Journal articles on the topic 'Expertise socio-technique'

The aims of this study is to find out; (1) the correlation between the type of job information, socio-economic status of parents and the practice facilities with a working interest (X1); (2) the correlation between the type of job information with the working interest (X2); (3) the correlation between socio-economic status of parents with working interests (X3); and (4) the correlation between practice facilities with a working interest of students of class XII Automotive Engineering Program SMK Negeri 2 Bima 2015/2016 academic year (Y).The research was conducted at SMK Negeri 2 Bima. The research was conducted in the first semester of the 2015/2016 academic year. The population in this study are 127 students taken from all of the students of class XII Automotive Engineering Expertise program. This study used applied try out technique. This research is a Ex Post Facto research. Data collection technique used a questionnaire method. Data analysis techniques used trials using multiple correlation analysis and partial correlation analysis.Based on the data analysis obtained the following results: (1) the results of the analysis of multiple correlation obtained coefficient rhitung 0433 and Fhitung 5629> Ftable 3:32 so it can be concluded that simultaneous correlation exists a positive and significant correlation between information type of work (X1) socioeconomic status (X2) and the practice facilities (X3) with working interests (Y); (2) the results of partial correlation analysis obtained rhitung 0312> rtabel 0176 so it can be concluded that there is a positive and significant correlation between the information type of work with work interests; (3) the results of partial correlation analysis obtained rhitung 0305> rtabel 0176 so it can be concluded that there is a positive and significant correlation between socio-economic status of parents with working interests; and (4) the results of partial correlation analysis obtained rhitung 0.244> 0.176 rtabel so it can be concluded that there is a positive and significant correlation between the practice facilities with a working interest of students of class XII Automotive Engineering Program SMK Negeri 2 Bima the academic year 2015/2016

ABSTRAKLiterasi keuangan Syariah merupakan kemampuan atau keahlian individu terhadap pengetahuan keuangan dan cara mengelola keuangan berdasarkan ajaran islam dan memiliki tujuan untuk menggapai kehidupan sejahtera dimasa yang akan datang. Penelitian ini memiliki tujuan untuk mengetahui tingkat literasi keuangan Syariah siswa MAN di Kota Tangerang. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa/i MAN di Kota Tangerang tahun ajaran 2019/2020 yang berjumlah 679 siswa/i serta pengambilan sampel dilakukan dengan Teknik random sampling dengan hasil 252 siswa/i. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan kuesioner atau angket dan analisis data menggunakan analisis statistic deskriptif dengan analisis regresi linier berganda. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa secara parsial sosio ekonomi orangtua dan kecerdasan spiritual berpengaruh terhadap tingkat literasi keuangan syariah ditunjukan dengan nilai Uji Wald. Sedangkan secara simultan dengan menggunakan Uji Likelihood Rasio Test menunjukan bahwa sosio ekonomi orangtua dan kecerdasan spiritual berpengaruh positif dan signifikan dengan arti secara keseluruhan variabel independent dapat mempengaruhi variabel dependent.Kata Kunci: Literasi Keuangan Syariah, Status Sosio Ekonomi Orangtua, Kecerdasan Spiritual. ABSTRACTIslamic financial literacy, an individual ability or expertise to knowledge, namely finance, finance based on Islamic teachings to achieve a prosperous life in the future. This study aims to see the level of Islamic financial literacy of MAN students in Tangerang City. The population in this study were students of MAN in Tangerang City for the 2019/2020 academic year, which may be 679 students. Sampling was done by random sampling technique with a total of 252 students. The data technique used a questionnaire and data analysis used descriptive statistical analysis with multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that partially the socioeconomic correlation and spiritual intelligence affected the level of Islamic financial literacy as indicated by the value of the Wald Test. While simultaneously using the Likelihood Ratio Test, it shows that the parents’ socio-economic and spiritual intelligence have a positive and significant effect, meaning that all independent variables can affect the dependent variable.Keywords: Islamic Financial Literacy, Parents Socio-Economic, Spiritual Intelligence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the effects of influence and reciprocity as the elements in the determination of executive compensation. Design/methodology/approach A purposive sample was drawn, which comprised of 13 respondents chosen for their expertise relating to the determination of executive compensation in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). A semi-structured interview guide was used as the data-gathering instrument. A thematic analysis technique was used for data analysis. Findings The findings in this study identified three themes resorting under influence as crucial in the process of determining executive compensation, namely an executive’s social capital, intellectual capital and social comparison. Two major themes emerged under reciprocity, namely the pay-performance relationship and role complexity. Finally, the political-symbolic role emerged as the main theme that described the relationship between influence and reciprocity. Practical implications The findings provide a more detailed description of the process involved in determining executive compensation in SOEs. Originality/value There has been limited if any, empirical study on the process involved in setting executive compensation. The limited focus has always been on accounting measures. Incorporating the socio-psychological view attempts to provide a more comprehensive and conclusive explanation of the process of determining executive pay in theory and practice.

