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1 – 10 of over 3000Christoph Sommer and Ilse Helbrecht
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the administrative problematisations of conflict-prone urban tourism (e.g. noise) as political processes predetermining the future of city…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the administrative problematisations of conflict-prone urban tourism (e.g. noise) as political processes predetermining the future of city tourism. It is shaped by today’s administrative ways of knowing increasing visitor pressure as an issue for urban (tourism) development.
Design/methodology/approach
The problematisation of conflictive urban tourism in Berlin is used as case study and lens to analyse how administrative bodies see conflictive tourism like a tourist city. Drawing on Mariana Valverde’s idea of Seeing Like a City (2011), the paper demonstrates how disparate governmental bodies see and reduce the complexity of conflicts resulting from tourism in order to handle it. The authors use policy documents as the basis for the analysis.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about how political knowledge on urban tourism conflicts is produced in Berlin. The marginalisation of these conflicts on the federal state level seemingly aces out the calls for action on the borough level (Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg). According to these disparate modes of problematisation, older and younger governmental gazes on conflictive tourism and its future relevance interrelate in contingent combination.
Originality/value
This paper fills a gap in the existing urban tourism literature, by focussing on the definition of policy problems by governmental bodies as powerfully linked to the availability of solutions.
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Kostas Skliamis and Dirk J. Korf
The purpose of this paper is to: describe and contextualize the aims and distinctive and common characteristics of cannabis festivals in countries with different cannabis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to: describe and contextualize the aims and distinctive and common characteristics of cannabis festivals in countries with different cannabis policies; assess characteristics of participants; identify reasons to attend cannabis festivals; explore to which extent cannabis festivals contribute to the social and cultural acceptance of cannabis, as perceived by attendees.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach incorporates three methods of data collection in the research design; quantitative research among 1,355 participants, participant observation and interviews with the organizers.
Findings
Cannabis festivals in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome and Athens have common features but also maintain and reproduce local, social and cultural characteristics. Cannabis festivals, as well as their attendees, represent heterogeneous categories. The style of the festival – music festival or march combined with music – affects the main reason for attendance by the participants. In cannabis festivals more similar to music festivals the majority of the respondents attended for entertainment while at the cannabis festivals in the form of a march combined with music the majority attended for protest. Furthermore, increasing age, residency and the high frequency of cannabis use are factors that led the participants to attend for protest.
Originality/value
The research on cannabis festivals is limited. This paper not only explores the aims of cannabis festivals in four capital cities of Europe and the characteristics of their attendees including motivations, but also offers interesting insights for understanding the ways in which political and social constructions like cannabis festivals shape attitudes, perception and behaviors around cannabis use.
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Marco Ranzato and Federico Broggini
The adaptive reuse of heritage has the potential to socially and culturally re-signify dilapidated or suspended structures in the urban landscape. However, the scope of adaptive…
Abstract
Purpose
The adaptive reuse of heritage has the potential to socially and culturally re-signify dilapidated or suspended structures in the urban landscape. However, the scope of adaptive reuse could be broadened to include the constellation of infrastructure such as water and sewerage system, waste disposal facilities, power and communication plants and networks that support urban life but whose access – and maintenance patterns – remain the preserve of specialized technicians.
Design/methodology/approach
A conversation with some of the architects from the raumlabor collective involved in the Floating University Berlin project, about the stormwater detention basin of the former Berlin Tempelhof airport, provides an insight into the mechanisms by which adaptive reuse can also concern the infrastructural world in operation.
Findings
In Tempelhof's change of function from an international airport to a large abandoned urban space and then to a park, the detention basin has never ceased to function. But the subsequent process of reuse has reshaped the patterns of maintenance of the reservoir, leaving room for first non-human and then unskilled human action.
Originality/value
From this still overlooked reading perspective, it becomes clear how precisely flexible reuse, consisting of a constantly renegotiated interweaving of violated protocols and backward steps, allows the scope of adaptive reuse to be extended to infrastructures in operation. From secret domains of nature's transformation, they become places of openness in which to experience and better understand the entanglement of contemporary socio-ecological relations that underlie the urban condition.
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Benjamin Nitsche, Jonas Brands, Horst Treiblmaier and Jonas Gebhardt
Academics and practitioners have long acknowledged the potential of multiagent systems (MAS) to automate and autonomize decision-making in logistics and supply chain networks…
Abstract
Purpose
Academics and practitioners have long acknowledged the potential of multiagent systems (MAS) to automate and autonomize decision-making in logistics and supply chain networks. Despite the manifold promises of MAS, industry adoption is lagging behind, and the exact benefits of these systems remain unclear. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by analyzing 11 specific MAS use cases, highlighting their benefits, clarifying how they can help enhance logistics network resilience and identifying existing barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-stage Delphi study was conducted with 18 industry experts. In the first round, these experts identified 11 use cases of MAS and their potential benefits, as well as any barriers that could hinder their adoption. In the second round, they assessed the identified use cases with regard to their potential to enhance logistics network resilience and improve organizational productivity. Furthermore, they estimated the complexity of MAS implementation. In the third round, the experts reassessed their evaluations in light of the evaluations of the other study participants.
