Kahilu Kajimo‐Shakantu and Kathy Evans
The purpose of this research is to explore the possibility of integrating women‐centred savings schemes into formal finance systems in order to help such schemes to leverage…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the possibility of integrating women‐centred savings schemes into formal finance systems in order to help such schemes to leverage finance for housing purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopts a case study approach that uses mainly semi‐structured interviews. The case studies involve two savings schemes with their respective supporting organisations and five commercial banks in South Africa.
Findings
The case studies show that, if savings systems are flexible and suitable to their needs, women are capable of saving and repaying housing loans. The results also suggest that the accumulated group savings and the savings schemes themselves act as good collateral. However, despite showing interest in involvement in the low‐income sector, banks do not have a financially viable and workable business model to exploit this potential market.
Research limitations/implications
Integrated community housing is essential. Future research is required to determine how good repayment rates could be achieved while maintaining risks at acceptable levels.
Practical implications
For practical purposes, collaboration with intermediary organisations working with women‐centred savings schemes would be a beneficial starting point in linking the savings schemes with formal finance systems.
Originality/value
The paper provides valuable reference material for understanding the gap that exists between what banks currently offer and what poor households require in meeting their housing needs. It may also be useful to researchers and practitioners as a basis for exploring innovative finance models for banks.
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This chapter examines the definitions of bullying used by students and adults in elementary schools and the effects that these definitions had within the broader school culture.
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter examines the definitions of bullying used by students and adults in elementary schools and the effects that these definitions had within the broader school culture.
Design/methodology/approach
I combine interviews with 53 students and 10 adults and over 430 hours of participant observation with fifth grade students at two rural elementary schools.
Findings
Definitions of bullying held by those in these schools typically differed from those used by researchers. Even when individuals held definitions that were in line with those used by researchers, however, a focus on identifying bullies rather than on behaviors that fit definitions of bullying contributed to a school culture in which negative interactions were normalized and student reports of these behaviors were discouraged.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to two elementary schools in the rural Midwest and cannot be seen as representative of all schools. Support for my findings from other research combined with similar definitions and school cultures in both schools, however, suggest that these definitions and practices are part of a broader cultural context of bullying in the United States.
Practical implications
These findings suggest that schools might be better served by focusing less on labels like “bully” and more on particular behaviors that are to be taken seriously by students, teachers, staff members, and principals.
Originality/value
Although other researchers have studied definitions of bullying, none have combined these definitions with observational data on the broader school contexts in which those definitions are created and used.
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In public health and sustainable transport campaigns, walking is positioned as an important way families can become more active, fit and spend quality time together. However, few…
Abstract
In public health and sustainable transport campaigns, walking is positioned as an important way families can become more active, fit and spend quality time together. However, few studies specifically examine how family members move together on-foot and how this is constitutive of individual and collective familial identities. Combining the notion of a feminist ethics of care with assemblage thinking, the chapter offers the notion of the familial walking assemblage as a way to consider the careful doing of motherhood, childhood and family on-foot. Looking at the walking experiences of mothers and children living in the regional city of Wollongong, Australia, the chapter explores how the provisioning and enactment of care is deeply embedded in the becoming of family on-the-move. The chapter considers interrelated moments of care – becoming prepared, together, watchful, playful, ‘grown up’ and frustrated – where mothers and children make sense of and enact their familial subjectivities. It is through these moments that the family as a performative becoming, that is always in motion, becomes visible. The chapter aims to provide further insights into the embodied experience of walking for families in order to better inform campaigns which encourage walking.
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Rosemary Loomis, Joe Jaros, Kathy Jackson and Charles Gilreath
Reference tools are prime candidates for replacement with their electronic counterparts, since finding the desired information in the shortest possible time and with the least…
Abstract
Reference tools are prime candidates for replacement with their electronic counterparts, since finding the desired information in the shortest possible time and with the least possible effort is the primary concern of users of reference tools. Electronic versions of reference sources often provide enhanced access, as well as more definitive searching techniques. This article will describe two attempts made by the Evans Library at Texas A&M University to substitute reference tools with their electronic equivalents: one that failed from an economic standpoint and one that succeeded, attaining good user acceptance and reasonable costs.
Almudena Otegui Carles, José Antonio Fraiz Brea and Noelia Araújo Vila
It is imperative to develop studies on robotics through a gender lens, as gender equality is crucial for advancing innovations within the field of tourism and hospitality. This…
Abstract
Purpose
It is imperative to develop studies on robotics through a gender lens, as gender equality is crucial for advancing innovations within the field of tourism and hospitality. This paper aims to open new research questions based on the concept of gender stereotypes in robotics in the field of tourism and hospitality, critically examining how gender and gender stereotypes are being addressed in the current state of knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual papers focus on analysing concepts, approaching problems to address “what’s new” and highlighting directions for future thinking. They contribute fresh perspectives to traditional problems. Despite their potential to broaden our thinking, conceptual papers in tourism research are limited.
