7564 research outputs found
Sort by
‘I’ve gone from one extreme to the other’: critical junctures in relationships with alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFBackground: With the United Kingdom experiencing a series of ‘lockdowns’ in 2020 and 2021 that disrupted leisure and socializing, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a 'critical juncture’ which has facilitated alterations to – and reflections on – drinking practices. Methods: Drawing on online semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted between the first and second UK lockdowns, we highlight three stages in the development and maintenance of UK drinking practices using critical junctures as a theoretical framework. Discussion: Firstly, we consider the antecedent conditions – such as dominant drinking cultures - that shape pre-pandemic drinking practices and form the backdrop against which changes to behaviors are made. Secondly, we explore the 'cleavage' or initial moment of disruption which gives rise to shifts in drinking practices and consider how this critical juncture stabilizes and is reproduced. Finally, we examine the possible ‘legacy’ of the critical juncture. Conclusions: The paper highlights implications for healthcare/policy including the importance of considering wider social context when seeking behavioral change. We also stress that alternative explanations - such as declining drinking rates and the growth of Temporary Abstinence Initiatives – must not be ignored when exploring people’s shifting drinking behaviors, even during periods of unprecedented social change
Leadership for sustainability in higher education amidst the COVID-19 crisis: exploring female educational leaders' strategies for transformation
No full textThrough assisted thematic content analyses of 40 female educational leaders' interviews, the chapter investigates the crisis management and leadership practices which foster sustainable development in higher education from their perspective. Drawing on diversity, gender, and upper echelon theories, the authors propose that the addition of unique female perspectives and leadership styles will afford gender-diverse senior leadership teams (SLTs) a leadership capability advantage over equally talented yet homogeneous male teams. This link between gender diversity and leadership capability is more pronounced in times of crisis such as the current pandemic. The study suggests that increasing female representation in SLTs may have a substantial and direct impact on overall leadership capabilities and elicit positive performance effects in times of crisis. Notably, and unique to this study, they show that feminine traits and inclusive leadership styles may be more efficacious in contemporary leadership contexts than generally believed
Nanoencapsulation of oregano essential oil using cellulose nanocrystals extracted from hazelnut shell to enhance shelf life of fruits: case study: pears
No full textThis study aimed to investigate the potential application of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) extracted from an agricultural waste for encapsulation of oregano essential oil (OEO) and subsequently their use for coating to improve the shelf life of pears as a model. By hydrolyzing hazelnut shell cellulose under the optimum conditions, high crystalline CNCs with a zeta potential of -67.8 ± 4.4 mV and a diameter of 157 ± 10 nm were produced. Different concentrations of OEO (10-50 % w/w) were incorporated into CNCs and characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM and TEM. OEO containing 50 % CNC with the highest EE and LC was selected for coating. Pears were coated with gluten containing 0.5, 1.5 and 2 % encapsulated OEO (EOEO) and pure OEO and stored for 28 days. Physicochemical, microbial and sensory properties of the pears were examined. Microbial analysis showed that EOEO2% was more effective in controlling microbial growth than controls and pure OEO, and a 1.09 Log reduction in bacterial count was recorded on day 28 of storage when compared to control. It was concluded that CNCs produced from an agricultural waste and loaded on an essential oil could be used to extend the shelf life of pear and potentially other fruits
Beyond compliance: an event history analysis of environmental stewardship
No full textThis study investigates what causes businesses to increase their environmental stewardship beyond the governmental standards. This “beyond compliance behavior” is examined by analyzing the influence of organizational slack and institutional pressures in the European paper and paperboard industry. Beyond compliance behavior is measured as the adoption of a sustainable forestry certificate issued by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The longitudinal (10-year period) dataset consists of adoption events per company, their business characteristics and historic socio-economic data per region in the respective European countries. Examination was done by means of an event history analysis using the program “R.” The results show differences between antecedents of compliance and beyond compliance behavior. The authors discuss the results in the light of institutional and stakeholder theories. Due to institutional shifts in environmental demands, adoption of an FSC certificate has become an off-the-shelf compliance answer to legitimacy issues disguised as a progressive environmental stewardship program
Mapping 26 years of climate change research in finance and accounting: a systematic scientometric analysis
No full textClimate change and climate finance continue to attract substantial research interest in several dimensions and categories through COVID-19 breakout and resulting disruptions were crucial. An in-depth scientometric analysis was undertaken to gain concise insights on evolution and publication trends of this multi-dimensional field. Corpus of 657 articles, extracted from Web of Science from 1995 to 2020, were used to identify networks of co-authorship, keywords, subject categories, institutions, and countries engaged in publishing on climate finance along with co-citation and cluster analysis. Networks and interactive visualizations created using CiteSpace revealed new research areas where climate finance may be beneficial along with potential directions of development for climate finance discipline. We identify carbon neutrality, accounting for sustainability, planetary boundaries framework, sustainable finance, managing climate risk for third pole, financial innovation and green finance, green swans, COVID pandemic and corporate law and governance in climate finance as emerging domains of climate finance research, seeking overwhelming research attention globally
The impact of Covid-19 on struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurs’ business strategy: the case of Bangladeshi curry houses in the United Kingdom
No full textPurpose:
This paper outlines ways in which struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurial service ventures and their owners might respond to unforeseen economic and social shocks. Interviews with owners of Bangladeshi Curry Houses in the United Kingdom - whom historically have lower performance rates compared to other ethnic minority businesses in the country - reveal that the entrepreneurs’ response strategies undertaken to survive and remain in the business despite the challenges faced from operating in a turbulence environment.
