The Journal of ERW and Mine Action Issue 15.3 (2011)

Focus: Cluster Munitions | Government Stability and Mine Action Support | Notes from the Field | Research and Developmen

A deep wound under my heart”: Constructions of complex trauma and implications for women’s wellbeing and safety from violence

This project sought to develop a comprehensive picture of how complex trauma is being constructed in public policy and practice, and how it is viewed by women with experiences of complex trauma. The research took the form of a multi-method study that combined policy and service analysis with qualitative research with women with experiences of complex trauma and the professionals who work with them, via: a policy audit of approaches to complex trauma service documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with professionals in Queensland and New South Wales qualitative interviews with women with experiences of complex trauma in Queensland and New South Wales online workshops in which professional stakeholders and women with experiences of complex trauma provided feedback on the findings of the study. The research found that at the policy level, complex trauma overlaps with frameworks on violence against women and mental health. However, the impact of complex trauma is not comprehensively addressed by these frameworks, which contributes to the fragmented response to women in distress. It demonstrated that there is a strong need for a whole-of-government commitment to the implementation and coordination of trauma-informed practice across sectors. The report includes recommendations for policy and practice

The politics of sustainability in New Zealand: A critical evaluation of environmental policy, practice and prospects through a case study of the dairy industry

This thesis examines the politics of sustainability in New Zealand through a case study of the dairy industry. New Zealand’s ‘clean and green’ image was bolstered by the passing of the Resource Management Act (RMA) (1991) to much international acclaim. Yet, since its adoption, the country has seen a dramatic expansion and intensification of dairy farming which has resulted in significant environmental decline. The thesis seeks to answer why this has occurred despite the provisions of New Zealand’s apparent world-leading environmental sustainability legislation. The thesis examines the history of agricultural practice and environmental legislation in New Zealand, contemporary environmental policy and its implementation, dairy industry responses to the challenge of sustainability, and a lakes restoration initiative. Informed by a critical discourse analysis approach, the thesis developed a discourse analytic framework to identify technological, ecological modernisation and sustainable development discourses within environmental policies and processes and dairy industry practice and explore the implications of these discourses. The framework is also applied to the analysis of stakeholder interviews, a Q-sort survey, and texts from a variety of governmental and nongovernmental organisations. The analysis offers insights into the disjuncture between the intentions of the RMA and actual environmental outcomes. The thesis found that policy practice was dominated by the ecological modernisation discourse. Despite the RMA being underpinned by a sustainable development normative framework, in practice the ecological modernisation discourse has informed the implementation mechanisms and social processes required by government and the dairy industry to realise primarily economic goals. The ecological modernisation discourse has enabled continued support for a productivist and utilitarian approach to the environment. The research also found there were small-scale instances of a different institutional approach, involving bottom-up initiatives and widespread community participation in decision processes, which offered an example of more environmentally sustainable policy and practice. Specifically, in the Central North Island lakes catchments, where dairying has led to a sharp decline of lake water quality, the policy response has been normatively and institutionally shaped by the sustainable development discourse. A critical outcome is that pastoral farmers within the lakes catchments are now required to farm within the limits of the carrying capacity of these regions. These comparative cases offer a powerful alternative, and a possible blueprint for the institutionalisation of sustainable agriculture into the rest of the country. A comparison of the findings of the larger dairy industry study and the small-scale study of the lakes reveals that despite the Resource Management Act offering the same legislative context in both instances, the ecological modernisation discourse predominates in the first instance and the sustainable development discourse in the latter case. The contrasting outcomes may be explained by a range of factors such as the political will to act on environmental degradation, the importance of the lakes to the tourism industry and hence presenting an economic imperative, and the desire of the local community including Maori, most significantly, to ensure the survival of the lakes. Such factors are not evident in the more diffused national context of the dairy industry. The lakes study and the Q-survey results also reveal that a sustainable development approach has the potential to lead to better long-term environmental sustainability results. Ultimately, the thesis demonstrates that different sustainability discourses shape different sustainability outcomes. It illuminates how nature-society relationships in New Zealand continue to be marked by power relations and power struggles that are shaped by political ideologies. The study concludes that an overwhelming emphasis by the government and the dairy industry on economic productivism has trumped any concern about environmental sustainability enshrined in the Resource Management Act, although interventions driven by a sustainable development discourse remain possible on a local scale

Towards climate resilience in agriculture for Southeast Asia: an overview for decision-makers.

