A strategic environmental assessment method for agricultural policy in the UK

There are a number of significant environmental impacts that arise from agricultural practices that may be influenced by policy. A Strategic Environmental Assessment Method (SEAM) is described which aims to assess the environmental impacts of agricultural policy and aid the development of more sustainable policy formulation. The method addresses the issues of selecting appropriate performance criteria and measurements, and makes use of effect-damage functions and targets to determine the significance of potential impacts in relation to sustainability. A set of profiles is produced, describing the environmental performance of a specific policy. A confidence assessment system (CAS) is also described which provides details about the quality of the assessment and areas of uncertainty. SEAM provides information about impacts in simple format that can be easily used in decision making. It can identify environmental trade-offs and provides a holistic view that is essential when making decisions that affect the environment.     

Political parties' use of web based marketing: some preliminary findings relating to first‐time voters in the 2005 general election

• This paper examines the marketing of political parties, via websites, in the 2005 UK general election with specific reference to first‐time voters (age 18–24). Common perception views young voters as predominantly politically apathetic and less likely to vote than older generations. However, research literature suggests given the right message and medium, the group will engage in the political process. Could the Internet provide a path to engaging younger voters and will websites become a key marketing vehicle for political parties?
• Young voters were asked to review political party websites using an extended web assessment method (EWAM), which is an evaluation tool created to determine both the importance and presence of website evaluation criteria. Preliminary research suggests that respondents felt the Internet had a significant role to play in the election process and marketing of campaign messages. However, while political parties scored well in relation to the technical/software aspects of website design, participants felt website material had little appeal and were ineffective in influencing voter intent.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring online fitness culture and young females

Abstract

While previous studies have investigated online health communities and health-seeking behaviours, less attention has been directed at the growing impact of the online fitness movement. This paper draws on the concept of biopedagogies to examine the messages transmitted within fitness culture on social networking sites (SNSs), and their role as a channel for health and fitness information. To explore this, a multi-method approach was conducted. The two methods included a netnography (online ethnography) and 22 semi-structured individual interviews with female participants aged 18–24 in Australia. The study suggests that online fitness use is becoming a popular leisure activity and source of health and fitness information. It reveals how SNSs are used as a platform to gather and teach ideas of health and fitness, and the manner in which textual and photographic online communication facilitates the social construction and transmission of this knowledge. Results indicated that although fitness accounts on SNSs offer differing notions to present alternative and competing realities, users predominantly chose to follow the normalised and dominant health discourses. Noteworthy, the onus is firmly placed on the individual within these health and fitness messages to adhere to norms of correct health practices and choices. This has connotations relevant to eHealth literacy.     

A Study of the Validity of the Moral Ethos Questionnaire and its Transferability to a Chinese Context

This paper begins by comparing and contrasting the Moral Climate Questionnaire (MCQ) and the Moral Ethos Questionnaire (MEQ), and identifies differences in their theoretical orientations. It argues that they seek to measure different things and should not be seen as competing instruments. The MEQ is based on Kohlbergian assumptions, regards the six individual stages of moral development as having equivalents within organisational moral atmosphere, and measures the relative strength of these organisational stages or forces. In validating the MEQ, one problem is its ranks-based questionnaire format, making standard assessments of reliability and validity difficult. The researchers investigated the MEQ's cross-cultural transferability and comprehensibility, by assessing how accurately three groups of 60 undergraduate business students, two Hong Kong Chinese and one Australian, assigned MEQ items to their designated stages. The Australian group met the comprehensibility criterion of 50% stage assignments (hits), but the Chinese did not, with Chinese students using an English version of the MEQ achieving fewer accurate hits than those using an expertly translated Chinese version. The results indicated some lack of cross-cultural transferability and some language-related interpretation differences. Students tended to assign stages 2, 3 and 4 items with greater accuracy than stages 1, 5 and 6, and the paper gives explanations for the lower comprehensibility of the latter. The paper concludes with comments on teaching Kohlbergian concepts to Chinese students and using the MEQ to research Chinese organisations.     

DE-ESCALATION IN DECISION MAKING: A CASE OF A DISASTROUS PARTNERSHIP*

Decisions to persist with losing courses of action known as escalation have been widely studied, albeit mainly in an experimental context. Comparatively little is known about the conditions under which de-escalation occurs. Utilizing a model of de-escalation derived from the literature the present study examines, by means of a case study, a decision to withdraw from a losing predicament. It is concluded that while de-escalation is likely to occur where the opposite conditions thought to be conducive to persistence apply, existing models under-emphasize the importance of power. Accordingly a modified version of Bowen's two-factor model is proposed.     

