4095 research outputs found
Sort by
A gaze at the galleries: spectators at championship golf events in Kent 1892–1938
Get PDFStudies on spectatorship, are acknowledged to be difficult and consequently more scholarship on the subject generally, and on golf galleries specifically, is required. This article examines aspects of spectatorship in golf tourism and the visitor experience at The Open Championships and other major golfing events held in Kent during the end of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. Explicitly, it aims to discover who attended these events, charting the scale, composition, experiences, behaviours and instances of patriotic pride and passion displayed by the crowds. Finally, it will reveal how some elements in the Scottish press initially interpreted this in relation to Scotland’s historic ownership of golf in general and The Open in particular. The paper recognises how events attracted significant if contested, numbers of passive golf tourists. It confirms that the galleries fully engaged with the players, enthusiastically cheering on their local favourites and international superstars alike. Furthermore, the conduct of the Kent crowd was deemed, by the press, to be superior to those attending the other Open venues. A further theme was the defensive national and regional pride or snobbery that was associated with hosting The Open Championship, particularly before World War One
‘A significant positive impact’: Delivering the End Point Assessment for the Social Work Degree Apprenticeship
Get PDFSocial Work Degree Apprenticeships were launched in England as a new pathway to professional qualification in 2019, offering an alternative to the established Undergraduate and Post graduate social work training routes. The first cohorts of apprentices have now completed their End Point Assessment (EPA) but with assessment formats having been disputed from the inception of the English Degree, the pressure on those institutions and staff delivering the EPA remains considerable, particularly with changes already planned. Apprentices who experienced this process for the first time may also have faced greater uncertainty, than peers on more traditional qualifying programmes.
The UoC was one of the first English universities to offer the Social Work Degree Apprenticeship and accordingly is one of the first to complete the EPA. This article, authored by the Lead Assessor and the Employer Relationships Manager for the Social Work Degree Apprenticeship describes the process of delivery in depth, as well as discussing lessons learned and areas for development. A review has found no existing literature on the EPA and this article is thereby intended as a contribution to this gap, as well as providing an opportunity to share lessons from the experience with those who may be delivering the EPA in the future
Class matters - Children's perceptions of sports coaching
Get PDFThe aim of the study was to acquire an insight into the experiences of 84 children from two schools in the United Kingdom who were asked to describe their interpretation of ‘excellent sports coaching’. Using visual and narrative research methods it was found that the influence of social class was significant. Children from higher socioeconomic groups described excellent sports coaching as a structured and adult‐led process, whereas children from lower socioeconomic classes described it as being more play‐like and self‐determined. Reasons for this difference are explained through the contrasting attitudes to sport and physical activity present amongst different social classes
Georges Bataille, critical essays: Volume 1: 1944–1948
No full textThis is the first of three volumes collecting Bataille’s post-war essays. Beginning with an article on Nietzsche and fascism written shortly after the liberation of Paris and running to the end of 1948, these texts make available for the first time in English the systematic diversity of Bataille’s post-war thought
The contribution of a complex systems-based approach to progressive social resilience
Get PDFThe use of resilience in social practice has evolved from a theoretical framework at the intersection between individuals and their social ecology. Critics argue this theory still results in policies and practices that are too individualised, with the potential for negative social consequences. This paper further critiques contemporary understanding of resilience theory and its application. It juxtaposes complex systems theory with a social inequalities oriented resilience practice. This provides a paradoxical approach. It is acknowledged that state and public policy decisions and actions can be anti-resilient, undermining community and social resilience that already exists in the form of social relationships, self-organisation and co-production. Nevertheless, collective social resilience also illustrates the potential of local and service user organisations to contribute to an overall transformational change process
Self-regulation, stress appraisal, and esport action performance
Get PDFElectronic sport has seen substantial growth in market value and popularity in the last 10 years. With this growth has come the pursuit of elite esports performance, especially from a psychological perspective. This study aimed to investigate potential variations in self-regulation levels among athletes of different levels (national vs. student), compare the self-regulation profiles of CS:GO players in the current study to an international sample of e’athletes and to assess the predictive capacity of self-regulation on performance outcomes. A total of 53 esports athletes (student competitors, n = 27 and national-level CS:GO competitors, n = 26), participated in an experiment exploring self-regulation, DRES, and action performance. Furthermore, analysis comparing our collective findings against a larger global sample of e’athletes (n = 993) was conducted. Results demonstrated that CS:GO players who displayed higher levels of self-regulation tended to perceive stressful situations as challenges, consequently showcasing superior accuracy and time trial performance. In contrast, individuals with lower self-regulation tended to perceive such situations as threats, which correlated with less favorable performance outcomes. On a broader scale, the study observed that CS:GO competitors generally exhibited lower levels of self-regulation when compared to the larger global sample. Furthermore, self-regulation was identified as a mediating variable in the relationship between stress appraisal and performance, suggesting that improved self-regulation skills can lead to enhanced accuracy and quicker time trial performance. This may imply that competitors with greater self-regulatory abilities perceive themselves as having more personal resources, enabling them to effectively assess challenging situations and employ problem-focused coping strategies. Overall, this research underscores the significance of self-regulation in optimizing esports performance, while providing valuable insights for player development, action performance, and overall outcomes in the field
Cognitive, psychophysiological, and perceptual responses to a repeated military-specific load carriage treadmill simulation
Get PDFBackground: Dismounted military operations require soldiers to complete cognitive tasks whilst undertaking demanding and repeated physical taskings.
