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Nurturing creative futures: How Watershed supports creative research and development
No full textThis report charts Watershed’s value to the creative research and development ecosystem. Watershed, a cultural organisation in Bristol, UK, works at the interface between research, creative practice and emerging technologies, bringing a values-led approach to innovation. It does this primarily through its long term support of a community in Pervasive Media Studio. The report identifies the specific ways that Watershed's work through Pervasive Media Studio supports creative research and development
Editorial: Exploring economic inequality with critical qualitative approaches in psychology
No full textThis editorial introduces our special issue showcasing how qualitative research methods can be used in psychological research to explore economic inequality. Economic and class-based inequalities are global problems that have a negative impact on people’s wellbeing. The papers within the special issue demonstrate how differing methodological approaches such as Discursive Psychology, Thematic Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis can be utilised to offer insights into the complexity of economic inequality as a social justice issue. Qualitative methods allow researchers to examine the social and cultural nuances of inequality with a critical lens in differing contexts. Within the special issue, economic inequality can be viewed intersectionally as qualitative methods allow the researcher to provide an in-depth and nuanced analysis. Taking a critical qualitative approach, this special issue shows how individualistic, neoliberal and meritocratic arguments are used to justify and maintain harmful class-based inequalities and offer opportunities to better understand and challenge them
Should I stand up for my mistreated colleague? When and why high-status team members stand up for their coworkers
No full textSupervisory mistreatment has adverse consequences for its victims. Coworkers, as observers, can shape victims’ experiences by standing up for them. Yet doing so entails the risk of supervisory retaliation. High-status coworkers should be well-positioned to stand up for victims as they have greater social capital at work. However, such retaliation risks may loom large for them because they are highly motivated to protect what they have. Thus, prior research reports both positive and negative links between status markers and various forms of standing up. We suggest that these inconclusive findings stem from examining individuals’ status only within a single domain (e.g., work) while neglecting how their standing in other groups may shape their experiences in that focal domain. Building on status inconsistency theory (Lenski, 1954) and the concept of status portfolios (Fernandes et al., 2021), we argue that status variance (i.e., inconsistency of status across groups) shapes how high-status employees react to mistreatment. Specifically, we hypothesize that high-status employees with high (compared to low) status variance will experience greater fear of retaliation and reduced willingness to stand up. We argue that this occurs because they perceive their status portfolios as unstable and become more vigilant in protecting their elevated standing at work. Four complementary studies provided support for our hypotheses. We discuss implications for research on bystander intervention, supervisory mistreatment, and statu
Household driven and council managed street greening: Scoring cost, expertise, space, and cost-benefits of green infrastructure combinations
Get PDFWhile extensive research has documented the environmental benefits of green infrastructure (GI), do-it-yourself (DIY) approaches that empower individuals and communities to implement small-scale green solutions have received limited attention despite their potential to democratise urban greening and foster community engagement. This study aims to systematically characterise DIY GI implementation across UK cities and analyse the costs and benefits of GI establishment. We conducted mapping of GI configurations across major UK cities using Google street view imagery and field observations, identifying 30 street-scale and 50 household-scale GI scenarios, complemented by an extensive literature review examining small-scale GI interventions. This focus on household and streetside GI provides insights into small-scale interventions, although larger spaces such as urban forests, parks and grasslands also provide benefits, they are beyond the scope of this study. A five-level scoring framework was developed for costs, space requirements, expertise levels, maintenance demands, and cost-benefits to design DIY guidance cards for GI scenarios. Our findings reveal diversity in GI adoption, with street trees and basic grass combinations dominating street-scale implementations (20.8 % each), while household-scale approaches show remarkable variety ranging from simple grass-only configurations (18.5 %) to complex multi-feature systems. The analysis identified a linear relationship between higher GI establishment costs and increased maintenance costs, despite greater variation in the latter. The detailed DIY score reveals that household-scale combinations have greater variation in cost and higher potential benefits compared with street-scale interventions, which remain clustered at lower scores despite higher space demands. The DIY framework enables local authorities and households to make informed GI decisions, addressing key implementation barriers. Aligned with UK policies for GI, the current framework can be further enhanced through interactive platforms, planting schemes, and added metrics for biodiversity and climate adaptation
