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Article
Publication date: 20 December 2018

Samantha Jane Broadhead

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a transformative education that acknowledges and values the capacities of mature students, where higher education institutions reflect on…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a transformative education that acknowledges and values the capacities of mature students, where higher education institutions reflect on their own assumptions and practices in order to become more inclusive and open to difference.

Design/methodology/approach

The stories told by Eliza, a mature student, are analysed through narrative inquiry; this approach uses a narrative as a means of capturing and analysing experience. In this case, Eliza’s stories about transition and transformation were collected over three years. Eliza made the transition from her “Access to HE course” to a degree programme in textiles. She was crossing a boundary between further and higher education, a time which could impact positively or negatively on her future achievements. The conclusions drawn from this study are not easily turned into generalisations or “truths” as they are contingent on the contexts in which the narratives were produced. Narrative is a representation of experience which is mediated by the social and cultural positions of the narrators and their audiences.

Findings

This study found that Eliza was confronted by many difficulties and misunderstandings around time management, pedagogy and assessment. Ineffective communication between Eliza and her tutors led to a growing frustration resulting in her considering leaving the course. Eliza’s institution sometimes seemed inflexible and was unable to respond effectively to her needs as a part-time student.

Practical implications

The implications for educators are that they should think about strategies for adapting to a diverse student body.

Originality/value

The previous experiences and backgrounds of “newcomers” should be celebrated rather than being perceived as “issues” that need to be fixed. In other words, when “non-traditional” students move through the stages of their education, their learning contexts may also need to be transformed.

Details

Education + Training, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 January 2024

Paulina Bednarz-Łuczewska and Michał Łuczewski

This article aims to analyze the strategic work of Polish entrepreneurs in the furniture industry following the political changes in 1989. The authors examined how these…

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to analyze the strategic work of Polish entrepreneurs in the furniture industry following the political changes in 1989. The authors examined how these entrepreneurs transitioned from local craftsmen or importers into leaders of international manufacturing companies and how their strategizing contributed to the unprecedented growth of the Polish furniture sector.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examined extant data, specifically biographical interviews conducted with 11 prominent leaders in the Polish furniture industry (Hryniewicki, 2015, 2018). They analyzed within a theoretical framework that integrates J.C. Spender’s theory of strategic management with Barry Johnson’s concept of polarity management. Polarity is a way of understanding and managing interdependent, opposing pairs of values or perspectives that give rise to conflict.

Findings

The analysis reveals key patterns of strategic challenges at the level of human agency, history and sense-making. The authors identified four key polarities: life and business, knowledge presence and absence, concordance and discordance, and instrumental and non-instrumental sense-making.

Originality/value

The polarity concept illuminates the interplay of agency and determinism in strategic decision-making, offering valuable insights for methodology and a deeper understanding of Poland’s furniture industry.

Details

Central European Management Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2658-0845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 December 2023

Tania Nery-Kjerfve and Daiane Polesello

Extant expatriate literature largely adopts a global north/western focus and expatriate-centric approach in investigating spousal/partners’ motives for supporting expatriation…

Abstract

Purpose

Extant expatriate literature largely adopts a global north/western focus and expatriate-centric approach in investigating spousal/partners’ motives for supporting expatriation. Contrastingly, this study focuses on the lived experiences of dual-career female partners from an emerging global south economy and a patriarchal society as it relates to motives for supporting a partner’s international assignment (IA) to a developed country.

Design/methodology/approach

This investigation adopts a hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology research design. Twelve career-oriented female partners from an emerging global south economy (Brazil) who supported a partner’s IA to a developed country (USA) participated in this study. The data included semi-structured interviews and field notes.

Findings

The study indicates that societal constraints, gendered career experiences and career and life stage reasons influenced women’s decision to engage in career opt out and/or interruption in support of their partners' IA. Further, patriarchal long-lasting structures and ideologies shaped women’s career experiences; women perceived IAs as a means of acquiring embodied and institutionalized cosmopolitan capital for themselves and their families in order to gain a better position in a transnational/globalized world.

Research limitations/implications

Although the sample size of this study is appropriate for the methodological choice adopted, future studies should include more participants and address different socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts.

Originality/value

This study highlights dual-career female partners' lived experiences in an emerging global south economy and a patriarchal society as it relates to motives for supporting IAs.

Details

Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-8799

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 October 2023

Stefano Francesco Musso and Giovanna Franco

This article sets out to show how principles and questions about method that underlie a way of interpreting the discipline of conservation and restoration can find results in…

Abstract

Purpose

This article sets out to show how principles and questions about method that underlie a way of interpreting the discipline of conservation and restoration can find results in research and studies, aiming at achieving even conscious reuse process. The occasion is the very recent research performed on the former Church of Saints Gerolamo and Francesco Saverio in Genoa, Italy, the Jesuit church annexed to the 17th-century College of the order. It is a small Baroque jewel in the heart of the ancient city, former University Library and actually abandoned, forgotten for years, inaccessible and awaiting a new use.

