Using residents' worries about technology as a way of resolving environmental remediation dilemmas.

The choice of technologies used to remediate contaminated environments are increasingly made via engagement with affected local residents. Despite this, little is known about how residents perceive remediation technology applications. Building on the findings of broader technology worry research, and drawing on data from a telephone survey of 2009 residents living near thirteen contaminated sites in Australia, regression analysis of closed-ended survey questions and coding analysis of open-ended survey questions are combined to identify the main predictors of worries concerning particular remediation technologies, and how worry affects them. This suggests respondents are more worried about the application of chemical remediation technologies than the application of physical and thermal technologies, which in turn caused more worry than the application of biotechnology. The paper suggests that these worries can be reduced via direct engagement with residents about remediation technologies, suggesting that such engagement can provide knowledge that improves remediation technology decisions.

Respectability, morality and disgust in the night-time economy: exploring reactions to 'lap dance' clubs in England and Wales.

The night-time economy is often described as repelling consumers fearful of the 'undesirable Others' imagined dominant within such time-spaces. In this paper we explore this by describing attitudes towards, and reactions to, one particularly contentious site: the 'lap dance' club. Often targeted by campaigners in England and Wales as a source of criminality and anti-sociality, in this paper we shift the focus from fear to disgust, and argue that Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) are opposed on the basis of moral judgments that reflect distinctions of both class and gender. Drawing on documentary analysis, survey results and interview data collected during guided walks, we detail the concerns voiced by those anxious about the presence of lap dance or striptease clubs in their town or city, particularly the notion that they 'lower the tone' of particular streets or neighbourhoods. Our conclusion is that the opposition expressed to lap dance clubs is part of an attempt to police the boundaries of respectable masculinities and femininities, marginalizing the producers and consumers of sexual entertainment through 'speech acts' which identify such entertainment as unruly, vulgar and uncivilized. These findings are considered in the light of ongoing debates concerning the relations of morality, respectability and disgust.

Therapy by design: evaluating the UK hospital building program.

A renewed interest in hospital design in the UK, prompted by the Private Finance Initiative, provides an opportunity to consider hospitals as 'therapeutic environments'. Noting that the therapeutic value of hospitals is related to their physical, social and symbolic design, this paper argues that 'expert' knowledges have encouraged the development of hospitals that all-too-rarely provide benign settings for promoting patient recovery and healing. The recent programme of hospital building in the UK, however, has been accompanied by a vigorous debate over what constitutes good hospital design, with four significant ideas emerging: hospitals should be clinically efficient, be integrated within the community, be accessible to consumers and the public, and encourage patient and staff well-being. Suggesting that all four goals demand careful consideration of the real and imagined spatiality of hospital environments, the paper concludes by suggesting ways that health geographers can contribute to debates surrounding PFI hospital design.

Sex worker victimization, modes of working, and location in New South Wales, Australia: a geography of victimization.

This article examines the association among victimization, modes of sex working, and the locations used by sex workers through an analysis of "Ugly Mug" reports detailing 528 crime acts in 333 reported incidents in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. These forms, voluntarily lodged between 2000 and 2008 by members of NSW's estimated 10,000 sex worker population, suggest that street-based work has a higher victimization rate than other modes of working, including escort work, work in commercial premises, and private work. Although this ostensibly supports the commonly held view that "outdoor" working is more dangerous than "indoor" work, this analysis suggests that most instances of victimization actually occur in private spaces. Hence, it is argued that risks of victimization in sex work are influenced by a variety of environmental characteristics relating to concealment, control, and isolation, suggesting that not all off-street locations are equally safe. We conclude with recommendations for policy regarding sex work.