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Hybrid christian youth ministry: a study of closed-group social media
Get PDFThe youth ministry field has been slow to respond to the rise of social media use among young people, due to concerns that are both practical and theological. Scholars have studied the use of digital forms in Christian ministry and have often formed opposing dystopian/utopian views. Now, the impact of the pandemic has made this topic a major concern and increased experimentation.
There is little evidence of scholars examining the use of group messaging apps as a distinct form of closed-group social media. However, the Wave youth group have been pioneering the adoption of social media into their youth ministry and practice since 2016. This thesis examines two cohorts from the Wave, the first using Facebook Messenger and the second on Instagram. A practical theology methodology is used to explore empirical data drawn from social media feeds and focus groups with youth leaders, relating them to the wider field of youth ministry.
Two areas are discussed: firstly, concerning community. As leaders accompany the group on social media, this enables improvisation and reflection with young people; ‘doing’ and ‘being’ together. It extends incarnational youth ministry, drawing attention to dynamics of absence and presence. Secondly, discipleship considers the strategic potential of social media and its ability to provide quick response to circumstances, as seen during the pandemic. Models to assess engagement identify levels of interaction which range from phatic communication through to expressions of Christian practices, raising expectations regarding discipleship.
This thesis draws out key learning from the Wave group leaders and argues for a hybrid ministry as a best of both worlds approach, enabling a flow of interactivity between real and virtual spaces. This is of profound significance with implications not just for the future of youth ministry but for the whole church
Digital twin as an aid for decision-making in the face of uncertainty
No full textYou have heard extensively about digital twins and how they can be applied in a range of domains and for a range of different purposes. Do you need help in understanding how digital twins can be used for decision making requirements of in the context of uncertainty? This introductory tutorial provides you with a detailed understanding of why digital twins are an important technology for exploring the unique phenomena of complex socio-cyber-economic ecosystems. The tutorial presents a critical analysis of the current state of the art and practice of digital twins in decision making and includes a focus on our actor based language called Enterprise Simulation Language (ESL). This language is an example of an infrastructure for developing these digital twins for complex systems decision making. The tutorial helps you understand how ESL and related technologies can be used effectively by presenting multiple examples of real-world problems
Inclusive or exclusive? Investigating how retail technology can reduce old consumers’ barriers to shopping
Get PDFThis paper investigates older consumers in-store shopping experiences and the barriers that they face. The aim is to understand how new retail technologies (e.g., interactive in-store displays, self-service tills, robots etc.) can help seniors access satisfying, autonomous retail experiences, helping them to achieve a sense of inclusion in physical retail settings. Drawing upon the social inclusion/exclusion theory and information overload theory, the research employs a qualitative approach based on an inductive design, including face-to-face semi structured interviews with 36 consumers aged 75+. The findings highlight (i) old consumers have scarce interactions with in-store technologies (adding knowledge to motivations literature), (ii) the need to develop new technologies to support these consumers, and (iii) the extent to which these technologies are excluding rather than including old consumers (adding knowledge to the drivers of the field of exclusion). Results provide guidelines for retailers to enhance the sense of inclusion for old consumers through a better usage of new technologies
Human rights law in Tunisia in the post-Arab Spring era
Get PDFTunisia was at the heart of the series of uprisings known as the Arab Spring, which resulted in the change of the regime. The people of Tunisia demanded political and social changes for a better economy, democracy, human rights, and equality. Since the uprising in 2011, the changes in law, society and politics have continued. The efforts towards change including public participation, the coalition between civil society organisations and political parties have amalgamated successfully as demonstrated by and recognised in the Constitution of 2014. The study of law and the society of Tunisia constitutes the core of this research aiming to explore why Tunisia is a beacon of hope in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and how it has implemented human rights successfully since 2011.
