Máire O Sullivan and Brendan Richardson
This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the role of consumption communities as a self-help support group to ameliorate loneliness. The authors suggest that the self-help element of consumption communities has been overlooked because of a focus on communities pursuing hegemonic masculinity. Instead, the authors focus on a female-led and – dominated consumption community.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal ethnography was undertaken with the aim of understanding consumer behaviour in a “hyper-feminine” environment. Participant observation, depth interviews and netnography were carried out over five years within the Knitting community, focussing on an Irish Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group.
Findings
A dimension of consumption communities has been overlooked in the extant literature; this female-led and -dominated community functions as a self-help support group used as a “treatment” for loneliness. It also demonstrates all the characteristics of a support group.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers a framework with which new studies of community consumption can be examined or existing studies can be re-examined, through rather than cases of loneliness and self-help support groups.
Practical implications
Marketers have an opportunity to build supportive consumption communities that provide a safe space for support where commerce and brand-building can also occur. Groups aimed at ameliorating loneliness may wish to consider integration of the consumption community model.
Originality/value
Calls have been made for a reconceptualisation of consumption communities as current typologies seem inadequate. This paper responds with a critical examination through the lens of the self-help support group, while also taking steps towards resolving the gender imbalance in the consumption community literature. The paper explores loneliness, a previously underexamined motivator for consumption community membership.
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Brendan H. O’Connor and Layne J. Crawford
While bilinguals frequently mix languages in everyday conversation, these hybrid language practices have often been viewed from a deficit perspective, particularly in classroom…
Abstract
While bilinguals frequently mix languages in everyday conversation, these hybrid language practices have often been viewed from a deficit perspective, particularly in classroom contexts. However, an emerging literature documents the complexity of hybrid language practices and their usefulness as an academic and social resource for bilingual students. This chapter examines hybrid language practices among English- and Spanish-speaking high school students in an astronomy/oceanography classroom in southern Arizona. Microethnography, or fine-grained analysis of video recordings from long-term ethnographic observation, is used to reveal what bilingual students accomplished with hybrid language practices in the classroom and to outline implications for teachers who want to engage their students’ hybrid repertoires. Specifically, the analyses reveal that careful attention to hybrid language practices can provide teachers with insights into students’ academic learning across linguistic codes, their use of language mixing for particular functions, and their beliefs about language and identity. The research is necessarily limited in scope because such in-depth analysis can only be done with a very small amount of data. Nevertheless, the findings affirm that hybrid language practices can enrich classroom discourse, academic learning, and social interaction for emergent bilinguals. The chapter highlights a teacher’s story in order to offer practical guidance to other teachers who seek to capitalize on the promise of hybrid language practices in their own classrooms.
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Robert Griffiths, Jay Probert and Brendan Cropley
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of a foundation degree programme, delivered via a flipped university approach, on student learning, development and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of a foundation degree programme, delivered via a flipped university approach, on student learning, development and employability in the sector of football coaching and development.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method design was adopted, whereby current (n=106) and graduate (n=41) students from the programme completed an online course evaluation questionnaire and then follow-up interviews were conducted with 12 of the initial sample to explore the impact of the programme in more detail.
Findings
Participants reported significant benefits of the flipped university approach on their career development, improvement in their inter- and intra-personal skills (e.g. communication, reflection, confidence) and the acquisition of industry relevant knowledge. Recommendations include a greater provision of tailored study support for individuals and broadening the coaching portfolio of students to help address the diversification in Football Community Trust remits.
Research limitations/implications
This study has indicated that new approaches to student learning and development are better suited to preparing young people for the industry in which they seek to gain employment post-education. Sampling a wider range of student perspectives qualitatively would have provided a more thorough insight into their experiences. However, this provides an avenue for future research that seeks to explore the mechanisms through which such approaches to learning facilitate development.
Originality/value
The novel flipped university concept is one that should be considered as a way of better educating and preparing students for employment in the sports industry. It is an approach that could be explored by a wide range of sectors as an alternative to both campus-based higher education and degree apprenticeships.
