University of Bristol • Research Review • Issue 21 • Autumn 2009

re:search

Building a better life

Money, money, money

The children’s doctor

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The University’s Department ofExercise, Nutrition and Health

Sciences (ENHS) was established in1999in response to increasing interest in thelinks between physical activity andhealth, and since then it has expandedinto the closely related field of nutrition.It is quite unlike traditional exercise andsports science departments that workprimarily with athletes, researching thephysiology and biomechanics ofperformance. The ENHS team workswith ordinary people, investigating howphysical activity and healthy eating canprevent disease. Members of the teamalso collaborate with specialists incardiovascular science, cancer andpsychiatry to develop therapeutics forboth preventing and combating disease.

A recent study (OPAL) led by Fox lookedat the lifestyles, living conditions andbehaviour of people aged 70 to 96.Healthy living can help preventcardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2diabetes and some cancers, and there isalso increasing evidence that stayingphysically active can prevent or delaycognitive decline, dementia, Alzheimer’sdisease and depression. Using theinformation gained about the patterns ofactivity in older people, OPAL has led tothe funding of the Avon Network forPhysical Activity Promotion for OlderPeople, which brings together NHSservices, local councils and planners,and academics in Bristol and Bath todeliver ‘best bet’ solutions for physicalactivity interventions.

A similar project in children, led by Dr Russ Jago, focuses on understandingthe physical activity patterns of 10- and11-year-olds. This study examines theway parents encourage children to bephysically active; the extent to whichphysical activity is undertaken as afamily; and the types of non-family-based physical activities the children

commonly participate in. For althoughmuch emphasis has been placed onencouraging children to take part inmore formal sporting activities, in factmost children’s activity takes place withtheir friends outside of school hours.Accelerometers were used as anobjective measure of children’s andparent’s physical activity over a five-dayperiod. Project PEACH, led by Dr AshleyCooper, also uses accelerometry, buthere combined with GPS technology, tostudy neighbourhood influences onchildren’s physical activity. Alongsidethese studies, a project led by ProfessorJanice Thompson, the current Head ofENHS, focuses on migration, nutritionand ageing amongst older Bangladeshiwomen and their adult daughters.

Results from these studies will feeddirectly into the Government’s obesityand physical activity strategies and theENHS team are looking forward toconducting further research that not onlyinforms policy and practice but alsoimproves people’s quality of life throughthe promotion of healthy eating andregular physical activity. �

www.bristol.ac.uk/enhs

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pre:view01 Improving the quality of life

Keeping us fit with science.

02 Building a better lifeThe full impact of landslides is often underestimated.

04 The science of farm animalsAt the crux of most people’sconcerns about animal welfare liesthe question ‘Is the animal happy?’

06 Money, money, money Advising the Government about our money problems.

08 The children’s doctorDeveloping vaccines for a safer life.

10 Enduring mythsThe remarkable results of 40 years ofinternational, collaborative research.

12 The Three Planet ModelA quarter of the work that the police have to deal with isconcerned with domestic violence.

14 When scholarship meets politicsWhat kind of Iraqi state is emergingout of the occupation?

16 Poverty and social exclusionThe Bristol Social Exclusion Matrixprovides the framework for theCabinet Office’s approach to socialexclusion.

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Improving the quality of life

Making an impact

We are currently hearing a lot about the need to measure and report the‘impact’ of research, particularly in terms of social, economic and policy

outcomes and the contribution these make to the UK’s long-term prosperity and thewell-being of society. Government wants to see examples of tangible returns for thebillions of pounds invested in research; research councils are incorporating ‘impactplans’ into the grant application process; and impact will be assessed in the newResearch Excellence Framework (REF) that will replace the Research AssessmentExercise (RAE).

Impact is far wider than the commercialisation of research by an industry partner,the creation of a spinout company or the licensing of intellectual property. Nor is it just about new technology and services or having a strong track record intranslating medical breakthroughs from the laboratory into the clinic. What it isabout is the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society andthe economy. It embraces all the extremely diverse ways in which research-relatedknowledge and skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations. Examples mightinclude fostering global economic performance – and specifically the economiccompetitiveness of the UK; increasing the effectiveness of public services andpolicy; enhancing quality of life, health and creative output; or engaging with thepublic through a magazine such as this. Impacts from research can take manyforms, become manifest at different stages in the research life-cycle and bepromoted in many different ways.

Researchers at this university are increasingly having a major influence on publicpolicy and many have key roles in enhancing the quality of life, health and well-being of individuals. We are proud of the fact that the University of Bristol is aresearch-intensive university that is truly world-class, and that the work producedhere is having a tangible and demonstrable impact. The articles in this issue showjust a few examples of how the University has had impact in these areas, at aninternational and national level, as well as regionally and city-wide.

Neil BradshawDirector of Enterprise

re:search editorial

Professor Ken Fox was the first head of the Department ofExercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, and throughout hiscareer he has been dedicated to promoting exercise andpublic health. He served as a special advisor to the HealthSelect Committee Inquiry on Obesity, was a member of theForesight report team on obesity and is currently a memberof the scientific advisory team for the Government’s obesitystrategy. He is also a Scientific Governor and Trustee of theBritish Nutrition Foundation.

In most cases, the accurate reporting of landslides is hinderedby the relatively small scale on which they occur, but it is

possible that these high-frequency, small and medium-sizeddisasters have as great an impact on the poor as larger disastersdo. In developing countries these losses are greatest in the cities,where migration and urbanisation link poverty with vulnerabilityto landslides. Often only the steep slopes are available to thepoor, who live there in densely populated, informal settlements.For these nations, the impact of landslide disasters can lead tothe stagnation of economic growth or even recession.

About five years ago, Anderson realised that the research hehad been doing on the stability of slopes could be applied in theCaribbean where the formation of deep soils on steep slopes,coupled with high-intensity and high-duration rainfall events,

rendered this humid, tropical region particularly vulnerable.Furthermore, some climate change predictions suggested anincrease in the number and intensity of extreme rainfall events in these regions. But one of the big problems Anderson facedwas convincing people to spend money before the disasterhappened, since demands for funds to mitigate health risks andother more obvious concerns always seemed to take priority. Itwas clear they needed to build up a chronology of evidence thatwould demonstrate the value of such work, so Anderson and

Holcombe established a major landslide risk reductionprogramme, MoSSaiC (Management for Slope Stability inCommunities), which has since gained recognition within theeastern Caribbean and beyond.

