Self-gouvernement et pragmatisme ; Jefferson, Thoreau, Tocqueville, Dewey

The main idea of this paper is that self-government should be regarded as a principle whose basic meaning is that people, in order to fulfill their aspirations and pursue a life worth living, must have the right and power to influence their individual and social circumstances. When applied to political theory such principle allows to draw the outlines of what John Dewey called “radical liberalism” or “radical democracy”, a political culture that presents some fondamental differences when compared to the two dominant contemporary alternative standpoints, liberalism and communitarism. Considering the works of Jefferson, Thoreau, Tocqueville and Dewey as belonging to a same political family the paper traces its main constitutive traits

Spectateur ou regardeur ? Remarques sur « l’art public »

On pourrait penser que les œuvres d’art situées dehors qualifiées généralement de « publiques » (bien qu’elles soient parfois privées), sont plus proches de nous que celles qui sont situées dans les musées, plus accessibles et abordables, plus à même de fédérer un public participatif et de promouvoir une sorte d’égalité esthétique. Or ce n’est pas le cas. Si elles sont à l’extérieur, dans « l’espace public », elles ne sont pas nécessairement parmi nous. C’est ce « parmi nous » que je voudrais..

Ce que les animaux sauvages disent de la condition urbaine

En partant de l’étonnement qu’a suscité l’apparition d’animaux sauvages dans les villes désertées par leurs habitants confinés, cet article met en exergue ce que la vie sauvage nous apprend de la vie urbaine, de ses insuffisances, de ses aberrations, des sacrifices qu’elle impose et des contraintes qu’elle exerce sur les vivants en général. Comment faire de la ville une nouvelle arche de Noé ? Telle est la question qui se pose.Starting from the astonishment at the appearance of wild animals in cities deserted by their confined inhabitants, this article highlights what wildlife teaches us about urban life, its structural defects, its aberrations, the sacrifices it imposes and the constraints it places on the living beings in general. How to make the city a new Noah’s Ark? This is the question that arises

Smoking Mull: a grounded theory model on the dynamics of combined tobacco and cannabis use among men

Issue addressed: Australians’ use of cannabis has been increasing. Over a third of Australians (35.4%) have used cannabis at some time in their lives and 10.3% are recent users. Almost two-thirds of cannabis users combine cannabis with tobacco. The aim of this study was to understand the process of mulling – smoking tobacco and cannabis together – using a grounded theory approach. Methods: Twenty-one in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted with men aged 25–34 and living on the North Coast of New South Wales. Interviews explored participants’ smoking practices, histories and cessation attempts. Results: A model describing mulling behaviour and the dynamics of smoking cannabis and tobacco was developed. It provides an explanatory framework that demonstrates the flexibility in smoking practices, including substance substitution – participants changed the type of cannabis they smoked, the amount of tobacco they mixed with it and the devices they used to smoke according to the situations they were in and the effects sought. Conclusion: Understanding these dynamic smoking practices and the importance of situations and effects, as well as the specific role of tobacco in mulling, may allow health workers to design more relevant and appropriate interventions. So what?: Combining tobacco with cannabis is the most common way of smoking cannabis in Australia. However, tobacco cessation programmes rarely address cannabis use. Further research to develop evidence-based approaches for mull use would improve cessation outcomes. Keywords: concomitant use, marijuana, mulling, nicotineNHMR

Integrating research- and relationship-based approaches in Australian health promotion practice

We examine the perspectives of health promotion practitioners on their approaches to determining health promotion practice, in particular on the role of research and relationships in this process. Using Grounded Theory methods, we analysed 58 semi-structured interviews with 54 health promotion practitioners in New South Wales, Australia. Practitioners differentiated between relationship-based and research-based approaches as two sources of knowledge to guide health promotion practice. We identify several tensions in seeking to combine these approaches in practice and describe the strategies that participants adopted to manage these tensions. The strategies included working in an evidence-informed rather than evidence-based way, creating new evidence about relationship-based processes and outcomes, adopting ‘relationship-based’ research and evaluation methods, making research and evaluation useful for communities, building research and evaluation skills and improving collaboration between research & evaluation and program implementation staff. We conclude by highlighting three systemic factors which could further support the integration of researchbased and relationship-based health promotion practices: (1) expanding conceptions of health promotion evidence, (2) developing 'relationship-based' research methods that enable practitioners to measure complex social processes and outcomes and to facilitate community participation and benefit, and (3) developing organisational capacity. KEYWORDS: qualitative research, health promotion practice, community participation, research & evaluationNHMR

Three year follow-up of an early childhood intervention : is movement skill sustained?

