of multiple forms of discrimination: findings from Te Kupenga 2013

ABSTRACT

Comprehensive exploration of Māori experiences of discrimination in Aotearoa New Zealand remains limited, particularly in relation to exposure to multiple and interlocking forms of discrimination. This paper presents findings from a secondary analysis of Te Kupenga 2013, the first Māori Social Survey, examining patterning and prevalence of different forms of discrimination for Māori (n?=?5,549). Māori report experiencing multiple forms of discrimination, both over their lifetimes and within the last year. Although racial discrimination was the most commonly reported form, Māori also experience discrimination on the basis of other grounds including age, gender, and income. Māori also report exposure to multiple forms of discrimination. Discrimination occurred in a range of settings, with schools and workplaces common sites. The findings support the lived reality of Māori that racial and other forms of discrimination are pervasive, and experienced in multiple domains across the life course, representing a persistent breach of rights. It is critical that other forms of discrimination are measured alongside racism in order to understand and address the realities of multiple discrimination for Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.     

Rapidly diffusing innovation: whether the history of the Internet points the way for hydrogen energy

This paper identifies conditions for the rapid diffusion of what may be part of the solution for global sustainable energy – hydrogen – by drawing a comparison with the contemporary history of the Internet. The Cold War drove the take-off of the Internet and state regulation ensured that the market on which its rapid diffusion came to depend was not controlled by corporations. To take-off and start to diffuse, hydrogen energy could similarly have to be considered a “public good”. However, the comparison with the Internet reveals differences too. The Internet diffused rapidly among the public at low cost to individual users, starting in the mid 1980s and kicking off in the 1990s. To achieve affordable hydrogen transport in the long term, many drivers might have to forgo cars for public transport. Moreover, global sustainable energy demands cooperation between nations rather than the conflict that spurred the Internet.     

Managerial and professional beliefs influencing public health privatization: results of a national survey of local health department directors

This article describes managerial and professional beliefs underlying decisions to privatize public health services. We drew a stratified, nationally representative sample of local health departments and interviewed 347 department directors by telephone. We used logistic regression to establish the independent effects of various beliefs on the decision to privatize. Over half of directors did not believe that there was valid evidence that privatization results in more efficient performance, and those who believed there was such evidence were not more likely to privatize. However, directors held professional and managerial beliefs that influenced their decision to privatize. Directors most likely to privatize were those who believed that local health departments should exclusively focus on the core public health functions, those who asserted that public health should become involved in an increasingly diverse array of social problems, and those who believed that employees should be used on a temporary and contractual, rather than permanent, basis wherever possible.