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This paper aims to address the knowledge gap, by exploring the attitudes and experiences of mediators relative to the process, based on research with practitioners in Scotland. Recent research on construction mediation in Scotland has focused exclusively on construction lawyers’ and contractors’ interaction with the process, without reference to the views of mediators themselves.

The entire research design of this research was constrained by the small population of practising Scottish construction mediators (thought to be circa. 20 in 2013). The design encompassed a literature search, participant interviews, questionnaire survey and qualitative and quantitative data. The research questionnaire was designed to capture data related to the biography, training and experience of those interviewed before their opinion on the benefits of, and problems with, mediation were sought.

The results indicate that mediations failed because of ignorance, intransigence and over-confidence of the parties. Barriers to greater use of mediation in construction disputes were identified as the lack of skilled, experienced mediators, the continued popularity of adjudication and both lawyer and party resistance. Notwithstanding the English experience, Scottish mediators gave little support for mandating disputants to mediate before proceeding with court action. A surprising number were willing to give an evaluation of the dispute rather than merely facilitating a settlement.

There are few experienced construction mediators in Scotland, and the continued popularity of statutory adjudication is a significant barrier. Mediators believe that clients’ negative perceptions of mediation are a bigger barrier than lawyers’ perceptions. The mediators wanted judicial encouragement for mediation backed by some legislative support, mediation clauses incorporated into construction contracts and government adoption of mediation as the default process in its own contracts.

The purpose of this research is to paint a picture of the current utility of mediation in the Scottish construction sector; determine the willingness of Scottish construction lawyers to shift away from traditional dispute resolution approaches towards mediation; and ascertain the drivers towards the adoption of mediatory techniques and the barriers to change.

Drawn from a questionnaire survey, this paper seeks to add to the dispute resolution literature by identifying the attitudes of construction lawyers on the use and effectiveness of mediation to resolve construction disputes in Scotland.

The findings suggest that there is a core of Scottish construction lawyers in Scotland that recognize the promise of mediation as a useful dispute resolution tool. Respondents generally profess knowledge of the process and some measure of positive practical experience and espouse positive views on mediation. Their response to mediation then does not appear to be one of cultural conservatism or fear of the unknown as opposed to traditional dispute resolution mechanisms, which for all their imperfections lawyers understand unequivocally.

It is recognized that the introduction of mediatory techniques into construction disputes will have a cumulative effect on the Scottish legal fraternity over time. Cross‐sectional studies are often unable to yield information about the direction of causal relationships between variables that are interrelated in a complex way. Neither do cross‐sectional studies permit researchers to assess the effectiveness of intervention strategies.

This is the first empirical work ascertaining the views and experiences of Scottish construction lawyers on mediation. While the research reveals evidence of a modest bottom‐up growth of construction mediation in Scotland, it also provides insight into key policy issues which will require to be resolved if mediation is to move from the margins to the mainstream of construction disputing practices in Scotland.

Regional development programmes in the European Union are increasingly being prepared by multi‐disciplinary teams whose official responsibilities now include environmental integration. Key determinants affecting team performance in this context include programme objectives, the status of environmental specialists in team composition, nterdisciplinary challenges and the diversity of objectives facing the team leader, and the need to maintain a proactive orientation towards environmental factors. Programmes currently operational reveal clear progress towards integration and environmental gain, particularly by teams in France, Wales and Scotland. Key issues emerging include that team leaders must accommodate and reconcile development and environment priorities, that national authorities are both supporting and providing environmental expertise as external and core team members, that team progress towards integration necessarily varies according to location, and that team performance will increasingly be judged on the basis of environmental factors.

The purpose of this paper is to describe first the rationale for an embedded process for learning difficulties and disabilities in the criminal justice system (CJS). This is followed by an example of how this approach has been delivered in one offender setting. The use of a novel computerised assessment tool is described, and the way it has been used to undertake the initial screening processes and provide person centred guidance for staff and the individuals. The bio-psychosocial approach to supporting individuals moving through the CJS is suggested as an approach that could be potentially used in other prisons settings. The paper also highlights some of the current challenges in doing so.

This paper presents a review of the currently literature to provide a rationale for the example of the embedded approach taken.

The approach, aligns to the challenges cited in much of the research.

The model presented can be used as a basis for potentially delivering such a system in other prisons settings and to highlight areas that remain contentious.

The embedded model represents a bio-psychosocial approach to supporting individuals moving through the CJS so has important implications.

This is novel approach.

How can customer service be so bad in an era when companies collect endless data on customer interactions? The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the important challenge of elevating customer service delivery by providing guidelines for when and how to select optimal measures of customer service measurement using a new decision framework.

The paper uses a comprehensive, multi-dimensional review of extant literature related to customer service, journey mapping and performance measurement and applied a qualitative, taxonomic approach for model development.

