The DDS, Kakampinks, and Loyalists: A caution on groupism

The formation of interest or pressure groups representing older people is increasing in Australia. Following the American model, the new groups have a primary focus on financial matters and state explicitly that they will act politically on behalf of their members. Ex‐service organisations for veterans on the other hand, have existed for many years and formed in a different context. As a contribution to the commemorative year this paper, through a State survey, documents a small part of their history, and reviews the role and function of veterans' support groups in reference to these new aged group developments. The paper also looks at expression of intergenerational support for the veterans' groups by surveying a group of younger people's attitudes and understanding of them. The results indicate that the veterans' support groups, despite variation in some characteristics, have implicitly acted in the same manner as the political aged interest groups. Also, contrary to the groups' beliefs, there is intergenerational support for them, although a revised marketing strategy is recommended to enhance that support.

This study explored tensions between biomedical and psychosocial illness models and between the public health goal of stigma reduction and patients' perceptions of helplessness. Patients' etiological beliefs and use of language are considered as possible pathways to improved care. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from 18 adults attending a mood disorders support group in Dublin, Ireland. Respondents reported feelings of helplessness concerning the occurrence of depressive episodes. When describing episodes of wellness and depression, respondents used a "light switch" metaphor to indicate this lack of control. For several respondents, acceptance of biomedical causality was linked to helplessness. In contrast, spiritual beliefs offered hope. Alleviating patients' sense of responsibility may reduce their guilt, but patients' perceptions of illness uncontrollability may diminish their sense of agency, reinforce depressive attributional styles, and undermine overall treatment outcomes. Communication and the patients' involvement in decisions are vital to treatment.

The study of small-group communication investigates: (a) the nature and effects of members of small collectives (a minimum of three people) using verbal and nonverbal messages to share and create meaning (referred to as a symbolic-management focus) and (b) how groups and their processes and products result from message activity (referred to as a symbolic-constitutive focus). Scholarship on small-group communication emerges from the general study of group dynamics and, thus, has important grounding in, and ties to, research conducted in social psychology. However, in contrast to a psychological focus on members’ traits and cognitive processes, a communication approach explores what and how members communicate, how various factors (e.g., the context) affect that communication, and the resulting consequences of that communication (including members’ shared conception of being a “group”). Within the academic, disciplinary study of communication (that took place circa 1910), small-group communication was one of the earliest foci (after public speaking), but institutionally (e.g., in professional associations) such scholarship initially was connected to the study of interpersonal (dyadic) communication. Although scholarship on small-group communication has historically privileged the study of task groups (in specific, decision-making and problem-solving groups), fueled most recently by the growth of organizational communication scholarship on work groups and teams, in the early 21st century, communication is studied in a wide range of group contexts (e.g., families, peer groups, work groups/teams, support groups, political groups, and community groups).

Can the nightmare of language control in Orwell's 1984 work in reality? Linguistic Engineering offers a detailed look at Cultural Revolution slogans and draconian punishments for ‘incorrect’ speech, especially in schools and the workplace. Ji offers much-needed evidence from linguistics and psychology that, even for Red Guards, new vocabulary for ‘class struggle’ against ‘cow ghosts and snake gods’ could not produce a complete or permanent change in thought. Language control is fortunately impossible, however much intellectuals or propagandists may wish. Mere exposure to a phrase does not mean people will learn it, much less believe it. Humans inevitably interpret the world by experience, context and possible rewards, using humour, subversion, indifference, and simple daily routine to find ways to live around even the most oppressive propaganda.Linguistic Engineering focuses mainly on the spoken language of political discussion groups and propaganda between 1966 and 1972, with additional examples from school textbooks, and some model literature and operas. Once labels like ‘rightist,’ ‘bad element’ or ‘capitalist roader’ became linked with everything from ostracism to job loss to prison, passionate battles erupted. Traditional four character phrases such as “confess without being pressed” (bu da zi zhao) grew heavily politicized. Other new vocabulary, however, such as ‘tractor’ or ‘work unit’ was a more benign reflection of new technology and social systems, and remains part of everyday life.Lazy research mars what should have been a better book. Most of the Chinese examples are lifted from English language secondary sources by political scientists, then back-translated (well) into Chinese. Other examples come from English language memoirs of former Red Guards. They are rather unevenly chosen and cited, but most examples have already received meticulous discussion over the past 30 years. This book uses the term ‘Maoist worship,’ for example, very simplistically, ignoring the extensive literature on the distinctions between religious rites and political rallies. The term ‘linguistic engineering’ itself, comes not from Stalin, but from his propagandist, Zhadnov, who said writers are “engineers of human souls.” Other sections are original, but less compelling (e.g. the heroine of the model opera, “On the Docks,” gets 42 per cent of the dialogue).

