Alberto Fonseca, Amanda Macdonald, Emily Dandy and Paul Valenti
The purpose of this paper is to describe the state of sustainability reporting in Canada's higher education sector, while understanding who is reporting on sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the state of sustainability reporting in Canada's higher education sector, while understanding who is reporting on sustainability performance, how is information being reported, and what is being reported.
Design/methodology/approach
A framework with ten categories and 56 indicators based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and campus sustainability assessment tools was developed to analyse the contents of a cross‐sectional sample of sustainability reports published by Canada's largest 25 universities (by student enrolment). Each author analysed two to three reports. Evidences were checked for accuracy by a different author and finally discussed in a focus group.
Findings
The analysis has shown that sustainability reporting is an uncommon and diverse practice at Canadian universities. Primarily under the coordination of sustainability offices or students, seven universities published sustainability reports in the analyzed period (2006‐2008). While all reports shared a non‐integrated indicators framework, a variety of approaches were used in the selection of indicators. Reports generally had limited scopes emphasizing eco‐efficiency. The potential value of current documents as a tool to inform sustainability‐oriented decisions is limited.
Practical implications
Findings are particularly relevant to university administrators and sustainability offices planning to publish or enhance sustainability reports. The paper also explores the challenges of applying the GRI guidelines to the higher education sector.
Originality/value
Most descriptive studies on sustainability reporting have addressed large multinational corporations. This paper is one of the first to address the incipient practices of higher education institutions.
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Wonders whether, owing to severely restricted access, China’s government policy towards digital communications will remain in a constant state of flux – or will it gain economic…
Abstract
Wonders whether, owing to severely restricted access, China’s government policy towards digital communications will remain in a constant state of flux – or will it gain economic benefits without a social penalty? Concludes that China has to link the forces of change to channel and deflect domestic resistance.
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Christine Gervais and Amanda Watson
This chapter argues that feminist inquiries and activism must be pursued considering women’s marginalized position within a religious institution in Canada in the 21st century…
Abstract
This chapter argues that feminist inquiries and activism must be pursued considering women’s marginalized position within a religious institution in Canada in the 21st century. Drawing on Canadian Catholic nuns’ unique accounts of their experiences with the Roman Catholic Church, this chapter brings nuance to the complicated power dynamics navigated by women religious to show how women remain excluded and exploited in various ways in their own religious institutions. We point to the institutionalized Roman Catholic Church’s long-standing control over women’s reproductive rights, as well as its ongoing prohibition and recent criminalization of women’s ordination. We also address recent structural dynamics at play by drawing attention to a recent Vatican investigation and ongoing surveillance of women religious in North America under newly established church doctrine. We view these recent tactics as evidence of the Vatican’s renewed commitment to existing gender hierarchies within the Church. Feminist intervention is especially important considering this deepening patriarchal power and how, by extension, the church is regressing rather than progressing towards gender equality, even while it shows evidence of shifting attitudes on other social issues. This chapter also underscores the implications of a global religious institution for women in Canada.
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Eunjoo Jin, Yuhosua Ryoo, WooJin Kim and Y. Greg Song
Notwithstanding their potential benefits especially for individuals with low health literacy, users are still somewhat skeptical about the reliability of healthcare chatbots. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Notwithstanding their potential benefits especially for individuals with low health literacy, users are still somewhat skeptical about the reliability of healthcare chatbots. The present study aims to address this challenge by investigating strategies to enhance users’ cognitive and emotional trust in healthcare chatbots. Particularly, this study aims to understand the effects of chatbot design cues in increasing trust and future chatbot use intention for low health literacy users.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted two experimental studies with a final sample of 327 (Study 1) and 241 (Study 2). Three different chatbots were developed (Chatbot design: Bot vs Male-doctor vs Female-doctor). Participants were asked to have a medical consultation with the chatbot. Participants self-reported their health literacy scores. The PROCESS model 7 was used to analyze the hypotheses.
