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Book part
Publication date: 5 October 2017

Joanna Dobson

This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in present-day…

Abstract

This chapter explores the role that birdwatching plays in The Archers. It demonstrates some significant similarities between the way that birdwatching is portrayed in present-day Ambridge, and the way it was presented in both fictional and non-fictional literature of the 1940s. These similarities suggest that birdwatching in Ambridge is an activity that tends to perpetuate traditional class and gender divisions. Particularly in terms of gender, this is a surprising discovery, given the many strong female characters in the show, and suggests that cultural assumptions about gender and birdwatching run deep in UK society today. The chapter warns that a failure to recognise these assumptions not only hampers the progress of women who aspire to be taken seriously as ornithologists, but also risks reinforcing dualistic thinking about humans and nature at a time when the environmental crisis makes it more important than ever to recognise the ecological interconnectedness of human and nonhuman worlds. However, the recent development of Kirsty Miller’s storyline, in which she is rediscovering her earlier love of the natural world, not only offers hope of a shift away from this traditional bias but also opens a space for a more nuanced examination of the importance of birds in human–nature relations.

Details

Custard, Culverts and Cake
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-285-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 January 2020

Dileep Kumar M., Normala S. Govindarajo and Mae Ho Seok Khen

Tourism researchers proposed that service quality dimensions of tourist destinations can contribute in developing a favorable or unfavorable image among travelers which affect…

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Abstract

Purpose

Tourism researchers proposed that service quality dimensions of tourist destinations can contribute in developing a favorable or unfavorable image among travelers which affect visitors’ loyalty or disloyalty as well as destination image. However, such claims are seldom evaluated into in avitourism locations, which are a niche tourism, but fast growing. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between service quality, visitor satisfaction and destination image and destination loyalty among avian tourists.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a positivist research philosophy with a quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive study design, the study addressed five direct and two indirect relationships in the model. The research followed expectation dis-confirmation theory of Gartner to test the theoretical model. Following purposive sampling, a sample of 384 international avitourists was collected from five avitourism locations of Malaysia. The study applied SmartPLS SEM to analyze the data.

Findings

The results show that the service quality provided by the park management has a positive impact on visitor satisfaction, destination image and destination loyalty. The study also shows partial mediation effect of visitor satisfaction on destination image and destination loyalty among avitourists. The study extends practical, policy and theoretical implications to the stakeholders of avitourism.

Research limitations/implications

The study limits the possibility for generalization of the findings into five avitourism sites located in three states of Malaysia. Hence, the scope of the study needs to be augmented with samples from more regions to meet the expected generalization. Add to the point, this study lacks qualitative data observations to get an in-depth understanding of the issues pertaining to visitor’s expectations on serviced quality, satisfaction, destination image and loyalty. Hence, it is suggested that more qualitative research interventions need to be made with the tools of in-depth interviews, content analysis and with the method of focus group discussions and Delphi applications.

Practical implications

This study provides the park management a clearer understanding on service quality critical factors in enhancing the satisfaction of avian tourists and building a better avitourism destination image and destination loyalty. The avitourism park management may look into the services for these niche tourists, as these resources are directly linked to nature-based tourism with its diverse requirements to keep visitors satisfied. Park authorities require a sound understanding and skills in managing the biodiversity of the natural resources, birds and animals, to match their services with tourists’ expectations.

Social implications

Biodiversity is important in supporting vital ecosystem services (ES) for human as well as animals. The study has its social implications in generating a greater number of employment opportunity for people surrounding the area of avian destinations preserving the biodiverse area. The people in the surroundings area of avitourism locations will get better employment opportunity as guides and nature trail experts, if the avian tourism develops in its real principle.

Originality/value

Avitourism is a niche tourism. The expectations of the visitors of avitourism locations are entirely varied in comparison with general tourism. Very less studies focused into expectations of the visitors linking human factor of service quality, emotional intelligence, visitor satisfaction, etc. like dimensions that will contribute into dynamic destination image and destination loyalty among avitourists. With the support of quantitative research tools, representative sampling and theoretical selection, the study findings are original in their form, ensuring external validity further to generalize into other birdwatching locations across the countries. The study observations are highly valuable to all stakeholders of avitourism.

Details

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6182

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Article
Publication date: 19 October 2010

Pamela J. McKenzie and Elisabeth Davies

This paper aims to analyze documentary planning tools for an everyday life project, the wedding, to study how “document work” is constructed in this setting.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze documentary planning tools for an everyday life project, the wedding, to study how “document work” is constructed in this setting.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Law and Lynch's study of birdwatching guides for novices as a framework, nine commercially‐available wedding planning guides targeted toward the primary planner, almost universally the bride, were analyzed.

Findings

As Law and Lynch found, part of a novice's apprenticeship requires learning how to “see” in ways that are socially organized in and through texts. The paper shows how characteristics of birdwatching guides (naturalistic accountability, a picture theory of representation, and the strategic use of texts) are also evident in wedding planners, and how the very features that make these guides usable also occasion troubles for their users. Wedding planning guides treat the bride as a novice and instruct her in seeing wedding‐related tasks and times as amenable to management. However, planning a wedding requires multiple tasks and times that may be intertwined in ways that make both their representation and their execution highly complex.

Research limitations/implications

The need for both temporal and thematic access highlights more general problems of knowledge organization in presenting a complex planning project in a linear and paper format.

