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Entrepreneurs: Just taking care of business, the drug business
No full textThis chapter focuses on criminal entrepreneurs – some old and some new – who have increasingly been drawn to the illicit drug trade not only to satisfy demand (it is easy money), but also as a response to the political economy where their skill set is no longer valued and they either adapt or die. Throughout this chapter the data is used to argue that illicit drug dealing must be seen against the backdrop of economic austerity and a political economy of neoliberal consumer capitalism that prioritises and promotes individualism, entrepreneurialism, pervasive consumerism and compulsive (conspicuous) acquisition. Therefore, drug supply fulfilled a number of functions in these criminal entrepreneurs’ lives that largely revolved around finding viable and dignified employment. However, what was common across all of our respondents was their dedication to conspicuous consumption and buying ‘the nice things in life’. Drug dealing among this group was used to bankroll a luxurious and desirable lifestyle and buy the ‘ornamental trinkets that bestow existential significance and social distinction’
Chapter 14: Drug and Alcohol Addictions, Sexual Exploitation and Poverty
Get PDFThis chapter outlines how drug and alcohol addictions can lead to crime victimisation, crime offending, debt and poverty. The authors look at addictions from the medical and social model and the impacts of addictions upon people’s lives, including wider social harms that incorporate criminal activity. Drug and alcohol addictions are acknowledged in internationally recognised mental health diagnostic tools and as such, we will give attention to co-occurring conditions where people are using drugs and/or alcohol and are experiencing mental health challenges. This chapter explores the interface between addictions, sexual exploitation, and poverty, with a focus on the harms experienced by being addicted to alcohol and drugs. A gendered lens will be applied to appreciate the additional challenges and inequalities faced by women with addictions and the additional stigmatisation experienced from being perceived as a multiple deviant. Legislation typically relates to manufacturing, possession and supply of drugs and alcohol and more recently in the UK there has been a focus on ‘county-lines’, this in essence relates to the drug trafficking routes and associated mobile phone communication connections internally within the country (across county lines). Whilst this chapter does not focus on county lines, it does consider how the most vulnerable in society are targets for county-lines and stigmatised through current and historic drugs policy. We advocate for a holistic and trauma informed approach to addressing addictions in the UK and that policy be revisited to be more gender informed
Difficult Death, Dying and the Dead in Media and Culture
No full textThis book responds to a growing interest in death, dying and the dead within and beyond the field of death studies. The collection defines an understanding of ‘difficult death’ and examines the differences between death, dying and the dead, as well as exploring the ethical challenges of researching death in mediated form. The collection is attendant to the ways in which difficult deaths are imbricated in power structures both before and after they become mediatised in culture. As such, the work navigates the many political and social complexities and inequalities – what might be deemed the difficulties – of death, dying and the dead. The book seeks to expand understandings of the difficulty of death in media and culture through a wide range of chapters from different contexts focused on literature, film, television, and in online environments, as well as several chapters examining news reportage of difficult deaths
Application of Artificial Intelligence in Ambient Assisted Living to Support Elderly People in Smart Homes
No full textThis chapter begins with a grounding in the principles underlying the Ambient Intelligence (AmI) paradigms providing healthcare services to older residents who are living in their homes or in supported housing. This study will explore the complexity of diagnosis and prognosis in healthcare where multiple vital sign parameters are obtained from the patients using smart sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Moreover, Ubiquitous/Pervasive computing, wearable technologies, context-awareness and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are investigated to highlight the importance and contribution of these paradigms and disciplines to the intelligence, ubiquitous and adaptivity of the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environment. Later in this chapter, the current application of AAL health monitoring will be discussed followed by a discussion on research gaps
“On a scale of 1–5, what floor are you on?” Practising methodologies of fun and play with transformative communities: History, Paratexts, and Games
Get PDFThis chapter examines how playfulness emerges at science fiction and gaming con-ventions. It argues that attendees and organisers use playful techniques to avoidboredom, provide emergent solutions and overcome difficult situations. This is pos-sible because these people come from a position of experience which incorporatesan awareness of playful activities and direct experience of games and gaming cul-tures. They not only know how to game situations when they become difficult orchallenging but see playfulness as an everyday activity. In doing so, organisers cu-rate an event that feeds into a wider experiential narrative of experiences andforms a wider paratext of experience. In addition, these events are facilitated by ashifting pool of volunteers who are attendees themselves. Their paratextual experi-ence of these people (“conrunners”), of organisational practices, as well as theirjoint role as participants who want to enjoy the event, provides a background expe-rience that allows them to playfully rework solutions.Švelch writes that paratextscan be seen as transcendent artefacts which move beyond previous textual/mediafocussed readings.1The chapter case studies the Dublin 2019 Worldcon as a place inwhich several problems were diffused by playful behaviour and discusses ways inwhich this can be theorised. These behaviours do not reach the formalised extentor lasting impact of Gamification, but instead rely on an ethos and appreciation ofplayfulness which often disperses without lasting consequence when the event con-cludes. These practices have further implications for organisational fun and playacross a wider textual network