Purpose: This study makes a comparison of the manufacturing sector and its determinants for India and selected Asian countries. It examines the factors affecting the annual turnover of randomly selected 154 firms in seven different industries of the Indian manufacturing sector. Methods: In this study, the firm’s annual turnover is used as a dependent variable. Labor productivity, age, investment on plant & machinery, annual expenditure on marketing, total employees, production technology up-gradation, shortage of skilled workers, skills to improve the process, use of hi-tech tool and technique in production activities, technology transfer abilities, in-house R&D expertise, quality certification, foreign collaboration, waste management capabilities and building capacity of firms are used as independent variables. Regression coefficients of explanatory variables are assessed using linear, log-linear, and non-linear regression models. Results: The study concluded that the firm's annual turnover has a significant association with technological development related variables, labor productivity, age, technology transfer abilities, in-house R&D expertise, quality certification, and waste management practices of firms. Implications: It suggests that Indian policymakers need to adopt a strong IPRs, education, and S&T policy in research institutions. India needs to increase R&D expenditure and researchers in research institutions. Research institutions should collaborate with the existing industries to discover more technologies and innovations for the manufacturing sector. All research organizations must set up technology transfer offices to increase technology transfer and commercialization. Furthermore, India needs to set up hi-tech firms to face global challenges. Originality: It uses primary data of 154 firms which are collected from seven different industries across Indian states. Thus, the study substantially contributes to the existing literature. Limitations: This study considers seven different industries that have high diversity in socio-economic, science & technological and IPRs related activities, technology transfer, commercialization of technology, and association with research institutions. Therefore, this study cannot provide policy suggestions for a specific industry.

Purpose Drawing on social feminist theory, this paper aims to close gaps between knowledge about gender-related barriers to information, communication and technology (ICT) adoption and the provision of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) programs. Design/methodology/approach Empirical findings are drawn from 21 semi-structured interviews (22 informants) possessing differing training expertise regarding digital technology among women entrepreneurs. An open-coding technique was adopted where descriptive codes were first assigned to meaningful statements. Interpretive and pattern codes were then assigned to indicate common themes and patterns, which were reduced to higher-order categories to inform the research questions. Findings The findings specify and validate further gender influences in the digital economy. Digital skills are identified, and strategies to close gender barriers to ICT adoption with EET are described. The findings are discussed in reference to a large-scale, Canadian ICT adoption program. Research limitations/implications Perceptual data may be idiosyncratic to the sample. The work did not control for type of technology. Gender influences may differ by type of technology. Practical implications Findings can be used to construct gender-inclusive ICT supports and inform ICT adoption policies. This includes program eligibility and evaluation criteria to measure the socio-economic impacts. Originality/value The study is among the first to examine the intersection between knowledge about gender-related barriers to ICT adoption and EET. The findings can be adopted to ICT support programs targeted at small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Background: Safe long-term venous access is essential in cancer undergoing chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant or supportive management in some conditions. Implanted devices are of choice here but under-utilised. Our review focuses on evaluating the reasons for this underutilisation so as to promote the use of chemo port in specific situations.Methods: 245 patients undergoing port placement in a socio-economically constrained zone were analysed with regard to multiple clinical, social and logistical parameters and long-term follow-up assessed.Results: Solid malignancy was the most common indication for port placement followed by hemato-lymphoid cancers. Breast cancers are the commonest solid cancer for Port placement. In our evaluation patients having chemotherapy ports were less worried about the upcoming chemo procedures because of the ease of IV access, resulting in better compliance and quality of life. Cost of the device and absence of expertise for placement and handling were the primary reasons for reluctance of port placement. Port related complications were few, not life threatening, and insignificant in the long term.Conclusions: Placement of a Chemotherapy port is a technique with an easy learning curve and a good safety profile. Procedural and long term complications are few and acceptable. Costs are acceptable in the long term and are beneficial to the patient. This method to needs to be promoted in patients needing long-term venous access. Adequate training will promote acceptance and use of the chemo-port. Clinicians should adopt and offer this for all indicated patients.

