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Article
Publication date: 19 March 2018

Enrico Beltramini

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the work of Mark Coeckelbergh into the field of management.

1255

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the work of Mark Coeckelbergh into the field of management.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper with interviews.

Findings

The author suggests that Coeckelberghs’ considerations of an anthropology of vulnerability have the potential to provide a rich and insightful exploration of the machine-human interface, which is not afforded by many of the current approaches taken in this field. Their development of an anthropology of vulnerability suggests an approach to the machine-human interface that re-frames the machine-human interface in terms of human vulnerability, rather than machine’s performance, and sustains that the machine-human interface can be understood in terms of the transfer of human vulnerability.

Research limitations/implications

This paper reveals some of the possibilities inherent in Coeckelbergh’s theories by providing an analysis of a specific event, the recent introduction of robo-advisors in portfolio management, from a Coeckelberghian perspective and by exploring some of the implications of this type of approach for the machine-human interface.

Originality/value

As far as the author knows, there is no previous paper on this topic.

Details

Baltic Journal of Management, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2023

Sertan Kabadayi, Reut Livne-Tarandach and Michael Pirson

This paper aims to explore how service organizations can improve the effectiveness of well-being creation efforts given the pressing societal issues and global crises. In this…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore how service organizations can improve the effectiveness of well-being creation efforts given the pressing societal issues and global crises. In this paper, the authors examine two essential dimensions (dignity and vulnerability approach) to develop a theoretical framework. This framework can be used to increase the effectiveness of well-being outcomes created by transformative service initiatives (TSIs) and minimize their negative unintentional consequences.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on social marketing and humanistic management literature, this paper develops a framework for TSIs based on whether human dignity is recognized or ignored and whether a deficit-based or strength-based approach to vulnerability is used. This framework explains different types of TSIs and provides real-life examples.

Findings

The framework developed in this paper discusses four different types of TSIs: (1) exclusionary, a deficit-based approach where dignity is ignored; (2) opportunistic, a strength-based approach where dignity is ignored; (3) paternalistic, a deficit-based approach where dignity is recognized; and (4) humanistic, a strength-based approach where dignity is recognized. The paper also identifies five pathways that service organizations could use to implement these approaches, including two traps (utility and charity) and three opportunities (resourcing, humanizing and full awakening) embedded within these pathways.

Practical implications

This paper provides examples of service industries and specific companies to exemplify the framework developed. Also, it discusses the well-being implications and potential well-being outcomes associated with each type of TSI.

Social implications

This paper offers a novel framework based on two dimensions that are relatively new to the service literature, i.e. dignity and vulnerability approach. This paper also highlights the importance of including these two dimensions in future service research.

Originality/value

This paper offers a novel framework based on two relatively new dimensions to the service literature: dignity and strengths-based approach. This paper also highlights the importance of including these two dimensions in future service research.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 37 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 November 2019

Helen Forbes-Mewett and Kien Nguyen-Trung

Since the late 1980s, social theorists championed for the birth of a new era, in which societies were increasingly exposed to growing global risks. The presence of increasing…

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, social theorists championed for the birth of a new era, in which societies were increasingly exposed to growing global risks. The presence of increasing risks including natural disasters, technological errors, terrorist attacks, nuclear wars and environmental degradation suggests that human beings are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Therefore, an understanding of vulnerability is crucial. Vulnerability is often considered as the potential to suffer from physical attacks. This approach, however, has limited capacity to explain many forms of suffering including not only physical aspects, but also mental, social, economic, political and social dimensions. This chapter draws on the vulnerability literature to present an overarching framework for the book. It starts with an outline of the concept origins, then discusses its relationship with the risk society thesis before forming conceptualisation. The chapter then points out the key similarities and differences between vulnerability and other concepts such as risk, disaster, poverty, security and resilience. The authors rework an existing “security” framework to develop a new definition of the concept of vulnerability. Finally, the authors look into the root causes and the formation of vulnerability within social systems.

