Search results

People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) typically present with co-occurring communication difficulties. Research indicates that cognitive-linguistic impairment is predictive of poor health literacy, which can preclude individuals from developing a comprehensive understanding of their health, care and treatment needs. People accessing forensic intellectual and developmental disability (FIDD) services are more likely to engage meaningfully in treatment and rehabilitation only if they feel empowered to play active roles in their own care. Delivering proposed treatment programmes in an accessible format, which meets their language needs, is likely to promote this.

This paper aims to describe the development and evaluation of an easy read version of the “Ten point treatment programme” within an inpatient FIDD service. An expert panel comprising speech and language therapists and education professionals utilised a quality improvement method to develop this. Patients and staff evaluated this resource and gave feedback through surveys or meetings. The resource was refined based on responses, and a final version produced.

The easy-read Ten-Point Treatment programme resource was considered valuable by patients and staff from this service.

Future research should seek to pilot this resource, to explore alternative multi-modal means of accessible information provision coproduced at every level and to examine ways in which this resource could be incorporated within health-care consultations. Another research direction will be to assess the impact of this resource on comprehension, drawing upon objective, previously validated measures.

Provision of an easy-read version of the Ten-Point Treatment Programme may support individuals with communication difficulties to understand health and care information relevant to their inpatient admission and may empower them to take more active roles in their treatment pathway. It is important to acknowledge, however, that easy read is not an accessible means of information provision for all individuals with ID and that the empirical evidence for its impact is limited.

This is the first published attempt to evaluate the acceptability of an easy-read version of the Ten-Point Treatment Programme within an inpatient FIDD service in the UK.

Since its introduction by Anthony Giddens in the early 1980s, the use of the concept of “agency” as a way to accommodate an irreducible element of voluntarism into sociological explanations has grown exponentially in the literature. In this chapter, we examine the most prominent theoretical justifications for adopting the notion of “agency” as an integral part of such explanations. We distinguish three broad sets of justifications: the meaningfulness/intentionality of social action, the need for “agency” to explain change in social structures, and the link between agency, social accountability, and human dignity. We find that none of these provides a convincing rationale for the analytical utility of agency. This raises the question of what work it actually does perform in the sociological literature.

This work examines the impact of financialization and vertical integration on renter-perceived property owner effectiveness.

Based on a sample of 1,186 renters in the US, the UK and Canada, the research addresses gaps in the literature regarding the implications of financialization and vertical integration on renters.

In contrast to previous work that shows the negative implications of financialization, the results indicate that financialization is positively correlated with renter-perceived property owner effectiveness, challenging the prevailing narrative that it strictly benefits shareholders and the financial elite. Vertical integration’s effect on renter-perceived property owner effectiveness was also shown to be positive and significant, enhancing the existing vertical integration literature that has not focused on real estate. A post-hoc interaction analysis revealed the benefits of vertical integration on renter sentiment are greater among highly financialized firms.

The study offers managerial considerations for property owners seeking to enhance renter sentiment and satisfaction as well as contributes to real estate strategy and management literature.

These results are novel, as previous research has not empirically shown financialization to elicit benefits for broader stakeholder groups.

Safety, one of the basic human needs for existence, is a very important factor in achieving a successful urban space. A lack of its presence could make it challenging for residents of a place to live and function effectively. Therefore, this study aims to identify the urban design attributes that would potentially enhance the perceived sense of safety, mainly focusing on two case studies in El-Sherouk neighborhood in Cairo. The two selected case studies are considered car-oriented due to their reduced levels of safety.

This study was conducted through a set of data collection phases from field surveys and survey questionnaires that infer the influence of the surrounding urban environment on a specific target group. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical analysis tool was used to analyze data collected from survey questionnaires.

