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Book part
Publication date: 7 March 2013

Charlotte Struyve and Geert Kelchtermans

The phenomenon of teachers taking on leadership tasks beyond their classroom duties has become widespread internationally. Although presented as a catalyst for school improvement…

Abstract

The phenomenon of teachers taking on leadership tasks beyond their classroom duties has become widespread internationally. Although presented as a catalyst for school improvement and professional development, the practices and experiences of teacher leaders are more complex than that. The change in roles blurs the traditional division between teaching and leading and therefore challenges the conventional professional relationships in schools. We conducted semi-structured interviews of 28 ‘teacher leaders’ in Flemish primary and secondary schools. We explored their perceptions and evaluation of their position in schools as well as the way their position and role as teacher leaders affected their professional relations with teacher colleagues and school leaders. The results demonstrate how the introduction of new positions and roles in the school as an organisation affects the professional relationships and collegiality. From a micro-political perspective, we show that the new positions also create emotional labour for the teacher leaders, since they find themselves juggling two different agendas of professional interests: on the one hand, receiving recognition by others of their position as teacher leaders, while on the other hand maintaining their former social–professional relationships as teachers with their former colleagues.

Details

Emotion and School: Understanding how the Hidden Curriculum Influences Relationships, Leadership, Teaching, and Learning
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-651-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 June 2011

Linda R. Most

Research into the library as place investigates the role of public library buildings as destinations, physical places where people go for various reasons ranging from making use…

Abstract

Research into the library as place investigates the role of public library buildings as destinations, physical places where people go for various reasons ranging from making use of the library's resources and services or seeking to fulfill an information or reading need to less easily identified reasons that may include using the library's building as a place to make social or business contacts, to build or reinforce community or political ties, or to create or reinforce a personal identity. This study asks: How are one rural US public library system's newly constructed buildings functioning as places? The answer is derived from answers to sub-questions about adult library users, user, and staff perceptions of library use, and observed use of library facilities. The findings are contextualized using a framework built of theories from human geography, sociology, and information studies.

This case study replicates a mixed-methods case study conducted at the main public libraries in Toronto and Vancouver in the late1990s and first reproduced in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006. It tests methods used in large urban settings in a rural, small-town environment. This study also expands on its antecedents by using thematic analysis to determine which conceptualizations of the role of the public library as place are most relevant to the community under investigation.

The study relies on quantitative and qualitative data collected via surveys and interviews of adult library users, interviews of library public service staff members, structured observations of people using the libraries, and analysis of selected administrative documents. The five sets of data are triangulated to answer the research sub-questions.

Thematic analysis grounded in the conceptual framework finds that public realm theory best contextualizes the relationships that develop between library staff members and adult library users over time. The study finds that the libraries serve their communities as informational places and as familiarized locales rather than as third places, and that the libraries facilitate the generation of social capital for their users.

Details

Advances in Library Administration and Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-014-8

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2015

Jonas Holmqvist, Duncan Guest and Christian Grönroos

The field of service research has devoted considerable attention to the customer’s role as value creator, but there is a lack of research on understanding customers’ psychological…

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Abstract

Purpose

The field of service research has devoted considerable attention to the customer’s role as value creator, but there is a lack of research on understanding customers’ psychological processes in value creation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of psychological distance in value-creation processes. Psychological distance is the customer’s perceived distance from service interactions in terms of spatial distance, temporal distance, social distance and hypothetical distance. Critically, psychological distance influences cognitive processes and can influence how customers think and feel about the service interaction. An appreciation of psychological distance within service contexts can help managers to tailor the interaction in order to facilitate value creation.

Design/methodology/approach

In this conceptual paper, the authors build on psychology research and service research to develop seven propositions that explore how psychological distance can operate within service interactions and how this might influence value creation.

Findings

The authors divide the propositions into three sections. The first concerns how perceived psychological distance from the service interaction can act as a barrier to entering a service interaction. In particular, the authors consider the influence of social distance and spatial distance within the context of service interactions. The second section examines how psychological distance to the expected point of service use can influence how customers construe the service and the value creation. The third aspect addresses customer-specific characteristics that can impact on value creation by influencing perceived psychological distance toward the service.

Research limitations/implications

Existing research suggests that customers ultimately decide if value is created in the interaction. This paper proposes that perceived psychological distance influences customers’ value creation by examining the service interaction from the customer perspective. The authors suggest that complex context-specific features of the service interaction can be understood by considering psychological distance from the service interaction and from the service itself and evaluating how this impacts on value-creation processes.

Practical implications

From a practical point of view, the paper helps managers to better understand how to manage the service interaction with customers by identifying psychological antecedents of customer value creation.

