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Nursing Assistants: 7 Tips For Encouraging Lifelong Learning

There’s no doubt about it: lifelong learning is key to both professional and personal growth. But, your nursing assistants won’t “buy into” this belief if it’s just a meaningless mission statement, stuck in a frame and hung on the wall. Instead, it needs to be a way of life at your organization.

For example, when I started my company, I created an in-house library, filled with books relating to a variety of subjects-especially (but not limited to) health care. Every employee has two hours of “library time” each week. While they are encouraged to select reading material from the company library, they are free to read whatever they like. The only “rule” is: If you come across a great idea or are inspired by something you read, please share it with your coworkers.

What’s the result? My employees and I are always reading, reviewing and researching…on a constant quest to continue learning. Every day around our offices, you are likely to see a couple of excited employees huddled over a headline or hear someone say, “Wow…listen to what I just found out!” New ideas are valued and it makes for motivated employees who enjoy coming to work.

How are things at your workplace? Do your nursing assistants love to learn? If not, you may want to follow these 7 tips for creating a workplace atmosphere that encourages learning.

1. Instead of a “to do” list, keep a “to learn” list. Encourage your CNAs to jot down any learning needs they have. For example, do they want to know more about diabetes, pressure sores or time management? Put those topics on the list. Would they like to learn more about quality improvement, patient rights or ethical issues? They get added to the list, too.

2. Keep your eyes open! Suggest that your CNAs observe a coworker whom they admire. A lot can be learned by watching, especially when you observe people who are really good at what they do. Some of their excellent work habits may rub off!

3. Practice what you learn. Knowledge by itself is great…but it takes on real value when it is applied. Share with your CNAs how you put new knowledge to work for you on the job and suggest they try the same strategy.

4. Show others how it’s done. A great way to learn is by teaching others! Ask your aides to help train new employees. Or, each time you hold an inservice meeting, ask a different CNA to help lead the meeting.

5. Learn in groups. If your nursing assistants complete their inservices as self-study modules, suggest that they work together in groups of two or three. They can bounce ideas off each other and, as a result, learn more than they would “going solo.”

6. Think outside the box. If your CNAs stick to the exact same routine every day, they may go on “autopilot” and stop learning. Encourage them to switch things up a bit-as long as it doesn’t interfere with a client’s needs or rights.

7. Make learning a priority. The motivation to keep on learning has to come from within. Show your CNAs that lifelong learning is a daily habit for you and they may decide to make it a priority in their lives, too.

By following these tips, you’ll be on your way to developing a team of motivated employees. Your CNAs will be inspired to add to their knowledge base and expand their skills. At inservice time, their excitement over the topic at hand will be infectious. And, best of all, client care will improve as your aides put their new “know how” to use.

Linda H. Leekley BS, RN is the founder of In the Know, a company dedicated to the continuing education needs of nursing assistants. In the Know inservices help you develop a team of top-notch CNAs. Please visit In the Know’s website at http://www.knowingmore.com to download a FREE Inservice Topic.

6 Tips To Set The Right Pace For Your GMAT Test

Ensuring top GMAT performance is all about knowing when to be fast by adopting shortcuts and knowing when to slow down and be extra vigilant. Students often neglect the principles of smart time use, thus resulting in them either making careless mistakes or running out of time to finish the test. Pick up the following tips if you wish to learn about using your time smartly to achieve the best score you can for your GMAT test.

1) Check the clock at most once after every 10 questions

Although it’s important to be mindful of the time you have left, constantly checking the clock can lead to a high level of anxiety. This can result in you making careless mistakes because your attention, which should have gone to the calculations and careful reading of the questions, is occupied with the clock.

Instead, adopt a smart timing strategy. An ideal strategy is to only check the timer at most once after every 10 questions.

2) Skip difficult questions

There will no doubt be a couple of extremely hard questions in your GMAT. But don’t devote all of your time over these questions. Just deliberate each difficult question for 30 seconds before letting it go or giving it a logical guess. Knowing that you have sufficient time on your hands from letting these questions go will give you a psychological advantage that will improve your overall score.

