The author advances a theory of white generosity, a product of whiteness and of hierarchised relationships between races characterised by the giving to the racialised person that…
Abstract
Purpose
The author advances a theory of white generosity, a product of whiteness and of hierarchised relationships between races characterised by the giving to the racialised person that which has not been asked for and which has no practical immediate purpose, which can be used by anti-racist scholars as a framework for analysing racial oppression.
Design/methodology/approach
Using postcolonial and cultural studies and deconstructionist techniques in tandem with autoethnography, the author uses textual readings to examine instances of “giving” shaped by white generosity, drawing on Jacques Derrida's work on the gift in order to deconstruct the structure and rhetorical moves of white generosity.
Findings
White generosity demands gratitude in excess of the value of the thing given. If for Derrida the gift is given unconditionally, becoming devalued as soon as it demands acknowledgement or draws attention to itself as gift, white generosity is the gift's inverse: a “giving” that manifests itself only as a demand for its supposed recipient's gratitude. Emancipation is no gift at all; simply a deferral of debt. The “gifts” of diversity, decolonisation, widening participation or access are all objects of brokerage in a system that is inherently unequal and violent for black folx.
Originality/value
White generosity is related to theoretical constructs, such as white fragility, that have commanded significant scholarly engagement. However, it has not previously been named or analysed in a systematic way. This article offers a theoretical framework for use by anti-racist activists and scholars to name, interrogate and deconstruct a powerful narrative used in the continued marginalisation of non-white folx.
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The author extends the work on diversity policy in UK higher education by centring the voices of Black and minority ethnic scholars and de-centring white comfort with the aim of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The author extends the work on diversity policy in UK higher education by centring the voices of Black and minority ethnic scholars and de-centring white comfort with the aim of a call to stop the pain that sanitised university diversity policies cause Black and minority ethnic scholars.
Design/methodology/approach
Using in-depth qualitative and auto-ethographic research methods, this paper engages with both respondents' narratives as well as the author's experience of carrying out the research within the walls of predominately white universities.
Findings
In order for universities to move beyond hollow and sanitised diversity, they must centre the voices of Black and minority ethnic scholars. Respondents spoke of their experiences of pain, and feelings of “taking up” space in predominately white universities. The author also discusses respondents' feelings towards diversity and inclusion policies such as the Race Equality Charter Mark.
Originality/value
The research is built on previous work on diversity by decentring white comfort.
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James A. Wall, Dong‐Won Sohn, Natalie Cleeton and Deng Jian Jin
This study investigated the mediations of 125 community mediators in the People's Republic of China. The mediators' reports on two mediations each—one in a community…
Abstract
This study investigated the mediations of 125 community mediators in the People's Republic of China. The mediators' reports on two mediations each—one in a community (inter‐family) and one in a family (intra‐family) dispute—indicated the frequency with which they used 33 mediation techniques. In family (versus community) mediations, Chinese mediators were found to rely more heavily upon the techniques of separating the parties, getting assistance from third parties, calling for empathy, stating the other side's point of view, and utilizing logic. As for the strategies (combinations of techniques) employed, we found three distinct ones—separate, analyze together, criticize—in the family mediations. Two sets—reason together and criticize—were detected in the community mediations.
This paper discusses the findings of a mixed-methods study of early childhood instructional coaches employed in state-funded preschool (aged three and four years) programs in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses the findings of a mixed-methods study of early childhood instructional coaches employed in state-funded preschool (aged three and four years) programs in the state of New Jersey (NJ) in the United States (US), highlighting a case study of one coach that provides an example of individual and organizational factors influencing the work.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was distributed to all coaches (master teachers) in 35 districts' early childhood programs. Two master teachers were then studied for a period of five months. During that time, three structured interviews were conducted, focused observations occurred each month, and coach logs were collected.
Findings
The findings of the data analyses illuminated both individual (i.e., a coach's own professional development) and organizational (i.e., varying interpretations of role) factors that influenced the work of the early childhood coaches.
Research limitations/implications
The data in this paper is limited to one US state's approach to early childhood coaching. The case study data examined is limited to the contexts of the specific participating districts and master teachers involved. It is suggested that future research be conducted on a nationwide pool of instructional coaches.
Practical implications
The findings of this study highlight the role of the state in providing more guidance surrounding the primary responsibilities of the master teacher. It is suggested that further attention be placed on creating and sustaining a professional development network for the master teachers serving NJ's early childhood programs.
Originality/value
As one of the few statewide studies of instructional coaching in early childhood, this study provides insights into how policy is translated into practice.
