bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Biomechanical constraints to stair negotiation
Authors: Maganaris Constantinos , Baltzopoulos Vasilios , Jones David , Giulio Irene Di , Reeves Neil , Gavin James , Ewen Alistair , King Stephanie , Roys Mike
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses strategies that older and younger people employ to negotiate stairs based on experiments performed on an instrumented staircase in lab environment aiming at identifying ways to reduce stair fall risk for the elderly. Stair negotiation was found to be more demanding for the knee and ankle joint muscles in older than younger adults, with the demand increasing further when the step-rise was higher. During descent of stairs with higher step-rises, older adults shifted the centre of mass (COM) posteriorly, behind the centre of pressure (COP) to prevent forward falling. A decreased step-going resulted in a slower descent of the centre of mass in the older adults and standing on a single leg for longer than younger adults. A greater reliance on the handrails and rotation of the body in the direction of the handrail was also observed when the step-going was decreased during descent, which allowed this task to be performed with better dynamic stability, by maintaining the COM closer to the COP. These findings have important implications for stair design and exercise programs aiming at improving safety on stairs for the elderly.
Ageing, wellbeing and development: Brazil and South Africa
Authors: Barrientos Armando , Møller Valerie , Saboia João , Lloyd-Sherlock Peter , Mase Julia
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses the impact of individual ageing on the wellbeing of older people and their households in low-income areas Brazil and South Africa. The research was based on a longitudinal and comparative survey of around 1000 older persons and their households in selected low-income locations in the two countries. A comparison of older people’s wellbeing levels in 2002 and 2008 found improvement over time in a range of wellbeing indicators: per capita household income and expenditure; multidimensional measures; and life satisfaction measures. For low-income households, pension income is essential to their wellbeing, livelihoods, and social inclusion. The research findings suggest that, with appropriate public policies, individual ageing is not necessarily associated with a decline in wellbeing in developing countries.
‘The changing same’
Authors: Murji Karim
Published: September 2018

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the questions of race and racism, and of policing and policy. In many ways, the landscape around the politics of race and policing has altered dramatically — the extent and depth of research on race, policing, and policy alone bears no comparison with the 1970s and 1980s; the same also applies to public and media discussions of racism. However, there is something very familiar, even unchanging, about the ways in which the same matters recur: complaints of unfair and discriminatory over-policing of black people, of racism and inequality in public policy, and the unresolved legacy of cases from the 1990s. This book argues that the ongoing and unresolved challenges around race and racism are troubling in academic discourse as well as in public policy and debate and, moreover, that the discussion of these is linked together.
The impacts of social science1
Authors: Murji Karim
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the Macpherson inquiry to analyse links between academic work and the politics of race and policing. It explores some of the significant academic evidence on institutional racism and on racial attacks presented to the Macpherson inquiry. While it is possible, particularly with institutional racism, to chart a connection between some of that and the conclusions of the inquiry, there is also a significant disconnection that provides a more nuanced idea of what impact is and how it occurs, as shown via the discussion of the internal politics of the Macpherson inquiry. An additional factor is that ‘real time’ events the police respond to indicates that they had, in some ways, already ‘moved on’ from institutional racism as early as 1999, even though that mostly precedes a decade of concerted policy implementation around racism.
Racialised numerics1
Authors: Murji Karim
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) recruitment target. The BME target illustrates the policy and political manoeuvring around one of William Macpherson's key recommendations: to increase the proportion of BME police officers. An important basis for increasing the proportion of BME groups in the police is due to pressure on public policy bodies to be more inclusive and representative. This is wider than race and includes gender representation and, commonly, it is based on the proportion in a local population or nationally. The acceptance, denial, and termination of this 10-year policy target underscores the extent of ‘game playing’ with numbers/targets, but it also signals the ways in which the dynamics of race and racism are like a bubble that, when suppressed in one place, ‘pops up’ in another.
Introducing social innovation
Authors: Baglioni Simone , Sinclair Stephen
Published: September 2018

