Collective Membership Research Articles

The history of NFOG and Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica 1921–2011

The history of <scp>NFOG</scp> and <i>Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica</i> 1921–2011

P4.063 Correlates of Voluntary HIV Testing and Collecting Test Results Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in India

BackgroundAs HIV prevention programmes in India prioritise voluntary HIV counselling and testing, among high-risk groups, hidden populations like Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) face barriers in accessing these...

Legal Logic of the Generation of Chinese Village Community Order

The study on the legal logic of the generation of Chinese village community order is in touch with the essential understanding of famers’ collective membership rights for only spontaneously generated order can give birth to reasonable rights. This paper tries to study different legal logic of the generation of traditional, modern, and contemporary Chinese village communities so that to investigate the path that village community order generates spontaneously.

The American Dream and the limits of transparency

Purpose – The question of whether the words “American Dream” point to something of substance is at the heart of the authors' inquiry. James Truslow Adams coined the term in his 1933 book The Epic of America as a way to re‐establish a sense of optimism decimated by the Great Depression. Adams' contribution was to move the public discourse from that of individual effort to a sense of a collective identity. The American Dream is an element of the “cultural stuff” whose singularity (“dream”) rapidly breaks down into a variety of interpretations about the American nation (“dreams”). The popular press suggests that the Dream proposes to balance collective membership in a national identity with the individual freedom to achieve prosperity and success. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Dream and the construction of an American identity by examining the accounts of men who surely represent the American Dream: US Presidential candidates.Design/methodology/approach – In order to analyze the candidates' acc...

Planning for the Future Through Intersociety Collaboration

In 1925, there were only 4 radiology societies in the United States, the ARRS, the Radiological Society of North America, the American Radium Society, and the ACR. Today, there are more than 55 radiology societies, representing every facet and nuance of our specialty. With this many societies, the radiology community faces several challenges in addressing the present issues and needs of our collective membership and in planning for the future progress and success of our professional mission.

Connected histories, power and meaning: Transnational forces in the construction of collective identities

The construction of collective identities is central to Shmuel N.Eisenstadt’scomparative research program, as reflected in his studies of civilizations and multiple modernities. This article suggests the theoretical relevance of bridging comparative and transnational studies, calling attention to the impact of connected histories in processes of crystallization of collective identities. Focusing on Central America, this analysis shows that, following independence, the societies of this region found it hard to articulate distinct identities; they came to such issues belatedly, almost by default; and were unable to completely disengage from transnational forces that pulled them together time and again. It thus indicates how societies oftenlead a Janus-faced dynamics in constructing their visions of collective membership, which can only be followed by taking into account transnational undercurrents at worklong before the onset of recent cycles of globalization.

P2-S2.01 Support groups as a strategy for reducing HIV vulnerability among female sex workers in Bellary, Northern Karnataka, India

Background The Karnataka Health Promotion Trust implements HIV preventive interventions for female sex workers (FSWs) in Karnataka, South India, in partnership with non-governmental and community-based organizations (NGOs and CBOs). These interventions are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Community mobilisation and collectivisation are key vulnerability reduction strategies. In Bellary district, FSWs are encouraged to form site-level groups of 10–12 members which meet regularly. They discuss STIs, HIV, condom negotiation skills, and other important issues. They also support members during crises, and engage in savings and credit activities. We attempted to understand the impact in Bellary of collective membership and the availability of economic support on two measures of safer sex behaviour: clinic attendance and condom use with last client. Methods Multivariate logistic regression was used to measure the association between the outcome variables and collective membership, using data from a round of integrated behavioural and biological assessments conducted in Bellary in 2008. We also conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with members and non- members of collectives, to understand the reasons for observed associations. Results 34% of FSWs were members of collectives. Members were 7 times more likely to have used condoms with their last client (adjusted OR [AOR]: 7.5, 95% CI 1.9 to 30.1, p Conclusions Membership in site-level groups considerably increased access of FSWs to program services. Activities to address the economic vulnerability of female sex workers were key factors in enabling greater condom use. Savings and access to credit helped FSWs to reduce their dependency on sex work, and enabled them to more readily negotiate condom use with clients.

