1993 research outputs found
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Cultural Barriers and Periods Poverty: Address Menstrual Health Needs Around the World
Full text linkBackground:
Period poverty continues to be a worldwide public health concern, impacting women and girls disproportionately, particularly in low-and middle-income nations. Cultural taboos, stigma, and misinformation related to menstruation worsen obstacles to accessing menstrual hygiene products, education, and facilities. This dissertation examines the impact of cultural obstacles on period poverty and analyses approaches designed to tackle menstrual health requirements globally.
Methods:
A systematic literature review was performed, analysing peer-reviewed research published from 2013 to 2023. Thematic analysis was employed to pinpoint crucial themes concerning cultural stigma, educational deficiencies, affordability and availability of menstrual products, and the efficacy of interventions. The inclusion criteria emphasized research related to menstruation in various cultural settings, encompassing adolescents, refugees, and people with disabilities.
Results:
Research indicated that cultural norms frequently sustain silence and embarrassment regarding menstruation, preventing individuals from seeking assistance or maintaining proper menstrual hygiene. Financial limitations exacerbate these difficulties. The review also pointed out various promising strategies, such as school-based menstrual education, provision of free or subsidized products, community involvement initiatives, and policy changes. Approaches that are culturally aware and engage local stakeholders were identified as more effective in alleviating stigma and enhancing menstrual health results.
Conclusion:
Cultural obstacles greatly influence the experience of menstruation and play a role in period poverty in various global settings. Confronting these obstacles necessitates diverse approaches that combine education, community involvement, policy formulation, and product availability. Future public health efforts must emphasize culturally sensitive strategies to advance menstrual equity and support the dignity and health of menstruators globally
Trance and possession practices
No full textPossession and trance are categorized academically as Altered States of Consciousness. They are part of cultures across the world and practiced by all genders and in all religious traditions. However, historically scholars have focused on women and indigenous cultures, highlighting exotic features, and overlooking the normality of the practice. Setting this colonial bias aside, the problem for scholars today is how to study possession and trance without falling into the pitfall of prejudice and misconception. This chapter will address the question of how to research something that cannot be observed or measured, at least without complex technical equipment unsuitable for fieldwork environments. Drawing on research carried out among mediumship religions the chapter reflects on the position of the scholar when conducting research in cultures with possession and trance practices
Moving objects: futuring and enhancing ancient Egypt through modern art
No full textThis contribution introduces interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dialogues between Egyptologists, heritage professionals and artists of several genres (painting, poetry, ballet, dance, photography) around un-provenanced and misplaced ancient Egyptian museum objects. The initiated creative responses to ancient Egyptian material culture form part of a unique venture called The Museum of Lies within a wider project of literal and cultural (re-)discovery of neglected ancient Egyptian artifacts kept in Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
This approach widens the discussion about ancient Egyptian material culture beyond Egyptology and offers new ways of understanding and interpretation. Creative outcomes are exhibited/performed together with the objects and their academic descriptions as simultaneous types of cultural representations and extended object biographies in annual pop-up exhibitions. The emotional power and imagination connected with artistic representations allow to invoke and capture a potential which is inherent to the objects, but otherwise not detected
An exploration and comparison of the student placement experiences of UK and German psychotherapist trainees.
Full text linkResearch on trainee psychotherapists’ experiences during mandatory training placements remains limited. Additionally, comparative research on psychotherapy training across different countries is scarce. This study investigated the experiences of psychotherapy trainees in counselling placements in the UK and Germany. With the use of semi-structured interviews, three trainee psychotherapists from the UK and three trainees from Germany shared their lived experiences in placements. Then, the data was analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis, revealing eleven group themes, with 15 subordinate group themes, that illustrated the various experiences of trainee psychotherapists in placement. Themes broadly included experiences of challenges in placements, personal and professional development, supervision, experiences of placement characteristics and conditions, as well as country-specific reflections. Findings addressed implications for training placements, such as improved regulation of placement supervision, thorough placement induction processes, and enhanced supportive and well-monitored placement environments. They highlighted similar experiences of therapeutic work and supervision, and systemic differences to the environments in psychotherapy placements between the UK and in Germany. Based on these insights, recommendations for future research on psychotherapy training placements in more countries, and with improved comparability of placement parameters are provided
Influence of Excessive Social Media Usage on Sleep Patterns Among Adolescents in the United Kingdom: A Systematic Review
Full text linkBackground: As social networks have become an integral part of the adolescents’ lives in the United Kingdom, there is growing concern about the negative impact of nighttime use of electronic devices. Social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are some of the platforms many teenagers use, but their constant use has been associated with poor sleep quality and an increase in anxiety, depression, or low mood.