The introductory chapter outlines some of the major social changes (e.g. in demography, employment and labour markets) which pose significant challenges to established social welfare systems. It discusses how and why social innovation has emerged and been promoted as a response to these challenges. The chapter clarifies the meaning of social innovation by considering how it has been defined, and explains how it relates to innovation in technology and business, and how it differs from social enterprise. Examples of social innovations are provided which illustrate the wide range of activities and diverse forms they take. A typology is provided to classify these variants. The nature of innovation within public organisations is discussed (i.e. intrepreneurialism). The chapter concludes by setting out some of the questions which should be asked of social innovation in relation to social and public policy reform.
Social innovation and food poverty
Authors: Baglioni Simone , Sinclair Stephen
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers the response of social innovations to the growing concern with food poverty. Food provision has not traditionally been a core public welfare function in the most developed welfare regimes, and social innovations often provide more developed and effective responses than government in this area. Voluntary and civil society organisations have pioneered a variety of innovations to feed vulnerable groups while also reducing surplus food waste. These initiatives involve partnerships with private sector food companies which donate surplus supplies which social innovations distribute. The chapter provides examples of how inventive social innovations have had to be to meet the considerable logistical challenges they face in acquiring, storing and distributing surplus food. The chapter concludes by highlighting examples of the impact which social have had in helping to shape public policy innovations in the area of food poverty.
Conclusion
Authors: Baglioni Simone , Sinclair Stephen
Published: September 2018

This chapter summarises the recurring themes and lessons from the preceding substantive chapters and reflects upon their implications for public policy and analysis. The chapter argues that social innovations provide many examples of imaginative and inspirational responses to the serious challenges confronting national welfare systems. The energy and commitment of social innovations are admirable, and their participatory approach to policy development and delivery, which empowers service users, is particularly valuable. However, the chapter notes that it is often difficult to evaluate the impact and relative cost-effectiveness of social innovations. Many have diffuse aims and multiple objectives. Also, as many social innovations operate at a local community level, they address the manifestations rather than the structural causes of problems. The chapter concludes by suggesting that most social innovations operate within rather challenge their existing socio-economic infrastructure and political environments. Currently they may complement but cannot replace existing public welfare systems.
Policy analysis in France: introduction
Authors: Halpern Charlotte , Hassenteufel Patrick , Zittoun Philippe
Published: September 2018

This chapter provides a general overview of the study and practice of policy analysis in France. Drawing on the book’s content, it explains why and how the fundamental distinction between knowledge for and of policy process still holds in the French context, even though it was regularly challenged by successive generations of scholars and practitioners. The chapter begins with a brief overview of what policy studies means and how it is studied in the French context. Then the bulk of the introduction highlights and provides some explanation for the enduring gap between academic knowledge and policy practices, which characterizes policy analysis in the French context. Last but not least, it discusses the added value of policy studies for understanding State restructuring and policy developments in France. In the remaining and fourth section, it introduces the book outline into more details.
Methods of French policy studies
Authors: Dupuy Claire , Zittoun Philippe
Published: September 2018

The chapter discusses the various analytical methods used in French policy studies. It begins by mapping out the range of methods used in French academic policy studies. Such work mainly deals with policy-making process and their analysis, with an emphasis on the role of elite, expert, and institutional constraints. Issues and concepts from (political) sociology mainly frame these works. Policy analysis borrowed its methods from (political) sociology rather than developed a specific set of methodological approaches. Drawing on sociological approaches, policy analysis in France features a preference for qualitative over quantitative methods. Also, empirical studies prevail, and over time, small-n comparative research frameworks were introduced on a more systematic basis. The chapter also develops an analysis of the most popular methods used in the past years among practitionners, such as socio-economic appraisal in transport or housing sectors, indicators in environmental and economic sectors, and argumentative methods in public institutional debates.
Civil servants and policy analysis in central government
Authors: Biland Emilie , Gally Natacha
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses the persistent monopoly of the grands corps in the production and mobilisation of policy analysis in the French context. Top officials have historically built their legitimacy on detention of ‘generalist’ policy knowledge, transmitted within administrative grandes écoles, and mobilised at the central level. However, the diversification of policy experts within French administration and the rise of alternative legitimate knowledge has questioned this ‘generalist model’. Two significant evolutions are the increasing influence of ‘numbers’ compared to more traditional literary or legal skills and the shift of policy expertise downstream the policy process, as top civil servants’ work has been increasingly oriented toward policy evaluation and performance measure. Their ability to master these new types of policy knowledge certainly conditions the persistence of their power over rival actors both inside and outside government, to address the growing policy expertise of consultants, private-sector experts and members of interest groups.
Policy analysis in French local government
Authors: Faure Alain , Négrier Emmanuel
Published: September 2018

