Health studies

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Linda M. Burton ... [et al

'Place is an important element in understanding health and health care disparities. More that merely a geographic location, place is a socio-ecological force with detectable effects on social life, independent well-being, and health. Despite the general enthusiasm for the study of place and the potential it could have for a better understanding of the distribution of health in different communities, research is at a difficult crossroads because of disagreements in how the construct should be conceptualized and measured. This edited volume incorporates an cross-disciplinary approach to the study of place, in order to come up with a comprehensive and useful definition of place. Topics covered include: Social Inequalities, Historical Definitions of Place, Biology and Place, Rural vs. Urban Places, Racialization of a Place, Migration, Sacred Places, Technological Innovations An understanding of place is essential for health care professionals, as interventions often do not have the same effects in the clinic as they do in varied, naturalistic social settings.'--Provided by publisher.

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Jonathan M. Metzl and Anna Kirkland

From anti-war walkouts to anarchist youth newspapers, rallies against educational privatization, and workshops on fair trade, teenage girls are active participants and leaders in a variety of social movements. This work illuminates the experiences and perspectives of these uniquely positioned agents of social change. The author introduces readers to a diverse and vibrant transnational community of teenage girl activists in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mexico City, Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Vancouver. She brings to life the voices of these inspiring activists who are engaged in innovative and effective organizing for global and local social justice, highlighting their important contributions to contemporary social movements and social theory. The work explores how teenage girls construct activist identities, rejecting and redefining girlhood and claiming political authority for youth in the process. The author examines the girl activists' social movement strategies and collective political practices, detailing their shared commitments to process-based political education, participatory democracy, and hopeful enthusiasm. Ultimately, this work has implications for social movements and youth organizations, arguing that adult social movements could learn a great deal from girl activists and making clear the importance of increased collaboration between young people and adults.

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Kajsa Lindberg, Alexander Styhre, Lars Walter

"Assembling Health Care Organizations combines an institutional theory perspective with a materialist view of the technologies, devices, biological specimens, and other material resources mobilized and put to work in health care work"--

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Andrew Pettigrew, Ewan Ferlie, Lorna McKee

In this major analysis of the processes and management of strategic change, Pettigrew, Ferlie and McKee develop a new model centred on receptive and non-receptive contexts for change. Both a powerful analytic device and a broad agenda for management practice, the model outlines key features of internal and external context and action to account for success or failure in change efforts, and for differences in the rate and pace of change. The authors consider the role and impact of such factors as environmental pressures for change; the quality and clarity of change goals and strategies; organizational cultures and inter-organizational relations supportive of change; availability of key people to lead change; and capability in managing change processes - turning 'problems and panics' into sustainable action. Underpinning the model is an extraordinarily rich and multilayered analysis which draws and builds on the authors' research in the British National Health Service during a period of dramatic restructuring. Pettigrew and his colleagues use the case material to look at different ends of strategic change - from strategic response to unanticipated crisis, to rationalization and retrenchment, to major growth and the creation of new organizations. They compare and contrast successful with less successful change efforts. They show how the facilitating factors they identify must interconnect to create the directed energy that shapes effective change. . Shaping Strategic Change will be indispensable reading for managers in private or public sector organizations and for all those studying strategic management, organizational change and public management.