Editorial introduction [to Strategic uncertainties: ethics, politics and risk in contemporary educational research]

Strategic Uncertainties: Ethics, Politics and Risk in Contemporary Educational Research offers new perspectives on contemporary educational research in a wide range of contexts and settings. The authors provide fresh insights into the ethics, politics and risks of educational research through their deployment of up-to-date concepts and methods. They also bring educational research ‘to life’ as a series of meaningful and significant issues and dilemmas, and by drawing on the voices of ‘real-life’ research participants and practitioners. In 2001, a theme issue of the Queensland Journal of Educational Research (Coombes & Danaher, 2001) was published under the title Cui Bono?: Investigating Benefits and Interests in Educational Research. In that issue, a group of authors from a range of academic disciplines explored the notion of who benefits from educational research and how such benefits might be identified, evaluated and weighed against potential costs to the research participants. The purpose of the contributors was not to view the intentions and results of research through rose-coloured glasses (‘everyone benefits and everyone is happy’) but to establish, as honestly as possible, whether the perceived benefits of a particular research project would actually occur without some cost to those involved. The key concepts, which were the focus of each article, were therefore the benefits and costs of educational research. In Strategic Uncertainties, the focus of attention shifts to the potential risks of educational research and to the strategies that researchers might employ to minimise or from some perspectives try to eliminate these risks (and from other perspectives to embrace and celebrate such risks). Educational research, by its very nature, is concerned with people; it cannot function in a sterile vacuum. Where people are concerned, complete agreement among the participants can never be guaranteed. Thus stakeholders may compete for powerful speaking positions. Research projects, though conceived with the best of intentions, may serve to highlight the gap between researcher and researched by reinforcing the socioeconomic and educational inequities of their relationships with one another. These particular risks, among many others, emphasise the ethical and political dimensions of relationships among the participants and subject to critical scrutiny claims that research projects confer particular kinds of benefits. Educational research is indeed a ‘risky business’, but this should not deter researchers from engaging in the practice. It is the purpose of Strategic Uncertainties to apply theoretically informed, methodologically rigorous and experientially grounded critique to the ‘murky shadows’ and ‘no-go areas’ of contemporary educational research. The title of this book, Strategic Uncertainties, is taken from the text of Ian Stronach and Maggie MacLure (1997), Educational Research Undone: The Postmodern embrace. The authors focused on postmodern researchers’ efforts to avoid being caught in the snares of: the binary oppositions that have traditionally promised the comforts of certainty in philosophical thinking – between reality and appearance, reason and superstition, causes and effects, meaning and language, identity and imposture, local and universal etc. – they choose not to choose between them, not to work to transcend them, nor, importantly, to ignore them, but instead to complicate the relations between them. (p. 5; emphasis in original) According to Stronach and MacLure (1997): The kind of opening which such work attempts is that of the rupture – or interruption and disruption – in the (uncertain) hope that this will generate possibilities for things to happen that are closed off by the epistemologies of certainty….These are uncanny openings, then. They rupture things, not in order to let the light pour in, but to make it harder to see clearly. They open spaces which turn out not to be spaces, but knots, complications, folds and partial connections. It is impossible even to tell for sure whether they are openings or closings, since they are also blocking manoeuvres, which would prevent escape routes to happy endings…We try to practise this kind of strategic uncertainty throughout, and within this book. Our aim is to mobilise meaning…rather than to fix it. (p, 5; emphasis in original; emphasis added) Elaborating and expanding on these propositions by Stronach and MacLure (1997), the content of Strategic Uncertainties is a set of accounts by contemporary educational researchers of the ethics, politics and risk of their own research projects. While those accounts draw on a multiplicity of theoretical, methodological and empirical resources to frame and inform their respective engagements with educational research, they have in common a general commitment to, and at the same time an ongoing interrogation of, the ideas encapsulated in the term ‘strategic uncertainties’

The evolution of Local Labour Market Areas in contrasting region

In many European local labour markets, a growing minority of workers are making longer commuting trips. One consequence for research into journey-to-work flows, which usually seeks to identify the boundaries of local labour market areas (LLMAs), is that these boundaries represent a ¡¥snap shot¡¦ of an increasingly volatile pattern. The challenge for regional science is how best to represent the way LLMAs evolve. «Is it sufficient to simply update maps, using a consistent method which is applied to successive ¡¥snap-shot¡¦ datasets? This approach will be illustrated in contrasting regions. «Is it possible to produce new approaches to analysis which can better draw attention to those areas where change has been rather more, or less, strong? The paper will end with some explorations in pursuit of this aim.

Is Pennine England becoming more Polycentric or more Centripetal? an analysis of commuting flows in a transforming industrial region, 1981-2001

This paper examines census-derived commuting data for the world’s earliest major urbanindustrial region, now home to 10 million people. Owing its origins to water power from the Pennine rivers, this region now comprises many closely-spaced cities and towns whose distinct identities have been eroded through the loss of their local industrial specialisms and the long-term growth in mobility. It contains five of the city regions identified by ‘The Northern Way’, a policy initiative designed as part of the Labour government’s 2004 Sustainable Cities Plan for stimulating agglomeration economies across the wider region, with a more polycentric structure being seen as a positive contribution to this development. The paper tests how far this part of Northern England may be evolving into a single polycentric mega-city region, using commuting data from the 1981, 1991 and 2001 Censuses. Two hypotheses are tested; namely, that there is increasing polycentricity within each of the five city regions and that there is increasing linkage between the five city regions. With gravity modelling removing the effects of generic reductions in distance deterrence, evidence is found of trends towards greater polycentricity at both these scales of analysis, albeit modest in scale: there has been some reduction in the five cities’ attraction of commuters living in the other parts of their city regions and the boundaries between the city regions have become somewhat more permeable over time

