We plan to include in each future issue something on opportunities in education. This time, Tracey Austin and Liam Dolan write about an unusual partnership between a college and a…
Abstract
We plan to include in each future issue something on opportunities in education. This time, Tracey Austin and Liam Dolan write about an unusual partnership between a college and a psychiatric hospital. Tracey Austin is Education Editor for A life in the day and she would be delighted to discuss articles for inclusion in future issues. She can be contacted at Sandwell College, telephone: 0121‐556 6000.
Christina Goulding and Maud Derbaix
This paper aims to examine how and why an “old” technology and mode of consumption – vinyl records, which should have become obsolete – has managed not only to survive but also…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how and why an “old” technology and mode of consumption – vinyl records, which should have become obsolete – has managed not only to survive but also revive in the face of supposedly cheaper and superior digital formats.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used constructivist grounded theory (CGT), a methodology rooted in pragmatism. The authors acknowledge the primacy of relational, conversational and social practices as the source of individual and social life, and that all knowledge is local and the product of negotiation between people within a given context and time frame. In terms of data, the authors draw on the extensive use of memos and participatory observation at the oldest vinyl record store in the UK. The authors also draw on interviews with the store owner and workers and in-depth interviews with vinyl enthusiasts.
Findings
The authors argue that authenticity is not a fixed and static concept but has fluid and porous boundaries that can be experienced by individuals in different situations. The findings center around three experiences of authenticity – staged authenticity, interpersonal authenticity and intrapersonal/existential authenticity.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited to a specific market, typical of old or second-hand vinyl consumption. Future research would benefit from broadening the sample to include new consumers and female enthusiasts of both old and new vinyl.
Practical implications
The paper has implications for consumer service and personal selling relationships.
Originality/value
Originality lies in theoretically positioning the phenomenon within a conceptual framework of authenticity. In particular, the authors shed light on the role that authenticity plays in the experiences of vinyl music consumption amongst buyers and sellers in a store that has a long established heritage. The authors find that vinyl in the age of digital reproduction retains and maintains a number of qualities that are missing from allegedly superior forms of musical reproduction. The authors further maintain that as it has aged, original vinyl has taken on greater power and meaning, and now that it is out of the realm of mass production/consumption, it has opened up a deeper more authentic interaction between human beings and technology. This deeper interaction goes beyond the immediate experience with the object itself and extends to the sensorial, the social and the personal.
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This article presents a General Theory of Social Systems. This general theory proposes a model and method for the design, behaviour, and development of social systems. The model…
Abstract
This article presents a General Theory of Social Systems. This general theory proposes a model and method for the design, behaviour, and development of social systems. The model advanced is an exposition of the universal composition of social systems in three‐dimensions. The accompanying prescribed method offers dissection and analysis of past, present, and planned systems from Micro to Meta scales in isolation and relation to external systems.
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THE popular image of Ireland is of a land where one can enjoy the perfect holiday. If you are a golfer, fisherman, rambler or if you just enjoy good food and of course the black…
Abstract
THE popular image of Ireland is of a land where one can enjoy the perfect holiday. If you are a golfer, fisherman, rambler or if you just enjoy good food and of course the black nectar for which it is famous, then Ireland is the place to go, take the word of TV Chef, Keith Floyd. Ireland however, unlike many small countries, is not content to base its economy on tourism.
Purpose – This chapter examines the role of the media, guns, and violence in the social construction of masculinity in today's mediatized American culture.Methodology – The…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter examines the role of the media, guns, and violence in the social construction of masculinity in today's mediatized American culture.
Methodology – The chapter draws on critical theory and cultural studies to address crises of masculinity and school shootings. It applies and further develops Guy Debord's (1970) theory on spectacle in the contexts of contemporary violent media spectacles.
Findings – In the chapter it is argued that school shooters, and other indiscriminate gun killers, share male rage and attempts to resolve crises of masculinity through violent behavior; exhibit a fetishism of guns or weapons; and resolve their crises through violence orchestrated as a media spectacle. This demands growing awareness of mediatization of American gun culture, and calls for a need for more developed understanding of media pedagogy as a means to create cultural skills of media literacy, as well as arguing for more rational gun control and mental health care.
Originality/value of paper – The chapter contributes to the contemporary debate on mediatization of violence by discussing it within critical theory and cultural studies. The theoretical framework is applied to analysis of a range of different empirical cases ranging from school shootings to the Colorado movie theater massacre at the first night of the latest Batman movie in the summer of 2012.
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When Rambo Last Blood hit the screens in 2019 to an almost unanimous thumbs down from the critics, it seemed as if Sylvester Stallone's ‘last outing’ as his iconic action hero…
Abstract
When Rambo Last Blood hit the screens in 2019 to an almost unanimous thumbs down from the critics, it seemed as if Sylvester Stallone's ‘last outing’ as his iconic action hero, John Rambo was to bow out with more of a violent whimper than a spectacular bang. But action heroes never really do know when to quit. There is always one last mission to undertake. In an online interview in September 2019, Stallone indicated that Rambo 6 could well be on the cards. This chapter will discuss not only ideas about ‘Rambo’ as a character and his character arc, but posit the idea that Stallone, through the process of gerontology, has moved through the decades to become not a simplification or distillation of a cinematic action hero, but rather a much more complex one that asks questions about the politics of the era, masculinity, fragility and ageing.
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Andrea Lučić and Marija Uzelac
This study aims to explore possible behavioural change venues, beyond the traditional approach to financial education, using the capability-opportunity-motivation behaviour…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore possible behavioural change venues, beyond the traditional approach to financial education, using the capability-opportunity-motivation behaviour theoretical framework of behavioural change.
Design/methodology/approach
The study included 45, semi-structured, in-depth interviews of young adults to explore which elements of financial behaviour formation should interventions target to be effective.
Findings
To strengthen capability, the study recommends behavioural education and training for boosting financial knowledge and skills, enablement of financial independence and modelling for empowering self-control and reducing impulsiveness. To boost motivation, gamification of modelling is advised for boosting responsible financial behaviour as part of the identity and inducing consideration of future consequences. Persuasion is advised for inducing positive emotions while incentivization and coercion are advised for empowering self-conscious intentions. To rise opportunity, the study proposes incentivization and coercion imposed by parents, and governmental efforts regarding restriction, enablement and environmental restructuring.
Practical implications
The study brings recommendations for developing efficient interventions for strengthening responsible financial behaviour that may help design type-specific education programmes to promote responsible financial behaviour.
Originality/value
The present study attempts to explore new venues in intervention design that break away from the traditional approach of financial education focused on knowledge and skills that is proven to be ineffective
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
Cognitive computing is part of AI and cognitive applications consists of cognitive services, which are building blocks of the cognitive systems. These applications mimic the human…
Abstract
Cognitive computing is part of AI and cognitive applications consists of cognitive services, which are building blocks of the cognitive systems. These applications mimic the human brain functions, for example, recognize the speaker, sense the tone of the text. On this paper, we present the similarities of these with human cognitive functions. We establish a framework which gathers cognitive functions into nine intentional processes from the substructures of the human brain. The framework, underpins human cognitive functions, and categorizes cognitive computing functions into the functional hierarchy, through which we present the functional similarities between cognitive service and human cognitive functions to illustrate what kind of functions are cognitive in the computing. The results from the comparison of the functional hierarchy of cognitive functions are consistent with cognitive computing literature. Thus, the functional hierarchy allows us to find the type of cognition and reach the comparability between the applications.