Originality/value

As workplace principles of time and project management are increasingly applied to everyday life, this paper provides a needed case study of the ways that everyday recordkeeping contributes to the novice bride's gendered apprenticeship and embeds her work within broader organizational and ideological systems.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 66 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Abstract

Details

Leisure Lifestyles
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-600-2

Book part
Publication date: 3 November 2014

Sam Hillyard

This chapter describes how the technologies of big data might apply to rural contexts. It considers the relative advantages and disadvantages of such ‘new’ innovations.

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter describes how the technologies of big data might apply to rural contexts. It considers the relative advantages and disadvantages of such ‘new’ innovations.

Design/methodology/approach

It uses two case studies, one of online community specialist groups linked to rural activities and a second from a policy shift relating to firearm legislation in the English context.

Findings

The chapter suggests that digital data in the forms discussed here can be both benign and underutilised in its potential. In relation to the management of datasets holding information on firearm owners, these need careful reflection regarding their establishment, access and general use.

Originality/value

The chapter provides insight into the rural context and makes a case that such locales are not immune from the influence of the dataverse. The appearance of ‘big data’ here is not without political implications. The case of UK firearm legislation reform demonstrates the implications of policy falling short of its potential and how a social science analysis can unpack the operation of power as well as position the debate more broadly.

Details

Big Data? Qualitative Approaches to Digital Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-050-6

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 December 2021

Björn Ekström

Information practices become highly complex in biodiversity citizen science projects due to the projects’ large scale, distributed setting and vast inclusion of participants. This…

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Abstract

Purpose

Information practices become highly complex in biodiversity citizen science projects due to the projects’ large scale, distributed setting and vast inclusion of participants. This study aims to contribute to knowledge concerning what variations of information practices can be found in biodiversity citizen science and what these practices may mean for the overall collaborative biodiversity data production in such projects.

Design/methodology/approach

Fifteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with participants engaged with the Swedish biodiversity citizen science information system Artportalen. The empirical data were analysed through a practice-theoretical lens investigating information practices in general and variations of practices in particular.

Findings

The analysis shows that the nexus of biodiversity citizen science information practices consists of observing, identifying, reporting, collecting, curating and validating species as well as decision-making. Information practices vary depending on participants’ technical know-how; knowledge production and learning; and preservation motivations. The study also found that reporting tools and field guides are significant for the formation of information practices. Competition was found to provide data quantity and knowledge growth but may inflict data bias. Finally, a discrepancy between practices of validating and decision-making have been noted, which could be mitigated by involving intermediary participants for mutual understandings of data.

Originality/value

The study places an empirically grounded information practice-theoretical perspective on citizen science participation, extending previous research seeking to model participant activities. Furthermore, the study nuances previous practice-oriented perspectives on citizen science by emphasising variations of practices.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 78 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Book part
Publication date: 22 January 2024

RHSK de Silva, Puwanendram Gayathri, Krishantha Ganeshan and Suranga DAC Silva

The first section will be the introduction which discusses the global scenario of wellness tourism after the pandemic. The second section of this study is wellness tourism after…

Abstract

The first section will be the introduction which discusses the global scenario of wellness tourism after the pandemic. The second section of this study is wellness tourism after the pandemic in Sri Lanka. This title is an overview based on the homestays which are practicing wellness tourism at the Veludvara Wellness Stay, 98 Acres Resort and Spa and Ella Yoga Hub, and it examines the tourist perspective on wellness tourism after the pandemic. The third section discusses global best practices and policy development in this regard. The fourth section of this study focuses on demand and trends that can be promoted to future wellness tourism and conclude with recommendations. This study followed a qualitative method which is carried out with interviews, observation and secondary data such as books, websites, research papers, articles and other published materials. The impact of this research work is focused on stakeholders in wellness tourism, such as service providers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and other relevant authorities to fulfil gaps in the wellness tourism sector. Furthermore, this will be a good overview for tourists who are willing to get the experience of wellness tourism after the pandemic and identify its future values and demands.

Details

Future Tourism Trends Volume 1
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-245-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 January 2012

Stuart Bentley

46

Abstract

Details

Reference Reviews, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0950-4125

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Article
Publication date: 11 January 2013

Tony Chalcraft

58

Abstract

Details

Reference Reviews, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0950-4125

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Article
Publication date: 11 October 2023

Karen M. DSouza and Aaron M. French

Purveyors of fake news perpetuate information that can harm society, including businesses. Social media's reach quickly amplifies distortions of fake news. Research has not yet…

Abstract

Purpose

Purveyors of fake news perpetuate information that can harm society, including businesses. Social media's reach quickly amplifies distortions of fake news. Research has not yet fully explored the mechanisms of such adversarial behavior or the adversarial techniques of machine learning that might be deployed to detect fake news. Debiasing techniques are also explored to combat against the generation of fake news using adversarial data. The purpose of this paper is to present the challenges and opportunities in fake news detection.

Design/methodology/approach

First, this paper provides an overview of adversarial behaviors and current machine learning techniques. Next, it describes the use of long short-term memory (LSTM) to identify fake news in a corpus of articles. Finally, it presents the novel adversarial behavior approach to protect targeted business datasets from attacks.

Findings

This research highlights the need for a corpus of fake news that can be used to evaluate classification methods. Adversarial debiasing using IBM's Artificial Intelligence Fairness 360 (AIF360) toolkit can improve the disparate impact of unfavorable characteristics of a dataset. Debiasing also demonstrates significant potential to reduce fake news generation based on the inherent bias in the data. These findings provide avenues for further research on adversarial collaboration and robust information systems.

Originality/value

Adversarial debiasing of datasets demonstrates that by reducing bias related to protected attributes, such as sex, race and age, businesses can reduce the potential of exploitation to generate fake news through adversarial data.

Details

Internet Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

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