Explaining outcomes in competition among foreign multinationals in a focal host market

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) from different home regions now routinely confront one another in third markets. There is, however, little conceptual or theoretical literature on the determinants of outcome patterns in these contests. This paper offers a first attempt at systematic and parsimonious conceptualization of the issue. In Brazil, for instance, while U.S.‐based MNEs such as Coca‐Cola and IBM lead in their sectors, other leading U.S. MNEs including Citibank, GE, and Pfizer are outsold by European rivals that appear less competitive globally. Extending theory on the liability of foreignness and firm‐specific advantages, we contend that (i) the MNE whose home nation has greater ties to the focal host nation (along geographic, colonial, immigration, linguistic, and institutional dimensions) will lead in that host nation; and (ii) ties notwithstanding, if an MNE's firm‐specific advantages are so superior that it outsells a rival MNE in that rival's home market, then it will outsell that rival as well in the focal host market. Based on this we develop a conceptual framework, statistical analysis pertaining to MNE competition in Brazil, and three avenues for fruitful new research. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Economic Evaluation in Health Care: Is It Really Useful or Are We Just Kidding Ourselves?

Despite the growth in published studies year on year, and its adoption as a formal requirement in some jurisdictions, there are still doubts about whether economic evaluation is really useful in health care decision making. This article considers evidence for and against the proposition that economic evaluation is useful. Two decision making contexts are considered: the central level, where a single agency or organisation makes decisions for the whole health care system; and the local level, where decisions are made by various actors within the health care system. Four conditions that seem to foster the use of economic evaluation are identified. It is concluded that economic evaluation is not being used to its full potential, but that ways can be found to increase its use.     

Land change variability and human-environment dynamics in the United States Great Plains

Land use and land cover changes have complex linkages to climate variability and change, biophysical resources, and socioeconomic driving forces. To assess these land change dynamics and their causes in the Great Plains, we compare and contrast contemporary changes across 16 ecoregions using Landsat satellite data and statistical analysis. Large-area change analysis of agricultural regions is often hampered by change detection error and the tendency for land conversions to occur at the local-scale. To facilitate a regional-scale analysis, a statistical sampling design of randomly selected 10 km × 10 km blocks is used to efficiently identify the types and rates of land conversions for four time intervals between 1973 and 2000, stratified by relatively homogenous ecoregions. Nearly 8% of the overall Great Plains region underwent land-use and land-cover change during the study period, with a substantial amount of ecoregion variability that ranged from less than 2% to greater than 13%. Agricultural land cover declined by more than 2% overall, with variability contingent on the differential characteristics of regional human-environment systems. A large part of the Great Plains is in relatively stable land cover. However, other land systems with significant biophysical and climate limitations for agriculture have high rates of land change when pushed by economic, policy, technology, or climate forcing factors. The results indicate the regionally based potential for land cover to persist or fluctuate as land uses are adapted to spatially and temporally variable forcing factors.     

During play,the break,and the drive home: the meaning of parental verbal behaviour in youth sport

Problems surrounding parental involvement in youth sport have received much attention in the international academic community. Most of the focus has surrounded the frequency and nature of parental verbal behaviour such as criticism, swearing and abuse. While such behaviour has the potential to exert a negative influence in youth sport, little is known about the socially constructed meaning of parental verbal behaviour. In other words, there is a current lack of understanding surrounding the social significance (or lack thereof) of parental comments, criticisms and abuse in the context of youth sport. Addressing this oversight is important given that parents and youth do not always share a common appreciation of parental involvement in sport. This paper reports on a study which sought to generate a greater understanding of parental involvement in the junior Australian football experience. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with parents and youth participants (n = 86) currently involved in a competitive Australian football season. Data were manually transcribed verbatim and subjected to a thematic analysis. The findings reveal how parents and youth attribute different social meaning to parental verbal behaviour during play, the breaks and the drive home. While youth appear to experience parental verbal behaviour in polarising ways, parents rationalise their own verbal behaviour and in doing so, contribute to a broader social reproduction of sport parenting behaviour.