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The paper aims to add to the debate on the varieties of neoliberalism and the homogenizing effects of megaproject-based urban development. It examines the acculturation of the growth imperative as the master discourse that supports the development and implementation of two projects aimed at transforming the centers of Tampere, Finland, and Ł 'od'z, Poland. The selected cities shared similar traits as industrial centers in the past, but their current socioeconomic situation is entirely different. Tampere holds the title of "Finland's most likeable city," while rapidly depopulating Ł 'od'z was labeled the "Polish Detroit." Nevertheless, both municipalities became attracted by the idea of boosting their development through implementing large-scale infrastructural investments to reshape their centers. Inspired by discursive institutionalism, which defines discourse as a set of policy ideas and values, and interactive policy communication and formulation processes, the paper reconstructs and compares the strategic visions of Tampere's "Five Star City Centre" and "The New Centre of Ł 'od'z." It demonstrates how the proponents of the projects discursively forced consent around proposed ideas. Namely, it shows how the issues of complexity, risk, and potential conflict of the two megaprojects have been addressed. On a conceptual level, the paper shows how policy convergence can be discursively facilitated in different socioeconomic, cultural, and political circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Tobacco use is a leading but preventable cause of non-communicable diseases and premature death. The legislature has a key role in setting tobacco control policies. Smoking trends are decreasing thanks to the introduction of effective tobacco control policies in Turkey and these policies may have been shaped by how politicians' interpreted social problems that were prominent during the development and implementation of tobacco regulations. Aim This paper explores the long-term national relationship between tobacco consumption, tobacco control policies and the associated political discourse in Turkey, considering the varying influences through national leadership on this important public health agenda. This relationship is studied by comparing a time series analysis of tobacco consumption trends with a policy analysis of the minutes of deliberations at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (GNAT). Methods This study uses Bayesian time series analysis in order investigate whether the tobacco control policies and related activities influenced the annual per adult cigarette consumption in Turkey. We used a novel method to identify change points in tobacco trends and whether they correspond with key policy changes intended to alter usage after adjusting for the effect of other non-policy related covariates, such as the purchasing power. The policy analysis included an examination of the minutes of deliberations at the GNAT—which is the Turkish parliament and unicameral Turkish legislature—1 year before and 1 year after the break years associated with an increase or decrease in tobacco consumption. Results and recommendations Tobacco consumption increased with the encouragement of tobacco production and the entrance of multinational companies in the country in 1976 and 1993, respectively. The National Tobacco Law of 1996 and comprehensive amendments in 2008, including smoke-free public places and tax increases, appear to have helped reduce tobacco consumption in Turkey. The focus of Parliamentary discussions throughout this period changed, becoming less supportive of tobacco over time. However, throughout the period there remained discussions focussing on concerns around the implications for the economy and the privatization agenda, national agriculture and the welfare of farmers. Effective control appears to require certain political ingredients to be implemented: politicians who are well informed on tobacco control measures and understand the range of issues surrounding the policies (not only those directly health-related); and supportive public health information in the community. Evidence-based public health policy should be introduced to the politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication environment in CMC is particularly relevant to the discourses of the traditional communication theory, spiral of silence. This paper embarked on the task of developing an experimental research method to test willingness to speak out in the spiral of silence theory on an online forum and to test subsequent attitudinal and behavioral changes as measured in issue position, climate of opinion perception, and message posting. A 2x2 factorial design (congruent messages vs. incongruent messages and anonymity vs. nonanonymity) tested the willingness to speak out on an online discussion forum. The result of the paper suggested a new theoretical framework, selective posting, and called for the modification of the psychological explanation of spiral of silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting national policy in the UK emphasizes choice, independence and social inclusion for older people using social care services through the promotion of healthy, active lifestyles and increasing user involvement (Department of Health, 2006). Older people are a diverse population. Their definition of a ‘life worth living’ and support necessary to achieve this are cited as paramount within public policy formation. Simultaneously, older people coming into contact with social work are primarily conceptualized as ‘a challenge’ within the current social, economic and political environment, in which ageing is perceived as a time of difficulty and loss ultimately leading to increased structured dependency (Townsend, 2006). This paper makes links between discourses on life-long learning within public policy with those in social care. Both are concerned with increasing participation, citizenship and social justice for older