This is explored through the national legislation of Tunisia as well as investigating the role of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review mechanism (UPR). This research investigates the interwoven relationship between these three factors: social movement, civil societies, and the UPR and the outcomes of their cooperation in the law. This research proposes that the UPR mechanism and civil society organisations influenced the progress that Tunisia made in law and policy. The new Tunisian Constitution was developed between 2012 and 2014 with the recommendations of states considered by the Tunisian Parliament and the executive power. The 2014 Constitution included recommendations from states, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organisations suggested from the second cycle of the UPR in 2012. The positive changes in law have continued, with Tunisia welcoming more UPR recommendations, conducting reports and ratifying new voluntary international protocols. Tunisia is progressing, learning, and advancing democracy and its human rights law. However, it has not been without its challenges and whether it can be maintained, particularly in the current financial crisis and pandemic era, remains to be seen as these factors have already harshly influenced progress on the Tunisian nation
Is the Dayton Agreement a model for long-term peace? A problematic case of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Get PDFThe research focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina in the post-conflict scenario. More than twenty-five years on, a weak, politicized, corrupt and inept system of government is characteristic of the post-conflict period and it is a result of deepseated interests of nationalists, ethno-nationalists, sectarianism and different factions. Although nationalism played a major role in the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars and in particular in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, different authors point out at the international, economic and historical reasons as well. Manipulative ethnic and political leaders revive animosities among the peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina and these, magnified by the press, are permanent threat to Bosnian peace and great obstacle to its prosperity as an independent country. It appears that the nationalism has penetrated every aspect of the Bosnian political life and there is little desire to focus on working towards common interest and eliminating discrimination among its citizens. Unsustainable approach of the international community towards the conflict and post war period, prolonged fighting that was a direct consequence of this approach and insistence that the Bosnian leaders agree on the necessary constitutional reforms within the constraints of the Dayton Peace Agreement has proved mission impossible and improbable. A major way of resolving this type of problem in the post conflict societies is to perfect the peace treaties ending the conflict. It is important to end violence and humanitarian disaster swiftly but it is also necessary to negotiate treaties that promote fairness, justice and efficiency in a country’s legal and political system
A framework for strategic planning of data analytics in the educational sector
Get PDFThe field of big data and data analysis is not a new one. Big data systems have been investigated with respect to the volume of the data and how it is stored, the data velocity and how it is subject to change, variety of data to be analysed and data veracity referring to integrity and quality. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a significant range of data sources across their operations and increasingly invest in collecting, analysing and reporting on their data in order to improve their efficiency. Data analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) are two terms that are increasingly popular over the past few years in the relevant literature with emphasis on their impact in the education sector. There is a significant volume of literature discussing the benefits of data analytics in higher education and even more papers discussing specific case studies of institutions resorting on BI by deploying various data analytics practices.
Nevertheless, there is a lack of an integrated framework that supports HEIs in using learning analytics both at strategic and operational level. This research study was driven by the need to offer a point of reference for universities wishing to make good use of the plethora of data they can access. Increasingly institutions need to become ‘smart universities’ by supporting their decisions with findings from the analysis of their operations. The Business Intelligence strategies of many universities seems to focus mostly on identifying how to collect data but fail to address the most important issue that is how to analyse the data, what to do with the findings and how to create the means for a scalable use of learning analytics at institutional level.
The scope of this research is to investigate the different factors that affect the successful deployment of data analytics in educational contexts focusing both on strategic and operational aspects of academia. The research study attempts to identify those elements necessary for introducing data analytics practices across an institution. The main contribution of the research is a framework that models the data collection, analysis and visualisation in higher education. The specific contribution to the field comes in the form of generic guidelines for strategic planning of HEI data analytics projects, combined with specific guidelines for staff involved in the deployment of data analytics to support certain institutional operations.
The research is based on a mixed method approach that combines grounded theory in the form of extensive literature review, state-of-the-art investigation and case study analysis, as well as a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection.
The study commences with an extensive literature review that identifies the key factors affecting the use of learning analytics. Then the research collected more information from an analysis of a wide range of case studies showing how learning analytics are used across HEIs. The primary data collection concluded with a series of focus groups and interviews assessing the role of learning analytics in universities. Next, the research focused on a synthesis of guidelines for using learning analytics both at strategic and operational levels, leading to the production of generic and specific guidelines intended for different university stakeholders. The proposed framework was revised twice to create an integrated point of reference for HEIs that offers support across institutions in scalable and applicable way that can accommodate the varying needs met at different HEIs. The proposed framework was evaluated by the same participants in the earlier focus groups and interviews, providing a qualitative approach in evaluating the contributions made during this research study.
The research resulted in the creation of an integrated framework that offers HEIs a reference for setting up a learning analytics strategy, adapting institutional policies and revising operations across faculties and departments. The proposed C.A.V. framework consists of three phases including Collect, Analysis and Visualisation. The framework determines the key features of data sources and resulting dashboards but also a list of functions for the data collection, analysis and visualisation stages.