This chapter attempts to ‘deconstruct’ the French territorial question and demonstrate that territorial policy analysis can break free from the limitations imposed by this primarily ‘statist’ conceptual framework.  The first part introduces the scale and nature of current political and administrative territorial structures, and discusses the paucity of academic research work on this subject. The second part analyses changes in the territorial framework of policy building, through an evolution from vertical to horizontal dialectic of powers and capacities. The third part focuses on territorialisation as the result of a double process: the evolving role of ideas in territorial policy building and dynamics of differentiation. In the conclusion, it argues that the joint influence of professionalization, pluralisation and differentiation prefigures an original political/policy model of democracy between institutionalisms and culturalisms.
Beyond weakness: policy analysis in the French parliament
Authors: Rozenberg Olivier , Surel Yves
Published: September 2018

The French Parliament is well-known for its weakness under the Fifth Republic. The constitutional domination of the executive power is not only marked in terms of legislative procedure but also bears consequence in terms of the capacity of the two houses to mobilize policy analysis. Committees are limited both in number and competence. The capacity to hold the government and the administration accountable is also strictly bounded. Furthermore, the bureaucracies of both houses are comparatively weak and are unable to support a systematic and general investment of MPs in policy initiatives. This chapter offers a balanced assessment of the contemporary capacity of the French Parliament to use and produce policy analysis. It points to the limited effect of the constitutional reforms implemented recently as well as the lack of human resources that can be mobilized within assemblies. Yet, it also considers the greater policy analysis capacity of the parliament in some policy fields as well as the recent efforts developed in view of fostering parliamentary evaluation.
Public inquiries, committees
Authors: Blatrix Cécile , Gourgues Guillaume
Published: September 2018

Since the 1980s, several participatory procedures were introduced in France. The legal basis, uses, and effects of these procedures are at the heart of on-going debates among academics and practitioners. This chapter discusses the extent to which the accumulation of participatory procedures challenges French policy analysis. It seeks to understand the short-, mid- and long-term effects of these procedures on decision-making processes. It briefly maps out the main approaches and the principal results of existing academic studies, arguing that French policy analysis is less normative than analytical: the aim of scholars is not to promote a “good practice” of participation, but rather to understand how and why public participation is used by policy actors and its effects on policy making. Indeed, the link between participation and public policies is currently studied according to four theoretical and empirical approaches. They differ from one another according to how French policy analysis considers the effects, uses, impacts, and roles of public participation.
Management consultants as policy actors
Authors: Gervais Julie , Pierru Frédéric
Published: September 2018

Contributions to the topic of consultants and public policy in France are often unbalanced and consultants are typically analysed as a secondary subject of wider studies. Drawing on the sociology of elites, this chapter argues that their circulation between the private and the public spheres invites us to reconsider the so-called French resistance to private consultants, allegedly led by senior civil service, which artificially opposes two groups that are, in fact, in a sociological position of homology. It helps understanding how an hybrid elite of general government works hand in hand in the development and diffusion of NPM ideas within the French state. The chapter summarizes the main steps which contributed to consultants’ increasing deployment in French public policies and seeks to describe the type of services they aim to deliver, as well as what decision makers may consider as their “added-value”. It argues that a critical part of their growth relies on their legitimizing effects over change. By doing so, it highlights public policies’ specific temporality and logic, as well as the national variations at stake in terms of private consultants’ involvement and the extent to which they impact French public sector.
The field of state expertise
Authors: Hauchecorne Mathieu , Penissat Etienne
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on the role of state expertise and public commissions, which are dominated by senior civil servants and state-close policy experts, in the elaboration of policy analysis-based reform proposals. Two kinds of organisations are taken into account: permanent commissions or institutes and ad hoc commissions created for the purpose of a specific reform in a particular context. Until the 1990s, the Commissariat General au Plan was the main permanent commission that produced policy analysis and reform proposals aimed at long-term goals. Over the last 20 years, new, more specialized councils or commissions have been created in order to promote structural analysis and change in different policy fields. This is especially the case for social policies. Since the late 1990s, governments have created new institutions charged with deliberating assessments of and possible reform orientations for pensions, healthcare, family policy and care for example. The aim of this chapter is to analyze this shift in governance structure within the French welfare system and the new role played by these conseils.
Economic interest groups and policy analysis in France
Authors: Courty Guillaume , Milet Marc
Published: September 2018