The Academy's Trademarks: Marks of Distinction

Abstract The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture has sought protection for its name and intellectual property as well as professional distinction from the non-physician acupuncture community. Service marks, collective membership marks, and certification marks offer some legal protections.

The Multidimensionality of Ethnic Identity Among Urban High School Youth

This study was designed to explore the associations of ethnic identity dimensions with collective self-esteem membership, school interest, student interest in learning, and community engagement among 406 ethnically diverse (Asian American, Black, Latino, Pacific Islander, and multiracial) high school students. Using the Ethnic Identity Scale, this article presents the relationships between school and community variables with students' perceptions of ethnic identity exploration, resolution, and affirmation. Correlational analyses and post hoc t tests using Steiger's modified z statistic show strong positive correlations between most school and community variables and students' ethnic identity exploration and resolution. They also reveal a strong negative correlation between students' school interest and ethnic identity affirmation. Results are discussed in terms of the emergent distinctions between student interest in learning and school interest as they relate to ethnic identity dimensions and collective self-esteem membership.

Are collections sets?

The concept of a collection plays key roles in library, museum, and archival practice, and is arguably fundamental to information organization systems in general. Locating collection concepts in a reasonably robust ontology should have a number of practical advantages, including revealing inferencing opportunities and supporting consistency and coherence in system design and modeling. Although research practices involving collections have been studied empirically there has been surprisingly little attention given to the formal analysis of the concept itself, or to related notions like collection membership. With this paper we hope to convene that discussion, beginning with the question: Are collections sets? We consider in detail the substantial arguments against collections being a kind of set, but argue that at least one version of that claim cannot yet be ruled out. As ontology decisions, both practical and theoretical, are often more a matter of weighing competing considerations than making decisive arguments, progress on this question will probably require the comparison of alternative theories. We invite the information science community to join us in exploring the possibilities.

Excess and Access: Consensus on the American Civil Justice Landscape

This report highlights areas of substantial agreement among attorneys and judges as revealed in four recent studies. The following groups were surveyed: American College of Trial Lawyers; American Bar Association Section of Litigation; National Employment Lawyers Association; state and federal trial judges. Together, the survey results represent the opinions of approximately 6,800 legal professional nationwide. These opinions can be generalized to the larger groups from which they come, which collective membership numbering in the tens of thousands. The surveys asked general questions about the American civil justice process. Focusing on consistencies among the four populations suggests a plausible theory: cost inefficiencies in the civil justice process reduce court access, delay contributes to unnecessary cost, and discovery procedure is a key factor with respect to both cost and delay. The survey results provide a starting point for further research on such a theory and on how the process might be improved without affecting fairness.