Objectives: This study aimed to establish the impact of excessive use of social media on the sleep of adolescents. It investigates potential causes of this disruption, whether it is physical, emotional or behavioral and how this disruption may impact the young people.
Methods: This study conducted a secondary research design using a systematic review approach to identify and analyses existing literature relevant to the research questions. The articles were retrieved from the databases such as PubMed, EBSCOhost, ProQuest Central, and Google Scholar, and the search was done within the years 2010-2024. The review involved 12 studies of adolescents between the age of 12 and 18 years in the United Kingdom. The quality of each study was also determined using assessment tools that were developed for systematic reviews.
Results: In all the reviewed articles, there was consensus that late-night social media usage is associated with sleep disturbances such as delayed sleep onset, reduced total sleep time, and reduced sleep quality. It identified that issues such as FOMO (Fear of missing out) and social pressure would aggravate these issues to stress, anxiety, Depression and low mood.
Conclusion: Such results suggest that there is an urgent need to address the issue of healthy use of screen time especially before going to bed as a way of ensuring that teenagers are not negatively affected by excessive screen time
Drawing versus digital: a category error
No full textThis article challenges the assumption that traditional drawing is less powerful than digital means of producing images. The power of digital imaging technology is widely perceived to render traditional drawing instruction less relevant in visual arts programmes at all levels.
This assumption is the result of what Gilbert Ryle called a ‘category mistake’, corrected by understanding that drawing is the progenitor of digital means, rather than a different ontological category. The article proposes that drawing pedagogy remains an efficient, economical means of nurturing an intelligence of seeing; subsequent applications of such intelligence have facilitated all technologies, including the relatively recent digital means of image production and manipulation
Friluftsliv as practice, culture and brand
Full text linkThe article revisits Kirsti Pedersen Gurholt’s Norwegian friluftsliv and ideals of becoming an ‘educated man’ (2008) – an investigation into masculine and hegemonic notions of Scandinavian outdoor life. We respond to the author’s call for critical dialogue in a three-part exploration, focusing on friluftsliv as a practice, culture, and brand. Each section takes one question from the editors’ call as its starting point. First, we examine changing practices by highlighting how friluftsliv has become less gendered, more urban and local, and more linked with health and wellbeing. Second, we address the question of whether theory has become more refined by employing Gurholt’s cultural analytical approach to discuss contemporary ambiguities of friluftsliv. Finally, we turn to the question about international expansion. Drawing inspiration from Gurholt’s critique of essentialism and nationalism, we explore how friluftsliv is promoted alongside other outdoor adventure brands on the international wellness and lifestyle market
A Critical Review of Staff Engagement with Performance Conversations Within Hywel Dda Health University Health Board. How Does Psychological Safety Relate to Engagement with Performance Conversations?
Full text linkThis study explored the relationship between psychological safety and engagement with performance conversations. This is a key area of intrigue within the field as it is multifaceted with several factors being highlighted as contributors in the literature (Denny et al., 2019; La Donna & Watling, 2018; London et al., 2023; McCutcheon, & Duchemin, 2020; Mertens & Schollaert, 2023). However, existing literature had not fully explored the role of psychological safety. This is vital to Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDdUHB) as it strives to engage staff with effective performance management (Gostling, 2020) which enables safe and efficient patient care (HDdUHB, 2018), training and retention (HEIW, 2023), under significant financial constraints (HDdUHB, 2024b). A mono-method questionnaire strategy was utilised to gain quantitative and qualitative data (Hammond & Wellington, 2021; Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill,2023), which could be explored deductively and inductively through the critical realism lens (Fletcher, 2017).