people. It highlights contradictions between aspirations towards life-long learning derived from Freirean approaches seeking to promote ‘active ageing’ with negative political rhetoric about the burden of ageing and practice of managed care. Social workers play an important part in facilitating learning opportunities within their relationships with older people. Where and how these might be used to promote more inclusive strategies and approaches within practice for the engagement and further emancipation of service users is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the power of discourse in experiments with deliberative governance. It argues that discursive power enters deliberations regardless of the procedural attempts to ensure an optimal deliberative setting. This papers focuses on the experiences of a Community of Practice (COP) that was created to redevelop old industrial sites for the creative economy in the Netherlands. To account for discursive power in these deliberations, it draws on the conceptual framework of "boundary work". Boundary work involves drawing boundaries around discourse to gain credibility for an argument in a deliberation. This reinforces a discourse and reproduces its power. The empirical study demonstrates how actors relapsed into a dominant 'entrepreneurship' discourse but also disrupted it through an exploration of an alternative discourse called 'cultural entrepreneurship'. This exploration was facilitated by deliberative procedures in combination with the content of boundary-transcending concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores identity through looking at how different discourses of interprofessionalism are drawn on by professionals and by service users in relation to the multi-professional context of service provision. It follows traditions in critical discursive psychology in understanding talk as constitutive. Glimpses of the emergence of a new professional identity congruent with the demands of inter-professional work can be seen in the online discussions of students on a course in managing care and the paper considers how this identity is constructed. A feature of particular interest in the student forum data is the extent to which they construct colleagues from different professions, managers and service users as 'the other' in ways that devalue their contribution, while at the same time praising the benefits of inter-professional collaboration. The paper concludes that new professional identities that fit with a context of new working arrangements and relationships nonetheless continue to show 'othering' in the production of a positive identity. However, rigid binaries have been disturbed by an emphasis on inter-professional working. As people work in different and cross-cutting new organizations that involve re-defining what the team is, the binaries become less fixed and more fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper consists of three parts. In the first part we explain the concept of mental fictionalism. In the second part, we present the various versions of fictionalism and their main sources of motivation. We do this because in the third part we argue that mental fictionalism, as opposed to other versions of fictionalism, is a highly undermotivated theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and aims to explain an apparent dissonance between the dominance in Britain of `anti-oppressive' social work discourse and the socio-political con- text surrounding its use; a context often claimed to feature excessive regulation and control. Pursuing this, some politically radical aims associated with `anti-oppressiveness' are spelt out, and the difficulty of achieving these in an unconducive climate is discussed. Then, a distinction made by Robert Merton between `latent' and `manifest' functions is used to suggest that the manifest radicalism of `anti-oppressive' discourse can helpfully be distinguished from some latent largely unrecognised consequences of its use not consequences with politically radical impact, but with a social meaning congruent with a climate of control. It is concluded that the `success' of anti-oppressive discourse might well be viewed as requiring more of the kind of critical analysis that the discourse itself was supposed to espouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I defend a version of expressivism about epistemic discourse. The version of expressivism I defend is a species of what I have elsewhere called ‘Ecumenical Expressivism’. I argue for three main theses. First, I argue that at least some of the most powerful arguments for metaethical expressivism carry over nicely to provide arguments for expressivism about epistemic discourse. Second, I argue that existing expressivist accounts of epistemic discourse are problematic. Third, and finally, I argue that Ecumenical Expressivism can evade some of those problems and provide a more plausible version of expressivism about epistemic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops an attack on quasi realism in ethics, according to which expressivism about ethical discourse—understood as the thesis that the states that discourse expresses are non representational—is consistent with some of the discourse's familiar surface features, thus ‘saving the ethical appearances’. A dilemma is posed for the quasi-realist. Either ethical discourse appears, thanks to those surface features, to express representational states, or else there is no such thing as its appearing to express such states. If the former then, by expressivism, the appearance presented by ethical discourse is false, so the ethical appearances are not saved. If the latter, it is unintelligible why an appeal to projection should be needed to explain how the surface features come to express non representational states if no explanation is needed—as evidently none is—to explain how they come to express representational states. The conclusion of this argument is then argued to converge with some other considerations which show