Danish police practice and national football fan crowd behaviour. Dialogue or coercive force?

With the development of the Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM), psychological theory has in recent years seen an interesting development in research on crowd behaviour. This body of knowledge authored predominantly by Clifford Stott has reformed the EU guidelines on how to best police football fan crowds at international tournaments. With onset in participant observations and interviews with Danish ultras, this paper examines the coherence between the current Danish police strategy, which is described in the National Handbook on Police Work in Association with Football Matches (2011), and the behaviour of Danish football fan crowds containing ultras group members. Agreeing with the overall guidelines in the ESIM, this paper points out some shortcomings in the National handbook and recommends elaborating certain aspects of it as well as adding a section on six ideal types of football fan crowd behaviour.     

Symptoms of common mental disorders and related stressors in Danish professional football and handball

The aim of the study was twofold, namely (i) to determine the prevalence of symptoms of common mental disorders (CMDs) among current and retired professional football and handball players and (ii) to explore the relationship of psychosocial stressors with the outcome measures under study. A total of 1155 players were enrolled in an observational study based on a cross-sectional design. Questionnaires based on validated scales were set up and distributed among current and retired professional football and handball players by the Danish football and handball players’ union. In professional football, the highest prevalence (4 weeks) of symptoms of CMDs was 18% and 19% for anxiety/depression among current and retired players, respectively. In professional handball, the highest prevalence (4 weeks) of symptoms of CMDs was 26% and 16% for anxiety/depression among current and retired players, respectively. For both the current and retired professional football and handball players, a higher number of severe injuries and recent adverse life events (LE) were related to the presence of symptoms of CMD. Players exposed to severe injuries and/or recent adverse LE were 20–50% times more likely to report symptoms of CMD. The results suggest that it is possible to recognize the population of professional athletes that are more likely to develop symptoms of CMD. This could create the opportunity to intervene preventively on athletes that suffered from severe injury and/or recent adverse LE that could lead to a faster and safer recovery and psychological readiness to return to play.     

Intervention fidelity in participatory research: a framework

ABSTRACT

In community interventions more generally, the concept of fidelity refers to the degree to which a program is delivered as intended. The present paper discusses ways in which fundamental aspects of participatory research challenge the concept of fidelity and differ from more traditional science-dominated approaches. We begin with a discussion of the fidelity concept and some of its strengths and limitations. We then discuss both social problems and proposed solutions as representing complex problems defying simple or permanent solutions. We suggest that three prominent aspects of participatory research highlight this complexity and pose challenges in assessing fidelity. First, in participatory research, the goal is not only scientific but also social action on a local issue as well. Second, the participatory process among varied partners is itself part of the intervention itself to be understood as affecting both processes and outcomes. Third, the goals of participatory research include community-level as well as individual-level changes. These issues are illustrated in a discussion of how culture is conceptualized and acknowledged in fidelity assessment. We conclude with some recommendations for approaching fidelty in participatory research in a way that appreciates its differences from more traditional paradigms underlying community interventions.     

An investigation of the accuracy and reliability of body composition assessed with a handheld electrical impedance myography device

The purpose of this study was to compare the body fat per cent (BF%) assessed with a unique handheld electrical impedance myography (EIM) device, along with other popular methods, to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Participants included 33 males (aged 24.3?±?4.6 years) and 38 females (aged 25.3?±?8.9 years) who completed 2 visits separated by 24–72?h. The assessments included DXA, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), skinfold measures (SKF), and three separate EIM measurements. No significant differences in BF% (P?>?0.05) were found between all EIM assessments when compared against DXA for both males and females for each visit. All methods showed no significant differences in BF% (P?>?0.05) between days within themselves. Across both days, the standard error of the estimate (SEE) for the EIM measurements ranged from 2.66% to 3.15%, the SEE for BIA was 2.80 and 2.85, and for SKF was 2.90 and 2.82. The 95% limits of agreement ranged from ±5.34% to ±6.38% for EIM measurements and were highest for SKF (±7.42% and ±7.47%). The total error for both days was largest for SKF (5.20% and 5.35%) and lowest for the EIM measurements (2.48–3.24%). This investigation supports use of a handheld EIM device as an accurate and reliable method of estimating BF% compared to DXA in young, apparently healthy individuals with BF% in the range of 10–22% for males and 20–32% in females and suggests this EIM device be considered a viable alternative to other established field measurements in this population.     

