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1 – 10 of 188This paper is intended to spark discourse on the impact of holograms and holographic technology on libraries and the possibility of their usage in Caribbean academic libraries for…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is intended to spark discourse on the impact of holograms and holographic technology on libraries and the possibility of their usage in Caribbean academic libraries for assisting users, especially those from the physically challenged community, as well as distance library users.
Design/methodology/approach
A thorough assessment of literature was done of all academic and higher institution libraries across the English-speaking Caribbean to determine the effective use of holograms and holographic technology in Caribbean libraries. Literature from several developed countries was studied, paying keen attention to the emerging holograms and holographic technology and the plausibility for inclusion and exploitation by academic libraries.
Findings
Revealing the possibilities for fostering great levels of efficacy, as well as saving time and reducing the possibility for inefficiencies in the system through smoother check-in and check-out while offering more accountability.
Research limitations/implications
This research focused primarily on holograms and holographic technology that can assist libraries and their users in the near future. It further attested to the need for there to be greater consideration for physically challenged individuals and their access to material from the library.
Originality/value
This paper is the genesis for discussion surrounding holograms and holographic technology in the English-speaking Caribbean. It sought to bring awareness to the possible uses of holograms while exploring the practical implications of its use in libraries across the English-speaking Caribbean.
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Kiyavash Irankhah, Soheil Asadimehr, Golnaz Ranjbar, Behzad Kiani and Seyyed Reza Sobhani
To effectively combat the increasing rates of obesity, it is crucial to explore how environmental factors like sidewalk access impact weight-related outcomes. This study aimed to…
Abstract
Purpose
To effectively combat the increasing rates of obesity, it is crucial to explore how environmental factors like sidewalk access impact weight-related outcomes. This study aimed to systematically examine the association between sidewalk accessibility and weight-related outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Databases were searched by keywords for relevant articles, which were published before March 3, 2024, to report the role of neighborhood sidewalk access on weight-related outcomes. The main findings of the selected articles were extracted from eligible studies by two independent reviewers.
Findings
A total of 20 out of 33 studies indicated a significant negative relationship between access to sidewalks and weight-related outcomes. Three studies demonstrated an indirect relationship between access to sidewalks and weight-related outcomes by greater access to physical environments. In addition, five studies reported no clear relationship, and three studies reported a significantly positive relationship between access to sidewalks and weight-related outcomes.
Practical implications
In general, people who live in urban areas with better sidewalk access benefit from better weight-related outcomes. Adults showed this correlation more prominently than adolescents and children. Therefore, sidewalks that have a positive effect on physical activity levels could be considered as a preventive measure against obesity.
Originality/value
One of the weight-related outcomes is obesity. Every community faces numerous challenges due to obesity, which adversely affects the quality of life and health. Environmental factors such as access to sidewalks could be associated with body weight due to lifestyle influences.
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Duncan Shaw, Reza Zanjirani Farahani and Judy Scully
This research explores the drivers that determine the ability of spontaneous volunteer groups (SVGs) to sustain their operations. That sustainability aims to support those…
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores the drivers that determine the ability of spontaneous volunteer groups (SVGs) to sustain their operations. That sustainability aims to support those affected in the community beyond the response phases of a disaster and into the recovery and mitigation phases to build resilience to the next disaster.
Design/methodology/approach
To investigate the sustainability of spontaneous volunteering that takes place in the aftermath of a disaster, we conducted qualitative interviews in three English locations where groups of spontaneous volunteers emerged following major floods. We analysed our qualitative data using thematic analysis.
Findings
Our findings theorise the drivers of SVG sustainability and present these in four themes: (1) assessment of ongoing needs; (2) organisation of resources to address that need; (3) leadership and followership creating a weight of operational capability and (4) influence of political will. Through exploring these drivers, we uncover key factors to developing a sustainable SVG system including trusted leadership and social capital.
Research limitations/implications
We show how the four drivers interact to support the continuity of SVGs and sustain their operations. This has implications for how leaders of SVGs create a volunteering environment that encourages ongoing involvement and has implications for officials to view SVGs as a support rather than a risk.