Objective: To assess the effects of repeated fast load carriage bouts on cognitive performance, perceptual responses, and psychophysiological markers.
Methods: Twelve civilian males (age, 28 ± 8 y; stature, 186 ± 6 cm; body mass 84.3 ± 11.1 kg; V̇O2max, 51.5 ± 6.4 mL·kg-1·min-1) completed three ~65-minute bouts of a Fast Load Carriage Protocol (FLCP), each interspersed with a 65-minute recovery period, carrying a representative combat load of 25 kg. During each FLCP, cognitive function was assessed using a Shoot-/Don’t-Shoot Task (SDST) and a Military-Specific Auditory N-Back Task (MSANT), along with subjective ratings. Additional psychophysiological markers (heart rate variability, salivary cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate concentrations) were also measured.
Results: A main effect of bout on MSANT combined score metric (p<0.001, Kendall’s W=69.084) and for time on the accuracy-speed trade-off parameter of the SDST (p=0.025, Ѡ2=0.024) was evident. These likely changes in cognitive performance were coupled with subjective data indicating that participants perceived that they increased their mental effort to maintain cognitive performance (bout: p<0.001, Ѡ2=0.045; time: p<0.001, Ѡ2=0.232). Changes in HRV and salivary markers were also evident, likely tracking increased stress.
Conclusion: Despite the increase in physiological and psychological stress, cognitive performance was largely maintained; purportedly a result of increased mental effort.
Application: Given the likely increase in dual-task interference in the field environment compared with the laboratory, military commanders should seek approaches to manage cognitive load where possible, to maintain soldier performance
Conversation with my Classmates: displacement, war, and survival
No full textSerbia is a country with a long tradition of emigration. The increase in the number of displaced people sharply rose in 1992 when all the diplomatic options to preserve Yugoslavia had failed. The ensuing ethnic conflict resulted in mass mobilization by young adults who were required to go to war, mainly against their will. The main purpose of the paper is twofold: to draw attention to the key challenges that displacement plays on individuals and to show how traumatic events, such as the war in Ukraine, can mobilize historical traumas. To elicit deeper and new understandings of how displacement impacts people, conversations with my elementary school classmates of Hungarian ethnic origin, including those who were serving the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) between 1991 and 1992, were analysed through the lens of the author’s autoethnographic positioning. It shows how life stories are co-produced through narrative inquiry and, by ‘co-reflecting’ on the past, it shows how they are simultaneously positioned within social categories of intersectionality, such as gender, social inequality, stayed and displaced. These reflections offer a broader understanding of how qualitative research can enrich existing knowledge of the effect of this specific conflict, and ethnic conflict in general
John and William Mahon, the earliest British clarinet soloists
Get PDFOver the course of a playing career that spanned roughly fifty years, John Mahon (pronounced M’hone) introduced and popularized the clarinet as a solo and chamber instrument throughout Britain. He performed extensively in London and in many provincial towns. This article presents biographies of John and William Mahon, illustrations of contemporary clarinets and a basset horn, Mahon as a teacher, his music, and his influence and legacy. William Mahon’s concerts and reviews and a conclusion end the articl