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The art of policy-acting in branding management
No full textIn Samuel Kwok's research on luxury branding management, he utilized autoethnography, role theory, and the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine how luxury branding management functions in the China business environment. he discovered that brand authenticity plays a critical role in shaping brand policy, and brand managers collaborate with business partners to set their brands apart. Brand managers still wield significant influence despite the collaborative nature of brand policy because of globalisation and Internet technology. Through his research, he introduced the Role-based Narrative Policy framework with new propositions, offering fresh perspectives on luxury brand storytelling for academia and luxury branding management practitioners
Intersectionality and power: an autoethnographic exploration of a psychotherapist’s narratives of oppression and their impact on her sense of self
No full textThis is a critical, evocative and evolving autoethnography that explores the narratives of oppression that arise from my lived experience of multiple and intersecting marginalized socio-cultural and political positions. The study arose from a recognition during my training as a counselling psychologist of a personal need to explore how my felt sense of self-in-relationship, as a gendered, racialized and sexualized being, within my particular socio-cultural and political contexts, impacted who I was or could be, in the therapy room, both as a client and a psychological therapist. In particular, I was curious about how the stories I told about my socio-cultural and political identities influenced my experiences of power or powerlessness in my relationships to others and the worlds I live in.
The research became an enactment of the power processes I wished to explore, leading to prolonged periods of feeling stuck in the writing process which necessarily required an evolving methodological stance that could facilitate an enquiry into the stuckness – a process that led to painful but ultimately healing revelations about the silencing processes and internalized oppression that both inhibit and constitute my subjectivity. A recognition of the somatic dimensions and the repressed, or implicit non-verbal memories of the conscious stories I tell and don’t tell others and the emerging stories I tell myself, outside of conscious awareness, come to support the position that foundational trauma also needs to be considered as arising from political locations rather than solely from the familial locations of a dominant Western, Eurocentric and Androcentric psychoanalytic imagination.
This research may be seen as a contribution to the growing multi-cultural movement in Western societies which is reshaping theory and practice in counselling psychology and psychotherapy. It is an account of the lived experience of multiple dimensions of oppression on one person’s sense of self.
It also tells the story of how someone’s personal narratives about identity can keep them stuck or liberated within the power structures and discursive practices that shape the particular intersecting cultures they inhabit. By sharing my vulnerabilities, my hope is that the research will provide the reader with a lens through which they can reflect on their own narratives and the cultures they inhabit
What's your poison? The global regulation of the trade in hazardous chemicals
No full textThe global regulation of hazardous chemicals trading is based on the Rotterdam Convention and Prior Informed Consent (PIC), allowing the legal export of toxic substances so long as the importer is aware of what they receive. PIC represents a compromise between competing stakeholders. Chemical exporters are satisfied that their products are not being banned, whilst proponents of action to address the problem of human poisoning by toxic chemicals, from civil society and the UN system, are satisfied by greater transparency. However, this consensus has come to be strained by PIC being viewed as a ban rather than just an information exchange requirement, making chemical exporters less acquiescent. It appears that the apparent hardening of law can sometimes serve to undermine regulation. At the same time, though, the sheer existence of the Rotterdam Convention continues to influence the issue of hazardous chemical trading, showing the importance of normative force in governance
The state of the nation in wartime: R.C. Sherriff's three openings for Mrs Miniver
No full textNoel Coward’s 1931 play Cavalcade and its Oscar-winning 1933 film version, directed in the US by Frank Lloyd, are among the most influential texts in the British version of the state of the nation drama, in the theatre, on film, and latterly in television. This is particularly the case in terms of its structure, showing well-chosen events in recent British history through the lives of a specific family. This has remained a structure that British writers have used, in plays as different as Chicken Soup with Barley by Arnold Wesker (1956), Our Friends in the North by Peter Flannery (1982) and Rock ’n’ Roll by Tom Stoppard (2006), as well as in television series like Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1975, 2010-2012), Downton Abbey (2010-2015, with films in 2019 and 2022), and the 1996 BBC version of Flannery’s play.
In the cinema, the Cavalcade structure became a common template for Hollywood ‘British’ films, especially those made just before and during World War Two, when an emphasis on continuity was important. In the case of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Sam Wood, US, 1939), the structure was already embedded in the original novel; its author James Hilton even uses many of Coward’s specific historical events (both Coward’s play and Hilton’s novel feature a character sailing on the Titanic). In Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, US, 1942) and Forever and a Day (Rene Clair/Edmund Goulding/Cedric Hardwicke/Frank
Lloyd/Victor Saville/Robert Stevenson/Herbert Wilcox, US, 1943), both explicitly made as wartime propaganda, the structure is part of the films’ message, emphasizing continuity in a turbulent world.
It’s not a coincidence that the British playwright R.C. Sherriff worked on all three of the last films mentioned: his Hollywood work was almost all on films either set in Britain or based on British literary properties, and his work, going back to his breakthrough play Journey’s End (1928) and forward to his last major success, The Dam Busters (Michael Anderson, UK, 1955) frequently returns to the subject of national identity. The R.C. Sherriff archive in Surrey History Centre holds several drafts of many of his screenplays, including three substantially different versions of the opening for Mrs. Miniver.