Despite the attention given by scholars to the military-industrial complex few studies have attempted to pinpoint and explain its origin. In this paper we argue that the coalescing of business, military, and political interest groups in support of a military build-up in the United States during peacetime occurred in the years between the Civil War and World War I. It was during this period that we observe the roots of institutional arrangements between the military and industry for the purpose of large-scale weapons acquisitions.

The aim of this paper is to identify the mechanisms which have constrained the implementation of educational reform in a centralised education system. The case study relates to the 1968 educational reform in Israel. Analysis of the relevant documents reveals that even in a centralised education system decision‐makers have to look at reform implementation not just as an administrative follow‐up on policy, but in order to be able to mobilise an effective response to client needs and to unite political interest and pressure groups in support of the reform to ensure its successful implementation.

In Chapter 3, we documented the automaticity of affect toward political candidates, groups, and issues. We turn now to the question of political and social identifications and the implications of automatic intergroup feelings and stereotypes for political information processing. Ethnocentrism and group-based prejudice have long been thought to originate in fundamental categorization processes. More generally, we expect that our basic political attitudes and beliefs will be influenced by unconscious group categorization and identification processes. That so, we expect automatic group identifications to exert a strong pull on support for parties, candidates, and political issues outside of a citizen's awareness. This chapter reports multiple experimental tests of the hot cognition hypothesis for ideological, partisan, in-group, and out-group identifications. Our expectation, in line with the symbolic politics perspective of Kinder and Sears (1981; Sears, 2001; Sears and Henry, 2003), and our own emphasis on the primacy of affect in political judgment, is that the “simple” act of categorizing oneself or others as a member of this or that group is not so simple after all, as it engages both cognitive and affective processes that prove to be impossible to disentangle. From our hot cognition perspective, the labeling of one's self or others as a Democrat, Independent, or Republican, man or woman, black, white, or Asian is affectively charged, spontaneously triggering a positive self-to-in-group labeling effect and typically a less-than-positive or even negative affective evaluation of the out-group.

Tourism has an important contribution to development, so to realize sustainable tourism requires effective policy and planning. Then, one of the pillars in tourism development strategies is through community empowerment. However, in the tourism development policy implementation through community empowerment doesn’t work as planned. The purpose of this study is to offer a review of the tourism development policy through community empowerment and what are influencing factors of the tourism development policy implementation through community empowerment. This study used qualitative research methods through literature studies. These study findings show that tourism development policy through community empowerment have to prioritize the needs of the local community itself, in addition the aspects of tourists and tourism service providers. Tourism development policy comes from the community, by the community, and for the community. Through community empowerment can increase participation and active involvement of local community in order to develop local tourism. Factors affecting tourism development policy through community empowerment consist of internal and external factor. Internal factors related to social, cultural, environmental, and local resources. While external factors related to political support and interest groups within the tourism policy itself.

Political advertisements ( N = 136) from the 2016 U.S. presidential election are content analyzed in this study that investigates message strategy used by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in their televised ads. The negative nature of the campaign, and the high negative views voters held for Trump and Clinton, seems to have influenced the tone and focus of the ads. Despite Trump’s reputation for ad hominem attacks throughout the primary and general election phases of the presidential campaign, it was Clinton who waged more ad hominem attacks in her advertisements, mostly focused on labeling Trump as unfit for office. Trump and his supportive political action committee groups were more likely to run contrast ads to compare differences between his policies and Clinton’s policies, but Clinton’s campaign failed to use a full range of message strategies to contrast her policies with Trump’s and to bolster her own image through her campaign ads.

Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for the first six months of life is essential for an infant's optimal growth, immunity, and development. However, global adherence remains inadequate, particularly in developing regions. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing EBF practices among mothers of infants aged 0-6 months attending the immunization clinic at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) in Rivers State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional approach, data were gathered from 382 mothers through structured questionnaires. Analysis was done using Pearson correlation and chi-square tests. The findings showed that social support from healthcare providers, family and breastfeeding support groups played a crucial role in encouraging EBF. A substantial portion of mothers (47.1%) receive help with breastfeeding decisions from healthcare providers, followed by 39.3% from husbands or relatives and 13.6% from friends. Encouragement from husbands or family members plays a crucial role, with 83.8% of mothers reporting support in this regard. Additionally, 26.2% of mothers participate in breastfeeding support groups, and 75.9% of healthcare providers discuss the benefits of breastfeeding with them, further supporting their decisions. A notable 68.1% of healthcare providers assist with the initiation of breastfeeding, and 39.3% receive post-discharge breastfeeding support. The influence of healthcare providers in the decision to exclusive breastfeeding is significant, with 47.1% attributing their decision to this guidance. The findings show that significant correlations were observed between breastfeeding education and antenatal clinic attendance (r = 0.33, p < 0.001), as well as between belief in breastfeeding benefits and the number of antenatal visits (r = 0.22, sp < 0.01). The findings show that attending antenatal clinics, receiving breastfeeding education, and strong belief in the benefits of breastfeeding were positively associated with the practice of EBF. Additionally, factors like the place of delivery, mode of delivery, and home delivery supervisor also played a significant role in determining exclusive breastfeeding practices. Logistic regression analysis further highlighted that maternal education, healthcare support, and socioeconomic factors were key predictors of EBF practices. Conclusively, this study highlights the importance of social support, breastfeeding education, and healthcare provider encouragement in promoting EBF practices. Targeted interventions that focus on enhancing breastfeeding education during antenatal visits and addressing cultural and healthcare-related barriers are recommended to improve EBF rates among mothers attending UPTH and in Rivers State.

Predictors of adherence to a gluten-free diet in celiac disease: Do knowledge, attitudes, experiences, symptoms, and quality of life play a role?

In a disclosure on Russian talk television in January 2017, 16-year-old Diana Shurygina shared with a national audience the traumatic details of her rape by Sergei Semenov. Using Shurygina’s performances on television and her subsequent participation on social media as a case study, this article analyses the emergence of empathic publics and the construction of celebrity at the intersection of digital media, popular misogyny and postfeminism in Russia. By setting up a vlog, support groups, fan and personal pages on VKontakte (a popular Russian social networking site), Shurygina is able to counter vicious pillorizing by creating a network of empathy and support. The celebrity that Shurygina sculpts in these spaces, however, is postfeminist in its emphasis on individual choice and self-esteem as strategies to overcome all societal ills, in its celebration of hyperfemininity and in its eschewal of radical politics. This article thus considers how digital platforms shape voice, public affect and solidarity on digital platforms but also how complicit that emergent voice is in the neoliberal ‘retraditionalisation’ of gender roles in post-Soviet Russia.

How URPE Helped This “Tenured Radical” Thrive in a Non-radical Economics Department

