Search results

This study seeks to further understanding of spectator consumption practices by applying modern consumer theory in a much different historical context: the gladiator games during the time of the Roman Empire. The objective is to validate modern ideas of consumption practices with evidence from the past.

The research draws from a sampling of classical and contemporary literatures as well as the interpretation of the images and inscriptions delineated on archaeological artifacts such as relief sculptures on sarcophagi, floor mosaics, fresco paintings, and terracotta and glass lamps. The visual content and consumption themes of selected objects are described and analyzed.

Spectators at the Roman games used these events for the sake of the experience, for integrating themselves into their community, for classifying themselves in a certain group category, and for interacting and socializing with other people. As in modern sporting events, consuming the Roman games served both instrumental and autotelic purposes for spectators. The games were directly an object of consumption as well as the focal resource of interpersonal communications.

The set of visual data sources is small and the literary evidence is in translation of the original sources.

The research shows that Holt's typology of sports consumer practices is supported by evidence from a much different time and context. Thus, the theory provides a robust framework for analysing consumer practices and rituals.

WE publish this month an exhaustive survey of the types of aeroplane in current use by the Regia Aeronautica. The general impression gained from a cursory inspection of the illustrations is that Italian military aeroplanes are clumsy in appearance and by no means up‐to‐date in comparison with British machines. This impression is confirmed when a more detailed examination of their characteristics is made. The performance figures, as from time to time officially stated, are conflicting and of extremely doubtful reliability; but even if they are taken at their highest they are not particularly impressive. This view has received further support from experience in combat, so far as this has gone at present; for even in action against Gladiators, which can hardly now be considered representative of the present‐day British fighter, they have not shown up particularly well.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new way to measure risk in real estate investment, which departs from traditional statistical methodology borrowed from finance.

An argument is advanced for the use of so‐called coherent risk measures for real estate investment decisions. Central to this class of measure is the computation of spectral risk, a measure that covers the spectrum of an individual's risk aversion function. Intuition being hard to observe, empirical data from two large databases are presented as support.

At the heart of the controversy is a discussion of the nature of risk and how it should be measured. This paper seeks common ground where peace may be made between these two warring factions. Scenarios are tested wherein different risk aversion functions are used to compute spectral risk for different sectors. Ex‐post analysis shows that reasoning of this nature can lead to improved risk‐adjusted investment results.

The route to finding an appropriate risk measure for real estate investment has been tortuous. It is not certain that the destination has been reached. Complicating the task is a considerable gap between academic and practitioner methodology, the former relying on the mathematics of objective probability, the latter dwelling quite successfully in a habitat of subjective risk measures.

It is widely accepted that risk represents a cost to society. Real estate, as a repository of roughly half the world's wealth, can be viewed as having risk of a structurally different nature. The better understanding of this risk reduces the cost to society.

For practitioners, spectral measures offer formal support for something they have been doing their entire careers: evaluating risk subjectively. The simple dot product of weights and ordered outcomes is an extension of the widely used “Best case – Worse case – Most likely” methodology that has served professionals well for decades. Perhaps a by‐product of spectral measures is to bring academics and field gladiators closer together. If there is merit to a new way of thinking about risk independent of its implementation, real estate investment could benefit from that thinking. Among those who doubt that everything is “normal” are those who believe that previous attempts to explain risk in real estate have fallen far short of the mark. The challenge to those still not satisfied by the spectral approach is to offer an alternative that represents both a departure from and an improvement of the old methods.

IT is evident from the numerous press cuttings which are reaching us, that we are once more afflicted with one of those periodical visitations of antagonism to Public Libraries, which occasionally assume epidemic form as the result of a succession of library opening ceremonies, or a rush of Carnegie gifts. Let a new library building be opened, or an old one celebrate its jubilee, or let Lord Avebury regale us with his statistics of crime‐diminution and Public Libraries, and immediately we have the same old, never‐ending flood of articles, papers and speeches to prove that Public Libraries are not what their original promoters intended, and that they simply exist for the purpose of circulating American “Penny Bloods.” We have had this same chorus, with variations, at regular intervals during the past twenty years, and it is amazing to find old‐established newspapers, and gentlemen of wide reading and knowledge, treating the theme as a novelty. One of the latest gladiators to enter the arena against Public Libraries, is Mr. J. Churton Collins, who contributes a forcible and able article, on “Free Libraries, their Functions and Opportunities,” to the Nineteenth Century for June, 1903. Were we not assured by its benevolent tone that Mr. Collins seeks only the betterment of Public Libraries, we should be very much disposed to resent some of the conclusions at which he has arrived, by accepting erroneous and misleading information. As a matter of fact, we heartily endorse most of Mr. Collins' ideas, though on very different grounds, and feel delighted to find in him an able exponent of what we have striven for five years to establish, namely, that Public Libraries will never be improved till they are better financed and better staffed.