La técnica de la mediación se ha ampliado en Chile desde espacios tradicionales como el escolar o el familiar, a otros espacios menos habituales como el laboral e incluso el comunitario o vecinal. Sin embargo, en este último ámbito, su utilización en Chile hoy es muy incipiente y reviste desafíos a la institucionalidad y a quienes la operan en el marco de la nueva gestión pública. Para el Trabajo Social –importante operador de la política pública y responsable de contribuir a la necesaria “democratización social”–, este tipo de mediación puede constituir un buen recurso o bien público al momento de fortalecer el tejido social, además que le permite aprovechar la expertise de la formación recibida por este profesional. Este artículo busca contextualizar sociohistóricamente la práctica de la mediación comunitaria en Chile, permitiendo explorar algunas oportunidades que presenta hoy este espacio para el Trabajo Social, en épocas de globalización.Palabras clave: Ciudadanía, Desarrollo Sinergético, Mediación Vecinal-Comunitaria, Trabajo Social de Comunidad.A mediação comunitária e/ou da vizinhança: uma contribuição para a democratização social e um novo espaço para o trabalho social de comunidadeA técnica de mediação tem se expandido no Chile desde espaços tradicionais, tais como a escola e a família, para outros espaços menos tradicionais, tais como o trabalho e até mesmo o comunitário ou vizinhança. No entanto, neste último aspecto, seu uso no Chile hoje é muito incipiente e reveste de desafios à institucionalidade e aqueles que operam no âmbitoda nova gestão pública. Para o Trabalho Social – importante operador dapolítica pública e responsável de contribuir a necessária “democratizaçãosocial” – este tipo de mediação pode se constituir num bom recurso ouBem público ao momento de fortalecer o tecido social, além do mais,que lhe permite aproveitar os conhecimentos da formação recebida poreste profissional. Este artigo visa contextualizar sociohistoricamente aprática da mediação comunitária no Chile, permitindo explorar algumasoportunidades que hoje apresenta este espaço para o trabalho Social emtempos de globalização.Palavras-chave: Cidadania, Desenvolvimento sinergético, MediaçãoVizinhança-Comunitária, Trabalho Social de Comunidade.Community and/or neighborhood mediation: Acontribution to social democracy and a new space forcommunity social workThe technique of mediation has expanded in Chile from traditional areassuch as school or family to other less traditional such as labor and eventhe community or neighborhood. However, the latter is very new in Chiletoday and imposes challenges to institutions and to those who operate itunder the new public management. For the Social Work – major operatorof public policy and responsible for contributing to the necessary “socialdemocracy” – this type of mediation can be a good resource to strengthenthe social fabric and leverage expertise of this professional training. Thisarticle is aimed to socio historically contextualize community mediationpractice in Chile exploring some opportunities today for social work inglobalization times.Keywords: Citizenship, synergistic development, neighborhood-communitymediation, community social work.

Background: Hydroxyurea is one of the currently approved medications capable of modifying the pathogenesis of sickle cell disease (SCD), and its use has transformed the management of this disease worldwide.However, available evidences suggest that hydroxyurea is underutilized by sickle cell health-care providers in Nigeria despite the huge burden of the disease. Objectives: This study assessed the level of utilization and provider-related barriers to the use of hydroxyurea in the treatment of SCD patients in Jos, Nigeria. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted among 132 medical doctors providing care for SCD patients in four tertiary hospitals in Jos using a multistage sampling technique. In this setting, SCD patients are cared for by the Hematologists, Pediatricians, Family Physicians and General Practitioners. Data on socio-demographics of the respondents, knowledge, utilization and barriers to the utilization of hydroxyurea were obtained using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The data were processed and analysed using SPSS version 23. Hydroxyurea was adjudged utilized if a provider has prescribed hydroxyurea to any SCD patient within the last 12 months. Chi square test was used to test the association between the demographic, provider-related barrier variables and the level of utilization of hydroxyurea. The barriers were fed cumulatively into logistic regression model as predictors of utilization of hydroxyurea. Adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were used as point and interval estimates respectively. A P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Of the 132 respondents, 88 (67%) had been in medical practice for upward of six years while 80 (60.6%) of them affirmed that they have attended to more than 10 SCD patients in the last 6 months. Sixty-seven (50.8%) of the participants had inadequate knowledge of hydroxyurea use in SCD management while the level of utilization of hydroxyurea in SCD treatment was 24.2%. The odds of non-utilization of hydroxyurea was 5.1 times higher in providers with no expertise in its use (OR =5.1; 95% CI =2.65-9.05; P<0.0001). Other barriers that predicted its non-utilization included inadequate knowledge (OR =0.17; 95% CI =0.29-0.71; P=0.017), fear of side-effects (OR =0.50; 95% CI =0.22-0.68; P=0.019) and doubt about the effectiveness of the medication (OR =0.30; 95% CI =0.20-0.90; P=0.002). Conclusion: The level of utilization of hydroxyurea in the treatment of SCD among the sickle cell care-providers is sub-optimal with the lack of expertise in its use identified as the most prominent barrier. Therefore, training of Nigeria sickle cell care-providers to attain and maintain competence in the use of hydroxyurea for the treatment of SCD is required. Keywords: Sickle cell disease, hydroxyurea, utilization, barriers, Jos, Nigeria Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

This article aims to show that indigenous knowledge systems are the reservoirs of useful knowledge for teaching theology, particularly indigenous languages. It argues that theological language is an identity marker, and an ideological tool. Indigenous languages have something to offer in teaching theology. <br /> Language is a powerful force that forms national identity; and it contributes towards national unity. It is part of culture and it explains the abstracts through figures of speech. These figures of speech or metaphors are mostly comprehensible when viewed from indigenous languages’ point. Opportunities must be created for the space of the acquisition of these languages as a way of exploring and discovering the meaning of the texts. It is therefore recommended that the linguistic competence and performance be mastered for catching the metaphorical contents of the texts. Teaching theology does not only require <i>gratis dictum</i> but also expertise in language technical application such as code-switching, sandwich technique, mother-tongue mirroring, and back-chaining.

