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1 – 10 of 10Sara Kjellberg and Jutta Haider
The purpose of this paper is to understand what role researchers assign to online representations on the new digital communication sites that have emerged, such as Academia…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand what role researchers assign to online representations on the new digital communication sites that have emerged, such as Academia, ResearchGate or Mendeley. How are researchers’ online presentations created, managed, accessed and, more generally, viewed by academic researchers themselves? And how are expectations of the academic reward system navigated and re-shaped in response to the possibilities afforded by social media and other digital tools?
Design/methodology/approach
Focus groups have been used for empirical investigation to learn about the role online representation is assigned by the concerned researchers.
Findings
The study shows that traditional scholarly communication documents are what also scaffolds trust and builds reputation in the new setting. In this sense, the new social network sites reinforce rather than challenge the importance of formal publications.
Originality/value
An understanding of the different ways in which researchers fathom the complex connection between reputation and trust in relation to online visibility as a measure of, or at least an attempt at, publicity (either within academia or outside it) is essential. This paper emphasizes the need to tell different stories by exploring how researchers understand their own practices and reasons for them.
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Olof Sundin, Jutta Haider, Cecilia Andersson, Hanna Carlsson and Sara Kjellberg
The purpose of this paper is to understand how meaning is assigned to online searching by viewing it as a mundane, yet often invisible, activity of everyday life and an integrated…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how meaning is assigned to online searching by viewing it as a mundane, yet often invisible, activity of everyday life and an integrated part of various social practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Searching is investigated with a sociomaterial approach with a starting point in information searching as entangled across practices and material arrangements and as a mundane part of everyday life. In total, 21 focus groups with 127 participants have been carried out. The study focusses particularly on peoples’ experiences and meaning-making and on how these experiences and the making of meaning could be understood in the light of algorithmic shaping.
Findings
An often-invisible activity such as searching is made visible with the help of focus group discussions. An understanding of the relationship between searching and everyday life through two interrelated narratives is proposed: a search-ification of everyday life and a mundane-ification of search.
Originality/value
The study broadens the often narrow focus on searching in order to open up for a research-based discussion in information science on the role of online searching in society and everyday life.
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This article aims to explore construction, production and distribution of environmental information in social media. Specifically, the focus is on people's accounts in social…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explore construction, production and distribution of environmental information in social media. Specifically, the focus is on people's accounts in social media of their everyday life practices aimed at leading what are considered environmentally friendly lives. The article seeks to establish how through the reproduction of alignments of certain everyday and domestic practices with environmental destruction and protection situated information on the environment is constructed and made available.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a qualitative, interpretative analysis of content, materiality and form of blogs and of their enmeshed social media applications, dedicated specifically to aspects of environmentally friendly everyday life. The blogs were selected from an interlinked set of 60 Swedish language environment blogs.
Findings
Formal, topical and social arrangements give priority to certain material conditions and practices that then underpin a set of dominant versions of a greener life, while others remain submerged. The routinised alignment of certain practices with the environment is indispensable for environmental information to work. However, breaking with routines and re‐arranging practices is what makes them possible in the first place. De‐routinisation and the culturally non‐habitual character make for the informational value of material practices and of practices of engagement.
Social implications
The study contributes to the understanding of what makes environmental information meaningful in everyday life. This has potential implications for policy making and information campaigns in the area.
Originality/value
Environmental issues are an underrepresented area of research in LIS. This article contributes to the development of this research area in the field. Furthermore, uniting a practice approach with a theoretical interest in everyday life politics is a novel addition to studies of social engagement in online environments.
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In universities, research labs and the libraries that support their work, a revolt against current journal publishing prices and policies is rapidly growing. Underlying the revolt…
Abstract
In universities, research labs and the libraries that support their work, a revolt against current journal publishing prices and policies is rapidly growing. Underlying the revolt are the new capabilities offered by computer networks, particularly the Internet, to make information easily and widely available. Research work can be posted, reviews can be processed and users can view the results, all online and at very low cost. Framed by these generous online capabilities, the spectacle of libraries unable to pay for needed journals has become unbearable. Faculty, researchers and others who depend on journals for information and professional prestige are coming to feel that their needs are not being met by current journal publishing practices. Universities have begun to realize that they no longer have to accept the terms offered by journal publishers.