This sourcebook, and accompanying poster learning series, is aimed at policy makers, planners in government, local research administrators, civil society partners and researchers in Southeast Asia. Compiled and repackaged by Dr. Julian Gonsalves and a resource team, the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) source book draws from a rich pool of literature from over 700 sources. The compilation provides succinct, relevant and timely information about climate challenges, and potential solutions from previously published work in a simplified or a shortened form from around the world. While the focus is on challenges specific to Southeast Asia, solutions may come from, or already have been tested elsewhere; it is for this reason that articles from around the world have been included, to demonstrate that adaptation efforts are already being implemented, and a wide range of approaches and strategies are available. This resource seeks to bridge the gap between what policy makers know, and what research shows can work on the ground to improve adaptation, increase productivity, enhance livelihoods, and contribute to sustainable development affected by climate change. The related poster series can be found here: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/71099

An investigation of postnatal length of stay in hospital and infant readmission to hospital

More women in England now have a shorter stay in hospital following birth despite increased medical intervention during childbirth. Infant admissions have also increased over the last decade. Evidence on the association between postnatal length of stay and infant readmission to hospital is conflicting. This thesis investigated the possible relationship between postnatal length of stay in hospital and infant readmissions. The systematic review found that early postnatal discharge (< 48 hours following vaginal birth: < 96 hours following caesarean birth) increases infant readmissions to hospital. The cross sectional study found that most of the increase in infant admission rate in the first 0-6 days of life was attributable to potentially preventable conditions, physiological jaundice and feeding related difficulties. The qualitative interview study found that parents did not perceive their hospital postnatal care to be an important factor in their infant’s readmission to hospital and were strongly motivated to go home following the birth hospitalisation. Given the enormous cost of infant readmissions to the NHS and potential trauma to both parents and infants, integrated care pathways and targeted community interventions should be developed to better support women and infants who are discharged under 48 hours, and infants at risk of being readmitted for jaundice and feeding difficulties

Mapping oil spill human health risk in rivers state, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Oil pipelines play a significant role in crude oil transportation and bring danger close to communities along their paths. Pipeline accidents happen every now and then due to factors ranging from operational cause to third party damage. In the Niger Delta pipeline system, interdiction is common; therefore, every length and breadth of land covered by a pipeline is vulnerable to oil pollution, which can pose a threat to land use. Weak enforcement of rights of way led to encroachment by farmers and human dwellings, thereby bringing people in close proximity to pipelines. Considering the impact exposure can have on human health, a method was developed for identifying vulnerable communities within a designated potential pipeline impact radius, and generic assessment criteria developed for assessing land use exposure. The GIS based model combines four weighted criteria layers, i.e. land cover, population, river and pipeline buffers in a multi-criteria decision making with analytical hierarchy process to develop an automated mapping tool designed to perform three distinct operations: firstly, to delineate pipeline hazard areas; secondly, establish potential pipeline impact radius; and thirdly, identify vulnerable communities in high consequence areas. The model was tested for sensitivity and found to be sensitive to river criterion; transferability on the other hand is limited to similar criteria variables. To understand spatial distribution of oil spills, 443 oil spill incidents were examined and found to tend towards cluster distribution. Meanwhile, the main causes of spills include production error (34.8%) and interdiction (31.6%); interdiction alone discharged about 61.4% of crude oil. This brings to light the significance of oil pipeline spills and the tendency to increase the risk of exposure. The generic assessment criteria were developed for three land uses using CLEA v 1.06 for aromatic (EC5-EC44) and aliphatic (EC5-EC44) fractions. The use of the model and screening criteria are embedded in a framework designed to stimulate public participation in pipeline management and pipeline hazard mitigation, which policy makers and regulators in the oil industry can find useful in pipeline hazard management and exposure mitigation