Finally, by the end of this research, a set of urban design qualities vital for achieving the desired levels of safety were introduced. The findings of this study revealed key urban design qualities that can potentially contribute to enhancing the perceived sense of safety as they showed a strong positive correlation: (1) imageability, (2) transparency, (3) complexity and (4) human scale and enclosure. Moreover, multiple linear regression indicates that urban design qualities are strong predictors of perceived safety.

This study presents a holistic approach to studying the relationship between urban design and perceived safety by examining two case studies located in El-Sherouk City in Cairo, Egypt. While previous research has focused on one theory of safety design such as crime prevention, defensible space theory, eyes on the street or safer city centers, this article tries to fill in the gap in the literature by analyzing all aspects of urban design and its correlation to an enhanced perceived safety. In addition, most of the previous studies have tackled the safety aspects of old urban settlements. However, this study tackles a new urban settlement.

Hazing, a practice where existing group members subject newcomers to humiliation, embarrassment or abuse, is often perceived as either violent or harmless fun. Regardless of its nature, all forms of hazing carry a significant risk of harm. The dual-factor model of mental health provides a framework for understanding this harm. This model posits that mental health and mental illness, while related, are not identical. In other words, individuals need more than just the absence of mental illness to thrive; they also require positive mental health. This chapter seeks to apply the dual-factor model to the context of hazing. It will first introduce the model of mental health, followed by an exploration of how violent hazing can potentially lead to mental illness. It will also examine how hazing, even when perceived as harmless fun, can result in languishing mental health. This chapter will conclude with recommendations and strategies to foster safe and caring organisational environments. The goal is to create spaces where all members can participate and flourish without the fear of harm, thereby promoting both individual and collective well-being.

The use of the concept of “agency,” in the sense of action that is to some extent free of “structural” constraints, has enjoyed enormous and growing popularity in the sociological literature over the past several decades. In a previous paper, we examined the range of theoretical rationales offered by sociologists for the inclusion of the notion of “agency” in sociological explanations. Having found these rationales seriously wanting, in this paper we attempt to determine empirically what role “agency” actually plays in the recent sociological literature. We examine a random sample of 147 articles in sociology journals that use the concept of “agency” with the aim of identifying the ways in which the term is used and what function the concept serves in the sociological explanations offered. We identify four principal (often overlapping) uses of “agency”: (1) purely descriptive; (2) as a synonym for “power”; (3) as a way to identify resistance to “structural” pressures; and (4) as a way to describe intelligible human actions. We find that in none of these cases the notion of “agency” adds anything of analytical or explanatory value. These different uses have one thing in common, however: they all tend to use the term “agency” in a strongly normative sense to mark the actions the authors approve of. We conclude that “agency” seems to serve the purpose of registering the authors' moral or political preferences under the guise of a seemingly analytical concept.

Over the past decade, the popularity of authoritarian governments and/or authoritarian leaning leaders has steadily grown. Much of the acceptance of and/or allegiance to such forms of leadership and governance structures stems from a rightward shift among voting blocs, who are increasingly comfortable with nationalist, nativist, and insular arguments in an effort to ensure a sense of stability and safety. In scholarly circles, there has been a parallel rise with scholars increasingly using decolonial theories, research, and practices in an effort to destabilize norms of colonial, Western, and patriarchal knowledge creation and dissemination. These two movements might, on the outside, appear to be disconnected but are in fact coupled together in ways that can constrain progressive movements around human rights, education and justice. The paper frames a selection of political battles in education to highlight the emergence, journey, and outcomes that have led to the successful rise of right-wing ideologies in education as well as offer a critique on the ambiguity inherent in decolonial theories that impede current decolonizing ways of knowing. These ambiguities exacerbate the emergence of a neo-decolonial perspective. This exploration of a neo-decolonial narrative is predicated on the evolution and co-option of the public space, or argued by Habermas, the “bourgeois public sphere.” This shift often leaves the liberal, progressive, and human rights-orientated individuals out of the dialogue on the future of education, in part, readying a public willing to engage in new forms of decolonial thinking, resulting in more sophisticated right-wing intersections in policy and practice that directly affect educational equity and access.