Details

Vulnerability in a Mobile World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-912-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 March 2019

Uchenna Daniel Ani, Hongmei He and Ashutosh Tiwari

As cyber-attacks continue to grow, organisations adopting the internet-of-things (IoT) have continued to react to security concerns that threaten their businesses within the…

2203

Abstract

Purpose

As cyber-attacks continue to grow, organisations adopting the internet-of-things (IoT) have continued to react to security concerns that threaten their businesses within the current highly competitive environment. Many recorded industrial cyber-attacks have successfully beaten technical security solutions by exploiting human-factor vulnerabilities related to security knowledge and skills and manipulating human elements into inadvertently conveying access to critical industrial assets. Knowledge and skill capabilities contribute to human analytical proficiencies for enhanced cybersecurity readiness. Thus, a human-factored security endeavour is required to investigate the capabilities of the human constituents (workforce) to appropriately recognise and respond to cyber intrusion events within the industrial control system (ICS) environment.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach (statistical analysis) is adopted to provide an approach to quantify the potential cybersecurity capability aptitudes of industrial human actors, identify the least security-capable workforce in the operational domain with the greatest susceptibility likelihood to cyber-attacks (i.e. weakest link) and guide the enhancement of security assurance. To support these objectives, a Human-factored Cyber Security Capability Evaluation approach is presented using conceptual analysis techniques.

Findings

Using a test scenario, the approach demonstrates the capacity to proffer an efficient evaluation of workforce security knowledge and skills capabilities and the identification of weakest link in the workforce.

Practical implications

The approach can enable organisations to gain better workforce security perspectives like security-consciousness, alertness and response aptitudes, thus guiding organisations into adopting strategic means of appropriating security remediation outlines, scopes and resources without undue wastes or redundancies.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates originality by providing a framework and computational approach for characterising and quantify human-factor security capabilities based on security knowledge and security skills. It also supports the identification of potential security weakest links amongst an evaluated industrial workforce (human agents), some key security susceptibility areas and relevant control interventions. The model and validation results demonstrate the application of action research. This paper demonstrates originality by illustrating how action research can be applied within socio-technical dimensions to solve recurrent and dynamic problems related to industrial environment cyber security improvement. It provides value by demonstrating how theoretical security knowledge (awareness) and practical security skills can help resolve cyber security response and control uncertainties within industrial organisations.

Details

Journal of Systems and Information Technology, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1328-7265

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 October 2003

James K Mitchell

Following the disasters of 9/11/01 the U.S. government has embarked on what is intended to be a comprehensive response to the hazard of further terrorist attacks on Americans at…

Abstract

Following the disasters of 9/11/01 the U.S. government has embarked on what is intended to be a comprehensive response to the hazard of further terrorist attacks on Americans at home and abroad. This paper addresses the homeland component of the response and asserts that both the general approach and the measures being deployed are neither comprehensive nor well-balanced. The broad goal of security is losing ground to the narrower objective of defense; mitigation strategies are being overshadowed by preparedness and response alternatives; expert systems are preferred over grass-roots bottom-up ones; and possibilities for reducing human vulnerability are being ignored in favor of programs that aim to reduce risks or lessen the vulnerability of built structures and infrastructures. Preferences for the use of sophisticated technologies that are intended to quarantine terrorism and minimize its consequences far outnumber efforts to engage with the messier realm of ideas and behaviors related to terrorism. Yet it is the latter that shape the public interpretation of terrorism risks, structure patterns of exposure and affect the coping capabilities of threatened communities. Without substantial changes to policy that take account of these deficiencies, Americans are likely to find themselves little better prepared to confront the challenges of future terrorist attacks on targets in U.S. territory and the nation’s ability to address other kinds of hazards may be seriously compromised.

Details

Terrorism and Disaster: New Threats, New Ideas
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-227-6

Book part
Publication date: 12 May 2022

Cassandra Mary Frances Gonzalez

PurposeThis chapter examines the relationship between intersections of race and gender for vulnerability for human trafficking and criminalization of exploitation in the United

Abstract

PurposeThis chapter examines the relationship between intersections of race and gender for vulnerability for human trafficking and criminalization of exploitation in the United States that is rooted in the broader socio-historical contexts dating to colonization and chattel enslavement.

