Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to urban environment management through analysis of “urban emptiness” based on user-generated big data.

The research design is based on creating a theoretical model of urban emptiness as a multilayer phenomenon in the city space and then developing an applied approach to map its different types through user-generated and open big data from multiple online sources.

The paper provides a definition and a theoretical model of “urban emptiness” as a multilayer phenomenon integrated into the complexity of the city system and as a resource for sustainable urban development. The paper presents a methodological approach to analyse urban emptiness based on spontaneous user-generated geolocated open data emerging online. This approach is applied to the Russian city of St Petersburg with a demonstration of the data set formation based on multiple sources and an interpretation of the preliminary results.

The paper focuses on the under-researched phenomenon of urban emptiness, which leads to a certain speculation of propositions and lack of generalisability of the results. Therefore, the researchers are encouraged to further test the proposed propositions.

The paper describes urban emptiness as a resource in urban development and gives recommendations on how to account for it in sustainable urban environment management, in particular, in limiting urban sprawl.

This paper consolidates data-driven methods to create an integrated approach to urban environment management from an original standpoint – analysis of urban emptiness.

The purpose of this paper is to report the development and validation of a scale for measuring “post-series depression” (PSD), a concept that describes the feelings of melancholy and longing that can occur when an individual’s all-consuming film or screen product comes to an end. Although largely ignored by academic research in the arts and leisure (A&L) domain, PSD has received wide coverage in grey literature concerning the termination of certain film or TV series.

Exploratory interviews were conducted with fans of a range of A&L products. Questionnaire surveys then examined the relationships between PSD, nostalgia and emptiness, and between PSD, binge-watching and compulsive consumption.

A 15-item scale to measure PSD was developed and its reliability demonstrated.

The study was conducted within an A&L context. It only examined the abovementioned variables and no other potentially relevant psychological and behavioural considerations (e.g. audience involvement, narcissism and social anxiety).

The scale will be useful for investigating the marketing implications of fanship and its connections with addictive behaviour. It will help marketers when segmenting A&L markets, in understanding how to extend the period during which audiences purchase screen product-related memorabilia and to know how to market binge-watching-related items (e.g. box sets, clothing, books, theatre tickets and film studio visits).

This paper provides a rigorous examination of the concept of PSD and presents a scale for its measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to show that scholars who choose not to use a well-established or acknowledged transliterated subject term, and instead decide for themselves to use synonyms, further complicate the process of doing comprehensive searches and greatly limit the ability to retrieve many pertinent works. In the research into world religions, there are transliterated words of a religious concept that can be used as subject terms. However, scholars in world religions have often not chosen the transliterated word, and instead have adopted words they believe are adequate synonyms of the transliterated word and use them to categorize their professional work. This paper shows how this practice severely lessens the ability to retrieve all pertinent work and causes problems for both world religion scholars wishing to perform comprehensive searches and librarian cataloger deciding on the proper subject terms to include in the construction of citations.

The Buddhist transliterated term into English “sunyata” and the scholarly created, synonymous English subject terms “emptiness”, “nothingness”, “voidness” and “openness” were searched in an international database of religious and theological works. The lists of retrieved Buddhist works were then compared to see if the results of each independent search were identical.

There is a very low rate of overlapping retrieval of Buddhist works when the term “sunyata” and each of the scholarly created synonyms are searched independently of each other. The use of scholar-created, synonymous subject terms instead of the transliterated term has greatly diminished comprehensive retrievals.

There is a paucity of articles concerning the negative effects of scholarly created, synonymous search terms in general, and in world religions in particular. These results present the dangers of this practice.

The world needs more Eastern knowledge and, ergo, more consciousness. Humanity will unlikely experience a quantum leap in consciousness if we keep ignoring Eastern and other sources of perennial wisdom in the design and development of our socioeconomic and ecological systems. This chapter aims to bridge the consciousness gap by exploring the meaning and application of Buddhist and Taoist systems thinking to regenerative systemic leadership, design, development and sustainable transformation.