Introduction

The five articles in this issue examine how children, in naturally occurring school and neighborhood peer and sibling-kin groups across a variety of cultures and societies, socialize one another todoheteroglossia, drawing upon a diverse repertoire of linguistic and discursive forms in their everyday cultural practices. Through the use of ethnographic techniques for recording natural conversations, they demonstrate how children, in their peer play interactions, make use of and juxtapose multiple linguistic and cultural resources at their disposal in linguistically diverse and stratified settings. The analyses provide detailed insights into children’sheteroglossic verbal practices(Bakhtin 1981, 1986), that is, their use and differentiation of multiple codes and registers in the creation and negotiation of social distinctions. Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia addresses the dialogic relationship between multiple and sometimes conflicting codes or registers and the larger socio-political and socio-historical meanings that are negotiated through those linguistic forms. In particular, the concept refers to tensions between the multiplicities of language varieties within a national language, which are drawing it towards a standard central version, and those that are moving away from national standards through hybrid linguistic forms of official and unofficial languages. Research on heteroglossia entails an examination of how speakers indexically hail socio-historical tensions and contradictions in situated instances of language use that result in the regimentation of codes and associated notions of collective membership and personhood (Blommaert &amp; Verschueren 1998; Hill &amp; Hill 1986; Kroskrity 2000; Pujolar 2001; Schieffelin 1994; Silverstein 2003; Woolard 1998, 1999). Bailey (2007) recently remarked that much of the sociolinguistic and discourse analytic work on code-switching and other so-called syncretistic discourse practices are productively reinterpreted through the prism of heteroglossia, which attends equally to monolingual and multilingual forms. The perspective of heteroglossia allows the analyst to focus on alternations of officially authorized codes and languages, without neglecting “the diversity of socially indexical linguistic features within codes” (Bailey 2007: 268). As will be demonstrated in the articles, the concept of heteroglossia provides a conceptual framework that draws from diverse traditions that address different social and temporal scales while simultaneously attending to the indexical and meta-pragmatic properties of language.

Determinants of successful deanship

With the significant changes taking place in health and education as well as the rising demands and expectations, deans of medical faculties must exhibit strong and effective leadership skills. Deans need to focus on the broad scope and to translate their dreams into applied institutional operations and functions. It is thus necessary that the deans must identify the institution's core ideology, lead strategic planning, create a common vision and offer direction to the collective membership of the institution. Some personal qualities that appear to be critical for effective deanship include being visionary, fair, trustworthy and exemplary. Prospective deans should receive training in leadership. New deans must be properly informed on the strategic plan of the faculty before they are appointed.

Doctors and climate change

One of the two duties of a doctor laid down by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom is “to protect and promote the health of . . . the public.”1 Should this duty extend to working to prevent climate change? We believe it should. Climate change leads to the extinction of species. During the past 500 million years—a mere 10th of the world's history—five major and many minor events have caused extinctions. The last major event eliminated the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. An extraterrestrial object 10 km in diameter slammed into what is now the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. It caused firestorms, a tsunami 1 km high, planet wide darkness for months, and an extended period of carbon dioxide induced global warming. Within a few months of the event, the 150 million year reign of the dinosaurs was over, and the space for mammalian evolution was created.2 The present climate related extinction event, so far a minor one, is caused by humans. Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide are being poured into the atmosphere as a result of human activity, even though we know what the consequences will be. These consequences are starkly spelt out in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Stern reports.3 4 Alterations in food production, with expected decreases in areas already under stress; rises in sea levels; the spread of vector borne disease; and water shortages are already aggravating health problems, particularly in poor countries. The impact of climate change will get much worse, and predictions of a hundred million climate refugees is no longer fanciful. Health professionals must show leadership in tackling the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change. The Climate and Health Council was set up at the instigation of concerned doctors,5 6 and it has evolved over the past year into a focus for international action. Membership of the council is open to individuals and organisations. Many people have already signed the declaration (www.climateandhealth.org), and readers are invited to add their signatures. The council sets out five ways in which health professionals should act. Firstly, we should inform our professional colleagues and the wider community about the health consequences of climate change, and the major health benefits that will result from tackling it, including a reduction in the prevalence of obesity in rich countries.7 8 9 Secondly, we should set an example by reducing our personal carbon footprints and ensuring that the organisations we work for do likewise. Thirdly, we should advocate. The international community recognises that a post Kyoto global framework is an essential part of any solution. Our advocacy must insist that this framework promotes health. To this end, the framework must constrain carbon dioxide emissions so that atmospheric levels do not exceed 450 parts per million, the level at which the odds for avoiding dangerous climate change are better than 50:50. The framework must also be the basis for ensuring a transfer of resources to give time to those countries that are undergoing, or have yet to undergo, the social and economic transition that fossil fuel has enabled in the rich Western world. The framework based market of contraction and convergence achieves both these aims, and is the most feasible option at present.10 Health professionals should make a concerted effort to contribute to the post Kyoto framework, and to lobby at the United Nations' conferences on climate change in Bali in December and then in Copenhagen in November 2009. Fourthly, health professionals should seek innovative approaches to using our many networks, such as specialty associations, to facilitate the necessary changes to recruit as many organisations, institutions, and individuals as possible. Climate change challenges the health of everybody, but particularly of people with the fewest resources. It is the major challenge of the 21st century. Unless we cap carbon emissions in ways that ensure transfer of resources to the poorer nations, we may all go the way of the dinosaurs, and the going will not be comfortable. The Climate and Health Council will be as strong as its collective membership. By adding your voice to the council and taking the necessary actions, you can help to ensure that health professionals are, in the best of our traditions, part of the solution.

