143174 research outputs found
Sort by
How managers ‘make meaning’ of business tournament rituals
No full textopen access articleIn this paper, we examine how managers ‘make meaning’ of business tournament rituals (BTRs)— recognition-based contests in which participating firms get social endorsements and winners receive prestigious awards. In exploring two UK BTRs, we found that managerial orienting systems, made up of beliefs about the identity of their firm, competitors, and customers, and what it takes to compete in their environments, drive managers to compete in BTRs. Their interpretive view of BTRs as sources of strategic capabilities and hard market power, we argue, is constructed, and projected to the viewing public through a set of four distinct but ‘durationally indivisible’ temporal frames: validating identity and values, competence signalling, product/service differentiation, and market and industry visibility; these may operate in combination or serially account for the observed managerial preoccupation with BTRs. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research
Exploring skilled immigrants' access to decent work and the effectiveness of the role of third-sector organisations in the UK
No full textThis research explores skilled immigrants' access to decent work and the effectiveness of the role of third-sector organisations in the UK. It uses qualitative data from UK's TSO providing skills and employment services and skilled immigrants. The findings are expected to enhance understanding of decent work experiences of skilled immigrants in the UK and the contributions of TSOs
Teaching to Transform the Curriculum: Building Frameworks for Racial Literacy (T2TC)
No full textFunded through a BERA Small Grant Award, with Richard Hall as PI, this project builds on the anti-racist educator pathway, Teaching to Transform, led by the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University.Teaching to Transform the Curriculum (T2TC), built upon an anti-racist educator pathway, Teaching to Transform, led by the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University. T2TC evaluated the potential to enrich curriculum design and delivery by considering subject-based racial literacy. It explored with curriculum leads how racial literacy can be embedded within their curriculum frameworks. A survey of Leicester Secondary School staff evaluated: engagement with racial literacy; opportunities and limitations of CPD; personal and team-based confidence; and leadership for developing curriculum-based racial literacy. A dialogic group with 6 curriculum leaders followed, to map the potential for extending racial literacy into the curriculum, mindful of school contexts. The survey highlighted staff needing the language and knowledge to challenge racism, which underpinned the confidence to educate children appropriately. An ecosystem of CPD was described, and this tended to be locally-defined and one-off, often led by senior leaders or champions. Development was often facilitated by external partners, despite reported confidence with racial literacy in-school. A number of respondents reported having no CPD opportunities, which amplified the negative impact of workload/time on development. In framing the emotional conditions for developing racial literacy, school/curriculum leadership matters in moving school engagement beyond EDI training. Mindful of hierarchies, confident and reflexive approaches to racial literacy can encourage the disruption of aspects of curriculum design and delivery. Thus, T2TC identifies practical CPD, aimed at unlearning practices, challenging existing structures, and transforming curriculum-based relationships, and curated by local champions, as vital to enriching social justice in schools
Walsall Strategy for Tackling Hate: Building Resilient Communities 2025-2029
No full textThis strategy has been developed in collaboration with the Safer Walsall Partnership, Black Country Innovate, Walsall Council (Resilient Communities) and West Midlands Police. It outlines our plan for reducing the harms caused by hate to individuals, families and communities across Walsall. It demonstrates our commitment to:
reducing the harm caused by hate incidents and crime
raising awareness of and educating about hate crime
increasing the trust and confidence of the public in reporting
improving the victim experience from report to support
The strategy will be supported by an annual delivery plan, to be overseen by the Walsall Strategic Hate Crime Board. The strategy and delivery plan will take a whole system approach from prevention, through report to support, and will be victim-centred
Production and Provenance: Copy-Specific Features of Incunabula
No full textThe file deposited here is ‘the accepted version of the contribution’, i.e., ‘the version which has been accepted for publication by the publisher and which contains all revisions made after peer-reviewing and copy-editing, but which has not yet been typeset in the publisher’s layout’.
