Michelle McClelland, Sara Grobbelaar and Natasha Sacks
This paper aims to explore the growth of the South African additive manufacturing (AM) industry over the past 31 years through the lens of the innovation system (IS) perspective…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the growth of the South African additive manufacturing (AM) industry over the past 31 years through the lens of the innovation system (IS) perspective, examining the actor dynamics and mechanisms that facilitated or hindered the industry’s development.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a case study research approach, analysing semi-structured interviews with eight South African AM experts and documentary evidence. The IS framework and the realist evaluation perspective were used, using a context-intervention-mechanism-outcome (CIMO)-based event history analysis (EHA) framework to explore the actor dynamics and mechanisms of the case study.
Findings
The study used a case study research approach, analysing semi-structured interviews with eight South African AM experts and documentary evidence. The IS framework and the realist evaluation perspective were used, using a CIMO-based EHA framework to explore the actor dynamics and mechanisms of the case study.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the South African AM industry literature by providing an overview of the industry events over the past three decades and analysing the industry through the IS framework. The study is among the first to analyse the development of the South African AM industry, presenting innovation scholars and managers with valuable decision-making support by providing insights into the innovation activities performed during each stage of the industry’s development, who performed them, the sequence in which they were performed and the outcomes they delivered.
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Alexander Simpson, Natasha Slutskaya, Jason Hughes and Ruth Simpson
The purpose of this paper is to detail how the ethnographic approach can be usefully adopted in the context of researching dirty or undesirable work. Drawing on a study of refuse…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to detail how the ethnographic approach can be usefully adopted in the context of researching dirty or undesirable work. Drawing on a study of refuse collectors, it shows how ethnography can enable a fuller social articulation of the experiences and meanings of a social group where conventional narrative disclosure and linguistic expression may be insufficient.
Design/methodology/approach
Viewing ethnography as no one particular method, but rather a style of research that is distinguished by its objectives to understand the social meanings and activities of people in a given “field” or setting, this paper highlights aspects of reproductive and “dirty” work which may be hidden or difficult to reveal. Combining the methods of participant observation, photographic representation and interviews, we add to an understanding of dirty work and how it is encountered. We draw on Willis and Trondman's (2002) three distinguishing characteristics namely, recognition of theory, centrality of culture and critical focus to highlight some meanings men give to their work.
Findings
By incorporating these issues of theory, culture and reflexivity throughout the research process, this paper highlights how Willis and Trondman's (2002) approach aids the ethnographic objective and is crucial to the understanding of representation and experience.
Originality/value
As such, the value of this paper can be understood in terms of developing a further understanding of dirty work, which incorporates an ethnographic process and interpretation, to achieve “rich data” on the dirty work experience.
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Sara H. Goodman, Matthew Zahn, Tim-Allen Bruckner, Bernadette Boden-Albala, Janet R. Hankin and Cynthia M. Lakon
The study examines health care inequities in viral load testing among hepatitis C (HCV) antibody-positive patients. The analysis predicts whether individual and census tract…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines health care inequities in viral load testing among hepatitis C (HCV) antibody-positive patients. The analysis predicts whether individual and census tract sociodemographic characteristics impact the likelihood of viral load testing.
Methodology/Approach
This a study of 26,218 HCV antibody-positive patients in Orange County, California, from 2010 to 2020. The case data were matched with the 2017 American Community Survey to help understand the role of neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics in testing for viral load. Multivariable logistic regression was used to predict the probability of ever testing for HCV viral load.
Findings
Thirty-six percent of antibody-positive persons were never viral load tested. The results show inequalities in viral load testing by sociodemographic factors. The following groups were less likely to ever test for viral load than their counterparts: (1) individuals under 65 years old, (2) females, (3) residents of census tracts with lower levels of health insurance enrollment, (4) residents of census tracts with lower levels of government health insurance, and (5) residents of census tracts with a higher proportion of non-white residents.
Research Limitations/Implications
This is a secondary database from public health department reports. Using census tract data raises the issue of the ecological fallacy. Detailed medical records were not available. The results of this study emphasize the social inequality in viral load testing for HCV. These groups are less likely to be treated and cured, and may spread the disease to others.
