PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences
Not a member yet
1507 research outputs found
Sort by
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE DEMAND FOR INDUSTRY READY TOWN PLANNING GRADUATES
Get PDFEmerging of new technologies skills are fundamentally changing how urban planners think, analyses and determine development decision. Application of mobile technologies and increase of public awareness are new challenges that affect traditional planning procedures and design process, resulting widening knowledge and skills gaps between town planning graduates and demand by the industry. This poses questions on the graduates’ capability to meet the job market demands especially on handling town planning related tasks. Therefore, this research endeavours to determine current knowledge and skill demands among planning agencies by using quantitative research approach as main research strategy. Findings of the study suggest Spatial Information System, Online Mapping, Crowd Sourcing technology along with instilling collaborative and multidisciplinary soft skills, in the new syllabus are considered vital. Thus the implementation of a revised syllabus which take into consideration both knowledge and skills components, would surely offers well equip market ready town planning 
TOWARDS AN EQUITABLE AND LIBERAL SOCIETY: 20TH CENTURY LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORIES
Get PDFLiterature attains its academic value when assessed through the tools offered by literary theories and tradition of past and present. The very word ‘theories’ may sound abstract and reductive by nature if understood in the postmodern sense but given their technical/academic means and measures accumulated over a period of time based on the philosophical and ideological concepts, they pave a way for identifying the emotional and social conflicts in the changing socio and cultural scenario of the societies. The present paper focuses on the 20th century Literary theories beginning from Deconstruction associated with Jacques Derrida ranging across Post structuralism, Post colonialism and New Leftist Cultural Theories of Raymond Williams in their attempt to highlight their empowering aspect of dealing with the hierarchical elements of society based on gender, class and ethnicities. The paper finds its relevance in the current globalised, capitalist and consumerist society that tends to ignore the difference or the presence of small voices, as of the marginalized group- be it women Blacks, Asians, Dalits or the poor. The hierarchical structures embedded in the society as human constructs and hegemony as something to be understood and tackled are the main focus of the literary theories discussed in the paper. 
POTENTIAL STAGNATION AND DECLINE IN RETURN ON INVESTMENT ~IDENTIFYING MEDIUM-TERM ISSUES IN AN INTENSIVE ENGLISH PROGRAM IN A JAPANESE UNIVERSITY~
Get PDFThis research reports on five years of results of IELTS (International English Language Testing System) testing taken by first year university students in a Japanese university. The data analyzed in previous papers was from economics majors taking higher level English classes in the academic years of 2013 and 2014, and then in 2016 and 2017 by liberal arts (culture/tourism/English) majors in a new department whose initial focus was English. Lynch (2017) reported that “return on investment (ROI) in education increases when students are given choices in their education”, confirming earlier results found by Lynch & McKeurtan (2011), and Spokes (1989). Furthermore, teaching in a more intensive way (using a quarter system rather than a semester system) was found to give greater ROI. This study goes further and examines a further year of results, finding that stagnation and some decline in results began. This may indicate that the initial high results may have been partly due to special circumstances present in the new department, or that new circumstances have appeared which limited academic gains. Results are reported and discussed. Data and a discussion including class student-teacher ratio is added, giving a new direction to the research. Overall, despite decline in results, it was found that the continuing the intensive program is still worth it in terms of ROI for some years. Findings also included how changing university entrance examination requirements, teacher experience and burnout, and temporary dips in shown ability can all be important points of research
A NEW MODEL FOR ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SERVICE BASED ON SOCIAL NEEDS IN A SHARING ECONOMY
Get PDFBased on the business phenomenon of sharing economy, and guided by the Blue Ocean strategy, the researchers present a new online food ordering service model. The researchers conducted literature review to understand the current trend of the business of online food ordering. Through user studies, the life style of the main consumer groups of this business was studied to construct the social needs of the users; then through various design research methods such as the brainstorming method, SET analysis method, and SWOT Analysis, etc., the researchers have found important unmet user needs, and proposed a O2O+C2C online ordering service model with private customization and social functions to meet users’ emotional needs. The design of this new service model is in line with the Blue Ocean strategy. It embodies human care, is innovative and feasible, and can provide new directions for the development of related industries
MEDICAL STUDENTS’ TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS AND STRATEGIES IN CONNECTING TO SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING: A QUALITATIVE STUDY
Get PDFSelf-directed learning (SDL) is the ability to direct and regulate one's learning which is crucial to success, and it is associated with life-long learning in the medical profession. However, medical students’ have low readiness for SDL, and therefore, it warrants improvement in the training curricula of medical and post-graduate studies. Several factors influence SDL among medical students and one of the crucial factors is the time management. However, data correlating poor time management with SDL readiness among the medical students in Saudi Arabia has remained underexplored. Thus, exploring the experiences of the medical residents based on Macan’s theory of time management would help understand the importance of time management skills as part of the SDL in Saudi Arabia. Hence, for them to be competent, skilful and self-directed lifelong learner, this study would explore the strategies which could be utilized by the Saudi Medical residents in managing their time by answering the following question: “What strategies do Family Medicine residents use to manage their time to meet the desired learning outcomes?” The study consisted of twenty-five (n=25) participants who qualified the prescribed set of inclusion criteria. Ethical principles included the informed consent, autonomy, confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity were ensured throughout the entire research. The emergent themes that were generated from the focus group discussions (FGD) were observed to be associated with the widely known model of Macan’ Time Management (1994). The management process involved four steps which included the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of time which reflected in the experiences shared by the family medicine residents in achieving the desired learning outcomes through SDL. This study concluded that there would be positive outcomes if the tested strategies of time management are used to train the medical residents