The Publisher confirms that the following right is reserved to the Contributor: "the right to self-archive the accepted version of the Contribution in online repositories and open archives. The accepted version of the Contribution is defined as the version which has been accepted for publication by the Publisher and which contains all revisions made after peer-reviewing and copy-editing, but which has not yet been typeset in the Publisher’s layout."Every incunable has a unique and often complicated history. Copies were bound and disbound. Individual leaves were dispersed, collected and re-bound again. This study focuses on William Caxton’s Golden Legend (1483–84), which today survives in thirty-three copies and ten fragments. By interrogating both the copy- and context-specific aspects of these copies, this study identifies different historical strata which exist in the copies of the Golden Legend, fills in gaps in the provenance histories of some copies, and unveils the intricate relationships and extensive network of antiquarians, book collectors and booksellers who were once involved in various attempts to perfect their books
Whiteness in Education
No full textThis chapter will exemplify how Black and Ethnically Minoritised (hereafter BEM) students are facing a multi-layered fulcrum of domination within education. Previous research has shown that Whiteness has become invisible and subtle in its presentation as common sense (Giroux, 1997; Suchet, 2007; Picower, 2009) and it is so ingrained in our social construction as normal that it is rarely questioned, but it is always present and pervades every interaction (Garratt, 2011; Straubhaar, 2015). As a result, education has to be viewed in the context of a framework of domination and oppression (Grodon, 2005; Picower, 2009; Leonardo, 2013), and as Baldwin stated: “Education is indoctrination if you're White - subjugation if you're Black” (Openvault.wgbh.org 1963). The chapter furthers such an understanding of the education system as constructed and shaped at all levels to protect white privilege and contends that white privilege forms a superstructural element that operates to perpetuate such an ideology.
Young BEM people face a master narrative of white supremacy which is seen as just and natural. To illustrate how this operates and with what effects, the chapter draws on a qualitative study with BEM young people aged 14-25. The data analysed from 15 semi-structured interviews focuses on the school experiences of the participants, their counter-narratives and the impact of Whiteness as an ideology.
The chapter will provide an original contribution to the understanding of whiteness as an ideology and the way education interacts with this. The chapter pays close attention to how interest convergence (Bell 1980, Delgado 1999) is entangled within the discourses of progress and how the social reality of BEM groups is predetermined around the mutually informed axes of hegemonic whiteness, indirect racism, and their negotiation with the dominant structures within society.
The chapter will conclude with recommendations for a more sustainable future, which will explore decolonising the curriculum as a tool for change, spaces within all levels of education for BEM people to express their voices and the value of BEM supplementary schools
Enhancing Arabic Dialect Classification with Deep Learning Techniques
No full textThe file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Arabic dialect classification presents unique challenges due to the linguistic diversity across regions. This study explores deep learning methods to improve classification performance, focusing on underrepresented dialects, especially Saudi variants. We evaluate recurrent neural networks, including BiGRU and BiLSTM, using the SADA dataset—a rich corpus of dialectal Arabic. The approach integrates preprocessing techniques such as normalization, stop-word removal, and tokenization to refine text inputs. Models are assessed using accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. Among the architectures, BiLSTM achieved the highest performance with 97% training and 90% test accuracy. To address class imbalance and overfitting, we applied data balancing and regularization strategies, which significantly enhanced generalization. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of certain architectures for dialect identification and offer insights for future NLP applications. This work contributes to advancing Arabic dialect processing and provides a baseline for future research in low-resource language classification
The Intellectual Structure in University Social Responsibility Research: A Bibliometric Analysis
No full textThe file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.University social responsibility (USR) is an emerging concept in business and social science research that pertains to the broader responsibilities of higher education organizations in contemporary societies. Although USR research has grown substantially, focusing on higher education institutions' roles in addressing global grand challenges, a comprehensive synthesis of the literature remains limited. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding regarding the diverse scholarly contributions to the field. To address these gaps, this study presents a systematic review of USR literature. Using bibliometric analysis of 288 articles published, we identify the core themes of USR research, including environmental sustainability, civic and community engagement, capacity building, equality and inclusion, social responsibility in teaching and learning, governance, and accountability. We also illustrate how research trends have evolved over time.
