Nuclear Risk Management on Stage: A Decision Analysis Perspective on the UK's Committee on Radioactive Waste Management

In 2003, the UK government set up a broad-based Committee on radioactive waste management (CoRWM) to look at the UK's policy on radioactive waste management with a view to jumpstarting a stalled policy process. The committee's brief was to come up with a set of recommendations that would protect the public and the environment, and be capable of inspiring public confidence. After consulting widely with the public and stakeholders, and drawing on advice from scientists and other experts, CoRWM arrived at a remarkably well-received set of recommendations. On the basis of our experiences of working on CoRWM's multi-criteria decision analysis of different management options, study of CoRWM documentation, and interviews with committee members, we describe the explicit and implicit principles that guided CoRWM. We also give an account of the process by which CoRWM arrived at its conclusions, covering four phases: framing, shortlisting, option assessment, and integration; and four cross-cutting activities: public and stakeholder engagement (PSE), science and engineering input, ethics and social science input, and learning from overseas practice. We finish by outlining some of the key developments in the UK's radioactive waste management process, which followed on from the publication of CoRWM's report, and present our reflections for the benefit of the risk and decision analysts of future committees that, like CoRWM, are charged with recommending to government on the management of technically complex and risky technologies, drawing on extensive public and stakeholder consultation.     

School factors helping disadvantaged students to succeed: empirical evidence from four Italian cities

This research investigates a particular category of disadvantaged students, namely those who are able to overcome a situation of socio-economical disadvantage and obtain good academic results (here named ‘resilient students’). We have used micro-data provided by the Italian National Evaluation Committee for Education and focused on class and school-level characteristics that help disadvantaged students to become resilient students when they move from primary (grade 5) to lower secondary school (grade 6), concentrating our analysis on four major cities. We employed a probit regression and a propensity score matching model, finding that class and school factors do matter. In particular, we looked at whether the performance of their peers has a positive impact on that of disadvantaged students, estimating the increased probability of these students becoming resilient.     

Can the American Dream Survive the New Multiethnic America? Evidence from Los Angeles1

Drawing from a survey conducted in Los Angeles, we examine perceptions of achievement and optimism about reaching the American dream among racial, ethnic, and nativity groups. We find blacks and Asian Americans less likely than whites to believe they have reached the American dream. Latinos stand out for their upbeat assessments, with naturalized citizens possessing a stronger sense of achievement and noncitizens generally optimistic that they will eventually fulfill the American dream. We discuss patterns of variation between the racial and ethnic groups as well as variation within each group. Notwithstanding interesting differences along lines of race, ethnicity, and nativity, we find no evidence that the nation’s changing ethnic stew has diluted faith in the American dream.     

Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Italian SMEs: the experience of some “spirited businesses”

The study proposes to individuate the relationship between social engagement, social statements and governance of SMEs. Does an adhesion to the philosophy and to the practices of CSR, which are reflected in a firm’s mission and accountability, positively influences its governance? If so, is this influence more or less significant for SMEs with respect to large-sized firms? This paper winds itself around these questions and describes the principle findings that have emerged from a qualitative investigation focused on a selected group of “cohesive” Italian SMEs, in which their management complies with both economic and social issues. The empirical study finds that the diffusion of CSR is tied above all to the entrepreneur’s values and orientation and to the company embeddedness to the local socio-economic environment. The concluding reflections trace the features of a territorial model of socially responsible orientation centered on the best practices of SMEs who are excellent examples of “spirited businesses” and are part of a network (which includes institutions, trade associations, non-profit organizations, etc.) that contributes to the diffusion of an orientation towards CSR and to sustainability across the territory.     

Towards proteophilic competence? Intercultural learning and language education in Latvia

The new paradigm of language education envisages that teachers become intercultural mediators. However, there is no agreement about implementing the new paradigm in school practice and language teacher education. The author believes that the intercultural dimension of language education is strongly linked to integrating intercultural learning in language education. It implies cooperation with teachers from other subject areas and attitude change. The author recently designed a new course to prepare language teachers for understanding the processes involved in intercultural learning. The present article presents a case study carried out while piloting the course ‘Integrating intercultural learning in language education’ at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Modern Languages. The student teachers commented that pupils’ intercultural competence cannot be fostered by teachers alone, without the support of parents and broader Latvian society. The author recommends introducing a special course on intercultural learning in the compulsory part of all higher education programs.     