Findings
The results showed that the female-doctor cues elicited greater cognitive and emotional trust, whereas the male-doctor cues only led to greater cognitive trust (vs bot-like cues). Importantly, this study found that users’ health literacy is a significant moderating factor in shaping cognitive and emotional trust. The results indicated that both the female and male-doctor cues’ positive effects on cognitive trust were significant for those with lower levels of health literacy. Furthermore, the positive effect of the female-doctor cues on emotional trust was also significant only for those whose health literacy level was low. The increased cognitive and emotional trust led to greater future intention to use the chatbot, confirming significant moderated mediation effects.
Originality/value
Despite the strong economic and educational benefits of healthcare chatbots for low health literacy users, studies examining how healthcare chatbot design cues affect low health literate users surprisingly remained scarce. The results of this study suggest that healthcare chatbots can be a promising technological intervention to narrow the health literacy gap when aligned with appropriate design cues.
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In this chapter, I consider how voluntarily childless (VC) women can respond not just to master narratives of mandatory motherhood, but to their own internalised narratives of…
Abstract
In this chapter, I consider how voluntarily childless (VC) women can respond not just to master narratives of mandatory motherhood, but to their own internalised narratives of wantonness – of not desiring something they ought, or of being ambivalent about motherhood altogether. This chapter, then, is about the practices of choosing and endorsing one’s desires, however clear or ambiguous, about intentional childlessness, and in the process, of learning to hold oneself as a valued moral agent, as a dissident, but non-wanton, self. Secondarily, it is also about challenging Frankfurt’s claims that the formation and maintenance of moral identities require a kind of wholeheartedness that admits of no doubts. First, I begin with a personal story of my struggles with desiring my choices – of coming to endorse, however not-wholeheartedly, my non-wanting of motherhood, and thus rejecting the pronatalist narratives that marked my first-order desires as mistaken, and my second-order ones as deviant. Second, I offer an overview of voluntary childlessness as experienced by women most pressured to reproduce in the context of the bad moral luck of pronatalism. I note that my approach, grounded in philosophical feminist value theory, is focused on women who are not involuntarily childless or infertile, and who, because of social, economic and other privilege find themselves to be the targets of pronatalist narratives of ‘desirable’ motherhood. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of the dissident practices of identity-creation through which women can embrace both their certainties and ambiguities about their VC status by offering counterstories in response to accusations of wanton-hood, or of improperly, unnaturally or heretically motivated wills.
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Da vid Opoku and Brian H. Kleiner
Abuse of power and position for control and personal gain can occur in the professional‐client relationship, and has been recognised since ancient times, as documented by…
Abstract
Abuse of power and position for control and personal gain can occur in the professional‐client relationship, and has been recognised since ancient times, as documented by warnings, admonitions, and code of conduct that can be found in virtually all major cultures and professional traditions. Professional sexual misconduct and offences are emerg ing from secrecy, as compelling issues that threaten public welfare and safety and jeopardise trust in the important relationships between professionals and pa tients. For the purpose of this discussion, professional sexual misconduct can be defined as the overt or convert expression of erotic or romantic thoughts, feelings, or gestures toward the client that are sexual or may be reasonably construed by the client as sexual.
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Sexuality is complex, concerning concepts such as power relations, sensuality, personal integrity, capacity to consent, decision making, identity and self‐awareness, intimacy and…
Abstract
Sexuality is complex, concerning concepts such as power relations, sensuality, personal integrity, capacity to consent, decision making, identity and self‐awareness, intimacy and relationships. Despite this complexity, it is an integral part of every human being, affected by race, socio‐economic status and intellectual ability. However, the expression of the sexuality of people with learning disabilities is denied and rarely facilitated. Often the importance of gender identity is ignored and this is reflected, for example, in how women with learning disabilities see their own bodies. Explanations include historical beliefs like eugenics, service principles such as normalisation, economics and an over‐riding concern to protect women and men with learning disabilities from abuse. Acknowledging that such factors play an important role in preventing the facilitation or expression of sexuality by men and women with learning disabilities, this paper focuses on the development of the criminal law, the role and potential of current sexual offences and the Home Office Report Setting the Boundaries.