Representation in the first African World Cup:'world-class', Pan-Africanism, and exclusion

This paper explores the representation of the first African World Cup in the British and South African press. Drawing on the output of a variety of media outlets between 2004, when South Africa was awarded the right to host the 2010 event, and the culmination of the tournament in July 2010, this paper contends that a range of representations of Africa have been put forward by the British and South African media. These can be interpreted as alarmist, sensationalist and even racist in certain extreme instances, and hypernationalist and overly defensive in other cases. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Outside in-group and out-group identities? Constructing male solidarity and female exclusion in UK builders’ talk

This article examines the spoken interactions of a group of British construction workers to discover whether it is possible to identify a distinctive ‘builders’ discourse’. Given that builders work for a mostly all-male profession (Curjao, 2006), we ask whether the ways in which male builders converse with each other while ‘on the job’ can be held in any way responsible for the under-representation of women within this major occupational sector in the UK. This article reports on a case study of the conversations of three white, working-class, male builders, which took place while travelling in a truck between different building sites. This forms part of a larger ethnographic study of builders’ discourse in different work locations. The analysis shows that male builders are highly collaborative in constructing narratives of in-group and out-group identities (Duszak, 2002; Tajfel, 1978). Various other male groups are demonized in these conversations: Polish immigrant builders, rude clients and rival builders. However, there is almost no reference to women. The article concludes that women are viewed as so unthreatening to male ascendancy in the building industry that they do not even feature within the ‘out-group’.

Peculiar body representation alterations in hemineglect:a case report

We report the case of FP affected by personal and extrapersonal neglect and a body representation deficit characterized by delusional ideas. When FP performed the human figure, he placed body parts to the left, despite his extrapersonal neglect. Differently, when he performed the car figure, he placed all parts to the right, in line with his deficit. Comparing FP with a small patient group with the same clinical features without delusional ideas about body emerged that he was the only one to suffer from a specific body representation deficit characterized by a lack of body ownership sense.

Body representation alterations in personal but not in extrapersonal neglect patients

There is still a matter of debate around the nature of personal neglect. Is it an attention disorder or a body representation disorder? Here we investigate the presence of body representation deficits (i.e., the visuo-spatial body map) in right and left brain-damaged patients and in particular in those affected by personal neglect. 23 unilateral brain-damaged patients (5 left-brain-damaged and 18 right-brain-damaged patients) and 15 healthy controls took part in the study. The visuo-spatial body map was assessed by means of the “Frontal body-evocation subtest (FBE),” in which participants have to put tiles representing body parts on a small wooden board where only the head is depicted as a reference point. In order to compare performance on the FBE with performance on an inanimate object that had well-defined right and left sides, participants also performed the “Car test.” Group statistical analysis shows that the performance of patients with personal neglect is significantly worse than that of the controls and patients without personal neglect in the FBE but not in the Car test. Single case analyses of the five patients with pure personal neglect confirm the results of group analysis. Our data supports the hypothesis that personal neglect is a pervasive body representation disorder.

Representation of people of South Asian origin in cardiovascular outcome trials of glucose-lowering therapies in Type 2 diabetes

Aims : Our aim was to investigate the proportional representation of people of South Asian origin in cardiovascular outcome trials of glucose-lowering drugs or strategies in Type 2 diabetes, noting that these are among the most significant pieces of evidence used to formulate the guidelines on which clinical practice is largely based. Methods : We searched for cardiovascular outcome trials in Type 2 diabetes published before January 2015, and extracted data on the ethnicity of participants. These were compared against expected values for proportional representation of South Asian individuals, based on population data from the USA, from the UK, and globally. Results : Twelve studies met our inclusion criteria and, of these, eight presented a sufficiently detailed breakdown of participant ethnicity to permit numerical analysis. In general, people of South Asian origin were found to be under-represented in trials compared with UK and global expectations and over-represented compared with US expectations. Among the eight trials for which South Asian representation could be reliably estimated, seven under-represented this group relative to the 11.2% of the UK diabetes population estimated to be South Asian, with the representation in these trials ranging from 0.0% to 10.0%. Conclusions : Clinicians should exercise caution when generalizing the results of trials to their own practice, with regard to the ethnicity of individuals. Efforts should be made to improve reporting of ethnicity and improve diversity in trial recruitment, although we acknowledge that there are challenges that must be overcome to make this a reality.