NHS Inquiries and the Problem of Culture

If inquiries are about learning the lessons of the past, why do they appear to find the same failings time and again? Bristol, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, Liverpool Community Health are all examples of where culture went wrong. The lack of learning from inquiries is a prominent concern and one raised elsewhere in this issue. In this article, I explore why it might be that culture is repeatedly found to be the cause of healthcare failures. I start by reviewing perspectives on what culture is and the degree to which it is possible change it. I examine how culture was described in the Bristol, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay and Liverpool inquiries and question whether these are the same cultures, with the same problems, or whether they are different. I discuss possible explanations for apparent similarities, describe how cultural change occurs and conclude by drawing out the implications of focussing on culture as a threat to patient safety.     

Sustainability and the world's leading ocean cruising companies

The aim of this research note paper is to offer an exploratory review of the extent to which the leading ocean cruise companies are publicly addressing and reporting on their sustainability strategies and achievements and to offer some reflections on sustainability within the cruise industry. The paper begins with an outline of cruising and the cruising industry and a short commentary on the sustainability challenges the industry faces. The information on which the paper is based is drawn from the leading cruise companies' corporate web sites. The findings of the paper reveal a marked variation in the extent to which the leading cruise companies publicly report on their sustainability strategies and achievements. While the two leading cruise companies, namely the Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, published extensive sustainability reports which covered a number of environmental social and economic issues, the other leading cruise companies published very limited information on sustainability. More critically the authors argued that the cruise companies' commitments to sustainability are driven by the search for efficiency gains and are couched within existing business models centred on continuing growth than on maintaining the viability of natural ecosystems and communities. As such the leading UK retailers are, at best, currently pursuing a ‘weak’ rather than a ‘strong’ model of sustainability. The paper provides an accessible exploratory review of sustainability reporting in the cruise industry, and it will interest professional working in the cruise industry and more generally in the hospitality industry as well as academics and students interested in public relations, business studies and hospitality management. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Better Retail,Better World”: A commentary on British retailers and the sustainable development goals

The British Retail Consortium's Better Retail, Better World initiative launched in 2018 and looks to mobilise the retail industry to make a leading contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This short commentary paper outlines the features of this initiative and offers some reflections on some of the challenges British retailers seem likely to face in looking to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. These challenges include the strategic prioritisation of SDGs, issues of measurement and metrics, communicating the retailers' position on the SDGs to consumers and the stakeholders, the retailers' financial commitment to the SDGs within a difficult trading environment, and fundamental tensions between sustainability and economic growth.     

Attitudes to abortion in the era of reform: evidence from the Abortion Law Reform Association correspondence

This article examines letters sent by members of the general public to the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) in the decade immediately before the 1967 Abortion Act. It shows how a voluntary organisation, in their aim of supporting a specific cause of unclear legality, called forth correspondence from those in need. In detailing the personal predicaments of those facing an unwanted pregnancy, this body of correspondence was readily deployed by ALRA in their efforts to mobilise support for abortion law reform, thus exercising a political function. A close examination of the content of the letters and the epistolary strategies adopted by their writers reveals that as much as they were a lobbying tool for changes in abortion law, these letters were discursively shaped by debates surrounding that very reform.     

Stability and Change in Rural Youths’ Educational Outcomes Through the Middle and High School Years

There is a dearth of literature that examines rural youths’ school transition and adaptation over the middle and high school years. Given rural education challenges, this study examines rural youths’ developmental trajectories of self-reported grades and affective and behavioral educational outcomes (i.e., school belonging, value of education, school misbehavior, and extracurricular activity participation). The cohort-sequential study consisted of 3,312 African American and White youth (50% female) who were surveyed over three and a half years, including the transition to high school. The results reveal significant changes in the outcomes from sixth to twelfth grade. For example, on average, school misbehavior increased over time while perceived school belonging decreased over time. Gender and race differences emerged; African American youth reported placing higher importance on education and less participation in school activities than White youth. The discussion focuses on the importance of examining rural adolescents’ educational pathways during the high school transition.     

Still three Wales? Social location and electoral behaviour in contemporary Wales

Wales provides a notable exception to the contemporary academic consensus that electoral behaviour is best studied via choice-based approaches. In Wales, the orthodoxy remains that of the Three-Wales Model, an approach formulated in the 1980s which saw voting behaviour as defined by class, language and national identity. This article submits the Three-Wales Model to detailed scrutiny for the first time. The model is argued to have been constructed on a very narrow theoretical basis, and on flawed measurements. Most importantly, however, the Three-Wales Model is shown to have little empirical leverage on voting behaviour in Wales – either for the period when it was formulated or for more recent elections. Factors associated with ‘valence politics’ theories are shown to provide far greater insight into voting behaviour in contemporary Wales.