The research on policy analysis undertaken by French economic interest groups is only marginally addressed in the existing literature. This chapter takes a closer look at this subject and propose a broader analytical framework based on three pillars: the study of selected main sectorial and inter sectorial representative organizations, the monitoring of policy analysis in the development of several significant pieces of legislation, and an exhaustive list of documents issued by these organizations in the electoral context (the 2012 French presidential election). First, the terms of policy analysis are introduced, including actors, their shapes and their objects. Second, it questions the main approach that consists of analyzing policy by checking main economic indicators and reacting to public decisions. Finally, economic actors are identified as agents of public action when they participate in the distribution of public data to their members and their industry.
NGOs, civil society and policy analysis: from mutual disinterest to reciprocal investment
Authors: Boussaguet Laurie , Halpern Charlotte
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the role played by NGOs and civil society organizations in the development of policy analysis in France. Little attention has been devoted in the literature to systematically analyzing the evolving relationships between NGOs and state organizations across time and policy sectors. Drawing on examples from different policy domains, this chapter explores the role played by NGOs and civil society organizations in the development of policy analysis in three different ways. First, the chapter maps out who these groups are, in which policy field they operate, and how they evolved over time. Second, it examines the extent to which such organizations recently engaged in the development of policy analysis within the French context according to a classic distinction between policy insiders and policy outsiders, meaning those groups that (un)willingly oppose state organizations within policy-making. Finally, it considers the extent to which policy tools and instruments have shaped this recent turn through the opening of policy-making processes to both organized civil society organizations and a larger variety of less-structured groups. This is done across a large number of policy issues (e.g., culture, environment, women’s rights, anti-poverty, health, etc.)
Economics and policy analysis: ‘from state to market’?
Authors: Benamouzig Daniel , Lebaron Frédéric
Published: September 2018

This chapter describes and analyses the progressive spread of economic "expertise" in the sphere of public policy. It sketches the historical process of the expansion of economic expertise in France, and discusses the way it involves a reshaping of the relations between the State, markets, universities, and other relevant institutional entities (e.g., political parties, unions, etc.), as well as society in general. Considered from this socio-historical viewpoint, economic expertise seems to have contributed to the opening of State-centered regulation to more pluralistic and market-driven public policies in a number of sectors. The analysis draws more specifically on the case of health care, which has been engaged in a clear transformation from a traditional (welfare) State-centered regulation to more open and economically-driven policy. Various components of economic expertise and its concrete uses are under scrutiny, such as classic macroeconomic/econometric forecasting and conjunctural analysis; sectorial expertise; think tanks and organization-related expertise or counter-expertise; academic knowledge in the sphere of policy advice and decision-making; and the production and diffusion of economic discourse through newspapers, magazines, books, etc.
The academic world of French policy studies: training, teaching and researching
Authors: Hassenteufel Patrick , Le Galès Patrick
Published: September 2018

This chapter provides an analysis of the different contributions of French Universities (and other academic institutions, especially the “Instituts d’Études Politiques”) to the teaching of policy analysis, to the training of policy analysis specialists, to research in policy analysis, and to policy advice. It focuses on two closely related academic disciplines in France: political science and sociology. The chapter starts by questioning the extent to which and in which ways policy analysis as a sub-discipline is integrated into the teaching of political science and sociology. The focus then turns to the development of a specialized policy analysis master in political science and sociology, which can be related to broader evolutions, including transformations in the access to top administrative positions, the development of local public policies in France, and the professionalization of French Universities. The aim here is to shed light on the kind of knowledge and skills taught and on the positions students find after leaving universities and Sciences Po. By studying the involvement of political scientists and sociologists in public commissions and specific policy expertise structures outside the academic world, it also explores the relationships between policy research and policy advice.
Parenting the Crisis
Authors: Jensen Tracey
Published: September 2018

Bad parenting is so often blamed for Britain's broken society, manifesting in sites as diverse as the government reaction to the riots of 2011, popular entertainment like Supernanny and the discussion boards of Mumsnet. This book examines how these pathologising ideas of failing, chaotic and dysfunctional families are manufactured across media, policy and public debate and how parent-blame creates a powerful consensus that Britain is in the grip of a parenting crisis. The book tracks how crisis talk around parenting has been used to police and discipline families who are considered to be morally deficient and socially irresponsible. Most damagingly, it has been used to justify increasingly punitive state policies towards families in the name of making bad parents more responsible. Is the real crisis in our perceptions rather than reality? This is essential reading for anyone engaged in policy and popular debate around parenting.
Introduction
Authors: Jensen Tracey
Published: September 2018

