Prevention, health and safety program in companies provide a more successful and healthier workplace

This article describes the importance of injury prevention in the workplace and the status of this issue in Iceland. Using a theoretical approach, this article examines workers' psychological and physical health, as it is affect by work. The article seeks to answer the question, "What methods are appropriate when health and safety management is of primary importance in the workplace?" Finally, the article will explain the condition of these matters in Iceland, and will also discuss how one measurement strategy, called "Workplace Analysis", uses performance indicators to demonstrate the effectiveness of health and safety consultations. This tool has been developed by Solarpexus. It is important to analyze the work environment, set goals, and measure results.     

Computer-Assisted Sensate Focus: Integrating Technology with Sex Therapy Practice

It is well established that computer technology can be ethically, legally, usefully, and efficaciously integrated with the psychosocial treatment of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. There is, however, a paucity of literature regarding how these applications could be applied to sex therapy. This article will briefly review the adaptation of computer technology to mental health treatment, provide a rationale for using computer applications in sex therapy, and demonstrate how computer technology could be applied to Masters and Johnson's sensate focus technique. The Sensate Focus Prototype (an Internet-delivered therapeutic module) presented is a working application designed for use by psychotherapists and researchers.     

Extending monetary values to broader performance and impact measures: Transportation applications and lessons for other fields

This article examines recent progress at assigning monetary values to what are normally considered “hard to quantify” benefits of transportation projects. It focuses on three types of impacts – environmental quality, health and wider economic impacts – to examine how transportation project evaluation methods have evolved in recent years and how they compare to methods used for evaluation of non-transportation programs. Examples of recent practice are provided to show how transport agencies are continuing to refine performance measures to include broader impacts in project evaluation. A classification is provided to distinguish direct traveler effects from indirect effects on non-travelers, a step important to maximize coverage and minimize double-counting of impacts. For each type of impact, the paper discusses the range of variation in monetized values and shows that the variation is due less to imprecision in measurement than to fundamental issues about whether to use damage compensation, impact avoidance costs, stated preferences or behavioral valuation perspectives to define those values. Case studies as diverse as Australian roads, Wisconsin energy programs and Appalachian economic development programs are used to show how common methods are evolving among transport and non-transport agencies to improve impact measurement and its use in project evaluation.     

Digital baroque: New media art and cinematic folds

The decision to use participatory visual methods with young people in education, health or public policy research is linked to a desire to allow them to have some greater voice in the research and the professional activities that impact on their lives. But how that ‘voice’ is produced, whose voice it represents, and how the product of that research is used and interpreted are all contentious issues for researchers. This article analyses some of these conceptual, methodological, political and pragmatic issues from the perspective of a current Australian Research Council-funded project working with young people across education and health domains. It is argued that allowing or not allowing visual accounts to speak for themselves is not simply a political decision but one related to epistemological understandings about meaning, and also to different purposes of different visual projects, in particular their relative emphasis on voice as a window to the world of the young people, compared with voice as a window to ‘who I am’. The project discussed is one which aims to give greater authority and centrality to the visual accounts and voices of young people, but also one where researchers understand both the visual and voice as constructed rather than given. Case studies from the project are used to illustrate the way in which these commitments frame decisions about technology and methodology, and also to show and argue for an approach which treats the meaning of the visual evidence as something to be constructed ethnographically and reflexively over time.     

The study of mental distress and the (re)construction of identities in men and women with experience of long-term mental distress

This article explores the possibility of using a theoretical framework drawn from disability studies in the field of mental health, and the study of identity (re)construction in the recovery process. In this PhD project, 33 narratives were analysed using framework analysis. The analysis showed that disablism was present and powerful in the participants’ lives, and also showed how disablism shaped how the participants thought and felt about themselves. As Carol Thomas argues, when analysing disablism one should also focus on who we are and are prevented from being, as disabled people. The conclusion is that processes of oppression were central when it comes to understanding the (re)construction of identities. A disability studies perspective is thus relevant in the field of mental distress, and can be used to enhance the understanding of the process of identity (re)construction.     