BackgroundMovement skill competence (e.g. the ability to throw, run and kick) is a potentially important physical activity determinant. However, little is known about the long-term impact of interventions to improve movement skills in early childhood. This study aimed to determine whether intervention preschool children were still more skill proficient than controls three years after a 10 month movement skill focused intervention: &lsquo;Tooty Fruity Vegie in Preschools&rsquo;.MethodsChildren from 18 intervention and 13 control preschools in NSW, Australia were assessed at ages four (Time1), five (T2) and eight years (T3) for locomotor (run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump, slide) and object control proficiency (strike, bounce, catch, kick, overhand throw, underhand roll) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Multi-level object control and locomotor regression models were fitted with variables time, intervention (yes/no) and a time*intervention interaction. Both models added sex of child and retained if significant, in which case interactions of sex of child with other variables were modelled and retained. SPSS (Version 17.0) was used.ResultsOverall follow-up rate was 29% (163/560). Of the 137 students used in the regression models, 53% were female (n = 73). Intervention girls maintained their object control skill advantage in comparison to controls at T3 (p = .002), but intervention boys did not (p = .591). At T3, there were no longer intervention/control differences in locomotor skill (p = .801).ConclusionEarly childhood settings should implement movement skill interventions and more intensively target girls and object control skills.<br /

Six year follow-up of students who participated in a school-based physical activity intervention: a longitudinal cohort study

Background: The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the long-term impact of a childhood motor skill intervention on adolescent motor skills and physical activity. Methods: In 2006, we undertook a follow-up of motor skill proficiency (catch, kick, throw, vertical jump, side gallop) and physical activity in adolescents who had participated in a one year primary school intervention Move It Groove It (MIGI) in 2000. Logistic regression models were analysed for each skill to determine whether the probability of children in the intervention group achieving mastery or near mastery was either maintained or had increased in subsequent years, relative to controls. In these models the main predictor variable was intervention status, with adjustment for gender, grade, and skill level in 2000. A general linear model, controlling for gender and grade, examined whether former intervention students spent more time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at follow-up than control students. Results: Half (52%, n = 481) of the 928 MIGI participants were located in 28 schools, with 276 (57%) assessed. 52% were female, 58% in Grade 10, 40% in Grade 11 and 54% were former intervention students. At follow-up, intervention students had improved their catch ability relative to controls and were five times more likely to be able to catch: OR catch = 5.51, CI (1.95 - 15.55), but had lost their advantage in the throw and kick: OR throw = .43, CI (.23 - .82), OR kick = .39, CI (.20 - .78). For the other skills, intervention students appeared to maintain their advantage: OR jump = 1.14, CI (.56 - 2.34), OR gallop = 1.24, CI (.55 - 2.79). Intervention students were no more active at follow-up. Conclusion: Six years after the 12-month MIGI intervention, whilst intervention students had increased their advantage relative to controls in one skill, and appeared to maintain their advantage in two, they lost their advantage in two skills and were no more active than controls at follow up. More longitudinal research is needed to explore whether gains in motor skill proficiency in children can be sustained and to determine the intervention characteristics that translate to subsequent physical activity

Three year follow-up of an early childhood intervention: what about physical activity and weight status?

Fundamental movement skills are a correlate of physical activity and weight status. Children who participated in a preschool intervention had greater movement skill proficiency and improved anthropometric measures (waist circumference and BMI z scores) post intervention. Three years later, intervention girls had retained their object control skill advantage. The study purpose was to assess whether at three year follow up a) intervention children were more physically active than controls and b) the intervention effect on anthropometrics was still present