Developing a Municipal Performance-Measurement System: Reflections on the Atlanta Dashboard

Under the leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin, the City of Atlanta introduced a new operating model for municipal government in early 2002. A central component of that effort has been a performance-measurement system—the "Atlanta Dashboard"—designed to assess various aspects of municipal performance and, through that assessment, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal services.     

Working hard on the outside: a multimodal critical discourse analysis of The Biggest Loser Australia

The Biggest Loser (TBL) is a reality television weight-loss programme that positions itself as a response to the so-called “obesity crisis”. Research on TBL has thus far focussed on audience responses and its effect on viewers’ beliefs about weight loss. This article focuses instead on how meaning is constructed in TBL. We conducted a multimodal critical discourse analysis of a key episode of TBL (the 2012 Australian season finale) to examine how the textual, visual and auditory elements combine to construct meanings beyond the ostensible health messages. Although the overt message is that all contestants have worked hard, turned their lives around and been “successful”, examination of editing choices, lighting and colour, clothing and time spent on contestants allows us to see that the programme constructs varying degrees of success between contestants and provides accounts for these differences in outcomes. In this way the programme is able to present itself as a putative celebration of all contestants while prescribing narrow limits around what constitutes success. TBL reinforces an ideology in which “success” is a direct result of “the work” of weight loss (both physical and emotional), which can apparently be read straightforwardly off the body. TBL’s “celebration” of weight loss thus reproduces and strengthens the widespread view of fat bodies as physical manifestations of individual (ir)responsibility and psychological dysfunction, and contributes to the ongoing stigmatisation of obesity.     

Sources of injustice among individuals with persistent pain following musculoskeletal injury

Evidence supports the negative impact of perceived injustice on recovery following injury. However, little is known about sources that contribute to injustice perceptions in this context. Therefore, this study systematically investigated sources of injustice following painful musculoskeletal injury. Following completion of the Injustice Experiences Questionnaire (IEQ) and measures of pain, depression, and disability, participants completed a semi-structured interview to discuss reasons underlying their IEQ responses. On average, the sample was experiencing moderate levels of pain, depression, and disability, and clinically meaningful levels of perceived injustice. Participants frequently identified employers/colleagues, other drivers, insurers, healthcare providers, family, significant others, friends, and society as sources of injustice. Common reasons for identifying these sources included their contribution to the injury, inadequate assessment or treatment of pain, and punitive responses toward participants’ pain expression. Sex- and injury-related differences emerged in the identification of injustice sources. Potential strategies for preventing perceived injustice following painful injury are discussed.     

Public support for the international economic organizations: Evidence from developing countries

Public opinions regarding the international economic organizations (IEOs; the IMF, World Bank, and WTO) are understudied. I contrast five lines of argument using a multi-country survey of developing countries, focusing on evaluations of the economy, skills, gender, and ideology and measures of involvement with the organizations themselves. At the individual level, respondents have negative views if they have negative views of the state of the economy. More educated respondents are more likely to have negative views of the IEOs. Women are more likely to have positive views of the IEOs than men. National levels of engagement with the IEOs also affect public evaluations of them. Evaluations of the state of the economy are more influential determinants of IEO evaluations in states that receive IMF and World Bank loans, as well as in states that are active in WTO dispute resolution.

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Prediction of women's utilization of resistance strategies in a sexual assault situation: a prospective study

The present study prospectively explored the predictors of resistance strategies to a sexual assault situation. Participants were assessed at the beginning of an academic quarter on a number of variables, including past history of sexual victimization, perceived risk of sexual victimization, and intentions to use specific types of resistance strategies. Only women who reported being victimized over the interim (N=68) were included in the analyses, which suggested that women's Time 1 intentions to utilize assertive resistance strategies (e.g., physically fight, run away) and offender aggression predicted women's use of assertive resistance strategies in response to the assault that occurred over the follow-up. Women's utilization of nonforceful verbal resistance (e.g., reason, plead, quarrel) was predicted by perpetrator aggression and previous sexual victimization. Women's immobility (e.g., turn cold, freeze) during the assault that took place over the interim was predicted by experiences of childhood sexual victimization and previous sexual victimization.     

Sybil Campbell,first woman judge and supporter of higher education for women

ABSTRACT

Sybil Campbell was appointed a Metropolitan stipendiary magistrate in 1945, the first woman to become a full-time judge in the courts of England and Wales. She sat for 16 years, at Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court, where she met with a great deal of opprobrium from the national and local press, trade unionists and individuals, much of it directed to the fact that she was a woman dispensing justice, with some severity, in a working-class community. She weathered the criticism with indifference and continued until her retirement, in 1961. Her pioneering example, however, did not encourage the appointment of other women to a judicial role until the appointment of Elizabeth Lane as a county court judge in 1962. This article examines her judicial career and her work for the British Federation of University Women, of which she was Honorary Secretary and its honorary vice-president.     

Adolescents Values Clarification and Development: A Model for Group Counseling

Youths involved with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems report higher rates of early initiation of sexual intercourse, more sexual partners, and lower rates of condom use compared with the general adolescent population. Such risky behaviors leave system-involved youths with volatile behavioral challenges and negative sexual health outcomes, such as unintended pregnancy. These effects can be attributed to detached support systems and a lack of early interventions, such as group therapy. This dynamic fosters further inquiry into asking, can delinquent teenagers who adopt a values clarification approach and understanding exhibit positive prosocial thoughts and behaviors? The intent of this paper is to discuss an alternative education program for pregnant, delinquent adolescents and young mothers allowed a social worker and his associates to implement a group counseling program. The counseling was intended to emphasize values clarification and values development. The counselors focused on attitudes, social views, and desired behaviors related to values. A unique aspect of the program was the development of a four-phase cognitive process related to values clarification and development. This process includes the discovery and awareness of values, the claiming and reclaiming of values, the acceptance of core values, and the appreciation and advocacy of the values phase. A content analysis methodology was used to analyze a self-report methods so that insights into cultural trends and experiences could be understood. Findings from the adoption of this program suggest a psychoeducation humanistic model can not only buffer teenage pregnancy risk and delinquency but also strengthen values and the moral development of troubled youth.