that there is no gap between ethical discourse's possessing the surface features in question and its expressing representational states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil religious themes have long been integral to public discourse in Ameba. Specifically the themes of mission and destiny, best known in the form of Manifest Destiny, still carry the country through periods of foreign conflict. This paper analyzes the discourses of President George Bush during the Persian Gulf War and President Bill Clinton during the Kosovo conflict. I identify the themes of mission by example and mission by intervention and argue that these forms of mission are intertwined. The use of these themes by presidents of different political ponies indicates that while they remain useful, they are adapting for a changing political and economic world system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing trend in social research concerning illicit drug use has entailed suspending regard for conventional questions such as the etiology of drug problems and the outcomes achieved by assorted interventions in favor of focusing analytic attention on how drug problems are socially constructed in and through human praxis. In this paper, I use a constructionist approach to demonstrate and explain endogenous are accounts of what I am calling the ecology of addiction in drug abuse treatment discourse. These accounts posit a space "out there" marked by its degradation dirtiness, solitude, and savagery which commonly tempts those who must live there to also behave amorally, licentiously, and/or savagely I explain these accounts by showing their fundamental utility in light of specific conceptual puzzles that participants in drug abuse treatment discourse must inevitably solve. Namely, speaking in terms of this ecology of addiction provides participants with a compelling narrative means for reconciling the following two claims 1) they are chronically prone to enslavement by their addictions, and 2) their addictions can he controlled through ongoing participation in a communal project of mutual help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts like 'creative city', 'world city' and 'eco city' arrive with loud celebration, but fade in just a few years. In recent years, 'smart city' has been a buzzword. As each fad emerges, urbanists debate its meaning and implications. However, why so many urban concepts circulate at all is rarely focused on. This study attempts to answer this question based on the Marxian view of the built environment as a fixed capital. We focus on the differences between the built environment and other types of fixed capital, and show how these differences render capital circulation in the built environment sector more fragile. We claim that such fragility cannot be fixed within the circuit of capital, so external intervention is necessary and deployment of catchy urban concepts is a resorted method of such intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the United States has become increasingly polarized, policymakers have had difficulty gaining bipartisan support for policy proposals. Political polarization can lead to the othering of individuals, a process characterized by the tendency to construct members of an opposing party in negative ways. In this article, we examine the creation and disruption of othering through the lens of language convergence/meaning divergence (LC/MD) and pragmatic ambiguity. LC/MD and pragmatic ambiguity framed our case study of the successful bipartisan passage of the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) in 2016. We found that othering was produced through a maestro Discourse of Polarization that structured interactions between other Discourses, including the Discourse of National Security and the Global Good Discourse. Discordant framings of the three Discourses created the ambiguity necessary to disrupt othering and achieve collective action. The findings provide new theoretical insights into othering processes while pragmatic ambiguity broadens LC/MD in important ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations of networked public spheres often examine the structures of online platforms by studying users' interactions. These works suggest that users' interactions can lead to cyberbalkanization when interlocutors form homophilous communities that typically have few connections to others with opposing ideologies. Yet, rather than assuming communities are isolated, this study examines community-level interactions to reveal how communities in online discourses are more interdependent than previously theorized. Specifically, we examine how such interactions influence the evolution of topics overtime in source and target communities. Our analysis found that (a) the size of a source community (the community that initiates interactions) and a target community (the community that receives interactions), (b) the stability of the source community, and (c) the volume of mentions from a source community to a target community predicts the level of influence one community has on another's discussion topics. We argue this has significant theoretical and practical implications. Lay Summary Political discussions online, especially those in the United States, seem to range between harmonious discussions of likeminded people and heated debates that end with few, if any, who have changed their minds. Researchers have often examined these balkanized/polarized situations by studying online communities as isolated echo chambers of opinion. Our study focuses on the interactions between online communities who have different worldviews. We examine communities engaged in the global refugee crisis. We consider how the inter-community interactions influence the agenda of the respective communities. Our longitudinal analysis on the one hand confirms previous studies, namely that intra-community interactions indeed resemble echo chambers. On the other hand, we also find that there is interdependence in the inter-community