IF NOT THE NATION- A NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE OBJECTIVE
Get PDFIndia is a vast secular nation with many cultures, religions, practices as well as differences, deficiencies. It is a developing nation with its socio-economic status in paradigm. The minimum wage purposes to achieve a floor on this, It worked well until the employers found the loophole of fixing the minimum wage to be the maximum, where the workers suffered with India’s developing economic standards and global market, where value of rupees fell. Struggles and toil of workers wasn’t compensated on equal grounds throughout the nation. It differed from state to state based on their economic socio standards, a worker in Karnataka would get a different minimum wage from that of Tamil Nadu. Which is why a proposal of National Minimum wage becomes the need of the hour, everywhere the worker moves, settles or works, there is a bare necessity on the employer to follow that floor. If the nation doesn’t improve to the dynamic change of the world and its trade for protection of labour, then who would? This paper focuses on why national minimum wage is the need of the hour in comparison with a sovereign which has already a National Minimum wage and how it is effectively functioning regardless of division of power between the states and centre
PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS OF MARRIAGE STABILITY AND LONGEVITY IN TRADITIONAL RWANDA
Get PDFThis paper from a research using qualitative approach looks at the marriage stability and lastingness in the traditional Rwanda. It explores the conditions and factors of marriage stability and lastingness that could serve as a lesson to prevent the scourge the couples are currently witnessing including destruction of marriages. Six focus group discussions composed of Rwandan elders were conducted in Kigali City, in Southern and Western Provinces. In traditional Rwanda, marriage was not all about the newly married couple. The two families would instead get involved and play a crucial role in the whole process of forming the new household and in shaping the psychosocial life of the new spouses throughout their marital life. Spouses would have a psychosocial responsibility to sustain family ties established between their two families by striving not to break their marriage. Additionally, some situations would even prompt one of the spouses to "sacrifice" him/herself to the extent of accepting to live in conjugal trouble and stress in order to protect the wellbeing of their children. Because of these two reasons among others, the traditional Rwandan spouses would feel such an exceptional commitment to marriage life; and therefore, they would show mutual respect and patience to each other during their marital life. Such important values are inexistent today. Participants in this study sate that when patience between spouses was exercised, normal relationships would gradually develop. Overall, patience and perseverance were keys to marriage institution’s stability and longevity in traditional Rwanda, what is hard to observe in today's society. Spouses in contemporary Rwanda can learn a lot from the ones in ancient Rwanda
THE INCREASING OVERLAP OF JOURNALISM AND PUBLIC RELATIONS THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Get PDFJournalism is facing a new era, in which traditional rules and approaches are changing completely. The traditional distinction between journalism and Public Relations is getting more and more blurred. The purpose of this paper is to investigate why this distinction is getting blurred and what the threats and opportunities are. Through a narrative approach, the article analyses three of the main current examples of the overlap of journalism and PR: Social media Journalism, Brand Journalism and Blogging. For each one of these examples, the paper points out threats and opportunities. The main threat is that of getting click driven, feeding our audience with sensationalist news and stories. In this case journalism may abdicate its duty to be one of the pillars of public opinion. The fall out of this behavior is basically the loss of credibility. On the other hand, the main opportunity today is the possibility for journalism to get closer to its audience, bringing it more tailor-made news and stories. The take away of the article, is that this overlap between journalism and PR rises an issue about transparency
WHY DOES TRANSMISSION LICENSEE SHOULD HAVE BULK SUPPLY TRANSACTION ACCOUNT IN VERTICALLY INTEGRATED UTILITY IN MONOPOLISTIC ELECTRICITY MARKET OF SRI LANKA
Get PDFSri Lanka has monopolistic electricity market dominated by Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) in all three aspects of electricity i.e. Generation, transmission and distribution. The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) is the regulatory authority for the electricity sector. PUCSL has informed CEB for establishment of an effective and transparent mechanism to carry out Bulk Supply Transaction Account (BSTA) for implementation of a transparent Tariff Regime. However still CEB has not agreed to establish the BSTA. Since this is an issue where both parties are arguing advantages and disadvantages it was studied qualitatively to figure out the reasons and solution. Hence the objective of the study is to reason out the importance of BSTA and to identify the obstacles of establishing BSTA. We interviewed Director General PUCSL, Transmission Licensee and Distribution licensees of CEB, Lanka electricity Company officials, Donor Agencies and independent experts. It was revealed that the reasons highlighted by the advantages of having BSTA are improvement of efficiency, monitoring by the management on functions and sound financial situation of utility and the counter arguments made by Senior officials of CEB are at present CEB has separate accounting system for transactions, threat of unbundling, no legal provision to do it. However, under the existing legal framework there is no requirement to establish separate physical bank accounts for each licensee of CEB, considering the reasons explained by both parties it can be concluded that implementation of BSTA is important to improve the effective and transparent financial system in the CEB. But it is necessary to have clear legal provisions. However, BSTA is an integral part of tariff methodology. Hence it is necessary to have good tariff methodology for the sector to ensure the financial viability of the utilities
A VIRTUE-THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF OBJECTIVITY IN NEWS MEDIA
Get PDFJournalists are professionals and their primary obligations are owed to business managers in their respective media firms, members of the public and society in general. These primary obligations lead to certain considerations and other associated obligations. One of the most important associated obligations for journalists is considered to be objectivity. That is to say, journalists have an obligation to report the news objectively and the media coverage ought not to be slanted in favor of government or any public or private agency. Alongside, journalists themselves are expected to be objective to report the news in a neutral manner. In view of this, I examine a few virtue-theoretic implications of objectivity in news media to argue for the need for journalists to cultivate the virtues of objectivity and care to overcome conflicting views and opinions in news media to report the news impartially even while sharing a bond of attachment with the people in the world