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DEI & Hybrid Work Environments: A Game Changer or Another Disruptor?
Get PDFDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) have been on the corporate agenda for years, and companies actively seek to raise awareness and mitigate disadvantages for the respective marginalised groups. Some examples of DEI agendas include: (i) how to overcome injustice when hiring or promoting staff from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, (ii) equal pay, (iii) gender equality, (iv) disability, and (v) neurodiversity. However, the pandemic has raised two key questions. 1. Which additional dynamics are added to the DEI conversation with remote and hybrid workplace scenarios? 2. How do these dynamics impact the decisions of current and future generations of workers when making career decisions and choosing an employer
The efficacy and safety of ketamine for depression in patients with cancer: A systematic review
Get PDFManagement of depression in the oncology population includes supportive psychotherapeutic interventions with or without psychotropic medication, which take time to demonstrate effectiveness. Fast-acting interventions, like ketamine, can provide a rapid antidepressant effect; however, there has been limited research on effects of ketamine among cancer patients. The objective of this review is to provide an overview of research on the efficacy and safety of ketamine on depression in patients with cancer. We reviewed the published literature in MEDLINE® (via PubMed®), EMBASE, and Scopus from 1 January 1982 to 20 October 2022. We screened the retrieved abstracts against inclusion criteria and conducted a full-text review of eligible studies. Following extraction of data from included studies, we used a framework analysis approach to summarize the evidence on using ketamine in patients with cancer. All 5 included studies were randomized clinical trials conducted in inpatient settings in China. In all included studies ketamine was administered intravenously. Three studies used only racemic ketamine, and two studies used both S-ketamine and racemic ketamine. All included studies reported ketamine a tolerable and effective drug to control depression symptoms. Included studies showed administration of sub-anesthesia ketamine significantly improves postoperative depression among patients with cancer. [Abstract copyright: © 2023 The Author(s).
Asthma and COPD as co-morbidities in patients hospitalised with Covid-19 disease: a global systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFBackground: Factors predisposing to increased mortality with COVID-19 infection have been identified as male sex, hypertension, obesity, and increasing age. Early studies looking at airway diseases gave some contradictory results. The purpose of our study was to determine global variation in studies in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the prevalence of COPD and asthma; and to determine whether the presence of asthma or COPD affected mortality in the same hospital population. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the published literature of COPD and asthma as co-morbidities in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was performed, looking firstly at the prevalence of these diseases in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and secondly at the relative risk of death from any cause for patients with asthma or COPD. Results: Prevalence of both airway diseases varied markedly by region, making meaningful pooled global estimates of prevalence invalid and not of clinical utility. For individual studies, the interquartile range for asthma prevalence was 4.21 to 12.39%, and for COPD, 3.82 to 11.85%. The relative risk of death with COPD for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was 1.863 (95% CI 1.640–2.115), while the risk with asthma was 0.918 (95% CI 0.767 to 1.098) with no evidence of increased mortality. Conclusions: For asthma and COPD, prevalence in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 varies markedly by region. We found no evidence that asthma predisposed to increased mortality in COVID-19 disease. For COPD, there was clear evidence of an association with increased mortality. Trial registration: The trial was registered with PROSPERO: registration number CRD42021289886
How do Baptists discern the 'mind of Christ' at the Church Meeting?
Get PDFAt the heart of every Baptist church is the Church Meeting, where church members make decisions for their local congregation by discerning the mind of Christ. As a Baptist minister, I operate as a practitioner-researcher in this project by observing four local Baptist churches in north London and interviewing twelve members on the practice of discernment. As a
relatively unexamined area of church life, this project aims to articulate Baptist discernment to renew the Church Meeting.
