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While a considerable amount of knowledge has been accumulated about dispute causation, disputes continue to prevail and disharmonise the process of construction with considerable cost. This paper seeks to identify the underlying pathogens that clients and contractors perceive to contribute to disputes in construction projects. The identification of pathogens can provide an ameliorated understanding of the origin of disputes and therefore enable their prevention.

Case law and focus groups with a client and contracting organisation from Western Australia are used to determine the pathogens of disputes.

Analysis of the case law findings revealed that the underlying issues that were brought to litigation were to do with points of law, namely “civil procedure”. A significant number of disputes are thus settled using alternative dispute resolution methods such as adjudication, arbitration and mediation. For clients the underlying latent conditions that resulted in a dispute were due to the nature of the task being performed (e.g. failure to detect and correct errors) and those arising from people's deliberate practices (e.g. failure to oblige by contractual requirements). For the contractor focus group the circumstances arising from the situation or environment the project was operating in were identified as the main underlying latent condition for disputes (e.g. unforeseen scope changes).

Focus groups are only undertaken with clients and contracting groups as they were identified as the main parties involved in dispute during the analysis of litigation cases within Western Australia. Input from consultants and subcontractors may provide a more balanced perspective as to the perceived causes and costs of disputes.

The research has been able to provide the initial building blocks for understanding the underlying pathogens contributing to disputes. However, more empirical research is required before conclusive findings can be made, particularly with regard to the influences on subcontractors.

A considerable amount of research has been undertaken with regard to the dispute causation within construction project management. Research has eschewed identifying the interrelatedness of variables, which has blurred researchers understanding of dispute causation and lead to latent work practices being embedded within the contracting environment within which projects are procured. With this in mind, this paper attempts to identify the underlying dynamics influencing disputes through the use of causal modeling.

Using the concept of system dynamics a series of causal models are developed from the literature to demonstrate the complexity associated with dispute causation.

It is revealed that project management, organization and people are the main sources of disputes. Causal models are constructed for each of these constructs and a series of strategies for avoiding disputations identified.

The research has demonstrated the inherent complexity associated with disputes and identified the interrelatedness of factors that can lead to their causation. It is suggested that further empirical research is required to determine the recurring latent conditions that contribute disputes. Once these conditions are examined then effective strategies for dispute avoidance can be identified and advancement toward improving the performance of construction projects made.

Sociology has a long and ambivalent relationship with the literary and aesthetic form. Commonsense readings of the novel assume its unproblematic structure as a linear narrative. Yet every novel alerts its readers to the constructed nature of social reality and identifies many of the effects of power, privilege, gender, class, desire, resistance, subversion and so on. As such a novel has the capacity to force a confrontation with fundamental, and Jameson (1981) would suggest, enduring human concerns. The novel can strip away a sense of familiarity with everyday habits, and in so doing, it can replicate the sociological process of denaturalization or defamiliarization, and allow the reader to see how ideas come to circulate, dominate and frame the ordinary world. Accordingly, David Lodge comes to the conclusion that “narrative is one of the fundamental human tools for making sense of the world.”

By examining a controversial and much debated novel like American Psycho around which a great deal of social commentary already exists, and by applying the arguments of Lodge, Jameson and others, we understand better how a work of art simultaneously functions as a deconstructive tool of the social. On this basis, when American Psycho generated a great deal of cultural anxiety in the cultural commentators of the day, it suggests that it had succeeded in denaturalizing the world, and in revealing the residual violence in an affluent, comfortable citizenry that was not expected to harbor such hostilities. American Psycho presented a disturbing “symptomatology of the times.” This capacity of the popular novel to inform on the zeitgeist makes an author such as Bret Easton Ellis a maven of our times whose products we should thus incorporate into the conceptual tool kit of any formal human studies.

This article explores the changing nature of social media use as a public engagement tool by police services.

A comprehensive review is conducted of academic studies from criminology and policing journals. Sources are identified from key academic databases and are analysed in relation to three decades (2000–2009, 2010–2019 and 2020 to present) to show how the use of social media has changed over time.

The way in which social media is used in policing has changed considerably over time. From initial enthusiasm, it is found that there is growing scepticism in the use of social media as a public engagement tool. After an initial proliferation in use, there is then increasing consolidation and control in response to concerns about reputational risk.

The research highlights underlying dynamics of engagement and retrenchment, which offer important insights for how we understand public engagement and value creation in policing and emergency services more generally. We draw on academic research from English-language academic journals, but we have endeavoured to include research from the broadest possible range of countries.

This study demonstrates how the police and other public services must respond to the growing use of social media by the public to maximise value creation whilst minimising the threats that come from potential value destruction.

This study is the first to comprehensively review the policing and criminology literature related to social media and to apply a public engagement lens to this analysis.

The treatment and placement of transgender individuals within the UK prison system has garnered considerable political and media attention. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the experiences of three transgender women located within a male, category C prison in England.

Participants were interviewed and their accounts analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Three overarching themes emerged from the data set: participants’ experiences of transition; their identity within custody and the challenges associated with presenting as female within a male establishment; and what they perceived as their fight against the prison system which encompassed a fight for their rights alongside a daily struggle against harassment, victimisation and discrimination.

Three participants were interviewed which impacts the generalisability of the findings. Implications link to the care and management of transgender prisoners.

The care and management of transgender prisoners is a complex issue. This paper contributes to the discussion on how best to support and care for this group of service users who are arguably amongst the most vulnerable within the prison system.

Findings are discussed in relation to policy, management and safeguarding of transgender prisoners within the UK prison system. Recommendations are made regarding their placement and management in prison.

There are limited accounts from transgender prisoners regarding their experiences in prison. This paper aims to address that gap.

Following previous research highlighting the importance of gastronomy experience through cooking classes, this study aims to explore the relationships among gastronomy experience, cocreation, experience satisfaction, subjective well-being (SWB) and quality of life (QOL).

Data were obtained from domestic tourists who attended the Korean temple food cooking classes. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to verify the hypothesized relationships. The degree of cocreation was also tested for its potential moderating role on the relationships between gastronomy experience and experience satisfaction using a multigroup analysis.

Results revealed the strong and positive effects of the four dimensions of gastronomy experience on satisfaction. Furthermore, experience satisfaction was found to indirectly influence QOL through SWB. The effects of the education and entertainment experiences on satisfaction were found to be more positive in the high degree of cocreation group compared with the low degree of cocreation group. However, the influence of the escapism experience on satisfaction was greater in those less involved with the cocreated experiential activity.

Findings may assist tourism marketers and local stakeholders to better understand the nature of gastronomy experiences and the importance of cocreation when designing and promoting gastronomy tourism experiences.

This study introduced an integrative framework that provides a better knowledge of the cocreated experience in the context of gastronomy tourism, and this model may be useful in designing impactful gastronomy experiences that lead to true value cocreation and consequently enhancing QOL.