3) Focus only on what the question requires

If you encounter a problem that seems to require a tedious amount of calculations, stop and check that you have read the question correctly. An effective GMAT time management strategy includes knowing when solving a problem is not going well. Remind yourself to focus only on what the question requires and the information you need to answer it. If you are still stuck after one minute, move on to the next question.

4) Don’t be deceived by seemingly easy questions

Although it’s encouraged that you speed through easy questions to gain time, you still have to be alert. It is so easy to answer a seemingly easy question wrongly because of some minor trick. It’s advisable that you take a few seconds to pause and confirm the answer by reworking the question. This will help greatly in avoiding careless mistakes.

5) Take advantage of note-taking with your pen and paper

Once you’ve read through the problem, it is encouraged that you note down the primary equation that you will be using and the gist of the problem. This will help you to focus on the requirements of the problem and to easily regroup if you made an error. This tip requires some practice before the test so you will learn just how much you need to write in order for this tip to be effective.

6) Analyse the answer choices given when solving the question

You don’t have to force yourself to peek at the answer choices given only after you’ve solve a problem. The fact is that for many problems, the best method of solving them involves an engagement between the answer choices and the problem itself. You can tell from the answer choices if they are too small or too big to be the correct answer. If the answer choices only consist of fractions, this will inform you something about the problem. If the answer choices are far apart, the problem may have something to do with approximation. So remind yourself that checking out the answer choices may be just what you need to solve the question efficiently.

Although these tips will help you greatly while sitting for GMAT, it is still important that you practise well beforehand to help you prepare for the test. A combination of good time management and doing a fair amount of GMAT practice papers will greatly improve your chance of getting a high test score.

Joel Lee is an independent test preparation consultant specialising in GMAT preparation. Apart from helping candidates to improve their scores through a customized GMAT course, he actively contributes to websites related to GMAT Test .

What is TEFL?

TEFL is in all simplicity, Teaching English as a First Language. What this means is that if you are a native English speaker, your first language is of course English and as such, your teachers were in fact TEFL. On the other hand in the event that you are learning English as a second language, it is then known as ESL or English as a Second Language.

Knowing the difference is important especially if you plan on working overseas teaching English. While in most cases this can be done without any real credentials other than being a native English speaker, some places do require that you need to have a bit more qualifications under your belt. In most cases these qualifications will fall under the need for obtaining certification in a particular field of teaching English.

In contrast to teaching English as a second language, if you plan on teaching it as a first language even in a country where English would still technically be a second language, the approach and structured curriculum between the two is very different.

Taking a course is a simple process and when you are good in English, you may be able to make your way through this course with ease. Once you have fully completed the course and of course passed it as well, you will receive your TEFL certification which is good all over the world. This will allow you to obtain a job teaching English virtually anywhere in the world.

Having a TEFL certification is important because while you can still get a job without them, you can make substantially more income by having this certification as well as the many others that are available to English teachers who would like to teach English overseas.

Living life to the fullest is important and the adventures that await you out there teaching English to those who truly want to learn are many. Live a bit on the adventurous side and get your TEFL certification so that you can live in another country and still have a means of income irregardless of age or gender. The demand for certified native English speaking teachers is growing at an exponential rate and all that you need to do to help fill this fast growing demand is to become certified and then take the step to live over seas and teach English.

With years of experience in ESL (both teaching in schools and recruiting staff), our staff have a combined experience of over 14 years teaching English as a Second Language. Having taught all over the world including countries such as Kuwait, China, South Korea, Japan, England and Germany, we are very knowledgeable in the ESL field.

We started this site in 2002, trying to provide a resource where teachers could post their job offers, and native English teachers could post their resumes. We hoped to make a clear and easily read website that would succeed in bringing together teacher and jobs together in the ESL industry.

Our website has continued to grow year after year, and we are proud to have one of the leading ESL job boards on the internet. Find your dream English teaching job, or find the perfect teacher to fill your vacant teacher position. All for free, on ESLJobs .biz.

ESLJobs.biz is one of the leading ESL job site, featuring jobs posted by English schools around the world. If you are looking for teaching ESL jobs or looking for English teachers, go to esljobs.biz

Use Games to Learn English

It has been considered for quite some time that nothing can even remotely compete with games when it comes to teaching someone English. This concept has been proven time and time again and as such, when you are wanting to teach some one English, getting them involved in a fun and interesting game is the only real way irregardless of their age.