Globally, more and more people are moving to urban areaswhere shanty developments are unregulated and unplanned.Typically, in the eastern Caribbean, more than 60% of thehousing is of this nature. As a consequence, the susceptibility of slopes to landslides is increased by development activitiesthat change slope geometry, strength, loading, vegetation cover, surface-water and groundwater regimes. So the risk of landslides is increasing simply because the population isincreasing and the problem is growing at a faster rate than it is being solved.

Once Anderson and Holcombe identify an area that isparticularly at risk, the first thing they do is to involve the localcommunity. They hold meetings with residents who help themdraw up detailed maps identifying past landslides, drainageissues and localised indicators of instability. Somewhatsurprisingly, even in these unplanned developments, watercompanies often supply water to individual properties, butprovide no drainage to take waste water away. So the skill is inmanaging the flow of water on the hill slopes to ensure that as

little as possible goes into the soil, thereby improving thestability of the slope. Using the landslide risk prediction softwarethey have developed, they can model an individual scenario –the density of housing on the slope, the angle of the slope, thetype of soil and the amount of water moving through it. Thesoftware then predicts whether removing water from the soil willmake the development safer or not. It is important not to raisepeople’s expectations unrealistically, as occasionally they findareas that cannot be improved.

Once the problems have been identified, the work is tenderedinto the community, the idea being that individuals developsome business acumen which they can then use elsewhere. Theteam also runs training courses in using the software and in theskills needed for putting in drainage and stabilising the slopes.These participants then become ambassadors for the scheme.

As one of them recently told Anderson: “The thing you mustunderstand here is that if you’re lucky you might get just onechance in your lifetime of moving out and doing something withyour life. I’ve learned how to build drains and why to do stuffand that’s given me a chance.”

“But,” says Anderson, “it’s not always straightforward. Not onlydo you have to get the science right, you have to get theengagement with the people right as well. When people havebeen umemployed for several years they’re very keen to getpaid and tend to rush the job, so it’s vital to explain that thework must be done slowly and properly, rather than risk havingthe whole thing fall down again.” Utilising the local community inthis way not only gives individuals new skills, but also meansthat about 80% of the funding Anderson obtains is actuallyspent in the community, in the form of labour costs andconstruction materials for the drainage infrastructure. This isrecognised in the region and beyond to be truly cost-effective. A further unintended benefit that has recently come to light isthat putting drainage into an area also removes stagnant water;

consequently, the incidence of dengue fever and other diseasesthat flourish in such conditions declines and people’s healthstarts improving.

The approach has fundamentally changed communities’perspectives: the landslide risks they face can be reduced andpeople can sleep again at night – a problem many have duringperiods of heavy rain. It is clear that ‘end-to-end’ communityengagement encourages participation in the planning, executionand maintenance of the landslide risk reduction measures. Theresult is that the intervention is ‘owned’ by the community.

Having proved the concept, the next step is to provide remoteaccess to Anderson and Holcombe’s landslide risk predictionsoftware. To this end, physicists at Bristol have suggested acollaboration, using their expertise on software development

already applied to the Large Hadron Collider project. Thistechnology transfer would build sophisticated grid-computingcapacity for MoSSaiC and tailor internet access to the softwareand data management system for all levels of aptitude, fromcomplete beginners to technical engineers. The prototype wassuccessfully trialled in the Caribbean earlier this year, returninglandslide predictions within minutes. The team has now appliedfor funding to develop it fully.

Last year, as affirmation of their success in this arena, Andersonand Holcombe were asked by the World Bank to join its team inWashington that looks at disaster risk reduction. But this won’tmean that they will now spend all their time formulating policiesthat take years to be implemented. On the contrary, they areboth determined to continue making a real difference on theground by applying the combined outcomes of their technicaland policy research. �

www.mossaic.orgwww.ggy.bris.ac.uk

The full impact of landslides is often underestimated because thelosses they cause are not easily identified within larger-scaledisasters such as hurricanes and tropical storms. Professor MalcolmAnderson and his colleague Dr Liz Holcombe, both in the School ofGeographical Sciences, have been working in the Caribbean forseveral years, researching and mitigating the risk of landslides in the poverty-stricken townships.

Building a better life

32 re:search • Autumn 2009re:search • Autumn 2009

Globally, more and more people are moving to urban areas where shanty developments are unregulated and unplanned

Malcolm Anderson (left) and Liz Holcombe (right) discuss ideas with local residents.

Landslip beneath a house in the Caribbean. Local residents putting in a drainage system.

About 80 per cent of the funding Anderson obtains is spent in the community

Cherry: How do you assess an animal’semotional state?

Mike: It’s very challenging, but one newapproach that we’re developing is to trainthem that one cue, for example a tone ofa specific pitch, predicts something nicesuch as food, and another cue, a differenttone, predicts something less nice suchas no food, or a noise. We then ask them– by presenting intermediate tones –‘What do these ambiguous cues predict?’We predict that animals in a positiveemotional state, like happy humans, willtend to judge an ambiguous event asbeing positive – their proverbial glass ishalf full – and animals in a negative statewith poor welfare tend to judge itnegatively.

Cherry: It must be quite difficult to do.

Mike: It is technically quite difficult butcurrently it can be done in the lab undercontrolled conditions and early results are encouraging. Interpreting findings is difficult because of the problem of animal consciousness and whetheranimals really are experiencing emotionalstates in the way that we might. We can’t yet tell whether an animal’sapparent fear experience is similar to our fear experience, but the nature of that experience is probably similar in the context in which it happens.

Cherry: And do you test themphysiologically?

Mike: There are many indicators ofanimal welfare, which include things likephysiological changes – measuring levelsof stress hormones, for example. Studiesinvestigating the differences in welfarecaused by the many different ways inwhich we keep or manage animals areoften based on these kinds ofmeasurements.

Cherry: Has this kind of workinfluenced decisions like that taken bythe European Commission recently toban battery cages for chickens in 2012?

Christine: Another approach that is usedquite a lot is to actually ‘ask’ animalswhether they want to be in a cage or not.Obviously you can’t ask them with aquestionnaire, but you can give themchoices and see how hard they work forparticular things. The classic approach isto gradually put the price up. So youmight find that a chicken in a cage iswilling to ‘pay’ for more space by puttingeffort into pecking a button that makesthe cage bigger. With animals youassume that what they want matcheswhat they need, so assessing how hardthey are prepared to pay for something,tells you how much they need it. It is thiskind of work that has contributed to the

ban on the conventional battery cage,because chickens will work very, veryhard for a bit more space and also for anest. So we continue to work on chickens– not just laying hens, but broilerchickens as well.