Are Liberal Studies teachers ready to prepare human rights respecting students? A portrait of teachers’ attitudes towards human rights

As in most countries, human rights education (HRE) in Hong Kong has never been high on the educational agenda. In 2009, a compulsory subject, Liberal Studies (LS), which could be used as a platform for HRE, was introduced. The Hong Kong Institute of Education launched a research and development project which, as one of its objectives, studied LS teachers’ attitudes towards human rights and Rule of Law. This article first provides a brief overview of HRE. Then, the potential of HRE in LS will be discussed, followed by an introduction of the research project. Subsequently, the research design and findings will be presented. The findings reveal that there is a large gap between teachers’ understandings of human rights and international human rights standards. Since LS teachers’ attitudes are crucial for effective HRE, the findings are quite striking. The paper ends with recommendations for further research, policy formulations, and teacher preparation.     

Vocational rehabilitation at Reykjalundur Rehabilitation Center in Iceland

This article describes a pilot project in specialized vocational rehabilitation program at Reykjalundur Rehabilitation Center in Iceland. It gives a brief historical overview of the development of the program, describes the theoretical frame used and the way the program is designed. Finally, it discusses the results of the program and ways to improve the program.     

On Childhood and the Logic of Difference: Some Empirical Examples

This article argues that universal documents on children’s rights can provide illustrative examples as to how childhood is identified as a unity using difference as an instrument. Using Gille Deleuze’s theorising on difference and sameness as a framework, the article seeks to relate the children’s rights project with a critique of representation. It seeks to illustrate how the children’s rights project seems to be promoting an image of childhood that is sharply contrasted by adulthood in a dichotomised sense, as well as how, in these documents, the fate of the child is being intertwined with the fate of the state.     

Framing in Mass Communication Research – An Overview and Assessment

This article provides an overview of the use of the framing concept in mass communication research. It focuses on the questions what a frame is and how it is measured, how variation in framing can be explained and what the effects of media framing are. Specific attention will be paid to the sociological origins of framing. The article concludes with recommendations for future research. It argues that a more systematic and conceptually precise measurement of framing is warranted and suggests how the scope of frame‐building and framing‐effects studies can be extended.     

Social capital, the social economy and community development

Social capital is increasingly used in the field of communitydevelopment and the social economy. This article describes someof the results to emerge from a three-year research project(CONSCISE Project), which looked at the contribution socialcapital can make to the social economy within local economicdevelopment. Following the definition of social capital, thearticle examines how it can be assessed and then goes on tolist the main findings on the significance of social capitalin the understanding of the social economy and community development.It concludes with a number of policy implications on how socialcapital can be used within the context of community development.     

Essay: An Insight into Current German Research on Listening,as Exemplified by the Educational Project “GanzOhrSein”

The article gives us an exemplary insight into research in Germany that deals directly or indirectly with aspects of listening. The reader is given a clear picture of the Munich university project GanzOhrSein aimed at promoting listening skills in schools. The educational value of listening is initially derived from research findings and the model course of action to promote listening skills is explained via the cultural potential. The findings of the accompanying research clearly show that the diverse ways of promoting listening ability that have been developed and tested, do broaden the hearing and listening habits of the children and teachers participating in the project, and do facilitate listening conditions in lessons. The article will also demonstrate what researchers and everyday school practice can gain from this project, and how the institutionalisation of the promotion of listening can benefit.     

Demos-Ethos: a framework to study the Icelandic and Basque cases through Critical Social Innovation and Applied Ethics

This article presents a framework informed by two disciplines, Social Innovation and Applied Ethics, to be used in an ongoing analysis of territorial democratic systems. It aims to combine Social Innovation and Applied Ethics analysis to better understand the socio-political regeneration process in Iceland initiated with the 2008 global crisis. This crisis, particularly in Iceland had an economic and political aspect affecting the self-understanding of the territories as a whole, but in the Basque Country at present, it also deals with the current peace process to settle down political violence and its causes. In both cases there are deep underlying value issues. Nevertheless, this article introduces only the results obtained in Iceland. While its democratic system has proven to be able to contest the causes of the crisis, there is no definitive evidence that the re-examination process that was opened in October 2008 is resolved yet.     

