An Inquiry into the Normative Patterns by Which Substandard Housing Exists and is Maintained in Cleveland,Ohio

Abstract

“Ten years ago this country made putting a man on the moon by 1970 a national goal, and by 1970 an American astronaut landed on the moon. With the 1949 Housing Act, the Federal Government established a national goal of providing “a decent home, a suitable living environment for every American family,” but it made no commitment to that goal. Every day that we wait the problem of urban housing gets bigger, and every day it becomes more expensive to correct Let us turn our attention now from scientific achievement to the need for achievement of a different kind. For if one thing can be said of the housing problem, it is that it will be harder to solve than it was to put a man on the moon.” (Romney, Secretary, H.U.D., 7-21-69)     

Alcohol Use in Students Seeking Primary Care Treatment at University Health Services

Abstract

Objective: Given the high rate of at-risk drinking in college students, the authors examined drinking behaviors and associated factors in students being seen in student health services for primary care visits from October 30, 2004, to February 15, 2007. Methods: Analyses were based on a Health Screening Survey completed by 10,234 college students seeking general medical treatment. Results: Alcohol use was similar to other studies with 57% (n = 5,840) meeting the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism criteria for at-risk drinking. Twenty-six percent of the students reported smoking at least once in the last 3 months. Risk factors for at-risk drinking included young age, white males, drinking at a fraternity/sorority house, and use of tobacco. Conclusions: These findings support the widespread implementation of alcohol screening and intervention in university health services.     

Diffusion of the Property Tax Work-Off Program for Senior Homeowners in Massachusetts

Property tax work-off programs (TWOPs) provide senior homeowners with relief from some of their property tax obligations in exchange for services provided to local governments. These programs are offered by some county and municipal governments at their own discretion in a number of states. Through a qualitative study comparing municipalities in Massachusetts that participate in the program with similar communities that do not participate, the authors sought to learn the reasons for both participation and nonparticipation. They interviewed local officials in eight participating and six nonparticipating communities. Mohr's theory for adoption and Roger's theory for diffusion are used for the conceptual framework of the study. Local leaderships' motivation, financial or political resources and obstacles, senior homeowners' awareness, communication between communities, and perceived benefits of the program were the major factors in adoption and diffusion of TWOPs in Massachusetts.     

Awareness of Publication Guidelines and the Responsible Conduct of Research

We have conducted a longitudinal survey of NIH-funded F32 postdoctoral fellows to determine if mandated instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) has measurable effects on awareness of, attentiveness to, and behavioral judgments about research ethics and authorship and publication. Of 418 F32 fellows participating in the study, 50% were aware of and had referred to guidelines on authorship and publication practices while 50% were either unaware of or had not referred to guidelines. Groups were similar with regard to total number of peer-reviewed publications and total number of first author publications, years of research experience, years since completing their doctoral degree, and receipt of RCR training. The equal distribution of guideline awareness and use, and group similarities with regard to career development and achievement provided us with an opportunity to consider whether awareness of and use of guidelines is associated with broader judgments about author roles and responsibilities. The findings suggest that awareness and utilization of guidelines are, at best, only modestly associated with more ethically appropriate judgments and attitudes about author roles and responsibilities among novice F32’s.     

Beyond disclosure: gambling research,political economy,and incremental reform

Gambling research is beset with vested interests, be they those of the state or the gambling industry. The effect of these on the quality and focus of research has been largely ignored. Full and transparent disclosure policies are a useful first step in identifying possible sources of conflict. Progress in public health tends to be achieved in small, incremental steps, as the experience in tobacco and alcohol research makes plain. The rest of the journey will involve the achievement of the level of independence in gambling research that has been modelled by the alcohol and tobacco research assemblages.     

The Dark Side of Art’s Social Turn: Towards a Discourse on the Impact of Art’s Use of Social Forms Upon the Social

The recent “social turn” in art, in which art favours using forms from social life above its own, has been extensively discussed. Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud, Conversation Pieces and The One and the Many by Grant Kester, essays by Claire Bishop who supplies the term “the Social Turn,” and her recent publication Artificial Hells, are now as important to the field as the art they scrutinise. Ironically, however, when this discussion regards the implications of the “turn”, it habitually addresses the effects of this development from – and for – art’s point of view, overlooking the way in which artists’ inroads into social life may be differently regarded in the social realm. As much as this represents a failure to illuminate a particular area for knowledge, it also signifies a failure to take art’s revalorised commitment to the social to its ethical conclusion: such, from two perspectives, is the “dark side” of art’s social turn. This article seeks to mitigate these oversights. In particular, it looks at art in which an artist undertakes another person’s professional work. Considering the effects of this on those whose practices are appropriated, I propose a consultative approach, involving ethnographic and empathetic modes of address. Consequently, this article does not present an answer to the question it poses, “how do professionals in the social realm see art’s appropriations of their practices?” but rather, a framework for approaching that.     

I’m not playing: gamification,mental illness,and neoliberal subjectivity

ABSTRACT

For many researchers, medical professionals, and politicians, the gamification of mental health treatment is a possibly innovative and efficient means to utilise the popularity of gaming in order to help combat the ever-growing global rates of mental illness. Despite this optimism, critics of gamification point to this trend as an extension of neoliberal governance, warning that gamification only encourages the further quantification and control of life under metrics of utility, productivity, and competitiveness. Accordingly, this article critically examines the politics of gamifying mental healthcare, and the broader question of the link between play and mental health. By engaging with the works of Donald W. Winnicott, and a host of contemporary critical and cultural theorists, this article attempts to open up a space for considering the value of play and games for sufferers of mental illness, that resist the strictures of the neoliberal governance of play.     

Moderating role of subordinates' attitudes on transformational leadership and effectiveness: A multi-cultural and multi-level perspective

We conducted the current multi-cultural, multi-level study with three objectives in mind. First, we examined the association of transformational leadership and leader effectiveness across two different cultures, the United States (U.S.) and Korea, with three followers' attitudes toward their leader (trust in the leader, loyalty, and value congruence) as moderators of this association. Second, we conceptualized followers' collectivistic orientation as a personal value, regardless of their nationality, and tested its moderating effect on the leadership–effectiveness association. Finally, we employed a multi-level approach throughout to examine whether transformational leadership processes, and in contrast individualized leadership, operated at different levels of analysis across different countries. Results from WABA and regression analyses indicated that transformational leadership operated at the individual level of analysis in both samples and was effective across different cultures. Specifically, followers' attitudes served as moderators of the transformational leadership–effectiveness association only in the U.S. sample, while collectivistic orientation had a significant moderating effect in both samples. Results from WABA also indicated that individualized leadership operated at the dyadic level for the U.S. sample and at the individual level for the Korean sample. Several theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.