Unlike conventional force taught English, using games to teach someone English has been shown to improve their retention rate, so much in fact that the average retention rate of an English student learning through the coarse of playing a game is 80%. The numbers do not lie and when it comes to teaching English, the best always make the most money especially when it comes to teaching ESL overseas.

While there are many great methods out there and each and every single one has its own pros and cons associated with it, one cannot still overlook the simple fact that using games in order to teach someone English is by far the most productive method.

If you plan on teaching ESL using games, it is important that all of your lessons be incorporated in some way into a game. If you are only doing part of your lessons in the fashion of games, be prepared for the fact that the retention levels on days which no games were played will be far lower than that of which was taught using a game.

Games can be simple or they can be complex by regardless of their complexity it is absolutely imperative that the games are 100%b fun for the student. Making sure a game is fun also means that the student’s attention will be on the game completely and therefore you will be able to maximize their English retention potential.

It is also important to keep in mind that while some games may be perfect for younger students, older students may not become as interested in them. In the event that you are teaching multiple age levels, you will need to figure out away to keep the games separated as well as fair for all of those that play. If you can, make every attempt to maintain a particular age group for the classes and try not to let multiple age groups in the same class time.

When it is all said and done, your students will show a higher level of English proficiency than anyone could ever hope for. Keep working at it and you will find yourself having fun at teaching these English learning games to your students in no time.

ESL Playground - eslplayground.com - is one of the leading websites dedicated solely on ESL English Learning Games. Visit us now at http://eslplayground.com. ESL Games allow teachers to submit to our growing database of ESL Games. ESL Games are a great way to liven up a classroom, and also a great way to help learners of English better learn the language by immersing them in it.

ESL Playground - eslplayground.com - is one of the leading websites dedicated solely on ESL English Learning Games. Visit us now at ESL Games

ESL Games - Self Study

In today’s day and age, learning a new language like English has never been easier thanks to the many advancements in science and technology. Today one can quite easily learn English through self-study and do so at their own pace. There is even a plethora of choice from which one can learn English through and all that they really need to do is a little bit of research to find out what works best for them.

For starters, one who wants to be a self-study English student can simply make their way to the local book store where they can then browse through a large selection of various books and learning tools that can come in printed form, audio form as well as video and even software forms.

From there we have the option of correspondence classes as well as a large selection of websites which are specifically tailored to the self-study English student. When using these various websites you go by the minute and pay through a variety of option in which PayPal is the most obvious one as well as the most readily available.

You may be able to find yourself a penpal online who you can text to, or even make use of an instant messaging video chat service so you can actually talk to your penpal. Learning English through self-study is by far the most affordable choice for anyone and seeing as though you can set your own pace through this manner, you are able to learn what parts of the English that you are most lacking in without having to pay to learn the entire thing. This is especially good if you have previously taken English courses through school or the like.

One of the major drawbacks with going the self-study route is of course the fact that in general you will not be able to practice your pronunciation which is key to speaking in English proficiently. However this is an easy to overcome obstacle if you take the time to work on it because you can always learn to pronounce the words later as long as you already know what they mean. This can allow you to still carry on a conversation in English with another and of course most importantly is that once you have the basics dow3n, you need to immerse yourself in English by simply going to a place where English is the spoken language.

ESL Games are especially effective with younger age levels who will not even know they are learning. Also with older and adult students, games are helpful for breaking the ice and bringing the quieter student out.

ESL Playground - eslplayground.com - is one of the leading websites dedicated solely on ESL English Learning Games. Visit us now at http://eslplayground.com. ESL Games allow teachers to submit to our growing database of ESL Games. ESL Games are a great way to liven up a classroom, and also a great way to help learners of English better learn the language by immersing them in it.

ESL Playground - eslplayground.com - is one of the leading websites dedicated solely on ESL English Learning Games. Visit us now at ESL Games

Accounting Degrees Online: Is Financial Aid Available?

