Search results
1 – 10 of 321The purpose of this paper is to discuss various aspects of the development of the places of apparitions and miraculous images, motives and behavioral characteristics of pilgrims…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss various aspects of the development of the places of apparitions and miraculous images, motives and behavioral characteristics of pilgrims coming to the miraculous places of the Virgin Mary in Lithuania.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews literature about miraculous events and presents miraculous places in Lithuania (apparition places of the Virgin Mary and sites of miraculous images). Various classifications are applied. Pilgrims ' motivation and behavioral aspects are analyzed based on the quantitative survey.
Findings
The research showed that the main motives of religious pilgrims visiting miraculous places were asking for God’s grace, health, expressing gratitude to Jesus or Virgin Mary as well as spiritual quest and renewal. These places attract pilgrims who want to solve different problems in their life or to recover from illnesses. Religious pilgrimage has different forms and rituals, and constitutes different models of the specific behavior. During the journey, pilgrims perform various religious practices such as praying, singing hymns, kissing the relics, etc. The grouping of devotional rituals performed during the pilgrimage and at the destination place is presented.
Originality/value
The paper is important to the researchers of pilgrimage and religious tourism. For the first time, miraculous places of Lithuania are analyzed in the broader international context. Classifications of the miraculous sites indicate various aspects of the development of these places. Motives and behavioral characteristics of pilgrims enable to better understand the multidimensional reality of religious pilgrimage.
Details
Keywords
The aim of this chapter is to argue that charisma is a collective representation, and that charismatic authority is a social status that derives more from the “recognition” of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this chapter is to argue that charisma is a collective representation, and that charismatic authority is a social status that derives more from the “recognition” of the followers than from the “magnetism” of the leaders. I contend further that a close reading of Max Weber shows that he, too, saw charisma in this light.
Approach
I develop my argument by a close reading of many of the most relevant texts on the subject. This includes not only the renowned texts on this subject by Max Weber, but also many books and articles that interpret or criticize Weber’s views.
Findings
I pay exceptionally close attention to key arguments and texts, several of which have been overlooked in the past.
Implications
Writers for whom charisma is personal magnetism tend to assume that charismatic rule is natural and that the full realization of democratic norms is unlikely. Authority, in this view, emanates from rulers unbound by popular constraint. I argue that, in fact, authority draws both its mandate and its energy from the public, and that rulers depend on the loyalty of their subjects, which is never assured. So charismatic claimants are dependent on popular choice, not vice versa.
Originality
I advocate a “culturalist” interpretation of Weber, which runs counter to the dominant “personalist” account. Conventional interpreters, under the sway of theology or mass psychology, misread Weber as a romantic, for whom charisma is primal and undemocratic rule is destiny. This essay offers a counter-reading.
Details
Keywords
User‐created metadata, often referred to as folksonomy or social classification, has received a considerable amount of attention in the digital library world. Social tagging is…
Abstract
Purpose
User‐created metadata, often referred to as folksonomy or social classification, has received a considerable amount of attention in the digital library world. Social tagging is perceived as a tool for enhancing description of digital objects and providing a venue for user input and greater user engagement. This article seeks to examine the pros and cons of user‐generated metadata in the context of digital image collections and compares it to professionally created metadata schema and controlled vocabulary tools.
Design/methodology/approach
The article provides an overview of challenges to concept‐based image indexing. It analyzes the characteristics of social classification and compares images described by users to a set of images indexed in a digital collection.
Findings
The article finds that user‐generated metadata vary in the level of description, accuracy, and consistency and do not provide a solution to the challenges of image indexing. On the other hand, they reflects user's language and can lead toward user‐centered indexing and greater user engagement.
Practical implications
Social tagging can be implemented as a supplement to professionally created metadata records to provide an opportunity for users to comment on images.
Originality/value
The article introduces the idea of user‐centered image indexing in digital collections.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to compare public health discourses on the importance of motherhood with organizational attitudes towards childbearing. It shows how pregnancy and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare public health discourses on the importance of motherhood with organizational attitudes towards childbearing. It shows how pregnancy and the nurturing of infant children are valorized within public health discourses, which treat pregnancy and new maternity as a miraculous “project”, encouraging mothers to position maternity as central to their lives. By contrast, the paper shows how employers treat pregnancy and new motherhood as inconvenient and messy: as monstrous, at work.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws upon a database of qualitative netnographic (or internet-based) research. It analyses netnographic interactions between pregnant and newly maternal women. These virtual data are afforded the same validity as face-to-face research.
Findings
The paper demonstrates how maternal responsibilities for nurturing pregnancy and infant children, and the bio-medical properties of the maternal body, are central to public health discourses. By contrast, the maternal body is treated within organizations as alien, or monstrous.
Originality/value
The paper compares and contrasts public health valorizations of motherhood, with organizational tendencies to treat pregnancy/newly maternal bodies as monstrous. It highlights dichotomies faced by employed mothers. A continuing chasm between the social organization of maternity, and the attitudes of employers towards children and maternal bodies, is identified.
Details
Keywords
It is almost unbelievable that it is already 11 years ago that our most beloved friend and teacher Anselm Strauss died. In 1999 we had a conference in Magdeburg, Germany, where we…
Abstract
It is almost unbelievable that it is already 11 years ago that our most beloved friend and teacher Anselm Strauss died. In 1999 we had a conference in Magdeburg, Germany, where we tried to commemorate his very personal and creative way of doing sociological research and of teaching sociology that established an almost miraculous bridge to the minds of German and other European social scientists even though Anselm Strauss was very American. He was American in the best sense of using and encouraging creative freedom of expression, of showing witty nonconventionality, of relating in an egalitarian way to his interaction partners, of being empathically cooperative and practical in his thinking and in his personal relationships with his European students and colleagues. Today, instead, I would like to talk a little bit about his longer lasting impact on German-speaking social sciences and on other European social sciences as far as I have insight into them.
The purpose of this study is to investigate dissimilar effects of the country image on consumers' brand image and purchase intention by differently perceived nationality groups.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate dissimilar effects of the country image on consumers' brand image and purchase intention by differently perceived nationality groups.
Design/methodology/approach
One Korean manufacturer, Samsung, is chosen to verify the proposed hypotheses. A survey was conducted with 328 participants in a Midwest City of the USA. The sampling was purposive. The participant was screened through age and the interest on buying electronic goods. The research approach was empirical.
Findings
Country image did not showcase any significant impact on brand image and purchase intention. Participants who thought Samsung a Japanese brand did not possess better brand image or purchase intention for the Samsung product compared to participants who knew the right nationality of South Korea. Also the Korea group did perform much better in purchase intention than the Taiwan group.
Practical implications
This result indicates that positively identifying the country‐product image may be a better strategy than obscuring the country image in case of South Korea and other developing countries.
Originality/value
This paper fills the gap between country‐of‐origin image and consumers' decision making in the context of obscured country image. This result indicates that country image can work more constructively when the nationality of the product is identified accurately.
Details