Abstract Objective: To analyze knowledge/expertise, autonomy and professional status in the ways of practicing nursing in implementation of the Nursing Process in a University Hospital in Southern Brazil. Method: A qualitative socio-historical study using thematic oral history as a method and technique. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with care nurses and professors. The Content Analysis technique was used in the analysis. Results: Fourteen (14) care nurses and professors participated. Knowledge/expertise were pointed out as the main contributions in implementing the Nursing Process. Professional status emerged as recognition of technical and scientific competence of nurses by health staff and users. Autonomy was expressed as being able to decide on their conduct and linked to knowledge, commitment and professional identity. Conclusion: The Nursing Process is a way of exercising the profession based on knowledge and expertise with autonomy, and enables achieving status, reinforcing professional recognition.

Aims: The main objective of the study was to explore the influences of socio-demographic factors of lemon cultivators on accepting pest management practices. Study Design: A total of 120 lemon growers of the Tangail district were selected as samples following the proportionate random sampling technique. Primary data were collected from sampled respondents using a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire by face-to-face interview. Results and Discussion: Findings indicate that majority of the respondents were middle-aged (69.2%), having a secondary level of education (47.5%), small farm size (73.3%), medium family size (57.5%), and medium use of information sources (74.2%). Farmers use chemical, mechanical, and cultural pest management practices, with the majority of respondents had a moderate degree of adoption. Education, annual family income, contact with the source of information, and organizational participation of the respondents showed positive significant relationships with their adoption of pest management practices. High input price, low market price of the product, disease, and pest attack was identified as the major problems faced by the lemon growers. Conclusion: Adoption of pest management practices significantly influenced by socio-economic factors of lemon growers. Hence, agricultural extension agents should step forward to work with different groups of farmers for raising their knowledge of integrated pest control and improve expertise in lemon cultivation. Furthermore, the government should take the requisite steps to address issues such as high production costs, low commodity prices, and disease and pest infestation.

A study has been conducted in Haryana to analyze the various constraints faced by animal husbandry officials in implementation of “Integrated Murrah Development Scheme” (IMDS). Data were collected from 40 animal husbandry officials from four districts namely Kurukshetra, Mahendragarh, Bhiwani and Jhajjar. Garett’s ranking technique was used to prioritize the different sets of constraints. “Heavy work-load due to multidimensional activities of the project during peak season” and “Inadequacy of staff in the scheme” were the major administrative constraints in order of severity. Under technical constraints “lack of mass media approach” followed by “No provision for the refresher courses for the programme functionaries” were the most severe. “Inadequate number of staff at field level and large area of operation under a single supervisor” followed by “lack of involvement of NGO and PRIs in enhancing community participation” were important infrastructural and operational constraints. Untimely release of fund by the parent department and misguidance of farmers by the middlemen/ Brokers were the economic and socio-psychological constraints, respectively. Lack of technical expertise in the field of extension, lack of emphasis on educating the dairy farmers were other important miscellaneous constraints faced by animal husbandry officials. Removal of these constraints should receive priority over the considerable focus on the implementation of such scheme.

Mold growth is among the major causes of health impairment of cereals, in particular durum wheat (Triticum durum) for the synthesis of mycotoxins such as aflatoxins B1 and ochratoxin A (OTA), originally from poisoning in the consumer. In this context, the objectives of this work is the search and characterization of fungal strains Producers mycotoxins such as Aspergillus, Penicillium in semolina and their derivatives (traditional and industrial couscous) and detect and quantify total aflatoxins, aflatoxins B1 and ochratoxin mycotoxicologique to assess the risk associated with the consumption of these foods. In this regard, our work focuses on mycological and mycotoxicologique study of semolina and couscous deemed most commercialized in the town of Bechar-Algeria after a socio-economic survey. The mycological study testifies the high degree of pollution of our samples by Aspergillus, Penicillium. The expertise of genera reveals the high degree of invasion of our samples by Aspergillus, Penicillium. The examination of fungal procession characterizing our samples shows a very high index of distribution, or of fidelity of Penicillium 43.75% of our sample and 28.38% Aspergillus. The presence of these species is evidence that our samples have been abused, but especially poorly stored; should be noted the involvement of the genera Alternaria 7.10%, Fusarium 13.70%. Thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) analysis revealed that 50% of Aspergillus flavus-parasiticus strains were aflatoxin G-producing and aflatoxin B-free in our samples. Of the Aspergillus ochraceus strains 50% were OTA producers. The presumption of toxicity of the various samples appeared positive on TLC. The test of Elisa has confirmed the presence of the OTA in our samples, the analysis of its results shows that the majority of the rates of OTA taken on our analyzed samples follow the European standard, these rates are between 1.01 and 1.9, except for one sample (couscous) which has shown a rate much higher than the standard recommended by the regulation (> 100 ppb), the samples of semolina had a rate of OTA lower than the beginning of the detection (1 ppb). The results of the presence of AFB spread out between 4.93 ppb and > 40 ppb. The antifungal activity of the resin of Boswellia carterii was tested on the following strains: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium expansum. And kneaded according to the technique of diagonal growth on intermediate solid medium (PDA). The results showed that the yield of the aqueous extract varied between 96.2 and 99.8%. The results of the extracts also showed activity against the fungi studied 48.6% and 96.2%.