Mini 1959-2000
No full textWhen it was launched in 1959 the Mini stunned the world with its ingenious compact design. In this book Peter Barker tells the full story of the classic Mini through four decades from the 1950s to the millennium. Drawing on interviews with the original designers and engineers, he provides the inside story of how the Mini was developed. From the 1960s when the Mini became a cultural icon, through the 1970s and into the 1980s and 90s, the Mini was both a cool choice of car as well as an economical one. Featuring unique in-person interviews and accompanied by archive photography, this book is an essential and fitting tribute to one of Britain's best loved cars
Self-management of male urinary symptoms: Qualitative findings from a primary care trial
No full textBackgroundInformed self-management is the first-line treatment for male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). The extent of delivery in primary care is unclear. The TRIUMPH (TReating Urinary symptoms in Men in Primary Healthcare) cluster randomised controlled trial compared a structured self-management intervention to usual care for men with LUTS. We report on embedded qualitative interviews.Aim Investigate men’s experiences of LUTS, engagement with primary care and responses to a self-management intervention and the perspectives of primary care clinicians, to inform the delivery of self-management guidance in primary care.Design and Setting Qualitative interview study within the TRIUMPH trial across 30 General Practice sites.Method Semi-structured interviews with 58 men with LUTS and 14 treating clinicians, analysed using thematic analysis.Results Men with LUTS were characterised as ‘languishing’; poorly informed; discounting symptoms as ‘just old men’s problems’; and experiencing Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing cycles, that did not resolve their LUTS. GP’s described focus on LUTS self-management being restricted by clinical pressures and attending to prostate cancer concerns. The TRIUMPH self-help intervention booklet was strongly valued by men who described greater understanding of their symptoms and self-management options, and reported both LUTS and quality of life improvements. Some men found the intervention unrewarding. Conclusion Explanation and tailored self-management support was liked and found useful by men with LUTS. Recommendations for clinical practice include: avoiding language perceived as dismissive; LUTS follow-up after PSA testing; focusing on symptoms and self-management approaches; and distributing the TRIUMPH booklet widely
The social costs of Capitalism - evaluating socio-ecological arguments for post-Capitalist calculation
No full textDebate continues surrounding the proposal for a revolutionary social-ecological economics. This concerns, in particular, the question of how to frame and address urgent socio-ecological problems and crises; whether as “socialized costs” and “cost shifting”, or “externalities” and “market failure” (Spash 2019). “Social costs” has been identified as the core concern of socialists during the socialist calculation debate (Berger 2024), playing the main part in the critique of capitalist calculation and accounting. “Social waste” became simultaneously the core theme of social economics (Rutherford 2011). “Social costs” and “social waste” critically capture preventable resource depletion, environmental disruption, and social problems, such as unmet human needs. This reflects the common underlying understanding behind both concepts that capitalism antagonizes both society and nature. Linking the current “Spash-debate” back to the socialist calculation debate highlights continuity in the coherent core of revolutionary arguments for post-capitalist calculation; namely, the prevention of social cost based on socially evaluated “calculations in kind” as the essence of social-ecological economy . It also demonstrates that “social costs” arose as counter-claim to the leading neoliberal claim by Ludwig von Mises on the indispensable and superior rationality of markets (including capital markets). This culminated in the rejection of solutions proposed by neoliberal and neoclassical “externalities” theories because these are exclusively based on individual subjectivism and/or monetary market valuation. (Berger 2017, ch. 4) Nevertheless, foundational revolutionary socio-ecological theories – similar to heterodox economics in general (Mearman et al. 2023) - exhibit only a messy coherence in terms of the details of their causal analyses and their solutions. Therefore, the main aim of the article is to evaluate the messy coherence in the revolutionary socio-ecological arguments by foundational economists T.B. Veblen, J.M. Clark, K. Polanyi, and K.W. Kapp. While the latter two authors have been discussed as foundational influences within the journal of Ecological Economics (Berger 2024), the former two have not been explored in any detail within Ecological Economics . Due to their only messy coherence, it is not possible to provide a concise definition of concepts or theories. Instead, a careful assessment is required, which is the task of this article. This aims to tackle the question what this messy coherence between original contributions can contribute to a revolutionary social-ecological economics. Original arguments of foundational revolutionary socio-ecological thinkers are evaluated to establish the coherence, messiness, strengths and weaknesses of their proposals for post-capitalist calculation of social costs