Originality/value

The paper introduces the notion of psychological distance into service research about value, proposing that the customer’s role in creating value in interactions with the service provider is influenced by the psychological distance to the interaction and to the service offered in this interaction.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 53 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 August 2019

Marian Konstantin Gatzweiler and Matteo Ronzani

This study explores how thinking infrastructures can orchestrate collective sensemaking in unstable and socially contested environments, such as large-scale humanitarian crises. In

Abstract

This study explores how thinking infrastructures can orchestrate collective sensemaking in unstable and socially contested environments, such as large-scale humanitarian crises. In particular, drawing from recent interest in the role of artifacts and infrastructures in sensemaking processes, the study examines the evaluative underpinnings of prospective sensemaking as groups attempt to develop novel understandings about a desired but ambiguous set of future conditions. To explore these theoretical concerns, a detailed case study of the unfolding challenges of managing a large-scale humanitarian crisis response was conducted. This study offers two contributions. Firstly, it develops a theorization of the process through which performance evaluation systems can serve as thinking infrastructures in the collaborative development of new understandings in unstable environments. Secondly, this study sheds light on the practices that support prospective sensemaking through specific features of thinking infrastructures, and unpacks how prospective and retrospective forms of sensemaking may interact in such processes.

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Haoyu Liu and Kim Hua Tan

The Sports Live Streaming Platforms (SLSPs) have taken centre stage in broadcasting sporting events. This study adopts the value creation sphere (VCS) model and the service…

Abstract

Purpose

The Sports Live Streaming Platforms (SLSPs) have taken centre stage in broadcasting sporting events. This study adopts the value creation sphere (VCS) model and the service dominant logic (SDL) to unpack the value co-creation process on SLSPs.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study with one of the most representative SLSPs in China, involving the netnographic approach and in-depth interviews, was conducted.

Findings

This study redefines the value co-creation spheres in the context of SLSPs and identifies four actors who contribute to viewers' value perceptions. The findings show that viewers' values can be co-created individually and collectively with other actors in both the customer sphere and the joint sphere.

Originality/value

This study extends the theoretical boundary of value co-creation into the context of SLSPs. The study findings help SLSPs managers and decision makers understand the value co-creation process to gain competitive advantages and enhance the sustainability of their services.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 123 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 March 2016

Angélique Rodhain and Philippe Aurier

– The purpose of this paper is to study the child–brand relationship dynamic in interaction with the relationships children develop with their family, peers and teacher.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the child–brand relationship dynamic in interaction with the relationships children develop with their family, peers and teacher.

Design/methodology/approach

In all, six classes in French primary schools are observed for six months. Among the 112 children observed, aged 10-11 years, 24 of them are interviewed twice individually and 24 others are interviewed in focus groups.

Findings

A lack of coherence between parents, peers and the teacher, as well as with the child’s own desires, affects the child–brand relationship and reduces the child’s self-esteem. Based on this, this study proposes a four-case typology of child–brand relationship dynamics with two criteria: the child’s attitude toward the brand relationship (favorable and unfavorable) and the consistency of attitudes in his/her socialization spheres (peers, parents and teacher) relative to this relationship. Then, the most frequent trajectories children follow across these brand relationship cases are identified.

Research limitations/implications

This study applies to branded clothes.

Practical implications

From a marketer’s perspective, this study reveals that there are different qualities in child–brand relationships. The strongest one appears when the child feels free from outside pressure and when peers, parents and the teacher create a virtuous circle for brands (or at least do not contradict the child’s desires for brands).

Social implications

For public policymakers, it can be useful to be aware that when peers, parents and teachers’ opinions about brands differ, this affects the child’s self-esteem.

Originality/value

The study offers a dynamic approach to child–brand relationships.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 January 2015

Jen Schradie

How does gender equity fare in the digital public sphere(s)? To understand the mechanism of the gender gap, this study analyzes the interaction of gender with class, age, and…

Abstract

How does gender equity fare in the digital public sphere(s)? To understand the mechanism of the gender gap, this study analyzes the interaction of gender with class, age, and parenthood. With American national survey data, this research compares different types of online content production practices in this blurred digital public sphere(s). Findings show differences between men and women in five of six digital content creation activities. Women are more likely to consume online content; men are more likely to produce it. From more public blogging to more private chatting, inequality persists. Interactions with gender show (1) women from higher educational levels face more inequality compared to their male counterparts than do women from lower educational levels; (2) age is not a factor in the gender gap; and (3) generally, parental status fails to explain the production divide. Understanding the gender gap and its mechanisms can help ameliorate inequalities. Some argue that the Internet is a more egalitarian public platform for women while others find gender inequality. But neither body of research has attended to the blurring of the public and private spheres on the Internet.

