The Relationship Between Eating School Lunch and Overweight or Obesity in Elementary School Children

Childhood obesity has become a grave concern in the U.S. and globally today. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of school lunch on overweight or obesity in elementary school children. The results revealed that eating school lunch was significantly related to increased risk of overweight or obesity in school children.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/archivedposters/1013/thumbnail.jp

The compact city : a dead-end for urban sustainability? : an analysis of the compact city’s desirability dimension : a case study of Geneva

The compact city model emerged as a sustainable response against the dominant trend of urban sprawl. However, the compact city model is not without controversy. Many scholars have questioned the veracity, feasibility and desirability of the compact city through three sets of critiques. Results from the desirability dimension have led to criticism of the model for running counter to the residential aspirations of its urban dwellers and for undermining social equity. In discussing urban sustainability and urban form, I position my research in line with the Right to the City’s critical approach towards urbanisation processes. In addition, I follow a demographic and residential approach to the compact city, informed by the literature on reurbanisation, to gain insight into the demographic changes and residential attractiveness of central cities. This research analyses the desirability dimension of the compact city model by examining the case of Geneva along two main research axes; first by analysing compact city planning and its implications for social equity based on urban planning document analysis and expert interviews. Secondly by assessing the compact city’s desirability dimension among new urban dwellers based on a web-based survey and household interviews. This thesis is therefore carried out within a mixed methods research strategy, which combines qualitative and quantitative methods applied to the case study of Geneva. Findings reveal a compact city planning which comes with social costs in the form of housing affordability issues and gentrification processes. Driven by the rules of the free market, the housing market pressured by an increased demand stemming from new immigrants – predominantly moreaffluent residents, the “new middle class” − leads to increased housing prices which par9cipate to broader housing affordability issues. Findings also show, on the one hand, a compact city model closely associated to Ley’s (1996) “new middle class” attracted by the urban advantages of proximity and accessibility and for whom the compact city is found desirable. While, on the other hand, conventional families tend to leave the compact city. Compact city planning falls short at conciliating the three imperatives for a sustainable urban development, and at meeting the social needs of all its inhabitants. Subsequently, new approaches which integrate the interconnections between the urban form and the social are required

Stefan Ramaekers & Judith Suissa, The claims of parenting. Reasons, responsibility and society

Boekbespreking van: Stefan Ramaekers & Judith Suissa, The claims of parenting. Reasons, Dordrecht/Heidelberg/Londen/New York: responsibility and society. Springer, 2012. ISBN 9789400722507, 158 blz., € 99,95 (hardcover). Het boek is te downloaden via: http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-94-007-2251-4#section=957711&page=8&locus=0

Issue 1: Anti-Black Racism, Bio-Power, and Governmentality: Deconstructing the Suffering of Black Families Involved with Child Welfare

This article focuses on how colonialism, anti-Black racism and white supremacy are embodied by Ontario’s child welfare system in relation to narratives of suffering experienced by Black families involved with this sector. We discuss how these experiences are an embodiment of the Foucauldian concepts of bio-power and governmentality. Understanding this embodiment is crucial for deconstructing how anti-Black racism, colonialism, and white supremacy are manifested in the day-to-day policies and practices of child welfare. To explicate these policies and practices we discuss three inter-related factors: 1) the historical rise of the welfare state, 2) anti-Black racism, and 3) bio-power and governmentality

Missional metanoia: Missional spirituality in holistic theological education

Abstract Theological education is in crisis having lost an important dimension with its main focus on quality academics often abstracted from real life. This study aimed to propose that the formation of spirituality is fundamental to theological education and that theological education should be a holistic formation. The setting of this study is re-imaging theological education in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), a denomination in the process of missional transformation, but it is also applicable to theological education in general. This study focused on the relation between theology and spirituality, the significance of missional spirituality in theological education and a probable model for the formation of a missional spirituality. The study found that theology and spirituality are interdependent, and theological education should thus focus on all the different areas of learning and formation, that is, minimum knowledge base, pass-on-able habits and skills, and attitudes and beliefs. Theological education should ultimately cultivate a missional spirituality, forming missional leaders for the church. Leaders who are equipped are able to equip others for God’s mission. Theological education is not about obtaining a degree but in essence a process of formation and transformation. Wright asks: if the gospel is not transforming you, will it transform anything else? Transformation to be able to transform – a missional metanoia. Contribution: This study provides a probable model for holistic theological education and the formation of a missional spirituality