Introduction There are increasing levels of concern around the health of citizens within Western neo-liberal democracies like Britain, the USA, and Australia. These governmental concerns are made manifest by discursive mechanisms that seek to both survey and regulate the lifestyles, eating habits and exercise regimes of citizens. Such governmental imperatives have historically targeted schools with school food ranking high in the priorities of public health policy, particularly in regards to the fears around childhood obesity and related health problems (Gard and Wright, Rich, Vander Schee and Gard). However, more recently such concerns have spilled into the wider public arena in Australia where fears of an “obesity epidemic”, the revision of the “food pyramid” and recent calls that make it mandatory for fast food companies to display calorie/kilojoule content on menu boards illustrate the increasing levels to which governments seek to intervene regarding the health of citizens. Not only does the attempt to produce a healthy citizen take place within policy imperatives but also within popular culture. Here, we see healthy eating and diet shows becoming international brands. For example The Biggest Loser, where obese contestants embark on a televised diet and exercise regime, competing to lose the most weight in the shortest time, and also Jamie Oliver’s attempt to change the eating habits of the British has crossed the Atlantic to the USA. There is a sense of urgency embedded in many such discursive practices and an implication that, as a society, we need a “lifestyle change” to make us healthier. Reflecting this urgency is an increase in cookbooks that not only provide recipe ideas but also seek to intervene into our day-to-day conduct. The content of such books moves beyond ways of putting a meal together and into the territory of self-surveillance and regulation. In this way, then, cookbooks can be read as pedagogical. This particular brand of pedagogy, moreover, feeds into wider socio-political discourses around the governance of the self within our late modern context. This chapter will argue that many contemporary cookbooks attempt to enact governmental imperatives around health and nutrition and that, by doing this, they become pedagogical devices that translate governmental devices into the homes of their readers. By using a post-Foucauldian analytical framework, we will illustrate the ways in which Jane Kennedy’s cookbook, Fabulous Food, Minus the Boombah mobilises discourses of health, gender, risk, and food in a rich (but 99 per cent fat free) mix. Analytical Framework This paper draws upon Foucauldian governmentality studies and the ways in which discursive practices are enacted in order to position and offer an analysis of cookbooks as pedagogical devices that translate the work of government into readers’ homes. Foucault defined government as “the conduct of conduct” arguing that government relates to the “way in which the conduct of individuals or groups might be directed: the government of children, of souls, of communities, of families, of the sick […] to govern in this sense, is to structure the possible field of action” (220–1). Foucault argued that attempts to shape conduct occur within socio-historical moments and contexts (Gordon) and they are, therefore, subject to change. Within this article, we seek to understand the ways in which governmental imperatives around food and lifestyle are taken up by cookbook authors and the implications of this in terms of public pedagogies within our late-modern context. Public health is located within a myriad of governmental sites that attempt to regulate people’s lives. In deciphering how government sites operate as mechanisms of regulation in modern times, Miller and Rose suggest that we require: An investigation not merely of grand political schemata, or economic ambitions, or even of general slogans such as ‘state control’, nationalization, the free market, and the like, but of apparently humble and mundane mechanisms which appear to make it possible to govern […] the list is heterogeneous and is, in principle unlimited (32). Such investigations can be grouped under the umbrella of “governmentality studies”. To grasp “governmentality” is complex and requires an analytics that can span history, and reach across macro and micro contours to trace various linkages and connections forged between governmental rationalities, techniques and practices (Leahy, Assembling). For the purposes of this paper we will be offering an analytic of the humble cookbook and its potential role in the governance of the self, a technique vital to contemporary neo-liberal modes of governance. Neo-liberalism produces particular versions of health, citizenship, and individualism. Within neo-liberal governmental assemblages, public health policy operates as a key site for enacting what Miller and Rose label “government at a distance” (32) by working to facilitate the shifting of responsibility for the health of citizens from the State to the individual. The individual, however, does not instinctively know how to incorporate governmental hopes for a healthy lifestyle into their lives—it is here that the cookbook, as pedagogical device, is vital because it translates macro governmental hopes to the micro level, that is, into the kitchens of citizens. Both risk and expertise also work alongside neo-liberalism in the assemblage to render the problems of government both thinkable and calculable, and in turn, practical. We will see in the next section how Jane Kennedy, the author of Fabulous Food, Minus the Boombah deploys both popular notions of risk alongside her own experience and expertise (her lifelong “battle” with weight) in order to fold the (female) reader in to Kennedy’s particular approach to healthy eating. Pedagogy could be described as part of the “doing” of education, the