Professional discourse in winning images: objectivity and professional boundaries in environmental news images in the World Press Photo contest, 1992–2011

This article applies the ecological theory of professions to analyze professional discourse in the World Press Photo (WPP) contest, an international photojournalism contest held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The article analyzes the content of 148 photojournalism works that received environmental awards in the period 1992 to 2011, the two decades after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The article seeks to understand the representation and negotiation of objectivity and the claims of professional boundaries by the media of both developed and developing countries as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It also seeks to interpret the professional discourse of the WPP in relation to ideologies and power dynamics in both journalism and global environmental politics. The results suggested that the media of developed countries dominated the discourse, and the conventional notion of journalistic objectivity remained intact. However, the results also showed that global environmental politics and the situation of journalism created openings for the media of developing countries and NGOs to enlarge jurisdictional claims in the area of natural disaster reporting and to challenge the conventional notion of objectivity. The results also showed that the conventional notion of objectivity did not necessarily hinder explanations of the complexity of environmental issues, which was made possible by choosing unique angles of storytelling, planning multiple shots, and using richly suggestive, naturalistic images.     

Physical exercise,employee fitness and the management of health at work

Abstract

This paper presents some recent data on why organizations invest in exercise and physical fitness programmes for their stiff. These data suggest that, owing to a lack of evaluation studies, organizations act mainly on the basis of assumption and belief. However, from a subsequent review of the available literature on the personal and organizational effects of such programmes, it appears that these assumptions and beliefs are not altogether unfounded. The paper concludes by discussing the ways in which exercise and employee fitness programmes might help die individual and their organization in terms of the management of health at work.     

Combining Economic Forecasts

A method for combining forecasts may or may not account for dependence and differing precision among forecasts. In this article we test a variety of such methods in the context of combining forecasts of GNP from four major econometric models. The methods include one in which forecasting errors are jointly normally distributed and several variants of this model as well as some simpler procedures and a Bayesian approach with a prior distribution based on exchangeability of forecasters. The results indicate that a simple average, the normal model with an independence assumption, and the Bayesian model perform better than the other approaches that are studied here.     

Assessing the Integrity of Community Organization and Administration Content in Field Practice

The effort to ensure that students acquire knowledge and skills in macro social work practice requires considerable attention in the face of stronger interests in micro practice on the part of students and their field instructors. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the field component at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to provide learning opportunities for the development of macro practice skills and knowledge. Over 85% of the student respondents had responsibility for at least one macro practice activity during their first field placement. Although a majority of the macro practice assignments were related to organizational interventions and very few to community interventions, the study provides guidance for improving the teamwork of faculty and field instructors in an articulated approach to field learning.     

Ways out of the sewage sludge dilemma: Connecting administrative and participatory decision making

This paper examines the problem of decisions about the disposal of sewage sludge, in the face of stakeholder groups with varying viewpoints, based on a current case from the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. Like other developed countries, Germany faces the dilemma that sludge arisings are increasing (e.g., because of better water treatment) while disposal options are becoming more scarce. Lower Saxony relies heavily on landfill and agricultural application, but landfill of untreated sludge will be banned after 2005. The state Environment Ministry sees agricultural application as having various advantages, but it faces scepticism from various stakeholders. The ministry has therefore taken steps to encourage a long-term dialogue process with the main stakeholders, including farming organizations, food processors, other landowners such as the churches, and environmental and consumer organizations. The process began with a discussion forum in 1995 that led to the proposal of specific discussions with stakeholders. This paper focuses in particular on the dialogue with environmental and consumer groups. It analyzes the initial positions of the various stakeholders, describes the concrete steps taken so far, describes the ongoing efforts, and critically evaluates the procedures used as well as their implications in terms of the ideas of deliberation and analysis.     

正确运用教学评价研究的新成果不断提高教学质量

通过对教师教学关键因素的探讨 ,提出了学生对教师教学质量的反馈评价 ,不仅对教师提高教学质量十分宝贵和重要 ,而且应该引起高等学校管理工作者的足够重视     

论可持续发展背景下经济发展与环境的协调

从经济分析的角度，作者分析了可持续发展过程中环境恶化的经济原因，即市场失灵和政府失灵；揭示出经济发展与环境保护之间存在的倒U型曲线的内在关系。     

加快我国环境保护法律制度创新的对策

借鉴和把握国际环境立法的经验和趋势 ,结合中国的客观实际 ,探索加快我国环境保护法律制度创新和进一步完善环境立法的对策     

Assessing program impact using latent growth modeling: a primer for the evaluator

Latent growth modeling (LGM) has emerged as a flexible analytic technique for modeling change over time because it can describe developmental processes at both the inter- and intra-individual levels. The LGM method can also provide a means for testing the contribution of other variables in order to explain variability in growth trajectories. This paper didactically illustrates the use of LGM as an analytical tool in program evaluation. Specifically, a hypothetical evaluation of a high school drug prevention program was used to demonstrate: (a) how LGM can be used to assess the longitudinal impact of a prevention program by comparing treatment and control populations with respect to individual differences in initial status and in rate of change; and (b) how predictors of initial status (post-intervention) and growth selected on the basis of a particular program theory can be incorporated in the model to explain program impact. Some advantages and limitations of using LGM in program evaluation are highlighted.     

Building a worldwide evaluation community: past, present, and future

This article describes recent efforts to build a worldwide evaluation community. It notes events that led to an almost 200 percent growth in the number of regional and national evaluation organizations in slightly more than one year. Profiles are provided on the present status of many national and regional evaluation organizations that participated in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation-sponsored international evaluation meeting in Barbados, West Indies. Afterwards, the authors engage in a scenario planning exercise to picture alternatives of what the future of international evaluation might look like.