Epistemology of organizations denotes how we can gain knowledge of organizations. A critical, postmodernistic analysis suggests that the only knowledge we can gain from our traditional concepts of organization is emptiness. A proposed solution is to increase the understanding of individual and group consciousness. Individual consciousness is categorized in materialistic, dualistic and transcendent views, and group consciousness in interactive – defined in terms of its content and dependence on spatial and symbolic interaction – and collective, dependent on a subliminal transcendent consciousness. The last category is further divided into logically deduced and experiential sub‐categories. It is argued that the present understanding of organizations is based on interactive consciousness and needs to move beyond that level in order to progress. An alternative transcendent epistemology of organizations is introduced, based on transcendent experience, and a model of organization based on the transcendent epistemology is suggested. This model features a transcendent transition – transcition – as a basis for organizational change, and two cases are analyzed. It is concluded that a new paradigm based on a new science of consciousness is needed in order to do justice to the vast potential of human consciousness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experience of loneliness amongst people who have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

The research used a narrative phenomenological approach.

The study found that the loneliness experienced amongst this group of participants was perceived to have taken root in childhood and was not a transient state. Its endurance, however, had led participants to develop a number of strategies as means by which to manage what was felt to be a deep seated painful sense of emptiness; some of these strategies were, however, risky or harmful.

Limitations of the study include the absence of longitudinal data which would have offered the opportunity for the close study of how people manage the experience over time.

The study has practical implications for mental health professionals wishing to better understand the difficulties faced by individuals with the characteristics described, but it also highlights the resilience of sufferers who, while living with acute loneliness continue to explore ways of managing it.

The study brings to the attention that the connectivity and sociability required and expected in today’s society emphasise the lack of lonely individuals, further stigmatising loneliness as deficit and taboo.

The paper offers a welcome addition to loneliness studies in its adherence to the phenomenological experience and offers a small corrective to the bulk of existing loneliness studies which, while valuable have been more attentive to exploring the constituent elements of loneliness than the lived experience of it.

Chemsex is a phenomenon that has gained increasing attention in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to differentiate chemsex from other sexualized substance use, and clarify differences between recreational and problematic chemsex use. Despite plentiful publications, little has been published on underlying determinants that predispose individuals to chemsex, and their process toward problematic chemsex use.

During the second European Chemsex Forum, people who engage in chemsex, community organizers, researchers, clinicians, therapists, social workers and (peer) counselors discussed potential pathways to problematic chemsex. In this manuscript, we translate findings from these discussions into a framework to understand the initiation and process toward problematic chemsex.

Six stages (loneliness and emptiness, search for connection, sexual connection, chemsex connection, problematic chemsex and severe health impact) and a set of factors facilitating the transition from one stage to the next have been identified.

It is hoped that this “Journey towards problematic chemsex use” will stimulate reflection and debate, with the ultimate goal of improving prevention and care for people engaging in chemsex.

This study examines the dualities of digital services – that is, how customers’ favorite everyday digital services can positively and negatively contribute to their well-being. Thus, the study describes the meanings of favorite digital services as part of customers’ everyday lives and the types of well-being to which such services can contribute.

We used a qualitative research approach through semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 to collect data from 14 young adults (22–31 years old) who actively used digital services in their daily lives.

Our findings revealed that customers’ favorite everyday digital services can contribute to their mental well-being, social well-being, and intellectual well-being. Within these three dimensions of well-being, we identified nine dualities of digital services that describe their positive and negative contributions: (1) digital escapism versus digital disruption, (2) digital relaxation versus digital stress, (3) digital empowerment versus digital subjugation, (4) digital augmentation versus digital emptiness, (5) digital socialization versus digital isolation, (6) digital togetherness versus digital exclusion, (7) digital self-expression versus digital pressure, (8) digital learning versus digital dependence, and (9) digital inspiration versus digital stagnation.

These findings suggest that everyday digital services have the potential to contribute to customer well-being in various aspects – both positively and negatively – accentuating the need for service providers to decipher the impacts of their offerings on well-being. Indeed, understanding the relationship between digital services and customer well-being can help companies tailor their services to customers’ needs. Companies that prioritize customer well-being not only benefit their customers but also create sustainable growth opportunities in the long run. Further, companies can use the derived information in service design to develop marketing strategies that emphasize the positive impacts of their digital services on customer well-being.

Although prior transformative service studies have investigated the well-being of multiple stakeholders, such studies have focused on services related to the physical and healthcare domains. Consequently, the role of everyday digital services as contributors to customer well-being is an under-researched topic. In addition, the concept of well-being and its various dimensions has received limited attention in previous service research. By investigating everyday digital services and their multidimensional contribution to customer well-being, this study broadens the perspective on well-being within TSR and aids in refining a more precise conceptualization.