Earning an accounting degree online has the capability of being costly. A straightforward degree is able to start at $25,000 and this may not include the fees of books or various other materials. A number of individuals consider that obtaining an accounting degree online is less expensive than at a traditional institution, however occasionally it can be the opposite.

Online lessons involve substantial labor from the professors at the time it comes to uploading materials, observing submission portals, response to questions individually, and others. A key advantage to obtaining an accounting degree online is the schedule flexibility to create your own. Another advantage is that it permits you to attend school while participating to other various duties of life. In what ways can a student pay for an accounting degree online if it is at least if not more expensive than attending a conventional college?

Fortunately, a variety of ways exist for people to be able to obtain student loans and financial aid for online accounting degrees. A few options are explained:

STANDARD BANKING INSTITUTIONS

The majority of banks manage student loans and you should be able to fill out an application for this type of loan from your current bank. As a prior patron, they will have your personal information obtainable and will have a record of you, so attaining a loan has the capacity of being easier than attempting to receive a loan at an unfamiliar institution. In addition, there are some financial institutions like Sallie Mae which exclusively focus on student loans. Their website contains the necessary information to walk you through the complete process of applying for any type of student loans including for accounting degrees online. Alternate financial institutions, while not the main concentration of their business, tender student loans also. Such a business can be found in the Discover Company known for their personal credit cards, Discover, in reality, tenders a low interest student loan program and will permit you additionally to apply online.

FAFSA

FAFSA stands for the Free Application for Federal Student aid, this program is accessible online. The site allows for an easy access to complete an online application to for federal student aid. A typical guideline to determine eligibility is that if you are a legal US citizen and you are not presently in default on any student loans, you most likely will be eligible for some amount of federal funds to utilize for your studies. The online FAQ section on their site will assist you to a better understanding of the process of applying for federal funds to utilize in gaining your accounting degree online. Many programs are available which you could be eligible for, and some have no requirement to repay the funds. This type of funding is called a grant.

The Advantages of Grants

In reality, a grant is an amount of money provided to an individual or even an organization which will not need to be paid back. The applicant must meet specific, set conditions, which are required in order to be given the money. In regards to student loans, grants may be offered to an individual student who has a lower income, yet has shown the ability to do well in their schoolwork. These individuals typically have a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher. More information on grants is accessible on the FAFSA website listed above. The Pell grant is one of the more popular grants available.

Provided you have made the decision to pursue your accounting degree online, there are many financial paths existing to offer student aid. Consider each prospect fully and choose that which is best for you. Paying back a student loan can be expensive and take a long time. Search for a program which will match your future earning potential and work with an organization which offers and provides good customer service. They ought to assist you throughout the application process and beyond as you will be dealing with this company for years.

If you?re interested in learning more about an online college degree please feel free to visit our website at http://www.youronlinedegreecenter.com today.

Too Much To Read, Not Enough Time? Here’s Your Solution

You can pretty much discard everything you’ve ever heard about speed reading techniques. That goes double for speed reading courses and speed reading software too. Have you ever wanted to learn how to speed read? If you have then you probably already know that speed reading courses just don’t work.

From personal experience, speed reading courses are expensive, time consuming and are flat out just really confusing. The average person can spend upwards of two hundred dollars on the latest and greatest speed reading course. They can spend sometimes months studying and practicing the speed reading tips and techniques these courses teach and in the end, their reading speed has not improved one bit.

And remember, the most important aspect of learning to read more quickly is to do so without sacrificing reading comprehension. After all, what good is learning how to speed read if, by the end of a page, you can’t remember what you’ve just read?

Furthermore, and most importantly, people today lead busy lives. Who has the time to spend endless hours studying and practicing speed reading strategies? There’s got to be a better way. There has to be a painless and efficient way to absorb more reading material in a shorter amount of time.

One strategy for boosting reading speed is to read backwards. Instead of only reading lines of text from left to right, read every other line from right to left. Yeah, sure, like that would ever work. How in the world is somebody supposed to read backwards and understand what they’re reading? It’s impossible. Or is it?

What if it were possible to read every other line of text backwards and actually understand it? Can you imagine how much faster you’d be able to read if your eye were able to read down a page in a zigzag pattern?