In 1867, the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, undertook a great pleasure excursion across Europe. Visiting a range of sites, from those associated with the Christian Cult of Death to the notable cultural heritage attractions of the time, Twain published his experiences in what would later become one of the world's best‐selling travelogues; The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrim's Progress. This essay offers a rereading of Twain's encounters, proposing examination of Twain's encounters as timely and useful in addressing what Seaton identifies as a gap in data on thanatourism consumption.

The essay draws on contemporary thanatourism theoretical frameworks, including Seaton's “Continuum of intensity” and “Thanatourism developmental sketch”; Sharpley's “Matrix of dark tourism supply and demand” and Stone and Sharpley's “Dark tourism consumption framework”, among others, to explore Twain's encounters.

Supplemented by a review of recent theoretical thanatourism research, the essay proposes three findings. Finding one illustrates that Twain's encounters, although not always pre‐motivated or purposefully supplied, were emotionally charged and deeply affective experiences, which had the potential to provoke ontological insecurity. Finding two highlights the potential of the geography of death to stimulate emotional reactions and configure individual and societal interactions with death. Finding three argues a need for new methodological approaches to understanding the thanatourism experience; approaches that are empathetically sensitive to the potentially powerful impact of the thanatourism experience.

The essay draws on a classic travelogue to help address the imbalance in knowledge of the thanatourism experience. The essay argues that thanatourism is a layered and complex phenomenon, highly personal and often a potentially powerful and emotionally affective experience.

Contemporary practitioners of content marketing (CM) often suggest their discipline is an ancient one, yet mainly limit its origins to the custom-published magazines of the late 1800s. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize some of the many definitions of CM and to report the first scholarly history of its development and practice.

This study’s purposes led to the following research questions: To what extent were CM strategies and tactics used before the 20th century? How have the uses and characteristics of CM changed or remained the same over time? Sources included general histories focusing on the earliest uses of advertising and promotions and edited book chapters and journal articles on the histories of branding and early print advertising, marketing and advertising practices in ancient and medieval periods and the development of consumer cultures around the world.

Research findings support three conclusions: CM existed much earlier than often acknowledged; has emerged as a unique marketing discipline, strategically and tactically distinguishable from the others (e.g. advertising and sales promotion); and possesses objectives, strategies and tactics that have remained remarkably consistent in practice across the millennia.

The research supports several insights to the history of marketing and the practice of CM. Some of the CM strategies and tactics identified in this paper, for instance, have previously been concluded to be part of advertising’s history. Findings also reveal that many of advertising’s American pioneers actually used CM to persuade 19th-century businessmen to adopt widespread advertising. In addition, the emphasis on interactive, digital media in CM definitions offers a likely explanation for the recent enthusiasm behind CM as a response to global trends in consumer preferences and global competition, as well as why contemporary CM practitioners have often failed to recognize they are practicing a “new” discipline that has actually been in use for thousands of years.

THE DEATH SHIP is the most famous of all B. Traven's books. When it first came out in Germany in 1935, it sold over 200,000 copies before it was banned. It is subtitled ‘The Story of an American Sailor’—although it could as well be called ‘The Story of a Hero without a name’. Perhaps the term ‘Hero’ needs definition in this context, since ‘the song of the real…hero of the sea has not yet been sung’, writes the author in the first chapter.

Two new members of staff are joining BLRDD in September: Lawrence Howells, who is at present working in the Science Reference and Information service, will become a project officer, and Ros Cotton, who is currently working in the Library Association Library, will be the new dissemination officer.

This first part of a two-part paper aims to provide an insight into the ethical and legal issues associated with certain classes of robot. This part is concerned with ethics.

Following an introduction, this paper first considers the ethical deliberations surrounding robots used in warfare and healthcare. It then addresses the issue of robot truth and deception and subsequently discusses some on-going deliberations and possible ways forward. Finally, brief conclusions are drawn.

Robot ethics are the topic of wide-ranging debate and encompass such diverse applications as military drones and robotic carers. Many ethical considerations have been raised including philosophical issues such as moral behaviour and truth and deception. Preliminary research suggests that some of these concerns may be ameliorated through the use of software which encompasses ethical principles. It is widely recognised that a multidisciplinary approach is required and there is growing evidence of this.

This paper provides an insight into the highly topical and complex issue of robot ethics.