Mapping the service recovery research landscape: A bibliometric‐based systematic review
Get PDFWith businesses under increasing pressure to provide excellent customer service, postfailure recovery strategies have become critical for long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty. The domain of service recovery has extensively been examined in academia; however, systematic studies that provide a consolidated overview remains scant. To this end, we provide a systematic review and synthesis of service recovery literature by conducting a bibliometric-based cocitation analysis of 24,741 cited references from 1020 articles from across disciplines. The study identifies 10 major research clusters that represent different research streams of service recovery and explores their intellectual foundations. In addition, the research presents a conceptual framework to serve as a parsimonious guide for both practitioners and researchers. Furthermore, the study reveals a number of gaps in the existing literature and suggests promising directions for further investigation, including but not limited to: expanding methodological horizons in service recovery research, understanding service recovery mechanisms in Metaverse and synthetic environments, globalizing service recovery research, revitalizing service recovery processes in the age of artificial intelligence and robotics, investigating service recovery as an investment, and exploring service recovery in shared economies. Notably, this study serves managers, firstly, by providing them with a parsimonious structure of service recovery field that could help identify areas of improvement in their own service recovery systems and, secondly, by highlighting areas where academic knowledge base could inform industry solutions. © 2023 The Authors. Psychology & Marketing published by Wiley Periodicals LLC
Raising Voices: Sharing Stories Through Lived Experience
Get PDFThis chapter will explore the story of the Stoke-on-Trent-based Raising Voices, Changing Minds, Ending Poverty project, and its steering group, which combined community lived and learnt experiences with creativity, empowering others to share stories and experiences of poverty and hardship. This chapter has been written in collaboration with The Raising Voices Steering Group. The chapter will outline the importance of co-creation and creative choice in project design and output
Policing Distracted Driving Contemporary Challenges in Roads Policing
No full textUses distracted driving as a case study to critically examines the nuanced complexities of roads policing
Draws on empirical data about mobile phone use, as well as sociological, criminological and psychological theories
Makes practical recommendations informed by the application of a range of contemporary, theoretical lense
Holistic Recognition: The Path To Satisfaction An Interpretive Descriptive Study Of Student Nurses’ Experiences Of The Clinical Learning Environment
Get PDFStudent nurses in England spend half of their pre-registration undergraduate programme undertaking practical placements outside the university setting. Their satisfaction with these placements is essential for retention, both on the programme and within the nursing profession. Therefore, there is a need to understand the experience from the perception of student nurses and to consider how satisfaction with the experience might be improved.
This interpretive descriptive study explored the practice placement experiences of first-year and third-year student nurses undertaking a three-year pre-registration BSc (Hons) Nursing (Adult) programme focusing on their satisfaction, expectations, and learning. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight student nurses from a higher education institution (HEI) in the North-East of England. Following a reflexive thematic analysis process, three themes were developed centred around the concept of 'holistic recognition': 'feeling seen,' 'feeling valued', and 'navigating the journey' to becoming a Registered Nurse (RN). These themes highlight the diverse needs of student nurses beyond the skills and knowledge competencies traditionally emphasised in practice placements.
This research study makes several recommendations to enhance student nurse satisfaction with their practice placements. Collaboration between HEIs and practice partners is crucial, enabling an individualised framework that considers each student's needs. Placements should be student-focused, accommodating their external commitments, providing advance off-duty planning, and recognising the importance of pre-placement contact. Additionally, placement allocations should consider location relative to students' home addresses and transportation costs. Furthermore, reducing anxiety through minimising placement area changes and balancing academic demands is essential. Making learning opportunities and the hidden curriculum of professional identity and socialisation explicit and revising terminology to avoid inaccurate perceptions are also recommended. Overall, this research makes a unique contribution to understanding and improving the practice placement experiences of student nurses, providing valuable insights for clinical teams, nurse academics, and university staff supporting student nurses
Software Positioning Tool to Support SMEs in Adoption of Big Data Analytics using a Case Study Application
Get PDFBig Data Analytics is widely adopted by large companies but to a lesser extent by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs comprise 99% of all businesses in the UK (6 million), employ 61% of the country’s workforce and generate over half of the turnover of the UK’s private sector (£2.1trillion). SMEs represent 99% of all businesses in Europe and 90% worldwide. Therefore, assisting them to gain competitive advantage by the adoption of technology, such as Big Data Analytics is an important business initiative. The aim of this paper is to outline the process in which a positioning tool based on theoretical frameworks has been developed to help SMEs analyse their readiness to adopt Big Data Analytics using a case study. Previous work has identified 21 barriers to adoption and a methodology based on theoretical frameworks was developed to produce a positioning tool Holistic Big Data Analytics Framework for UK SMEs(HBDAF-UKSMEs).The paper outlines a case study based on a software development company to utilise this HBDAF-UKSMEs framework to assess the readiness using the proposed scoring tool for the adoption of Big Data Analytics based on three stages: pre-data analytics, business intelligence and Big Data Analytics
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