Capital or the Capitol?: The Hunger Games fandom and Neoliberal Populism

       Abstract: Based on interviews with fans of the Hunger Games books and films, and research of reader reviews and commentary online, this article argues that the widespread agreement among otherwise polarized fans indicate a change in populism in the US toward an anti-statist framing of social inequality defined as "neoliberal populism."The essay connects the Hunger Games to other examples of westerns that allegorize class inequality through rural/metropolitan divisions. It provides examples of three primary reader interpretations of the series as roughly analogous to contemporary American political positioning, with liberals and progressives who read THG as supporting an interracial struggle of the "have-nots" against the wealthy "haves"; by Conservatives and radical white nationalists who read the series as advocating  rural struggle against totalitarian and cosmopolitan "liberal fascism" and by revolutionary third-worldists who see the primary characters anti-colonial rebels against US empire

A Case Study Analysis of Organizational Crisis Communication During Hurricane Katrina

This study analyzed an educational organization\u27s crisis communication with its employees regarding the devastation caused to the organization and to employees by hurricane Katrina in 2005. This study drew upon literature regarding communication in crisis and in particular, natural disaster crisis, to ascertain to what degree employees felt the organization engaged in characteristics of High Reliability Organizations. A case study approach employing both qualitative and quantitative data was utilized. The data revealed that the organization was perceived by employees has having adequately communicated before and after Katrina. Data further revealed that the organization engages in behaviors consistent with practices of High Reliability Organizations. This study was designed to add to a limited body of knowledge regarding effective crisis communication practices of employers with employees during natural disasters

Urban Governance Toolbox for a Climate-Friendly Smart City

While many European cities have integrated climate protection into plans and processes and are aware of the dramatic effects of the climate change for the urban space, the integration of climate adaptation remains limited. However, even if the defined climate goals are reached, cities will have to adapt their structures and processes to deal with increased risks. That is why climate protection must be supplemented by climateadaptation measures in order to preserve attractive, liveable and safe living space. The paper builds on activities within the project SMARTilience funded by the federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT) of the University of Stuttgart, the HafenCity University Hamburg, Drees&Sommer, the Malik Management GmbH and the German cities Mannheim and Halle (Saale) are developing an integrated, socio-technical control model, the so-called urban governance toolbox, to support decision-makers and other actors in municipalities to promote effective climate action. This toolbox should include smart tools which helps to increase the resilience of a city and integrates climate change and climate adaptation. This paper discusses the justification of its development, possible content and the concept behind the urban governance toolbox. Furthermore, the paper will present two concrete use cases (Mannheim and Halle) with their urgent pressure to act on climate adaptation and how those two urban laboratories with real experiments will contribute to the development of the toolbox. Furthermore, the paper explains the peer-to-peer learning which is strongly emphasized in the project as one part of the urban toolbox

Bürger*innen als Freunde? Potenziale von Sozialen Medien in der öffentlichen Verwaltung (POSITIV)

BÜRGER*INNEN ALS FREUNDE? POTENZIALE VON SOZIALEN MEDIEN IN DER ÖFFENTLICHEN VERWALTUNG (POSITIV) Bürger*innen als Freunde? Potenziale von Sozialen Medien in der öffentlichen Verwaltung (POSITIV) / Nell, Rebecca (Rights reserved) ( -

Wissensproduktion und Lernprozesse am Beispiel von Reallaboren zur Klimafolgenanpassung in Halle (Saale) und Mannheim

Steigende Durchschnittstemperaturen und verstärkt auftretende Hitzeinseln erhöhen die Verwundbarkeit der Stadtgesellschaft auch in Halle (Saale) und Mannheim. Die Bearbeitung der damit einhergehenden Herausforderungen braucht nicht nur lokal angepasste Strategien, sondern insbesondere ein ressortübergreifendes Vorgehen und die partizipative Einbindung der Betroffenen. Reallabore in beiden Städten eröffnen die Möglichkeit, dies in einem transformativen Verfahren zu erproben. Ziel ist es hier unter anderem, miteinander und voneinander zu lernen und neues Wissen zur Bearbeitung der dringenden Fragen zu erzeugen. Dieser Beitrag diskutiert, mit welchen Chancen und Herausforderungen Reallabore im Hinblick auf Wissen bereits in der Findungsphase konfrontiert sind und worauf zu achten ist, um diesen Prozess bestmöglich zu unterstützen.Rising average temperatures and more frequent occurrence of heat islands increase the vulnerability of urban society in Halle (Saale) and Mannheim. Dealing with the associated challenges requires not only locally adapted strategies, but in particular an interdepartmental approach and involvement of those affected. Living labs in both cities open up the possibility of testing this in a transformative process. This paper discusses the challenges that living labs are confronted with in terms of knowledge already in the finding phase and what needs to be taken into account to support this process in the best possible way

Parental risk factors and children entering out-of-home care: The effects of cumulative risk and parent's sex