Originality/value
The novelty of our paper is in rejecting the argument of the temporal limit of SVGs to the response phase by theorising the drivers that make their operations sustainable for recovery and resilience building to mitigate the next disaster. This includes our examination of the interplay between those drivers.
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Bruno Luiz Americo, Stewart Clegg and Fagner Carniel
Despite being conjointly stronger in their synergies in the past, there is still a significant gap between management and organization studies and sociology. The temporal lag is…
Abstract
Despite being conjointly stronger in their synergies in the past, there is still a significant gap between management and organization studies and sociology. The temporal lag is also, on occasion, a substantive lag. The emergent sociological concept of emotional reflexivity has recently been used in organizational studies. The question that animates this contribution concerns the nature of this translation, reception, and extension; thus, we ask how organization studies have been using the sociological concept of emotional reflexivity? We will examine recent seminal sociological studies on emotional reflexivity to answer this inquiry and consider some organizational studies citing these. We describe the reception of sociological ideas of emotional reflexivity in management and organization studies literature. By analyzing the differences and disconnections produced within this discourse, it will be possible to understand that emotional reflexivity is rarely addressed in emotional encounters between people and other modes of being in modern organizations. We introduce narrative fiction as a method; the narrative focuses on the relationships between humans and other beings in the workplace dynamics of a vocational school. The story tells how Charlie, a deaf student, changed his life after entering the vocational school and becoming involved with different pedagogical teaching-learning strategies. Adopting two deaf dogs, which had both suffered from past unsuccessful adoption experiences, produced life-enhancing emotional reflexivity. We conclude with a research agenda scoping further directions.
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This study uncovers the challenges and coping mechanisms related to stigma and discrimination experienced by gay professional team sport athletes.
Abstract
Purpose
This study uncovers the challenges and coping mechanisms related to stigma and discrimination experienced by gay professional team sport athletes.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing interpretive phenomenological analysis, this study recruited six gay athletes in professional team sports. Data were collected through virtual one-on-one semi-structured interviews, along with field notes and reflexive journaling, and were thematically analyzed.
Findings
The first theme highlights the discrimination and marginalization experienced by gay athletes in professional team sports, as well as the perceived differences between these athletes and their heterosexual counterparts. The second theme includes anecdotes illustrating their experiences of exclusion, along with counter-stories that resist marginalization. The last theme comprises stories that underscore the lack of acceptance and advocacy, emphasizing the awareness education aimed at making the sporting realm more inclusive.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the extensive recruiting efforts for this study, numerous sports and countries remain unexplored. Follow-up studies are required to fill this gap. As this study was initiated, additional research is needed to provide information on athletes who are still in the closet. Cross-comparisons between gay athletes and their heterosexual teammates can help bridge the gap in perspectives.
Practical implications
Participants emphasized collective efforts in creating inclusive and welcoming environments for gay athletes, including anti-discrimination policies related to language use, showers and relocation adjustments.
Social implications
Participants have put forth concrete recommendations for enhancing inclusivity within team sport environments and society at large, including proposals for early educational initiatives within the school systems.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study that focuses on the experiences of gay professional team sport athletes.
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Dalia Al-Tarazi, Rachel Sara, Paul Redford, Louis Rice and Colin Booth
The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of personalisation in the relationship between the architectural design of homes and inhabitants’ psychological well-being.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of personalisation in the relationship between the architectural design of homes and inhabitants’ psychological well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
This interdisciplinary mixed-method study first investigates the existence of a link between personalisation and users’ association with home through a quantitative study (n = 101) and then explores the nature of this relationship through qualitative interviews (n = 13) in a sequential explanatory approach.
Findings
The main findings of the study highlight the significance of personalisation in relation to the way people perceive home. A direct link was established between participants’ involvement in the transformation of the home and their satisfaction with the residence, as well as satisfaction with life in general. Further thematic analysis of the qualitative study revealed further conceptualisations of personalisation, which together form an umbrella concept called transformability.
Research limitations/implications
The findings underscore the need for embedding flexibility as an architectural concept in the design of residential buildings for improving the well-being of occupants.