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Kathryn Marie Hibbert, Lisa Faden-MacDougall, Noureen Huda, Sandra DeLuca, Elizabeth Seabrook and Mark Goldszmidt
This paper aims to trace the relational and material ways in which workplace teams come together (or fail to) in the provision of patient care.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to trace the relational and material ways in which workplace teams come together (or fail to) in the provision of patient care.
Design/methodology/approach
Six interprofessional scholars brought their unique theoretical and disciplinary lenses to understand the contextualized experiences of the patient and the team. Adopting a critical narrative inquiry (CNR) approach, the experiences of 19 participants were documented as they interacted in the care of an elderly patient over a three-week period. Actor network theory constructs enabled the analysis of multiple artefacts implicated in the interactions to learn of their contribution to the enactment of her care.
Findings
The study gives empirical insights about ways in which knowledge circulates amongst the workplace and how systemic structures may impede effective and quality patient care. Various types of knowledge are held by different team members, and both individuals and materials (e.g. technologies) can influence the way those knowledges are shared (or not).
Research limitations/implications
Focusing on a rich data set surrounding one patient documented as theatre serves pedagogical purposes and serves as a shared “boundary-breaking” object to interrogate from multiple stakeholder perspectives. CNR provides for recursive, dynamic learning as readers critically consider experiences within their own contexts.
Practical implications
Despite research that documents competing political, systemic and economic goals, sedimented policies and practices persist in ways that undermine care goals.
Social implications
Tackling the urgent issue of an aging population will require expanding collaboration (for planning, research and so on) to include a broader set of stakeholders, including operational, administrative and post-discharge organizations. Attention to social infrastructure as a means to assemble knowledges and improve relationships in the care process is critical.
Originality/value
Building a boundary-breaking shared object to represent the data offers a unique opportunity for multiple stakeholder groups to enter into dialogue around barriers to workplace interaction and collaboration progress, linking problems to critical perspectives.
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Through an account of the layout, operations, and four main product lines of a small Chicago bookstore between 1938 and 1947, the purpose of this paper is to show how a…
Abstract
Purpose
Through an account of the layout, operations, and four main product lines of a small Chicago bookstore between 1938 and 1947, the purpose of this paper is to show how a neighborhood retail establishment reacted to the sweeping events of the Great Depression and World War II.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based upon multiple primary data sources including store financial records, family photographs, representative artifacts and ephemera, oral history interviews, and period retailing literature.
Findings
Located in an area of Chicago heavily populated by Polish and Jewish immigrants and their children, General Book Store was a traditional mom and pop operation. The mix of its product lines – books and magazines, model kits, greeting cards, and camera supplies and photo‐finishing – evolved over time while always connecting customers to the national experience. The store afforded its owners a modest, but upwardly mobile middle‐class life style.
Originality/value
Although much has been written on large‐scale retailing, marketing historians have conducted very little research on small‐scale retailing in the USA. This study documents the intermingling of a business and a household economy and how the management of merchandise assortments and maintenance of customer relationships depended upon both owner interests and the opportunities and constraints presented by environmental forces.
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Jennifer Loy and Natalie Haskell
Cutting-edge hospital and residential care architecture and interior design aim to address the emotional and practical needs of patients, staff and visitors. Yet, whilst improving…
Abstract
Purpose
Cutting-edge hospital and residential care architecture and interior design aim to address the emotional and practical needs of patients, staff and visitors. Yet, whilst improving on past practice, current approaches to design still rarely recognise or respond to individuals. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of design-led research into digital technology across disciplines for the personalisation of healthcare environments and is informed by the authors’ ongoing hospital-based research.
Design/methodology/approach
This review is based on a design anthropology framework providing insight into designing for changing the experience for older patients in current healthcare contexts and future focused strategies, integrating digital technologies and human-centred design across scale and disciplines. It is informed by ongoing hospital studies based on design-led research methodology, drawing on design anthropology and ethnographical methods.
Findings
Technology enhanced, human-centred, assistive devices and environments implemented into healthcare across scale are developing but integration is needed for meaningful experiences.
Research limitations/implications
This review is a positioning paper for design-led research into digital technology across scale and medium.
Practical implications
This paper provides the basis for practical research including the ongoing hospital-based research of the authors.
Social implications
This approach potentially enhances emotional experiences of connected healthcare.