means through which ideas are transmitted through and between learners and teachers. Like contemporary neo-liberal government, contemporary pedagogies can be understood as assemblages; that is, they are made up of competing, intersecting, contradictory and multiple elements. Pedagogy is a technical device through which these elements are translated and transmitted to its audience, be that school pupils, students, adult learners or citizens. Elizabeth Ellsworth argues that pedagogy is a “social relationship [that] is very close in. It gets right in there in your brain, your body, your heart, your sense of self, of the world, of others, and of possibilities and impossibilities in all those realms” (6). In other words, effective pedagogical devices are necessary contact points between ideas and the self; they inform relationships between the macro and the micro, thus shaping both the individual and the collective. The remainder of this paper will demonstrate how Fabulous Food, Minus the Boombah deploys popular discursive trends regarding food, health, gender, and citizenship as pedagogic tools that aim to cultivate a healthier subject. Food That Makes Your Arse Huge? “Boombah: (adj). Word to describe food that makes your arse huge” (Kennedy 5). Lifestyle, diet, and health books can be seen to have saturated the market over recent years in an almost epidemic-like way. This phenomenon both mirrors and informs governmental imperatives around the health and lifestyle of citizens. A recent visit to our local bookshop revealed that there appears to be a polarisation of texts relating to food, health, and wellbeing. Books that explicitly relate to health and health issues can be found in one section, and cookbooks in another. However, there are an increasing number of texts that blend the two genres and offer diet, health, and lifestyle tips along with recipe ideas and cooking techniques. Within this blend there is also variation; there are texts that offer a scientific exposition of food, nutrition, and diet, such as Ricotti and Connelly’s The Healthy Family Cookbook, a text which offers a twelve-chapter overview of current theories and practices around health and nutrition before offering recipe ideas designed to help the reader achieve and maintain a “healthy weight” (page). In addition there are also texts that fold particular approaches to weight-loss, such as Jenny Craig or The Biggest Loser, together with cooking. The input of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to the mix has been well documented (see Pike; Leahy, Disgusting; Rawlins; Zimmet and James) and the influence of Oliver’s approachable style of writing can be found within many contemporary cookbooks, including Fabulous Food, Minus the Boombah, a text within which Jane Kennedy blends together cooking, health, and lifestyle into a paste that is bound together with a Bridget Jones-style confessional commentary on her own, personal struggles with weight and dieting. For example: “I love food. Always have. Unfortunately I love it about one kilo per month more than I should. Perhaps I should put it another way: the food I love seems to have more calories than I need over a month and a year and a lifetime … it adds up! Yep, I get FAT” (xi). This style can be read as a way of “getting right in” (Ellsworth 6), to enfold the reader into Kennedy’s world. It also may provide readers, particularly, as we will discus below, middle-class Anglo-Australian females, with a sense of solidarity in a struggle against weight gain. Kennedy often deploys the spectre of designer jeans that no longer fit as a way to further entice the reader to embrace the healthy eating regime promoted by the book. Kennedy draws upon notions of horror and disgust at the fat body (her own but, implicitly, also the readers). Horror and disgust are potent pedagogical devices that are often put to work in educational and health promotion settings in an attempt to lure people and their bodies into action (Leahy, Disgusting; Lupton). In many ways Kennedy’s cookbook can be read as public pedagogy—its aim is to teach the reader how to cook food that is “packed full of flavour but minus the boombah” (xxvii), or minus that which causes bodily harm and/or disgusting transformation. In order to achieve this, Kennedy deploys “expert knowledge” as she takes the reader on a journey through her own struggles with weight, fad diets and failure to epiphany—which for Kennedy was a personal trainer and a new approach to cooking, eating and lifestyle and her book is peppered with self help-style narrative devices, for example: The key to successful weight loss with this style of eating is to be organised. Disorganisation is the open door though which every second excuse (and French fry) slips. “Oh no, the stores are closed. Oh well, better order takeaway”. Don’t do it. There. Is. No. Good. Takeaway. Food. (Kennedy xxii, emphasis original). Several mechanisms are being deployed here. Firstly, she is inadvertently constructing the perfect western neo-liberal subject: organised, self-contained, disciplined, and able to make informed rational decisions around food type and purchase. Secondly, by predicting and addressing the reader’s perceived resistance, Kennedy reveals her moralistic overtones. We see the judgment of a rational, ordered subject versus a messy, disorganised, immoral (and fat) subject in a piling up of connotations that lead to the same conclusion: this healthy way is the best healthy way. Kennedy’s personal narrative within the text follows a trajectory of “awareness, struggle and epiphany” (Plummer 131) that often characterise the confessional stories that we tell about ourselves: “I ended up […] back at square one: overweight, staring down a year of chicken consommé dinners […] I finally grew a brain and motivated myself to see a personal trainer” (Kennedy xiv). Kennedy’s narrative