This study offers a holistic review of the USR domain and identifies five clusters that characterize the current literature: (1) Engagement, (2) Students’ Perceptions, (3) Disclosure, (4) Student Satisfaction and USR, and (5) The Role of USR in the University’s Reputation. The implications of these findings are examined
A CatBoost and ExtraTrees-Based Softvoting Ensemble Approach for Non-Invasive Diabetes Detection Using Hair LIBS Spectral Data
No full textThe file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Type II diabetes, a chronic metabolic disorder, alters the chemical composition and structural integrity of biological tissues, leading to widespread health challenges. Human biomarkers, such as hair, offer valuable insights into metabolic variations, making them useful for disease classification. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), a rapid and non-destructive technique, presents a powerful tool for analyzing hair samples to distinguish between diabetic and healthy individuals based on spectral data combined with machine learning. This study integrates LIBS with advanced tree-based machine learning to advance classification accuracy. Specifically, we utilize the predictive strengths of CatBoost and ExtraTrees classifiers and combine them using a soft-voting ensemble approach. Hair samples from 120 volunteers, 50 healthy controls, and 70 diabetics were analyzed, yielding high-resolution emission spectra. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to extract key spectral features, facilitating efficient data interpretation. The integrated softvoting ensemble learning model achieved an outstanding classification accuracy of 97.5 %, significantly exceeding the performance of the standalone CatBoost (94.5 %) and ExtraTrees (92.8 %). To evaluate the real-world applicability of the model, it was further tested on an external dataset comprising 80 independently collected samples (45 diabetics and 35 healthy controls), achieving 96.2 % classification accuracy with consistent sensitivity and specificity. These results highlight the transformative potential of ensemble-based machine learning in LIBS-driven disease diagnostics, paving the way for more precise, non-invasive, and scalable diabetes screening methods
Understanding the Fashion and Textile Waste Stream in Accra, Ghana
No full textopen access articlePurpose: This study aims to investigate and characterise the fashion and textile (FT) waste stream in Accra, Ghana. Specifically, it focuses on identifying significant sources of FT waste, current management practices, and the potential of upcycling. As the global fashion industry increasingly addresses sustainability challenges, understanding localised waste patterns is crucial for developing effective, circular, and sustainable interventions tailored to the needs of the developing world.
Methodology/Design: Employing a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted, utilising snowball sampling to recruit 11 participants who are experts and key stakeholders in the fashion, waste management, and sustainability sectors in Accra. In-depth data were collected through online interviews conducted via Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp, with all sessions audio recorded. The data were analysed with NVivo software, enabling systematic thematic coding and interpretation. Participant interviews were supplemented with government reports and academic literature, triangulating the data to provide a broader context. The study received ethical approval from De Montfort University (DMU) and followed DMU's research ethics policy, including obtaining informed consent from all participants.
Findings: Initial findings reveal that the FT waste stream in Accra is primarily driven by imports of second-hand clothing, surplus from local production, and inadequate waste sorting. Participants emphasised the lack of formal infrastructure (e.g., dedicated textile recycling centres), limited public awareness, and weak enforcement of relevant policies. However, there was consensus on the emergence of community-led movements/initiatives focused on upcycling and reuse. The findings also suggest growing awareness of the economic and environmental benefits of reducing textile waste by creating valuable products.
Practical and Social Implications: This study provides policymakers, environmental organisations, and social entrepreneurs with actionable strategies to improve the sustainable management of FT waste. Furthermore, it raises social awareness by highlighting how community-driven solutions and active stakeholder engagement can foster eco-innovation and advance circular economy practices in urban Ghana.
Originality: The study addresses an important research gap by presenting one of the first qualitative analyses of the fashion and clothing waste context in Accra. By integrating local perspectives with global sustainability discourses, it offers a unique contribution to the field. Its emphasis on upcycling and the inclusion of diverse stakeholder voices enhances its originality, positioning it as a valuable addition to both theoretical and practical research on sustainable fashion and waste reduction in sub-Saharan Afric