Cherry: How do you tell the differencebetween broiler chickens and layinghens when they are alive?

Christine: Well, in this country the broilerchickens are white and the laying hensare brown, but the broiler chickens weeat are basically enormous chicks. Theyare only five-and-a-half weeks old whenthey are killed, so they grow from tinychicks to the size you buy them in thesupermarket in an extremely short time.Laying hens, on the other hand, areskinny little birds that have been bred tobe as small as possible and to lay eggsthat are as large as possible. Over time,the size of the bird has gone down andthe quantity of their food has dropped,but the number of eggs they produce hasgone up. Consequently, all the calciumand nutrients go into the egg and there isnothing left to hold the bird together.

This highlights the other main issue inanimal welfare: no matter how excellentyour management is, if the animal isgenetically selected for production at theexpense of its body capacity, there is littleyou can do to improve its welfare. Ourwork shows that currently the broilerchicken falls into that category, as do some

of the laying hens. There are now somefundamental questions being asked abouthow robust these modern geno-typesare. We’ve probably gone too far inselecting for production. So when you goto the supermarket you should try to buyRSPCA Freedom Food assured chickenwhere only slow-growing birds are used.

Cherry: But what exactly are assuranceschemes and how is your work relatedto what they do?

David: The Agriculture and HorticultureDevelopment Board charges farmers,growers and processors a levy which, inthe pig sector for example, is used –among other things – to drive demandfor quality pork and other pig meatproducts. This levy also means that theindustry has money to spend on researchand development. Since the industrywants to provide assurance to theconsumer that their pigs are happy andhealthy, it has developed assuranceschemes, identified by the red tractorlogo you see on some products. There isa system of inspecting farms to makesure standards are being adhered to, butthe industry has realised that the systemis not very good at assessing welfare onfarms. They have therefore asked us todevelop ideas of how this can be betterassessed in order to provide betterassurance to the consumer. This is anexcellent example of taking the researchthat we do and applying it in a verypractical sense.

Other work that we do is supported bycharities and we have had a lot of fundingfrom an organisation called TubneyCharitable Trust. They support activitiesthat have a long-term, sustainable impacton the welfare of farmed animals. Theyfunded our work on lameness in dairycattle, example.

Cherry: What causes lameness in cattle?

David: It is a complicated mix ofhusbandry issues, like not having acomfortable lying area and not having the cubicles kept clean. In that instance,we knew the best way to approach theproblem, but not how to encourage and support the farmer to change hishusbandry system, and that is what thefunding has enabled us to work on.

Mike: In summary, there are many otherprojects and forms of expertise within our group, particularly in the issue ofslaughter and stunning of animals, wherewe lead the world in the development ofsystems that do it as humanely aspossible. But the last point I want tomake is that we try to provide a scientificbasis for the decisions that governmentand society have to make about animalwelfare. In doing so, we hope to givepeople a more level-headed and impartialview of the problem. �

www.vetschool.bris.ac.uk/research/abw

54 re:search • Autumn 2009re:search • Autumn 2009

The science of farm animalsAt the crux of most people’sconcerns about animalwelfare lies the question ‘Is the animal happy?’ Toanswer this, researchers inthe Department of ClinicalVeterinary Science’s AnimalWelfare and BehaviourGroup are developingtechniques to assess ananimal’s emotional state, theresults of which can then beused to inform legislation.Cherry Lewis talks toProfessors Mike Mendl andChristine Nicol, and Dr DavidMain, about their work.

was that an additional £270 million wasallocated to the Social Fund, the interest-free grants and loans scheme that peopleon benefits can access. This was aparticularly significant achievement in thecurrent cost-cutting climate.

Sharon Collard, Deputy Director of theCentre, has worked for some time on theproblems caused by unlicensed, illegallending where there is usually no writtenagreement, no fixed interest rate and nofixed penalty fees. Victims can be heavilypenalised for being just a day late withrepayments and may end up payingmany times what they originallyborrowed. At its very worst, women sufferphysical violence or are forced intoprostitution. The Government departmentthat deals with credit became veryconcerned about this and the PFRC washeavily involved in research to scope theextent and nature of the problem and toevaluate a pilot scheme set up to takeillegal lenders off the streets. This schemehas subsequently been rolled outnationally and there are now hotlinespeople can phone to shop offenders,many of whom are going to prison.

Over the past five years the level ofconsumer credit and borrowing has risenby 15% a year, such that by the end oflast year the amount outstanding wasaround £112 billion, equivalent to a debtof £1,900 for every man, woman andchild in the UK. But what these figures do not reveal is how the borrowing isdistributed. In fact, at any one time only

half of the population owes anything atall, apart from mortgages, and within thehalf that does borrow, less than 5% willbe seriously over-borrowed. Researchinto this group by the PFRC identified theemergence of some surprising attitudesto debt, particularly in those under 25who considered themselves ‘victims’ of aconsumer society that pressurised themto consume and thus borrow. Whenasked ‘How do you recognise whetheryou are getting into difficulty?’, theresponse tended to be ‘When yourcreditors threaten to take you to court’.And when this was followed by ‘Whataction do you take when you realise thatyou are over borrowed?’, the majorityview was ‘You become bankrupt’. Incontrast, the over-50s said they wouldcut up their credit cards. This major shiftin attitudes towards debt had previouslybeen reported by hearsay, but this wasthe first time that such clear evidence had been presented.

A recent report completed by the PFRCwas commissioned by the FinancialServices Authority (FSA) and designedprimarily to help assess the extent towhich consumers of financial productsreceive and use clear, simple and relevantinformation, since that would inform oneof the FSA’s three strategic objectives: ‘tohelp retail consumers achieve a fair deal’.The report examined in detail consumers’

behaviour when purchasing products,and the availability, clarity, use andinfluence of information and advice onfinal product choice.

The results showed that there is asignificant risk that consumers are notachieving a fair deal under the FSA’sstrategic objective. Few consumers,particularly those with lower levels offinancial confidence, attempt to shoparound for information and advice andmany do not read or understand theinformation that is provided to them.There was also a high tendency forconsumers to be influenced in their finalpurchase decision by a provider’sreputation or an existing relationship with them.