A process model and customer journey mapping framework can facilitate the selection and application of appropriate and relevant customer service experience metrics to enhance customer service experience strategies, creation and delivery.

The taxonomy of customer service metrics is limited to current publicly and commercially available metrics. The dynamic nature of the customer service environment necessitates continuous updates of the model and framework.

Selection of customer service performance measures should match relevant stages of the customer journey; use perception-based, operational and outcome-based metrics that track employee and customer behaviours; improve omni-channel measurement; and integrate data-sharing and benchmark measurement initiatives through collaboration with customer service communities.

A reimagined perspective is offered to the complex challenge of measuring and improving customer service, providing a new decision-making framework for customer service experience measurement and guidance for future research.

The rise of arts and culture is transforming citizen politics. Though new to many social scientists, this is a commonplace for many policy makers. We seek to overcome this divide by joining culture and the arts with classic concepts of political analysis. We offer an analytical framework incorporating the politics of cultural policy alongside the typical political and economic concerns. Our framework synthesizes several research streams that combine in global factors driving the articulation of culture into political/economic processes. The contexts of Toronto and Chicago are explored as both enhanced the arts dramatically, but Toronto engaged artists qua citizens, while Chicago did not.

The purpose of this paper is to review the extent and the manner in which internet governance systems could and do engage with the problems of potential and actual corruption.

A review of internet multistakeholder systems and their compatibility with global best practice in countering corruption.

The multistakeholder systems contain systemic weaknesses, exposing them to risks of corruption and capture that would be very difficult to identify and eradicate.

A number of opportunities are identified to improve resilience of internet multistakeholder systems against the dangers of capture and corruption.

There is no research published on this topic.

The study design investigated the leadership behavior of deans of education that addresses an important aspect of leadership – leadership is created when there is alignment between the organizational leadership behaviors needed by the institution and the leadership behaviors provided by the organizational leader. A survey of a selected group of deans of education from 35 institutions addressed the questions: what do deans self-identify as their prominent leadership behavior and to what extent do deans use multiple leadership behaviors. The research of Bolman and Deal (1984) provided the frames for analysis: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames. The study response rate was 50%. The findings of the study indicated that the majority of respondents perceived their primary leadership behavior as most closely matching the human resource frame. Results also indicated that a majority of respondents did not perceive that they

This chapter considers the influence of horror on the production of commercial gay pornography. I see this influence reflected especially in the production and popularity of gay pornographic films inspired by horror franchises from the slasher and ‘torture porn’ cycles that have been remade in recent decades. Nine texts are selected for analysis – from the slasher genre: Bryan Kenny’s 2010 A Nightmare on Twink Street (inspired by the A Nightmare on Elm Street series), Andy Kay’s 2012 Black XXXmas (inspired by Black Christmas), Frank Fuder and Angel Skye’s 2009 Halloweiner: Friday the Fuckteenth and Chi Chi LaRue’s 2016 Scared Stiff (both inspired by the Friday the 13th series), Bromo’s 2017 Cream for Me (Scream series); and from the torture porn genre: Jett Blakk’s 2006 Bonesaw, John Bruno’s 2006 Rammer and Bryan Kenny’s 2010 Raw I and 2011 (with Andy Kay) Raw II (inspired by the Saw franchise). The specificity of the horror genre is addressed, as is the importance of gender. But particular focus is directed toward the structural aspects of gay porn parodies and the degree to which horror parodies in particular have the potential to blend pornographic homosex with graphic violence, perhaps most extreme in the slasher and torture porn horror variants. Other potentialities are also explored, such as for the easing of narrative/sex porn tensions.

This paper evaluates potential methods for reducing ambiguity surrounding returns on equity to improve long-term savings decisions.

We evaluate 221 undergraduate students in the US and first assess the degree of ambiguity aversion exhibited by individuals in the sample population as they decide between a risky (known probability) option and ambiguous (unknown probability) option pertaining to their chances of winning $0 or $1 in a hypothetical lottery. Similarly, we test whether sampling historical return data through learning modules influences long-term decision making regarding asset allocation within a retirement portfolio.

Allowing participants to experience the underlying probability through sampling significantly influences behavior, as participants were more likely to select the ambiguous option after sampling. Here, we also find that participants who receive interactive learning modules – which require users to manually alter the asset allocation to produce a sample of historical return data based on the specific allocation entered in the model – increase their post-learning equity allocations by 10.1% more than individuals receiving static modules. Interestingly, we find no significant evidence of ambiguity aversion playing a role in the asset allocation decision.

We find that decision-making related to ambiguous and risky options can be substantially influenced by experiential learning. Our study supplements previous literature, providing a link between research on the effect of ambiguity on stock market participation and implementation of educational programs to improve the asset allocation decision for young adults.