is a familiar one and a Foucauldian reading of confession enables us to take the position that confession is imperative to the contemporary construction of self. Modes of confession have become increasingly diverse and reified through the era of reality TV, social networking and the “personal trauma” sub-genre of autobiographical memoir (Brien). Kennedy’s book deploys confession as a narrative device that, like her moralising about the dangers of take away food, attempts to fold the reader into her world and, as a result, reifies her approach to healthy eating and lifestyle. We can do it because she has done it. Through the confessional she is not only able to tell of her love of food but also of her understanding of it as risky. This can be outlined by drawing upon an extract we looked at earlier: “the food I love seems to have more calories than I need and over a month and a year and lifetime it adds up! Yep, I get FAT” (xi). Risk and expertise work alongside neo-liberal individualism in the governmental assemblage to render the problems of government both thinkable and calculable, and in turn, practical. Kennedy deploys both risk and expert knowledge in order to successfully demonstrate her understanding of healthy eating as a battleground that see her appetite and tastes at war with her waistline. She guides us through the various fad diets she has tried, through gaining weight while being pregnant, and the anguish of seeing her image reflected back at her through her career in television, until her epiphany: the realisation that in order to achieve and maintain a healthy weight a balance of healthy eating and exercise is required. These are convincing pedagogical strategies that encourage the reader to apply modes of self-governance that reflect wider, macro hopes for the healthy neo-liberal citizen and Kennedy’s status as TV celebrity within Australia. Her use of the colloquial term “boombah” makes hers a uniquely Australian endeavour. It is worth noting here that Kennedy’s brand of Australian humour and use of colloquialism is deeply entrenched with raced and classed assumptions about desirable body size and the economic and cultural capital of its readers. It is middle class white Anglo-Australian women who are being targeted by this book and, arguably, by this brand of public pedagogy. As with many contemporary cultural texts about cooking, Kennedy’s book promotes an: “upper-middle-class lifestyle enhanced by the appropriation of goods and commodities. All the while, real issues surrounding the life-sustaining reality of food are ignored” (Wright and Sandlin 406). The lifestyle promoted by Kennedy is classed in this way. She writes of Bettina Liano jeans, of working on the popular Australian television show A Current Affair, of drinking wine, and using goats cheese and kaffir lime leaves in her cooking. Her levels of economic and cultural capital are obvious, and this sets the scene well for the type of reader she is attempting to educate. Although she does not explicitly mention gender, her “Bridget Jones”-style confessions of dietary failure (though Kennedy succeeds where Bridget would inevitably continue to fail), the mention of cooking both children’s and adult’s dinners, and the illustrations throughout the book that feature children’s toys implicitly position her as a “typical modern woman” with a career and a family to boot. In terms of pedagogy, Kennedy’s book reflects contemporary governmental discourse around health, food and wellbeing. It is designed “to shape with some degree of deliberation aspects of our behaviour according to particular sets of norms and for a variety of ends” (Dean 18). It reflects government fears around obesity, portion size, calorific content, and body shape. Pike and Leahy argue that food pedagogies provide government, and in this case the individual, with opportunities to shape, sculpt, mobilise, and work through the food choices, desires and aspirations, needs, wants, and lifestyles of parents, families, and children. The explicit intention of food pedagogies is to enlist the public into a process of “governmental self formation”: that is, “the ways in which various authorities and agencies seek to shape the conduct, aspirations, needs, desires and capacities of specified political and social categories, to enlist them in particular strategies and to seek definite goals” (Dean 563). Fabulous Food, Minus the Boombah then uses confession as a springboard to enlisting its readers into a healthier lifestyle and, more importantly, a healthier, risk aversive relationship with food. It individualises this struggle, and, like all good neo-liberal subjects, presents a healthy diet as an individual struggle: This way of cooking and eating works for me […] I feel much healthier and happier and I’ve got a lot more energy […] These recipes have to be better for you than chowing down a creepy bowl of 2 minute noodles and an entire pack of Tim Tams (yes, it’s time to let go). Be disciplined, even if you’ve struggled before. And if you really can’t live without your nightly routine of creamy pasta […] then bung this book back on the shelf. But stop whingeing about your huge arse (xix). This passage illustrates Kennedy’s pedagogy well, particularly the way in which her pedagogy is infused with neo-liberal discursive techniques. She positions herself as expert by stating that her way of cooking “works for me” as well as by deploying phrases like “I feel” and “I’ve got”. She then expertly shifts the reader’s focus from herself to the governance of the self by stating that it is up to the individual to be self-disciplined. Her pedagogy is littered with risk discourse as she informs us that you can continue to eat as you wish, but that there are consequences (a “huge arse”). This particular brand of risk discourse is gendered, as it is arguably mostly women who worry about the size