As re:search went to press, it wasannounced that Kempson had beenappointed to another taskforce – theHousing Market Taskforce – that will look

at ways to end the cycle of boom andbust in the housing market. She waslooking forward to bringing to the tablePFRC’s considerable expertise to helpresolve the root causes of instability inthe housing market. The Taskforce willdeliver its recommendations in 2010. �

www.pfrc.bris.ac.uk

Over the past five years the level of consumer creditand borrowing has risen by 15 per cent a year

7re:search • Autumn 2009

Many people, particularly those livingon low incomes, cannot access

mainstream financial services such asbanking, insurance, credit and savingsproducts. Financial ‘inclusion’, a termcoined by the PFRC, aims to tackle suchexclusion by providing people on lowincomes with access to appropriate andaffordable financial services. In 2005 theGovernment set up the Financial InclusionTaskforce, of which Elaine Kempson is amember. The Taskforce monitors progresson the objectives the Government has setout to achieve and makes recommendationson what more needs to be done.

As part of this work, Kempson and thePFRC team have explored what individualson low incomes most need in the way offinancial services and why the marketplaceis not meeting those needs. They havedesigned basic bank accounts which are very simple, ‘no frills’ accounts thatcannot be overdrawn, and which are now held by about seven per cent of thepopulation. They also played a role in thedesign of a ‘matched’ saving scheme for

people on tax credits or unemploymentbenefit, whereby the Government will givequalifying individuals 50p for every poundthey save. It is a very simple and time-limited initiative, but it will encouragepeople who struggle to save to give ithigher priority. The PFRC evaluated thefirst pilot study of the scheme and it willbe rolled out across the country next year.

The credit crunch is having a particularlyadverse impact on those on low incomes,although much of the discussion hasfocused on the effects of tightening creditfor those on middle incomes. Approximately2.5 million people in the UK use homecredit – small-sum, short-term loans –and depend on this type of finance tosmooth cash flow and for events such as Christmas and children’s birthdays.However, it comes at a high price due inpart to the expense of the weekly door-to-door collection of repayments by

agents. Kempson and others undertookan evaluation for the Joseph RowntreeFoundation to determine whether a not-for-profit credit service might be a viableoption. However, analysis showed thatjust to run a service on a break-even basisrequired an APR of 120%. Furthermore,they found that running costs would notbe recovered for five years.

The seizing-up of the wholesale creditmarket on which the home credit lendersrely for their own funding has created acrisis of credit supply for these mostvulnerable borrowers. One of the threelargest credit companies specialising inthis end of the market has just gone into administration and another hassuspended all lending. Kempson was soconcerned that susceptible people wouldbe forced to turn to illegal lenders thatshe briefed Government ministers just tendays before the last Budget. The upshot

The Personal Finance Research Centre (PFRC) is anindependent centre that specialises in social research acrossall areas of personal finance, mainly from the consumer’sperspective. At its head is Professor Elaine Kempson, aninternationally known and respected authority on consumerfinancial issues who in 2007 was awarded a CBE forservices to the financial services industry. There are threeareas in which the Centre has had most impact: financialinclusion, financial capability and debt.

Approximately 2.5 million people in the UK use home credit to smooth cash flow

6 re:search • Autumn 2009

Money, money, money

Professor Elaine Kempson

Many medical researchers at theUniversity also work in the local

hospitals but increasingly they are beingasked to demonstrate how their research‘translates’ into benefits for the patient.This movement towards translationalresearch is being facilitated by grantsfrom funding bodies that see theadvantages in helping clinicians andacademics to work with each other moreproductively. To this end, Finn hasrecently been funded by the NHS toestablish Bristol Research in InfectionImmunity Collaboration (BRIIC). This is ajoint venture between the University,which has the research expertise inimmunology and microbiology, the NHS,which has the patients, and the HealthProtection Agency, which does theclinical laboratory work – the diagnostics.While all of those organisations interact to some extent already, Finn stronglybelieves that if they come together in a

more coherent way, the whole will begreater than the sum of the parts. But itwill require some thinking outside thebox, for traditionally researchers andclinicians have been somewhatsuspicious of each other. “This is a realopportunity,” Finn says, “but it can onlybe done if we stop just thinking aboutwhat we do and start listening to whatother people do.”

Finn is already used to operating like thisbecause much of his work involvescollaborating with dozens of peopleacross large networks, some of which arespread around the world. His expertise is

principally in the development of vaccinesfor children and much of this concernsclinical trials involving children, which is arelatively new field of investigation.Previously, people felt that they could nottake risks with children by putting them intrials. This is, of course, a false argumentbecause if trials do not involve children,the risks are taken in the clinic in anuncontrolled way, such that it is notalways possible to detect when there is a problem. Now, however, the EuropeanUnion requires companies licensing drugsto perform trials in children, unless thereis no conceivable way in which aparticular drug, such as an Alzheimer’sdrug, would be used in children.

One particular study that Finn hasrecently contributed to is for a newpneumococcal vaccine. Pneumococcusis a bacterium that causes meningitis andpneumonia. Globally, pneumonia kills

between one and two million childrenevery year, so although we are all scaredof meningitis, what we should really be concerned about is preventingpneumonia. Pneumococcus also causesear infections, which, although they arenot killers, lead to large numbers ofantibiotics being prescribed for children.This, in turn, drives antibiotic resistance,as well as being a costly process. Thusthe prevention of ear infections can alsohave a major impact on antibioticresistance.

The picture is further complicated by thefact that there are 90 different types of

pneumococcus bacteria, at least 20 ofwhich cause disease in humans.Furthermore, as the vaccine is introducedand the disease caused by those strainsdisappears, new strains appear to fill thegap, so the vaccines have to bereformulated with more strains, just tokeep pace. Since 2006, a pneumococcalvaccine containing seven different strainsof the pneumococcus bacterium hasbeen made available to all babies.However, a second vaccine with tenstrains was licensed earlier this year, anda third, with 13 strains, is expected to belicensed at the end of this year – thislatter study is the one Finn has beeninvolved in. The uptake of this vaccine isvery high – more than 90% – so it ishaving a very real impact.

