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1 – 10 of 124In December 2001 the then Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR but now currently the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, hereafter referred to as…
Abstract
In December 2001 the then Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR but now currently the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, hereafter referred to as ODPM) issued the tender document it had promised for the review and update of 5/94 Planning Out Crime (Home Office, 1994) The specification was for good practice guidance on planning out crime to be written within 6 months. Notwithstanding this exercise, the writer contends that in the face of the research, literature, legislation and expertise in relation to designing out crime, papers issued by ODPM and the form of the tender document itself demonstrate that it remains uncommitted to many of the accepted principles of design‐against‐crime and to the cross‐cutting crime reduction obligations of the police and local authorities under the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. The author anticipates that this lack of commitment may be evident in the forthcoming revised planning out crime guidance and suggests possible approaches to this potentially influential document.
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Public conveniences are well known as being problematic in terms of crime‐generation. The design of these buildings in respect of both access and internal layout can encourage…
Abstract
Public conveniences are well known as being problematic in terms of crime‐generation. The design of these buildings in respect of both access and internal layout can encourage misuse, including incidents of damage and criminal or anti‐social activity. Traditional policing methods have failed to control or deter such behaviour at problem locations and in spite of frequent prosecutions for a wide range of offences problems tend to persist. This paper discusses the types of problems encountered in public conveniences and makes suggestions as to how these might be overcome.
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Oluwole Owoye and Olugbenga A. Onafowora
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether the massive spreads and fatalities of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, the country with the most advanced medical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine whether the massive spreads and fatalities of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, the country with the most advanced medical technology in the world, are symptomatic of leadership failure. The authors posit that when political leaders, such as the President of the USA, in conjunction with a group of state governors and city mayors, employed conspiracy theories and disinformation to achieve their political goals, they contributed to the massive spreads and fatalities of the virus, and they also undermined the credibility of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the health-care professionals in providing the pertinent control guidelines and true scientific-based medical information.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a review of current studies that address the handling of global infectious diseases to build a better understanding of the issue of pandemics. They then employed a theoretical framework to link the massive spreads and fatalities of the COVID-19 pandemic to political leaders, such as President Trump and the group of obsequious state governors and city mayors, who propagated conspiracy theories and disinformation through social media platforms to downplay the severity of the virus. The authors compared the massive spreads and fatalities of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA under President Trump to President Obama who handled H1N1, Ebola, Zika and Dengue. More importantly, the authors compared President Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to other political leaders in advanced countries where there were no concerted efforts to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation about the health risks of COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings
The authors' theoretical analysis alluded to the fact that political leaders, such as President Trump, who are engulfed in self-deceptions, self-projections and self-aggrandizements would engage in self-promotion and avoid accountability for their missteps in handling global pandemic shocks. In contrast, political leaders in other advanced countries did not downplay the severity thus their ability to curtail the spreads and fatalities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical viewpoints presented in this paper along with the derivations of the spreads–fatalities curtailment coefficients and the spread–fatality upsurge coefficients under Presidents Obama and Trump, respectively, may not be replicable. Given this plausible limitation, future research may need to provide a deep analysis of the amplifications of conspiracy theories and disinformation because they are now deeply rooted in the political economy of the USA. Furthermore, since scientists and medical professionals may not be able to forecast future epidemics or pandemics with pin-point accuracy nor predict how political leaders would disseminate health risks information associated with different pathogens, it is imperative that future research addresses the positive or adverse effects of conspiracy theories and disinformation that are now easily propagated simultaneously through different social media platforms, which are currently protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The multiplier effects of conspiracy theories and disinformation will continue to amplify the division about the authenticity of COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence or reemergence of other pathogens in the foreseeable future.
Originality/value
The authors derived the unique spreads-fatalities curtailment coefficients to demonstrate how President Obama used effective collaboration and coordination at all levels of government in conjunction with medical experts to curtail the spreads and fatalities associated with H1N1, Ebola, Zika and Dengue. They further derived the spreads-fatalities upsurge coefficients to highlight how President Trump contributed to the spreads and fatalities of COVID-19 pandemic through his inability to collaborate and coordinate with state governors, city mayors and different health-care agencies at the national and international levels.
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Helen Sharpe, Peter Musiat, Olivia Knapton and Ulrike Schmidt
Pro‐eating disorder websites are online communities of individuals who do not consider eating disorders to be serious mental illnesses requiring treatment. People visit these…
Abstract
Purpose
Pro‐eating disorder websites are online communities of individuals who do not consider eating disorders to be serious mental illnesses requiring treatment. People visit these websites to meet other like‐minded individuals, to share tips and tricks on how to lose weight and how to otherwise maintain the symptomatology of the disorder. This paper aims to review what is actually known about the risks associated with visiting these websites and provides recommendations for dealing with pro‐eating disorder material.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant peer‐reviewed papers were located by means of searching three online journal databases (SCOPUS, PubMed, Web of Knowledge), and through carrying out reference checking. Key words for the search were: pro‐anorexia, pro‐ana, pro‐bulimia, pro‐mia and pro‐eating disorders.
