Joanna Latimer, Terence Davis, Mark Bagley and David Kipling
In this paper we present preliminary findings from a study of the social, ethical and cultural aspects of ageing science and medicine. The paper draws on a collaborative, ongoing…
Abstract
In this paper we present preliminary findings from a study of the social, ethical and cultural aspects of ageing science and medicine. The paper draws on a collaborative, ongoing project between life scientists and sociologists, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) New Dynamics of Ageing Programme1 and the ESRC Centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics2. The sociological element of this project involves participant observation and interviews with expert scientists who specialise in ageing and age‐related diseases, both in the UK and the US, as well as interviews with sceptics of ageing science and medicine. There has been much critique of how ageing science is anti‐ageing, reinforcing the ageism prevalent in Western culture. Our specific objective in this paper is to suggest how biogerontology can contribute to the social inclusion of older people, particularly in relation to health care. We discuss how agesim is endemic to some aspects of health care, and go on to show how the ways that biogerontology is reconceptualising what it is to age, and to be old, can help reinclude ageing and the aged in health‐care education, policy and practice.
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Mark Bagley, Terence Davis, Joanna Latimer and David Kipling
Increased longevity is the success story of 20th‐century biomedicine, together with improvements in general living conditions, but it brings great challenges. Although many…
Abstract
Increased longevity is the success story of 20th‐century biomedicine, together with improvements in general living conditions, but it brings great challenges. Although many individuals do undergo what might be termed ‘successful ageing’, this is not a universal experience, for with older age comes a range of age‐related diseases and degenerations that can diminish, if not destroy, quality of life for some older individuals. Biogerontology is the study of the biology of ageing, a normal process but one that has the potential to contribute to age‐related disease. Its goal is to extend the proportion of a life that is healthy, an outcome that is desirable both at an individual and a societal level. One of the great insights from the last decade or more of biogerontology is the realisation that the ageing process is not a fixed, unchangeable process. Rather, it is controlled by genes and is open to experimental interventions that extend healthy lifespan, in species from microbes to mice. These findings have produced a sea change in the way the biogerontological community views ageing: not as a fixed, ‘inevitable’ process, but one where rates of ageing vary enormously according to genotype, and can be readily changed by interventions. This makes the biological process of ageing an attractive target both to understand, and target, age‐related conditions.
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Jacqueline Burgess and Christian Jones
The purpose of this study is to investigate members’ reactions to the forced closure of a narrative video game brand community and its participatory culture.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate members’ reactions to the forced closure of a narrative video game brand community and its participatory culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The BioWare Social Network forums closure was announced in a thread, which attracted 8,891 posts. These were analysed using thematic analysis, facilitated by the software program Leximancer and non-participatory netnography.
Findings
The brand community and participatory culture members were predominantly distressed because they would lose their relationships with each other and access to the participatory culture’s creative output.
Research limitations/implications
Previous research suggested that video game players cannot be fans and that player-generated content is exploitative. However, members, self-identified as fans, encouraged BioWare’s use of their player-created content for financial gain and articulated the community’s marketing benefits, all of which have implications for Fan and Game Studies’ researchers. Research using primary data could identify brand communities and participatory cultures’ specific benefits and their members’ attitudes about brands’ commercial use of their outputs. Further research is required to identify other products and brands not suitable for establishing brand communities on social media to determine the best ways to manage them.
Practical implications
Addressing narrative brand communities’ complaints quickly can prevent negative financial outcomes and using social media sites for brand communities may not be suitable structurally or because of members’ privacy concerns. Furthermore, consumers often have intense emotional bonds with narrative brands, their communities and participatory cultures, which marketers may underestimate or misunderstand.
Originality/value
This study of the unique phenomenon of the forced closure of a narrative brand community and its participatory culture increased understandings about them.
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Małgorzata Fedorowicz-Kruszewska
The objective of the article is to determine the numerical increase in publications on green libraries and the dynamics of its development as well as to determine the thematic…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the article is to determine the numerical increase in publications on green libraries and the dynamics of its development as well as to determine the thematic structure of the scientific literature in the field of green libraries and its changes as a representation of research in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
The research material consisted of publications on green libraries published between 1991 and 2020, indexed in the Web of Science database. The bibliometric method was used to determine the numerical increase in publications on green libraries and the dynamics of its development. In order to characterize the thematic structure of publications representing research in this area, content analysis was performed.
Findings
Quantitative analysis of the literature on green libraries has shown that this is a new area of research not explored with constant intensity. The time of publishing materials on green libraries can be divided into two periods: the so-called period of first publications between 1991 and 2006, and the period between 2007 and 2020, when the number of publications increased relatively systematically. The content analysis confirmed the hypothesis that the most frequent theme is the issue of a green building and its management. It showed that the period after 2010 is the time of building a theoretical framework for a new research field, i.e. green libraries.
Originality/value
The main value of the article is the performance of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the scientific literature indexed in the Web of Science devoted to green libraries, from the moment of the first publications to the present day. The codebook developed for the needs of content analysis can constitute the basis for the development of criteria for the evaluation of green libraries and guidelines for their organization.