Background Parental difficulties, including mental ill health, substance misuse, domestic violence and learning disability have been associated with children entering out-of-home care. There is also evidence that these issues may co-occur within families. Understanding how the co-occurrence of these difficulties is associated with care entry is complex because they may co-occur in the same or different household members and have different impacts on the likelihood of care entry when they occur in mothers, fathers or in single parent households. Method Administrative data from local authority children’s services in Wales were linked with demographic data to identify households in which children lived prior to entering care. Linkage to birth data identified biological mothers. Linkage with primary care, emergency department, hospital admissions and substance misuse services data enabled indicators of substance misuse, mental health, assaults in the home, learning disability and neurodivergence in the adults in those households to be identified. A series of multilevel binary logistic regression models were used to explore the odds of a household having one or more children entering care if risk factors were present. These considered the effects of individual risks, and cumulative risk both in individual adults in the household, and across the whole household. The effects of the number of adults, having adults with no risks and the differential impacts of risks in biological mothers, other women or men were also explored. Additional models explored these factors in single adult households. Results Cumulative risks increased the likelihood of care entry, however this effect disappeared when individual risks were controlled for. The presence of an individual with no risks in the household acted as a protective factor. Overall, the impact of the risks on the odds of care entry was substantially greater if the risks were present in the biological mother than if they occurred in other adults (men or women) in the household. In single adult households risk factors had a much greater impact when they occurred in households headed by women as opposed to men. Conclusion Substantial differences in the effects of risk factors in female and male adults are apparent and further research is needed to understand why this is occurring to ensure that parents are treated equally in terms of support and statutory intervention regardless of their sex

General practitioners’ perspectives on campaigns to promote rapid help-seeking behaviour at the onset of rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. To explore general practitioners’ (GPs’ ) perspectives on public health campaigns to encourage people with the early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to seek medical help rapidly. Design. Nineteen GPs participated in four semistructured focus groups. Focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using thematic analysis. Results. GPs recognised the need for the early treatment of RA and identified that facilitating appropriate access to care was important. However, not all held the view that a delay in help seeking was a clinically significant issue. Furthermore, many were concerned that the early symptoms of RA were often non-specific, and that current knowledge about the nature of symptoms at disease onset was inadequate to inform the content of a help-seeking campaign. They argued that a campaign might not be able to specifically target those who need to present urgently. Poorly designed campaigns were suggested to have a negative impact on GPs’ workloads, and would “clog up” the referral pathway for genuine cases of RA. Conclusions. GPs were supportive of strategies to improve access to Rheumatological care and increase public awareness of RA symptoms. However, they have identified important issues that need to be considered in developing a public health campaign that forms part of an overall strategy to reduce time to treatment for patients with new onset RA. This study highlights the value of gaining GPs’ perspectives before launching health promotion campaigns

Variation within three apoptosis associated genes as potential risk factors for Achilles tendinopathy in a British based case-control cohort

Achilles tendon pathology (ATP) is a degenerative condition which exhibits excessive tenocyte apoptosis. Tumour necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1), caspase-3 (CASP3) and caspase-8 (CASP8) are important regulators of apoptosis. To date, the effect of variation within the genes for TNFR1 and CASP3 as risk factors for ATP have not been described. There is evidence that two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the CASP8 gene are associated with ATP, but only in populations from the Southern Hemisphere. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether SNPs within the TNFRSF1A and CASP3 genes were associated with ATP in British Caucasians. We additionally sought to determine whether copy number variation (CNV) within the CASP8 gene was associated with ATP. We recruited 262 (131 ATP cases and 131 asymptomatic controls) Caucasian participants for this genetic association study and used quantitative PCR with chi-squared (χ2) tests and ANOVA to detect significant associations. We found no association between the TNFRSF1A rs4149577 (p = 0.561), CASP3 rs1049253 (p = 0.643) and CASP8 copy number variants (p = 0.219) and ATP. Likewise, when we tested potential interactions between gender, genotype and the risk of ATP, we found no association with the variants investigated. In conclusion, the TNFRSF1A, CASP3 and CASP8 gene variants were not associated with ATP in British Caucasians

Retention in statutory social work from fast-track child and family programmes

Summary: Two fast-track child and family social work training programs have been established in England — Step Up to Social Work and Frontline. Trainees’ financial support is far higher than for mainstream social work degrees. One of the reasons claimed for setting up these programs is addressing retention, although critics (of Frontline) predicted graduates would not stay in social work. A 4-year study assessed retention and reasons for leaving social work. Attrition rates from statutory social work were calculated from responses (n = 2543) to annual surveys, plus looking up non-respondents in the professional register. Interviews were conducted with fast-track graduates (n = 80) and employers (n = 29). Findings: The overall rate of social work graduates not in statutory social work at 18 months post-qualification was 12% for fast-track programs, and Higher Education Statistics Agency survey data show attrition at 15 months post-qualification as 18% for all social work routes. Frontline's original national recruitment approach was less successful for retention than Step Up to Social Work's regional approach. Perceived local authority support and intrinsic job satisfaction were associated with attrition in longitudinal bivariate analysis. Fast-track graduates leaving statutory social work typically moved to work in social care (including policy roles), health, or education. Applications: Early-career attrition appears to be somewhat lower from fast-track programs than from all social work graduates. Longer-term comparison is not yet possible. In promoting retention, employers should be aware of the importance of staff perceptions of the local authority as supportive, and of their intrinsic job satisfaction

The Canberra Commission: Paths Followed, Paths Ahead

Despite its inauspicious start and virtual abandonment by the new Coalition government in Australia, the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons continued to attract international attention in arms control and disarmament circles