discussion topics, albeit some communities had greater influence on other communities' discussion topics. For example, larger, more stable communities command more influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the seeming uniformity of media presentation of news about peace, the formats of news reporting and the contest among various discourses allow for the appearance and sometimes prominence of alternative and even oppositional discourses that offer a pragmatic for social action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical profiles of individuals with post-stroke aphasia demonstrate considerable variation in the presentation of symptoms. Recent aphasiological studies have attempted to account for this individual variability using a multivariate data-driven approach (principal component analysis) on an extensive neuropsychological and aphasiological battery, to identify fundamental domains of post-stroke aphasia. These domains mainly reflect phonology, semantics and fluency; however, these studies did not account for variability in response to different forms of connected speech, i.e. discourse genres. In the current study, we initially examined differences in the quantity, diversity and informativeness between three different discourse genres, including a simple descriptive genre and two naturalistic forms of connected speech (storytelling narrative, and procedural discourse). Subsequently, we provided the first quantitative investigation on the multidimensionality of connected speech production at both behavioural and neural levels. Connected speech samples across descriptive, narrative, and procedural discourse genres were collected from 46 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia and 20 neurotypical adults. Content analyses conducted on all connected speech samples indicated that performance differed across discourse genres and between groups. Specifically, storytelling narratives provided higher quantities of content words and lexical diversity compared to composite picture description and procedural discourse. The analyses further revealed that, relative to neurotypical adults, patients with aphasia, both fluent and non-fluent, showed reduction in the quantity of verbal production, lexical diversity, and informativeness across all discourses. Given the differences across the discourses, we submitted the connected speech metrics to principal component analysis alongside an extensive neuropsychological/aphasiological battery that assesses a wide range of language and cognitive skills. In contrast to previous research, three unique orthogonal connected speech components were extracted in a unified model, reflecting verbal quantity, verbal quality, and motor speech, alongside four core language and cognitive components: phonological production, semantic processing, phonological recognition, and executive functions. Voxel-wise lesion-symptom mapping using these components provided evidence on the involvement of widespread cortical regions and their white matter connections. Specifically, left frontal regions and their underlying white matter tracts corresponding to the frontal aslant tract and the anterior segment of the arcuate fasciculus were particularly engaged with the quantity and quality of fluent connected speech production while controlling for other co-factors. The neural correlates associated with the other language domains align with existing models on the ventral and dorsal pathways for language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, phase II oncology trials assessed a treatment's efficacy by examining its tumor response rate in a single-arm trial. Then, approximately 25 years ago, certain statistical and pharmacological considerations ignited a debate around whether randomized designs should be used instead. Here, based on an extensive literature review, we review the arguments on either side of this debate. In particular, we describe the numerous factors that relate to the reliance of single-arm trials on historical control data and detail the trial scenarios in which there was general agreement on preferential utilization of single-arm or randomized design frameworks, such as the use of single-arm designs when investigating treatments for rare cancers. We then summarize the latest figures on phase II oncology trial design, contrasting current design choices against historical recommendations on best practice. Ultimately, we find several ways in which the design of recently completed phase II trials does not appear to align with said recommendations. For example, despite advice to the contrary, only 66.2% of the assessed trials that employed progression-free survival as a primary or coprimary outcome used a randomized comparative design. In addition, we identify that just 28.2% of the considered randomized comparative trials came to a positive conclusion as opposed to 72.7% of the single-arm trials. We conclude by describing a selection of important issues influencing contemporary design, framing this discourse in light of current trends in phase II, such as the increased use of biomarkers and recent interest in novel adaptive designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of recent outbreaks of diseases such as measles in Europe, policymakers and public health practitioners are seeking strategies to address anti-vaccination attitudes and to increase immunization rates. Identifying effective strategies that will not further alienate vaccination sceptics raises challenges that go to the heart of relations between the state and society. Drawing on accounts of state–society relations, this article discusses how the problem of vaccination hesitancy might be explained from a political science perspective. Discourse-analytical approaches emphasize the importance of storylines, politics and social context in explaining a range of phenomena. Given the number and strength of prevailing discourses in groups with anti-vaccination sentiments, the literature on discourse coalitions can offer perspectives