‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

The Production of Space

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

www.mobilehealthmap.org 617‐442‐3200 New research shows that mobile health clinics improve health outcomes for hard to reach populations in cost‐effective and culturally competent ways . A Harvard Medical School study determined that for every dollar invested in a mobile health clinic, the US healthcare system saves $30 on average. Mobile health clinics, which offer a range of services from preventive screenings to asthma treatment, leverage their mobility to treat people in the convenience of their own communities. For example, a mobile health clinic in Baltimore, MD, has documented savings of $3,500 per child seen due to reduced asthma‐related hospitalizations. The estimated 2,000 mobile health clinics across the country are providing similarly cost‐effective access to healthcare for a wide range of populations. Many successful mobile health clinics cite their ability to foster trusting relationships. Qualitative research in such mobile health clinics has found that patients value the informal, familiar environment in a convenient location, with staff who “are easy to talk to,” and that the staff’s “marriage of professional and personal discourses” provides patients the space to disclose information themselves. A communications academic argued that mobile health clinics’ unique use of space is important in facilitating these relationships. Mobile health clinics park in the heart of the community in familiar spaces, like shopping centers or bus stations, which lend themselves to the local community atmosphere.

Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(12)62089-3.pdf

Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries

Smoking prevalence is higher among disadvantaged groups, and disadvantaged smokers may face higher exposure to tobacco's harms. Uptake may also be higher among those with low socioeconomic status (SES), and quit attempts are less likely to be successful. Studies have suggested that this may be the result of reduced social support for quitting, low motivation to quit, stronger addiction to tobacco, increased likelihood of not completing courses of pharmacotherapy or behavioral support sessions, psychological differences such as lack of self-efficacy, and tobacco industry marketing. Evidence of interventions that work among lower socioeconomic groups is sparse. Raising the price of tobacco products appears to be the tobacco control intervention with the most potential to reduce health inequalities from tobacco. Targeted cessation programs and mass media interventions can also contribute to reducing inequalities. To tackle the high prevalence of smoking among disadvantaged groups, a combination of tobacco control measures is required, and these should be delivered in conjunction with wider attempts to address inequalities in health.

Socioeconomic status and smoking: a review

The release of over 27 million pages of internal tobacco industry documents as a result of discovery processes in The State of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota versus Philip Morris et al and other legal cases has provided tobacco control researchers and advocates with unprecedented opportunities to understand more about the inner workings of the industry Documents are available for public viewing at the Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository, which opened in Minneapolis in 1998, at the Guildford Document Depository in Guildford, England, and on the world wide web, accessible through http://wwwTobaccoArchivescom/ and other sites In addition, through websites, users can get access to documents produced under the state litigation in Washington, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas, and selections from the British American Tobacco documents housed at Guildford, UK (see “other tobacco documents resources”, below)

Though the vast majority of documents are from the Minnesota case, which resulted in the release of documents from Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, American Tobacco, Lorillard, the Tobacco Institute, Brown and Williamson, and the Council on Tobacco Research, collections continue to become available in conjunction with other legal cases Given the enormous numbers of documents that are available, the collections may prove to be either a treasure trove of information valuable for tobacco control research and advocacy, or a quagmire of quantity into which researchers sink in despair In this article, we discuss differences between searching for documents at the depository and on various online sites and suggest some practical strategies that may help researchers be more productive while using these collections

The depository is located in Minneapolis in a business park near the University of Minnesota The number of computer terminals available for public searching is limited, so it is usually necessary to make reservations in advance of a visit to ensure …

https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/9/3/334.full.pdf

Tobacco industry documents: treasure trove or quagmire?

Industry has played a complex role in the rise of tobacco-related diseases in the United States. The tobacco industry's activities, including targeted marketing, are arguably among the most powerful corporate influences on health and health policy. We analyzed over 400 internal tobacco industry documents to explore how, during the past several decades, the industry targeted inner cities populated predominantly by low-income African American residents with highly concentrated menthol cigarette marketing. We study how major tobacco companies competed against one another in menthol wars fought within these urban cores. Little previous work has analyzed the way in which the inner city's complex geography of race, class, and place shaped the avenues used by tobacco corporations to increase tobacco use in low-income, predominantly African American urban cores in the 1970s-1990s. Our analysis shows how the industry's activities contributed to the racialized geography of today's tobacco-related health disparities.

Racialized Geography, Corporate Activity, and Health Disparities: Tobacco Industry Targeting of Inner Cities

Objectives: To describe the tobacco industry’s relationships with and influence on homeless and mentally ill smokers and organisations providing services to them. Methods: Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents and journal articles. Results: The tobacco industry has marketed cigarettes to the homeless and seriously mentally ill, part of its “downscale” market, and has developed relationships with homeless shelters and advocacy groups, gaining positive media coverage and political support. Discussion: Tobacco control advocates and public health organisations should consider how to target programmes to homeless and seriously mentally ill individuals. Education of service providers about tobacco industry efforts to cultivate this market may help in reducing smoking in these populations.

https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/14/6/409.full.pdf

Marketing to the marginalised: tobacco industry targeting of the homeless and mentally ill

Heavy users of emergency services: social construction of a policy problem.

Objectives. This case study describes the events surrounding the first time a major tobacco company advertised in gay media. Methods. We analyzed internal tobacco company documents, mainstream newspapers, and the gay press. Results. Philip Morris was unprepared for the attention its entry into the gay market received. The company’s reaction to this incident demonstrates that its approach to the gay community both parallels and diverges from industry strategies toward other marginalized communities. Conclusions. The tobacco industry’s relationship to the gay community is relatively undeveloped, a fact that may provide tobacco control advocates an opportunity for early intervention. The gay community’s particular vulnerabilities to the industry make development of gay tobacco control programs crucial to reducing gay smoking prevalence and industry presence in the community.

Ruth E. Malone

Papers

Tobacco industry documents: treasure trove or quagmire?

Racialized Geography, Corporate Activity, and Health Disparities: Tobacco Industry Targeting of Inner Cities

Marketing to the marginalised: tobacco industry targeting of the homeless and mentally ill

Heavy users of emergency services: social construction of a policy problem.

The outing of Philip Morris: advertising tobacco to gay men.