Through the data collected and analysed by thematic and axial coding, Baptist discernment is identified, articulated, and named as slow wisdom. Slow wisdom is slow, listens to all members, and seeks consensus agreement through a prayerful and prophetic atmosphere. The theological emphasis on participation, described as ‘this body life’ is shown to be based on biblical images
of the church as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12.4-27) as the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2.4-5). By comparing slow wisdom to bell hooks’ practical wisdom (1994, 2003, 2010), slow wisdom finds broader terms of expression and rationale for participation and the Church Meeting is recast as a radical place. Slow wisdom uses embodied knowledge to form Christian
practical wisdom (Miller-McLemore, 2016) that long-standing members use as an epistemological source to verify discernment. Therefore, knowledge of Baptist discernment is expanded from a biblical basis to recognise phronesis in the lived experience of faith and bodily practice of attending the Church Meeting as fundamental to discernment. Slow wisdom is not present when the Church Meeting fails to listen to all members. The project shows how members who are different to the habitual norm of the church are excluded. The low attendance of younger members and members from other denominations is shown to be effectively addressed by examples of best practices, alongside the project recommendation of sharing slow wisdom as a model for reflection. To explore Black and Brown members whose voices have been overruled in Church Meetings, Willie Jennings’
(2010, 2020) work on challenging racism in education provides a contrasting analysis. Through Jennings’ example, the project demonstrates how the design of the Church Meeting can be changed to be inclusive of all members to increase belonging among Black and Brown members. Having articulated slow wisdom, this new knowledge contributes to other
denominations' discernment approaches and provides a pathway for renewal of practice and a revitalisation of the Baptist Church Meeting for Baptists. The portfolio submitted before this thesis shows a reflective research journey in Practical Theology as a Baptist minister. At the beginning of the professional doctorate programme, my research question concerned a critical discussion held at my first church in London. At the Church Meeting, church members shared their different views regarding whether the church building was a sacred space. My focus throughout the programme has been to understand how
Baptists hear varied opinions and make decisions together at the Church Meeting. In my literature review, I examined the concept of churches as sacred spaces and places in Baptist research and other Christian traditions. By using a modified pastoral cycle, I reflected on the critical Church Meeting discussion, followed by an exploration of biblical models of
revelation, churches understood as storied and incarnational places, and sociology and place. The review highlighted that while the content of the original discussion on sacred places was important, the context of the Church Meeting in which it was held was critical for Baptists. For my publishable article, I reviewed a contrasting sample of literature on unholy places. Now
in my second pastorate in Cheshire, I explored ‘Mischief Night’ and the practice of charismatic Christians to prayer walk outdoors to reclaim the local streets from an unholy environment into a sacred place. I identified parallels between Baptist charismatic views regarding place and Celtic views on liminal places. I argued that determining good from evil through testing in
prayer was believed by Baptists as a factor in discernment practice on Mischief Night. To complete the first stage of the professional doctorate, I returned to reflecting on decisionmaking within the Church Meeting to form the basis of my research proposal. Now in my third pastorate, I sought to make generalisations about the practice of discernment for Baptists
at the Church Meeting. I selected a qualitative research approach to analyse a set of Baptist churches using the tools of observation, interviewing and coding. With a concern to express the lived experience of faith for Baptists, these methods were chosen to generate fresh data concerning an unarticulated discernment practice to existing discernment literature. I sought
to articulate how Baptists discern together at the Church Meeting with an interest in revelation, testing or judging good decisions in discernment, the role of prayer and the significance of the Church Meeting for members. The project began with a specific question of revelation and sacred space in a multi-ethnic Baptist church. Through stage one, a broader topic emerged of how Baptists search for revelation from God to make decisions together which led to the final research question of
‘How do Baptists discern the mind of Christ at the Church Meeting?’The Baptist Union of Great Britain Further Studies Fun
Operationalising the Family-Friendly Medical Workplace and the Development of FAM-MED, a Family-Friendly Self-Audit Tool for Medical Systems: A Delphi Consensus
