Alfonso Rosales, Adriana Yepes-Mayorga, Alejandro Arias, Fabiano Franz, Joanne Thomas, Jamo Huddle, Ramón Jeremías Soto, Maya Haynes, Monica Prado and Dennis Cherian
Zika virus (ZIKV) statistics in Honduras are the highest among countries in Central America. National risk communication strategies have primarily focused on vector control and…
Abstract
Purpose
Zika virus (ZIKV) statistics in Honduras are the highest among countries in Central America. National risk communication strategies have primarily focused on vector control and are integrated into existing approaches for Dengue and Chikungunya. Given the new evidence on ZIKV, there is a need to revamp risk communication strategies so that they are informed by dynamic listening methods such as knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey was administered to 604 respondents in 21 designated Honduran communities using a two-stage, 30-cluster sampling method.
Findings
Almost eight out of ten Hondurans knew that Zika can be transmitted by the bite of a mosquito; however, only 2 and 0.1 percent, respectively, were aware that Zika can be spread by sexual intercourse and from a pregnant woman to her fetus. In total, four out of ten Hondurans knew that there is a causal relationship between Zika and microcephaly in newborns, and three out of ten knew that there is an association between Zika and Guillian-Barré syndrome. Overall, 50 percent of respondents said that they did not have enough information about the disease.
Social implications
The findings of this study clearly identify information priority gaps that need to be urgently addressed by national stakeholders involved in public health activities to protect the most vulnerable population against Zika disease and its complications.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its kind in Central America to inform any national risk communication strategy since the inception of the ZIKV response, particularly among at risk populations.
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The most powerful and effective forces of hierarchizing are those that naturalize difference so that it is beyond dispute and something to be tacitly accepted. In the Classic Maya…
Abstract
The most powerful and effective forces of hierarchizing are those that naturalize difference so that it is beyond dispute and something to be tacitly accepted. In the Classic Maya world, this “social speciation” was materialized and naturalized through a complex web of ritual practice, deity emulation, enhancement of body aesthetics, and the fabrication and possession of hypertrophic goods. The architecture of Classic Maya royal courts broke with an older Maya residential pattern of accretional construction filled with ancestral burials in order to materialize more effectively social difference, to provide space for exclusive ritual performance, and to showcase the highly valued and gendered labor of textile production. Such instruments of authority are “weapons of exclusion” that can be wielded to fend off assaults on hierarchy. From this perspective, informed by the ritual economy approach, the profound transformations of the 9th century in the Maya lowlands are considered an assault that was not defendable.
The notion that the family have a profound effect on human behavior is indisputable and has been studied extensively, including business administration. However, these studies…
Abstract
The notion that the family have a profound effect on human behavior is indisputable and has been studied extensively, including business administration. However, these studies have focused on developed countries. So, it can be identifying a research gap related to understand these countries, especially from a contextual perspective, which is the one that has received less attention from the academy.
This paper presents a theoretical review of the contextual perspective of the study of family businesses that concludes with the proposal of a model that integrates the structural barriers to contextualize the analysis family businesses in emerging economies, especially in rural zones.
Three case studies of companies located in the Puuc biocultural region in Yucatan, México, are presented and discussed.
The cases presented are family businesses: “Vida Vida,” “La Vaquita,” and “Lool-Beek” in which similarities were found in the way they face the particularities of their environment and how the integration of family members responds to uncertainty due to the precarious legal framework and the scant economic development they face.
This paper proposes that the structural barriers faced by emerging countries should be integrated as a differentiated variable, especially those located in rural areas since there imply greater challenges than urban areas. Likewise, it highlights that the emotional connections of family businesses with their territory give them roots, and this contributes to the continuity of their businesses and empowers them to face challenges such as natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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There is no argument among serious researchers that a mongoloid stock first colonized the New World from Asia. Nor is there controversy about the fact that these continental…
Abstract
There is no argument among serious researchers that a mongoloid stock first colonized the New World from Asia. Nor is there controversy about the fact that these continental pioneers used the Bering Land Bridge that then connected the Asian Far East with Alaska.– Gerald F. Shields, et al.American Journal of Genetics (1992)
E. Anthon Eff and Christa D. Jensen
Mayan towns in the Guatemalan highlands hold periodic markets on specific days of the week. A market is attended by local townspeople, by peasants residing in the town’s…
Abstract
Purpose
Mayan towns in the Guatemalan highlands hold periodic markets on specific days of the week. A market is attended by local townspeople, by peasants residing in the town’s hinterland, and by vendors bringing wares from other towns. This study aims to determine the effects of physical, environmental, and cultural differences on the number of vendors that are sent from one Guatemalan town to a periodic market in another.
Design/methodology/approach
To understand how these markets are integrated, a gravity model is developed, examining the flow of vendors from 85 towns of residence to 15 market towns. In this model, the flow of vendors from one town to another is a function not only of physical distance, but of ecological complementarities, of linguistic differences, of road access, and of demographic endowments.
Findings
Results show that traveling vendors in these periodic markets do indeed integrate Guatemala both ethnically and ecologically, serving as a place in which different ethnic groups meet and bring in products that cannot be produced locally. Results also suggest that participation in markets is part of a diversified set of activities used by rural peasants to support their households.
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Dimitris Theodossopoulos and Edwar Calderon
Fieldwork in architectural conservation education is a proven practice to develop skills in documenting current conditions and start methodological engagements with a site's…
Abstract
Purpose
Fieldwork in architectural conservation education is a proven practice to develop skills in documenting current conditions and start methodological engagements with a site's architectural and historical values. It is a vehicle to generate intensive learning experiences in comprehensive degrees or short courses. Review of the practice within conservation education is not extensive and the purpose of this paper is to reflect on enhancing pedagogy further.