'E-health': the internet and the transformation of patients into consumers and producers of health knowledge

This article analyses the use and production of health information on the Internet. The paper will show that users of health services have also become significant providers of health information and advice. This analysis is based on two studies. The first involved a qualitative study of households that used home computers to find health information on the Internet. The second piece of research involved the examination of home pages that contained accounts of ill health and an e-mailed questionnaire to home page authors. Drawing upon this research the consumption of health information is examined and related to how users make discussions about their health. This is followed by an analysis of the provision of health information on home pages. It is shown that these include web sites that provide simple accounts of an individual illness as well as sites that advocate a particular approach to health or offer services and products. The interweaving of personal experience with advice is considered and linked to debates about the quality of health information on the Internet and the reconfiguration of 'expertise'.     

Life histories as counter-narratives against dominant and negative stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities

The history of intellectual disabilities is largely a story of discrimination and social exclusion portraying people with intellectual disability as abnormal and inferior. This article describes a particular methodological approach to inclusive life history research with a small group of women with intellectual disabilities in Iceland. The article documents how, through a four-year collaborative research process, the life histories became counter-narratives to dominant historical beliefs and stereotypes. In addition to the personal empowerment of the women and the construction of a collective memory, this project has also resulted in public sharing of their stories through speaking up and giving presentations, and thus potentially also changing the historical memory.     

Setting health priorities: a review of concepts and approaches

The setting of health priorities is primarily concerned with the equitable distribution of resources and is now more than ever an important part of strategic planning within the National Health Service (NHS). The basic information which can be used to assist in such decision-making and the process by which different agencies become involved are important aspects of priority-setting; this article is based on a major review of the research literature on these aspects and provides a discussion and an analysis of experience within health and other fields. From this material a number of possible approaches to priority-setting are identified and discussed. The article concludes that, before it can be decided how priorities should be set in the future, outstanding questions about how far rational approaches are feasible, about who is to be involved and what role they should play, and about how far such decisions are to be taken nationally or locally will need further consideration.     

Feeling special: Language in the lives of Polish people

In this article I use findings from an ESRC funded project on language and identity in the narratives of Polish people to challenge a narrow approach to language in debates about integration. I argue that decisions about learning languages are influenced by wider concerns of self and other identification rather then simply being issues of instrumental need. I show how research participants viewed speaking Polish as an important part of being Polish, that is, of their identity. They recognised that changing the language they spoke involved questioning the way they presented themselves and how they related to others. I discuss how language was used to differentiate between ‘us’ and ‘others’, including in terms of values and the ways in which these perceptions of difference influenced social interactions.     

Increasing the degrees of freedom in future group randomized trials: the df* approach

This article builds on the previous article by Blitstein et al. (2005), which showed how external estimates of intraclass correlation can be used to improve the precision for the analysis of an existing group randomized trial. The authors extend that work to sample size estimation and power analysis for future group-randomized trials. Often this approach will allow a smaller study than would otherwise be possible without sacrificing statistical power. Such studies are needed, for example, as pilot studies to help plan for a full-scale efficacy trial, as replication studies, or in situations in which resource constraints prohibit a larger trial. The authors discuss the circumstances under which this strategy will be most helpful and the risks associated with conducting smaller studies.     

The Status of Freud's Legacy on Emotional Processing: Contemporary Revisions

ABSTRACT

This article evaluates, in light of current empirical data, several of the assumptions contributed to our field by Freud about how emotions operate. The idea that expression of emotions dissipates these emotions is evaluated. The idea that bottling up emotion results is ill health is reviewed. The idea that pain of trauma and loss needs to be confronted is examined. Additionally, the assumption that traumatic events invariably result in distress is discussed. It is argued that empirical findings reject the Freudian model of emotion as energy that must be discharged. Empirical findings also support the view that revisiting painful emotion can be helpful when the result is to find a new perspective on painful events. Thus, empirical literature rejects Freudian rationale for confronting prior trauma and loss, while offering new perspectives for how to handle distress resulting from trauma and loss.