Challenging the inevitability of rural decline: Advancing the policy of place in northern British Columbia

In current policy discourse, rural decline is often described as an inevitable process associated with such broader structural trends as globalization and urbanization. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the supposed inevitability of rural decline in northern British Columbia (BC), Canada. We argue that rural decline in northern BC has been facilitated through an intentional policy program that views hinterland areas as a ‘resource bank’ from which to fund provincial infrastructure and services, without adequate attention to rural reinvestment. We highlight the potential discrepancies of this approach through a comparative study of two development eras in the province. In the first era, we examine the policies and development approach adopted by the W.A.C. Bennett provincial government, which governed from 1952 to 1972. We argue that the Bennett regime confronted the complexity of the post-war era with a comprehensive vision and coordinated policy program for ‘province building’ through intensive investments in industrial expansion and community infrastructure throughout the BC hinterland. By comparison, the post-1980s era in BC has witnessed a continuation of the resource bank approach, minus a concomitant commitment to hinterland investment. Reversing the inevitability of rural decline requires a renovation of the investment orientation witnessed during the Bennett era through an appreciation of the role of place in economic development. Our recommendations for renewed rural development in northern BC are drawn from a synthesis of the Bennett lessons with those emerging within place-based development literature.     

Reflections on Student,Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Research

This article will reflect on the experience of undertaking a participatory action research influenced study within a module of a social work degree programme. In doing so it will touch on some of the literature associated with student, service user and carer involvement in qualifying programmes, and in particular on research and module design. It will outline the history of service user and carer involvement in respect of a specific module within a singular degree course. It will provide an overview and some findings of the study, which sought to evaluate the involvement of an inherent service user and carer group within that degree course. However, as service user and carer involvement within degree programmes has had significant attention within the wider literature, the current study seeks to present a reflexive commentary on student, service user and carer involvement in research modules and participatory action research. Whilst the research presented here should be regarded as an initial foray with acknowledged limitations, it equally highlights some perspectives that lead to an understanding of how greater levels of student, service user and carer involvement within social work research might be achieved, in particular in the context of social work qualifying programmes.     

The Insurgent Pedagogues: Bowles and Gintis In The Classroom

Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life, by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976, 340 pp. R7,20 (paperback).     

Burden‐of‐illness vaccine efficacy

In recent years, many vaccines have been developed for the prevention of a variety of diseases. Although the primary objective of vaccination is to prevent disease, vaccination can also reduce the severity of disease in those individuals who develop breakthrough disease. Observations of apparent mitigation of breakthrough disease in vaccine recipients have been reported for a number of vaccine‐preventable diseases such as Herpes Zoster, Influenza, Rotavirus, and Pertussis. The burden‐of‐illness (BOI) score was developed to incorporate the incidence of disease as well as the severity and duration of disease. A severity‐of‐illness score S > 0 is assigned to individuals who develop disease and a score of 0 is assigned to uninfected individuals. In this article, we derive the vaccine efficacy statistic (which is the standard statistic for presenting efficacy outcomes in vaccine clinical trials) based on BOI scores, and we extend the method to adjust for baseline covariates. Also, we illustrate it with data from a clinical trial in which the efficacy of a Herpes Zoster vaccine was evaluated.     

Probabilistic Assessment of the Failure Risk of the Europa Clipper Spacecraft due to Radiations

The Europa mission approved in 2019 is still in the development phase. It is designed to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of that moon of Jupiter as it could possibly support life as we know it. This article is based on a top-down approach (mission → system → subsystems → components) to model the probability of mission failure. The focus here is on the case where the (uncertain) radiation load exceeds the (uncertain) capacity of critical subsystems of the spacecraft. The model is an illustrative quantification of the uncertainties about (1) the complex external radiation environment in repeated exposures, (2) the effectiveness of the shielding in different zones of the spacecraft, and (3) the components’ capacities, by modeling all three as dynamic random variables. A simulation including a sensitivity analysis is used to obtain the failure probability of the whole mission in forty-five revolutions around Jupiter. This article illustrates how probabilistic risk analysis based on engineering models, test results and expert opinions can be used in the early stages of the design of space missions when uncertainties are large. It also describes the optimization of the spacecraft design, taking into account the decisionmakers’ risk attitude and the mission resource constraints.     

Exploring the Impact of School Discipline on Racial Disproportion in the Juvenile Justice System*

It is widely recognized that African‐American youth are significantly overrepresented in many juvenile justice systems relative to their population percentages. Research has also determined that similar disproportion exists in school discipline and speculated about a “school‐to‐prison pipeline” for minority youth. Objective. This study explores empirically the degree to which disciplinary decisions made in schools can help to explain observed rates of disproportionate minority contact with juvenile courts. Methods. It does so in an assessment of education and justice system data from a sample of counties in Missouri. Results. The findings suggest that racial disproportion in out‐of‐school suspensions, which cannot be explained solely by differences in delinquent behavior, is strongly associated with similar levels of disproportion in juvenile court referrals. The association between disproportionate patterns of school discipline and court referrals persists after controlling for poverty, urbanization, and other relevant factors. Conclusions. The implication is that school‐based programs that offer alternatives to suspension and expulsion and promote disciplinary equity may help alleviate racial disproportion in the juvenile justice system.     

Youth homelessness and self identity: a view from Canada

ABSTRACT

This paper is based on the analysis of data collected from the National Canadian Homeless Youth Survey and addresses the question: why do some youth who received support from social service agencies that cater to the needs of homeless youth self-identify as being homeless while others do not? According to self-report survey data obtained from 1103 young people from over 50 youth homeless service centres from across Canada, findings show that youth who self-identified as being homeless shared several backgrounds and current situational characteristics not common among youth in the sample who did not consider themselves to be homeless. The findings illustrate the importance of past trauma and the intensity of day to day hardship in self-identifying as a homeless young person.