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Kumar Krishna Biswas, Brendan Boyle, Sneh Bhardwaj and Parth Patel
The authors' study aims to examine to what extent managerial religiosity does influence human resource (HR) managers' attitudes towards women as managers (ATWM), and whether such…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors' study aims to examine to what extent managerial religiosity does influence human resource (HR) managers' attitudes towards women as managers (ATWM), and whether such posi(nega)tive attitudes can facilitate or impede the adoption of supportive HR practices (SHRP).
Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically examines a theoretical model by employing partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using quantitative survey data from 182 HR managers in Bangladesh.
Findings
The authors' findings reveal that individual religiosity may adversely affect HR managers' attitudes towards recognising women as managers, and such stereotyped attitudes, in turn, may attenuate the adoption of supportive HR practices in organisations operating particularly in highly religious socio-culture environments.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of the authors based on self-report, cross-sectional survey data collected from HR managers/equivalent working in the Bangladeshi organisations may unlikely to predict the ATWM held by the top leaders in organisations and other employees in similar socio-cultural settings.
Practical implications
The authors' findings suggest that religiosity cannot be ignored in management development and recruitment processes for HR managers, particularly in a society characterised by relatively weaker formal institutions and people with a higher degree of religiosity.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt explicating how top management's religiosity interacts with the attitudes towards the acceptance of women as managers and how such attitudes can influence the adoption of supportive HR practices.
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The advent and wide use of new digital technologies suggests that the internet is becoming a powerful new media for the imagination of city space. If this is the case then issues…
Abstract
Purpose
The advent and wide use of new digital technologies suggests that the internet is becoming a powerful new media for the imagination of city space. If this is the case then issues concerning urban representation on social media platforms such as Wikipedia provide an area of overlap and interest between urban studies and information studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the representation of Manila, Philippines, one of the world’s major mega cities, on the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Design/methodology/approach
The author’s broad approach to the study of Wikipedia is qualitative in nature. For this study the entire Metro Manila article was downloaded on March 16, 2015 and subjected to textual analysis.
Findings
While the Wikipedia article on Manila cannot be classified as promotional, it is clear that much of the city remains invisible in this work. Such a puzzle becomes understandable when we examine the urban studies literature where we find that the spatial logic of the city itself helps conceal much from view, so that what we read on Wikipedia is a view from the islands of privilege rather than the oceans of marginalization that make up much of the city’s spatial form. If such a spatial structure is to change, representations such as found on Wikipedia need to be challenged.
Originality/value
Wikipedia is a key element of today’s information infrastructure yet despite its importance it remains relatively understudied within the field of information science. More specifically, the role of Wikipedia in representing cities, the dominant settlement form in the world today, has not been previously studied.
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Brendan Lloyd, Alexandra Blazely and Lisa Phillips
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is reasonably common, particularly among young people with prevalence rates of up to 25 per cent reported. Many factors contribute towards NSSI…
Abstract
Purpose
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is reasonably common, particularly among young people with prevalence rates of up to 25 per cent reported. Many factors contribute towards NSSI, including depression, anxiety and history of abuse and NSSI is a risk factor for suicide. Many people who engage in NSSI do not seek help, potentially due to concern about sigmatising attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of gender and disclosure on stigmatising attitudes towards individuals who engage in NSSI.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 384 first-year university students (77.4 per cent female; mean age 19.50 years (SD=3.53)) who completed measures of stigmatising attitudes in response to vignettes featuring individuals who engaged in self-harming behaviour. Vignettes varied in the gender of the individual as well as whether the NSSI was disclosed or not.
Findings
The results support the attribution model of public discrimination in relation to NSSI stigma. Perceptions of higher personal responsibility for NSSI behaviour and higher levels of danger and manipulation were positively associated with stigmatizing attitudes and behaviours. Male research participants reported significantly higher levels of stigmatizing attitudes and behaviours than females.
Social implications
The level of stigmatising attitudes towards individuals who engage in NSSI is significant and may impact on help-seeking behaviour.
Originality/value
Between 10 and 25 per cent of adolescents engage in some form of NSSI, but only a minority seek help to address this behaviour. This study suggests that attitudes by peers may influence help-seeking. Further research is required outside of tertiary education settings.
