Ideologies & Narratives in Relation to ‘Fat’ Children as Bullies, ‘Easy Targets’ and Victims

In this study, we explore narratives in relation to ‘fatness’, drawing on focus group interviews with parents, early years practitioners, teachers and young people. The study is located in a larger study on bullying and resilience, with no specific focus on obesity or ‘fatness’. Analysis of the interview data highlighted a recurrent focus on ‘fatness’ within the participants’ narratives, by labelling and stigmatising the ‘fat kid’ and ‘bigger children’. We conclude that obesity and fatness, as abnormalities, are now included in commonsense talk in relation to ‘easy targets’, victims and bullies.     

Perceived professional standards and roles of public relations in China: Through the lens of Chinese public relations practitioners

As the first quantitative examination of perceived public relations professional standards in China using an online survey, this study was designed based on the standards of professional standards inventory Cameron, Sallot, & Lariscy (1996) constructed and tested among practitioners in the U.S. The survey results suggest six dimensions of perceived standards of professional performance: (1) role and function in organizational strategic planning, (2) sufficiency in professional training and preparedness, (3) gender and racial equity, (4) situational constraints, (5) licensing and organizational support, and (6) participation in the organizational decision-making team. Four dimensions of public relations roles were also identified by the survey participants: (1) brand promotion facilitator, (2) public information specialist, (3) media relations counsel, and (4) conflict management expert. Primary practice area was found to affect how Chinese practitioners perceive the six clusters of professional standards and the four identified public relations roles. These findings provide insights for both practitioners and researchers on how Chinese public relations practitioners view public relations as a profession and how the profession currently holds its professional standards in China.     

Hepatitis C psychoeducation curriculum topics generated by group members

ABSTRACT

Educational programs for hepatitis C (HCV) have been created by professionals. There has not been a focus on whether what clients want to know about HCV differs from what providers want patients to know. This study addresses this gap by examining topics selected by participants in an education/support group model. Data were collected as part of a randomized psychoeducation trial for patients with HCV. Topics were systematically generated by the members uniquely for each group. Topics and rank order for each group were generated and a combined variable was created. Twenty-eight different topics were identified across 12 groups. The total number of topics was 102, averaging 8.5 per group. Topics are divided into three separate conceptual groups, members’ personal relationship to HCV, medical aspects of HCV, and unique concerns. A patient-centered approach that addresses the needs of HCV patients first provides an optimal starting point to discuss HCV disease management.     

BEYOND EDUCATION AND FAIRNESS: A LABOR MARKET TAXATION MODEL FOR THE GREAT GATSBY CURVE

Applied researchers have been drawn to models that attribute the demonstrated cross‐country differences in intergenerational income transmission to government failures to invest in the human capital of poor children. To highlight another potential mechanism, the disincentive effects of labor market taxation and redistribution, we present a simple model that can explain cross‐country differences in intergenerational mobility and other previously observed empirical patterns. Empirical tests using data on income mobility, tax rates, and public expenditures largely support the model predictions. We conclude that the common presumption that intergenerational mobility largely measures fairness or opportunity, and the resultant policy recommendations, are premature. (JEL D31, J24, J62)     

Error Bands for Impulse Responses

We show how correctly to extend known methods for generating error bands in reduced form VAR's to overidentified models. We argue that the conventional pointwise bands common in the literature should be supplemented with measures of shape uncertainty, and we show how to generate such measures. We focus on bands that characterize the shape of the likelihood. Such bands are not classical confidence regions. We explain that classical confidence regions mix information about parameter location with information about model fit, and hence can be misleading as summaries of the implications of the data for the location of parameters. Because classical confidence regions also present conceptual and computational problems in multivariate time series models, we suggest that likelihood-based bands, rather than approximate confidence bands based on asymptotic theory, be standard in reporting results for this type of model.     

Putting place on the menu: The negotiation of locality in UK food tourism,from production to consumption

This paper uses a case study of tourism in the Lake District and Exmoor to explore the relationship between ‘local food’ and sustainable rural tourism in the UK. Drawing on qualitative interviews with tourists, food producers and café, pub and restaurant owners, I use an approach based upon the commodity chain to trace the shifts in the discursive and material understandings of the ‘local’ that take place throughout the tourist food chain. These shifts are shown to occur in response to the need to negotiate the tensions between the ideals and the practicalities of food production and consumption which occur as a result of the relationships that exist throughout the food chain. Such conclusions are shown to be important for our understanding of the links between ‘local food’ and sustainable rural tourism because they indicate that we must attend to the values, as well as the practicalities, that drive the contemporary food sector at all stages of the food chain, from production to consumption.     

Framing “at risk” students: Struggles at the boundaries of access to higher education

Access to an education is a social justice issue that requires a new courageous commitment to identifying and eliminating barriers to college success. For first generation, low income and students of color, education is the one remaining single most powerful factor to bring about a different outcome for their lives. This article explores what we can learn from the experience of students at a regional public university designated “at risk” and how to reclaim the place of public college education as an equalizing force in our nation.