Great news, it can now be done.

A recently introduced publishing model enables you to scan down a page in zigzag pattern. This publishing model formats the text in such a way that every line you read backwards makes just as much sense as the lines you read forwards.

The result of reading a book formatted using this publishing model is an instant boost in reading speed with no loss of reading comprehension. And you will find this method of reading is especially useful when reading on a computer screen.

Let’s face it; eBooks are rapidly becoming the majority way in which we consume reading material. With the click of a mouse we can bring millions of books onto our computer screen. The downside is, reading on a computer screen is a much different experience than reading a printed book. Sitting in front of a computer reading an eBook is a far more “business oriented” task.

Reading an eBook in a zigzag pattern will not only, at minimum, double your reading speed but it also makes on screen reading a far more pleasurable experience.

The internet today delivers to us an incomprehensible amount of reading material. On the flip side our busy lives leave us less and less time to actually read. Thanks to this modern publishing innovation, a book that would normally take you 60 minutes to read can now be read in half that time.

To discover this publishing innovation for yourself, you can download a copy of A Plum In The Syrup absolutely free. It?s been completely formatted to enable zigzag reading. See for yourself how quickly and easily you?ll be able to learn how to speed read. The days of expensive course materials and confusing speed reading tips, techniques and tricks are officially over.

Illinois Insurance Continuing Education Courses

Insurance is essential to cope with unexpected risks and misfortunes in life. There are very few resources to get monetary aids when in times of desperate need. Getting your life & health insured is beneficial not only for you but also safeguards your family when in need. This is just one of the kinds of sales pitch you may use to convince people to take up an insurance policy. However the above statements can be communicated by anyone who has no proper knowledge about the insurance cover, premiums, policies, regulations and laws that go with it and may only end up giving incorrect information if probed deeper into this subject. This is when Insurance professionals come into the foreground as they deal with every nuance of insurance and are extremely well equipped with the versatile insurance products available in the market today.

The main objective of Illinois Insurance continuing education is to deliver exceptional skill and knowledge through online to all insurance professionals, agents, brokers as well as underwriters so that they may be competent to sell these products. Nowadays Illinois Insurance continuing education course is offered online where in the basic requirements are that you avail minimum of 30 hours of continuing education every 2 years. The Illinois Insurance Continuing Education also requires that you take up at least one mandatory insurance course which is for duration of 6 hours if you deal with long term care insurance in this state. However, this insurance CE requires that you complete your chosen optional courses as well as the mandatory one before the due date for your license renewal arrives. Different states in the United States have different rules and regulations governing insurance continuing education requirements and courses.

In Illinois, you are not allowed to take up the same course which you have done earlier in a span of three year period to ensure that you don’t get stuck dealing with just one core insurance product with nil or lack of adequate knowledge on the others. Illinois Insurance continuing education ensures that you emerge as a successful insurance professional with holistic perspective and knowledge on all the insurance products that are being offered in the industry. If you are initially dealing with Life Insurance, then it is recommended that you also learn to sell health and property insurance policies so that you can challenge yourself to perform better in all spheres, thereby increasing your avenues to generate maximum sales.

Therefore, insurance CE courses motivate and inspire you to handle different products to test your mettle and you may be surprised with yourself. There are hundreds of multinational insurance companies which are looking for competent and multi talented insurance sales force who are knowledgeable as well as skillful in selling the different products to various target segments be it corporate, individuals, business concerns or communities. Last but not the least, the Illinois insurance continuing education offers independent as well as classroom study courses and you can chose the medium that fits your budget best.

Illinois Insurance Continuing Education, Insurance Continuing Education, Insurance Continuing Education Online

Modifier-22, Medical Coding

Increased procedural service) when the service(s) the physician provides is “substantially greater than typically required.

its primary purpose is to denote circumstances for which a procedure or service required an “unusual” amount of time or effort to perform.

This modifier indicates that a procedure was complicated, complex, difficult, or took significantly more time than usually required by the provider to complete the procedure.

its use implies that the procedure or service was distinctly more time-consuming or difficult to perform.

More complicated or took significantly, more time than usual to complete.

