VIA's visual voices: the awareness of a dedicated audience for voices in patient video narratives

First the authors examine the concept of ‘voice’ in one model of participant media research (PMR) giving special attention to parallel variables of hearing, begging questions about the ‘listening’ component of any communication process. Second, they describe the use of a research programme entitled Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) and a series of ongoing video narrative projects with chronically ill young people at Children's Hospital Boston. Young people were asked to show how they see their own illness-centred lives by using videocam technology. Third, ‘visual voices’ as found on the videotape results are examined through Thompson's five kinds of voice used by participants living with spina bifida, cystic fibrosis and, in one case, obesity. We conclude that knowledge and anticipation of what we have termed ‘a dedicated audience’ is one of the primary variables in the elicitation of voice and the overall value of participant media research.

… [one] main characteristic of illness narratives is that they formulate and express a central aspect of being ill in modern society, namely the difficulty of giving voice to both suffering and to the lifeworld context of illness. (Hyden 1997 Hyden, L. 1997. Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health & Illness, 19(1): 48–69. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 64)     

Exploring the ethics of treatments for depression: The ethics of care perspective

This article explores the ethics of current treatments for depression through the lenses of social work values and ethics. As a vehicle for analysis, the approach associated with ethics of care will be utilized. Particular attention is paid to ethical dilemmas in the treatment of depression under the auspices of managed care companies. A case example is presented to help social workers understand these dilemmas in the context of practice. Adopting an ethics of care perspective would mandate that social workers become more politically active, and work toward integrating direct and indirect practice approaches in treating people who suffer from depression and similar problems.     

State standards for domestic violence perpetrator treatment: current status, trends, and recommendations

We empirically surveyed and analyzed existing standards for the treatment of perpetrators of domestic violence across the United States. Specific areas examined included: presence and scope; administrative entity for certifying; screening and risk assessment protocols; minimum length of treatment; theoretical or conceptual orientation; treatment content; preferred or allowable modalities of treatment; whether research findings are mentioned; methods for revising standards; and minimum education and training required for providers. We examined trends using several methods including comparisons between present and previous survey data (Maiuro et al., 2001). Positive trends were evident including increased use of multivariate models of treatment content, use of an intake assessment prior to treatment, use of a danger/lethality assessment to manage risk, recognition of the need for program evaluation and supportive research, and the requirement of a minimum level of formal education as a prerequisite for providers. We identify specific areas for further research and development and make recommendations for improving existing practice and standards of care.     

Demokratie für den Irak?

The situation in Iraq remains unstable. This is, among other factors, due to the lack of a realistic, long-term and integrative model for democratization. The current occupying powers neither dispose of a long-term plan, appropriate to the local circumstances, which could be able to include systematically local culture and social forms. Nor do they obviously have a clear step-by-step plan within the framework of an integral model which could take into account the experience of the past decades regarding sustainable democratization of Islamic core areas. This essay presents the three currently most promising and most realistic models of how Iraq can be democratized by means of a long-term, comprehensive, holistic and systematically differentiated strategy. The focus of attention is on the methodical inclusion of cultural, socio-psychological and sociological aspects. The three democratization models for Iraq are: 1) the Tatarstan model, 2) the Turkey model, 3) the model of stratified democracy. These three models are critically discussed and evaluated; in conclusion a short outlook will be drafted.     

Risk Management in a Polio-Free World

Inherent in the decision to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 was the expectation for many people that immunization against poliomyelitis would eventually simply stop, as had been the case with smallpox following its eradication in 1977. However, the strategies for managing the risks associated with a "polio-free" world must be continuously refined to reflect new developments, particularly in our understanding of the live polioviruses in the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) and in the international approach to managing potential biohazards. The most important of these developments has been the confirmation in 2000 that vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) can circulate and cause polio outbreaks, making the use of OPV after interruption of wild poliovirus transmission incompatible with a polio-free world. A comprehensive strategy has been developed to minimize the risks associated with eventual OPV cessation, centered on appropriate long-term biocontainment of poliovirus stocks (whether for vaccine production, diagnosis, or research), the controlled reintroduction of any live poliovirus vaccine (i.e., from an OPV stockpile), and appropriate use of the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Although some aspects of this risk management strategy are still debated, there is wide agreement that no strategy would entirely eliminate the potential risks to a polio-free world. The current strategy for risk management in a polio-free world will continue to evolve with better characterization of these risks and the development of more effective approaches both to reduce those risks and to limit their consequences should they occur.     