Living Within and Beyond Johannesburg: Exclusion, Religion, and Emerging Forms of Being

Drawing on original survey data and interviews, this article explores forms of exclusion, solidarity, and mutual recognition taking shape in Johannesburg among the city's new arrivals and long-term residents. It begins by highlighting three aspects of migrant life in central Johannesburg that situate affiliations with religion, kin, and space. The first is the relative absence of a self-defined and dominant host community; the second is the presence of a virulent and often violent nativism; and lastly, the strategies of recent arrivals to be both part of and apart from the city. In exploring these elements, the article suggests that religion is one of a number of strategies for negotiating inclusion and belonging while transcending ethnic, national and transnational paradigms. Central to these ambitions is ensuring partial inclusion in a transforming society without becoming bounded by it. Rather than reiterating a coherent or consistent philosophy, these are syncretic and ever-evolving amalgams of rhetorical and organisational tools drawing on a diversity of more established discourses and value systems. Through these articulations, migrants are inventing a new language of belonging that may generate unexpected, unpredictable, yet lasting categories of collective membership.

Place attachment, sense of belonging and identity in life history narratives of Iranian Baha'i refugees

Refugees commonly experience physical and emotional displacement. Such experiences reflect Tuan's theories relating to the anxiety of separation from home and sense of estrangement or alienation in a new land. Despite this adversity, many refugees ultimately form hybrid or trans-national identities, which allow them to operate and be accepted in two (or more) cultures. This facilitates a sense of belonging and the adaptation process to a new country and culture. The Baha'i Faith is considered to be the second most globally widespread religion after Christianity. Thus, refugees can potentially join a community anywhere in the world and be provided with a sense of familiarity, which the commonality of values and administrative structure provides. In addition, newcomers arriving in a new land are automatically affiliated to a collective identity to which they already belong. This paper draws on case study and secondary source evidence to argue that the refugee participants in this study have used the Baha'i writings, international administrative structure and global community, to construct and maintain a notion of home and sense of belonging, and thus ultimately reflect a hybrid or trans-national identity in a new land. Preliminary findings indicate that religion plays a vital role in the lives of these refugees as the central tenets of the Baha'i Faith appear to actively inform the resettlement process in a new country. Life history narratives were used as a tool for analysis in seven in-depth case study interviews with Iranian Baha'i refugees residing in and around the city of Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, Australia. The participants in this study indicated that social space gave them the strongest sense of belonging, rather than place attachment. Religious identity is explored through the affiliation to a collective membership, as it is within this context that religious identity can be strengthened via official and legitimate recognition or undermined via persecution. Collective identity on a macro scale can be associated with nationalism and trans-nationalism. The Baha'i attitude to nationalism is to afford a country its rightful respect, but discourage extreme nationalism as it is characteristically exclusionary by nature. However, the Iranian Baha'i refugees in this study identify primarily as Baha'i rather than Iranian or Australian; that is, the values under-pinning their religion outweighed the importance of place or national identity. The participants in this study embraced the notion of a global home and considered themselves citizens of the world, consequently adopting trans-national and hybrid identities. This attitude ultimately impacts on the adaptation of refugees to a new country, as they do not see themselves as moving from one home to another, but merely relocating to a different part of the one global home.