Integrated water resource management: a platform for higher education institutions to meet complex sustainability challenges

Higher education institutions in Sweden are increasingly exposed to international market conditions and rising competition from a more mobile student body. This increases the need for universities to adapt to their social and economic environment and to their clients, including the political trends and financial opportunities in Sweden and EU, if they are to successfully implement sustainability reforms. In this regard, we examine the barriers faced by a ‘post-normal’ education for sustainable development (ESD) inherent within the structures of a ‘normal’ University. We pose the question whether Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) as a post-normal process can contribute to increased capacity of normal higher education institutions to address complex sustainability problems? IWRM is conceptualised as an interactionist process of social learning and adaptive management to reflect on the experiences from one particular case, namely the Master Programme in IWRM at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. We illustrate how IWRM can contribute to address conflicts of interests in education arising from competing claims of stakeholders in real life management situations, but also to reconcile the conflicts associated with institutional adaptation under conditions characterised by a new international educational regime and rapidly changing market conditions. The paper brings together the discourse on ESD with lessons from IWRM and contends that the interactionist approach might offer a useful alternative to realist conceptions of ESD in learner-centred and institutional systemic approaches. Contrary to other reports on IWRM education, this paper reflects on this role of IWRM within higher education per se.     

Policies to promote user innovation: Makerspaces and clinician innovation in Swedish hospitals

As it becomes apparent that users are an important source in innovation in society and in organizations, scholars are realizing that user-directed innovation policy might contribute to improving social welfare. How such policy might be designed, however, is uncertain, as are the costs and benefits of such policies. It is also not clear whether there is a problem for user-directed policy to solve, or what that problem is.As a first empirical step to answering these questions, we report the results of providing hospital clinicians with access to ‘makerspaces’, i.e. staffed facilities with prototyping tools and the expertise in using them.Findings suggest that almost all innovations developed in the makerspaces are user innovations; that the potential returns from the innovations developed in the makerspaces’ first year of operation are more than tenfold the required investment; and that most of the innovations would not have been developed without access to makerspaces. Due to lack of diffusion, only a limited share of potential returns is realized.This suggests not only that there are problems of non-development and under-development that policy can solve and that doing so supports social welfare. It also suggests makerspaces as an effective form of user-supporting innovation policy.     

Identity construction in professional football: the case of Brøndby IF

Professional football clubs exist in a complex environment consisting of multiple stakeholders. When a club is unable to fulfil what is expected of it, its stakeholders are usually quick to express their dissatisfaction. This constant exposure to critical voices, and the fact that clubs are deeply dependent on their stakeholders, not least financially, makes identity construction a very important task. Perceiving identity as a social process in which self-expressions and external stakeholder images interact, the purpose of this study is to examine how the Danish football club, Brøndby IF, constructs its identity. The analysis shows how Brøndby to some extent chooses to ignore external perceptions of the club, which leads to further criticism. The study suggests how football directors should prioritize to construct a well-balanced identity that includes both internal and external perceptions of the club in order to stay attractive to stakeholders and secure future collaboration and funding.     

News Media Framing of Negative Campaigning

News media coverage of election campaigns is often characterized by use of the strategic game frame and a focus on politicians' use of negative campaigning. However, the exact relationship between these two characteristics of news coverage is largely unexplored. This article theorizes that consumer demand and norms of journalistic independence might induce the news media outlets to cover negative campaigning with a strategic game frame. A comprehensive content analysis based on several newspaper types, several election campaigns, and several different measurements of media framing confirms that news coverage of negative campaigning does apply the strategic game frame to a significantly larger degree than articles covering positive campaigning. This finding has significant implications for campaigning politicians and for scholars studying campaign and media effects.     

“I feel I mean something to someone”: solution-focused brief therapy support groups for bullied schoolchildren

The aim of this study was to investigate how bullied schoolchildren experience solution-focused brief therapy support groups, and to examine how members of the support group experience their participation in the group. An explorative qualitative design, with individual and focus group interviews, was used. The sample consisted of 19 schoolchildren, aged 12–13 years, three of whom were bullied. Six individual interviews were conducted with the bullied children and three focus group interviews were held with the support groups. The bullied children reported that the bullying stopped after they received help from the support group and the improvements remained after three months. Their daily lives at school changed and they felt safer and happier and made friends. Members of the support groups reported that they were doing a meaningful job in helping the victims. It is important that school nurses, educational psychologists and teachers, together with parents, follow up bullied children, to prevent further bullying.