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Cultural persistence and the ‘herbal medicine paradox’ evidence from European data
No full textThe use of herbal or traditional medicines has survived the proliferation of modern medicine. The phenomenon has been labeled as the ‘herbal medicines paradox’ (HMP). We study whether such HMP hypothesis can be explained by the persistence of attitudes across cultural boundaries. We undertake a secondary analysis of individual-level migration data to test the persistence of the use of herbal medicines in relation to norms in the person’s country of birth (or home country). We study the association between attitudes towards herbal medicine treatments of both first (N = 3630) and second-generation (N = 1618) immigrants in 30 European countries, and the average attitudes of their sending country origins. We find robust evidence of an association that is stronger for the second-generation migrants. We document a stronger effect among maternal than paternal lineages, as well as significant heterogeneity based on migrants’ country of origin. Our estimates are robust to different sample analysis. Our estimates are consistent with a cultural explanation for the HMP
Hybrid media events as a heteroglossic mediation opportunity structure: the 2022 Tour de France
Get PDFAlthough current debates on media events acknowledge that these episodes are produced by a variety of actors, they often lack a robust theorisation of the asymmetrical power relations between them. Using the hybrid media coverage of the Tour de France 2022 as a heuristic device, we argue that examining media events as a ‘mediation opportunity structure’ offers a productive way to advance these debates. By conceptualising this event as a heteroglossic mediation opportunity structure, comprised of both insider and outsider dynamics, we illuminate not only who these different actors are, but also their shifting interactions and unequal access to symbolic and material resources. Media events therefore emerge not only as contentious episodes of highly mediated visibility, but as arenas where the boundaries of visibility themselves are fought over and policed, thus exposing the shifting architectures of power that shape what can be known, seen and concealed
We are being squeezed out: studentification, working-class displacement and resistance in Hulme, Manchester
No full textThis paper examines the nature of ‘studentification’ in Hulme, an inner-city area of Manchester, and how this process is responded to by working-class residents of the neighbourhood. We pay particular attention to the building of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), which we characterise as a distinctive ‘second stage’ of studentification which, following Baldwin (2021. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. London: Hachette UK) and his notion of the ‘UniverCity’, we conceptualise as the corporate ‘univercityfication’ of Manchester and Hulme. We locate the temporal nature of studentification within a broader ‘long view’ perspective on housing and urban policy—in this case the multiple rounds of demolition and redevelopment that Hulme has experienced since the 1950s. Hulme residents have played an active role in relation to such redevelopment, often contesting the various plans which have been put forward, including the recent PBSA developments. Although Hulme has been a home to students dating back to the 1970s, their co-presence has taken on an increasingly threatening form during the last decade due to the development of a new university campus and large-scale PBSA building. Such development is a key part of Manchester's urban policy strategy, a city well-known for its neoliberal tendencies. The paper argues that Hulme’s working-class population has shifted in its response to such studentification: from initial welcoming to outright opposition to the latest PBSA planning incarnations. We analyse how and why this changing response has occurred and emphasise how PBSA operates as a highly exclusionary mechanism within urban redevelopment. Working-class Hulme residents have witnessed the loss of their previous community facilities and are increasingly experiencing both ‘displacement pressure’ (Marcuse. 1985. “Gentrification, Abandonment and Displacement: Connections, Causes, and Policy Responses in New York City.” Wash. UJ Urb. & Contemp. L. 28: 195), and ‘displacement anxiety’ (Watt 2018. “‘This Pain of Moving, Moving, Moving’: Evictions, Displacement and Logics of Expulsion in London.” L’ Année sociologique 68 (1): 67–100. https://doi.org/10.3917/anso.181.0067). They anticipate that the remaining social housing will eventually be demolished and they themselves—‘a community of ghosts’—will be physically relocated away from the area. Such displacement concerns underpin the local ‘Block the Block’ campaign which vigorously challenged the latest PBSA proposal on the site of an old pub from 2020 to 2024
We are the eyes and ears of the community: reflections from social prescribing link workers during the real-world practice of a new community enhanced model
Get PDFSocial prescribing, or connecting people to valued community assets, is a key component of the UK’s health system. However, social prescribing research has inconsistent aims and outcomes, and there is limited data on the views of social prescribing professionals (‘link workers’) themselves. As part of a new model of Community-Enhanced Social Prescribing, this paper presents a co-created reflective case study developed by social prescribing link workers and researchers. The paper describes how link workers engaged with training on research in social prescribing, and used this as a platform to reflect upon key issues about their role. Themes from the discussion, which were grouped inductively based on principles of thematic analysis, encompassed: link working as a vocation; the complexity of the link worker role; how social prescribing is not a panacea; valuing social approaches to health; link working as shaped by organisational culture; and link worker training needs. The implications for Community-Enhanced Social Prescribing and social prescribing as a profession are discussed