Migration and longer distance commuting in rural England

This paper examines whether recent in-migrants to rural settlements in England commute further to work than the longer-term residents of these places and whether commuting distance differs according to the type of move and the geographical context of their home. The study is based on data from the Controlled Access Microdata Sample (CAMS) of the 2001 Census of Population. It is found that recent in-migrants are much more likely to commute at least 20km than are the longer-term residents. Using binary logistic regression so as to allow for socio-demographic differences between people, it is shown that the likelihood of longer distance commuting was highest for people who had moved home by between 15 and 99km and for people moving from the largest cities

Australian cardiac rehabilitation exercise parameter characteristics and perceptions of high-intensity interval training: a cross-sectional survey

Purpose: This study explored current demographics, characteristics, costs, evaluation methods, and outcome measures used in Australian cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs. It also determined the actual usage and perceptions of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Methods: A cross-sectional observational web-based survey was distributed to 328 Australian CR programs nationally. Results: A total of 261 programs completed the survey (79.6% response rate). Most Australian CR programs were located in a hospital setting (76%), offered exercise sessions once a week (52%) for 6–8 weeks (49%) at moderate intensity (54%) for 46–60 min (62%), and serviced 101–500 clients per annum (38%). HIIT was reported in only 1% of programs, and 27% of respondents believed that it was safe while 42% of respondents were unsure. Lack of staff (25%), monitoring resources (20%), and staff knowledge (18%) were the most commonly reported barriers to the implementation of HIIT. Overall, Australian CR coordinators are unsure of the cost of exercise sessions. Conclusion: There is variability in CR delivery across Australia. Only half of programs reassess outcome measures postintervention, and cost of exercise sessions is unknown. Although HIIT is recommended in international CR guidelines, it is essentially not being used in Australia and clinicians are unsure as to the safety of HIIT. Lack of resources and staff knowledge were perceived as the biggest barriers to HIIT implementation, and there are inconsistent perceptions of prescreening and monitoring requirements. This study highlights the need to educate health professionals about the benefits and safety of HIIT to improve its usage and patient outcomes

High-intensity interval training versus moderate-intensity continuous training within cardiac rehabilitation:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Aerobic capacity has been shown to be inversely proportionate to cardiovascular mortality and morbidity and there is growing evidence that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) appears to be more effective than moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) in improving cardiorespiratory fitness within the cardiac population. Previously published systematic reviews in cardiovascular disease have neither investigated the effect that the number of weeks of intervention has on cardiorespiratory fitness changes, nor have adverse events been collated.We aimed to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) within the cardiac population that investigated cardiorespiratory fitness changes resulting from HIIT versus MICT and to collate adverse events.A critical narrative synthesis and meta-analysis was conducted after systematically searching relevant databases up to July 2017. We searched for RCTs that compared cardiorespiratory fitness changes resulting from HIIT versus MICT interventions within the cardiac population.Seventeen studies, involving 953 participants (465 for HIIT and 488 for MICT) were included in the analysis. HIIT was significantly superior to MICT in improving cardiorespiratory fitness overall (SMD 0.34 mL/kg/min; 95% confidence interval [CI; 0.2-0.48]; p6-week duration. Programs of 7-12 weeks' duration resulted in the largest improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness for patients with coronary artery disease. HIIT appears to be as safe as MICT for CR participants

Testing Transferability: Quantitative Evaluation of Labor Market Area Definition Methods in Three Contrasting Countries

Sub-national economic policies increasingly use labor market areas (LMAs) rather than administrative areas for analysis and implementation. How a set of LMAs was defined influences the results of such analyses, and so accurate policy delivery needs appropriately defined LMAs. Multinational bodies need comparable LMA definitions in many countries, calling for a definition method that is transferable across national boundaries. This article applies quantitative metrics to evaluate LMAs defined in three contrasting countries by three methods that represent the main methodological approaches. The deductive approach—based on a center and hinterland—is too inflexible to deal with differing geographical circumstances and cannot cope with statistical zones that are very small, or do not respect settlement structure. The alternative inductive methods tested define appropriate LMAs in each country, with the newer method performing slightly better in statistical terms. The article also exemplifies the usefulness of the metrics for comparisons of alternative regionalizations.Funding for related Spanish analyses was via Project PID2020-114896RB-100/Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Spanish State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research, and Innovation 2017–2020, and Project AICO/2021/062, Generalitat Valenciana, Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society

The extent of crime and anti-social behaviour facing designated heritage assets

Heritage crime has been defined as any offence which harms the value of England’s heritage assets and their settings to this and future generations. There has been growing concern at the risks of crime and anti-social behaviour faced by designated heritage assets, but the true extent of heritage crime had remained difficult to measure. This study, commissioned by English Heritage, collated and analysed data on damage from criminal behaviour to heritage assets in England. The report provides a review of the data collection procedures undertaken by the study to identify those that are most effective in building understanding of the scale and nature of heritage crime. The report then tries to answer a series of key questions about heritage crime. Finally there are some conclusions and selective recommendations aimed at improving future understanding of heritage crime. Further information on English Heritage’s information and advice regarding heritage crime can be found at http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/advice/advice-by-topic/heritage-crime/