Methodology/approachThis chapter utilizes intersectional criminology and historical intersectional criminology as epistemological frameworks to contextualize the construction of race and gender that began with colonization of indigenous populations to chattel enslavement of Africans and their descendants. Overall, this chapter’s approach is a call for contextualization within the study of human trafficking and an intersectional approach to understanding the structures that enable trafficking and the ramifications it has for victims.

FindingsThrough an application of intersectional criminology, the findings herein demonstrate how racial ideologies and legacies within the United States contributed to the vulnerabilities of race and gender for sex trafficking predation as well as criminalization for Black and Native American girls and women. The gendered analysis of men and women who chose to become sex traffickers reveal different gendered pathways into trafficking offending and addresses the significance of these pathways for trafficking victims and potential future traffickers. These analyses demonstrate that intersectional criminology problematizes current research on human trafficking and future directions research should incorporate.

Originality/valueCurrent criminological research has a scarcity of intersectional criminological applications and fewer that offer a critical analysis of structural inequalities, histories of colonization and chattel enslavement, and interrogation of identities in both vulnerabilities for trafficking victims, how they may interact with agents from the criminal justice system, and the impacts of intersecting identities for traffickers and their offending. If criminology scholars aim to use their research in anti-trafficking efforts and policy recommendations, these analyses are vital both for addressing victimization and offending pathways for exploitation victims and their exploiters.

Details

Diversity in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-001-7

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 May 2021

Yueyue He, Changchun Zhou and Tanveer Ahmed

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively measure the vulnerability level of the whole rural social-ecological system in Yunnan Province and to analyze the spatial…

2013

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively measure the vulnerability level of the whole rural social-ecological system in Yunnan Province and to analyze the spatial differences of the vulnerability in different regions.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the “exposure-sensitivity-adaptability” vulnerability assessment framework, this paper establishes the index system of rural social-ecological system vulnerability to climate change. Combined with the questionnaire survey and meteorological data, the entropy method was used to measure and analyze the vulnerability level and influencing factors of the overall rural social-ecological system in Yunnan Province. At the same time, the vulnerability level of social-ecological system in Yunnan Province is divided into five levels, and the spatial differences of vulnerability level of 16 states (cities) in Yunnan Province are analyzed.

Findings

The results show that: the social-ecological system has high exposure to climate change (0.809), strong sensitivity (0.729), moderate adaptability (0.297) and overall system vulnerability is at a medium level (0.373). Yunnan Province is divided into five levels of social-ecological system vulnerable areas. The areas of extreme, severe, moderate, mild and slight vulnerability account for 21.45%, 24.65%, 36.82%, 13.18% and 3.90% of the whole province, respectively. The geographical division and vulnerability division of Yunnan Province are basically consistent in space.

Originality/value

Comprehensive evaluation of the vulnerability of the social-ecological system of Yunnan Province to climate change is the scientific basis for the country to formulate countermeasures against climate change, and it is also the need to improve the adaptability of the social and economic system of the fragile area, reduce the vulnerability and realize the sustainable development of national social economy. The research results can provide a basis for decision-making of climate adaptation in Yunnan and other regions and provide methods and indicators for the assessment of social-ecological system vulnerability under the background of climate change.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 October 2016

Michalinos Zembylas

The purpose of this paper is to sketch out what one can see as the emerging “therapeutic turn” in a wide range of areas of contemporary social life including education, especially…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to sketch out what one can see as the emerging “therapeutic turn” in a wide range of areas of contemporary social life including education, especially in relation to understandings of vulnerability and social justice, and then poses the question of what emotional regime has accompanied the emergence of this “therapization” movement, making emotional life in schools the “object-target” for specific technologies of power.

