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Because of advances in woollen woven textile manufacture, the occurrence of industrial textile mending has diminished. While the demand for the skill is still present in certain settings, the availability of learning resources is limited relating to this particular craft. The purpose of this paper is to design and produce an effective educational learning tool to teach mending skills.

To address the aims of this dissertation project, bricolage methodology and qualitative research methods have been used. Using the findings from primary and secondary research, the educational, instructional video was developed to document and display the mending craft practice in a format that would endure and be accessible to anybody who wished to learn. After determining that the ability to understand woven pattern structures was key in learning mending skill, the visual tool was developed using two-dimensional woven structure diagrams and animations to train pattern comprehension and recognition.

The results of educational video tool testing confirmed that using two-dimensional animated diagrams of woven structures was an effective method to teach pattern comprehension. Also, it was found that the trainee’s participation in the instructional video was effective in helping to teach other learners mending skills. The structure of the educational video made the learning more organised and comprehensible, as it assisted in the learning process through the combined media that reiterated the same information in different formats.

Design technology was applied to provide a comprehensible educational resource that could be used to learn and revitalise mending skills. The principles and methods applied in this resource could be adapted to teach different textile disciplines or other craft practices.

The purpose of this paper is about understanding an existing situation in a South Indian village and developing a strategy to produce and market speciality hand knitting yarn, involving the unpaid labour (women) in the handloom industry. An observation method (field study) is used to identify an appropriate method for the design and development of speciality yarns.

Participatory action research is a recursive process that identifies methods leading to the choice of appropriate technology (AT) for the production of speciality yarn. A field study observation method was carried out to identify an AT that is acceptable for the community considering their socio-cultural background of the society. Once the technology (AT) was identified to design the speciality yarn, the research then tests the quality and marketability of the yarn.

The method used for product design and quality testing can be adapted by researchers and designers to develop craft items that can build a platform to start a small-scale business. The research describes a model/framework that could be used/investigated by other bodies in the future.

The limitation of AT and the approach taken for research cannot be clearly identified without testing the production method with the women in the village.

This research confirms that along with identifying a sustainable method of production for speciality yarn, it is very essential to ensure the quality of the product that can compete with other market-available hand knitting yarns.

The burgeoning practice of peer-to-peer breastmilk sharing in the United States conflicts with public health concerns about the safety of the milk. In-depth interviews with 58 breastmilk sharers highlight the ways in which these respondents counter widespread risk narratives. These caregivers deploy existing social values such as self-reliance, good citizenship, and “crunchy,” or natural, mothering to validate their milk-sharing practices. However, because of stratified reproduction, in which society encourages White motherhood while it disparages motherhood among poor women and women of color, these discourses are more accessible to milk sharers who are White and from middle-class. Black and Latinx milk donors and recipients offer additional rationale for milk sharing that includes reclaiming their legacies as worthy mothers and elevating milk sharing to justice work. In rejecting and reframing risk, all of these milk sharers work toward flattening the good mother/bad mother binary.

The purpose of this paper is to identify ways to reconfigure physical retailing to ensure it maintains a sustainable position within the town centre ecosystem in the twenty-first century. The discussion draws on the evolving service-dominant logic (S-DL) and its service ecosystems perspective and evidence of best practice provided by actors involved in town centre regeneration between 2013 and 2018.

The research adopts a case methodology drawing on data submitted and analysed as part of the Grimsey Review 2, an independent review of the UK town centres. The data set provides examples of good practice sourced from industry leaders, trade bodies, local authorities and extensive social media engagement.

The paper evaluates the response of physical retail through an S-DL and service ecosystem lens. The review of best practice suggests that physical retailers have the best chance of survival if they proactively collaborate with other actors within a wider community hub solution, align their strategic position and operations to a holistic centre place plan and take steps to actively engage operant resources of consumers in creating physical store experiences.

The paper provides an evaluation of best practice in town centre regeneration implemented between 2013 and 2018. The case offers a rich bank of examples, illustrating how physical retailers are responding to the twenty-first-century challenges facing town centres. It makes recommendations for further improvement in the three critical areas identified above.

This paper provides further empirical support for the application of an S-DL and service ecosystem perspective to place marketing. To achieve effective value co-creation, physical retailers need to align themselves more closely with other actors in the system and maximise the potential of operant (and operand) consumer resources.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

M J (Mike) Cassidy has been appointed director of operations with Plessey Aerospace Ltd at Titchfield, Hants and becomes a member of that company's board. Mike (49) joined Plessey at Ilford in 1955 after completing his national service. He was employed in the jig and tool design drawing office.

In the “What’s Hot in 2019: Expanded and Interconnected Notions of Literacy” survey (Cassidy, Grote-Garcia, & Ortlieb, 2019), Early Literacy was identified as a “very hot” topic. This chapter addresses how literacy practices in homes and in schools contribute to early literacy achievement; neighborhood realities are acknowledged. A brief list of expectations for early literacy learners is discussed, and competencies not always found in standards lists are described. Examples of current community activism efforts are noted, and there is a call for literacy academics to speak out against inequities in literacy learning.

Many researchers who have studied drinking in Ireland have worked under the assumption that the Irish have a particularly acute problem with alcohol. Through an investigation of historical and contemporary writings on the subject I demonstrate that the problem is more complicated than traditional images would lead one to believe. Generally it is not known that Ireland has one of the lowest rates of alcohol consumption in Europe and one of the highest percentages of abstainers, although it is also true that Ireland has one of the highest hospital admission rates for alcohol‐related illnesses. In an attempt to understand the complex variety of drinking behaviours in Ireland, I advocate the reinterpretation and use of the concept of ambivalence in the context of Irish drinking, adapting ideas of Barth (originally applied to Bah) in the process.