Design/methodology/approach:
The authors conducted depth phone interviews with owners of Bangladeshi Curry Houses in London during January and February of 2021. The Gioia methodology was applied to the interview scripts to identify which crisis themes exist.
Findings:
Despite no advanced educational training, Bangladeshi owners have applied all of the different crisis management techniques present in larger companies: retrenchment, persevering, innovation, and exit. Although the results show that government schemes aimed at helping small businesses have contributed significantly to their survival, concerns regarding the post-health crisis situation remain challenging and threatening for their growth and survivability.
Originality/value:
The results indicates that the ethnic minority owned SMEs are less likely to plan for the future operations; furthermore, they tend not to have formulated a strategy for dealing with an external shock hence affecting and threatening their performance and competitiveness in the marketplace
Performing museography: a practice-led research for art museums, conducted at MUVE, Fondazione dei Musei Civici di Venezia
Get PDFThis contribution explores the relationship between performance and art museum practice, through a creative practice-led approach, as part of a collaboration with MUVE, Fondazione dei Musei Civici in Venice. The focus here is on the exploration of performance opportunities embedded in the museography of the case study institutions, encompassing both artistic and curatorial considerations. Through a reflection on current challenges faced by such institutions and through speculative implementation of creative practice ideas, the argument here is that, as museums have re-opened their doors to the public in the aftermath of COVID-19, their performance activation may be crucial in reclaiming their role as physical contexts for cultural dialogue. Performance provides a useful lens to explore and re-imagine the experience of visitors, emphasizing their subjective positionality and their inter-relational connections with each other, with the collection and with the museographic configuration of the space
Collaboration in higher education: a new ecology of practice
Get PDFCollaboration in Higher Education focuses on the opportunities and challenges created by engaging in collaboration and partnership in higher education. As higher education institutions become ever more competitive to sustain their place in a global, neoliberal education market, students and staff are confronted with alienating practices. Such practices create an individualistic, audit and surveillance culture that is exacerbated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the wholesale 'pivot' to online teaching. In this atomised and competitive climate, this volume synthesises theoretical perspectives and current practice to present case study examples that advocate for a more inclusive, cooperative, collaborative, compassionate and empowering education, one that sees learning and teaching as a practice that enables personal, collective and societal growth. The human element of education is at the core of this book, focusing on what we can do and achieve together: students, academic staff, higher education institutions and relevant stakeholder
Foxed bodies
No full textFoxed bodies
2023
handsewn hemp and paper, metal, sound
As part of "Carolee Schneeman's Cats" group exhibition at Blindside, Melbourne, Australia (nov-dec 2023)
Foxed bodies explore the feral nature of our bodies, and in particular my body. A body that is becoming blotched and scared as it ages. Inspired by Carolee Schneemaan’s intimate and messy relationship to bodies, both human and nonhuman this work delves into this during an 8-week period of confinement to one room. Difficult surgery, long coming rendering me immobile, in metal – a body changing, scarring getting stuck, recovery from surgery still ongoing. Just outside, inches away, the fox and her cubs were calling, screaming and crying every night – their calls echoing the pain of the healing and scarring in real time. Our bodies slowly developing, the cubs growing up and moving on, whilst mine becomes mobile again
Risk managed cloud adoption: an ANP approach
Get PDFTo meet the ever-increasing demand for offering a sustainable environment, organizations are beginning to aim for cloud adoption and the migration of their IT infrastructure and operations to the cloud, utilizing various cloud-based technologies. However, cloud adoption has been impeded by the risk of being exposed as a result of a variety of concerns, including performance, security, and privacy concerns, as well as vulnerabilities and data portability. As a result, this study was carried out to investigate and analyse a variety of risks that come with cloud computing adoption by estimating the impact and frequency of these hazards. In this study, the Analytical Network Process (ANP) is used to prioritise these hazards. Prioritization of these risks based on their influence on cloud adoption may be useful for organizations in building a corrective action plan. According to their negative influence on cloud adoption, "business continuity and recovery planning" and "poor availability of services" are shown to be the most prominent hazards. This research also found that the two most common dangers encountered by cloud adopters in India are "poor availability of services" and "slow response rate"