Competitive tendering in the Scottish National Health Service Was it compulsory, and did it make a difference?(*)

This paper examines the implementation of competitive tendering in the Scottish National Health Service. Data relating to cleaning, catering and laundering services-- the three services targeted for competitive tendering--are examined. Our analysis suggests that for the first four years the request to market test was largely ignored in Scotland. In 1987 it become a management requirement, and within three years of its fresh start implementation of this policy more than matched the corresponding experience in England.

Content without context is noise : Looking for curriculum harmony in primary arts education in Western Australia

Arts education in Western Australian primary schools consist of learning opportunities outlined by mandated curriculum. However, assumptions underlying this curriculum involving access, resources and support impact schools’ capacity to implement the curriculum without them being adequately addressed by the written curriculum. Drawing on the policy enactment theory of Ball, Maguire, and Braun (2012), four contextual variables (situated contexts, professional cultures, material contexts and external factors) are used to highlight the differences between the written published curriculum and the implemented, practised curriculum. Drawing on interviews with 24 participants across four schools issues of geographic location, use of arts specialists, appropriate learning spaces and the stresses associated with mandated literacy and numeracy testing are reported as contextual pressures by this study. This paper details the disruptive interference of these contextual pressures that we describe as ‘noise’. The provision of a better understanding of this contextual landscape brings schools and teachers away from the ‘noise’ of disruption and closer to curriculum harmony

Musical Body of the Universe: the one and many in an Amazonian cosmology

Resumo Este trabalho explora os significados de “Corpo” e “Espírito” em relação a um dos mais importantes personagens na cosmologia Hohodene, o espírito “Guardião da Doença e da Magia”, chamado Kuwai [“Yurupary”, em língua geral]. Este Grande Espírito é uma síntese extraordinariamente complexa da visão Hohodene (e de outros Baniwa, povos falantes do Arawak setentrional). Ele é o “coração/ alma” do seu pai, o Criador Nhiaperikuli, o que implica que ele não é um ser material. O corpo de seu “Espírito” é permeado por buracos, por onde a respiração de sua alma produz uma grande variação de sons, melodias e canções. Todos esses sons, eventualmente, se tornaram canções ancestrais primordiais produzidas por flautas; muitos deles referentes a animais primordiais, peixes ou cantos de pássaros intrinsecamente conectados aos valores e processos reproduzidos pela sociedade Hohodene: parentesco vs afins, feitiçaria contra curandeiros, os primeiros antepassados (que ainda não estavam plenamente humanos) e suas relações. De maneira geral, o Corpo-espírito de Kuwai, depois transformado pelo Pai Criador Nhiaperikuli em flautas e trompetes musicais e sacros, pode ser entendido como os meios de reproduzir a “sociedade” e o “universo”. Além do mais, este trabalho explora “o corpo musical do universo” dos Hohodene. Som e visão são propositalmente conectados como os principais geradores de vida os quais dão princípio e eternamente reproduzirão o mundo. Em minha interpretação, eu busco desvelar as múltiplas camadas de significados relacionadas a esta figura ao utilizar de exegeses nativas que conectam narrativas, representações gráficas (incluindo petroglifos), curas xamânicas e visões, geografia sagrada e cantos sacros. Eu espero mostrar que as noções Hohodene de Self, Cosmos, Ontologia e História estão entrelaçadas em uma abrangente multiplicidade de seres vivos em um ínico material e espiritual “Corpo”. O corpo de Kuwai é considerado o corpo do universo, em que os mundos material e espiritual estão intimamente entrelaçados. Assim, as relações com o mundo espiritual, como as relações com o mundo dos brancos, ou as relações com a categoria de estranhos dentro da sociedade (ou seja, os feiticeiros) são igualmente partes da historicidade indígena no sentido mais básico da palavra, que é a reprodução da sociedade e cosmos no tempo e no espaço. Sociedade não consiste apenas em parentelas (neste caso, fratrias exogâmicas), mas também “outros grupos”, a alteridade, povos fora do círculo de parentelas. A história sagrada para os Baniwa, como lembrado em narrativas e pinturas rupestres, confunde-se com os processos reais e eventos, tais como relações interétnicas com os brancos, e a história das acusações de feitiçaria que deram origem a movimentos proféticos desde o século XIX.  Abstract This paper explores the meanings of “Body” and “Spirit” in relation to one of the most important personages in Hohodene cosmology, the spirit “Owner of Sickness and Sorcery”, named Kuwai. {“Yurupary” in general language] This Great Spirit is an extraordinarily complex synthesis of the Hohodene (and other Baniwa, northern Arawak-speaking peoples) worldview. He is the “heart/ soul” of his father, the Creator Nhiaperikuli, implying that he was not a material being. His spirit “Body” was full of holes from which the breath of his soul produced a very large range of sounds, melodies, and song. All of these sounds eventually became primordial ancestral songs produced by material flutes; many of them refer to primor- dial animal, fish, or birdsongs intrinsically connected to core values and processes reproduced in Hohodene society: kinship vs affines, sorcery vs healers, the first ancestors (who were not yet fully human) and their relations. Taken as a who- le, the spirit-Body of Kuwai, later transformed by the Creator Father Nhiaperikuli into sacred musi- cal flutes and trumpets, can be understood as the means for reproducing ‘society’ and the ‘universe’. Thus, this paper explores the Hohodene “musical body of the universe”. Sound and vision are purposefully connected as the principal life-forces that gave rise to, and will eternally reproduce the world. In my interpretation, I seek to unravel multiple layers of meaning related to this figure by utilizing native exegeses that connect narratives, graphic representations (including petroglyphs), shamanic cures and visions, sacred geography, and sacred chants. I hope to show that Hohode- ne notions of Self, Cosmos, Ontology, and History are intertwined in an all-encompassing multiplicity of living entities into one material and spiritual “Body”. The body of Kuwai is considered the body of the universe, in which the material and spiritual worlds are inextricably interwoven. Thus, relations with the spirit-world, like relations with the world of white men, or relations with the category of outsiders within society (i.e., the sorcerers) are all equally parts of indigenous historicity in the most basic sense of the word, that is, the reproduction of society and cosmos in time and space. Society consists not only of kingroups, (in this case, exogamous phratries), but also, “other groups”, alterity, peoples outside the circle of kingroups. Sacred history for the Baniwa, as remembered in narratives and petroglyphs, is intertwined with actual processes and events such as interethnic relations with the Whites, and the history of sorcery accusations which have given rise to prophet movements ever since the 19th century.  