My paper would examine these three pieces, looking at the differences between them, what this tells us about Sherriff’s attitude to Britishness, and how this is shown onscreen
Two speculative poems: 'Unwind' and 'Surface Tension'
No full text'Unwind' and 'Surface Tension' are speculative poems (sci-fi) by A J Dalton that appeared in the Winter 2024 (47.1) issue of Star*Line journal, the leading title of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). The poem 'Digital Desire' by A J Dalton appeared in a previous issue
Building engagement for post-pandemic survival and growth in an SME
Get PDFThis Action Research (AR) project aimed to develop, implement, and demonstrate a system of two-way communication, linking to company aims and individual performance, that would increase employee engagement in a family-owned SME, leading to increased productivity and professionalism. From a research perspective the objective was to corroborate existing theories relating to engagement and related leadership approaches and integrate these into a combined theory for business growth, along with developing new hypotheses evolving from the Action Research. This objective became even more significant given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. An additional objective was to understand the extent to which top-down management versus bottom-up was appropriate, or required, to drive change during challenging times.
The triple impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and Ukraine/Russia conflict during the period of this project strengthened the need for a robust, but time-efficient, process to engage with employees, as a counterpoint to the personal and business pressures that a smaller team, dealing with more challenging business situations, faced.
This research has shown that well-structured conversations can enhance engagement and productivity (in the sense of doing the right things). It has also demonstrated that a balanced approach between top-down (to establish the process and give some guidance) and bottom-up (to shape tasks and identify improvement), with the balance modified to suit each case, works well in this family SME environment.
Two new findings have emerged from this work:
1. Even positive employee relations and regular two-way communication can miss the factors needed to ensure that engagement is engendered. This leads to the concept of engagement-focused communication, a “third level” of communication beyond task-based or social interactions.
2. Employees can be engaged, or believe themselves to be engaged, but not in a way that translates to useful outcomes. This leads to the concept of well-directed engagement.
In practical terms, these concepts have led to the development through this AR project of two approaches to address them:
1. Engagement-focused communication – this entails a short list of 10 topics, broadly in line with Saks’ (2006) antecedents of engagement, to which employees assign a score/ranking. This breaks down the “how are things?” question into bite-sized chunks, with associated discussion points, and then forms the basis of a conversation where the sole purpose is for the manager to understand, and where possible alleviate, any concerns.
2. Well-directed engagement – this involves employees developing, through further two-way discussion, what outcomes from their job are important, aligning them with the company aims, deciding what inputs they should be making to achieve these and identifying what gets in the way
Blockchain in e-learning platform to enhance trustworthy and sharing of micro-credentials
Get PDFBlockchain is a disruptive technology and interest in its adoption is growing across many market sectors in Industry 4.0. However, the blockchain adoption is limited by the difficulty in managing private keys and wallets to interact therein. This paper describes the integration of a consortium blockchain within e-learning platforms. The adoption of blockchain in the e-learning platform maximises the reliability, verifiability and sharing of micro-credentials. The proposed solution aims at eliminating the difficulties of managing keys and wallets. The enhancement in the reliability of micro-credentials is particularly important in learning environments and in companies that want a guarantee of effective training of employees. The present article, in line with the European privacy framework, exploits the potential of blockchain without compromising user data protection
Film-Philosophy, volume 28 issue 3: Catherine Malabou, plasticity and film
No full textThis Special Issue of Film-Philosophy explores connections between the work of Catherine Malabou and the field of Film Studies
Psychedelic intimacy: altered states of consciousness in romantic relationships
Get PDFObjective: Engaging in practices of intimacy meant to develop and sustain intimacy can be beneficial for couples. Psychoactive substances such as 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) have shown to facilitate bonding within couples and it is hypothesised that classic psychedelics, due to their property to increase prosocial behaviours, can similarly promote interactional intimacy. This study explores shared experiences of altered states of consciousness within romantic couples and their impact on intimacy in relationships.
Participants: Twelve participants (six couples) between 19 and 29 years of age who had used psychedelics with their current partner were recruited.
Method: Qualitative data was gathered via simultaneous interviews with both members of a couple. The semi-structured interviews featured an in-depth exploration of multiple shared psychedelic experiences. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to analyse the resulting transcripts.
Results: Three themes with subsequent subthemes were identified, portraying couples’ experiences during psychedelic-induced altered states of consciousness: navigating anxiety (subthemes: novelty, preparation, shifting environment, and calming presence), reshaping practices (subthemes: excessive worrying, spirited discussions, and straight talking), and encountering bliss (subthemes: meeting the unexpected, the beauty around us, leaving the everyday behind, and breaking through).
Conclusions: Couples’ experiences with classic psychedelics align with criteria for interactional intimacy (i.e., self-exposure, positive involvement, and shared understanding), but their distinct nature warrants a novel definition of psychedelic intimacy. The unique pair bonding during shared psychedelic experiences could be utilized by psychedelic-assisted couples therapy