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Data economy is pervasively present in our everyday lives. Still, ordinary laypersons' chances to genuine communication with other stakeholders are scarce. This paper aims to raise awareness about communication patterns in the context of data economy and initiate a dialogue about laypersons' position in data economy ecosystems.

This conceptual paper covers theory-based critical reflection with ethical- and empirical-based remarks. It provides novel perspectives both for research and stakeholder collaboration.

The authors suggest invitational rhetoric and Habermasian discourse as instruments towards understanding partnership between all stakeholders of the data economy to enable laypersons to transfer from subjectivity to the agency.

The authors provide (1) theory-based critical reflection concerning communication patterns in the data economy; (2) both ethical and empirical-based remarks about laypersons' position in data economy and (3) ideas for interdisciplinary research and stakeholder collaboration practices by using invitational rhetoric and rational discourse. By that, this paper suggests taking a closer look at communication practices and ethics alike in the data economy. Moreover, it encourages clear, rational and justified arguments between stakeholders in a respectful and equal environment in the data economy ecosystems.

This paper aims to investigate differences between experts and laypersons concerning the way they assess the importance of each of the various decision attributes (cost, risk, feasibility) taken into consideration during decision processes in an organizational setting.

Nine project managers at building companies (experts), and 18 university students (laypersons) performed a think‐aloud assignment aimed at assessing the importance of two attributes (safety and comfort) during an acquisition process of minibuses by a fictitious company.

Experts use less effort for the assignment, but perform the same mental operations in comparison with laypersons. Experts work in less detail than laypersons. Both laypersons and experts disregard important aspects of normative decision theory; for instance, they appear not to check for completeness of their assessments.

The authors propose that the main difference between experts and laypersons seems not to be the way in which they conduct importance assessments, but rather the fact that laypersons have to make “clean sheet” assessments, whereas experts can rely on their knowledge and experience to merely modify existing attribute weights. This relying on weights used in previous decisions may lead to sub‐optimal choices in non‐routine decision situations.

In much decision research, the focus is on elicitation of weights and on factors that influence weights, not on the way weights come about. By explicitly addressing the thinking process before the weights are actually set, we gain insight in a stage of the decision process that is rarely addressed. Hence, we potentially create possibilities for improving the weighing process.

Purpose – I analyze how laypersons and professionals navigate challenges to the legitimacy of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD). The disorder is modeled as a cultural object manifested in the discursive practices of multiple actors forming a knowledge coalition of professionals, laypersons, governmental, and corporate actors. Coalition members faced challenges to the disorder derived from popular skepticism and from professional's contradictory knowledge claims and diagnostic practices.

Methods – I observed these processes in a two-year, ethnographic case study supplemented with a two-stage, open-ended interview with core members of an AD/HD informational and support group.

Findings – Parents and coalitional professionals managed these challenges differently depending on the status of the source (professional vs. nonprofessional) and the alignment (within the coalition vs. nonaligned) of the challenge. Nonprofessional skeptics were easily countered as ignorant moralists who lacked objective knowledge of the disorder – a tactic termed credentialism. The contradictory diagnoses and treatments of professionals were managed as instances of mal-diagnosis – a construct employed by both professionals aligned with the diagnosis and laypersons associated with the disorder. Finally, while parents actively sought a diagnosis as an objective valorization of their status, they remained skeptical of AD/HD; however, in achieving diagnosis they also worried that the methods used to establish a diagnosis were possibly unreliable.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the emergent sociology of diagnosis by describing the techniques used by laypersons and some professionals in maintaining a contentious diagnosis.

Drawing on sociolinguistics, this chapter proposes an encoding–decoding perspective on evaluation, conceptualizing codes as interpretive schemas that are encoded by firms and decoded by audiences. A key element in this process is code complexity, denoting combinations of interdependent elements. We demonstrate that the evaluation of code complexity depends on the type of audience (professionals and laypersons) and the type of complexity (technological and aesthetic). We analyze the attribution of awards by professionals and the public in luxury watchmaking, featuring three mechanisms: the social embeddedness of audiences, their motivation for evaluation and supply-and-demand matching. The results attest to significant differences in the evaluation of technological and aesthetic code complexity by professionals and laypersons. There is a premium attributed to aesthetic code complexity by professionals and a premium attributed to technological complexity by laypersons. Finding the right type and level of code complexity to pursue in their offerings is a key strategic challenge for producers.

General health, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, AIDS, and immunization are the greatest health issues affecting the African‐American community. Increasingly, there is a need to gather and disseminate information through a variety of outlets. This selection of health‐related resources provides access to information that is currently available on the Internet. The audience includes the layperson, educator, or health‐care professional who desires to gain more knowledge about health issues or seeks to share information with others on health issues. The materials chosen for inclusion were selected from the Web, using a variety of search engines and tools. The Web sites included were chosen based on their relevancy to health issues affecting African‐Americans and range of information available to meet the needs of various populations.