Feeling Our Way: An ethnographic exploration of university staff experiences of ‘soft skills’ learning and development programmes

Despite their ubiquitous presence in higher education (HE), staff learning and development programmes (LDPs) featuring soft skills remain a largely uncharted dimension of global university culture. Few studies have explored their meaning for participants or the relationship between LDPs, self-care and managerial practices. This study used autoethnography to explore staff experiences of learning and development programmes (LDPs) within one HE setting. Fieldwork included personal participation in a variety of LDPs and 25 semi-structured interviews with participants from a cross section of programmes and work sectors. Symbolic ritual and ritual interaction theory were used to interpret study data. Findings suggest that, as social worlds, LDPs featuring soft skills offer and fulfill practical and affective functions. From a social interaction perspective they emerged as an embodied, enjoyable andcommunal component of staff training and development, providing actors with a space, in which they can temporarily redefine themselves vis-à-vis the group and the wider social world. The ritual aspects of the LDP social world helped to create for participants a sense of passage with a beginning, middle and completion phase, which in contrast to the unending state of liminality associated with modern life, may help explain their appeal to temporary and part time staff, myself included. On some programmes the focus was on performance management (e.g. leadership skills), on others self-care (e.g. meditation, resilience), however most included both. Theatrical and dramatic devices were frequently used as motivational tools, encouraging academic staff in particular to emotionally invest in an increasingly mandatory entrepreneurial culture, with which they might otherwise be reluctant to engage. As ‘social worlds’ with neoliberal directives, LDPs promote various self-governance activities in the form of self-entrepreneurism and novel, corporate versions of selfcare. I propose three major subdivisions; self-entrepreneurial activities, self-care, and self-examination, which together constitute a hybrid form of self-governance. By emphasising self-responsibility they avert wider discussions concerning participation, power and inequalities in HE. The categories of ‘career nomad,’ ‘reluctant entrepreneur’ and ‘course hopper,’ that participants were seen to embody in this study, may prove useful for further research into modern workplace identities, while myobservations concerning liminality in the modern workplace has implications for the future direction of staff learning and development. Study outputs focused on sharing results with senior stakeholders involved in strategic planning of future LDPs, and considering more collaborative and holistic ways to promote staff wellbeing within the organisation

Mapping oil spill human health risk in rivers state, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Oil pipelines play a significant role in crude oil transportation and bring danger close to communities along their paths. Pipeline accidents happen every now and then due to factors ranging from operational cause to third party damage. In the Niger Delta pipeline system, interdiction is common; therefore, every length and breadth of land covered by a pipeline is vulnerable to oil pollution, which can pose a threat to land use. Weak enforcement of rights of way led to encroachment by farmers and human dwellings, thereby bringing people in close proximity to pipelines. Considering the impact exposure can have on human health, a method was developed for identifying vulnerable communities within a designated potential pipeline impact radius, and generic assessment criteria developed for assessing land use exposure. The GIS based model combines four weighted criteria layers, i.e. land cover, population, river and pipeline buffers in a multi-criteria decision making with analytical hierarchy process to develop an automated mapping tool designed to perform three distinct operations: firstly, to delineate pipeline hazard areas; secondly, establish potential pipeline impact radius; and thirdly, identify vulnerable communities in high consequence areas. The model was tested for sensitivity and found to be sensitive to river criterion; transferability on the other hand is limited to similar criteria variables. To understand spatial distribution of oil spills, 443 oil spill incidents were examined and found to tend towards cluster distribution. Meanwhile, the main causes of spills include production error (34.8%) and interdiction (31.6%); interdiction alone discharged about 61.4% of crude oil. This brings to light the significance of oil pipeline spills and the tendency to increase the risk of exposure. The generic assessment criteria were developed for three land uses using CLEA v 1.06 for aromatic (EC5-EC44) and aliphatic (EC5-EC44) fractions. The use of the model and screening criteria are embedded in a framework designed to stimulate public participation in pipeline management and pipeline hazard mitigation, which policy makers and regulators in the oil industry can find useful in pipeline hazard management and exposure mitigation