of this part of their anatomy. One of the greatest contradictions of a neo-liberal approach to governance is that at the same time as promoting individual responsibility, there is also a strong emphasis on the collective. Kennedy reflects this throughout the book, as the above passage suggests. Her introductory section acts as a guide for the reader, who—once enfolded into Kennedy’s approach—she lets make their own way with encouragement. This is manifest in her final statements, “So let’s say goodbye to boombah. Go for it! And enjoy!” (xxvii). As pedagogy, then, Fabulous Food, Minus the Boombah attempts to cultivate and shape the reader’s choices around food by providing a practical means for transforming not only the reader’s food practices but also her image and self-esteem. This is achieved by the author’s supplement of supplying expert information, cooking skills, guidance, and incitement. Let’s Say Goodbye to Boombah? This paper has demonstrated how the contemporary cookbook can be read as pedagogy. In some ways the humble cookbook has always been pedagogical; seeking to teach the reader to make something that they previously did not, presumably, know how to, as well as providing cooking techniques and advice on the most suitable produce to use in particular recipes. However, in the contemporary moment, the cookbook arguably increasingly acts as a translation mechanism for governmental imperatives around food, health, and wellbeing. We have taken one cookbook amongst many as an illustration of our thesis. Jane Kennedy’s Fabulous Food Minus the Boombah is an Australian example of the neo-liberal project that lies at the heart of contemporary modes of governance of the population, but also, and more importantly, governance of the self. At the very heart of neo-liberalism is an imagined subject. That is, neo-liberalism needs and wants citizens to be autonomous, health seeking, enterprising, rational, choice-making individuals. The contemporary cookbook, it has been argued, can assist the individual in the production of a healthier-eating self. However, the more complex and intersecting aspects of selfhood—aspects such as socio-economic status, gender, location and ethnicity—are often absent from the construction of the healthy individual promoted by the contemporary cookbook. Above all, this paper has sought to problematise some of the dominant discourse around food, health, and wellbeing that can be found on the pages of the modern-day cookbook. References Brien, Donna Lee. “True Tales that Nurture: Defining Auto/Biographical Storytelling”. Australian Folklore 19 (2004): 84-95. Brien, Donna Lee, and Adele Wessel. “From ‘Training in Citizenship and Home-making’ to ‘Plating Pp’: Writing Australian Cookbooks for Younger Readers”. Ethical Imaginations: Writing Worlds: Refereed Papers of the 16th Annual Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference. Canberra: AAWP, 2011. Dean, Mitchell. “Governing the Unemployed Self in an Active Society”. Economy and Society 24 (1995): 559–83. Dean, Mitchell. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (2nd ed.). London: Sage, 2010. Ellsworth, Elizabeth. “Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Myths of Critical Pedagogy.” Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy. Ed. Luke, Carmen and Gore, Jennifer. New York: Routledge, 1992. 90–119. Foucault, Michel. “The Subject And Power.” Michel Foucault, Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Ed. Dreyfus, Hubert, and Paul Rabinow. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1982. 208–26. Gard, Michael, and Jan Wright. The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality and Ideology. London: Routledge, 2005. Gordon, Colin. “Governmental Rationality: An Introduction”. The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Eds. Burchell, Graham, Gordon, Colin, Foucault, Michel, and Miller, Peter. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. 1–52. Kennedy, Jane. Fabulous Food Minus the Boombah. Melbourne: Hardie Grant, 2009. Leahy, Deana. “Assembling a Health[y] Subject.” Unpublished PhD Thesis. Melbourne: Deakin University, 2012. Leahy, Deana. “Disgusting Pedagogies.” Biopolitics and the Obesity Epidemic. Eds. Wright, Jan, and Harwood, Valerie. Routledge: New York, 2009. 172–83. Lupton, Deborah. Fat. New York: Routledge, 2012. Miller, Peter, and Rose, Nicholas. Governing the Present. Cambridge: Polity, 2008. Pike, Jo. “Junk Food Mums: Class, Gender and the Battle of Rawmarsh.” Fat Studies and Health at Every Size. Conference: Durham U, 2010. Pike, Jo, and Leahy, Deana. “School Food and the Pedagogies of Parenting”. Australian Journal of Adult Learning 52.3 (2012): 434–59.Plummer, Ken. Telling Sexual Stories. London: Routledge, 1995. Rawlins, Emma. “Citizenship, Health Education and the Obesity Crisis”. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 7 (2006). 18 Apr. 2013. ‹http://www.acme-journal.org›. Rich, Emma. (2010b). “Obesity Assemblages and Surveillance in Schools” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 23 (2010): 803–21. Ricotti, Henry, and Connelly, Vincent. The Healthy Family Cookbook. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Vander Schee, Carol, and Michael Gard. “Editorial: Politics, Pedagogy and Practice in School Health Policy”. Policy Futures in Education 9 (2011): 307–14. Wright, Robin Redman, and Jennifer A. Sandlin. “You Are What You Eat!?: Television Cooking Shows, Consumption, and Lifestyle Practices as Adult Learning”. Honoring Our Past, Embracing Our Future: Proceedings of the 50th Annual Adult Education Research Conference. 2009: 402-407. 18 Apr. 2013. ‹http://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ace_aerc/1›. Zimmet, Paul Z., and James, Phillip W.T. “The Unstoppable Australian Obesity and Diabetes Juggernaut: What Should Politicians Do?”. Medical Journal of Australia 185 (2008): 187–8.