This book examines the cultural politics of parent-blame in Britain, or more precisely, mother-blame, arguing that the manufacture and circulation of ‘bad parents’ is part of a social, cultural and political rubric that is at once gendered and gendering. It begins with the premise that parent-blame manifests, in part, through the sacralisation and idealisation of some mothers. It also discusses the emergence of the figure of the ‘bad parent’ as a ‘bearer of crisis’ and shows how this figure came to populate public debate, popular culture, policy documents and political speech, everyday conversation, social media and media culture at the turn of the twenty-first century. Finally, it locates the construction of ‘parenting crisis’ within a broader context of neoliberalism. The book contends that the neoliberalisation of parenting disguises and obscures the structural processes and excesses that are widening social inequality and deepening the poverty of those marginalised at the bottom.
Mothercraft to Mumsnet
Authors: Jensen Tracey
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines some of the key shifts in mothercraft and parent pedagogy, focusing on what ‘counts’ as good parenting and who is recognised as a legitimate expert. Using the case of parenting website Mumsnet, it explores how the ‘scientific motherhood’ of early mothercraft came to colonise new disciplines and to create new forms of knowledge. It considers what kind of parental constituency Mumsnet imagines and addresses and what this imagined Mumsnet constituency might tell us about the construction of ‘good parenting’ today. By analysing the discourses of choice and individualism that structure Mumsnet, the chapter highlights questions around the biopolitics of the family and of childrearing expertise. Finally, it discusses the shifting ‘structures of feeling’ around parent pedagogy as well as key historical accounts that have tended to either celebrate the rise of the ‘empowered parent’.
The cultural industry of parent-blame
Authors: Jensen Tracey
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines how discourses of parental deficit became mobilised and circulated by media producers and across political and public debate in the first years of the twenty-first century. It also shows how these discourses recycle existing figures of parent-blame and manufacture new ones in a televisual form. It considers the rise of a lucrative cultural industry of parent-blame, driven by the media and taken up strategically in subsequent policy debates about family intervention, that hit its peak at the mid-point of the New Labour government's political tenure, and describes the new vocabularies of meritocracy and aspiration that formed the backbone of the New Labour project. Citing the case of Supernanny, a reality television programme that promised to transform the lives of families struggling with parenting, the chapter shows how the media economy of popular parent pedagogy brought the television spectacle of ‘families in crisis’ into the nation's living rooms.
Weaponising parent-blame in post-welfare Britain
Authors: Jensen Tracey
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines how contested cultural austerity romances were mobilised to create high levels of public consent for ‘austere’ policy making in Britain. In particular, it considers how the classed romances of retreat and virtuous thrift came to feed the fire of moral indignation around the perceived excesses of the welfare state. The chapter analyses the reimagining of the welfare state: how welfare has been rewritten as a blockage to meritocracy and how the notion of welfare disgust was crafted. It shows how, in a state of apparently permanent austerity, new forms of hostility are directed at those seen as wasteful, irresponsible and a parasitic drain. This is evident in the so-called benefit broods, and the chapter uses the case of the Philpott family to explore how parent-blame was weaponised in in a broader ideological project that seeks to construct an anti-welfare commonsense.
Introduction: Work, stress and health in India
Authors: Hyde Martin , Chungkham Holendro Singh , Ladusingh Laishram
Published: September 2018

This introductory chapter provides an overview of work, stress, and health in India. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The growth of the Indian economy has been matched by the steady increase in its labour force. However, globalisation and rapid industrial growth in India in the last few years has led to occupational health-related issues emerging. The major factors that contribute to the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders in India include the increase in life expectancy, changes in lifestyles, stressful living and working conditions, and general lack of support systems that enable better coping mechanisms. Ultimately, work-related stress represents a major and costly health problem for individuals, companies, and nations.
Work environment, health and the international development agenda
Authors: Hyde Martin , Theorell Töres
Published: September 2018