Findings
This study proposes 11 specific MAS use cases and illustrates their potential for increasing logistics network resilience and enhancing organizational performance due to autonomous decision-making in informational processes. Furthermore, this study discusses important barriers for MAS, such as lack of standardization, insufficient technological maturity, soaring costs, complex change management and a lack of existing use cases. From a theoretical perspective, it is shown how MAS can contribute to resilience research in supply chain management.
Practical implications
The identification and assessment of diverse MAS use cases informs managers about the potential of this technology and the barriers that need to be overcome.
Originality/value
This study fills a gap in the literature by providing a thorough and up-to-date assessment of the potential of MAS for logistics and supply chain management. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relevance of MAS for logistics network resilience using the Delphi method.
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Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by robotic process automation and machine-to-machine communications. Since computers, machines, and robots share…
Abstract
Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by robotic process automation and machine-to-machine communications. Since computers, machines, and robots share information and knowledge more swiftly and effectively than humans, the question is what human beings' role could be in the era of the Internet-of-Thing. The answer would be beneficial to institutions for higher education to anticipate. The literature reveals a gap between the intended learning outcomes in higher education institutions and the needs of employers in Industry 4.0. Evidence is shown that higher education mainly focused on knowledge (know-what) and theory-based (know-why) intended learning outcomes. However, competent professionals require knowledge (know-what), understanding of the theory (know-why), professional (know-how) and interpersonal skills (know-how and know-who), and need intrapersonal traits such as creativeness, persistence, a result-driven attitude et cetera. Therefore, intended learning outcomes in higher education should also develop interpersonal skills and intrapersonal characteristics. Yet, personality development is a personal effort vital for contemporary challenges. The history of the preceding industrial revolutions showed the drawbacks of personality and character education; politicians have abused it to control societies in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the discussion section, the institutions for higher education are alerted that the societal challenges of the twenty-first century could lead to a form of personality education that is not in the student's interest and would violate Isaiah Berlin's philosophical concept of ‘positive freedom’.
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Abstract
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Philip Wotschack, Gergana Vladova, Patricia de Paiva Lareiro and Christof Thim
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning solely via an assistance system influences work performance compared with learning with a combination of an assistance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning solely via an assistance system influences work performance compared with learning with a combination of an assistance system and additional training. While the training literature has widely emphasised the positive role of on-the-job training, particularly for groups that are often underrepresented in formalised learning situations, organisational studies have stressed the risks that emerge when holistic process knowledge is lacking and how this negatively affects work performance. This study aims at testing these negative effects within an experimental design.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a laboratory experimental design to investigate how assistance-system-guided learning influences the individuals’ work performance and work satisfaction compared with assistance-system-guided learning combined with theoretical learning of holistic process knowledge. Subjects were divided into two groups and assigned to two different settings. In the first setting, the participants used the assistance systems as an orientation and support tool right at the beginning and learned the production steps exclusively in this way. In the second setting, subjects received an additional 10-min introduction (treatment) at the beginning of the experiment, including detailed information regarding the entire work process.
Findings
This study provides evidence that learners provided with prior process knowledge achieve a better understanding of the work process leading to higher levels of productivity, quality and work satisfaction. At the same time, the authors found evidence for differences among workers’ ability to process and apply this additional information. Subjects with lower productivity levels faced more difficulties processing and applying additional process information.
Research limitations/implications
Methodologically, this study goes beyond existing research on assistance systems by using a laboratory experimental design. Though the external validity of this method is limited by the artificial setting, it is a solid way of studying the impact of different usages of digital assistance systems in terms of training. Further research is required, however, including laboratory experiments with larger case numbers, company-level case studies and analyses of survey data, to further confirm the external validity of the findings of this study for the workplace.
Practical implications
This study provides some first evidence that holistic process knowledge, even in low-skill tasks, has an added value for the production process. This study contributes to firms' training policies by exploring new, digitalised ways of guided on-the-job training and demonstrates possible training benefits for people with lower levels of (initial) abilities and motivation.
Social implications
This study indicates the advantage for companies and societies to invest in additional skills and training and points at the limitations of assistance systems. This paper also contributes to training policies by exploring new, digitalised ways of guided on-the-job training and demonstrates possible training benefits for people with lower levels of (initial) abilities and motivation.
Originality/value
This study extends existing research on digital assistance systems by investigating their role in job-related-training. This paper contributes to labour sociology and organisational research by confirming the importance of holistic process knowledge as opposed to a solely task-oriented digital introduction.
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