75079 research outputs found
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Storytelling, sensemaking and sustainability agendas
No full textThis chapter considers the complex and dynamic nature of the environment as it affects knowledge creation, including the limitations of a rationalist mindset when identifying and responding to global problem sets. Sensemaking and storytelling by stakeholders in complex problem settings is proposed as a basis for decision-making based on plausibility when taking action in emergencies. Critique of the work of Weick, Boje and others contributes to a conceptual framework to interrogate stakeholder influence on responses to an emergency situation through a critical appraisal of stakeholder stories and narratives. The response of ASA Philippines to COVID was interrogated through such a framework to understand the evolution of ‘knowledge’ seen as pertinent, plausible and facilitative of the organisation’s adaptation of its microfinance service to meet the challenges of a global emergency. This approach is relevant to sustainable development research, promoting alignment between ontology, epistemology and research design that recognises the importance of stakeholder input into problem definition and resolution, accepting that stakeholder stories will reflect varied experience, stakes and capability. Eliciting stakeholder stories for comparison and critique facilitates nuanced understanding of stakeholder actions and interactions whilst supporting insight into cultural and power-based influences on emergent, urgent and innovative forms of actionable knowledge
'You don’t go to these kinds of concerts for fun' : the fluid and emergent performance of taste in contemporary art music
No full textTheorisations of cultural preferences frequently posit a nexus between familiarity and pleasure. The pursuit and enjoyment of our tastes has been linked to the socialised acquisition of embodied cultural competencies and to psychological mechanisms of expectation. A genre such as contemporary art music disrupts this link to familiarity due to its emphasis on the explicitly unfamiliar. Drawing on interviews with concert attendees, this article examines how taste is put into practice and performed in a context marked by ambiguity. The data are significant for the disruption they represent to any idealised notion of how audiences engage with legitimate culture. Not only is the anticipation of pleasure largely absent, but the expression of taste is also far removed from an austere mode of contemplation and appreciation. Affective modes of appreciation are frequently employed, while audiences also often show a reluctance to engage in processes of evaluation. The article argues for the importance of understanding taste as comprising fluid, emergent and contingent strategies for forming an attachment to cultural objects in a field marked by ambiguity
Perceptions of a virtual reality sensory room for adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities
Get PDFPurpose: Mental ill health and sensory processing difficulties often limit participation in everyday life for adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Interventions using technology such as virtual reality (VR) are increasingly accessible and may mitigate these difficulties. Understanding what contributes to the successful implementation of novel interventions is important for future use and evaluation. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of implementing a VR sensory room for adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities, their carers and support staff and to explore future iterations of the product and process. Materials and Methods: Thirteen stakeholders who participated in a pilot trial of a VR sensory room were interviewed. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. Results: Eleven themes were identified which indicated that adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities found the VR sensory room to be mostly acceptable and enjoyable with usage largely consistent. Individual variation and support requirements were highlighted for each user. Future use may require modifications to the headset, in-built customisation options as well as buy-in and training for support staff. Conclusions: The VR Sensory room is a promising tool to support adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities and results warrant further scaled research into the impact of this tool on outcomes for adults with disabilities
Developing trauma-informed university supports for refugee background students in Australia : refocusing through an ethics of care lens
No full textThe growing literature on access, participation, and success of refugees entering higher education has illustrated the myriad challenges that this cohort faces. Much of this research has rightly focused on the student perspective, exploring the barriers and challenges that impede entry, engagement, and achievement. Relatedly, there is growing attention to the need for trauma-informed support, particularly following the impacts of COVID on learning. This article takes these challenges as a departure point to adjust the gaze on universities and ask what needs to be considered and implemented in order to develop better student supports. We use Tronto’s (2013) notion of ethics of care—examining issues of attentiveness (caring about), responsibility (caring for), competence (caregiving), responsiveness (care receiving), and trust (caring with)—to carefully probe how universities can develop trauma-informed supports that are more caring and nuanced, not only for students from refugee backgrounds but for all students
Barriers to healthcare for Australian autistic adults
No full textBarriers to healthcare experienced by Australian autistic adults have not been previously explored. We conducted a cross-sectional investigation of barriers to healthcare and associated factors from a subtle realism perspective. Perceived barriers to healthcare were obtained from the Barriers to Healthcare Checklist Short-Form (BHC). A total of 263 autistic and 70 non-autistic individuals completed the BHC. On average, autistic adults reported more barriers to healthcare (4.58) than non-autistic adults (0.76). Gender diversity, higher levels of generalised anxiety, greater global disability and less satisfaction with social support contributed to the experience of barriers to healthcare in autistic participants in regression modelling. Australian autistic adults face substantial barriers to healthcare. Understanding these barriers provides an opportunity to develop approaches to improve access; such as co-designing a healthcare access roadmap for autistic adults, with co-designed policies and practices which advocate for the needs of autistic adults. This study looked at how Australian autistic and non-autistic adults experience barriers to healthcare. We asked autistic and non-autistic adults to complete the Barriers to Healthcare Checklist Short-Form (BHC). We analysed data from 263 autistic adults and 70 non-autistic adults. We found that autistic adults experienced more barriers to healthcare than non-autistic adults. Gender diversity, feeling more anxious, having greater disability and feeling unsatisfied with social support contributed to barriers to healthcare in autistic participants. We recommend interventions such as developing and implementing a national action plan, similar to the National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability (2021) to reduce barriers and address unmet healthcare needs of Australian autistic adults. We also recommend working with autistic adults to develop new policies and strategies, implementing environmental adaptations to health care facilities, and increasing Autism education opportunities for health professionals to address gaps in knowledge
