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1 – 4 of 4Connie K.Y. Mak, Ai-Ling Lai, Christiana Tsaousi and Andrea Davies
Consumer studies drawing on interpretative approaches have tended to rely on sedentary interviews, which the authors argue are ill-equipped to capture the embodied, tacit and…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumer studies drawing on interpretative approaches have tended to rely on sedentary interviews, which the authors argue are ill-equipped to capture the embodied, tacit and pre-reflexive knowledge that conditions routinized practices. This paper aims to provide practical and theoretical framing of the walking-with technique, in particular, with reference to practice theories. Specifically, this paper draws on Bourdieu’s concept of the “habitus” to illustrate the “workings” of the habituated body in performing routine consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used the walking-with technique to elicit “mobile stories” with senior executives in Hong Kong. This paper explored how walking to and from work/lunch/dinner can open up culturally and historically embodied narratives that reflect evolving consumption practices throughout participants’ professional trajectories.
Findings
This paper demonstrates the uses of the walking-with technique by illustrating how embodied narratives foreground the pre-reflexive practices of mundane consumption. This paper illustrates how walking as a “mobile mundane practice” can expand a researcher’s horizon of understanding, enabling them to “fall into the routines of participants’ life”, “get into grips with participant’s temporal (time travel portal) and cultural conditioning” and “co-experience and empathise with participants through bodily knowing”. The authors argue that walking-with necessarily implies an inter-subjective sharing of intermundane space between the researchers and the participants. Such a method is therefore conducive to engendering co-created embodied understanding-in-practice, which the authors argue is accomplished when there is a fusion-of-habituses. Future applications in other consumer contexts are also discussed.
Practical implications
The walking-with technique embeds data collection in the day-to-day routes taken by participants. This does not only ease the accessibility issue but also render real-life settings relevant to participants’ daily life.
Originality/value
Despite receiving growing attention in social science studies, the walking-with technique is under-used in consumer research. This paper calls for the need to mobilise walking-with as a method to uncover practical and theoretical consumer insights in a way that allows for embodied and performative knowledge (know-how) to emerge.
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Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to compare relative levels of rental affordability across the English housing association sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare relative levels of rental affordability across the English housing association sector.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of two methods, rent‐to‐income ratio and residual income standards (poverty‐line and budget standard), are used to maximise their strengths and complement their weaknesses in measuring rental affordability.
Findings
The rent‐to‐income ratio analysis identified that housing association rents were generally affordable. However, the residual income analyses using two different minimum acceptable standards suggested some scepticism in this regard. In particular, both analyses confirmed the affordability problem in London where nearly half of existing housing association tenants had disposable household incomes that were well below the poverty‐line as well as the largest rent‐to‐income ratio. Both analyses also confirmed that lone parents were more likely than average households to have an affordability problem.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitations of this study are the small sample size of existing housing association tenants and different definitions of incomes, and subsequently different residual income measures for existing and new tenants. However, this study demonstrates that when examining the affordability of housing for the poorest households, multiple overlapping measures of affordability are likely to be more reliable than any single measure.
Originality/value
The paper is an empirical attempt to use a combination of two affordability measures to examine the affordability problem of social tenants in the English housing association sector. It is also unusual in the scientific literature to use different data sources to obtain household incomes for different types of housing association tenants.
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Connie Zheng, Shazia Nauman and Nida Usman Jahangir
This study explores the under-researched phenomenon of workplace bullying against women in male-dominated Pakistani society, highlighting its severe impacts and bridging the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the under-researched phenomenon of workplace bullying against women in male-dominated Pakistani society, highlighting its severe impacts and bridging the research gap on intersectional effects of gender and cultural dynamics in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a mixed-method research approach, we conducted two-wave surveys with 308 female workers in Pakistan's educational and health sectors. Data analysis examined relationships between workplace bullying and job outcomes like productivity and satisfaction, complemented by insights from in-depth interviews with 18 female workers.
Findings
The study reveals that workplace bullying significantly undermines job productivity, increases emotional exhaustion mediated by job anxiety and decreases job satisfaction among female workers. Bullying persists due to weak institutions and inadequate law enforcement, with perceived social support found to be an insignificant moderator.
Practical implications
The study findings underscore the economic implications of workplace bullying, as it drives female workforce attrition, hindering economic development. The study recommends conflict resolution strategies, effective HR policies, national law enforcement and supportive social networks to combat bullying and create a conducive work environment.
Social implications
This study aligns with the UN's SDG goals #5 (gender equality) and #8 (decent work and economic growth), addressing pertinent issues related to workplace bullying in pursuit of these global objectives.
Originality/value
This study represents a unique attempt to address the intersectional dynamics of gender and culture concerning workplace bullying in Pakistan.
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