At strategic level, the C.A.V. framework enables institutions to assess their learning analytics maturity, determine the learning analytics stages that they are involved in, identify the different learning analytics themes and use a checklist as a reference point for their learning analytics deployment.
Finally, the framework ensures that institutional operations can become more effective by determining how learning analytics provide added value across different operations, while assessing the impact of learning analytics on stakeholders. The framework also supports the adoption of learning analytics processes, the planning of dashboard contents and identifying factors affecting the implementation of learning analytics
Exploring intelligent service migration in a highly mobile network
Get PDFMobile services allow services to be migrated or replicated closer to users as they move around. This is now regarded as a viable mechanism to provide good Quality of Service to users in highly mobile environments such as vehicular networks. The vehicular environment is rapidly becoming a significant part of the internet and this presents various challenges that must be addressed; this is due to continuous handovers as mobile devices change their point of attachment to these networks resulting in a loss of service. Therefore, this explains the need to build a framework for intelligent service migration. This thesis addresses these issues.
It starts by discussing the requirements for intelligent service migration. Then it investigates a low latency Quality of Service Aware Framework as well as an experimental transport protocol that would be favoured by vehicular networks.
Furthermore, two analytical models are developed using the Zero-Server Markov Chain technique which is a way of analysing scenarios when the server is not continuously available to serve. Using the Zero-Server Markov Chain, the first analytical model looks at lost service due to continuous handovers and the communication dynamics of vehicular networks, while the second model analyses how service migration affects service delivery in these networks. Formulas are developed to yield the average number of packets in the system, the response time, the probability of blocking and a new parameter called the probability of lost service. These formulas are then applied to the Middlesex VANET Testbed to look at reactive and proactive service migration. These techniques are then incorporated into a new Service Management Framework to provide sustainable Quality of Service and Quality of Experience to mobile users in vehicular networks. This thesis also shows that this new approach is better than current approaches as it addresses key issues in intelligent service migration in such environments, and hence can play a significant part in the development of Intelligent Transport Systems for Smart Cities
Digital currency price formation: a production cost perspective
Get PDFThe paper investigates the long-run relationship between bitcoin and its marginal cost between July 2010 and July 2022. We derive Bitcoin’s marginal cost of production from a model of Bitcoin mining grounded in the Bitcoin code, and show that its production cost is a function of only two variables, the electricity price and the mining hardware efficiency. We then estimate a time-varying vector error correction model, and also the cointegration between bitcoin’s price and Bitcoin network’s hash rate, a commonly used production cost proxy. Our results show that the time-varying cointegration between bitcoin’s price and its hash rate is permanently in disequilibrium, bar a short time interval between March 2017 and January 2018. Consequently, although bitcoin’s price and the hash rate are cointegrated, it is clear that the latter does not function as a stable long-run explanatory variable for bitcoin price dynamics. On the contrary, we found that bitcoin’s price and its marginal cost of production have been cointegrated since its inception, and that their time-varying long-run relationship always reverts towards equilibrium - and often to equilibrium- after long periods of divergence. These results contrast with most of the empirical literature that attempted to model the relationship between bitcoin and its fundamentals in a time-invariant framework, but are consistent with recent research showing a significant role for production cost in the determination of bitcoin’s price dynamics
Men who identify as sex addicts – an IPA study
Get PDFSex addiction is the subject of much debate, as it was considered and then refused as an entry in the DSM5. Despite being referred to by different nomenclature, the most accepted definition is that it is characterized by a persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual impulses or urges, resulting in repetitive sexual behaviour over an extended period, that causes marked distress or impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. Research in the field has been predominantly medical-model based, focusing on symptomatology and correlates. There are fewer qualitative studies on the experience of the sex addict. This qualitative study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore six self-identified sex addicts’ experiences of sex addiction. Participants were recruited through an open invitation to attendees of Sex Addicts Anonymous. Six participants came forward from different fellowships around the UK. Semi-structured interviews were carried out and analysis of the data revealed four major themes: Experience of the Self, Relational Dynamics, the Sex Addict and Addiction, and Recovery. The results were congruent with preexisting literature, however new light was shed on the developmental perspectives and relational styles related to sex addiction, as well as reasons for acting out. Implications to therapy include understanding and addressing early relational ruptures and insecure attachments, grandiose selfstatements, and enhancing intersubjectivity, not only focusing on symptom-management. The study also highlights the need for supervision, and researcher and therapist reflexivity. Future research should focus further on the role of early relational trauma, and on couple’s therapy for sex addiction