Konya developed as a city with a single centre in historical period, the mound (höyük) known as Alaeddin’s Hill. This is still the central feature of the urban settlement of Konya. The tomb of the great humanist, poet and philosopher, Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumii, is also here. The most prestigious section of Konya during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods was the Konya Türbeönü, the space in front of his tomb. The historical city centre maintains its liveliness in the area between Alaeddin’s Hill and the tomb of Mevlana. This historical city centre is the most accessible area in the city and functions fully as such while bearing its historical identity.

The transformation of Konya from single-centred city to multi-centred city resulted in considerable changes in the city’s silhouette. The Konya Türbeönü Square was redesigned and presented for use. While defining the effect of outdoor spaces on human life, they are evaluated as places that meet basic physical, social and psychological requirements. Since the planning process of the Konya Türbeönü Square was not participative, it has remained a focal point of intense discussions and debates about its meeting users’ needs have arisen.

This article studies user satisfaction with the design of the Konya Türbeönü Square and investigates the effects of changes on users. The study survey, asked for demographical information about the users, the sensorial effects of the outdoor space, the effects of its landscape and general satisfaction. The questionnaire was administered to 300 people, including 100 architects who are educated in designing, shopkeepers who are interaction with this area everyday and laypersons. Evaluating the questionnaire data revealed the physical landscape quality and the behavioural and functional qualities of the users along with the visual qualities of the historical urban square’s former/older condition. This study aims to show how participative planning can improve future projects.

While the Afrocentric Worldview is established with elements of interdependence, communalism, and kinship at its foundation, many Afro (of African-descent) and African-American scholars within social science/helping-fields, such as psychology, have come to view “alternative” sexual orientations (i.e., homosexuality or bisexuality) as functional or dysfunctional solutions to problems existing in Black America. Afrocentric Worldviews include key concepts of racial and cultural survival thrusts. We must examine the marginalized subgroup of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-, and Queer (LGBTQ) individuals navigating through higher education, especially those within the Afrocentric-driven fields, such as psychology, at a Historically Black Colleges/Universities (HBCUs). This chapter discusses (1) several theoretical concepts that guide driving philosophies and academic curricula, (2) possible ramifications and experiences Black LGBTQ scholars face as they navigate through such educational contexts and (3) possible stances gay and straight scholars may take when operating under a paradigm/worldview with views that may seem counter to “alternative” sexual orientations.

The study aims to examine what laypersons expect those corroborating an alibi to remember about an interaction with an alibi provider.

Participants (N = 314) were presented with a mock crime scenario and answered questions about an alibi provider (i.e. the criminal suspect) and alibi corroborators. Participants also completed a lineup task based on the scenario and rated the likelihood of their own ability to corroborate the suspect’s alibi.

Overall, participants believed that it was moderately likely that an alibi corroborator with no prior relationship with the suspect would be able to vouch for the suspect, provide a description and to remember his general physical characteristics. Those who were inaccurate in their lineup decision demonstrated lower expectations of their own ability to corroborate the suspect’s alibi relative to those who were accurate in their decision.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study to assess what those judging an alibi expect when making a decision about the outcome of a case. Results demonstrate that laypeople have arguably unrealistic expectations of alibi corroborators, potentially jeopardizing innocent people’s ability to prove their innocence.

In this study, a methodology integrating a sketch design recognition approach with an interactive genetic algorithm is proposed to help laypersons get clothes reflecting their preferences. The sketch design recognition approach consists of a composite description model, a sketch recognition method and a database. First, a composite description model based on the knowledge of fashion design is developed to describe the characteristics of a skirt. Second, a sketch recognition method is used to help laypersons get satisfactory clothes. Third, a database in constructed to record general elements of skirts. Moreover, an interactive genetic algorithm (IGA) is used to accelerate the sketch recognition process. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can 'recognize' users' preferred styles efficiently. The subjective evaluation has shown that the system can help general consumers without any fashion design or sketch training to create their own designs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how varying definitions of bullying and formats of the definitions affect research study outcomes.

A systematic search of empirical studies within the following databases was conducted: PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library. Empirical studies examining laypersons and researcher’s definitions of bullying or how differences in the format of the definition of bullying results in varied outcomes were eligible to be included in this review. As traditional forms of bullying differ from cyber-bullying research on the latter were excluded.

Only 17 of the 18,045 screened met the study eligibility criteria. In total, 12 of the screened studies explored how participants define bullying and five explored how the different presentation of the definition may lead to different reported prevalence. The findings showed that laypersons definitions of bullying are not only inconsistent but they rarely meet the criteria used by researchers. The varying presentations of the bullying definition also affected outcomes with the more detailed definitions leading to a better understanding of the behaviour.

Researchers should always provide a definition of bullying to participants either in a written format or if possible in a more detail like an educational video that clearly highlights the five characteristics researchers used to define the behaviour.

This is the first paper that reviews empirical studies on the definition of bullying.