Healthcare highways in your community

This abstract serves to introduce a 10 minute video in which I will discuss issues pertaining to the structure of the healthcare system in Quebec. At the same time I will review the concept of community within and around that system. The relationship and interplay between the two will be explored in the hope that the viewer might find resonance and meaning, and perhaps a springboard to further reflection and conversation. Many perceive a need for change in both the organizational systems as well as in the existing cultures within healthcare institutions, both in and outside of Quebec. Yet we often feel powerless to act. I will touch upon ideas on how we can make a difference using our individual influence to bring about the changes we seek. The concepts under discussion are abstract. In the hope of creating a greater degree of tangibility, I will offer a metaphor – namely the long-term detrimental effects brought about by the disruption, and in many cases destruction, of vibrant North American communities, caused by the building of highways straight through their hearts. I will suggest that though there may have been benefits to the society as a whole arising from the building of those highways, the adverse effects extended well beyond the individual communities involved. With this metaphor in mind, I will present the argument that the current structure of healthcare in Quebec, brought into effect in 2015, has resulted in over-bureaucratization and “decommunitization”, with a consequent diminution in the presence and role of culture, ultimately representing a loss for the community at large. Unintended deleterious societal effects arising from social system restructuring, are a phenomenon not unique to healthcare, nor to Quebec. It may take years for these consequences to become manifest, by which time they may prove difficult to reverse.

Positive School Leadership Behaviors

To introduce and define the core behaviors of positive school leadership (PSL), we explore six positively anchored sets of work (supporting, developing relationships, establishing values, acting authentically, modeling, and enabling or empowering) that move us beyond the deeply ingrained negative and deficit roots that have defined schooling for over a century. The exploration of research primarily on positive organizational scholarship (POS) accomplishes this, showing that POS attends to the growth of others and helps grow and reinforce relationships that focus on personalization, trust, and caring. Additionally, PSL produces important outcomes, enhancing the cultural climate in schools in particular; however, it is also important to note that the current structure and culture of schooling create significant barriers to the implementation of PSL.

The Implementation of Parliamentary Special Select Committees (Ad-Hoc) 2004-2012: An Important Lesson to Learn for Effective Checks and Balances in Future Parliament

In modern legislative institutions rely on Parliament to oversee government action, particularly through select committees (PSCs). PSCs are used in democratic parliaments to achieve good governance and hold the ruling government accountable. Nonetheless, the inadequacy of the current structure hinder the PSCs from operating effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to critically analyse the practices of the PSCs in the Parliament of Malaysia during Barisan Nasional from 2004 – 2012. This article adopts a qualitative approach of parliamentary ethnography through analysing documents as instruments in collecting data and library research. This study critically assesses the composition, membership and chairperson of the PSCs based on the provisions in the Standing Orders and other relevant statutes that govern parliamentary select committees in the Parliament. Based on the analysis, the article concluded that the composition of members and chairperson of PSCs during Barisan Nasional (2004 -2012) should be revisited and improved for future practice. Unlike the standards indicated in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Recommended Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures, 2018, the study found several areas that need revisiting, including composition, membership and chairperson of PSC.

Media Concentration in Spain: National, sectorial, and regional groups

In Spain, the media market structure is made up of very different media groups, making it necessary to identify and classify them in a clear and coherent manner. To do so, this article collects secondary information from media companies’ websites and from audience measurement institutions. Results identify 50 media groups with activity in the Spanish market. They are classified into three categories according to the type of outlet, including national, sectorial, and regional. The current structure is based on recent developments in the last four decades of democracy among newspapers, magazines, radio, television and digital media.

Land use in a Subcarpathian Depression – Sălătrucel commune, Vâlcea County

The use of the lands from Sălătrucel Commune located in the Jiblea – Berslăvești Depression, at the contact between the Southern Carpathians – Cozia Massif and the Vâlcea Subcarpathians, bears the characteristics of the physical-geographical particularities, especially those of the relief configuration with the specific lithological structure. The Jiblea – Berislăvești Depression was a favourable geographical area for early settlement, which also attracted important changes in the natural landscape reflected in the current structure of land use

Prospects for the Development of Payment Institutions in Russia

The current structure of the Russian payment market is almost ten years old—in the summer of 2011,the Federal Law “On the National Payment System” was adopted. This was the start of a “Russian noncash miracle,” a fantastic increase of non-cash payments in retail turnover. Having solved numerous problems, the new market structure today also needs to be updated. During this decade, the range of challenges faced by the industry and the regulator has changed significantly: those are unbalanced competition, the presence of types of companies with similar functionality on the market, complex licensing procedures, and so on. This article aims to consider a new perspective of market transformation based on the introduction of payment institution into the Russian system. The article analyzes the current and future types of payments; examines in detail the structure of the Russian payment market, its advantages and disadvantages; and describes the payment institution, identifying the risks and prospects of its introduction into Russian banking practice. The authors suggest the feasibility of introducing payment institutions as a more functional version of the payment agents operating in Russia to simplify the complex structure of payment service providers. Payment institutions should become conduits for new payment services (such as PISP and AISP). In addition, payment institutions should be supervised by the regulator. At the same time, the introduction of a new type of companies should not put existing players at a disadvantage. Therefore, existing credit institutions and payment agents should have the ability to easily change their status and transform into payment institutions and back again.

Sectarian securitization in the Middle East and the case of Israel

Focusing on the politics of sectarianism in the Middle East after the Arab uprisings, this article advances two main claims. First, it identifies the current climate of insecurity in the region amid major geopolitical shifts as a key condition that allows political leaders to present sectarian identities as being under (existential) threat. However, a heightened sense of insecurity not only acts as an enabling condition but is also the outcome of these sectarian securitization strategies. The ‘politics of fear’ may thus trigger a self-sustaining mechanism, or a vicious cycle. Second, as sectarian securitization has intensified in Israel since the early 2000s, the article discusses the vicious cycle of securitized sectarianism in the case of Israel in a comparative perspective. By drawing the attention to insecurity (or the sense thereof) as a key enabling condition against the backdrop of major disruptive events, and by bringing the case of Israel into the picture, the article contributes to our understanding of the current structure of regional politics in the Middle East. It concludes by reflecting on the impact of sectarian securitization on the region's conflict potential and the comparability of the Israeli case with those of other states in the region.