Originality/Value
This chapter is unique as it combines routinely collected public health department data with census tract level data to examine social inequities associated with lower rates of HCV viral load testing.
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Toyin Ajibade Adisa, Fang Lee Cooke and Vanessa Iwowo
By conceptualising patriarchy in the workplace as a social situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of patriarchal attitudes and their impact on women’s…
Abstract
Purpose
By conceptualising patriarchy in the workplace as a social situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of patriarchal attitudes and their impact on women’s workplace behaviour among Nigerian organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a qualitative research approach, drawing on data from 32 semi-structured interviews with female employees and managers in two high-street banks in Nigeria.
Findings
The study finds that patriarchy shapes women’s behaviour in ways that undermine their performance and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Furthermore, the study finds that patriarchal attitudes, often practised at home, are frequently transferred to organisational settings. This transference affects women’s workplace behaviour and maintains men’s (self-perceived) superior status quo, whereby women are dominated, discriminated against and permanently placed in inferior positions.
Research limitations/implications
The extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the limited sample and scope of the research.
Practical implications
The challenges posed by the strong patriarchy on women’s workplace behaviour are real and complex, and organisations must address them in order to create a fairer workplace in which employees can thrive. It is therefore essential for organisations to examine periodically their culture to ensure that all employees, regardless of gender, are involved in the organisation’s affairs. Furthermore, organisations need to help women become more proactive in combating patriarchal behaviour, which often affects their performance and OCB. This requires organisations to affirm consistently their equal opportunities, equal rights and equal treatment policies. It is essential that organisations take this problem seriously by attaching due penalty to gender discrimination, as this will go a long way in ensuring positive outcomes for women and providing a fairer workplace.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence that a more egalitarian work environment (in Nigerian banking) will result in improved performance from female employees and organisations. It calls for greater policy and organisational interventions to create a more inclusive work environment and an equal society.
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This chapter elaborates a “pedagogy of narrative shifting” as conceptualized by Li, Conle, and Elbaz-Luwisch (2009) in a course that seeks to foster dialogue across difference in…
Abstract
This chapter elaborates a “pedagogy of narrative shifting” as conceptualized by Li, Conle, and Elbaz-Luwisch (2009) in a course that seeks to foster dialogue across difference in an Israeli university located in a highly polarized setting. The approach draws on personal life stories as a vehicle for examining multiculturalism in teacher education, in the context of the multiple and overlapping identities, conflict and narratives of exclusion that characterize Israeli society. For prospective teachers, the opportunity to tell an important personal story and to have that story heard and validated by others, contributed to both personal and professional development. Working with their stories in a small-group format allowed students to develop their own “internally persuasive discourse” (Bakhtin, 1981) in discussions of controversial issues. Prominent themes emerging in the work included “recognition” (Taylor, 1994) and “resonance” (Conle, 1996). Engaging with bodily experience and with the imagination helped participants to transcend limited understandings and create shared visions of their present and future. The course afforded a unique space for dialogue that can be adapted for other contexts, to allow teacher educators to engage with their students in new and creative ways.
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The narrative of The Americans weaves together a spy thriller and a family drama, though it drives home the inseparability of the political and the personal through the lives of…
Abstract
The narrative of The Americans weaves together a spy thriller and a family drama, though it drives home the inseparability of the political and the personal through the lives of the central characters, Philip and Elizabeth, a couple whose marriage is a cover for their work as Soviet spies. This chapter provides a queer reading of their marriage, drawing from the real history of the Cold War politics of sexuality that associated American values with the hetero- and gender normative, white, and middle-class nuclear family. In contrast, the Soviet Union was understood to have disrupted this natural order by installing the state as an overbearing patriarch. Philip and Elizabeth’s fictional cover as a nuclear family requires them to perform American marriage, family, and selfhood. In doing so, they reflect the centrality of the family in America’s Cold War self-image in which the family serves as the anchor of the American order, enabling economic and political self-sufficiency. Their performance of the family challenges our ability to differentiate between real, authentic family that can serve as the legitimate source of social reproduction and between the counterfeit, fake family that disrupts the social order. The queer family, refusing to be placed beyond realm of the political by the moral language of family values, subverts our ability to distinguish between genres since the family drama is already a political thriller.