Send a special report to the insurance carrier that describes the unusual nature of the service and justifies the additional charge.

Modifier 22 should be used to report only procedures that have a 0, 10, or 90 day global period that required a level of work far more extensive than usually necessary for the listed procedure.

Even when justified, it may be difficult at best to obtain higher than normal reimbursement from the majority of payers.

Modifier-22 is commonly used if

• Surgeries for which services performed are significantly greater than usually required may be billed with modifier 22.

Anatomical Variants

Don’t assign the Modifer-22

If there is no supportive documentation

When there is a existing code available, don’t used moidifer-22

Don’t append modifier 22 to secondary procedure codes.

Don’t use modifier 22 for re-operations

Don’t substitute an unlisted-procedure code for modifier 22 to avoid carrier denials.

This modifier cannot be submitted with Evaluation and Management (E/M) procedures

This modifier can be used in the following sections of the CPT? code set:

• Anesthesia

• Surgery

• Radiology

• Laboratory and Pathology

• Medicine

Common use Modifier-22

1. Trauma that significantly complicates the particular procedure and cannot be reported with any other procedure

2. Significant scarring that requires extra time and work

3. Morbid obesity making extra work for the physician

4. Increased time resulting from the extra work by the physician

5. Excessive blood loss for the particular procedure

6. Pathologies, tumors, malformation (genetic, traumatic, surgical) that directly interfere with the procedure But are not billed separately

7. Services rendered that are significantly more complex than described by the CPT code in question.

8. Conversion of a procedure from laparoscopic to open, and significant scarring or adhesions.

Example:

The physician performs a colonoscopy on a patient with a tortuous colon. The gastroenterologist spends 110 minutes navigating the scope through the twists and turns of the patient’s lower intestine.

Use Modifier-22 as physician spent extra time.

Documentation:

1) Time: Document additional time

2) Blood loss: Document the quantity of blood lost during the procedure, and compare with usual blood loss during procedure.

3) Use of special equipments

4) Technique used, changing the procedure etc.

Example:

1) During a colonoscopy the gastroenterologist removes nearly 20 polyps from various regions of the colon using hot biopsy forceps technique, physician spends 2 hours for the procedure.

Code 45384-22: Colonoscopy, flexible, proximal to splenic flexure; with removal of tumor[s], polyp[s], or other lesion[s] by hot-biopsy forceps/bipolar cautery).

Even when the CPT code describes Polyps (Plural), the physician work exceeded the usually procedure, so append Modifier-22.

Example 2:

The surgeon performs a laparoscopic cholecystectomy with exploration of common bile duct, during procedure, the surgeon encountered multiple adhesions.

The surgeon spends two hours to remove the adhesions.

Code: 47564-22

Modifier-22 is reported as surgeon effort is additional to complete the surgery.

Dr Santosh Kumar Gupta, Triple Certifed Medical Coder and Biller. Trainer: http://www.medicalcodingexperts.com

Defining Sustainability

The need for sustainability in urban regeneration has come to be widely accepted, sustainability is seen to be of central importance in government policy, urban regeneration projects tie themselves in knots to show that they are achieving sustainable development. However, for such a dominant concept there seems to be very little agreement about what sustainability actually is. Campbell writes that “In the battle of big public ideas, sustainability has won: the task of the coming years is simply to work out the details” (1996).

Mebratu (1998) writes that the definition of sustainable development given by the Brundtland Commission (that sustainable development “meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (WCED 1987 pp.23)) based on need satisfaction provides the basis for the establishment’s thinking on sustainability. The Brundtland Report adopted the stance that continuing economic growth and environmental protection are compatible and the only viable possibility (Leist and Holland, 2000). The UK government adopts this sustainable development focused, anthropocentric approach to urban regeneration. They believe that sustainable development must “ensure a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come” (DETR, 1999). They have set four objectives aiming to ensure sustainable development. However, the three environmental objectives are vague whilst the fourth is more directive in committing to the maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth. This suggests that the UK government has adopted a ‘weak’ or ‘light-green’ interpretation of sustainability allowing the long-term viability of economic growth to be balanced against the environmental objectives.