Design/methodology/approach
This reflection was triggered by a major case study, a workshop to generate UG teaching capacity for an Architecture school in Colombia. This led to mapping the fieldwork spectrum, reviewing the authors' experiences (PG courses and external workshops) and activities planned in other MSc programmes. Fieldwork is often seen as skills training, so enhancement is explored through the affiliate geography and architecture UG curricula.
Findings
The Colombia workshop provoked strong engagement among students and tutors, and their commitment to make heritage meaningful to their projects is a measure of this pedagogy's success. Fieldwork around a site's essence, beyond skills development can induce conservation students into critical enquiries by motivating them to develop personalised contexts and enhance engagement with the unexpected through inversion of linear learning processes. Setting up site exercises early on PG programmes can encourage curiosity in exploring historic environments and contextualise surveying methods.
Research limitations/implications
Student reaction to these ideas has still to be tested by designing new activities. The educational methods of this implementation need deeper analysis, beyond the paper's scope.
Originality/value
The paper maps the academic value of fieldwork in conservation education, investigating enhancement and cross-fertilisation from architecture and geography.
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Very little effort has been dedicated to the teaching of serious game design and development. At the post-secondary level, very few courses dedicated to serious game design and…
Abstract
Purpose
Very little effort has been dedicated to the teaching of serious game design and development. At the post-secondary level, very few courses dedicated to serious game design and development exist. At the K-12 level, although (entertainment) game design and programming instruction are becoming more widespread, serious game design and development is ignored. This study aims to present a series of lesson plans that allow K-12 teachers to introduce students to serious game design and development.
Design/methodology/approach
The lesson plans include both a didactic and applied component and are intended to provide students with an introduction to serious games and their design and development while making students aware of the many career paths within this exciting growing domain. They can also be completed entirely remotely lending themselves nicely to online instruction to facilitate the COVID-19 shutdowns and the resulting move to e-learning.
Findings
Although several high-school teachers and several elementary school children were consulted during the development of the lesson plans, the lesson plans have only recently been made available, and therefore, there is a lack of any teacher or student feedback available regarding their use. Informally, several elementary school children found the lessons to be fun, interesting and informative.
Originality/value
There are currently no existing courses or lesson plans focusing on serious game design and development at the K-12 level, thus making this set of lesson plan novel and unique.
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Pinaz Tiwari, Snigdha Kainthola and Nimit R. Chowdhary
With the expansion in the tourism-related activities, the issue of overtourism has gained impetus rapidly in media and academic discourses. Many scholars believe that the concept…
Abstract
With the expansion in the tourism-related activities, the issue of overtourism has gained impetus rapidly in media and academic discourses. Many scholars believe that the concept is not novel and is rather associated with the familiar concept of carrying capacity of a tourist destination. The carrying capacity concerns have been raised earlier in recreational studies. These studies have focused on determining the maximum number of tourists that could be accommodated without any deterioration in the social, environmental and physical environment, and unacceptable decline in the tourist experience. However, as the tourism development projects expanded to attract more tourists, the host community reacted to the excessive tourism activities which hamper their lives. Consequently, overtourism or excessive tourism led to conflicts between the local community and tourists. The concerns aggravated as locals raised their voices against the unmanageable growth of tourism and irresponsible behaviour of tourists. This chapter presents a descriptive analysis of various conflicts that have taken place at tourist destination reported of overtourism. The authors have attempted to categorise the conflicts based on the capacity thresholds and suggested several management strategies that could be undertaken by respective destinations to resolve the conflicts. The major conflict categories are socio-cultural, socio-demographic, infrastructural, eco-spatial and economic. The authors expect that identification and categorisation of conflicts with related solutions would lead to better management of destinations. Furthermore, the destinations would adopt preventive measures to nip a potential conflict in the bud.
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Julian Birkinshaw and Maya Gudka
Many theories have been proposed to understand and improve the process of leadership development. One useful way to structure the literature is around three complementary…
Abstract
Purpose
Many theories have been proposed to understand and improve the process of leadership development. One useful way to structure the literature is around three complementary perspectives, briefly summarized as the “knowing, doing and being” dimensions of leadership. While the complementarities between these perspectives have been discussed, the mechanisms by which they are linked are less clear. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of experimentation as one such mechanism.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on interviews and prior literature, the authors argue that experimentation consists of two processes: task-prototyping focused on the work overseen by the leader and self-prototyping focused on how the leader relates to others. This study proposes a theoretical framework linking experimentation to action-taking (e.g. being entrepreneurial and taking on challenging assignments), which in turn links to leader effectiveness. The authors test the hypotheses on two groups of leaders (481 business school alumni and 310 financial services leaders).
Findings
The authors find evidence that both forms of experimentation provide significant explanatory power in understanding why some individuals engage in higher levels of action-taking than others. Additionally, their study confirms the central role of action-taking in leadership development.
Originality/value
Conceptually, this study distinguishes two dimensions of experimentation and their connection to action-taking, knowledge development and identity development. Empirically, the authors show that these two experimentation activities were significant predictors of action-taking, even after controlling for all other factors, and that action-taking (along with self-prototyping) was an important predictor of leader effectiveness. The results offer a practical framework for leadership and development professionals to use in designing and evaluating leadership development activities.