Details

Communication and Information Technologies Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-454-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2013

Valérie Hemar‐Nicolas, Pascale Ezan, Mathilde Gollety, Nathalie Guichard and Julie Leroy

Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, this research aims to investigate the interweaving of the socialization systems within which children learn eating practices, in

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Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, this research aims to investigate the interweaving of the socialization systems within which children learn eating practices, in order to open up new paths to build prevention and care programs against childhood obesity.

Design/methodology/approach

Children were interviewed using semi‐structured interviews, including projective methods. The data were analyzed by both a manual content analysis and the use of qualitative analysis software Nvivo. Nvivo enables to cross verbatim and contributes to highlight the joint effects of socialization agents in terms of children's eating learning.

Findings

The study clarifies the interrelationships between social contexts in which children learn food practices. It points out that the different social spheres may sometimes exert contradictory influences and that food learning cannot be limited to the transmission of nutritional information, but also involves emotional and social experiences.

Social implications

By showing that eating habits stem from complex processes, the research suggests measures against children's obesity that take into account the interrelationships between social contexts. It invites the policymakers and the food companies to implement actions based on social relationships involved in food learning.

Originality/value

Whereas the traditional consumer socialization models focus on interactions between child and one socialization agent, this research's findings shed light on the entanglement of social spheres concerning eating socialization. They show that using a social‐ecological approach is useful to policymakers, researchers, marketers, and other constituencies involved in developing solutions to the obesity problem.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 October 2016

Christofer Laurell

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the fragmentation of the fashion system can be conceptually explained by drawing on Peter Sloterdijk’s theory of spheres.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the fragmentation of the fashion system can be conceptually explained by drawing on Peter Sloterdijk’s theory of spheres.

Design/methodology/approach

By conceptually discussing the changing nature of the fashion system and the institutional pressures exerted on fashion systems as a result of digital technology, the fundamental conceptual underpinnings of the theory of spheres are applied to these developments in order to explain the character of the contemporary organization of fashion.

Findings

Based on the conceptual analysis, this paper illustrates how a sphereological perspective to fashion provides a conceptual approach to explain the transformation and fragmentation of fashion systems.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the field of fashion marketing and management by demonstrating how the concept of fashion spheres can explain social arrangements going beyond the boundaries of fashion systems and the associated implications that this brings to bear on the role of fashion.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 20 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 July 2019

Maurice Yolles

Agency is inherently an institution and involves dynamic socio-cultural processes that facilitate development. This paper is written in three parts. The purpose in Part 1 was to…

Abstract

Purpose

Agency is inherently an institution and involves dynamic socio-cultural processes that facilitate development. This paper is written in three parts. The purpose in Part 1 was to represent agency theory as an institutional theory, and consideration was made of the relationship between development, growth and globalisation. In Part 2, the purpose was to explore development with respect to the political context, explaining in terms of culture under what conditions political groups may come to power. Using political frames intended to define their nature and realities, they seek to attract agents in their political sphere to gain administrative power. In this Part 3, the purpose of this paper is to model, using cybernetic agency theory, the nature of development and reduction to instrumentality.

Design/methodology/approach

Development theory is a multidisciplinary field in which research and theories are clustered together and set within an adaptive institutional activity system framework. An adaptive activity system has a plural membership of agents represented by agency. In Parts 1 and 2 of this paper, agency was shown to have an institutional basis. Activity system development was also explained as a process of institutional evolution, and its potential was shown to provide power acquisition in a political landscape by competitive political frames which vie for support in a place of potentially susceptible agents. Here in Part 3, agency theory will be used to model the dynamic relationships between political frames and the agents that they wish to attract by projecting both cognitive and emotional structures, this enabling the anticipation of behaviour.

Findings

These relate to the three parts of the paper taken together. Agency is an evolutionary institutional system that can represent socio-political development. A model for political development has been created that identifies the conditions under which formal political groups are able to promote frames of policy to attract support from autonomous agents that constitute the membership of the activity system, and hence gain agency status. On the way to this, it connects Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity to Sorokin’s theory of socio-cultural dynamics and cultural stability. One result is the notion of liquid development, an unstable condition of development in adaptive activity systems. Agency theory can usefully explain detailed changes in agency, the relationships between agency agents, and interactions between agencies, this embracing institutional processes.

Research limitations/implications

The implication of this research is that it will allow empirical methods to be used that potentially enables political outcomes in complex socio-political environments to be anticipated, given additional appropriate measurement criteria.

Originality/value

The synergy of agency and institutional theories to explain the process of development is new, as is its application to the political development process in a political landscape. As part of this synergistic process, it has been shown how Bauman’s concept of liquidity relates to Sorokin’s ideas of socio-cultural change.

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