Report on the ‘European exchange of experiences in school integration’: the intercultural comparison of the quality of life of children and youth with handicaps in Arhus (Denmark), Arezzo (Italy), Greenwich (London,UK) and Reutlingen (Germany)

ABSTRACT

This article describes some aspects of a multi‐disciplinary exchange and research programme involving communities in Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The major focus of the programme has been on the integration of children with special educational needs into mainstream settings in schools and communities with a specific reference to decision making processes. The point at which extra resources are given by the state and its agencies to an individual in need provides the unifying intercultural point of departure. Local cultures, including legislative and social imperatives, and their implications for research activity are discussed. Common themes in the transition and transformation of the various forms of welfare state provision within the member countries are identified and analysed. The relationship between different forms and levels of service provision and the practice of integration are discussed.     

Editor's introduction to the forum on defining applied communication scholarship

Although public meetings are a frequent method of public participation and risk communication, little research investigates what citizens think about their use in environmental management. To examine satisfaction with public meetings, residents of two neighboring communities received questionnaires following a public meeting about a local landfill. Respondents included residents who did and did not attend the meeting. Irrespective of whether respondents had ever attended a public meeting, meeting expectations and perceptions of relational/informational communication at meetings, including whether respondents thought meeting organizers were genuinely interested in participants' comments or meetings were informative, predicted satisfaction. Perceived risk associated with the recent meeting's topic and credibility of government agencies that frequently conduct meetings also predicted satisfaction.     

Education,education and indoctrination! Packaging politics and the three ‘Rs’

This paper explores how recent Labour governments have tried systematically to package educational and other social policies for media presentation and public consumption. This concern has resulted in the criticism that Labour is concerned with policy presentation above content: strong on policy spin but weak on policy delivery. The first section explores Labour’s attempts to set a favourable agenda in news media for its educational policies by implementing a rigorous news management strategy: the subsequent section analyses Labour’s unprecedented use of advertising to promote key areas of government policy. There is a particular focus on government advertising in the run up to the 2001 general election. The paper concludes that governments’ increasing reliance on advertising may cross the line which should separate the provision of public information from any attempt to persuade the public to support particular policy choices.