Finn is also in the middle of a vaccinestudy against meningitis B, caused by abacterium called meningococcus. Back inthe 1990s, he was involved in a series ofstudies for a strain of meningococcusthat caused meningitis C and this workled to the licensing of a vaccine thatbecame part of the routine immunisationschedule in the UK from autumn 1999. As

a consequence, in just ten years, we haveseen the complete disappearance ofmeningitis C, which previously accountedfor about 40% of meningitis cases. It has been a remarkable success – butmeningitis B is still prevalent, so that isFinn’s current target. The Bristol grouphas just finished recruiting more than ahundred children to the study; othercentres around the country are doing the same.

A study Finn is just about to start iscompletely different from the others, inthat it will be testing a live virus vaccine.It is designed to protect against twocommon viruses: RSV, or respiratorysyncytial virus, and parainfluenza virustype 3, or PIV 3. Both viruses cause

thousands of cases in babies everywinter and hundreds of admissions tohospital of babies with breathing difficulties.

The study is a particularly difficult one todo because the babies first have to haveblood tests and then washes need to betaken from their noses to see how longthe virus from the vaccine persists.

Another difficulty is that the virus has beengenetically engineered and the words‘genetic engineering’ strike fear intoeverybody’s hearts – not only those ofparents, but also those of the regulators.In fact, it is only a cow parainfluenza virusthat has had genes from the human RSVand parainfluenza viruses engineered into it. In the same way that the originalsmallpox vaccine came from cowpox andinduced a very mild form of smallpox inthe patient, the cow parainfluenza virus,which doesn’t make humans sick, shouldresult in a mild, non-symptomatic infectionthat is able to induce immune responsesto the human viruses and protect babiesagainst them. This latest study will beconducted all over the world and Bristolis the leading centre in the UK, with Finn as the UK’s Chief Investigator. The firstchildren are being recruited in Bristol asthis article is being written. If it works,this vaccine has the potential to have anenormous impact on public health.

Finally, hot off the press, comes newsthat Finn and colleagues will be partnersin a study to rapidly evaluate the antibodyresponses and side effects, in childrenaged six months to 12 years, of two newH1N1 swine ‘flu vaccines. The study isstill subject to ethics and MHRAapproval, but the team expects to startwork by October 2009. �

www.bristol.ac.uk/cellmolmed

THECHILDREN’SDOCTOR

8 re:search • Autumn 2009re:search • Autumn 2009

Professor Adam Finn

9

Professor Adam Finn, fromthe Department of Cellularand Molecular Medicine, is an academic paediatricianwho spends more timedoing research than anything else. But ratherthan describe himself as aprofessor working at theUniversity he prefers to say he is a paediatrician,because being a children’sdoctor is what really defines him.

Globally, pneumonia kills between one and two million children every year

Since 2006, a pneumococcal vaccine containingseven different strains of the pneumococcusbacterium has been made available to all babies

reality. In 1981, the first volume was published, comprising half of the entries for the letter ‘A’. No fewer than 87 authorscontributed to this volume alone. Eighteen years later, in 1999,this remarkable project was effectively complete. Having becomea worldwide collaboration by that time – altogether, 33 countriesare involved – the finished work comprised 18 volumes, each of which consists of a volume of plates and an accompanyingvolume of text. A further ten years down the line and anothertwo volumes (Supplementum 2009) have been added. Thesedepict many new and hitherto unpublished representations ofmyths and bring the entire 40-year project up to date.

But the work doesn’t stop there. The LIMC Foundation has twomajor ongoing projects. The first, ThesCRA (Thesaurus Cultus etRituum Antiquorum), documents ancient cults and rites; fivevolumes have been published so far with three more on the way.The second involves digitising all the images in the Lexicon, soas to put it online – and make it free to the user. Furthermore,what they plan to put online is not only the images that appearin the Lexicon, but the whole archive from which they weretaken. In other words, if, worldwide, there are 3,000 images ofHeracles slaying the Nemean lion, only a fraction of which couldbe illustrated in the Lexicon, the objective will be to put them allonline. In spite of this huge task, and despite the increasinglychallenging job of raising funds in today’s financial climate,Buxton anticipates that both ThesCRA and the digitisationproject will be completed within three years.

Alongside all of this, Buxton continues his own research. Hisauthoritative and influential book, The Complete World of GreekMythology, has been translated into nine languages, including

Japanese and modern Greek. The book discusses the origins of Greek mythology, examines the Greek landscape and itssignificance in the development of the narratives, and comes full circle with a concluding chapter on Greek myths after theGreeks, from Roman adaptations to modern transformations. It has become a classic example of a work which maintainsscholarly rigour while engaging the interest of a broad public.His latest book, just published by Oxford University Press, iscalled Forms of Astonishment. This work sets out to interpret anumber of Greek myths that narrate the transformations ofhumans and gods. “The Greek word [thambos] meansastonishment,” explains Buxton, “and is often found in storiesabout people being transformed into things that bystanders wereastonished by, and about gods turning into shapes that were notanthropomorphic, such as Daphne turning into a laurel tree.”

Buxton uses the idea of astonishment to investigate the extent to which theancient Greeks themselves would havefound such transformations strange; inother words, how seriously did they takethese myths? This leads him to enquireinto the role of things turning into otherthings in our own world, and to ask if we can retain a residual feeling ofastonishment at the same time asintellectually understanding theprocesses involved. He thinks we can:“We can be astonished every time abutterfly emerges from a cocoon, whilerecognising the biology that underlies itsmetamorphosis.” The book raises issuesrelevant to an understanding of broadaspects of Greek culture and in doing soit also illuminates issues explored byanthropologists and students of religion,thereby confirming the legacy andrelevance of the Greek myths today. �

www.bristol.ac.uk/classics

In the ‘Judgement of Paris’, Paris of Troy is asked by Zeus tojudge who is the most beautiful of three goddesses – Hera,

Athena or Aphrodite. In order to win the title, each attempts tobribe Paris. Hera offers him imperial power, Athena victory inwar and Aphrodite the love of the world’s most beautiful woman– Helen, wife of King Menelaos of Sparta. Paris choosesAphrodite’s gift, but his subsequent abduction of Helen leadsdirectly to the Trojan War, the fall of Troy, and ultimately thefoundation of Rome by the descendants of Trojan exiles. Thestory of the Judgement poses an ancient dilemma: which is best– to have power, to win, or to enjoy the best sex imaginable?The theme remained enduringly popular in Greek and Romanliterature and art and exercised a huge influence oversubsequent periods of cultural history, including the Renaissance.