on the challenges that arise in designing strategies to address vaccine hesitancy. Paying closer attention to individual reasons why parents are vaccine hesitant might allow for designing strategies that are more suited to address concerns. However, given the pervasiveness of the discourses of anti-vaccination movements, challenges in reaching citizens who are sceptical of vaccines will remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of Cold War, international legal discussion and practice has been increasingly permeated by what this article calls "humanity discourse". The article analyzes the discourse from a critical perspective. The main argument of the article is that the humanity discourse contributes to what Anne Orford has called the "battle for the State", and consequently to the neoliberal project which is now a hegemonic power in global law and policy. This argument is supported both by an analysis of humanity discourse in academic discussions and an analysis of how humanity language has been used in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a communicative model of collaboration failure to address one of the key challenges of collaboration theory and practice: the discrepancy between the promise of collaboration and the reality of persistent failure. A theoretical framework is developed based on notions of dialogue, discourse, and coorientation, which informs three key aspects of collaboration: knowledge production, shared identity, and collective agency. This theoretical framework is then combined with analytic themes from an empirical case study of a failed civil society collaboration. Themes of communication practice that constitute collaborative failure are detailed, while also contrasting these with alternative practices that can enable more successful collaboration. Further implications are discussed, specifically in terms of rethinking common collaboration dualisms of structure/process and talk/action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers whether thinking about journalism's present set of challenges is best served by the notion of 'crisis.' It argues that adopting such a notion to explain a diverse set of technological, political, economic, social, occupational, moral, and legal circumstances misses an opportunity to recognize how contingent and differentiated the futures of journalism might be. It also raises critical questions about how institutions deal with uncertainty at their core, obscuring a fuller understanding of the permutations that get eclipsed by perceiving crisis as a unitary phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on folk psychology that illustrates a possible form of mental fictionalism. It proposes some considerations that may prompt the elaboration of a mental fictionalist position by challenging the commitment to the interpretation of folk psychology as a fact-stating discourse. It shows how folk psychology can fulfill an alternative function which is deprived of interpretation.

Biology majors often take introductory biology, chemistry, and physics courses during their first two years of college. The various and sometimes conflicting discourse about and explanations of matter and energy in these courses may contribute to confusion and alternative conceptions (those that differ from scientific consensus) in biology learners. An important area of biology education research -- students' alternative conceptions -- has produced a lengthy list of alternative conceptions related to students' understanding of matter and energy flow through biological systems through processes such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration. By synthesizing the research literature and conducting interviews of science faculty members, we have identified similarities and differences in matter and energy discourse and teaching in these different science disciplines. This study can help biology instructors recognize and appreciate the ways in which instructors present concepts related to energy and matter in their courses and alter their discourse and teaching practices to promote learning and minimize confusion among their students. INSET: Interview responses regarding students conceptions of matter.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

References to the Peace of Westphalia have played an important role in the discourse of international relations. Originally referred to as a concrete historical event and associated with a variety of meanings, such as the triumph of state sovereignty, the establishment of a community of states, and even the beginnings of collective security, the Peace was later transformed into a conceptualization of the international system. Beginning in the late 1960s, phrases like 'Westphalian system' came to convey a package of ideas about international politics limited to the supremacy of state sovereignty, territoriality, and nonintervention, to the exclusion of other meanings. This conceptualization serves as a popular and convenient contrast to a more globalized order, but there are problems with its use: first, because the Westphalian system is an ideal-type that might never have actually existed, the impact of globalization may be exaggerated by scholars who employ it. Second, its use implies a linear progression from some Westphalian configuration toward some 'post-Westphalian' state of affairs, whereas actual system change is likely to be more complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into emotion, crime and anti-social behaviour has lacked psychological input and rarely considered the multi-directional associations between emotion, crime and morality. We present a study analysing audio recordings of two community groups meeting in a deprived inner-city area with high rates of crime, using conversation analytic and discursive psychological techniques to conduct an affective–textual analysis that draws out aspects of participants’ moral reasoning and identifies its emotional dimensions. Moral reasoning around crime and anti-social behaviour took three forms (invoking moral categories, developing moral hierarchies, invoking vulnerable others) and was bound up with a wide range of emotional enactments and emotion displays. Findings are discussed in relation to contemporary government policy and possible future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