Bayesian design in queues: An application to aeronautic maintenance

We exploit Bayesian criteria for designing M/M/c//r$M/M/c//r$ queueing systems with spares. For illustration of our approach we use a real problem from aeronautic maintenance, where the numbers of repair crews and spare planes must be sufficiently large to meet the necessary operational capacity. Bayesian guarantees for this to happen can be given using predictive or posterior distributions.     

Media, ‘Fat Panic’ and Public Pedagogy: Mapping Contested Terrain

Discourses regarding a ‘global obesity crisis’ and alternative frames (e.g. weight‐inclusive approaches to health) have proliferated through various media of communication. These media range from traditional print and visual formats (e.g. newspapers and television shows) to digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), which enable different publics to produce, and not just consume, text, images and other data relating to the body. Reflecting a sociological understanding of educational practices as extending beyond formal schooling, mediated obesity discourse and counter‐movements have also been conceptualised as public pedagogies, which instruct people how to relate to their own and other's bodies, health and subjectivities. This article examines what is critically known about various media at a time when governments and agencies are reinvigorating the global war on obesity, with populations being ‘advised’ to become and remain conscientious weight watchers. In conclusion, the article underscores the salience of social studies of the media when seeking to rethink obesity, incorporating critical reference to moral panic theory and the need to better understand what media can ‘do’ as enactments of public pedagogy.     

Quantifying urban forest structure,function, and value: the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project

This paper is a review of research in Chicago that linked analyses of vegetation structure with forest functions and values. During 1991, the regions trees removed an estimated 5575 metric tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing worth 9.2 million. Each year they sequester an estimated 315 800 metric tons of carbon. Increasing tree cover 10% or planting about three trees per building lot saves annual heating and cooling costs by an estimated 50 to 90 per dwelling unit because of increased shade, lower summertime air temperatures, and reduced neighborhood wind speeds once the trees mature. The net present value of the services trees provide is estimated as 402 per planted tree. The present value of long-term benefits is more than twice the present value of costs.     

Gambling behavior and psychological disorders of gamblers on German-style slot-machines

As part of a longitudinal study on gambling behavior, 300 gamblers who differed in the extent of their subjective stress were surveyed by clinical psychologists. Self ratings, interviewer ratings and questionnaires were used to assess socio-demographics, gambling behavior, psychological disturbance and social consequences. Our results lead to two central conclusions: 1. The amount of time spent on gambling activities per week and the number of years since starting gambling were not significant predictors of the extent of subjective stress related to gambling. 2. There are various sources for the subjective stress of gambling, such as marital discord and lack of social assertiveness. In a subgroup, stress was directly related to gambling. Generally, we found a higher incidence of alcohol abuse and depression in the stressed gamblers. Further research is indicated to obtain information on the etiology and development of these disturbances.This article was first published in Germany: Törne v. I, Konstanty, R: (1989), Spielverhalten und Störungsbilder bei Spielern an Geldspielautomaten, Suchtgefahren, 35, 14–34.     

Rethinking population distribution policies

Developed and developing nations are generally dissatisfied with the spatial distributions of their populations. Dissatisfaction is particularly acute on the part of developing nations which view their problems of population distribution as more serious than those of natural increase. The overwhelming majority of governments have already adopted policies to affect rates and patterns of internal migration or the configuration of their rural and urban populations. However, recent reviews of these policies suggest they have been only partially successful. Apparent policy deficiencies are reviewed and possible remedies suggested in regard to the need for intervention, the scope of policies, their objectives, instruments, and evaluation.