This chapter reviews the current debates on the role of work and working conditions in the discourse on international development and explores the impact of vulnerable work and poor psychosocial working conditions on health. The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 is a welcome addition in the fight to secure decent work and ensure health and well-being in developing countries. For decades research from Europe and North America has consistently shown that being exposed to poor psychosocial working conditions, such as not having sufficient control to meet the demands at work or being inadequately rewarded for one's efforts, can have serious negative health consequences. The extent of poor working conditions in these countries today demonstrates just how big a task the UN and associated agencies face in tackling this issue. This in turn raises the question of how Sustainable Development Goal 8, of ensuring decent work for all, will be realised.
Employment trends in India: Some issues for investigation
Authors: Jose A.V.
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the direction and magnitude of changes in key domains such as the labour force, employment, and productivity in India in relation to some historical antecedents of Western industrial economies. The findings suggest that India is at the early stages of a qualitative transformation leading to improvement in worker participation rates along with structural changes in the distribution of workforce into sectors, status groups, gender divisions, and skill categories. There have also been some impressive gains in managing the labour market from the supply side by way of improving the age-structure and skill content of the workforce. However, the post-war construct of employment and industrial relations adapted from Western economies, based on which the transformation of labour market was planned and nurtured in Indian context, is literally falling apart under the onslaught of globalisation.
Rural-urban and gender differences in time spent in unpaid household work in India
Authors: Ladusingh Laishram
Published: September 2018

This chapter addresses the crucial issues of gender and rural–urban differences in the time spent on unpaid household work in India. These are particularly pressing issues given the wide disparities between these groups. Women are largely under-represented in the workforce in India. According to a McKinsey Global Institute report on gender parity, women in India are almost ten times more likely to be engaged in unpaid work such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children and older members of the family than are men. This compares with a global average of roughly three times the amount of time spent by men. The findings that women spend more time than men in unpaid household activities related to management and maintenance and care of children, sick, elderly and disabled household members provide clear evidence that there is gender division of unproductive and productive activities which is induced by prevailing sociocultural norms and practices.
Activity status, morbidity patterns and hospitalisation in India
Authors: Sahoo Harihar
Published: September 2018

This chapter provides a comprehensive picture of the relationships between activity status, morbidity patterns, and level of hospitalisation in India and across its six main geographical regions. Regional differences are striking, as the reported prevalence of ailments is higher in southern regions than other regions in India. The greater social and economic development, coupled with greater accessibility of healthcare services, could be responsible for the regional variations observed during the study. Alongside these regional patterns, there are wide differences in morbidity rates among different socioeconomic groups. The results also show a social pattern in health which is quite different from that usually observed in high income countries.
Occupational class and chronic diseases in India
Authors: Mohanty Sanjay K. , Kastor Anshul
Published: September 2018

This chapter studies the differentials in chronic diseases among occupational classes in India. The results of the 60th round of National Sample Survey conducted from January to June 2004 show that those who are engaged as own-account workers in a household enterprise have the highest rate of reported disorders in joints and bones, respiratory illnesses including ear, nose, and throat ailments, and bronchial asthma during the last 15 days of the survey. Meanwhile, the leading diseases among employers are diabetes, cardiovascular disease, disorders of the joints and bones, hypertension, and gastritis. Furthermore, the higher reported prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) resulting from higher prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases among richer groups could have contributed to the greater burden of illness among them.
Stress and health among the Indian police
Authors: Kumar Vaijayanthee , Kamalanabhan T. J.
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the predictors of psychological stress among police personnel and the role that emotional intelligence might play in moderating the relationship between the determinants of psychological stress and the subjective experience of stress itself. The results of multiple hierarchical regression revealed that factors such as inflexible work schedules, work–family conflict, political interference and lack of fairness significantly influenced stress. Moreover, emotional intelligence was found to buffer the relationship between a number of stressors and the experience of stress. The findings of the study suggest that those who possess the qualities of an emotionally intelligent person will deal with the stressors in an appropriate way, which may eventually prevent an individual from experiencing stress.
Health status and lifestyle of the Oraon tea garden labourers of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal
Authors: Roy Subrata K. , Chowdhury Tanaya Kundu
Published: September 2018

