Suchergebnisse

Increasingly, people are shifting to vegetarian, plant-based, and vegan diets. This shift is having profound effects on our social interactions, and that is the focus of To Eat or Not to Eat Meat. Becoming a vegetarian or vegan involves more than just changing your diet. It can change how you socially and emotionally connect with family, friends, and the broader community; shape your outlook on life; and open up new worlds and contacts. It can also lead to uncomfortable situations if your dietary choices involving a rejection of meat are read by others as ethical and moral judgements on mainstream dietary choices. This book adopts an innovative narrative approach and draws on stories from across the globe to consider how the food choices we make in our everyday lives can lead to complex--and sometimes life-change--social consequences. The narratives cove a range of topics, including the moral reasons behind some individuals' decisions to change their diets, the religious or ecological considerations, and the potential health and social ramifications

This article provides methodological guidance to researchers wishing to develop collaborative research projects with local governments and other agencies, by describing the process adopted in a mixed methods study conducted in the City of Wanneroo (the City), a local government area in Perth, Western Australia. The study explored factors related to older people's (60+ years) participation in community-based activities and links between their participation and levels of social isolation, loneliness, and social connectedness. The research incorporated four interrelated stages: (1) an audit of existing programs in the City and program participant characteristics; (2) focus groups with program participants and interviews with nonparticipants; (3) a cross-sectional survey to assess factors associated with participation and links to social isolation, loneliness, and social connectedness; (4) face-to-face interviews with survey respondents screened at risk for loneliness. Methodological recommendations are provided to guide future collaborative research with local authorities, program developers, and administrators, aimed at minimizing social isolation and loneliness among older people. These include the need for clear communication and documentation of mutually agreed research objectives and responsibilities from project initiation to completion, identifying and working with local agencies to maximize recruitment among "hard to reach" groups, understanding the dimensions of loneliness addressed in the selected instrument used to screen for loneliness, and integrating innovative data collection techniques when working with vulnerable groups such as socially isolated older people.