Are OSHA Health Inspections Effective? A Longitudinal Study in the Manufacturing Sector

We examine the impact of OSHA health inspections on compliance with agency regulations in the manufacturing sector, with a unique plant-level dataset of inspection and compliance behavior during 1972-1983, the first twelve years of OSHA enforcement operations. Two major findings are robust across the range of linear and count models estimated in the paper: (1) the number of citations and the number of violations of worker exposure restrictions decrease with additional health inspections in manufacturing plants; and (2) the first health inspection has the strongest impact. The results suggest that prior research focusing on the limited impact of OSHA safety regulations may under-estimate OSHA's total contribution to reducing workplace risks.

Agency, Equality and Courage: A Case Study of Women on the Front Lines of Egypt’s 2011 Revolution

How were women involved in Egypt’s 2011 revolution/uprising? What role did they play vis-à-vis male activists? To what degree were Egyptian women “equal” during those 18 days in Tahrir Square? These questions will be explored within the context of interviews conducted by this writer in Cairo during and following Egypt’s 18-day revolution (uprising). This essay will explore the public/private sphere split, political consciousness-raising, and gender equality within the context of the stories of Egyptian women on the front lines of protest. Much of the recent literature on women\u27s protests in Egypt has focused on women\u27s victimization. Critical gender theorist Ann Barrows has argued in other contexts that normative debates have often tried to align gender directly with women and victimhood, which undermine\u27s women\u27s agency as active participants (2010). This paper will reframe that perspective, looking at women\u27s agency as organizers, activists, researchers, and leaders in the 2011 uprisings that resulted in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt\u27s dictator for almost thirty years. Sprinkled throughout this presentation will be segments of interviews highlighting the personal stories of several women active in the Egyptian Revolution: Noha led protests in her community and recalled what it was like to have her voice leading chants being responded to by thousands of men. Nahla, volunteering with the Front to Defend Egyptian Protesters, staffed a hotline to record protesters being detained. Ana was on the Nile Bridge as hundreds of riot police tried to fight back hundreds of protesters trying to reach Tahrir Square. She was later arrested by security forces. This paper will share their views on gender equality and demonstrate the agency of women during the uprisings through their examples

Researching consent in veterinary practice: The use of interpretive description as a multidisciplinary methodology

In this article, I present three I-poems from a larger research project in which I explore the health, identity and social impacts of cycling for people with physical disabilities. I used I-poems as a means of kick-starting an in-depth, multi-perspective engagement with my interview transcripts after struggling to formulate insightful and productive thematic analysis. For me, this research project is something of a departure from my normal research processes and practices as it is taking place in partnership with a voluntary organisation. This organisation facilitated the recruitment of the research participants and had specific inputs into the research questions as well as maintaining ongoing interests in the research findings. My usual research tends to be much less structured and much more exploratory and messy than this. And yet, for me, this messiness facilitates insight and creative engagement which is intensely productive in terms of both findings and outputs – often via the use of creative methods. Therefore, as much as I have enjoyed conducting the research for this project and liaising with the organisation and meeting the participants, I struggled to find my ‘researcher mojo’ when working with the transcripts. In this context, I-poems became a creative stimulant for productive engagement with the transcripts and deepening my critical and reflective insights into the data

Role of the consent form in UK veterinary practice.

BACKGROUND: Informed consent from the client is required before veterinary professionals may administer treatment or perform surgery on an animal patient, except in an emergency. This study investigates the potential role(s) of the consent form in the consent process in the UK. METHODS: Thematic analysis was carried out on the text contained in 39 blank consent forms sourced from veterinary practices in the UK. Analysis was conducted at the levels of topical survey and thematic summary. RESULTS: Consent forms were used to authorise procedures, to define proposed treatment, to offer or recommend additional procedures, to convey the risks of treatment and to document the client's financial obligations. None of the forms analysed provided sufficient space to document the accompanying conversation. Notable omissions from the submitted forms included options for treatment and benefits of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The consent form acts as a record of the procedure to be performed, the associated costs and the status of the person giving consent. However, from this analysis, it often fails to record the detail of the consent discussion, an essential part of the consent process. A proposal for an improved version of a veterinary consent form is provided

Oral History as a Methodology for Teaching Human Rights (abstract)

This paper explains how non-state actors, including churches and non-profit organizations, work informally to protect the economic and social rights of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Under international law, economic and social rights should apply equally to non-citizens unless distinctions in their protection are necessary and proportionate to a legitimate State objective. There is no legitimate State objective to deny food, shelter or health care to non-citizens. Despite this, Federal and State governments in the United States take no express responsibility to respect, protect or fulfill the economic and social rights of undocumented migrants. The authors designate this lacuna in state protection as a “migrant rights gap.” The authors focus their study on the State of Minnesota where churches and organizations have worked informally to meet the rights of the Mexican migrant community, which would have been otherwise unrecognized and unrealized by the State. While organizations in this informal network do not choose to explain or explicitly carry out their work through the human rights framework, the services they provide -- often with the implicit approval of the government -- in fact allow the government to comply with its fundamental obligations with regard to the “migrant rights gap,” thereby addressing both the well-being of individual migrants and the society as a whole. The article profiles several organizations in Minnesota which provide services to undocumented Mexican immigrants. The organizations generally offer their services without questioning the immigration status of the people they serve, though their staff people and volunteers are aware that a substantial percentage of the Mexican immigrants who walk in their doors do not have proper immigration status. The organizations are aware of the lack of options for undocumented immigrants and, expressly or implicitly, their services constitute the only path these migrants have to realize their economic and social rights