Design/methodology/approach

The psychologization of social problems has been very much in evidence in the development of educational policies and practices – an approach which not only pathologizes social problems as individual psychological deficiencies or traits, but also obscures the recognition of serious structural inequalities and ideological commitments that perpetuate social injustices through educational policy and practice. In the present paper, the author adopts a different perspective, that of the history, sociology and politics of emotions and affects to show how and why the therapization of social justice is part of the conditions for the birth of particular forms of biopower in schools.

Findings

There is an urgent need to expose how psychologized approaches that present social justice as an individualizing responsibility are essentially depoliticizing vulnerability by silencing the shared complicities. It is argued, then, that it is crucial to pay attention to the political and structural dimensions of vulnerability.

Originality/value

Attending to the emotional regime of therapization of social justice has important implications to counter forms of biopower that work through processes of normalization.

Details

Journal of Professional Capital and Community, vol. 1 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-9548

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 2 January 2024

Eylem Thron, Shamal Faily, Huseyin Dogan and Martin Freer

Railways are a well-known example of complex critical infrastructure, incorporating socio-technical systems with humans such as drivers, signallers, maintainers and passengers at…

Abstract

Purpose

Railways are a well-known example of complex critical infrastructure, incorporating socio-technical systems with humans such as drivers, signallers, maintainers and passengers at the core. The technological evolution including interconnectedness and new ways of interaction lead to new security and safety risks that can be realised, both in terms of human error, and malicious and non-malicious behaviour. This study aims to identify the human factors (HF) and cyber-security risks relating to the role of signallers on the railways and explores strategies for the improvement of “Digital Resilience” – for the concept of a resilient railway.

Design/methodology/approach

Overall, 26 interviews were conducted with 21 participants from industry and academia.

Findings

The results showed that due to increased automation, both cyber-related threats and human error can impact signallers’ day-to-day operations – directly or indirectly (e.g. workload and safety-critical communications) – which could disrupt the railway services and potentially lead to safety-related catastrophic consequences. This study identifies cyber-related problems, including external threats; engineers not considering the human element in designs when specifying security controls; lack of security awareness among the rail industry; training gaps; organisational issues; and many unknown “unknowns”.

Originality/value

The authors discuss socio-technical principles through a hexagonal socio-technical framework and training needs analysis to mitigate against cyber-security issues and identify the predictive training needs of the signallers. This is supported by a systematic approach which considers both, safety and security factors, rather than waiting to learn from a cyber-attack retrospectively.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 February 2013

Emmanuel Kanchebe Derbile

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how farmers are reducing vulnerability of rain‐fed agriculture to drought through indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the Atankwidi…

1337

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how farmers are reducing vulnerability of rain‐fed agriculture to drought through indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the Atankwidi basin, north‐eastern Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on combined qualitative and quantitative research methods and data. First, the paper draws on qualitative data generated from in‐depth interviews and focus group discussions from purposively sampled farmers in the Atankwidi basin. It also draws on a survey conducted on 131 systematically and randomly sampled households in three communities of the basin, namely Yua, Pungu and Mirigu.

Findings

The results show that farmers are planting multiple indigenous drought resilient crop varieties and employing different rounds of seeding and or staggering planting between multiple farms. They are also applying indigenous forms of organic manure, checking soil erosion through grass strips and stone terracing and adopting paddy farming for improving soil and water conservation towards enhancing plant adaptation to drought. The paper therefore, asserts that through conscientious effort, farmers are reducing vulnerability of rain‐fed agriculture to drought through indigenous knowledge systems of drought risk management.

Practical implications

The paper recommends that capacity for managing vulnerability to drought at the local level, including the Atankwidi basin, can be enhanced by incorporating IKS into District Development Planning (DDP) and giving priority to the strategic role of IKS in climate change adaptation planning.

Originality/value

This paper fulfills a need for researching the relevance of IKS for reducing vulnerability of rain‐fed agriculture to drought in particular, and enhancing adaptation to climate change in general in the quest for promoting Endogenous Development (ED) in Africa.

Details

International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-8692

Keywords

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