The accessibility of pelvic health physiotherapy for adolescents with persistent pelvic pain : a qualitative framework analysis
No full textBackground: Physiotherapy, with a specific focus on pelvic health, is one service used in the multidisciplinary management of adolescent persistent pelvic pain (PPP). However, there has been little investigations into the accessibility of physiotherapy for adolescents with PPP. Objective: This qualitative study aimed to detail the experiences of adolescents with PPP accessing a tertiary hospital physiotherapy service. Methods: Two focus groups included six adolescent females diagnosed with PPP that had either a) been referred and attended the physiotherapy clinic (n = 5), or b) been referred to physiotherapy but yet to attend their appointment (n = 1 plus one support person). Focus group transcripts were deductively thematically analyzed according to four domains from the patient-centered healthcare accessibility framework. Results: The domain of ‘Approachability and ability to perceive’ was impacted by limited information and poor patient health literacy. ‘Acceptability and ability to seek’ was hindered by adolescent mental health struggles and failures of previous PPP management. ‘Availability and accommodation, and ability to reach’ was influenced by lengthy referral processes, and reliance on familial support for transport. ‘Acceptability and ability to engage’ was facilitated by engaging clinicians and group environments, however, adolescents became dependent on physiotherapy for pain management. Conclusion: Physical, social, and environmental factors influence the accessibility of physiotherapy for adolescents with PPP. Healthcare services should consider the specific needs of adolescents with PPP for optimizing accessibility
A digital cohort analysis of consumers' mobile banking app experience
Get PDFThe literature on mobile banking has extensively explored various mechanisms underlying service acceptance and continuation. However, there is a lack of research on how the service experience and outcomes differ between digital natives (users born after the digital age) and digital immigrants (users born before the digital age). This study aims to fill this gap by investigating how mobile banking application experience, satisfaction and continued use intention interrelationships differ between digital natives and digital immigrants. The study posits that four components of mobile banking application experience (pragmatic, ease of use, emotional and sensorial) drive continued use intention directly and indirectly through satisfaction. The hypothesized relationships are analysed using a sample of 215 digital natives and 203 digital immigrants and employing the multi-group analysis in the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique. The study finds that while pragmatic, ease of use and emotional experiences significantly predict satisfaction and continued use, the pattern of associations varies across the digital cohorts. Sensorial experience was consistently found to be insignificant. Satisfaction mediated between the experience dimensions and continued use. The findings suggest that bank managers should recognize the relevant experiences to achieve the satisfaction and continued use of the digital cohorts
Automation in Construction Toward Resilience: Robotics, Smart Materials and Intelligent Systems
No full textWhile the word "automation" may conjure images of robots taking over jobs, the reality is much more nuanced. In construction, for instance, automation is less likely to diminish employment opportunities than it is to increase productivity. Indeed, automation alongside the global need for new and updated infrastructure and better and more affordable housing can help shape the direction of the construction industry. The key will be anticipating and preparing for the shift, in part by developing new skills in the current and future workforce. This book presents all aspects of automation in construction pertaining to the use of information technologies in design, engineering, construction technologies, and maintenance and management of constructed facilities. The broad scope encompasses all stages of the construction life cycle from initial planning and design, through the construction of the facility, its operation, and maintenance, to the eventual dismantling and recycling of buildings and engineering structures
Measuring nature-based health interventions : a rapid review of instrumentation and outcomes
No full textNature-based health interventions (NBHIs) are utilised to treat a range of physical and mental health conditions, and this rapid review sought to describe the breadth of instrumentation utilised to measure the efectiveness of NBHIs on the diferent domains of health and wellbeing. A total of 14,385 records were extracted from three databases, and a review of titles and abstracts and then of full text resulted in a fnal dataset of 167 articles that met the review criteria. NBHI settings were categorised as Garden/Horticulture, Blue Spaces, Urban Green Spaces, Wild Nature, and Camps/Residential. For each of these settings, major population groups included in the studies, health domains and outcomes addressed, as well as assessment tools used to measure NBHIs’ efectiveness were described and analysed in aggregate. A total of 336 measurement tools were utilised across the dataset, with only 29 being specifcally designed to assess NBHIs. Most studies investigated mental health domains and measured the efectiveness of NBHIs to improve psychological factors and physical, behavioural, and healthy eating outcomes. Future research should interrogate how nature-based tools and outcome measurements could be used most efectively in NBHI settings
Coercive geographies : biopower, spatial politics, and the tourist
No full textThis symposium examines the relations between biopower, destination governance and tourism. Biopower, a Foucauldian concept, refers to political strategies based on humanity’s biological features. In the simplest of terms, it is applied via biopolitical mandates that govern life of a given population. Contemporary tourism exemplifies the exertion of biopower over the mobility of travellers, as was evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to a lesser degree, continues to do so. The role that tourism plays in enabling authorities to enact spatial transformations reinforcing state power, while also indicating potential means of resistance, is foregrounded in this symposium. The four empirical contributions extend biopolitical thought by demonstrating that biopower is instrumental in the practices and regimes of mobility, security, in/exclusion of tourism. In Europe, the Dutch government experimented with enclosed “COVID-safe” tourist spaces. In Macao, China’s border regime screened tourists based on their viral threat capacities. On Naoshima Island in Japan, museums have transformed into infrastructures of bodily control. In Taiwan, flight attendants are grappling with newly emerging forms of biopower shaping the sociality of air travel and their own practices of hospitality. These empirically informed contributions interrogate how tourism figures in attempts to govern bodies at the population level, while uncovering the modes of coercion applied to govern tourists and the spaces they inhabit