The Accessibility of Public Spaces for People with Dementia: a new priority for the 'open city'

The social model of disability de-medicalises disability and politicises it as an issue of universal rights. However, the rights of people with dementia have been less strongly advocated than those of people with physical disabilities. This is particularly the case with environmental planning and design. The needs of people with dementia are now informing the design of residential homes and day centres, but the issue of accessibility to public spaces and amenities has been almost completely neglected. Many outdoor environments such as shopping centres or parks may be inhospitable for people with dementia because they are disorientating, difficult to interpret and navigate, threatening or distressing. The article reviews the literature on indoor design for dementia, reports on research investigating the accessibility of outdoor environments, and describes a new approach using virtual reality technology to enable people with dementia to identify and test outdoor design and planning improvements themselves.     

A Note on Change-Over Designs

A change-over model with correlated errors is discussed. In particular the results of Patterson (1950) and Lucas (1951) for balanced change-over designs are extended to more than four treatments and more general variance matrices. A connection with recent work on neighbour models for field trials is made.     

Safety in urban neighborhoods: A comparison of physical characteristics and informal territorial control in high and low crime neighborhoods

This study addressed the issue of how some urban neighborhoods maintain a relatively low level of crime despite their physical proximity and social similarity to high crime areas. The study explored differences in physical characteristics and various dimensions of the concept of territoriality in three pairs of neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia. Neighborhoods within pairs were adjacent and were matched on racial composition and economic status but had distinctly different crime levels. The results indicated that differences in physical characteristics distinguished between matched high and low crime neighborhoods to a far greater extent than did differences in the measures of territoriality. The flow of outsiders into and out of low crime neighborhoods was inhibited because land use was more homogeneously residential, there were fewer major arteries, and boundary streets were less traveled than was the case in high crime neighborhoods. There were relatively few differences in informal territorial control between high and low crime neighborhoods. Where differences existed, informal territorial control was more characteristic of high crime than of low crime neighborhoods.This paper is based on a larger study funded by the Community Crime Prevention Division, National Institute of Justice (Grant No. 79-NI-AX-0080). This study was completed when the senior author was at the Research Triangle Institute. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Stephanie Greenberg, Social Systems Research and Evaluation Division, Denver Research Institute, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.     

Modelling relationships between job stressors and injury and near-miss outcomes for construction labourers

Construction work is an inherently dangerous occupation and exposure to additional job stressors is likely to exacerbate the level of danger, increasing workers' risk for injury. Thus, it is important to identify and then reduce worker exposure to extraneous job stressors. This study examines the relationships between a variety of job stressors and injury or near-miss outcomes among construction workers. Self-reported questionnaire data collected from 408 construction labourers (male and female) via telephone interview were analysed using structural equation modelling. A theoretical model was tested whereby work stressors, classified into three groups, could be related, either directly or indirectly through the mediating effects of physical or psychological symptoms/strain, to self-reported injuries and near misses. Ten of the 12 work-related stressors were found to be directly related to either injury or near misses, including: job demands, job control, job certainty, training, safety climate, skill under-utilization, responsibility for the safety of others, safety compliance, exposure hours, and job tenure. Other stressors (i.e. harassment/discrimination, job certainty, social support, skill under-utilization, safety responsibility, safety compliance, tenure in construction) were indirectly related to injuries through physical symptoms or indirectly related to near misses through psychological strain. There was no support for the modelled gender differences. Implications for health and safety on construction sites are discussed.     

Ordinary heroes: England international football players in the 1990s

This paper considers recent debates about the quality of English football, and it also looks at alleged connections between declining standards and the restructuring of the Football League in England. It contrasts the specific qualities of the British style against those more commonly associated in English eyes with the continent and it also looks at the increasing in fluence of television in shaping the consumption of football as a global idiom. It concludes by arguing that growing commercialization and globalization per se cannot alone explain the increased physical stresses on players and the peculiarly robust style of play in Britain. For this one also needs closely to examine discourses on masculinity, class, nation and tradition, and to locate the effects of these discourses as mediators of recent trends in the management and marketing of the sport.     

Wage determination in U.S. manufacturing 1958–1976: A collective bargaining approach

This paper presents a cross-section collective bargaining approach to the analysis of inter-industry wage movements of production workers in U.S. manufacturing over the period 1958–1976. A Hicksian model is used to classify the determinants of wage change according to their likely influence on the concession and strike costs of management and unions. Three variables which are classified as management concession and strike costs are consistently significant in empirical testing: change in value productivity, labor intensity, and the profit rate. On the basis of this finding it is suggested that inter-industry wage changes are generally a function of management concession costs. The authors acknowledge the helpful comments of an anonymous referee.     

Father-son incest: A review and analysis of reported incidents

A review of the literature on father-son incest reveals both fewer case reports and much less adequate data as compared to that on father-daughter incest. However, there are suggestions that the psychosocial history and personality of the father who engages his son sexually is a dominant factor, while dysfunctional family interation seems central in molestations of the daughter.     

Ethics,human rights and sociological inquiry: Genocide,politicide and other issues of organizational power

This paper introduces a human rights (in contrast to an ethicist) perspective into sociological investigation. Moreover, it indicates why a human rights orientation is necessary for examining genocide, politicide and other issues of organizational power. For years he has been concerned with the sociology of ethics, human rights and bureaucracy. Her research focuses on formal organizations, criminology/deviance, family life and medical sociology. Her primary interests are race and ethnic relations, family life and social psychology. Her interests include formal organizations, American studies and autobiography.     

The Rise and Fall of a Risk-Based Priority System: Lessons from DOE's Environmental Restoration Priority System

This paper presents the history of the Environmental Restoration Priority System (ERPS), a decision aid developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help determine how to allocate funds for cleaning up hazardous waste sites. Although praised in technical peer review, the system was strongly criticized by stakeholders external to the DOE. Ultimately, and in the midst of a National Academy of Sciences review, DOE shelved the system. The rise and fall of ERPS provides useful lessons for analysts hoping to improve risk management in the public sector.