“Greek myths endure,” says Buxton, “because however differentancient Greek society was from those that followed, there wasalways sufficient common ground, in terms of the issues anddilemmas that life presents us with, to enable people who camelater to relate to the stories. For instance, when Ted Hughes’sTales from Ovid came out in the late 1990s, it was a phenomenalbest seller. The tales he translated were an Ovidian retelling ofGreek myths for a Roman audience, but still they resonatedwith, and spoke to, people of the late 20th century.”

All these classical myths have now been captured in amonumental, 40-year, international project of which Buxton has been president since 2006. It is known as the LexiconIconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). The idea wasinitiated in 1969 by Professor Lily Kahil, the wife of BoutrosBoutros-Ghali. Kahil recognised that scholars working in thefields of ancient myth, ancient religion and even modern artrequired a tool to help with their research: a repository where allthe representations of the classical myths could reside. TakeAchilles: a classical scholar can now find in the Lexicon all theimages in which he was represented; see where they came

from and where they are located now; how they were dividedbetween vase paintings, sculptures and wall frescos; what themotifs were, and how these depictions have developed overtime; plus a wealth of other valuable information.

Initially, Kahil’s ideas were ridiculed – it would be such a massive undertaking that sceptics believed it could never beaccomplished – but she persevered and translated the idea into

For thousands of years, Greek myths havebeen retold in an inexhaustible series ofvariations and reinterpretations, and eventoday are replayed in software for interactivecomputer games. Richard Buxton, Professorof Greek Language and Literature in theDepartment of Classics and Ancient History,has for much of his academic career beenconcerned with exploring why the Greekmyths have been so enduring. He is also the current head of a 40-year project todocument and analyse all known imagesof mythology from the Greek, Roman and Etruscan civilisations.

Buxton uses the idea ofastonishment to investigate the extent to which the ancient Greekstook these myths seriously

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Professor Richard Buxton

Heracles fighting the Nemean lion. Detail of The Twelve Labours Roman mosaic from Llíria (Valencia, Spain), made in the first half of the 3rd century AD.

Buxton’s latestbook, Forms ofAstonishment.

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The ‘Judgement of Paris’ depicted in porcelain, from the CapitolineMuseums, Rome.

Enduring myths

Aquarter of the work that the policehave to deal with is concerned with

domestic violence. This is a startlingstatistic, but it illustrates an importantchange in attitudes that has occurredover recent decades. Twenty or 30 yearsago, domestic violence was very much aprivate matter; more recently, emphasishas been put on a criminal justiceapproach to the problem and domesticviolence is now a crime. Alongside thisgrowing awareness of domestic violenceand its cost for women with children hascome increasing public and politicalconcern. As a consequence, theGovernment has put a lot of energy andresource into developing work in thisarea. Nevertheless, the problem continues.

Domestic violence is a complex issue thatrequires a common understanding of allthe problems and a co-ordinatedresponse from the many agenciesinvolved. Traditionally, the abuse ofwomen and the abuse of children wereexamined as separate issues, withservices and policies being developed atdifferent stages by different groups inisolation. We now have a much betterunderstanding of the interrelationshipbetween domestic violence and childabuse. For example, we now know thatwhen a woman is being abused, not onlyis her parenting capacity likely to beaffected, but there is also a heightenedprobability that her children will beabused as well. Despite this improved

understanding, Hester still feels that theagencies and services working to ensurethe safety of women and children faceparticularly difficult challenges due to thecontradictions that exist between the lawand professional practices. To illustratethis, she has developed a ‘Three PlanetModel’, where each ‘planet’ or region has its own history, culture and laws.

The domestic violence planetOn this planet, domestic violence isconsidered a crime. The father’sbehaviour is recognised by the police andother agencies as being abusive to themother, so he could be prosecuted for acriminal or public order offence. He mightalso have a restraining or protective order

taken out against him. At the same time,support agencies provide protection andrefuge for the mother. The civil andcriminal laws provide intervention andsupport mechanisms, and on this planetthe focus is on violent male partners whoneed to be contained and controlled insome way in order to ensure that thewomen and children are safe.

The child protection planetWhen children are living with a motherwho is experiencing domestic violence,another planet becomes involved where adifferent set of professionals live. Here,social workers reside alongside theNational Society for the Prevention ofCruelty to Children – those who have astatutory duty to protect children – so thisplanet has a different population andconsequently a different set of laws. Herepublic law deals with child protection andthe approach is very different from thaton the domestic violence planet. On thechild protection planet, the emphasis is on the welfare of the child and its carer.

In order to protect the children, socialworkers are likely to insist that the motherremoves herself and her children from theviolent relationship. If she does not do so,it is she who is seen as ‘failing to protect’and the children may then be removedinto the care of the local authority. Thisputs the mother in a very difficult positionand makes it more difficult for her tocontact social services; thus the childrenremain vulnerable to abuse from thefather. On the child protection planet,therefore, despite professionalsidentifying that the threat of violencecomes from the man, it is the mother whois seen as responsible for dealing with the consequences and the violent maneffectively disappears from the picture.

The child contact planetOn this planet there is yet anotherpopulation because a different set ofprofessionals reside here, governed byprivate, not public, law. The Children andFamily Court Advisory and SupportService has tended to place lessemphasis on child protection and moreon the idea that children should have twoparents. In this context, an abusive fathermay still be deemed a ‘good enough’father, who should at least have contactwith, if not custody or residence of, hischild post-separation. So the mother whohas tried to protect the child from hisviolent behaviour by calling in the policeand supporting his prosecution on thedomestic violence planet, and by leavinghim as instructed on the child protectionplanet, is now ordered to allow contactbetween her violent partner and children,leaving her confused and fearing yetagain for the safety of her children.

Aligning the planetsHester’s three planet model has nowbeen taken up in the UK and acrossEurope, as well as in the US, by thosewho understand how important it is that amore co-ordinated approach should betaken to the issue of domestic violence.Apart from the misery it brings to thewomen and children who are its victims,domestic violence is also very expensive.In Bristol alone, the cost of domesticviolence is estimated to be £26 million a

year if just the services are taken intoaccount. This rises to over £1 billionwhen human and emotional costs areincluded.

