The Potential for Joint Farming Ventures in Irish Agriculture: A Sociological Review

peer-reviewedJoint farming ventures (JFVs) are promoted within Irish and EU policy discourses as strategies that can enhance the economic and social sustainability of family farming. Research has shown that JFVs, including arrangements such as farm partnerships, contract rearing and share farming, can potentially enable farmers to work cooperatively to improve farm productivity, reduce working hours, facilitate succession, develop skills and improve relationships within the farm household. In the context of increasing policy promotion of JFVs, there is a need to make some attempt at understanding the macro socio-cultural disposition of family farming to cooperation. Reviewing sociological studies of agricultural cooperation and taking a specific focus on the Irish contextual backdrop, this paper draws the reader’s attention to the importance of historical legacy, pragmatic economic and social concerns, communicative norms, inter-personal relationships, individualism and, policy and extension stimuli, all of which shape farmers’ dispositions to cooperation and to JFVs specifically.This work was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Ireland under the Research Stimulus Fund (RSF), Project Number: 11/S/151

Will we trust AI to reduce Emergency Department overcrowding?

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Poverty in the Third World: High Population Birth Rates

Poverty can be defined as the state of being extremely poor. Nearly one half of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. Furthermore, more than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty, living on less than$1.25 a day. There have been numerous efforts from major Non-Governmental Organizations and International Governmental Organizations such as the United Nations, who attempted to implement The Millennium Development Goal in the 1990s, which was a goal that consisted of 8 large objectives. One goal was the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. The UN set a deadline to reach these goals by 2015. Despite their efforts to push this agenda, poverty still persists in our world today. Even though some instances of poverty occur within well-developed countries, poverty tends to be a trait associated with countries that are less developed commonly known as the Third World. This term was coined by a french demographer named Alfred Sauvy in 1925. He intended the term to refer to countries that were not as wealthy, capitalistic, or democratic. The Third World generally consists of countries within the southern region of the world, countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and most of Asia. As previously stated, poverty is a common trait among Third World countries. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between poverty and high birth rates specifically within the Third World. In an effort to uncover the factors of this epidemic, we will discuss a few major works done on poverty within the Third World. I will also perform an additional case study of an African country. As well as provide a logical analysis, all in effort to demonstrate that high birth rates are a contributing factor to poverty within the Third World

An investigation into store and forward telehealth adoption in Australia

Purpose The challenge for health care payers is to stem expenditure growth and gain proportionate value where the costs escalate. A visionary approach which transcends political agenda is required to ensure worthwhile, strategic objectives for cost, quality and access are pursued. Health care is poised for a change in course, with e-health and telehealth driving the next breakthroughs in health care systems across the world.   Methods Qualitative research was utilised as an appropriate approach as this fulfils the needs of exploration where little knowledge is available and an understanding of economic, political and social factors is needed. A carefully selected group of subjects who could provide the insights needed to make recommendations to enable store and forward (SAF) telehealth in Australia were chosen. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using scheduled, recorded teleconferences initiated from a standard landline service.   Results Discussions took place relating to any barriers holding SAF telehealth as a health service delivery model back and ultimately what can be done to promote a sustainable and productive service emerging as part of a new health care service. The summary of these findings is broken into individual sections and they are presented in the paper.   Conclusions SAF telehealth consultations could occur in a number of ways and its continued expansion is governed by reimbursement policy and ongoing technology innovation. With the use of smart technologies and governance, costs can be reduced while improving quality of care and access to services for many patients

Championing the underdog : a positive pluralist approach to religious education for equality and diversity

It is 25 years since my first publications in professional and academic journals, Resource and the British Journal of Religious Education respectively, and thus a suitable point to reflect on my contribution to the discipline, or rather disciplines, of Religious Education and Religious Studies. Although the majority of my published work relates to religious education, my teaching and administrative career has included both religious studies and religious education, and I have also published materials relating to the religions themselves and the teaching of religious studies at university level