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Sara Göransson, Katharina Näswall and Magnus Sverke
The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of work‐related health attributions and investigate the effects of such perceptions as well as of health status on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of work‐related health attributions and investigate the effects of such perceptions as well as of health status on work‐related attitudes and turnover intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on attribution theory, the study tests the assumption that negative work‐related health attributions impair employee work‐related attitudes and intentions, and moderate the relation between health status and work‐related attitudes. Cross‐sectional questionnaire data from 785 Swedish retail white‐collar workers are collected to test these assumptions by utilizing moderated regression analyses.
Findings
The results show that negative work‐related health attributions are related to lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment as well as higher levels of turnover intention, even after controlling for demographics, work climate variables, and mental distress. Further, the significant interaction between attributions and mental distress indicates that it makes a difference for employees' turnover intentions if an individual with high mental distress attributes it to work or not.
Practical implications
Work‐related health attributions should be taken into account in order to avoid impaired levels of employee work motivation. The measure introduced renders it possible to identify and help those individuals who believe that work affects their health negatively.
Originality/value
The results underscore the relevance of how individuals think their health is affected by their work, and contributes to the understanding of how health status relates to work‐related attitudes. Since the measure of work‐related health attributions is easily administered it is also valuable for practitioners working with employee health and attitudes.
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Kate Ruff, Pier-Luc Nappert and Cameron Graham
This paper aims to understand how social finance and impact measurement experts include stakeholders' voices in valuations of social and environmental impact.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how social finance and impact measurement experts include stakeholders' voices in valuations of social and environmental impact.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper used the content analysis of an online discussion forum where experts discussed impact valuation approaches.
Findings
Many experts seek impact valuations that take into account the experiences of those whose lives are most affected. Ideally, these accounts need to be emic to (in the language of) those stakeholders, and polyvocal (representing many different stakeholders' voices). However, these experts also seek to effect systemic change by encouraging mainstream financial markets to use social and environmental valuations in their decision-making. These experts consider full plurality too complex to be useable by financial markets, so the experts argue in favor of etic valuations (stated in the language of investors), to appeal to mainstream finance, while endeavoring nonetheless to represent multiple stakeholders' voices. The authors identify two discursive strategies used to resolve this tension: effacing of differences between diverse stakeholders, and overstating the universality of money as a common language.
Social implications
The terms emic and polyvocal provide experts with nuanced ways to understand “stakeholder voice.” The authors hope these nuances inspire new insights and strategies and help the community with their goal of bridging to mainstream finance.
Originality/value
The paper presents a theoretical framework for describing plurality in impact valuations and examines the challenges of bridging from social finance, which seeks to give voice and representation to those whose lives are most affected, to mainstream finance.
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Chris Kossen, Nicole McDonald and Peter McIlveen
Australia's agricultural industry has become highly dependent on young low-cost, overseas “working holiday” visa workers known as “backpackers”, who are notoriously subject to…
Abstract
Purpose
Australia's agricultural industry has become highly dependent on young low-cost, overseas “working holiday” visa workers known as “backpackers”, who are notoriously subject to exploitative workplace practices. This study aimed to explore backpackers' experiences in terms of how job demands, job resources and personal resources influence their appraisals of working in agriculture.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to explore the work experiences of N = 21 backpackers employed under the Australian Working Holiday visa (subclass 417). Data were analyzed by thematic analysis and organized in terms of job demands and resources.
Findings
This study revealed job demands commonly experienced by agricultural backpacker workers (e.g. precarity, physically strenuous work, low pay), and job resources (e.g. adequate training, feedback) and personal resources (e.g. attitude, language) that buffer the demands. The findings indicate that backpackers' appraisals of their experiences and performance decline when demands outweigh resources.
Originality/value
This study offers an emic perspective on the work of an understudied segment of the agricultural workforce. The findings have implications for improving work practices and policies aimed at attracting and retaining this important labor source in the future.
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