‘His heads gone and that’s as far as it goes’; using IPA and an intimate insider approach to understand the impact of social deprivation on men’s mental health and help seeking in the South Wales Valleys
Get PDFThis study explores how men from the South Wales Valleys, an area characterised by significant social deprivation, think about mental health issues and seeking help for them. Living in areas of social deprivation is widely acknowledged within the literature to negatively impact both of these aspects. A partial intimate insider research perspective was used to recruit and interview six participants and it was acknowledged that the population under study would be more likely to engage with someone who shared their background social context. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data and to develop themes which pertained to the intersection of culture, social class, masculinity, and mental health difficulties. The two themes that are discussed here are A Cultural of Threat and Oppression: ‘It’s hard to live around here, I see the Valleys as fight of flight’ and Us in the Valleys and Them Outside ‘You have to be from the Valleys to talk to someone from the Valleys’. Each superordinate theme is made up of subthemes, and these will be explored in the article. The discussion focuses on essential insights from the data giving voice to this marginilised population and providing food for thought for mental health professionals and policy makers
Participant permanence: Exploring and enhancing experiences of research involvement in UK adults with vision impairment through an Online Participant Engagement Network (OPEN)
Get PDFFor individuals with vision impairment (VI), there can be physical and technical barriers to participating in research and accessing research outputs. As a result, researchers often target smaller VI samples and individuals with VI are left under-involved and underrepresented in the VI research discourse. This study aimed to evaluate the accessibility and utility of the Online Participant Engagement Network for Vision Impairment Research (OPEN VI Research) and explore the broader experiences of research involvement in individuals with VI to develop guidelines for researchers studying this area. Qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured focus group with seven adults with VI, and analysed using a dual inductive reflexive thematic analysis approach. Three overarching meta-themes emerged through the analysis: ‘access’, ‘participant permanence’ and ‘motivation’. It was identified that preferences for being reached to take part in research and optimisation for accessible web-design differed based on individual needs associated with varying levels of VI. The importance of researchers recognising participants with VI as active contributors, before, during and after participation, was also outlined. In addition, despite some participants expressing negative experiences of researchers failing to follow-up post-participation, it was found that focus group members remained highly motivated to continue to take part in research. To address these findings, guidelines for researchers were developed based on participant suggestions and discussed in relation to relevant literature. This study fills the gap in the literature on individuals with VI’s views and experiences of research involvement and the suggested guidelines have the potential to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of the practice of researchers of VI
The effects of different types of crowd noise on penalty taking performance in football
Get PDFCrowd noise impacts sporting performance, although little is known about this effect on penalty taking in football. This study explored the effect of crowd noise (positive, negative, stress-inducing, or no sound) on penalty-taking performance (accuracy and ball speed), and whether psychological skills contributed to this relationship. Twenty-four footballers took 20 unopposed penalties (with no goalkeeper present) whilst listening to pre-recoded crowd noises (5 penalties per the four conditions, presented in a counterbalanced order). After each condition, the same 16-item psychological skill questionnaire was completed by participants that measured, self-talk, imagery, relaxation, and emotional control. The results indicated that penalty-taking accuracy, although not ball speed was worse when listening to negative crowd noise. Self-talk is used more by players who were less accurate, and no psychological skill was able to moderate any negative effects of noise type on penalty taking. Encouraging players to train under different crowd noises might enhance performance and decision-making when in competition