Turning Brass to Muck? A Small Scale Exploration of Charities Use of Charity Bags Collections

The title of this paper is an inversion of the usual cliché of turning muck to brass, which it is arguable that charity bag collections do, by providing an in income for charities for goods that would normally be thrown away. While previous research has highlighted that charity bag collections are becoming an increasingly significant source of income for charities, enabling charities to metaphorically turn muck into brass, research has been rather disparate in its analysis of four main issues highlighted as pertinent to this growth. These are: the frequency of collection requests; the amount of materials collections provide; the amount of commission received by charities from outsourced collections, and the extent of bogus/fraudulent collections. This paper uses data collected over a 12 month period using a convenience sampling method to explore these issues in some empirical detail. The findings particularly suggest in that there are a number of processes through which charities undertake their collections which risks undermining the current and future income from charity bags, and which thereby has the potential to invert the metaphor, and turn what has become muck to brass into brass to muck, thereby losing out on a significant income stream

Languages, nations and identities

This article reviews a range of ways in which issues of national identity have been shown to be linked with the topic of language. We suggest that there is scope for development both of the theoretical underpinning to claims made about the nature of these links, and also, in consequence, to the methodological approaches appropriate to empirical investigations of them. Here, we explore the ways in which aspects of the social world such as those summarised above are understood theoretically. The first part of the paper argues that debates about the relationship of languages to forms of social identity, particularly those associated with nationalisms, often make a number of assumptions - about languages, about collectivities and about social agency. The second part interrogates these assumptions and proposes the utility of realist theory in evaluating claims in this area. In the final part of the paper, we outline the methodological implications of our argument

Rotator cuff tears: is non-surgical management effective?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Physical therapy Reviews on 28 December 2016, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10833196.2016.1271504.Background: Rotator cuff-related shoulder pain is a common musculoskeletal complaint with an increasing number of people with shoulder pain undergoing surgical repair each year. The relationship between rotator cuff tendon tears and shoulder pain remains equivocal due to the high prevalence of tears in people without symptoms, which suggests that a proportion of people will undergo surgery on tissues not related to their symptoms. As a result there have been suggestions to initially manage atraumatic tears non-surgically. Objectives: The objective of this narrative review was to present current evidence regarding the assessment and management of full-thickness rotator cuff tears. Major findings: To date, three randomised controlled trials have compared surgical with non-surgical management of rotator cuff tears. Outcomes show a small but non-significant effect in favour of surgery. Only one study has looked at long-term outcomes of greater than one year. Overall 129 subjects have completed a course of non-surgical management and therefore low participant numbers may not be sufficient to draw firm conclusions. Conclusions: Current evidence currently supports the consideration of a non-surgical approach in the management of people with shoulder symptoms and identified rotator cuff tears, for a period of time.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Extra-Curricular Activities: creating graduates with impact in education

Staff from the Carnegie Faculty’s Centre for Social and Educational Research across the Life-course (SERL) have completed a project for the Higher Education Academy subject group for education, ESCalate, into ‘Creating Graduates with Impact in Education’. Jacqueline Stevenson, Professor Sue Clegg and Paula Sealey undertook research with students and staff across a range of education-related courses as well as with employers from schools, local authorities and other education settings

International and industry partnerships: Building nursing capacity in Thailand

A newly formed partnership between Edith Cowan University, the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand, a College of Nursing and two major hospitals in Bangkok is building capacity within Thai Nurses to manage mental health problems and HIV/AIDS. The partnership, funded through the AusAID Public Sector Linkages Program is developing and delivering these training programs in three phases. The first two phases support the development of the curriculum and planning for the course delivery, with Phase 3 being the delivery of a four month certificate course in each of the specialist areas, mental health and HIV/AIDS, to local Thai Nurses. The program provides the opportunity for senior Thai Nurse Educators to gain insight into the Australian perspective of the relevant specialist areas as well as the broader Australian health system. Participants have then been able to review the course curricula and teaching methodologies, including additional and revised information and strategies as is relevant to the Thai health environment. An integral component of the program is evaluation. Following completion of the courses, nurses will be followed up on return to their workplace, to assess the impact of the course on the work practices of nurses. The program evaluation will support better understanding of emerging issues for all program partners and provide a strong basis for refinement of the program for future delivery. At the time of the ECU-COM 2006 conference, the program will be at the stage where the Thai nurses are completing the four month course. This paper will discuss the progress of the program to date, from the perspective of the Australian program partner

Whither Multiculturalism? – an Analysis of the Impact on Welfare Practice and Theory of Policy Responses to an Increasingly Multicultural Society in the UK

The UK is becoming an increasingly multicultural society, driven by a variety of demographic changes, particularly increased net migration from EU10 and the EU2 enlargement over the last 20 years. In response to this, there have been two main policy focus, that of reducing immigration and limiting entitlement to welfare benefits for migrants. This article will analyse the challenges that the latter of these policy changes in particular pose for practice, both in terms of its application and its theoretical implications. In terms of practice application, the paper outlines how the limitation of entitlement to welfare benefits on the one hand amplifies already existing issues, and on the other creates new challenges for social welfare practitioners with migrant groups. In terms of theoretical implications, the paper will outline how these policies reflects a retreat in policy away from multiculturalism towards assimilation, such as in relation to specifying the assimilation of ‘Britishness’ and ‘British values’ in daily life. Underpinning this retreat from multiculturalism is a changed citizenship, or more specifically the diminution of social citizenship rights integral to being complete citizens