This study aims to explore blockchain potential for digital marketing (BlkChn-Mk-KAP) by developing and validating a measurement model for assessing the constructs of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) related to blockchain technology in digital marketing.

A four-study process was used. The first study reviewed the literature to develop a pool of possible measurement items. Using exploratory factor analysis and reliability assessments, Study 2 (n = 162) investigated the dimensionality of the items developed in Study 1. The factorial structure from Study 2 was validated in Study 3 (n = 204), and the measurement model invariance was assessed using covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM). Finally, in Study 4 (n = 203), the predictive validity of the BlkChn-Mk-KAP was tested using a CB-SEM approach, testing its constructs correlations with the perceived usefulness of blockchain for digital marketing.

The findings indicate that the BlkChn-Mk-KAP measurement model comprises three-dimensional multi-item scales: knowledge, attitude and practice.

This study introduces a promising BlkChn-Mk-KAP model to examine blockchain’s role in digital marketing. The authors acknowledge the sampling limitation in this research. To enhance the generalisability of the findings, future research should expand to different groups, including generation, gender and age. In addition, further exploration of the explicit links between blockchain knowledge, attitudes and subsequent digital marketing performance is warranted.

Educating employees about blockchain technology’s unique features can shape favourable attitudes and stimulate the utilisation of blockchain-enabled technologies in digital marketing practice. BlkChn-Mk-KAP can offer a reliable and valid instrument to benchmark marketers’ KAP of blockchain-powered digital marketing as they implement blockchain technology to gain a competitive advantage.

This study helps to adopt sustainable practices ensuring the wellbeing of the key stakeholders.

This research introduces the first validated conceptualisation and measurement model, BlkChn-Mk-KAP, to evaluate blockchain KAPs among digital marketing professionals.

Dark tourism is a new coinage rooted in the perception of tourism activities at the sites or destinations connected to phenomena that bear varied, flexible, dynamic, diverse, and graded dark shades of life and civilization. It is now customary to subsume it within the sets of niche tourism. Some dark tourism sites attract visitors and generate sizable amounts of revenue, yet most of the world does not register much demand compared to other niches. Accordingly, promotion pursuit turned crucial to draw the market’s attention, creating its competitively distinct position.

Indeed, inherent issues, such as conceptual multiplicity within nature, aspect, attribute, and product paradigm, turn dark tourism into a complex phenomenon and put a challenge toward creating its distinct market position. Additionally, contradictions in semantic and functional significances, conflicts in framing morbid memory and authentic portrayal, variances in ethical, cultural and ideological interpretations, transition of liminal space identity, and diverse focuses in stakeholder engagement in imaging impede efforts to transform dark tourism attractions into a significant driver of tourism.

This chapter will locate and address the issues that challenge the marketability of dark attractions and dark tourism promotion more directly, with attention to the Indian context.

The impact of climate change (CC) has become the most defining issue of the present times. From an increase in temperature to food and water scarcity, the adverse effect of CC is faced globally by all countries on an unprecedented level. Environmentally polluting industries are considered one of the primary contributors to the problem of CC. This chapter aims to provide an understanding of the emerging global threat of CC and various strategies that environmentally polluting firms could undertake to tackle the climate change crisis.

Based on the review of the literature, this chapter presents deliberation on the climate change crisis and various strategies for environmentally polluting industries to tackle CC issues.

This chapter presents a bird's eye view of the CC issue and various strategies that could be undertaken by environmentally polluting industries to address the CC crisis.

This chapter should be very useful for policymakers, practitioners and corporations to understand the issue of climate change and global warming and its implications. Further, it will also help polluting companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and address the adverse impact of their business activities.

Considering the dearth of sector-specific studies based on climate change, this chapter is one of the few studies that explore CC strategies in the context of polluting industries.