Designing Prostitution Policy Intention and Reality in Regulating the Sex Trade

In policy terms, social order is seen as the outcome of the more or less orchestrated practices of a large number of actors who ... Second, because prostitution in contemporary society is so entangled with public policy, it is essential that we ..

Barriers and facilitators for participation in health promotion programs among employees: A six-month follow-up study

Background: Health promotion programs (HPPs) are thought to improve health behavior and health, and their effectiveness is increasingly being studied. However, participation in HPPs is usually modest and effect sizes are often small. This study aims to (1) gain insight into the degree of participation of employees in HPPs, and (2) identify factors among employees that are associated with both their intention to participate and actual participation in HPPs. Methods. Employees of two organizations were invited to participate in a six-month follow-up study (n = 744). Using questionnaires, information on participation in HPPs was collected in two categories: employees' intention at baseline to participate and their actual participation in a HPP during the follow-up period. The following potential determinants were assessed at baseline: social-cognitive factors, perceived barriers and facilitators, beliefs about health at work, health behaviors, and self-perceived health. Logistic regression analyses, adjusted for demographics and organization, were used to examine associations between potential determinants and intention to participate, and to examine the effect of these determinants on actual participation during follow-up. Results: At baseline, 195 employees (26%) expressed a positive intention towards participation in a HPP. During six months of follow-up, 83 employees (11%) actually participated. Participants positively inclined at baseline to participate in a HPP were more likely to actually participate (OR = 3.02, 95% CI: 1.88-4.83). Privacy-related barriers, facilit

Conservation and Conflict in the Cockpit Country, Jamaica, 1962-2022

Cockpit Country in west central Jamaica is a unique karst landscape. Based on a wide range of published and online sources, this article examines threats to the area’s biodiversity and attempts to conserve it, from Jamaica’s independence in 1962 to the declaration of the Cockpit Country Protected Area in 2022. It focusses on several stakeholders – the government, international organisations, environmental groups, and Cockpit communities –, and argues that their interplay made conservation of the area a far from straightforward trajectory.  It will show that by the late 1980s, international organisations increasingly used mainstream conservation approaches in their work to protect the Cockpit Country and that local environmental groups gradually also came to embrace mainstream conservation. But it will also highlight that Cockpit communities have had a more ambivalent attitude towards conservation of the area than local environmental groups and international organisations, and that a focus on short-term gain has made the government a reluctant and even obstructive stakeholder in the preservation of the area’s biodiversity.Cockpit Country in west central Jamaica is a unique karst landscape. Based on a wide range of published and online sources, this article examines threats to the area’s biodiversity and attempts to conserve it, from Jamaica’s independence in 1962 to the declaration of the Cockpit Country Protected Area in 2022. It focusses on several stakeholders – the government, international organisations, environmental groups, and Cockpit communities –, and argues that their interplay made conservation of the area a far from straightforward trajectory.  It will show that by the late 1980s, international organisations increasingly used mainstream conservation approaches in their work to protect the Cockpit Country and that local environmental groups gradually also came to embrace mainstream conservation. But it will also highlight that Cockpit communities have had a more ambivalent attitude towards conservation of the area than local environmental groups and international organisations, and that a focus on short-term gain has made the government a reluctant and even obstructive stakeholder in the preservation of the area’s biodiversity.Cockpit Country en el centro oeste de Jamaica es un paisaje kárstico único. Basado en una amplia gama de fuentes publicadas y en línea, este artículo examina las amenazas a la biodiversidad del área y los intentos de conservarla, desde la independencia de Jamaica en 1962 hasta la declaración del Área Protegida Cockpit Country en 2022. Se enfoca en varias de las partes interesadas: el gobierno, organizaciones internacionales, grupos ambientalistas y comunidades de Cockpit, y argumenta que su interacción hizo que la conservación del área no fuera una trayectoria sencilla. Mostrará que a fines de la década de 1980, las organizaciones internacionales utilizaron cada vez más enfoques de conservación convencionales en su trabajo para proteger Cockpit Country y que los grupos ambientalistas locales gradualmente también adoptaron la conservación convencional. Pero también resaltará que las comunidades de Cockpit han tenido una actitud más ambivalente hacia la conservación del área que los grupos ambientalistas locales y las organizaciones internacionales, y que su enfoque en la ganancia a corto plazo ha convertido al gobierno en un actor reacio e incluso obstructivo en la preservación de la biodiversidad de la zona

Tackling child malnutrition in Jamaica, 1962-2020

On the eve of independence in 1962, 40 to 60 per cent of Jamaican children aged 6 to 24 months died of malnutrition or gastroenteritis. In the decades following, child malnutrition rates rapidly declined: in 2000, less than 4 per cent of all Jamaican children under five were underweight. Based on a wide range of sources, including public documents, newspaper reports, scientific studies and reports by international agencies, this article examines the process by which child malnutrition rates declined in Jamaica in the decades after independence. In particular, it will show that changes in the global economy and conditions imposed by international lenders intersected in complex ways with local factors, making it difficult for the Jamaican government to lower child malnutrition. In doing so, it adds to the history of medicine in post-colonial contexts, which has so far not paid much attention to nutrition. Because of the complex interplay between local and global factors, this article will argue that traditional forms of public health nutrition are incapable of effectively addressing the increasing double burden of malnutrition faced by low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – the coexistence of undernutrition with overweight and obesity. In Jamaica today pockets of high child malnutrition exist alongside rapidly rising levels of childhood obesity. To address this, a multi-faceted approach is needed, involving different ministries and government agencies. Jamaica experimented with such an approach in the 1970s. The following will set out some lessons we can learn from this experiment and other approaches used to lower child malnutrition levels in post-independence Jamaica

Representations of Slave Women in Discourses on Slavery and Abolition, 1780–1838

This book analyzes textual representations of Jamaican slave women in three contexts--motherhood, intimate relationships, and work--in both pro- and antislavery writings. Altink examines how British abolitionists and pro-slavery activists represented the slave women to their audiences and explains not only the purposes that these representations served, but also their effects on slave women’s lives

Representations of Slave Women in Discourses on Slavery and Abolition, 1780–1838

This book analyzes textual representations of Jamaican slave women in three contexts--motherhood, intimate relationships, and work--in both pro- and antislavery writings. Altink examines how British abolitionists and pro-slavery activists represented the slave women to their audiences and explains not only the purposes that these representations served, but also their effects on slave women’s lives