Experiencing post-socialism: Running and urban space in Sofia, Bulgaria

This article suggests that cities in Central and Eastern Europe should be understood as developing and interacting with their own unique character and challenges on their own terms. In providing an account of embodied and everyday activities, this paper challenges the conception of a decline in public-oriented acts and affordances understood via the notion of post-socialist privatism. In doing so this paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork of recreational running; an underutilised tool for urban analysis. Despite the growing interest in recreational running amongst urban scholars, engaging with the practice has remained largely neglected within research on the post-socialist cities of Central and Eastern Europe. This paper uses a case study of two recreational running clubs from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, offering a discussion of everyday experience, public life and urban space. This case study combines participant observation and in-depth qualitative interviews with runners and club organisers to complicate the idea of post-socialist cities as places defined by the decline of public sensibilities and a single conception of the post-socialist condition

Cycling in the post-socialist city: On travelling by bicycle in Sofia, Bulgaria

There are many ways of moving through a city. Cycling is one which has received considerable attention from urban scholars. Yet it has remained largely neglected within the burgeoning literature on the post-socialist urbanisms of Central and Eastern Europe. This paper uses a case study from Sofia, Bulgaria to address this gap in urban research. By exploring the practices and affordances of cycling, we offer a discussion of everyday mobility, public life and urban space in post-socialist Sofia. This case study incorporates ethnography and in-depth interviews with regular cyclists. Through a discussion of bicycling spaces and practices, this paper complicates the notion of post-socialist cities as places defined by the decline of public sensibilities. </jats:p

‘The Feel of the Stones, Sounds of Cars, the Different Smells’:How Incorporating the Senses Can Help Support Equitable Health Promotion

There has been limited consideration to the role of the senses in health promotion regardless of the prominence placed on corporeality in intervention and prevention strategies. Touch as a form of sense-making challenges the representational approaches that characterize health promotion methods to increase participation in physical activity. This paper explores recreational running practices through the sense of touch and is drawn from an in-depth qualitative research project with recreational runners in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The project examined how recreational running was established and maintained within the city. This paper concludes that there is potential for health promotion to adopt a more open stance towards the study of sensual experiences of the built environment. Insights from approaches attentive to the senses hold promise for agendas and interventions in health promotion practice and intervention

Soccer, Broadcasting, and Narrative:On Televising a Live Soccer Match

Soccer broadcasts have been explored in a number of interesting ways, uncovering racial difference, gendered stereotypes, domestic viewing experiences, nationalistic discourse, and national styles of production. What is lacking, however, is how the viewer comprehends space and time in the live broadcast. Such literatures neglect the hybrid nature of televised soccer as a combination of visual and verbal communication. Understanding and experiencing a televised soccer match is a formulation of visual principles and verbal understanding of temporality within the narrative of a live broadcast. These principles are materialized through the screen and develop an unconscious understanding of movement, spatiality, and temporality differing from a cinematic unconscious through the cutting and sequencing of footage and border moments—screen wipe, frames, cuts—which work in combination with commentary to establish a microgeography of the screen. Viewers of televised soccer, therefore, establish a comprehension of time and space which is distinctive and differs from reportage

How are "teaching the teachers" courses in evidence based medicine evaluated? A systematic review

Background Teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) has become widespread in medical education. Teaching the teachers (TTT) courses address the increased teaching demand and the need to improve effectiveness of EBM teaching. We conducted a systematic review of assessment tools for EBM TTT courses. To summarise and appraise existing assessment methods for teaching the teachers courses in EBM by a systematic review. Methods We searched PubMed, BioMed, EmBase, Cochrane and Eric databases without language restrictions and included articles that assessed its participants. Study selection and data extraction were conducted independently by two reviewers. Results Of 1230 potentially relevant studies, five papers met the selection criteria. There were no specific assessment tools for evaluating effectiveness of EBM TTT courses. Some of the material available might be useful in initiating the development of such an assessment tool. Conclusion There is a need for the development of educationally sound assessment tools for teaching the teachers courses in EBM, without which it would be impossible to ascertain if such courses have the desired effect

Placental growth factor testing for suspected pre‐eclampsia: a cost‐effectiveness analysis

Objective To calculate the cost‐effectiveness of implementing PlGF testing alongside a clinical management algorithm in maternity services in the UK, compared with current standard care. Design Cost‐effectiveness analysis. Setting Eleven maternity units participating in the PARROT stepped‐wedge cluster‐randomised controlled trial. Population Women presenting with suspected pre‐eclampsia between 20+0 and 36+6 weeks’ gestation. Methods Monte Carlo simulation utilising resource use data and maternal adverse outcomes. Main outcome measures Cost per maternal adverse outcome prevented. Results Clinical care with PlGF testing costs less than current standard practice and resulted in fewer maternal adverse outcomes. There is a total cost‐saving of UK£149 per patient tested, when including the cost of the test. This represents a potential cost‐saving of UK£2,891,196 each year across the NHS in England. Conclusions Clinical care with PlGF testing is associated with the potential for cost‐savings per participant tested when compared with current practice via a reduction in outpatient attendances, and improves maternal outcomes. This economic analysis supports a role for implementation of PlGF testing in antenatal services for the assessment of women with suspected pre‐eclampsia. Tweetable abstract Placental growth factor testing for suspected pre‐eclampsia is cost‐saving and improves maternal outcomes