Introduction: the problem with obesity -- Defining obesity -- Obesity and human adaptation -- The distribution of risk -- Culture and body ideals -- Big-body symbolism, meanings, and norms -- Conclusion: the big picture
AbstractThis essay engages with Daniel Laqua's book Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe (London, 2023) from the perspective of a historian of both humanitarianism and youth. This short reflection therefore focuses primarily on the book's engagement with the topic of humanitarianism, before discussing an understated, albeit important, cross-cutting theme of the book: the significance of youth in transnational activism. It highlights a number of features of Laqua's book, for instance the merits of adopting a broad chronological approach. At the same time, the essay also uses the space to present a number of reflections on activism, from questions about the generational appeal of particular causes to the way in which particular figures might spark activism. It ends with some thoughts about the source base used to write such histories of activism.
Management and organization studies commentary on how authors experience peer review of journal papers suggests that it can be an overly interventionist process which reduces the originality and coherence of eventual publications. In the literature on co-authorship, this argument is reversed. Here, free riders who do not contribute fully to research collaborations and the practice of gift authorships are problematized, and it is argued that everyone involved in writing a published paper should be rewarded with co-authorship. In this article, qualitative interviews with 12 management and organization studies academics see respondents describing peer review as a transaction during which reviewers – and editors – actually co-author published papers. But their perspectives on this vary with the subject position from which they are speaking. When they speak as reviewers or editors, this co-authorship is depicted as a collegiate gift, a professional obligation or a process where authors might over-rely on reviewers' generosity. When they speak as authors or their proxies, it is characterized as reproducing disciplinary orthodoxy and ethnocentric exclusion, perpetuating disciplinary cliques, creating disorganized papers and constituting excessive interference with authorial privilege. These various perspectives on peer review deserve more attention in our empirical studies of academic labour. They also suggest we should reflect more on when, how and why we collaborate in our research and on how much we should recognize additional co-authors on (or resist their input into) 'our' work.
Fairness in Access to Higher Education in a Global Perspective: Reconciling Excellence, Efficiency, and Justice is an edited volume that aims to address the central question of how and why we can promote policies for fair access to higher education (HE). It takes a fairly common view of equity, exploring fair access in terms of racial, socio-economic and rural/urban background. The chapters on China and Georgia also consider fairness in the context of political favouritism and nepotism. The book's primary focus is on access to HE, in other words, academic preparation, selection of students and affordability of HE. To a lesser extent, the book also explores the question of how to sustain participation in and completion of HE among disadvantaged groups.
AbstractThis paper considers non-governmental famine relief in India during 1896–1898 and 1899–1901. It details the efforts of a broad spectrum of middle-class Indians, Christian missionaries, British non-officials and off-duty civil servants who were drawn into voluntary service on semi-official committees which were responsible for distributing record sums raised through international appeals. It also explores the extension of relief work by independent agencies in the 1890s. The paper considers evolving British attitudes to indigenous relief methods and the sometimes fraught relations between government and voluntary agencies. It suggests that voluntary famine relief activities during the 1890s mark a transition from traditional religious philanthropy to organised social service. Voluntary relief at this time differed from earlier responses to famine hunger because it was marked by fundraising, co-operation with other agencies and the personal service of volunteers. In conclusion, it is shown that participation in relief in the 1890s inspired a new generation of educated Indians to channel their nationalism into practical social service after 1900.
My personal and professional lives have blurred into each other throughout my academic career. This paper focuses on one aspect of this blurring—that certain colleagues believe I am intimate with my coauthors, and that I engage in or have experienced the sexual activities which my research has explored—and seeks to account for this interpretation of my private life through the lens of my public endeavours. In discussing such 'signings' of my work, I suggest that they are underpinned by the heterosexual matrix, and perhaps ratify my participation in the academy as a woman. Moreover, such attributions of authorship point to interesting questions concerning the methodology of sex research and the influence that an author's biography has on their research direction. I also contend that these constructions of me as an author indicate that organization studies still struggles with the idea of sex representing a meaningful topic of enquiry.
Carlisle Housing Association Ltd (CHA), created in December 2002 as a consequence of the transfer of Carlisle City Council's housing stock (7,200 properties), is located some 12 miles from the Scottish border in North Cumbria, in an area with a local population of more than 100,000 people. CHA is a subsidiary of the Riverside Group. CHA aims to deliver a sustainable community alarm service that aids the independent living options for its customers, with a focus on health and social care provision in the area.The purpose of this article is to set out the evolutionary process undertaken to develop the CHA community alarm service, rather than to explain the operational aspects of assistive technology. It aims to identify the co‐ordinated, person‐centred approach we have developed to assist vulnerable individuals to embark on a journey that fulfils their aspirations to remain as safe and independent as possible in a familiar environment.
In addressing the 'sex and the city' theme, this paper begins by suggesting that British women's lives have altered substantially since the late 1960s, given their rapidly increasing uptake of paid employment ('the city') and several important changes in their personal lives ('sex'). Moreover, 'the city' in its more literal sense of urban expanse is growing in world-wide importance. Other factors such as changing cultural representations of female urbanite professionals also point to it being an interesting juncture at which to explore this group's experiences. The paper therefore analyses female respondents' accounts of their relationships, their careers and their lives in London. It seeks to contribute to debates concerning urban (dis)content, liberal feminism and life-stages by connecting these stories to the relevant literatures.