Effects of group status on responses to sustainable land use campaigns

A number of survey studies were conducted with landholders throughout Queensland to assess the effectiveness and perceived influence of campaigns promotng sustainable land use. While previous studies have addressed the role of group membership in persuasive communications, the current line of research extends this by focusing on the intergroup context, namely, the perceptions of group status. Across a range of samples it was found that landholders' perceptions of lower status in relation to urban people were associated with increased support for ingroup messages and decreased support for outgroup messages. These results are broadly consistent with research that suggests that threats to group identity (such as an infiuence attempt by a higher status group) will be responded to in a negative way and highlights the importance of considering relations between groups when attempting to change attiutudes.

Responses to racial segregation in a black Miami community

The present study examines the extent to which blacks are segregated in the suburban community of Coconut Grove, Florida. Hypersegregation, or the general tendency for blacks and whites to live apart, was examined in terms of four distinct dimensions: evenness, exposure, clustering, and concentration. Together, these dimensions define the geographic traits of the target area. Alone these indices can not capture the multi-dimensional levels of segregation and, therefore, by themselves underestimate the severity of segregation and isolation in this community. This study takes a contemporary view of segregation in a Dade County community to see if segregation is the catalyst to the sometime cited violent response of blacks. This study yields results that support the information in the literature review and the thesis research questions sections namely, that the blacks within the Grove do respond violently to the negative effects that racial segregation causes. This thesis is unique in two ways. It examines segregation in a suburban environment rather than an urban inner city, and it presents a responsive analysis of the individuals studied, rather than relying only on demographic and statistical data. ^

Gendered Responses to Global Crisis: Circular Migration and Return among Ecuadorian Families in Spain and Ecuador

This paper analyzes the impact of Spain’s economic crisis on social reproduction strategies of Ecuadorian migrant families in Madrid and Quito. The paper analyzes circular migration experiences and more permanent returns to Ecuador. I argue that these strategies and migrants' greater or lesser capabilities to move between different migration destinations show significant gender differences. On the one hand, men and women make a differential use of their migratory status to deploy transnational strategies and expand their mobility. On the other hand, migrants’ degree of mobility and flexibility with regard to the labor market and transnational social reproduction are derivative of a specific gendered order and sexual division of labor.

A Comparison of Subjective Experiences and Responses to Austerity of UK and Greek Youth. GreeSE Paper No.102

Following previous research carried out by Chalari (2014; 2015), this qualitative study explores the ways in which the younger generation in Greece and UK has been affected by austerity policy measures. These two countries have been at the forefront of intense social, political and economic transformations that have impacted particularly on young people’s current and future lives. This study aims to explore similarities and differences in young people’s subjective experiences and responses, as from this it may be possible to discern whether there is a general, long-term negative effect of austerity across Europe. The data shows that there are some similarities in the two cohorts’ subjective experiences and responses, but perhaps more interestingly some significant differences. The study discusses what the implications of these differences might be for young people and society in these countries, in terms of their impact on the abilities of the younger generation, in a way that has the potential to destabilize their personal and professional lives now and in the future.

Organizational responses to technological discontinuities: the case of the American College of Radiology (ACR)

A long history of organizational research has shown that organizations are affected significantly by changes in technology. Scholars have given particular attention to the effects of so-called disruptive or discontinuous technological changes. Studies have repeatedly shown that established, incumbent organizations tend to suffer deep performance declines (and even complete demise) in the face of such changes, and researchers have devoted much attention to identifying the organizational conditions and processes that are responsible for this persistent and widespread pattern of adaptation failure. This dissertation, which examines the response of the American College of Radiology (ACR) to the emergence of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging technology (NMR), aims to contribute to this well-established research tradition in three distinct and important ways. First, it focuses on a fundamentally different type of organization, a professional association, rather than the technology producers examined in most prior research. Although technologies are well known to be embedded in “communities” that include technology producers, suppliers, customers, governmental entities, professional societies, and other entities, most prior research has focused on the responses and ultimate fate of producers alone. Little if any research has explored the responses of professional organizations in particular. Second, the study employs a sophisticated process methodology that identifies the individual events that make up the organization’s response to technological change, as well as the overall sequence through which these events unfold. This process approach contrasts sharply with the variance models used in most previous studies and offers the promise of developing knowledge about how adaptation ultimately unfolds (or fails to). Finally, the project also contributes significantly through its exploration of an apparently successful case of adaptation to technological change. Though nuclear magnetic resonance imaging posed a serious threat to the ACR and its members, this threat appears to have been successfully managed and overcome. Although the unique nature of the organization and the technology under study place some important limits on the generalizablity of this research, its findings nonetheless provide some important basic insights about the process through which social organizations can successfully adapt to discontinuous technological changes. These insights, which may also be of substantial relevance to technology producer organizations, will also be elaborated.

Physiological and symptomatic responses to cycling and walking in intermittent claudication

To shed light on the potential efficacy of cycling as a testing modality in the treatment of intermittent claudication (IC), this study compared physiological and symptomatic responses to graded walking and cycling tests in claudicants. Sixteen subjects with peripheral arterial disease (resting ankle: brachial index (ABI) < 0.9) and IC completed a maximal graded treadmill walking (T) and cycle (C) test after three familiarization tests on each mode. During each test, symptoms, oxygen uptake (VO2), minute ventilation (VE), respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and heart rate (HR) were measured, and for 10 min after each test the brachial and ankle systolic pressures were recorded. All but one subject experienced calf pain as the primary limiting symptom during T; whereas the symptoms were more varied during C and included thigh pain, calf pain and dyspnoea. Although maximal exercise time was significantly longer on C than T (690 +/- 67 vs. 495 +/- 57 s), peak VO2, peak VE and peak heart rate during C and T were not different; whereas peak RER was higher during C. These responses during C and T were also positively correlated (P < 0.05) with each other, with the exception of RER. The postexercise systolic pressures were also not different between C and T. However, the peak decline in ankle pressures from resting values after C and T were not correlated with each other. These data demonstrate that cycling and walking induce a similar level of metabolic and cardiovascular strain, but that the primary limiting symptoms and haemodynamic response in an individual's extremity, measured after exercise, can differ substantially between these two modes.