A resilience enhancing trauma-informed program for children and mothers in domestic violence shelters: A qualitative study

In domestic violence (DV) shelters, offering psychosocial support services to mothers and children is vital. The program ‘Time for Tony the Turtle’ has been developed for mothers and children residing in DV shelters in the Netherlands. It aims to foster attachment and regulation skills, which can also prepare for trauma treatment if sought after later on. This qualitative study explores the experiences of mothers, children and professionals with the program and its perceived impact and what components function as facilitators and barriers in the implementation of such a program in DV crisis shelters in the Netherlands. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 mothers, 11 children and 18 professionals from three organizations offering DV shelters. We used thematic analysis to identify patterns of meaning in the interviews. Mothers, children and professionals valued that the program provided a calm moment for reflection in hectic times and that the playfulness in which the program addressed trauma-related topics. However, mothers find it difficult to attend the program in the beginning of their shelter stay, therefore hampering the applicability of the program. Our findings suggest that integrating the topic of discussing father in a program in crisis shelters is complex and deserves more attention.     

Learning from the experience of parents in poverty: The power of recognition

This study aims to contribute to the literature exploring the parents' perspective on what parenting in poverty means in their everyday life and how they are able to cope with the challenges that arise from a condition of economic deprivation. Forty parents living in different Italian regions had been interviewed. Data gathering and data analysis were conducted as a simultaneous and iterative process, oriented by the constructivist grounded theory. Our findings provide a clear picture of the parents' constant struggle to protect their children from an environment in which structural conditions and dominant narratives lead to normalize and personalize disadvantages. Parents described enabling and disabling processes that interplay at a material, relational and symbolic level, influencing their movement along a continuum that depicts different experiences in different moments of their lives, as the output of processes where vulnerabilities and strengths are combined. The parents' knowledge helps to explain the wider social processes and the day-to-day social interactions that influence the flow along this continuum. The final purpose is to allow their voices to be heard and to learn from their perspective, as it is essential in designing policies and services that are supposed to help them.     

A Strategic Planning Process for a Small Nonprofit Organization: A Hospice Example

Strategic planning is an essential part of management. However, planning processes can consume great amounts of time and resources that small, nonprofit organizations may lack. Moreover, the process that is used can be tedious and may result in plans that are discarded before or during their implementation. In this article, a strategic planning process is presented that incorporates a Policy Delphi group technique and Situation Structuring, a computer program that assists participants in structuring or defining the problems to be addressed in the plan. The organization to which the process is applied is a small, nonprofit hospice. Both the planning process and an evaluation of the implementation of the resultant strategic plan are examined.     

Transactional links between adolescents’ and friends’ victimization during the first two years of secondary school: The mediating role of likeability and friendship involvement

The goals of this study were to examine to what extent lower likeability at the group level and lower friendship involvement can explain the bidirectional links between adolescents’ own and their friends’ victimization over time. We tested these processes by applying a cross‐lagged path model to a sample of 621 adolescents. Data were collected at four time points over the two first years of secondary school. Participants were asked to identify same grade friends within their school; classroom peer nominations were used to assess participants’ likeability as well as participants’ and friends’ level of peer victimization. Results showed bidirectional associations between adolescents’ own and their friends’ victimization by peers within the first year of secondary school. Moreover, the relation between adolescents’ own victimization at the end of the first year and their friends’ victimization next year was mediated by decreased adolescents’ likeability at the group level. Inversely, their friends’ victimization at the end of the first year predicted lower levels of adolescents’ own likeability over time, which in turn predicted adolescents’ own subsequent levels of victimization. Friends’ victimization also predicted adolescents’ lower friendship involvement during the first year, which in turn predicted decreased likeability, and ultimately higher levels of victimization.