Finding frames: new ways to engage the UK public in global poverty

The aim of the study was to explore the potential for frames theory to be used as a practical tool to re-engage the UK public in global poverty. In exploring the uses of frames theory, we have built on work by Tom Crompton at WWF-UK, who began the task of linking values to frames and thereby suggesting new ways forward for engaging the public in environmental issues and actions. An important finding from his Common Cause paper is that there is a common set of values that can motivate people to tackle a range of ‘bigger than self’ problems, including the environment and global poverty. The implication is that large coalitions can – and must – be built across third- sector organisations to bring about a values change in society. This report responds to that call. The basic argument of this paper is that there is a problem in terms of the UK public’s levels of engagement with global poverty. Simply put, people in the UK understand and relate to global poverty no differently now than they did in the 1980s. This is the case despite massive campaigns such as the Jubilee 2000 debt initiative and Make Poverty History; the widespread adoption and mainstreaming of digital communication techniques and social networks; steady growth in NGO fundraising revenues; the entire Millennium Development Goal story; and the establishment of a Westminster consensus on core elements of development policy. By many measures we have made amazing strides forward in recent years, but the public have largely been left behind. The result is that we operate within social and, by extension, political conditions that are precarious in the immediate term and incommensurate to the challenges of poverty and climate change in the medium and long term. This study looks at what can be learned from values (the guiding principles that individuals use to judge situations and determine their courses of action) and frames (the chunks of factual and procedural knowledge in the mind with which we understand situations, ideas and discourses in everyday life). Values and frames offer ways to look at the problem of public engagement with global poverty and to identify possible solutions. If we apply values and frames theory to the question of how to re-engage the public, we come up with some compelling insights into the impact of our existing practices and some striking solutions to the problems that these reveal. They may not be perfect solutions, and they bring with them significant challenges. But we believe they offer something valuable and timely: a fresh perspective. The persistent problem of public engagement suggests it is time for the development sector to transform its practices radically. Values and frames offer pathways to potential solutions that should be debated across the sector, and no

Revaluation: a participative approach to measuring and making change. CECAN Evaluation and Policy Practice Note (EPPN) No. 7 for policy analysts and evaluators

Revaluation is an innovative process for measuring the full value of activity in complex systems. It is a new approach, developed in the context of NHS Change Day 2015, a grassroots social movement for improving patient experience. The organisers of Change Day felt it was impossible to evaluate – based in part on having tried to do so in previous years – and framed the research task as one of "reimagining evaluation". Revaluation has since been applied in diverse settings including work on the natural environment, encouraging physical activity, and family nursing. It is continuously being refined through practice. Revaluation is centrally concerned with revealing the value of an activity or intervention in a complex system. Rather than asking "what works", its first question is "what is going on?" For this and other reasons, Revaluation has been described both as "a paradigm shift in evaluation" and "not evaluation"

Estimating the number of asbestos-related lung cancer deaths in Great Britain from 1980 to 2000.

INTRODUCTION: Inhalation of asbestos fibres is known to cause two main kinds of cancer-mesothelioma and lung cancer. While the vast majority of mesothelioma cases are generally accepted as being caused by asbestos, the proportion of asbestos-related lung cancers is less clear and cannot be determined directly because cases are not clinically distinguishable from those due to other causes. The aim of this study was to estimate the number of asbestos-related lung cancers among males by modelling their relative lung cancer mortality among occupations within Great Britain in terms of smoking habits, mesothelioma mortality (as an index of asbestos exposure) and occupation type (as a proxy for socio-economic factors). METHODS: Proportional mortality ratios for lung cancer and mesothelioma for the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000 (excluding 1981) were calculated for occupational groups. Smoking indicators were developed from three General Household Surveys carried out during the 1980s and 1990s. Poisson regression models were used to estimate the number of asbestos-related lung cancers by estimating the number of lung cancer deaths in each occupation assuming no asbestos exposure and subtracting this from the actual predicted number of lung cancer deaths. RESULTS: The effect of asbestos exposure in predicting lung cancer mortality was weak in comparison to smoking habits and occupation type. The proportion of current smokers in occupational groups and average age at which they started smoking were particularly important factors. Our estimate of the number of asbestos-related lung cancers was between two-thirds and one death for every mesothelioma death: equivalent to between 11 500 and 16 500 deaths during the time period studied. CONCLUSIONS: Asbestos-related lung cancer is likely to have accounted for 2-3% of all lung cancer deaths among males in Great Britain over the last two decades of the 20th century. Asbestos-related lung cancers are likely to remain an important component of the total number of lung cancer deaths in the future as part of the legacy of past asbestos exposures in occupational settings

Segmenting for sustainability: The development of a sustainability segmentation model from a Welsh sample

Wales is one of the few countries in the world that has adopted sustainability as a central organising principle for public policy. This paper describes the development of a sustainability segmentation model that can be used by to engage the public across different sustainability policy areas. A nationally representative survey (n=1,538) was conducted containing questions on the three pillars of sustainable development, human values, perceptions of climate change and energy security, and self-reported behaviours in the domains of household energy use, travel and transport, waste and recycling, and water use. A series of cluster analyses identified six segments of the public that relate differently to sustainability. Even if the segments were solely constructed on the basis of thirteen distal psycho-social indicators, they had distinct socio-demographic profiles and diverse patterns of self-reported environmental behaviour. A 15-item screening tool was developed to replicate the segments with an average 72% accuracy

Mesothelioma mortality in Great Britain from 1968 to 2001.

BACKGROUND: The British mesothelioma register contains all deaths from 1968 to 2001 where mesothelioma was mentioned on the death certificate. AIMS: To present summary statistics of the British mesothelioma epidemic including summaries by occupation and geographical area. METHODS: Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for local authorities, unitary authorities and counties. Temporal trends in SMRs were also examined. Proportional mortality ratios (PMRs) were calculated using the Southampton (based on the 1980 standard occupational classification) coding scheme. Temporal trends in PMRs were also examined. RESULTS: The annual number of mesothelioma deaths has increased from 153 in 1968 to 1848 in 2001. Current deaths in males account for about 85% of the cases. The areas of West Dunbartonshire (SMR 637), Barrow-in-Furness (593), Plymouth (396) and Portsmouth (388) have the highest SMRs over the period 1981-2000. The occupations with the highest PMRs are metal plate workers (PMR 503), vehicle body builders (526), plumbers and gas fitters (413) and carpenters (388). CONCLUSIONS: These data reinforce earlier findings that geographical areas and occupations associated with high exposure to asbestos in the past continue to drive the mesothelioma epidemic in Great Britain. However, the trends over time suggest a change in the balance of risk away from traditional asbestos exposure industries to industries where one could describe the exposure as secondary, such as plumbers and gas fitters, carpenters, and electricians