Get PDFGlobally, the call for Family-Friendly (FF) workplaces is loud and clear. However, this call is inaudible in medical workplaces, despite both well-established benefits of FF workplaces across businesses and well-known effects of work–family conflict on the well-being and practice of doctors. We aimed to use the Delphi consensus methodology to: (i) operationalise the Family-Friendly medical workplace and (ii) develop a Family-Friendly Self-Audit tool for medical workplaces. The expert medical Delphi panel was deliberatively recruited to capture a breadth of professional, personal, and academic expertise, diversity of age (35–81), life stage, family contexts and lived experience of dual commitments to work and family, and diversity of work settings and positions. Results reflected the inclusive and dynamic nature of the doctor’s family and the need to adopt a family life cycle approach to FF medical workplaces. Key processes for implementation include holding firms to zero discrimination; flexibility and openness to dialogue and feedback; and a mutual commitment between the doctor and the department lead to best meet the doctor’s individualised needs while still ensuring optimal patient care and team support and cohesion. We hypothesise that the Department Head may be the key to implementation but recognise the workforce constraints to realising these aspirational systemic shifts. It is time we acknowledge that doctors have families, to narrow the gap between identifying as a partner, mother, father, daughter, son, grandparent, and identifying as a doctor. We affirm the right to be both good doctors and good family members
Dishes of Rotherham
No full text© 2022 Simon GrennanCooking, dishing up and eating together might appear to be ordinary activities. Across every time and culture, they are also important community activities, providing identity, skills, a sense of connectedness, tradition and mental as well as physical well-being.
In the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s, one of the most famous and spectacular ways to dish up was provided by the porcelain tableware made by the Rockingham Pottery in Rotherham. The Rockingham Works made some of the most colourful, exuberant, lavish and expensive tableware available at the time, for a national and international clientele.
This book brings together food made by 10 cooks from contemporary Rotherham and some of the Rockingham tableware from Rotherham Museums, Arts and Heritage collection. The cooks come from different cooking traditions, including Pakistani, Sudanese, Guinean, Ukrainian, Czech, Yemeni, Malaysian and British. Each cook visited the Museum, chose an item of Rockingham tableware, and then cooked and styled their dishes to be served on the Rockingham items themselves.
Professor Simon Grennan organised the dishing up and worked with each cook and with photographer Sally Robinson to spectacularly style their food and dish it up on the Rockingham. Stills from a new film by David Sánchez Marín about the making of these displays appear alongside Sally’s photographs of the cooks' food. Portraits of each cook, drawn by Simon, recipes and personal stories from the cooks complete the work
The influential role of austerity in normalising sustainable consumption
Get PDFThis is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in [Research Handbook on Ethical Consumption: Contemporary Research in Responsible and Sustainable Consumer Behaviour ] edited by [M. Carrigan, V. Wells & K. A. Papadas], published in 2023, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781802202021
The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.The financial crisis of 2008 leading to the imposition of strict austerity measures particularly within certain EU states is an appropriately significant and enduring context in which to explore consumer attitudes and behaviour change. While the negative implications of austerity measures are well documented (Krugman, 2012), it proposed that economic downturns trigger a normative towards sustainable consumption (e.g. Evans, 2011) which is similarly reflected by pro-environmental behaviours evidenced during the on-going COVID-19 global pandemic (Orîndaru et al, 2021). This research draws upon social normalisation (Rettie et al., 2011, 2012) and practice theory (Warde, 2005; Shove, 2009) as key conceptual frameworks through which to explore the normalisation of practices among everyday consumers within the context of austerity. Employing an interpretive approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 38 EU consumers across 6 countries including Ireland, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. A multi-stage analysis of the data revealed three key themes: Normalised sustainability practices; Social normalisation of frugality; and Normalisation of frugal-induced sustainability. Given the prevalence and sustained nature of modern day crises, this study contributes to consumer research by offering an EU-wide account of how shifting consumer knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and cultural values in the context of austerity impact on everyday sustainable consumption practices. Our research highlights how sustainable consumption practices are being increasingly normalised for several reasons beyond environmental motivations including economic, (manifested by increased frugality), as well as social. Our research foregrounds the transformative and long-term effect of austerity on norms, practices, values and meanings at both individual and societal levels. We specifically reveal the critical influence of social norms in the form of values of shared empathy and solidarity vis-à-vis others affected by austerity. We also advance knowledge of the importance of the “carrier” role (Shove et al (2012) by evidencing how normalised, frugality-induced sustainability practices are performed and reproduced within EU countries. In conclusion, we outline several recommendations for policy and practice to more effectively promote and support sustainability change and progression at local community and national levels