Design/methodology/approach

The two-year work carried out on the monumental building was conducted according to a study and research methodology developed and refined over the years within the activities of the School of Specialisation in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa. It is a multidisciplinary and rigorous approach, which aims to train high-level professionals, up-to-date and aware of the multiple problems that interventions on existing buildings, especially of a monumental nature, involve.

Findings

The biennal study has been carried out within the activities of the Post-Graduate Programme in Architectural Heritage and Landscape of the University of Genoa. The work methodology faces the challenges of the contemporary complexity, raised by the progressive broadening of the concept of cultural “heritage” and by the problems of its conservation, its active safeguard and its reuse: safety in respect of seismic risk, fire and hydro geological instability, universal accessibility – cognitive, physical and alternative – resource efficiency, comfort and savings in energy consumption, sustainability, communication and involvement of local communities and stakeholders.

Originality/value

The goals of the work were the following: understanding of the architectural heritage, through the correlated study of its geometries, elements and construction materials, surfaces, structures, spaces and functions; understanding of the transformations that the building has undergone over time, relating the results of historical reconstructions from indirect sources and those of direct archaeological analysis; assessment of the state of conservation of the building recognising phenomena of deterioration, damage, faults and deficits that affect materials, construction elements, systems and structures; identification of the causes and extent of damage, faults and deficits, assessing the vulnerability and level of exposure of the asset to the aggression of environmental factors and related risks; evaluation of the compatibility between the characteristics of the available spaces, the primary needs of conservation, the instance of regeneration and possible new uses; the definition of criteria and guidelines for establishing the planning of conservation, restoration and redevelopment interventions.

Details

Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2023

Andi Irawan

This study aims to reconstruct how smallholder farmers implement livelihood adaptation strategies to survive and escape poverty, thereby mitigating or eliminating potential…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to reconstruct how smallholder farmers implement livelihood adaptation strategies to survive and escape poverty, thereby mitigating or eliminating potential livelihood risks by utilizing their available assets.

Design/methodology/approach

This research employed a qualitative approach. For the collection of primary data, the researcher conducted observations and in-depth interviews and engaged with the lives of smallholder farmers during the data collection period.

Findings

Among the various livelihood adaptation strategies, only migration and profit-sharing strategies enable smallholder farmers to escape poverty. However, migration is an unsustainable adaptation strategy. When farmers move to new locations, they often resort to slash-and-burn methods for clearing land, which can lead to forest degradation and deforestation. Profit sharing is a sustainable livelihood adaptation strategy that falls into a different category. This approach can lift farmers out of poverty, increase their income and have no negative environmental impact. Other adaptation strategies include adjustments to traditional agriculture, both on and off-farm diversification, involving the family in income generation, reducing farming costs, practicing frugality in post-harvest processes, converting land from coffee cultivation to other crops and borrowing money and selling owned assets. Smallholder farmers implement these strategies to survive the existing economic conditions.

Originality/value

The profit-sharing strategy was a novel livelihood adaptation approach that previous studies had yet to uncover at the research site. In this strategy, farmers assume the roles of both managers and laborers simultaneously during farming, while toke (the capital owners) play the role of farming funders. The generated profit is then shared between farmers and toke based on the agreement established at the outset of their collaboration.

Details

Journal of Strategy and Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-425X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2023

Myengsoo Seo

This study traced the architectural, urban and social characteristics of the Bugok Railway Official Residences (BRORs) in South Korea. It also explored the modern elements of…

111

Abstract

Purpose

This study traced the architectural, urban and social characteristics of the Bugok Railway Official Residences (BRORs) in South Korea. It also explored the modern elements of Western (or Japanized Western) or traditional Korean characteristics embodied in the BRORs in the modernization process of Korea in the early 20th century.

Design/methodology/approach

Through literature reviews, field trips and archive investigation, this study uncovered new critical facts concerning the origin of the BRORs’ construction plan and architectural characteristics.

Findings

The BRORs’ value can be described as follows. First, the BRORs are the first modern housing complex in the Uiwang region. Second, they are meaningful as a housing area built during the Japanese colonial period, and many houses were concentrated in the center of a large city. Third, each official residence shows that various phenomena (mass production, standardization, efficiency and so on) are concentrated in buildings from premodern to modern period. Finally, the image of a group residential complex about to be demolished due to redevelopment is recorded in detail.

Social implications

In the 1940s, the Railway Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea planned a new small-scale town where mainly railway workers would live. The BRORs in Sam-dong, Uiwang were the first-phase plan. Specifically, 200 households in 100 buildings (two households per building) were built in 1943 during the end of the Japanese colonial period. After the liberation in 1945, these residences were made available to the general public and only 27 households remained through modification and renovation. The remaining residences will be demolished in 2023.

Originality/value

This research examined the meaning of the BRORs, which had not previously been researched in-depth, from diverse perspectives; accordingly, the basic research required for sustainable archiving can be performed after demolition using the study data.

Details

Open House International, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

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