‘Dialectical foundationalists’, including Jonathan Adler, Robert Brandom, Adam Leite and Michael Williams, claim that some asserted propositions do not require defence just because an interlocutor challenges them. By asserting such a proposition, the speaker shifts the burden of proof to the interlocutor. ‘Dialectical egalitarians’ claim that all asserted propositions require defence when challenged. I elucidate the dispute between dialectical foundationalists and egalitarians, and I defend a broadly egalitarian stance against several prominent objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of formal research ethics and governance structures in social work research have lagged behind those applicable in health, although in the UK, social care has been deemed to be covered by those that were used in the NHS. Whilst this link is useful, it does not facilitate researcher involvement in the small-scale qualitative studies that feature in social work more than in health. Our exploration of the subject reveals that the dominance of the natural sciences paradigm in the social science is evident nationally, regionally and internationally. So, in this sense, the UK follows the usual paths that favour quantitative studies. In this article we explore the trajectory of governance structures in social work research in the UK to argue that social work needs its own ethics and governance structures, but that some agreement should be sought with other professions, particularly in those projects that cross professional and discipline boundaries so that social work research does not have to undergo dual processes for ethical approval. This implies a broader recognition of social work research ethics and governance structures than currently exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mobilize support for war and to control dissent, governments draw upon deeply engrained discourses regarding soldiering and the citizen's duty to support the troops. We identify the cultural and political evolution of the discursive legacy of "support the troops" from the Vietnam War through the Iraq War. Using longitudinal and comparative organizational analyses, we analyze how this discursive legacy was engaged by U.S. peace movement organizations (PMOs). PMOs frequently made positive references to U.S. troops during both the Gulf War and Iraq War, creating a stable discourse centered around supporting the troops. Moreover, during the Gulf War the movement expanded the web of support by asking who else should be cared about beyond the troops, thus de-coupling the support discourse from the nation and the state. During the Iraq War, PMOs also developed an elaborated "discourse of betrayal" by redefining what it means to support the troops. Here they deployed proactive, anticipatory discourses, turning the tables on the Bush administration. PMOs also increasingly criticized the troops during the Iraq War due to well publicized human rights abuses. The findings demonstrate that movement discourses are both stable and flexible, influenced by past rounds of discursive contention as well as contemporary political events. We highlight the cultural constraints imposed on movements by dominant discursive legacies, and the strategic responses made by movements in response to emerging discursive opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delaney, A. E., McLay, H. A., and van Densen, W. L. T. 2007. Influences of discourse on decision-making in EU fisheries management: the case of North Sea cod (Gadus morhua). – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 804–810.Does public debate have an influence on decision-making in European fisheries management? Our premise is that for fisheries management to be viewed as legitimate, stakeholders should be included in the process. Because the first step towards stakeholder participation is letting their voices be heard, we analysed the public debate surrounding the management of North Sea cod, focusing on two aspects: the mixed fisheries problem of total allowable catch management and the causes of cod decline. Using standard social-science methodologies including discourse analysis, participant observation, and qualitative interviews, we suggest that the public debate has not had a direct effect on year-to-year management decisions. Still, it can be argued that the debate has influenced the attitude of those involved in the management system and, therefore, has had an impact on the changes in the management and advisory system that are taking place, although these take place at different levels and speeds than expected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "The commentariat and discourse failure: language and atrocity in Cool Britannia," by David Martin Jones and M. L. R. Smith in the November 2006 issue.

Language is defined as a set of rules governing discourse. The quest for professional cohesion in social work is frustrated by conflicts between three language systems: clinical, analytical, and ideological. The author proposes that the language of argumentation can point the way out of this rhetorical impasse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay describes a new approach to single-case analysis, the morphological study of verbatim texts. Such studies are designed to open up facets of human behaviour to systematic investigation, especially emotions and social relationships, that have been ignored in scientific studies up to this point. Examples of the relevant single-cases studies are suggested in three areas: type A behaviour and heart disease, expressed emotion and mental illness and emotions and social relationships in anorexia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]