Scientific academies and scientific societies have come of age

Scientific academies and scientific societies can play a significant role in the promotion of science and technology among people. The experiences of these professional bodies in the developed world show that they wield a tremendous influence by virtue of their collective membership and autonomy. Their potential to raise the stature of science in developing countries has yet to be harnessed properly. A commentary on the various contributions featured in this Special Issue of the International Journal of Technology Management on Scientific Academies and Scientific Societies is presented here.

WTO Accessions: The Story So Far

AbstractDrawing on his thirteen years of experience as a Counsellor in the Accessions Division of the WTO Secretariat, Peter Milthorp describes accession as consisting of 'government-to-government negotiation, conducted at two mutually interactive levels'. The multilateral negotiations among the acceding country and the collective WTO membership correspond to Putnam's Level I; while the bilateral negotiations between the acceding country and individual members to agree on market access commitments require domestic bargaining and coalition building, and provide evidence of Putnam's Level II schema. Milthorp argues that the most arduous negotiations fall upon the government of the acceding country (that is, Level II), as it must develop a focused yet flexible negotiating mandate, implement economic reforms that may cause short-term hardship to some previously protected sectors, and ensure that negotiations progress steadily — all in order to retain political support for ratification. For accession negotiations to reach the end-game, negotiators must thus engage in both international and domestic diplomacy to create a balanced package that is acceptable to both WTO members as well as domestic stakeholders.

Variables sociodemográficas y estilos de vida como predictores de la autovaloración de la salud de los inmigrantes en el País Vasco

ObjectiveTo explore the importance of socio-demographic factors as well as life-style and their influence in self-rated health of Maghribian, Sub-Saharian, Latin-American and non-Communitarian European immigrant groups living in the Basque Country (Spain). MethodsDescriptive cross-study with a convenience sample of 689 persons, consisting of 219 Maghribians (31.8%), 152 Sub-Saharians (22.1%), 167 Latino(a)s (24.2%) and 151 non-Communitarian Europeans (21.9%). Data base have been completed with data collected using the 2002 Regional Basque Health Interview Survey (ESCAV 2002). The multivariate analysis was performed by using the dicotomic logistic regression (software SPSS 13). ResultsWe found that 64.2% of Maghribian, 78.7% of Sub-Saharian, 66.1% of Latin-American and 67.1% of non-Communitarian European assessed their health as very good or good. The significantly associated variables (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01) with self-rated health were collective membership, sex and age. Persons belonging to the Sub-Saharian collective showed a stronger advantage of positively self-assessed health (OR = 2.08; 95%CI: 1.29-3.36). This advantage was also found among men of all four collectives (OR = 2.16, 95%CI: 1.54-.02) and in persons in the age of 33-38 years (OR = 3.13, 95%CI: 1.71-5.73). Those variables remained significant in the multivariate analysis. ConclusionsOur results demonstrated the importance of considering differences in the health status and in self-rated health among immigrant groups, as well as the variables associated with those differences, when developing community-based health strategies.

Loyalty and Longevity in Audience Listening: Investigating Experiences of Attendance at a Chamber Music Festival

There is currently much concern among arts organizations and their marketing departments that audiences for classical music are in decline, yet there has been little investigation so far of the experiences of long-term listeners that might yield insights into audience development and retention. This paper presents a case study of the Music in the Round chamber music festival, conducted over a three-year period that included the retirement of the host string quartet, the appointment of a new resident ensemble, and associated changes in audience attitudes and priorities. Questionnaire and interview data revealed the challenges faced by audience members in shifting their loyalty to a new ensemble and reappraising their own listening habits and stamina. The interaction between individual listening and collective membership of an audience is discussed, and the potential considered for understanding classical concert-goers as ‘fans’ or ‘consumers’.