Clearly, the challenge now is to bring thethree planets into alignment so that thesafety of women and children becomesparamount. This requires a betterunderstanding of the dynamics ofdomestic violence and a co-ordinatedapproach by all the agencies and

services involved. Furthermore, it is vitalthat the gap is closed between ‘violentmen’ on the one hand and ‘fathers’ onthe other hand, so that violent men canbe dealt with both as violent fathers andas perpetrators of domestic violence.

The success of the work done by Hesterand her colleagues in understanding andcombating domestic violence, and theimpact this has had on policy bothnationally and internationally, has meant

that the research group has grown tosuch an extent that it now warrants being a research centre in its own right. The School for Policy Studies is aresearch-intensive environment, currentlyorganised around four specialist researchcentres, but from October this yearHester will head the School’s fifth centre:the new Centre for Gender and ViolenceResearch. �

www.bristol.ac.uk/sps

Professor Marianne Hester, internationally recognised for her research on domestic violence,will head the School of Policy Studies’ new Centre for Gender and Violence Research whenit opens in October. She was appointed a Specialist Advisor to the House of CommonsHome Affairs Select Committee’s inquiry into domestic violence, was recently commissionedby the Ministry of Justice to provide an early evaluation of the effectiveness of the measuresin the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 and is currently heading a HomeOffice review of approaches to serial perpetrators.

The Three Planet Model

1312 re:search • Autumn 2009re:search • Autumn 2009

Apart from the misery it brings to the women and children who are its victims, domesticviolence is also very expensive

Professor Marianne Hester

Traditionally, security studies focused on the study of strategic problems,

especially those that relate to the use ofmilitary power by states, often in relationto other states. Before 1945, securitystudies was very much the preserve ofthe military. When nuclear weaponsbecame viable, however, the USGovernment’s effort to make sense ofthese new weapons led it to fund thecreation of a body of civilian and academicstrategists, which was emulated in othercountries. Consequently, academicsecurity studies has to a great extentbeen funded by the state in order to help the state address specific issues.

The problems with that approach aretwofold. Firstly, there are wider things thataffect the security of states, such asenvironmental, social, political andeconomic concerns, so the threats tosecurity are not just, or even mainly,military ones. Secondly, and moreimportantly, just because a state issecure, that does not necessarily meanthat the population within it is secure. The

state may even be the main threat facingthe population. For instance, SaddamHussein managed to secure his state fora considerable period of time, but atsubstantial cost to the inhabitants. Evenin liberal democratic states, individualsand groups may be insecure while thestate is secure. Hence there aresignificant tensions between what thestate means by national security andwhat security actually means to societywithin that state.

The notion of ‘critical’ security studies,the sub-field within which Herring works,gradually emerged to challenge traditional

security studies. Its premise is that thestate, including liberal democratic states,can be as much of a threat to society asit is a provider of security. Furthermore,critical security studies seeks to challengerather than assist states in ventures thatcould be described as ‘imperial’, such as when one state invades or pressuresanother, primarily for its own interests andin an exploitative manner.

One of the important aspects of criticalsecurity studies is that the current agendais not accepted at face value, but mustbe examined to ascertain how it wasconstructed and what interests that mightserve. Thus when Herring becameinterested in the United Nations SecurityCouncil’s sanctions imposed on Iraq inAugust 1990, he began to research thepolitical agenda around sanctions sincehe, personally, did not accept thatcomprehensive economic sanctionswhich have a devastating impact on thecivilian population are a legitimateinstrument of policy.

As a scholar, however, Herring’s role wasto understand and research what washappening and why, and assess thejustifications for the policy. In the courseof his research, he conducted fieldwork inIraq and interviewed policymakers in NewYork and London in order to assemble apicture of the impact that the sanctionswere having on the civilian population andon the political goals that were beingpursued through them. This enabled himto contribute in a scholarly way to thedebate about the legitimacy andeffectiveness of such sanctions. Thuswhen Iraq was invaded by a US-ledcoalition in March 2003, the large numberof contacts Herring had established,

enabled him to extend his broaderthematic concerns – about how criticalsecurity studies scholarship relates toprogressive social change – to the caseof the occupation of Iraq.

One of the outcomes of this work was abook, Iraq in Fragments, jointly authoredwith Glen Rangwala at the University ofCambridge, which examined what kind of Iraqi state was emerging out of the

occupation. Their conclusions were thatwhile the US expected to be able toestablish a liberal democracy with anopen economy that would serve as a keyUS ally in the region, the very nature ofthe US and British policy in Iraq hadcreated incentives for unregulated localpower struggles because the twocountries were more concerned withfinding local allies than with building acoherent state. Thus the main legacy ofthe US-led occupation, the authorscontend, is that Iraq has become afragmented state in which politicalauthority is divided and disputed. Herring was invited to give evidence to the House of Commons SelectCommittee on Defence regarding these issues.

In the meantime, a significant body of elite and informed public opinion had emerged against the kind ofcomprehensive economic sanctions thathad been imposed on Iraq. When theHouse of Lords Select Committee on

Economic Affairs decided to conduct aninquiry into the UK’s sanctions policy,Herring was invited to act as its SpecialistAdviser in July 2006. The positioninvolved duties such as providingbackground briefings for committeemembers, suggesting and preparingquestions for witnesses, and acting asprincipal author of the Committee’sreport. The key findings of theCommittee’s report were that:

• comprehensive sanctions are likely toresult in severe suffering among thegeneral population, with Iraq being aprime example

• the Government should ensure thatobjectives are always clear andrealistic, and that an exit strategy isdeveloped before sanctions areimposed

• the Government should be more activein promoting systematic monitoring and independent expert review ofsanctions policy

• the costs to British business arisingfrom compliance with UK sanctionspolicy were relatively minor

The House of Lords inquiry found thatalthough comprehensive economicsanctions had been discredited amongmost of the academic and policycommunity, the British Government madeit clear in its oral and written evidencethat it disagreed. Its view was that whilethe sanctions had been costly for the

civilian population – although they disputedthe degree of cost – comprehensiveeconomic sanctions may neverthelessstill be worth imposing on a society, if the goal was sufficiently important.Consequently, other than minorconcessions, the policy remained intact.