Psychological safety was found to be significantly positively related to engagement with performance conversations. Manager behaviours and emotional intelligence were also related. Eight key themes were identified as barriers and enablers of engagement with performance conversations. Whilst staff from the Workforce Directorate reportedly experience more regular performance conversations than those reported by Sayers et al. (2018), there were inconsistencies with the frequency, perceived purpose and content of performance conversations which resulted in positive and negative emotional associations with performance conversations. Contrasting with Raišienė et al. (2020), no difference was found for engagement with performance conversations across time spent in the physical office or the location of the performance conversation.
These findings have several implications including that they provide an enhanced understanding for future researchers on the relationship between psychological safety, emotional intelligence, manager behaviours and engagement with performance conversations. HR professionals can better understand their ability to influence engagement with performance conversations and they offer insight to HDdUHB and managers on how to foster and enable engagement with performance conversations
Co-Creation of Value-in-Use through Co-Productive Business Processes: An Empirical Case Study based on the Hybrid Offerings of the German Opticians Trades.
Full text linkThis doctoral thesis investigates the co-creation of value-in-use through hybrid offerings, focusing on the optician industry as a case study for the German skilled crafts sector. The study addresses three key objectives: to develop a theoretical framework of value-in-use co-creation in hybrid offerings, to design a qualitative methodology for analysing online customer reviews and to map customer satisfaction factors onto service process stages to understand how quality attributes shape value-in-use. The research is founded on the Servicedominant Logic and augmented by a Consolidated Quality Framework. It explores the manner in which tangible and intangible components collaborate to co-create value-in-use through hybrid offerings during a co-productive business process. Symbolic Interactionism provides a social-philosophical foundation, shedding light on how meanings are constructed through the dynamic interactions between customers and providers, while Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) provides a systematic methodology for deriving theoretical insights from empirical data. The empirical approach uses a multi-stage coding process and thematic analysis of over 24,000 OCRs from 370 German opticians, enabling a comprehensive examination of customer experiences. Using a combination of automated coding tools and CGT, the research uncovers valuable insights into the key drivers of customer satisfaction and perceived service quality in the optician sector.
The thesis makes three primary contributions. First, it advances the theoretical understanding of hybrid offerings by developing a conceptual framework that explains how value-in-use is co-created through co-productive business processes and dynamic customer-provider interactions. Second, it contributes methodologically by designing a customised qualitative approach – centred on Constructivist Grounded Theory and online customer reviews – that enables the systematic investigation of value perceptions in hybrid offering environments. Third, it offers empirical insight into how tangible and intangible quality attributes shape customer satisfaction, using process mapping to reveal how value-in-use is co-created or co-destroyed across the sub-processes of a Generic Business Process. The findings not only refine existing theoretical frameworks but also provide actionable guidance for service design, customer interaction and quality management in co-productive service settings
Materialising Power: The Role of looted European Cultural Objects in Nazi Elite Self-fashioning
Full text linkThis dissertation examines how Nazi elites instrumentalised looted cultural objects as tools of power, ideology, and self-fashioning. It argues that looting was not a by-product of war but a deliberate strategy central to Nazi cultural policy, disguising theft as legality while reinforcing the regime’s symbolic authority.
Focusing on Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler, the study reveals how each leader used material culture differently. For Hitler, imperial regalia and funerary remains constructed a mythic narrative of German continuity, legitimising his role as heir to imperial tradition. Göring transformed his estate, Carinhall, into both a private collection and a projection of cultural authority, aligning with Nazi aesthetics while pursuing personal wealth. Himmler employed religious relics and artefacts to promote a mythic Aryan prehistory, legitimising the SS as both racial forerunner and spiritual order.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, archival research, art history, biography, and material culture studies, the dissertation situates these practices within broader institutions such as the Reichskulturkammer, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, and the Ahnenerbe. It concludes that material culture was an active force in Nazi Germany: legitimising authority, reinforcing ideology, and elevating leaders, while also serving emotive ambitions of prestige, rivalry, and personal gain
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