Search results

The growth of organized labor during the latter part of the nineteenth century triggered an organizational impulse on the part of employers across the country. Although some employers’ associations began as “negotiatory” bodies engaged in collective bargaining, the vast majority of them shifted toward a more “belligerent” approach. Academic scholarship has generally focused on the belligerents at the national level. Recently, some scholars have begun to study organized employers at the community level, but they continue to feature the more typical staunchly anti-union associations. This study of Columbus, Ohio's master printers’ association reveals a different pattern of local labor relations during the years between 1887 and 1960 – an association that had generally smooth bargaining relationships with craft unions. Columbus’ conservative and sheltered economy enabled the longstanding cooperative shared printing craft culture to thrive. But changes in Columbus’ economy, shifts in larger patterns of industrial relations, the hard-line influence of the national employers’ association, and technological changes altered the context of local labor relations. The result was that, by 1960, the Columbus association sought the upper hand in labor relations by becoming a more traditional and belligerent employers’ association. This story of “latecomers” adds to our understanding of organized employer behavior under different historical periods and circumstances.

In this chapter, we propose an educational framework to position Information Literacy (IL) and Higher Education (HE) in relation to Lifelong Learning (LLL): comprehensive enough to make sense of, and give educational direction to, future development of people in information literate populations. We identify crucial changes in the HE environment, particularly in the United Kingdom; analyse the concept of IL as a discipline, and situate the IL person in the changing information culture and society. In doing this we draw on our own work and that of Schuller and Watson (2009). We propose a curriculum for an information literate lifecourse, sensitive to the context of the individual within a changing information culture. The curriculum is framed, on the one hand, by the nature of the information economy, technology, organisational culture, local/national culture and society, and personal goals. It is also framed by the life stage of the individual, using the four key stages and transitional points proposed by Schuller and Watson (2009). Academics and librarians have a key role in designing and facilitating these IL capabilities for the 21st century citizen.

Environmental degradation, economic and political threats along with ideological extremism necessitate a global redirection toward sustainability and well-being. Since the survival of all species (humans, animals, and plants) is wholly dependent on a healthy planet, urgent action at the highest levels to address large-scale interconnected problems is needed to counter the thinking that perpetuates the “folly of a limitless world.” Paralleling critical societal roles played by universities – ancient, medieval, and modern – throughout the millennia, this chapter calls for all universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) generally – estimated at over 28,000 – to take a lead together in tackling the pressing complex and intractable challenges that face us. There are about 250 million students in tertiary education worldwide rising to about 600 million by 2040. Time is not on our side. While much of the groundwork has been done by the United Nations (UN) and civil society, concerns remain over the variable support given to the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in light of the negative impact of global biodiversity loss on achieving the UN-2030 SDGs. Ten propositions for global sustainability, ranging from adopting the SDGs at national and local levels to ensuring peaceful uses of technology and UN reforms in line with global socioeconomic shifts, are provided for consideration by decisionmakers. Proposition #7 calls for the unifying One Health & Well-Being (OHWB) concept to become the cornerstone of our educational systems as well as societal institutions and to underpin the UN-2030 SDGs. Recognizing the need to change our worldview (belief systems) from human-centrism to eco-centrism, and re-building of trust in our institutions, the chapter argues for the re-conceptualization of the university/higher education purpose and scope focusing on the development of an interconnected ecological knowledge system with a concern for the whole Earth – and beyond. The 2019 novel coronavirus has made clear that the challenges facing our world cannot be solved by individual nations alone and that there is an urgency to committing to shared global values that reflect the OHWB concept and approach. By drawing on our collective experience and expertise informed by the UN-2030 SDGs, we will be in a much stronger position to shape and strengthen multilateral strategies to achieve the UN-2030 Transformative Vision – “ending poverty, hunger, inequality and protecting the Earth’s natural resources,” and thereby helping “to save the world from itself.”

There are longstanding concerns about the sustainability of the US health care system. Payment reform has been seen over the last decade as a key strategy to reorienting the US health care system around value. Alternative payment models (APMs) that seek to accomplish this goal have become increasingly prevalent in the US, yet there is a perception that physicians are resistant to their use and that organizations have been slow to adopt such models. The reasons for the limited effectiveness of APM programs are multifactorial and include aspects related to the design and implementation of these programs and lack of alignment and coordination across different payers and health care sectors. Most importantly, however, is that the current organizational structures in US health care serve to dampen the direct impact of these incentives, often because health care delivery organizations face conflicting incentives themselves. Organizations filter and refine the incentives from multiple external payment contracts and develop internal incentive systems that best reflect the amalgamation of the incentives embedded across their contracts, and thus the fragmented nature of the US health care system serves to undermine efforts to transform care under value-based contracts. In addition to organizations having conflicting incentives, there also are fundamental problems with the design and implementation of APMs that hinder their acceptance among physicians and the organizations in which they work. Moreover, much remains to be learned about how organizations can best adapt to succeed under these models, and how organizational culture can be leveraged to transform care.