Linguistic ethnography in realist perspective

This article engages with linguistic ethnography from the perspective of sociological realism. It begins by reviewing some of the positions expressed in the linguistic ethnography (LE) literature about the extent to which LE is defined by theoretical orientation as well as by method. The article is then framed around a kind of ‘generic’ sociolinguistic research question – ‘Which people use which kinds of language in what circumstances and with what outcome(s)?’. Taking each element in turn, it explores the ways in which an ethnographic approach contributes to the processes of: classifying speakers as members of various kinds of social groups; identifying language varieties; accounting for the inf luence of ‘context’; and identifying ‘outcomes’. I suggest that each of these aspects of social linguistic research stands to benefit from the methods developed in ethnography, and from the theories and principles underlying the approaches it uses. However, drawing on the work of contemporary realist social theorists, the article concludes that ethnography is a method suited to illuminating certain aspects of such questions better than others

‘I just couldn't do it’:representations of constraint in an oral history corpus

Corpus linguistic techniques are increasingly being used by discourse analysts whose interest is in the ‘critical’ issues of inequality and the representation of disadvantaged groups. This paper reports an extension of these approaches, where concordancing was used to analyse a corpus of 144 transcribed oral history interviews in order to explore the issue of constraint on the speakers’ goals and experiences. The analysis is of the expression I couldn't, which is contextualised with reference to research on negation and modality in authentic discourse contexts. This paper explores the ways in which I couldn't is deployed to refer to constraints of three main kinds: physical (pertaining to the body and material objects), structural (pertaining to the distribution of resources) and cultural (pertaining to social norms and expectations). The approach illustrates the advantage of maintaining an analytical distinction between the discursive and the material, so as to explore the interplay between them

Has the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation really given consumers more control over their personal data?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - which came into force in May 2018 - introduced a complete change to data privacy law. Arguably one of the most comprehensive pieces of European Union legislation, the GDPR appears to put data subjects in charge, with new and improved subject rights, wider territorial scope and increased accountability and enforcement mechanisms, all of which aim to strengthen their individual rights. The digital revolution presented the existing data protection legislation, namely the Data Protection Directive (DPD) (1995), with significant challenges. New means of processing personal information have led to increasingly acute consumer concerns over how personal data is gathered, handled, and stored. Modern - and largely intangible - processing methods may result in data subjects lacking control over their personal data. Control is in itself an essential aspect of data protection, not only in terms of privacy, but to uphold informational autonomy. As their own data is affected, a consumer should be able to ‘…predict with sufficient certainty which information about himself in certain areas is known to his social milieu…’ in order to have control over it. This may be done by having the right to choose how data is dealt with and where it will eventually end up. This article analyses what the Regulation has achieved in relation to giving consumers more control over their personal data. The wording and principles of the GDPR appear to prioritise consumer control, more so than any other European legal instrument. The issue of how GDPR has affected consumers has however received far less attention than the repercussions of the legislation upon organisations. Much academic commentary has focused upon commending, comparing or criticising the European initiative: this article will look to these to gauge whether this ‘gold standard’ reform really ‘does what it says on the tin.’ It compares GDPR with DPD to set out the rationale for reform, having regard to the increased influence and advance of modern technologies in a globalised market; it then argues that the breakdown of technological boundaries means that the DPD had perhaps lost touch, in terms of territorial scope, definitions, and terminologies. It therefore then examines those rights and principles that give rise to greater consumer control over personal data, not least transparency, fairness, lawfulness and accountability. Arguably, changes were not truly ground breaking, given that these principles are similar to those set out in the earlier Directive. The rights contained in the 2016 Regulation clearly reinforce these core principles however, not least the rights to be forgotten, to have data access, and portability.  An enforcement mechanism is a crucial aspect of consumer control. The conclusion argues that, despite clearly improving individual control, the Regulation may still not provide adequate protection when it comes to the most advanced areas in the technological field, namely, where mechanisms automatically or unknowingly process personal data. With this area of law constantly developing, however, it may be premature to critique certain obscure methods of processing: UK citizens similarly face a perhaps unknowable future post-Brexit. The concept of  data protection remains a fundamental right however, given how the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union works alongside the GDPR to uphold individual rights. In other words, both the Regulation – and the concept of a right to data protection  - may be redundant if existing in isolation; they must rely upon each other to operate effectively.   &nbsp

Food Waste Composting on a Bahamas Resort: Barriers Encountered and Lessons Learned

The ability for small islands to meet sustainability goals is exacerbated by the costs of transporting goods on, and then, wastes off the islands. At small scales, recycling can be prohibitive and complicated by labor costs; the need to profitably recycle and manage solid waste output from tourism is complicated by scale and available technologies. An on-going, multi-year study documents the amount of solid waste generated on Great Exuma, The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, since 2010 with benchmarking, then limited recycling of food waste generation by an all-inclusive resort, Sandals Emerald Bay. For the island of Exuma, the rapid increase in the rate of accumulation of solid waste associated with a large destination resort has led to an increase in pests such as rats and flies, along with an increased occurrence of fires associated with unburied solid waste. Solid waste has accumulated faster than the island solid waste management can absorb. Food waste composting is an ideal solution once challenges can be addressed; issues encountered included the limitations of physical space for food waste separation, the increased human resources and training required, the long-term corporate commitment and the requisite government oversight