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The purpose of this paper is to examine the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) as a work of art and the role of the bridge in shaping community identity and discourse. Particular attention is focussed on the discourse surrounding mental illness and suicide, which perpetuate the problem of suicides involving the bridge as a means and mechanism of death. An analysis of the person who attempts or completes suicide is also performed.

Multiple research articles, writings, and a cinematic production are drawn on to frame the argument in terms of Michel Foucault's adaption of Pantopticism Theory and Jacques Lacan's Mirror Theory, which includes the concepts of the Real, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic.

The GGB is a major factor in shaping the discourse on mental illness and suicide in the San Francisco community. The influences the GGB exerts combines with and exacerbates a culture of stigma, which perpetuates negative discourse and increases the risk of suicides in those already vulnerable.

The research for this paper was performed at a distance and was conducted, with the exception of one personal communication, by literature search and application to theory. Ethnographic research would be a logical next step to study the phenomenon further.

Theory developed from this paper could be used in determining a relevant course of action for adding to existing suicide prevention efforts in the San Francisco Area and any other community with a prominent icon, such as the GGB, that may be exerting a negative influence on the suicide rates of that area.

An awareness of how art, culture, and psychology interact would increase awareness of the creation of a stigmatized environment and perhaps precipitate a change in the underlying negative discourse.

This paper takes a fresh look at the phenomenon of violent death by suicide where a physical object/icon (the GGB) is used as a means to die. The particular theories and approach used to explain the interactions that intensify the suicide death rate have never been combined and interwoven in such an interdisciplinary way to seek an explanation.

It was Kurt Lewin, pre‐war pioneer of applied psychology, and inventor of the term group dynamics, who reputedly said: There is nothing so practical as a good theory. How right he was. In these days when action learning is all the rage, such a saying is a timely reminder both of the need for and the value of theories in the execution of practice. For we all have theories; we use them constantly, and managers are no exception. Consciously or unconsciously we employ them to guide our actions: theories about the world and the way it works, about men, money, machines and materials, about management, and the different ways of “handling” people and things.

A total of 90 hotel, restaurant, and pub managers completed unstructured telephone interviews exploring their implicit theories of how atmospheric music affects consumer behavior. Many of the implicit theories emerging in the interviews were grounded in previous research, but others had no obvious counterparts in the literature. The more novel theories suggested that atmospheric music: must follow circadian rhythms to be effective; encourages or discourages anti‐social behavior; and blocks out annoying and intrusive background noise. Each of the 14 industry‐based explanations of the effects of music is compared with results reported in the academic literature, and directions for future research on the effects of atmospheric music are identified.

This study aims to investigate the impacts of product modularity (PM) and multiskilled employees (MEs) on new product development (NPD) outcomes and explore the moderating effect of supply chain involvement.

The authors used data collected from 317 manufacturers to empirically examine the conceptual model and conducted hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that PM significantly improves NPD outcomes. The relationship between PM/MEs and NPD outcomes is strengthened when the level of supplier involvement is high, whereas the relationship between MEs and NPD outcomes is weakened when the level of customer involvement is high.

First, this study only focuses on PM and MEs as two types of modular designs. Second, the inter-relationship between modular designs and supply chain involvement might be contingent. Third, the authors use cross-sectional data that cannot reflect causal effects of modularity on NPD outcomes.

The findings contribute to the understanding of the alignment between modular designs and supply chain involvement considering NPD outcomes. This study also contributes to the concept of modularity by identifying MEs as a type of modular design.

Concurs with much of Humphrey and Scapens’ opinions about promoting eclecticism in theory, but takes issues with points made about the nature of theory. Asserts that they fail to build on the “conditions of possibility” inherent in practice by their rejection of realism. Looks at the use of accounting in the public sector, and the apparent paradoxes found by Humphrey and Scapens, using the NHS as a case example. Concludes that liberating accounting should look beyond the eclectic use of social theories towards more practical interventions.