Although select committees can influencepolicy, Herring points out that widerpolitical developments are often muchmore important. With regard to the Iranianand North Korean nuclear programmes,for example, the committee’s reportadvocated a shift in emphasis away fromsanctions towards positive incentives.Such a shift has in fact occurred, but as aconsequence of the change from the Bushto the Obama administration, rather thanbecause of any change in UK policy. �

www.bristol.ac.uk/politics

When scholarshipmeets politics

1514 re:search • Autumn 2009re:search • Autumn 2009

Saddam Hussein managed to secure his state for a considerable period of time, but at substantial cost to the inhabitants

Dr Eric Herring from theDepartment of Politicsconducts research into critical security studies, whichrelates security scholarship to progressive social change.He is particularly interested in international policy on Iraqand was the Specialist Adviserto the House of Lords SelectCommittee on Economic Affairsfor its inquiry into the UK’spolicy on economic sanctions.

Iraq has become a fragmented state in whichpolitical authority is divided and disputed

A car bomb in South Baghdad, Iraq

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JACKEY BRATT, U.S. NAVY

Before the Labour Government tookoffice in 1997, the term ‘social

exclusion’ was not widely used. It wasconfined largely to professional socialpolicy circles, where it built on theconcept of poverty pioneered by the latePeter Townsend. It was used to capturethe dynamic and multi-dimensionalcharacter of poverty, and in particular the consequences of poverty in excluding people not just from levels of consumption, but from social activities others took for granted.

In the mid-nineties, ‘social exclusion’ wasbeginning to have wider currency in theEuropean Union, with implications fornational governments. In 1996, RuthLevitas published a seminal article on theconcept and successfully applied forfunding to look at the place of socialexclusion in emergent New Labourthinking. Months later, in the summer of 1997, Peter Mandelson announced the setting up of a dedicated SocialExclusion Unit and the term began tofigure more prominently, although usuallyin the undifferentiated phrase ‘povertyand social exclusion’. Levitas’s 1998book, The Inclusive Society?: SocialExclusion and New Labour, showed thatthe focus of social exclusion had shifted

Building a first-class reputation for a department takes many years of producing andpublishing high-quality research. The University’s Department of Sociology has done just thatand is now among the best-known in the UK. Many of its members are highly regardedinternationally, including Professor Ruth Levitas, one of the world’s leading thinkers in utopianstudies. She is the first to admit that her second area of expertise, social exclusion, has hadgreater policy impact, although all her work is concerned with ‘what needs to change’. She has just stepped down as Head of Department, which will allow her more time toconcentrate on research in both areas.

16 re:search • Autumn 2009

away from the resources of the poortowards a preoccupation with integrationthrough paid work and a focus on thebehaviour of those experiencing hardship.

At the same time, colleagues in theSchool for Policy Studies, including PeterTownsend, David Gordon and ChristinaPantazis,were, with colleagues at Yorkand Loughborough, planning a newpoverty survey. The funders, the JosephRowntree Foundation, specifically askedthat the survey should incorporatemeasures of social exclusion. Levitas wasthus co-opted onto the team and workedwith Townsend to design this part of thequestionnaire. The fieldwork for thePoverty and Social Exclusion Survey(PSE) was carried out in 1999, with aninitial report in 2000. The results showedthat the proportion of households living inpoverty had increased under the ThatcherGovernment from 14% in 1983 to over24% in 1999. Social deprivation was alsoreflected by the 10 million adults and onemillion children too poor to participate incommon social activities such as visitingfriends and family, having celebrations onspecial occasions, or attending weddingsand funerals.

There was considerable unease about the consequences of this increase indeprivation and the lack of social justicethat it implied, and the report detailed thescale of the task facing New Labour in its desire to end poverty and socialexclusion. A fuller analysis, edited byPantazis, Gordon and Levitas, waspublished in 2006. The study was themost comprehensive and scientifically

rigorous survey of its kind everundertaken, providing unparalleled detailabout deprivation and exclusion amongthe British population at the close of the20th century. It was the first nationalstudy to measure social exclusion and tointroduce an internationally comparablemethodology for poverty and socialexclusion. The PSE questionnaire wasmade freely available at an early stageand was widely used. The insistence on direct measurement of economic and social deprivation also influenced the Government’s mode of measuringchild poverty.

In 2006, the Social Exclusion Unitcommissioned the research team, thistime led by Levitas, to review existingsources on severe forms of socialexclusion, characterised as ‘deep

exclusion’; to recommend possibilities ofsecondary analysis in order to explore thedynamics of deep exclusion; to identifyany relevant gaps in the knowledge base;and to recommend research strategies forfilling such gaps. This project reported inJanuary 2007 as The MultidimensionalAnalysis of Social Exclusion. It showed

the limitations of existing data sets,especially in the complex area of socialexclusion, and the need for a new,dedicated national survey. It alsoprovided a coherent framework forassessing different domains anddimensions of exclusion based on acomprehensive survey of theoretical and policy literature. The Bristol SocialExclusion Matrix, or B-SEM, now formsthe basis of the approach taken by the(now) Social Exclusion Task Force. Inadding questions of social participationand quality of life to the usual indicatorsof low income and employment status,the B-SEM, like the PSE, ‘puts the socialback in social exclusion’. In response to the 2007 report, the Task Forcecommissioned four pieces of work ondifferent stages of the life course, usingthe B-SEM as a common framework.

The team, this time led by Eldin Fahmy,successfully tendered for one element of this, which has just reported asUnderstanding Social Exclusion Acrossthe Life Course: Working age adultswithout dependent children.

Back in 2007, the team started work on amajor bid to the Economic and SocialResearch Council to carry out a newnational survey of poverty and socialexclusion in 2010. This will be anchoredat Bristol but incorporate researchers inNorthern Ireland, Scotland, the OpenUniversity, York University and theNational Centre for Research Methods.Negotiations with the ESRC are ongoing.Sadly, Peter Townsend, who would havebeen consultant to the project, died thissummer, and his loss is felt acutely bymembers of the team. But if thisapplication for £4 million is successful, itwill be the largest grant ever awarded forpoverty research in the UK. It will alsoreflect the recognition that the teamwhich Bristol researchers havecollectively built over a period of twodecades is the best that could be puttogether in the UK, and probably the best in the world. And it will, we hope, be one more step in the alleviation andeventual eradication of poverty and socialexclusion – which is, of course, the pointof it all. �

www.bristol.ac.uk/sociology

17re:search • Autumn 2009

Poverty andsocial exclusion

Professor Ruth Levitas

The proportion of households living in povertyincreased under the Thatcher Government from14 per cent in 1983 to over 24 per cent by 1999

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