The country and the cities

Labour migration between countries such as Indonesia and Hong Kong needs to be contextualised within the general patterns of movement throughout the Asian region. These patterns are long term, but accelerated in the late colonial period. As well as physical mobility, such patterns of movement involve cultural and even social forms of mobility. They should be seen as continuous with processes of urbanisation, particularly the formation of “urban corridors” where the distinction between “country” and “city” has increasingly become blurred.     

queer sex in the metropolis? place,subjectivity and the Second World War

The strong links between cities and queer culture and its expression have occupied numerous scholars, including Henning Bech and Matt Houlbrook. Indeed, London has been viewed as a focal point of British queer urban culture for over 200 years and, as this article demonstrates, the advent of the Second World War did not preclude this centrality but ensured that the city became a focal point for service personnel on leave. Yet, the emphasis placed on the metropolises in analysing space and queer expression has rendered invisible the use of more transient spaces outside of the city. This article seeks to examine these ‘alternative’ or opportunistic sites of expression, using oral testimony from queer men who served with the British Armed Forces during the Second World War. The memories of these servicemen and the significance they place on space/locations demonstrate the need to engage with subjective sites or ‘geographies’ of queerness both inside and outside of the city between 1939 and 1945.     

Proposed Method for Predicting Pair Matching of Skeletal Elements Allows Too Many False Rejections

Byrd proposes a method for predicting pair matches in commingled remains to reduce visual comparison. The method compares differences between left and right postcranial element measurements in commingled samples with differences in known pairs from a reference sample using a t‐score approach. We duplicated his protocol using six elements from two samples of known paired elements (n = 854 to 1063) and calculated the number of pairs correctly predicted. Time commitment was estimated by mathematically attempting matches with all left and right elements in these samples. Although the results show an 86% reduction in the number of potential pairs requiring visual matching, we do not recommend the method because (i) the normality assumption for use of a t‐score approach is violated, (ii) no account is made for bilateral asymmetry, and (iii) the high rate of false rejections (up to 22%) undermines its ability to show true incompatibilities for potential pair matches.     

Wellbeing,occupational justice and police practice: an ‘affirming environment’?

This paper examines wellbeing and occupational justice within the police profession. The research presented is based on a preliminary study utilising a qualitative methodology in which 14 in-depth interviews were conducted with rank and file police officers in one state of Australia. The data-set reveals that there are many positive aspects to being a police officer, contrary to the ‘dysfunction’ research that exists concerning the police in which corruption and poor performance prevails. The data analysis supports the notion that the practice of the police can be understood through a framework of wellbeing, occupational justice, and positive psychology. Whilst the research yields strong positive aspects in the work police officers engage in, as well as in their working environment, there are challenges within the profession, namely dealing with traumatic events that can hinder wellbeing and occupational justice. This study offers evidence to reflect on current policies and practices in terms of police recruitment, education and training. The study also offers evidence for improving staff retention by building on the principles of wellbeing and occupational justice within police practice.     

Practice and research in managing human systems—Four problems of relationship

Academic disciplines, it is argued, have structural reasons for remaining separate from each other. Professional schools, on the other hand, having a built-in test of relevance, draw what they need from different disciplines and are better equipped for inter-disciplinary work, even though they have problems in bridging professional boundaries. But the professions which manage human systems (management, government, planning, policy making) have no such support from the social sciences as, for example, medicine and engineering draw from the natural sciences. They have evolved powerful means of modelling complex human systems but they lack any adequate source of the assumptions needed for such models, since these are culture-determined and historically determined variables, far more dependent on specific time and place.The paper raises for discussion questions related to (a) the inter-relation of the social sciences; (b) their relation to the professional fields in which they might be applied; (c) their relation to the management sciences; and (d) the scope for an all-embracing general systems theory.