President Obama’s policies, while broad in scope, offer some specific attention to college and career readiness (CCR) and are necessary for urban youth to realize their career potentials. However, by primarily defining CCR in terms of academic achievement, many of the previously mentioned policies ignore the varied college access skills needed to ensure successful preparation for, enrollment in, and graduation from postsecondary institutions.

This chapter explores the current definition of CCR represented in the Obama administration’s policies, while also expanding the definition to include missing policy pieces related to college access.

The underutilization of school counselors and classroom teachers as college access facilitators who can expand CCR for urban schools is addressed. The paper discusses recent Obama administration initiatives and recommendations for urban schools and higher education institutions.

The administration initiatives and recommendations recently put in place by the Obama administration for urban schools and higher education institutions, if integrated within urban schools, may facilitate the realization of one of President Obama’s educational reform goals of ensuring that every student graduates from high school well prepared for college and a career.

The spending capacity of the middle-income class increases with growing economies. With this increase, luxury goods are not only consumed by rich people alone. For this reason, luxury brands are expanding their target population and enriching their products and services accordingly. Thus, the luxury market which addresses the middle- and upper-middle-income groups is changing and its importance is increasing. In this chapter, the definition of luxury, the classification of luxury goods, the requirements of the luxury marketing mix (product, price, distribution and promotion) and applied strategies are examined. This chapter also covers how luxury products have authentic features, premium and masstige brands, fake luxury products that are the exact copies of original luxury brands, and how and why this fake luxury market grows. At the end of the chapter, the luxury market in Turkey, which has been growing rapidly, especially in recent years, is examined in detail and all the features of the market are presented. It is expected that this market will continue to grow in the future, as a large number of tourists from nearby regions, Central Asia and Arab countries come to Turkey to buy luxury branded products and services.

Based on a case study of the Logan Renewal Initiative (LRI) in Queensland Australia, this chapter examines the competing aims bound up in programmes of urban renewal and the way different stakeholder groups advocate for one component of the programme while seeking to prevent another.

A qualitative case study approach is used based on interview and documentary material to elicit the competing views and opinions of local residents, state and local governments, housing providers and other stakeholders around a renewal programme.

It is found that there are two competing agendas bound up within the LRI, with gentrification at the heart of each. One focuses on the virtues of the social housing reform agenda, but sees gentrification as an unintended and undesirable outcome that needs to be carefully managed. The other is a place-improvement ambition that sees gentrification as an effective policy mechanism, but one that will be undermined by any increases in the stock of social and affordable housing.

The chapter emphasizes that programmes of renewal are rarely coherent policy tools, but are subject to change, contestation and negotiation as stakeholders compete to impose their own desired outcomes. In the case of the LRI, both outcomes will likely result in the marginalization of low-income groups unless their needs are placed at the forefront of its design.

The chapter engages critically with the widely held view that urban renewal is a means of gentrifying local neighbourhoods by showing how local conditions and circumstances render the relationship between renewal and gentrification far more complex that generally conceived.

The present study explored the demographics and associations between the use of technology and romantic relationships among 171 young adults.

Participants completed a self-administered anonymous, online survey that included 66 questions assessing demographic information, use of technology, sexting activity, and sexual behaviors. Crosstabs were performed between demographic factors and questions assessing online engagement with romantic partners. A chi-square test for independence (with Yates Continuity Correction) was done among the remaining questions on Internet use and demographic variables, with the exception of age. Independent-samples t-tests were conducted to compare age with the questions posed on how technology influences romantic relationships. The authors used Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model and Johnson’s addition of the technosubsystem to examine the influence of the Internet on relationships.

Results showed variation with the Internet’s impact on close relationships by ethnicity; Caucasians were more likely to see the Internet as increasing their relationship while African Americans saw it as negatively impacting it. In addition, men were more likely to use technology to maintain long-distance relationships, as well as search for a partner, flirt, and ask a partner out online.

As relational scientists, it is particularly important to understand if and how interpersonal relationships are affected by the use of technology. Suggestions are provided on how to guide partners toward healthy relationships by managing the impact of technology. Studying the current trends in technology to better understand modern relationships is critical to future social scientists and relationship helpers.