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Lawrence Angus, Wendy Sutherland-Smith and Ilana Snyder
Because access to new technologies is unequally distributed, there has been considerable discussion in Australia and elsewhere about the growing gap, the “digital divide,” between…
Abstract
Because access to new technologies is unequally distributed, there has been considerable discussion in Australia and elsewhere about the growing gap, the “digital divide,” between the information-rich and information-poor (Bolt & Crawford, 2000; Castells, 2001; Companie, 2001; Gordon, 2001; Haywood, 1998; Negroponte, 1996; Nixon, 2001). Most schools have incorporated computers and Internet access into classrooms, partly in response to concerns about the gap between technology “haves” and “have nots” (Facer et al., 2001). Such concerns have led to high-profile information technology policy initiatives in the USA (Lentz, 2000; US Department of Commerce, 1999), U.K. (Selwyn, 2000), Australia (Foster, 2000) and other nations. Many families have invested in computer systems at home in order to provide their children with access to the growing body of information available through technology. Similarly, in an attempt to “redress the balance between the information rich and poor” by providing “equal access to the World Wide Web” (Virtual Communities, 2002), the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Virtual Communities (a computer/software distributor) and Primus (an Internet provider) in late 1999 formed an alliance to offer relatively inexpensive computer and Internet access to union members in order to make “technology affordable for all Australians” (Virtual Communities, 2002).
Rob Dixon, John Ritchie and Juliana Siwale
The purpose of this research is to use an accountability framework to explain the emerging tensions in accountability and how an intended bottom‐up approach became progressively…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to use an accountability framework to explain the emerging tensions in accountability and how an intended bottom‐up approach became progressively supplanted. This paper is set within an emerging Zambian microfinance organisation moving into crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of semi‐structured interviews were conducted with key local microfinance specialists, managers and accountants, clients and past and current loan officers. Live observation of the client‐loan officer interface and internal meetings provided triangulation on accountability relationships in the midst of crisis. Data were analysed using NVIVO, a qualitative computer software package.
Findings
The findings show that tensions between vertical and horizontal accountability in practice can be directly translated into heightened pressure and stresses on both the non‐governmental organisation (NGO) and its loan officers, which constrain overall accountabilities to other stakeholders and disguise other potential dysfunctions.
Research limitations/implications
This study focussed on accountability at the grassroots in microfinance NGOs with a social mission. It reveals potential for further personal, community and socially constituted accounting research within microfinance in particular.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the literature on NGO accountability. It will be of value to researchers and practitioners seeking to gain a better understanding of not‐for‐profit organisations whose goals are not primarily wealth creation. It also gives details on under‐researched areas in accounting, namely NGOs and poverty reduction, and practices in Sub‐Saharan Africa.
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Metal saved my life. It is not the first time and it probably will not be the last. The death of my mother when I was twenty-one meant that I was alone, and if it had not been for…
Abstract
Metal saved my life. It is not the first time and it probably will not be the last. The death of my mother when I was twenty-one meant that I was alone, and if it had not been for metal, my grieving process may have been the end of my story. The death, of course, is one thing, but mourning is something that surfaces many years after the event. If I had not bought my first guitar the year she died, the last nineteen years of my life would follow a very different narrative.
I firmly believe that metal and metal performance prevented my suicide and any plans for revenge. It matched my pain, sonically, texturally, musically and aesthetically. It initiated a cathartic process that I have returned to since, because it offers me emotional and psychological balance that other music forms do not. This may be a purely subjective engagement, but that is precisely the point.
Remembering this time in my life is not easy, and can often come in hesitations, blanks and painful memories. By using interpretive performance autoethnography, a methodology that Laurel Richardson calls CAP or creative analytic practice (Richardson, 2000, p. 929) means:
[it] allows the researcher to take up a person’s life in its immediate particularity and to ground the life in its historical moment. We move back and forth in time, using a version of Sartre’s progressive-regressive method. Interpretation works forward to the conclusion of a set of acts taken up by the subject while working back in time, interrogating the historical, cultural, and biographical conditions that moved the person to experience the events being studied
Through this methodological application, this paper seeks to analyse how metal and metal performance helped me write my trauma into a performing life that ultimately liberated me from my grief.