Findings
The importance of the concept of gender stereotypes in robotics in the field of tourism and hospitality presented in this conceptual paper is evident in recognising that robotics poses numerous ethical challenges aimed at preventing the replication and perpetuation of gendered norms, biases, prejudices and stereotypes prevalent in society. Overlooking these aspects during the design and utilisation of robots could inadvertently amplify discriminatory biases, enable abusive behaviours and contribute to the continued objectification of female workers within the tourism and hospitality sector.
Originality/value
While the concept of gender stereotypes in robotics is not novel, what is indeed novel is the untested relationship between gender stereotypes in robotics and the field of tourism and hospitality. Additionally, the context in which this relationship is presented is fresh, as it has typically been discussed in relation to customer acceptance, believability, perceived quality or satisfaction in interactions with robots. However, this paper’s distinctiveness lies in its exploration of the potential impact of robotics on either reducing or exacerbating gender stereotypes within society.
研究目的
通过性别视角研究机器人技术是至关重要的, 因为性别平等对于推动旅游和酒店业的创新至关重要。本文的目标是基于旅游和酒店业机器人中的性别刻板印象这一概念, 提出新的研究问题, 批判性地审视当前知识状态中如何处理性别及性别刻板印象。
研究方法
概念性论文侧重于分析概念, 提出问题以解决“有什么新意”, 并指出未来思考的方向。它们为传统问题提供了新视角。尽管它们有潜力拓宽我们的思维, 但在旅游研究中, 概念性论文仍较为有限。
研究发现
本文提出的关于旅游与酒店业机器人性别刻板印象这一概念的重要性在于, 认识到机器人技术带来了诸多伦理挑战, 旨在防止复制和延续社会中普遍存在的性别规范、偏见、成见和刻板印象。在设计和使用机器人时忽视这些方面, 可能会无意中放大歧视性偏见, 助长不良行为, 并继续物化旅游和酒店业中的女性员工。
研究创新
尽管机器人中的性别刻板印象并非新概念, 但新颖之处在于尚未验证机器人性别刻板印象与旅游和酒店业之间的关系。此外, 讨论这一关系的语境也是全新的, 通常这类讨论围绕客户接受度、可信度、感知质量或与机器人互动的满意度展开。然而, 本论文的独特性在于探索机器人技术对减少或加剧社会中的性别刻板印象的潜在影响。
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Alan A. Acosta and Kathy L. Guthrie
Research on college student leadership is evolving, with more scholars studying the influence of social identities on the development of student leaders. The evolving literature…
Abstract
Research on college student leadership is evolving, with more scholars studying the influence of social identities on the development of student leaders. The evolving literature includes research on how race influences the leadership identity development of college students, which can support their retention and graduation from postsecondary institutions. Gaps exist in the literature on how the definitions of leaders and leadership influences leadership identity development for many social identities in numerous institutional contexts, including for Latino men. Using a case study methodology, we studied the how definitions of leaders and leadership influenced the leadership identity development of Latino men and how that influenced their placement in the LID model (Komives et al., 2005). Thirteen Latino men in the Southeastern U.S. were interviewed. Participants’ definitions and perspectives of leaders and leadership placed them all in the Leader Identified stage of the LID model. Implications for leadership educators regarding practice and research are provided.
Research on mentorship has been dominated by the West and little is known about the cultural variations of the mentoring phenomenon in Asian countries. A richer understanding of…
Abstract
Research on mentorship has been dominated by the West and little is known about the cultural variations of the mentoring phenomenon in Asian countries. A richer understanding of the cultural context that is more attuned to mentoring experience in Asia can help to improve workplace experience, in general, for those working in and for those who intend to work in the region. This chapter captures the important theoretical lenses in the mentoring literature, and also provides a clear demarcation between negative mentoring and dysfunctional mentoring. This is followed by contextualizing mentoring as per four of Hofstede's six cultural dimensions by dwelling on mentoring experience in countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It is hoped that this chapter will pave the way for further research, which may be a precursor for theory development.
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Constructivist grounded theory method (GTM) as outlined by Kathy Charmaz has its explicit roots in the American pragmatism and symbolic interactionism primarily developed at the…
Abstract
Constructivist grounded theory method (GTM) as outlined by Kathy Charmaz has its explicit roots in the American pragmatism and symbolic interactionism primarily developed at the University of Chicago during the early and mid-twentieth century. Symbolic interactionism considers people as active and interpretative agents who co-construct selves, identities, meanings, social actions, social worlds, and societies through interactions. Charmaz argues that symbolic interactionism is an open-ended theoretical perspective that fosters studying action, process, and meanings, with a focus on how people co-construct and negotiate meanings, orders, and actions in their everyday lives. In this chapter, I argue that constructivist GTM, including its theory-method package built upon symbolic interactionism and the Chicago School tradition, can be further combined with the new sociology of childhood to study children's social worlds and negotiated meanings, orders, and actions.