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify the ontological assumptions regarding the concept of agency and sociality within business networks in the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP) research by refining these assumptions with a relational sociological (RS) perspective. This paper reinforces the robustness of the actors-resources-activities (ARA) model with an in-depth investigation of the actor dimension, where local interactions between interdependent individuals play a central role in building common futures within business networks through organisational reflexivity.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper investigates the social ontology of research. It challenges the implicit assumptions of IMP research regarding agency and sociality within business networks with a problematisation strategy (Sandberg and Alvesson, 2011). Combining IMP views on agency with the RS perspective, it sets this combined framework as an alternative for the analysis of sustainability and ethics within business networks.FindingsCombining IMP research and an RS perspective allows us to extend the knowledge of sociality within business networks, highlighting the centrality of meaning sharing in the process of network change. By focusing on symbolic interaction processes, an RS perspective contributes to a deeper theoretical understanding of the relationship between local communication and business network patterns. Combined with an IMP perspective on agency, it provides researchers with an alternative conceptual framework for examining sustainability by considering ethics and leadership dialectically.Research limitations/implicationsRS is still an emerging stream within sociology, characterised by diverse views. Not all relational sociologists, as scientists, feel obliged to engage with sustainability research. Thus, the paper is a two-sided invitation to IMP researchers and relational sociologists to delve into the adaptation processes in business networks in highly uncertain environments.Practical implicationsRS focusing on the centrality of communication in local interactions, business network researchers can show that organisational leaders are not the ones with a charismatic vision isolated from any natural and social environment; rather, they are the people with “the capacity to assist the group to continue acting ethically, creatively and courageously in the unknown” (Stacey,2013).Social implicationsAdopting an RS perspective on agency in business networks can help managers and researchers determine how business networks can be managed in a more sustainable way. Combined with a dialectical and processual understanding of ethics, the IMP-RS perspective emphasises day-to-day local communication practices within and between organisations that challenges microeconomic views on nature, strategy, ethics and leadership. This paper thus places the social at the centre of sustainability approaches.Originality/valueFrom an RS perspective, business networks are analysed as patterns of interactions between many organisations and individuals. The value of this conceptual paper is in showing that change within business networks is negotiated through local interactions and symbolic communication between individuals. Thus, it suggests the need to combine the individual and the organisational levels to analyse agency within business networks and to examine the adaptation of business networks to sustainability.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, followed by the migration of the Chinese people towards south, there was a rise of private schools in Penang, Melaka, and many other places in Singapore. Later on, the academic system spread everywhere in Malaysia. The new form of Chinese schools was first established in Penang. The Chinese School in Penang was the first school that started the trend of “schools for all people”. The success of The Chinese Junior High School hit the highest point among all Chinese schools, ranged from primary schools, junior high schools, high schools, to universities. The opening of Southern Pacific University in 1956 was the peak point. After the World War II, The Malaysian Union was established because of the strong belief of Malaysian’s nationalism. The Chinese schools were then treated unequally, especially after the announcement of “One for All” report. However, the persistency of Chinese supporting groups preserved the Chinese schools anyhow. In order to exercise the law of education in 1961, the government enforced the Chinese schools to change its form by using all kinds of strategies and limited resources. In this action, almost every Chinese school was demolished. Fortunately, the members of the Chinese committee still supported the Chinese culture. Furthermore, after the Malaysia Chinese Independent Schools took action in 1973, the Chinese schools have been growing even until now. In this Malaysia Chinese Independent Schools action, a committee had been proposed a proposal. The first Chinese Unified Examination was held in 1975 under the pressure from the government. The examination was to examine the academic level of Chinese, and it was also used as a guideline to determine the ability of the graduates. Also, most companies recruit people based on the examination result. The examination is organized by the exam center, the target contestants are the graduates of the Chinese schools. It is widely accepted by the students and the certification (UEC) is one of the application requirements to the universities and colleges in Malaysia and in other countries as well. Therefore, having the certificate is a easy way to get accepted by the schools and the companies. However, it is encountering some difficulties right now because of the government’s education policy and the decrease of Chinese population. The number of students enroll the Chinese schools is declining each year. The Chinese have no political background to support such beliefs results in such dilemma. In the 21 century, learning Chinese is now a big trend for all people around the world. It is believed that the transformation of the society and the idea of multi-culture have been extensively accepted. The business partnership between Mainland China and the Chinese society also gives rise to the growth of Chinese learning. On the impact of the free trade between China and the ASEAN countries with Malaysia, the improvement of Chinese education is stimulating and impressive. Not only that, the Chinese Independent Schools Unified Examination also provides opportunities to people around the world.