Search results

Purpose – This chapter illustrates how female university kendo club members participate in kendo-related hegemonic drinking in formal (heterosocial) and informal (homosocial) club settings. An alternative perspective on gender relations and identity politics in Japan is outlined in this chapter by describing the significance of hegemonic drinking for female kendo club members within homosocial spaces.

Methodology – As a participant-observer, an ethnographic method was applied for an 18-month period as a quasi-member of a Japanese Sports University Kendo Club. Key to accessing the female members' lived experience was the primary author's participation in daily training and the consumption of alcohol in various kendo spaces. The data discussed in this chapter were collected via semi-structured interviews, daily self-reflexive descriptive field notes and ethnographic interviews.

Findings – Hegemonic drinking practices in heterosocial university kendo club spaces encompass networking opportunity, transference of knowledge, and fortitude building, all of which are systemized to support the advancement of male members. Although female members are relatively obscured in heterosocial spaces, women mimic and engage in hegemonic drinking practices in homosocial settings to substantiate meaning to their membership.

Research limitations/implication – Research that engages with the intersection of sport and gender needs to consider aspects of social interaction not only of the physical component of the sport but also the other day-to-day activities related to it. The examination of women and kendo-related hegemonic drinking in this chapter provides an insightful perspective and highlights the value of the ethnographic method in unexplored places of enquiry integral to researching physical cultures and body politics in Japan.

Phenomenology is widely recognised for its power to generate nuanced understanding of lived experience and human existence. However, phenomenology is often made inaccessible to prospective researchers due to its specialised nomenclature and dense philosophical underpinnings. This paper explores the value of the researcher’s lived experience as a pathway into phenomenological inquiry. The purpose of this paper is to improve the accessibility of phenomenology as a method for qualitative analysis. It achieves this by aligning Husserl’s concept of phenomenological epoche, or bracketing of preconceptions, and the author’s lived experience as a practitioner of kendo, or Japanese fencing.

The paper employs the narrative vignette as a means of illuminating the intersections between kendo practice and the application of phenomenological epoche as it applies to the understanding of embodied sensemaking. Reflections on the narrative vignette identified a suite of techniques from kendo practice that were applied to a phenomenological approach for critical incident interviews. These techniques were then applied to 30 critical incident, semi-structured interviews as part of a PhD research project into embodied sensemaking.

The results from these interviews suggest that the kendo-derived techniques were effective in generating thick narratives from participants during semi-structured interviews. Examination of the results provided insights into the linkage between phenomenology as a continental philosophy and eastern perspectives such as those found within the Zen traditions and other aesthetic practices.

This research suggests that lived experience such as kendo practice can provide a ready-to-hand pathway to phenomenological inquiry.

The purpose of this study was to identify and assess the regulatory and institutional constraints in managing procurement records in Tanzania’s procuring entities.

This study used a mixed study design. There were explorative case study and questionnaire survey study methods used sequentially. In total, 15 procuring entities were used for exploratory case study, while 200 respondents were administered with questionnaires. A 75 per cent response rate was realised.

Results indicated that management and care of procurement records is constrained by regulatory and institutional constraints. The identified and assessed constraints were inter alia: incapacity of institutional actors, inadequate regulatory and institutional arrangements, inadequacy of storage space, equipment and facilities and insufficiency of security and safety measures.

This research focussed on the procuring entities found in Dar es Salaam, which accounts for 40.72 per cent of the total procuring entities in Tanzania. Based on this, the generalisation of research findings can be sought in that particular context.

Findings imply that procurement records management and care is highly influenced by the constraining factors that hinder efficient records keeping in most procuring entities in Tanzania.

Majority of procurement management units and user departments’ staff were found to possess inadequate knowledge, skills and competences in management and care of procurement records. The procuring entities should ensure that procurement staffs are trained in records and archives management practices.

This study contributes towards adding knowledge to the existing body of knowledge on the procurement records and archives management systems.

Argues that the management of quality in the construction industry is often flawed by people‐related problems. Suggests that there is tremendous scope for applying Miyamoto Musashi’s lessons in A Book of Five Rings for overcoming some of these problems and for managing construction quality. Just as the samurai strives to perfect his killer instinct, the application of the Samurai way in the building industry can serve to achieve getting the construction quality right first time, every time. Provides a historical account of Miyamoto Musashi’s A Book of Five Rings, highlights its teachings and analyses how these can be adapted or applied for managing construction quality more effectively in the building industry.

“The family you can depend on — all year long.” That was the lead on an ad for the Books in Print “family” of R.R. Bowker. The acquisitions/reference librarian interested in obtaining a sports encyclopedia could raise an eyebrow at the claim. Of the seven titles listed in the bibliography to this article, titles taken from the 1981–82 Subject Guide to Books in Print under the heading SPORTS — DICTIONARIES, three are actually not in print. The o.p. titles are included in the discussion below because many libraries may either have one or more of them on the shelves or because they still might be obtainable. All went out of print over the year just past, and they might be findable in an infrequently weeded bookstore or secondhand shop. But to further reduce the choice of the four still in print, one, the Encyclopaedia of Sport, while of historic interest (see the discussion of that title below), should not be consulted by anyone looking for up‐to‐date information.