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The paper aims to rediscover the subtle heart and discuss its importance in relation to conversations regarding sustainability.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to rediscover the subtle heart and discuss its importance in relation to conversations regarding sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the imaginal approach of the author’s doctoral research, this paper is informed by the discourse of transpersonal psychology, attempting to open a space through which it becomes possible to perceive the heart differently.
Findings
This paper discusses the idea that knowledge as generated through the heart has been rendered subservient to knowledge generated through the mind/brain through a dominant/medical narrative (Bound Alberti, 2012). This means that the heart’s wisdom and the heart’s benevolent qualities cannot gain traction at the level at which decisions are made in society.
Research limitations/implications
While the heart is not unproblematic, and can carry notions of moral superiority, this paper is written as an appeal to create safe enough spaces to bring the heart back into conversation at the level of political discourse.
Practical implications
This paper suggests that it is the approach of the heart, the qualities and characteristics that the heart embodies, and the different way of being in the world that the heart makes possible, which could play an important role in guiding us towards a more sustainable world. When taken seriously, the heart offers a way of engaging with, and thinking about, ideas of relationship, wholeness and interconnection – all of which have been identified as important by numerous scholars in relation to engaging with global challenges (de Witt, 2016).
Social implications
This paper suggests that it is the approach of the heart and the different way of being in the world that the heart makes possible, which could play an important role in guiding humanity towards a more sustainable world.
Originality/value
Since the late 1900s, scholars have been calling for creative thinking in relation to engaging with the myriad of issues facing our planet, and this paper is written as a response to that call – creating a platform for the heart to speak and making a case for its importance in conversations relating to sustainability.
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Louise Walker and Orla Flannery
The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of office cake (OC) consumption and the associated attitudes and behaviours among UK office workers to gain insight…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of office cake (OC) consumption and the associated attitudes and behaviours among UK office workers to gain insight into the implications for workplace health.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional online questionnaire was completed by 940 respondents. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation with χ2 tests for between-group difference.
Findings
Respondents reported both positive social and negative health-related consequences of OC. OC influenced eating behaviour through increased salience and availability, and the effects of social influencing. Almost all (94.8 per cent) reported ideal OC frequency to be once/week or less. Gender and age significantly affected attitudes and behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The questionnaire was not validated so data accuracy could have been diminished or biased. Portion size was not examined and consumption data were self-reported which could have resulted in under-reporting. Only office workers were investigated therefore results may not be applicable to other workplaces.
Practical implications
OC appears to influence both the workplace eating environment and employee eating behaviour. It could therefore affect employee health and workplace health promotion programme efficacy. However the findings suggest that nudge-based initiatives could reduce OC consumption to make workplaces healthier while retaining social benefits.
Originality/value
The present study provides the first data on OC culture and insights on how to address it sensitively. It also highlights that sweet treats used for celebration and employee recognition should be considered a relevant part of workplace food provision alongside canteens and vending.
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Two studies commissioned by the Housing Corporation consider the role and effectiveness of foyers, and the progression made by foyer residents as they move into independent living.
Xiaoyan Xing, Anthony G. Church, Norm O'Reilly, Ann Pegoraro, John Nadeau, Louise Heslop and Benoit Séguin
Based on the work of Parent (2008) on mega sports events, this paper explores the relationships among events stakeholders in Olympic Games host/bid city marketing. It outlines…
Abstract
Based on the work of Parent (2008) on mega sports events, this paper explores the relationships among events stakeholders in Olympic Games host/bid city marketing. It outlines research questions, identifies a theoretical framework to better understand Olympic city marketing, presents four essays related to issues within this framework, and provides conclusions and suggestions for future research.
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This chapter offers a critical reading of a range of television narratives centred on diverse populations of the articulate dead, including grim reapers (Dead Like Me)…
Abstract
This chapter offers a critical reading of a range of television narratives centred on diverse populations of the articulate dead, including grim reapers (Dead Like Me), sort-of-ghosts (American Horror Story), zombies (iZombie), what appear to be ‘just regular dead people’ (The Good Place, Les Revenants) and some other creepy and unusual manifestations of the undead (Intruders, The Fades). It suggests that the preponderance of the articulate dead on television is symptomatic of a broader cultural desire to talk both about death and with the dead. It also suggests that there are numerous opportunities to learn from fictional engagement with death and the dead, foregrounding the ways in which televisual narratives can operate to reiterate, critique and engage with social and cultural messages. The chapter takes a playful approach and seeks to distil some key ‘self-help’ aphorisms that the dead in these series might offer the living about how to approach life, death and everything inbetween, as they tell their audiences to ‘look within’ to identify the greatest threats to their selfhood, to persevere because ‘it’s never too late to change’, and to ‘never forget’ the dead and what they might have scarified for the living.
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Olof Sundin and Hanna Carlsson
This paper investigates the experiences of school teachers of supporting pupils and their apprehensions of how pupils search and assess information when search engines have become…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the experiences of school teachers of supporting pupils and their apprehensions of how pupils search and assess information when search engines have become a technology of literacy in schools. By situating technologies of literacy as sociomaterial the purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss these experiences and understandings in order to challenge dominant views of search in information literacy research.
Design/methodology/approach
Six focus group interviews with in total 39 teachers working at four different elementary and secondary schools were conducted in the autumn of 2014. Analysis was done using a sociomaterial perspective, which provides tools for understanding how pupils and teachers interact with and are demanded to translate their interest to technologies of literacy, in this case search engines, such as Google.
Findings
The teachers expressed difficulties of conceptualizing search as something they could teach. When they did, search was most often identified as a practical skill. A critical perspective on search, recognizing the role of Google as a dominant part of the information infrastructure and a co-constructor of what there is to know was largely lacking. As a consequence of this neglected responsibility of teaching search, critical assessment of online information was conflated with Google’s relevance ranking.
Originality/value
The study develops a critical understanding of the role of searching and search engines as technologies of literacy in relation to critical assessment in schools. This is of value for information literacy training.
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One afternoon, about twelve years ago, the telephone rang, and a strange voice said: ‘Hold on! I'm going to put on a gramophone record near the 'phone and I want you to listen and…
Abstract
One afternoon, about twelve years ago, the telephone rang, and a strange voice said: ‘Hold on! I'm going to put on a gramophone record near the 'phone and I want you to listen and tell me what the tunes are: it's a potpourri of Johann Strauss waltzes.’ I fear I wasn't able to identify many of the tunes, and I only mention the episode as having been one of my earliest and certainly my most vividly remembered introduction to a practical aspect of the subject of this paper. Thirty years ago, these services as we know them today hardly existed. In any library, information services must depend very largely on catalogues and the way in which they have been compiled: so I propose to base most of my remarks on an outline of the growth of the British Museum's catalogues that bear on music, and to link this with an account of the kind of information we are asked for, and to show how we have tried to build up our knowledge in general and the catalogues in particular to meet this demand. I shall not say anything about the kind of information that can be provided simply by consulting Grove and other standard works of musical reference. I also want to try to show how ‘information’, widely interpreted in a well‐balanced national collection of music, could bring it to life in a novel way with immense possibilities. Finally, by way of introduction, I must emphasize that I am concerned solely with the Music Room, which forms a division of the Department of Printed Books. Information regarding the large collection of manuscript music which is in the Department of Manuscripts is the concern solely of that Department. But I may mention here that the Music Room does contain a good deal of manuscript material which forms an inseparable part of special collections such as the Queen's Music Library, the Hirsch Library, and the Library of the Madrigal Society. For information about these manuscripts the Music Room staff are responsible.