Originality/value
Future care scenarios are proposed, with technology and human experience as key drivers. Individualised and personalised solutions better cater for diversity. Within this context, it is strategic to question and test new ways of crafting the older persons care experience. This paper brings new direction to this discussion.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection between critical literacy and digital activism. Critical literacy is a form of instruction that teaches students to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection between critical literacy and digital activism. Critical literacy is a form of instruction that teaches students to question power structures and societal injustices, while digital activism introduces methods for individuals and groups to use digital tools to effect social and political change. This review argues that digital literacy is the natural partner to pedagogical approaches informed by critical literacy, which attempts to uncover, address, question and solve social problems.
Design/methodology/approach
An illustrative example of collaborative student choice and action is offered through a multimedia project with actionable hashtags for sharing online. The paper concludes with a discussion of how educators can foster more collaborative choice and action by intertwining critical and digital literacies at all levels of education. However, implementation and application of these ideas lies not only with educators and administrators, but most importantly, with students themselves.
Findings
In order for students to be most prepared for meaningful interactions in the global and digital world, critical literacy, digital literacy and digital activism must become a core part of classroom instruction. Multimedia projects that are easily sharable and can track analytics are a successful way to raise consciousness and advocate for local and global action.
Originality/value
The powerful instructional practices that link critical and digital literacies provide students with the skills to continue questioning multiple viewpoints and promoting social justice issues within and beyond classroom walls.
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Drew Martin, Arch G. Woodside and Ning Dehuang
To demonstrate how brand netnography is useful in showing how visitors interpret the places, people and situations that they experience when traveling.
Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate how brand netnography is useful in showing how visitors interpret the places, people and situations that they experience when traveling.
Design/methodology/approach
Through analysis of online consumer stories about their travel experiences, this paper probes how visitors interpret their experiences while visiting cities in Asia. Deconstructing texts written by consumers via Heider's balance theory provides the method of analysis for samples of both positive and negative travel experiences of foreign visitors.
Findings
Mapping consumer experiences shows immediate and downstream positive and negative associations of concepts, events, and outcomes in visitors' stories. These maps include descriptions of how visitors live specific destination's unique promises.
Research limitations/implications
The population of bloggers who report their experiences may not be representative of the population of all visitors.
Practical implications
Blog‐journal stories provides the opportunity to collect emic interpretative data unobtrusively. These stories have the potential to influence substantial numbers of future visitors who go online in search of first‐person unbiased, unrehearsed reports of others' destination experiences. First‐person (emic) reports enable managers of places (brands) to learn and talk in dialects of customers.
Originality/value
This paper provides a revisionist proposal to Holt's five‐step strategy for building destinations as iconic brands and suggestions for tourism management. The revisionist view includes interpreting consumers' own interpretations of their place experiences.
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Sally Anne Sambrook, Natalie Jones and Clair Doloriert
Employee engagement (EE) is a highly popular topic within workplace research, but has been studied almost exclusively from a quantitative, survey based approach, both in academic…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee engagement (EE) is a highly popular topic within workplace research, but has been studied almost exclusively from a quantitative, survey based approach, both in academic and consultancy led research. Yet, employee engagement is essentially an individual concept, concerning self, and this highly personal dimension fails to be captured in positivistic surveys. This paper offers a novel methodology in an attempt to address this deficit.
Design/methodology/approach
This complex concept needs to be studied from a more interpretivist and ethnographic angle, acknowledging that EE exists within a cultural context. The paper proposes the use of a contemporary, and somewhat contentious, form of ethnography, autoethnography (AE) that weaves together the researcher's personal and participants' experiences to illuminate the phenomenon.
Findings
This paper briefly reviews extant literature on employee engagement, explains autoethnography and argues that AE is a highly suitable method to capture both the individual and social nature of self in employee engagement.
Research limitations/implications
To understand how employee engagement works, we need to get at the depth of the concept, and the paper offers an innovative methodological contribution to achieve this. To date, this approach has received limited attention and only minimal anecdotal evidence is presented to support the argument for AE. However, there is substantial scope for further research adopting this novel, collaborative approach.
Practical implications
An autoethnographic approach provides both emic (insider) and etic (outsider) perspectives on the phenomenon, thus harnessing both the experiences of those involved in AE initiatives (e.g. HR practitioners managing EE and employees being engaged) but also the researcher's experiences and interpretations of being engaged in their work, to elicit more rich, layered insights. Such nuanced understanding can help facilitate more appropriate, authentic and realistic interventions to harness employees' whole self and engagement.
Originality/value
Autoethnography provides an innovative approach to studying employee engagement, offering an appropriate alternative to quantitative, snap-shot studies and is more in keeping with the founding scholar's intentions for research on this topic.