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Since the late 1970s, the study of the role, structure and functions of personnel management in the United Kingdom has been greatly facilitated by surveys emerging from a number of large‐scale surveys. A major interest in interpreting the data from these surveys has been to evaluate the impact of recession, and, latterly, recovery on the power, structure and roles of personnel departments and personnel specialists in recent years. The survey data are used comparatively to evaluate the empirical plausibility of the different scenarios which have arisen, and to account for the results that emerge.

This paper uses time series econometric techniques to model regional property rents in order to build a picture of the distinctiveness and commonality of the Scottish property sector. Data used comes from a series stretching from 1970‐1998 and allows Scotland’s market performance (in terms of rents) in each of the three main property sectors to be benchmarked against a selective comparison of other UK regions. In doing so, we pay particular attention to the statistical properties of the time series used, applying tests of data stationarity and cointegration to develop a reduced form model of rents comprising both demand and supply‐side variables. The paper develops a predictive approach to property rents based on the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) methodology. Initial within‐sample predictive power is reasonably high. The implications of our results for a better understanding of the Scottish property market, as well as the more general modelling, are sketched out.

Examines employment equity legislation, initially introduced in the UK during the 1970s, along with separate legislation covering sex, race, religion and disability, together with separate enforcement bodies, and separate geographical arrangements in Britain and in Northern Ireland. Notes the role of European Community Law which takes precedence over UK law and increasingly dictates legislation changes. Claims that the period since the 1970s has witnessed growing levels of unemployment, along with a focus on de‐regulation of labour markets. Most British empirical work focuses on explaining earnings differentials using the standard Mincer human capital model with comparative neglect of employment equality issues. The fundamental question is to what extent has employment equity legislation been successful in removing labour market discrimination against minority groups. Uses a cross‐section of data from the 1994 labour force survey to attempt to explain differences in employability across various groups and to analyse the degree of occupational segregation across these same groups which remain after nearly 20 years of experience of employment equity legislation. Reviews the legislation and then estimates first, logit equations to explain employability and second, ordered probit equations to explain occupational attainment, in each case decomposing the results in order to estimate the proportion of the differential which may be explained by “discrimination”.

In this chapter, I utilize insights from symbolic interaction to analyze the identity work processes of larp subculture participants to construct and perform their in-game identities. I extend the research on larp subcultures in two ways. First, I place larping within the larger context of leisure subcultures and society by arguing that larping is representative of changes in leisure and subcultures in postmodern society. Second, I draw upon ethnographic data collected among the New England Role-playing Organization (NERO) to analyze larpers character identity performances. RPG and Larp researchers have developed several theories about the relationship between larp participants and their character performances. While these concepts provide a helpful framework for understanding the participant-character relationship, they undertheorize the in-game constructed performance of identity. Using symbolic interaction theory, I analyze the identity work processes larpers use to construct and perform their larp identities extending our understanding of the similarities between everyday identity and larpers' character identity performances.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss disability hate crimes in the context of feminist theories of intersectionality.

A mixed-method approach is adopted, combing feminist auto-ethnography with case reviews of a number of disability hate crimes.

Disability hate crimes must be understood in the wider context of social inequality and the intersection of identities which make some people more vulnerable to criminal victimization than others.

Feminists can apply many of the lessons from third wave feminist debates about intersectionality to the topic of disability hate crimes, so that the multiplicity of inequalities which influence victimization are appropriately recognized. Policy changes are necessary to respond more appropriately to the intersectional forms of power underlying disability hate crimes.

There has not been a feminist exploration of disability hate crimes ever written before, so the chapter breaks new ground in exploring these issues.

The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.

This preliminary study aims to examine the use of a co-designed immersive virtual reality intervention programme in improving access to health care for people with intellectual disability.

A co-production approach was used to design a virtual reality intervention in collaboration with people with intellectual disability, their families and carers. A mixed-method single sample pre-test-post-test design examined using a virtual reality intervention simulating health-care environments to improve access of attending health-care appointments. Qualitative feedback was used to understand participants’ experience and opinions of using the digital technology.

The study found that the intervention did help people access health-care appointment and reduced their fear. Improvements were also found in quality-of-life post intervention. Positive feedback was provided from participants on using digital technologies indicating the novelty of the approach and potential further applications.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which has used virtual reality to support people with intellectual disability access health care.

Tourism is leisure commodified. As a commodity, the actuality of tourism has been suggested as less important than its expressive representations. What is depicted or not depicted in destination image advertising, and on whose authority it is selected, involves a more complex question of what comprises the destination and who has the power to define its identity. Recently, there has been a shift in the promotional role of destination marketing organizations where it has broadened to include product (attraction) development and industry relations. This role extension enables a matching of authoritative voice and reconstructed reality in order to verify official imaging. The symbolism and meaning of destination image can be interpreted through a deconstructionist analysis of tourist destination advertising. This paper explores significance of tourism promotion on tourist culture as it packages touristic representations.

This paper discusses the managerialist approach to developing and implementing systems for flexible delivery of educational systems in the Australian university sector. Rapid advances in communication technologies have enabled the education sector to provide greater flexibility and diversity in the traditional areas of mixed delivery and distance education. Notes that educational policy is being shaped by neo‐liberal ideology, leading to systems of flexible delivery in which a concern with economic worth and efficiency can override the purpose of such systems. Asserts that, in order to develop effective online flexible learning systems, universities need to plan for, and invest heavily in, adequate programs to train academic staff in all aspects of the delivery of courses in the online flexible learning systems and to provide incentives to academics to become e‐moderators and managers of online flexible learning systems.