The risk transmission mechanism between Geopolitical risks and the international agricultural product market: an analysis based on the cross-quantilogram and TVP-VAR-BK Models
Get PDFGeopolitical risk (GPR) is a critical volatility driver in agricultural futures markets. This paper innovatively integrates the cross-quantilogram approach and TVP-VAR-BK model to construct a two-dimensional framework of “extreme shock - systematic transmission” and use daily data from January 2001 to July 2024 for analysis. Results demonstrate asymmetric responses: grains show immediate sensitivity driven by financialization, while energy-intensive commodities exhibit lagged cost-transmission effects. Core crops (corn, wheat) function as systemic risk transmitters, contrasting with vulnerable receivers. Risk spillovers concentrate predominantly in ultra-short horizons, with crises triggering connectedness surges where GPR transitions to a net receiver. Findings advocate hierarchical mitigation strategies through differentiated reserves and international coordination mechanisms
Why we don’t talk about Brexit
Get PDFFive years on, politicians are unwilling to talk about Brexit and its effects. The same goes for voters. Despite polls showing that many have now regretted voting to leave the EU, there is little appetite to reopen the question of Brexit. Albert Cullell Cano uses ontological security theory to explain why this is
Community wealth protects cognitive health for older adults
Get PDFUsing a new database on the net worth and self-reported cognitive impairment for almost two million adults, this paper provides the first large-scale evidence linking community wealth to age-related cognitive decline. This assessment is timely as widening geographic wealth gaps in the USA fuel disparities in access to public goods and amenities, positioning community wealth as a critical determinant of cognitive health. Conditioning on personal wealth and other risk factors, we find that a standard deviation increase in community wealth is associated with a 6.7% relative risk reduction in cognitive impairment across the national population of older adults, rising to 13.7% for those residing in the poorest fifth of communities. Community wealth matters more than relative inequality, and its associated protective effects are larger for non-white, non-college educated, and low net worth householders. This is plausibly because these individuals rely more on the public goods and services underwritten by local affluence. The economic fragmentation of American communities thus poses a growing threat to the cognitive health of Americans, especially among those from socially vulnerable and marginalized backgrounds
Towards a theory of AI affordances actualizing: a case of an AI-powered CA in a hospital
No full textRapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have ignited the discussion on its potential and prospects. It empowers conversational agents (CAs) to provide more fluent and contextually relevant responses. In healthcare, the use of AI-powered conversational agents (CAs) for conversational-based tasks, such as pre-consultation triage and post-consultation follow-ups, has been proposed as a promising way to supplement healthcare services. Despite the growing literature on the potential benefits of applying AI-powered CAs in hospitals, there is a paucity of studies discussing how their potential might be realized. Following an abductive research design, this research employs the theoretical lens of affordance and affordances actualization to investigate the process of realizing an AI-powered CA’s potential for triage in a Chinese tertiary hospital. It critically compares the existing theoretical framework with contextual empirical material, offering new insights into the process of actualizing AI affordances. Specifically, it identifies the feedback mechanisms between technology affordances and actualized outcomes and demonstrates the role of organizational factors in the process of affordances actualization. The newly constructed theoretical model in this paper lays the groundwork for future research into AI affordances actualization at a human-machine-institution interface
"Me.No.Pause." Anxieties and fantasies of aging and femininity in contemporary menopause advertising
Get PDFAmidst heightened cultural visibility of menopause and a burgeoning market of menopause-related products in the United Kingdom and the United States, this article examines how menopause is constructed in contemporary advertising. Informed by a psychosocial understanding of advertisements as fantasy texts which operate through mobilizing psychic desires, identifications, and anxieties, we ask: How are women exhorted to relate to menopause? What fantasies and larger social tensions do the advertisements invoke and how do they resolve them? A reflexive thematic and multimodal analysis of 20 outdoor, print, television, and online advertisements reveals three central exhortations: defy, disavow, and embrace. These exhortations tap into wider contemporary anxieties around aging, women's loss of power, and control over women's bodies. The advertisements help to break the taboo around menopause, contributing to its growing visibility and framing in more positive terms. At the same time, the advertisements incite a fantasy of controlling and denying menopause, reinforcing the imperative to deny aging, resecuring patriarchal heteronormative notions of youthful femininity, desirability, and economic productivity, and placing responsibility of “managing” menopause solely on women