Originality/value
The design of homes has a great impact on inhabitants’ psychological well-being. This is becoming of greater importance in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has led to an increase in the amount of time spent in homes. This research contributes to this debate by proposing concepts for a deeper understanding of architectural influences on the psychology of the home.
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Civic education in the US has historically centered the nation-state. This is often disempowering for marginalized students who exist outside the national narrative and political…
Abstract
Purpose
Civic education in the US has historically centered the nation-state. This is often disempowering for marginalized students who exist outside the national narrative and political sphere.
Design/methodology/approach
This year-long ethnographic study considers what counts as civic education in the US Virgin Islands, a territory of the US. This paper draws on critical theory and critical pedagogy to understand ways teachers in a politically and culturally marginalized space can reimagine civic education. Classroom observations, interviews and curriculum content analysis are used as data.
Findings
The findings suggest that teachers centered the local by surfacing the unjust political relationship between the US and its territories and incorporating local history, civic engagement, resistance and culture to politically empower their students.
Originality/value
This research will contribute a deeper understanding of the possibilities for civic education to be empowering for those who are marginalized and often excluded from the national political arena.
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The paper investigates English National Health Service (NHS) organisations partnering with private companies, a form commonly known as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP)…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper investigates English National Health Service (NHS) organisations partnering with private companies, a form commonly known as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Successive governments have promoted PPPs as a way of improving the delivery of health care, making the best of the different skills/experience which both sectors bring. However, the task of making these relationships work on the ground often falls to individual leaders/practitioners (“boundary spanners”) whose role has been under-researched in this type of partnership.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for a comparative three case study approach, including 13 semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with employees representing middle and senior management involved in managing the partnerships. The data were complemented by documentary analysis, including minutes, descriptions of internal processes and press releases.
Findings
The paper provides conceptual and empirical insights by creating a framework called the “boundary wall” that indicates the ways in which different elements of the boundaries between organisations influence the role and activities of boundary spanners (managers of the partnership).
Research limitations/implications
This is an initial framework in an under-researched area, so will need further testing and application to other case study sites in future research.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for both practice and policy.
Originality/value
While we know an increasing amount about the role of boundary spanners in public partnerships, the paper makes a unique contribution by exploring these concepts in the context of relationships between the public and private sectors.
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The literature review explores how multidisciplinary approaches based on critical pedagogy and participatory research can provide frameworks for equitable partnerships and genuine…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature review explores how multidisciplinary approaches based on critical pedagogy and participatory research can provide frameworks for equitable partnerships and genuine participation in educational design and research practices. Additionally, the essay aims to expand understandings of equitable engagement within educational research and design based on principles from critical pedagogy.
Design/methodology/approach
The essay draws from diverse literature in the learning sciences, health informatics, industrial design, disability studies, ethnic studies, rehabilitation science, and to a lesser extent HCI research to understand how critical pedagogy and participatory research methods can provide useful frameworks for disabled peoples' equitable engagement and genuine participation in educational research and design. The literature reviewed in the paper concern topics such as participatory approaches to community development with disabled adults, the implementation of university-initiated community partnerships, participatory research with students and disabled people, and the importance of culturally-responsive research practices. The design literature in this review explores various arenas such as the co-design of assistive technologies with disabled children and adults and the design of curricula for students with and without disabilities. This review focuses on research practices that engender disabled peoples' participation in educational research and design, with focus on developing multidisciplinary frameworks for such research.
Findings
The literature review concludes that participatory research methods and critical pedagogy provide useful frameworks for disabled peoples’ participation in educational design and research practices. Critical pedagogy and participatory design allow for the genuine participation of disabled people in the research process.
Social implications
Emphases on collaboration and collective knowledge-building in social transformation are present in scholarship concerning critical pedagogy, participatory research, and disability studies. However, these connections have been routinely underexplored in the literature. This paper aims to underscore these integral connections as a means to build solidarity between disabled and other marginalized people.
Originality/value
The connections between participatory research methods, critical pedagogy, and disability studies have been previously underexplored. The literature review proposes a combined approach, which has the potential to radically transform multiple realms of research beyond the learning and information sciences.
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