Findings
Pro eating disorder websites are common and visited by a significant proportion of patients with eating disorders and non‐patients. The sites may be perceived beneficial, as they provide support and a sense of community. Although there is evidence for the harmfulness of pro‐eating disorder content on the internet, there is no clear indication that such sites promote the development or maintenance of eating disorders. Therefore, banning pro eating disorder websites seems inappropriate and unpractical, but measures for web‐hosting companies should be in place allowing them to remove such content. Instead, bodies creating alternative websites for young people should be supported. Clinicians and parents should be made aware of the existence of pro eating disorder websites and how to deal with them.
Originality/value
This paper provides an overview of the research in this field and discusses possible ways in which health professionals and the general public may respond to the existence of these web sites.
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Stuart Roper, Robert Caruana, Dominic Medway and Phil Murphy
The aim of this paper is to offer a discursive perspective on luxury brand consumption.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to offer a discursive perspective on luxury brand consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Discourse analysis is used to examine how consumers construct their luxury brand consumption amidst countervailing cultural discourses in the market (Thompson and Haytko). Consumer discourse is generated through in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews.
Findings
In the context of countervailing discourses that challenge the notion of luxury (e.g. “masstige”, “chav” and “bling”), respondents construct an ostensibly distinct and stable version of luxury expressing its subjective, experiential, moral and artistic constructs. Analysis demonstrates how these four themes operate at a linguistic‐textual level to delineate important cultural categories and boundaries around luxury. Luxury brand discourse operates strategic juxtapositions between normatively positive (ideal) and normatively negative (problematic) categories, which are paradoxically interdependent.
Research limitations/implications
A qualitative study of high‐income residents from an affluent UK region is reported upon. The study is exploratory, focussing on interrelations between discourse, content and context. This invites future studies to consider contextual elements of luxury branding.
Originality/value
The paper proposes a new way of thinking about luxury brands as a socially constructed concept. The paper concludes by arguing that luxury brand management necessitates a deeper appreciation of the mechanics of consumers' luxury discourses.
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Jonathan E. Schroeder and Janet L. Borgerson
This paper offers an ethical analysis of visual representation that provides criteria for and sheds light on the appropriateness dimension of marketing communications. It provides…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper offers an ethical analysis of visual representation that provides criteria for and sheds light on the appropriateness dimension of marketing communications. It provides a theoretically informed framework for recognizing and understanding ethical issues in visual representation.
Design/methodology/approach
An interdisciplinary conceptual review and analysis focuses on four representational conventions, synthesizing ethical concerns, to provide a broader context for recognizing and understanding ethical issues in marketing representation: face‐ism, idealization, exoticization and exclusion. This framework is discussed and applied to marketing communications.
Findings
It argues that valuations of communication appropriateness must be informed by an awareness of the ethical relationship between marketing representations and identity. It is no longer satisfactory to associate advertising solely with persuasion, rather advertising must be seen as a representational system, with pedagogical as well as strategic functions. We conclude by discussing the theoretical, research, and managerial implications that arise from an ethics of visual representation.
Originality/value
Urges moving beyond an advertising=persuasion model to encompass representation and culture in marketing communication studies. Contributes to understanding the ethical implications of marketing communication. Challenges marketers and researchers to broaden their conception of marketing communication to one more consistent with an image economy.
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Celebrity‐spotters actively pursue celebrities in order to take photographs of them. This often involves extensive travelling, sometimes to remote destinations. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Celebrity‐spotters actively pursue celebrities in order to take photographs of them. This often involves extensive travelling, sometimes to remote destinations. The purpose of this paper is to analyse this new type of tourism.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to understand this new type of tourism, the authors used a textual analysis of Italian celebrity‐spotting web sites and 31 in‐depth interviews with celebrity‐spotters.
Findings
The main characteristics of the celebrity‐spotters can be outlined: they practise a sort of “precision tourism”, characterised by close attention to the news in order to know where to go, flexibility for changing locations at the last moment, and a natural predisposition for new technologies. Celebrity‐spotting is not just an observational tourism, but rather a performing one; they must take photographs, gain access to the right places and ambush their targets.
Practical implications
Knowing the characteristics of celebrity‐spotters can help to better understand this new type of tourism, which has yet to be exploited by the tourism industry.
Originality/value
The paper presents an in‐depth analysis of a rather unknown and unexplored type of tourist.
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