Embodying a Different Word about Fat: The Need for Critical Feminist Theologies of Fat Liberation
Get PDFIn contemporary Western society, fatness speaks for itself, affirming the fat person as an aesthetic and moral failure even before they say a word. Fat bodies, and fat female bodies in particular, are produced and reproduced as sites of excess and obscenity. Christian theology has protected itself from the contaminating touch of fat by ignoring fatness in theological discourse. Especially concerning is the relative absence of ‘fat talk’ from liberation and feminist theologies. It is time for a different word to be offered on fat that does not speak for itself and that emerges from the lived experiences of diverse women as they interpret their own faith and fatness. This essay explores the need for critical feminist theologies on fat liberation and identifies some features they might display. Here, I discuss Feminist Participatory Action Research and ethnography as methodologies that might help feminist theologians researching fat to prioritise the overlooked bodies and stories of fat women, and to continue liberation theology’s longstanding commitment to constructing historical projects oriented towards social change. Fat liberation, as a historical and theological project, calls for a ‘conversion’ to fatness and for a critical questioning of assumed ‘truths’ about fat. It positions the struggle against fat hatred as a pursuit of life and as faithful participation in the liberating activity of the God of Life
The utility of game-based approaches within the PE curriculum design and implementation process to develop “more knowledgeable others”
Get PDFVygotsky believed that social interaction played a vitally important role in the development of cognition. This social interaction was often initiated by recognition of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). With the development of learners as MKOs being a product of a teacher’s pedagogical choice, the role of pedagogy in the curriculum design process becomes an important consideration. So how do we develop more MKOs in physical education? What should we be considering when we design our physical education curricula of the future? This article presents information relating to the use of a specific family of pedagogical approaches, namely game based approaches (GBAs), as a means to design physical education curricula that develops and recognises learners as MKOs. Also discussed is Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) Understanding by Design framework and its use in designing a PE curriculum that aligns to the key features of GBA implementation. Finally, strategies are presented to help teachers overcome common challenges of GBA implementation so that more MKOs are recognised and developed in our PE classes
Human-Wildlife Conflict in Golden Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) of the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
Get PDFThis version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-023-00365-8Human-wildlife conflict, in particular crop-foraging, challenges conservationists worldwide. Endangered golden monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) are frequent crop-foragers around Volcanoes National Park (VNP), Rwanda. To evaluate the impact of crop-foraging behaviour on monkeys and farmers, we interviewed 45 farmers near VNP using a structured questionnaire and organised a workshop for local and regional actors to discuss mitigation measures. To investigate differences in monkey behaviour when foraging inside versus outside VNP, and to inform mitigation strategies, we collected ad libitum behavioural data from one habituated golden monkey group for 11 weeks. We tested the feasibility of a taste aversion technique to deter monkeys, by placing chilli-laced potatoes in harvested potato fields adjacent to the study group’s home range, but found that experimental aversion techniques were logistically challenging. Of 38 farmers, 95% experienced potato loss to monkeys and 36% of 44 farmers threw objects at/chased monkeys in the previous farming season. Farmers and workshop participants judged the most effective way to mitigate crop-foraging to be through improvement of existing crop-guarding. Behavioural observations indicated increased vigilance behaviour and decreased social behaviour when in farmland. Monkeys (N=9) that visited the experimental area avoided chilli-laced potatoes but continued to forage on nearby crops. In conclusion, our results indicate that crop-foraging can negatively impact farmers' livelihoods and attitudes and can increase vigilance behaviour of monkeys. Our multi-faceted approach enabled the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders, highlighted the urgent need to improve existing management measures and explored alternatives to facilitate positive coexistence between monkeys and farmers
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