Working with risky consumers: multi‐professional care for substance‐using pregnant women

Substance use is increasingly common in many countries. Consumption and lifestyles associated with consumption often involve a number of specific health and legal risks for users. For pregnant women, the risks extend to the health and care of their unborn children. A multi‐professional approach to the management of substance use in pregnancy is recommended as best practice but, as with all strategies, effectiveness depends on the way that professional workers implement policy. This study evaluated evidence of multi‐professional working within local maternity services in and around a Scottish city by (a) collating and analysing data from the maternity records of 163 substance‐using women, who delivered between January 2001 and December 2003; and (b) conducting a questionnaire survey in 2004 with 120 midwives and neonatal nurses for their views on maternity care for substance‐using women and their babies. Despite the importance placed on multi‐professional working by midwives and neonatal nurses, maternity records indicated operational inconsistencies with implementation in some cases and not in others. Policy was not yet to be seen embedded in everyday practice.     

Worker representation in health and safety: options for regulatory reform

Worker representation in health and safety in Britain has received statutory support since the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977. Subsequent developments have, however, acted to undermine the effectiveness of these regulations. The paper consequently discusses a range of reforms that could be introduced to strengthen the present regulatory regime.     

Unions,organisation change and alcohol policy

There is little doubt that company policies which successfully attempt to change employee behaviour patterns require a high level of trade union involvement. Workplace alcoholism policies are an example of this kind of initiative. This article presents some preliminary, survey evidence on the extent to which alcohol policies have been introduced in Scotland.     

Some economic aspects of industrial democracy*

Laurence Hunter argues that although there has been some reference to economic questions in the debate on industrial democracy, they have not received the attention that they deserve. Rather than to provide answers, the purpose of his article is to highlight the importance of the questions, in the hope that others might be encouraged to accept the presented challenge.     

The imperatives for organizational governance in a large charity: a strategic choice perspective

This paper explains the factors that shaped governance practices in a large charity. The author uses strategic choice theory in an analysis of case study data to bring into calculation the internal and external factors that impacted the roles of board members and executives. The paper finds overall support for a powersharing model and contributes to our understanding of governance in nonprofit organizations.     

Consequential egalitarianism vs. accountability principle: an experimental investigation

We conducted a laboratory experiment to investigate how people’s fairness views and redistribution depend on different rooted risks, specifically whether the risk is exogenously assigned in a ‘pure-luck’ control assignment or endogenously chosen by subjects in an ‘option-luck’ treatment. This experiment examines two contradictory views about distributive justice, namely consequential egalitarianism and the accountability principle (AP). The results show widespread support for the view of AP when participants have the opportunity to alleviate the risks.     

Key research themes on travel behavior,lifestyle, and sustainable urban mobility

abstract

The concept of lifestyle adds a behavioral component to travel models that used to be dominated by engineering and econometric traditions. This article presents an overview of how lifestyle is defined and measured in transport studies, and how travel behavior is influenced by lifestyles. Lifestyles are often used pragmatically rather than theoretically in the behavior studies. Nevertheless, some important theoretical contributions have been made, especially in sociology by scholars such as Weber, Bourdieu, Ganzeboom, and Schulze who agree on the communicative character of lifestyles: individuals express their social position through specific patterns of behavior, consumption, and leisure. These behavioral patterns are shaped by underlying opinions and orientations, including beliefs, interests, and attitudes. Thus, travel behavior is not simply determined by price, speed, and comfort but is also related to attitudes, status, and preferences. Because lifestyle has many different dimensions, a variety of measurement approaches exists. Nevertheless, most studies suggest that travel behavior is conditioned by specific lifestyles. How lifestyles themselves can be modified to promote more sustainable patterns of transport has not received much attention to date. This article argues that lifestyles need to be considered as dynamic rather than as static and given, and that future research could delve more deeply into this area.