Food habits of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) off Oregon and northern California, 1986–2007

We described the diet of the eastern stock of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) from 1416 scat samples collected from five sites in Oregon and northern California from 1986 through 2007. A total of 47 prey types from 30 families were identified. The most common prey was Pacific hake (Merluccius productus), followed by salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.), skates (Rajidae), Pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata), herrings (Clupeidae), rockfish (Sebastes spp.), and northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax). Steller sea lion diet composition varied seasonally, annually, and spatially. Hake and salmonids were the most commonly identified prey in scats collected during the summer (breeding season), whereas hake and skate were most common in the nonbreeding season. Continued research on Steller sea lion diet and foraging behavior in the southern extent of their range is necessary to address issues such as climate change, interaction with competing California sea lions, and predation impacts on valuable or sensitive fish stocks

A Passion for the Oppressed

This Special Issue is in honor of Shelton H. Davis, one of the pioneers in anthropological advocacy of indigenous rights and a major contributor to the elaboration of socially and environmentally sound development policies at the World Bank

Class Dismissed: Exploring the Semiotic Niche of Academicians with Working Class Roots

This paper is one part of a larger study of scholars with working-class backgrounds. The purpose was to find factors in their working-class upbringing that led to their pursuit of a doctorate and life in the academy. In this section, I use symbolic conversion theory and biosemiotics to in the analysis and discussion of two major threads running through the study: the role of parochial education and an early passion for reading. Keywords: class, social justice, biosemiotics, symbolic convergence, higher education, embodied

Sentinels and Entrepreneurs: Advocacy and Development in Brazil

This article discusses, firstly, the significance of Sandy Davis’ activism for the international indigenous support movement from the 1970s through the late 1980s, and the strategies that were deployed during the global campaign in support of the Yanomami Indian Park. Secondly, it looks critically at some of the models of support for indigenous peoples being implemented in Brazil today, for the purpose of understanding what has changed in the ways indigenous support organizations develop partnerships with indigenous movements. What has changed in the way indigenous and indigenist organizations in Brazil understand their goals and the means for attaining them? What are some of the advances and the shortcomings of current ‘sustainable development projects’ implemented in the Amazon region ? The idea here is to bring constructive criticism to bear on indigenist approaches in the Northwest Amazon of Brazil, an area where I have done field and archival research since 1976. Este artigo discute, primeiramente, o significado do ativismo de Shelton “Sandy” Davis para o movimento de apoio aos povos indígenas desde os anos de 1970 até o final dos anos 80, principalmente as estratėgias empregadas a favor da criação do Parque Indígena Yanomami. Em segundo lugar, analiso de maneira crítica alguns dos modelos de apoio aos povos indígenas implementados no Brasil atualmente. O que tem mudado nas maneiras em que as organizações indigenistas não-governamentais entendam os seus objetivos e os meios para alcançá-los ? Quais são alguns dos mais importantes avanços e problemas nos projetos desenvolvimentistas sendo implementados na Amazônia hoje ? A ideia aqui é de levantar algumas críticas construtivas sobre as abordagens atualmente implementadas no Noroeste do Brasil, na região do Alto Rio Negro, e principalmente na área dos povos Baniwa, com quem tenho trabalhado desde os ano de 1976