However, there are perspectives in the conservation strand of thought that would not be characterised as seeing sustainability as compatible with long term viability of current economically focused interpretations of urban regeneration. Eco-socialism argues that the economic crisis we are facing is the result of a crisis in capitalism. O’Connor’s (1998) second contradiction of capitalism suggests that sustainable development under capitalism is an oxymoron as development success measured in GDP terms leads to negative environmental effects such as pollution, congestion, and stress on water reserves, Shiva observes that “Nature shrinks as capital grows” (1992 pp.189). While eco-socialism is anthropocentric and humanist and rejects the preservationist’s mystification of nature they could not be characterised as advocating the long term viability of the status-quo. They argue that humans are not a pollutant, they are not destructive by nature but the prevailing economic system causes them to behave that way. The answer is to reconnect with nature by re-appropriating collective control over our relationship with nature through common ownership of the means of production (Pepper 1993).

The lack of direction at national level over what is meant by sustainability and which policies could be considered sustainable mean that definitions and the strategies for implementing ’sustainable’ urban regeneration have tended to reflect the political and philosophical position of those posing the definition and enacting the regeneration. Robinson, however, writes that this may be a strength, that a constructive ambiguity can lead definitions to emerge from attempts to implement sustainable policies rather than defining it from the beginning. For example, Mendes (2005) studied how food policy is used to promote social sustainability in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver adopted a food policy for the poor in December 2003. However, there were concerns about the appropriateness of such a policy in a city committed to competitiveness and perhaps unable to assign resources to an activity not seen as part of mainstream urban governance. The city had suffered a downgrade in its credit rating, and there were concerns about what kind of message was being sent out to investors. The reason that food policy was ultimately accepted as a municipal function in Vancouver was because it was aligned with pre-existing policy directions and organizational expertise in sustainable development rather than as a tool to address social justice concerns like hunger and food insecurity. In this sense the vagueness may mean that sustainability can come to be a bland metaphor for long term viability but can also lead to the implementation of more radical policies.

Krueger and Agyeman (2005) look beyond the “platitudes” relating to sustainability in American national politics during the George W. Bush era to show that while “at the national scale hope for sustainability seems bleak… at the local level the sustainability agenda, at least cleavages of it, may be more vigorous” (pp.410-411). They use the term ‘actually existing sustainabilities’ (AESs) echoing Altvater’s (1993) concept of ‘actually existing socialisms’ which recognised socialisms that actually existed in the post war period rather than the myths created by readings of Marx or from Western propaganda. Krueger and Agyeman take this idea and apply it to the concept of AESs to force us to frame sustainability in relation to actual practices rather than broad initiatives or agendas with the intention of identifying actual practices and policy arenas that define sustainability. Krueger and Agyeman seek to look beyond constructions of sustainability, such as the search for self reliant cities or externally dependent cities, building on the insights that various approaches provide so that they can “see” sustainability in practice, the policies enacted on the ground that contribute to sustainability. They argue that sustainability will not be the result of a paradigm shift, but a continuation and extension of existing policy that when combined with social and environmental policies may produce sustainable outcomes.

References and Suggested Reading

Altvater, E. (1993) The Future of the Market: An Essay on the Regulation of Money and Nature. Verso, London.

DETR (1999) A Better Quality of Life- Strategy for Sustainable Development for the UK, London, HMSO.

Krueger, R. and Agyeman, J. (2005) Sustainability schizophrenia or “actually existing sustainabilities?” toward a broader understanding of the politics and promise of local sustainability in the US, Geoforum, 36, pp.410-417

Leist, A. and Holland, A. (2000) Conceptualising Sustainability, Policy Research Brief Number 5

Mebratu, D. (1998) Sustainability and sustainable development: historical and conceptual review. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 18, pp.493-520

O’Connor, J. (1998) Natural Causes: Essays in ecological Marxism. New York, Guilford Press.

Robinson, J. (2004) Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development, Ecological Economics, 48, pp.369-384

Shiva, V. (1992) Recovering the real meaning of sustainability in Cooper, D. and Palmer, J. (eds.) The Environment in Question, London, Routledge

World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Owen Stevens is project manager at Skyblu, one of the leading web design companies in Worcester and the Midlands.

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