This chapter looks at the health and lifestyle factors among tea garden labourers in West Bengal. Tea garden labourers enjoy access to some free facilities like education for children, medical facilities, piped drinking water, housing, and subsidised food. Yet they still suffer from several health problems. This might be due to insufficient or inadequately maintained facilities, poor lifestyles, or a mixture thereof. The chapter then focuses on the work environment, lifestyles, and physical health status of Oraon tea garden labourers of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. The results reveal that around 60 per cent of the labourers are underweight, despite reporting that they were getting sufficient food to eat. Poor hygienic practices may explain these results. Anaemia was also high for both sexes. Ultimately, the overall health condition of the labourers may be explained by the poor health lifestyles that they have adopted in response to their work environment.
The role of work-family support factors in helping individuals achieve work-family balance in India
Authors: Ganesh Sarlaksha , Ganesh M. P.
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores the current state of policies and practices in India that aim to promote a good work–family balance, as well as the obstacles to their realisation. Overall, it can be said that the family, co-workers, supervisors, and organisations can play a major role in improving the work–life balance of their employees. Currently, it is a concern that work-life balance issues do not appear to be high on the agenda for many Indian organisations. However, there are some encouraging signs that some companies, such as Marriot Hotels, are taking the lead to implement positive work–life balance policies. Yet the research in this field in India is still in its infancy so it will take time to properly assess the impact that these developments might have.
Lessons and future research directions from work environment research in India
Authors: Hyde Martin , Chungkham Holendro Singh , Ladusingh Laishram
Published: September 2018

This concluding chapter argues that the chapters in this book represent some of the state-of-the-art research on the relationship between work and health in India. Both individually and collectively, they have made some significant contributions to understanding these issues. However, as India continues to go through economic and epidemiological changes, one should expect to see a rapid growth in the number of studies in this area. As such, it is important to identify areas that should be the focus of future research: (1) occupational or industry-specific studies to capture new forms of working; (2) the development of nationally representative prospective cohort studies of the work environment and health; and (3) greater multidisciplinary dialogue.
The development of age-friendly cities and communities
Authors: Rémillard-Boilard Samuèle
Published: September 2018

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the contributing factors which have led to the development of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC). It focuses on the influence of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) AFCC model, and explores a number of issues associated with the implementation of age-friendly policies and initiatives. The chapter further locates discussions about AFCC in the context of theoretical debates within environmental gerontology, emphasising the importance of such perspectives and related disciplines in advancing knowledge about ‘what works’ in respect of age-friendly interventions.
Addressing erasure, microfication and social change: age-friendly initiatives and environmental gerontology in the 21st century
Authors: Kelley Jessica A. , Dannefer Dale , Al Masarweh Luma Issa
Published: September 2018

Chapter 4 argues for a greater awareness and understanding of how macro-level developments, such as gentrification and transnational migration, influence the creation of AFCCs. It identifies two key challenges which limit the success and effectiveness of both age-friendly initiatives and the scholarly field of environmental gerontology: first, microfication, or the tendency to focus on immediate aspects of everyday life while overlooking broader, overarching aspects of the social context that define and set key parameters of daily experience; and second, erasure, referring to the issue that certain groups of people remain ‘unseen’ in policy, research, or institutional practices. Remedying the limiting effects of these tendencies will be essential to increase the value and effectiveness of both of these enterprises, the authors conclude.
Towards an ‘active caring community’ in Brussels
Authors: Smetcoren An-Sofie , De Donder Liesbeth , Duppen Daan , De Witte Nico , Vanmechelen Olivia , Verté Dominique
Published: September 2018

Chapter 6 addresses the question of how an age-friendly urban environment can support frail older people to ‘age in place’. To address this issue, the chapter presents findings from a study which assessed the value of an ‘Active Caring Community’ project in supporting frail older adults living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Brussels, Belgium. The project was aimed at creating a community which supports the process of ageing in place; where residents of the community know and help each other; where meeting opportunities are developed; and where individuals and their informal caregivers receive care and support from motivated professionals. The authors highlight the importance of the social dimension of the environment, and discuss a range of related opportunities and constraints which may affect older people’s frailty.
Creating an age-friendly county in Ireland: stakeholders’ perspectives on implementation
Authors: McDonald Bernard , Scharf Thomas , Walsh Kieran
Published: September 2018