This chapter focuses on practical considerations for organizations when endeavoring to invest in design, specifically how designers and their organizations should view their profession for the benefit of corporate innovation. Given the lack of consensus regarding what strategic design entails, the author interviewed strategic designers from across the United States to solicit their opinions on design thinking, strategic design, and design strategy, the relationship between those concepts, and how those concepts are, could be, and should be reflected in practice.

The overarching purpose of this chapter is to explore the relatively nascent profession of strategic design, from which the author distinguishes design strategy, as well as to provide guidance regarding how design and designers should be viewed and supported by the leadership of their organizations in order to fully empower them to support innovation. In addition, this chapter serves to better define the concepts of design thinking, strategic design, and design strategy. While design as a discipline is broad, for the sake of consistency, the author discusses design in the context of technological development and, in turn, in terms of human-computer interaction.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to be as comprehensive as possible about what is known about mirror neurons at this time.

Design/methodology/approach – This chapter offers a comprehensive critique including Churchland's hesitations about findings on mirror neurons (2011) which are balanced by Ramachandran's conviction that much of the research on mirror neurons is valid (2011). Following this is a summary of the results of the Mirror Neuron Forum (2011) wherein leading mirror neuron researchers exchange their views and conclusions about this subject.

Findings – The few single cells measures that we have show that they are much wider distributed throughout the brain than we have previously imagined. It should be stressed that single measures of mirror neurons have occurred albeit in limited situations. This establishes once and for all their relevance to humans.

Originality/value – The work on mirror neurons is a critical contribution from neuroscience to bringing the social brain into sociology and refining our understandings of intersubjectivity and of our biologically driven connections with others.

This research aims to draw on social identity theory (SIT) and social comparison theory (SCT) to examine how social and cultural contexts influence the construction and pursuit of beauty ideals.

Sixteen Lebanese women aged between 18 and 45, from a range of backgrounds, were recruited for the purpose of this research. Interview questions probed the respondents’ female beauty ideals in relation to themselves and others. Photo-elicitation was used to facilitate and enrich each discussion.

The pursuit of beauty involves rich processes and is motivated by the search for an authentic self. Participants construct and pursue beauty ideals by mirroring views of their national identity through conformity, identification and subversion.

The pursuit of beauty is influenced not only by global media and celebrity culture but also by how respondents conceptualize their national identity. Beauty consumption serves two opposing functions in identity construction: social membership and distinction. Beauty, like fashion, serves as an indicator of taste that simultaneously includes the singularity and subjectivity of individual tastes.

This study extends research on the pursuit and consumption of beauty in several ways: it is situated in a non-western cultural context, it illustrates the usefulness of SCT and SIT in understanding beauty consumption and it highlights the role of mirroring processes in identity construction and beauty consumptive practices.

Purpose – To present Hayek's model of the sensory order, especially in relation to communication, classification and subjective knowledge, arguing for the necessity of a more articulated theory of the “inter-personal” dimension of the mind. We proposed then to integrate Hayek's model of the mind with the concept of “folk psychology” or “theory of mind” elaborated by modern philosophy.

Methodological approach – This chapter is philosophical but draws on the empirical.

Findings – Hayek proposed a model of the mind and the social order that explains how dispersed and fragmented knowledge can spread in a society of individuals [Hayek, F. A. (1945). The use of knowledge in society. The American Economic Review, 35(4), 519–530]. His social and psychological theories have been dedicated to the study of the spontaneous emergence of orders: institutional and mental orders are tightened together in his epistemology. However, we found that Hayek developed only in nuce the social dimension of the mind: behaviors are determined by mental events and his philosophical psychology is then “mentalistic,” that is focused on the understanding of individual inner psychological states, their relation with external stimuli and behaviors, without explaining how individuals interpret other people's mental states.

Research limitations/implications – Hayek seems not to explicitly consider the interaction between personal psychological events and other people's mental events, missing then a fundamental activity played by the mental order, that is the capacity to understand, interpret, and attribute other people's mental states, in a word to mentalize.

Originality/value of the paper – To read Hayek's philosophical psychology under a new light, which focus on the importance of the interpersonal dimension of mental processes.