Chapter 8 examines the dynamics of the implementation process of an age-friendly county programme in one of the participating counties in Ireland, County Fingal. The chapter integrates the views of local, national and international stakeholders to explore the complex interplay of forces at these various levels that have influenced the development and impact of Fingal’s local programme. Findings from empirical research are used to explore the key stakeholders’ motivations and actions that were influential in developing and implementing the programme, and the attitudes, understandings and actions of these same stakeholders that underpin, and are reflected in, the processes established to involve older people in the programme. The chapter concludes by highlighting key issues that need to be addressed to enhance the potential impact of age-friendly community programmes on older adults’ lives.
From representation to active ageing in a Manchester neighbourhood: designing the age-friendly city
Authors: White Stefan , Hammond Mark
Published: September 2018

Chapter 10 explores what it means to use a ‘capability’ approach to designing an age-friendly city, including its potential for offering new ways of producing and occupying physical and social environments that respond directly to the lived experiences of older people. Drawing on a interdisciplinary community engaged research/urban design project in Manchester, UK, the chapter examines the applicability of AFCC design guidance within a specific urban neighbourhood, and explores how the process of discovering and sharing information about the lived experience of older residents translates into the development and implementation of age-friendly activities focused around urban design.
Dementia and Human Rights
Authors: Cahill Suzanne
Published: September 2018

This book adopts a fresh approach by exploring dementia from a human rights perspective, thereby expanding the dementia debate. The main aim is to challenge thinking by interrogating policy and practice through a human rights lens. Dementia as an illness and a social construction lends itself well to critical analysis from this perspective, as people with dementia are probably one of the most marginalized and stigmatized social groups in the world. Yet careful consideration of their basic human rights is seldom undertaken, integrated into public policy on dementia and embedded in practice manuals/guidelines. Bringing together concepts such as human rights, disability, social inclusion, personhood, equality, participation, empowerment, autonomy and solidarity and applying a social constructionist lens, the book points to some of the gaps that exist between the rhetoric of public policy on dementia and the reality of peoples’ everyday lives and argues for the need to reframe policy and to reform practice. It provides a coherent and evidence based overview of the challenges dementia poses in primary care, in the community care sector and in long term residential care.
Dementia as a disability
Authors: Cahill Suzanne
Published: September 2018

Chapter two draws on the extant literature, to deconstruct dementia and to show whilst it has been conventionally described as a biomedical cognitive disorder, dementia can also be contextualised as a disability. It provides an in-depth discussion of the biopsychosocial and social model for deconstructing dementia and the accompanying tools associated with both models that is the ICF (WHO, 2001) and the UN Convention (CRPD, 2006). In this chapter it will be shown how the biopsychosocial model has significantly shaped how disability is described and understood in the UN Convention (CRPD, 2006), the prism through which dementia will be critically reviewed in this volume. Demonstrating why dementia qualifies as a disability in accordance with the UN Convention’s (CRPD, 2006) description of disability is most important, given this book explores the rights of people living with dementia to claim entitlements enshrined in the CRPD.
Setting the context: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Authors: Cahill Suzanne
Published: September 2018

Since the UN Convention is being used as a compass for analysis and is the common thread linking all chapters in this book, the purpose of this chapter is to provide a broad overview of the objectives, principles and obligations contained in the Convention directly relevant to the lives of people living with dementia and their family members and to explain how the Convention works. The chapter also draws on Flynn’s typology for classifying the core themes contained in the UN Convention namely equality, participation, autonomy and solidarity, a typology which will be returned to in chapter eight. It identifies those Articles (a total of 12) which will be critically reviewed in later chapters, it explains the PANEL principles and shows that as a human rights instrument underpinned by the social model of disability, the UN Convention provides a solid basis for the reframing of dementia as a disability. The chapter concludes by discussing a number of recent events which have taken place across the world which reflect a slowly evolving rights based movement in dementia policy and practice.
The right to a good quality of life in care homes or in nursing homes
Authors: Cahill Suzanne
Published: September 2018

Based on the UN Convention, (CRPD, 2006), the purpose of this chapter is to review some fundamental rights we all enjoy, yet for a variety of reasons may be threatened or violated in people living with dementia in long term residential care. Drawing on the relevant literature, the chapter will also tease out some of the discrepancies between human rights standards as articulated in the UN Convention (CRPD, 2006) and the reality of everyday life experienced by people with dementia living in long term care. A third aim of the chapter is to analyze the extent to which access to these rights are embedded and articulated in policy documents including national dementia strategies. The core human rights topics which will be discussed include Article 15 (the right to freedom from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), Article 22 (the right to respect for privacy), Article 9 (the right to access especially to the physical environment) and Article 30 (the right to participate in cultural life, recreation and leisure).