Ambivalent Perspective Research Articles

Give or take? Consumers' ambivalent perspectives on the relationship between a firm's corporate social responsibility engagement and its responsible tax payments

AbstractThe present study examines the mechanisms of the halo effect and the scepticism effect as alternative explanations for the association between a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and consumers' perceptions of its tax behaviour. The authors conduct two experimental studies to examine the impact of a company's CSR domain on consumers' perceptions of its tax practices (Study 1) and the impact of a company's CSR engagement and tax practices on consumers' evaluations of that company (Study 2). It was found that consumers' perceptions of a firm's tax practices critically depend on CSR domains. Specifically, when inferring tax perceptions from CSR engagement, consumers factor in their perceptions of the greater direct reputational benefits that firms derive from external CSR engagement (environmental and philanthropic CSR) compared with those they derive from internal CSR engagement (activities focused on intraorganisational stakeholders). Suggestions for managerial implications and future research are also discussed.

Ambivalence, families and care

Although research shows that most parents and adult children report generally positive and supportive ties, there is also evidence that negative interactions and emotions are common in intergenerational relationships. To investigate this complexity, researchers have moved beyond simple models to orientations and approaches that recognise contradictory emotions and attitudes regarding family relationships in later life. These efforts have given rise to what has come to be termed the ‘intergenerational ambivalence’ perspective. In this article, we explore the applicability of this perspective to the issue of family caring. We begin by reviewing recent developments in the intergenerational ambivalence perspective. We then discuss a paradox: although caring appears to be a situation particularly prone to conflicting emotions, little research has focused specifically on ambivalence among carers. We present results from our work that shed light on the measurement of carer ambivalence, as well as substantive findings regarding sources of ambivalence for carers.

"Some Ovid of the Films": W. B. Yeats, Mass Media, and the Future of Poetry in the 1930s

This essay addresses Yeats’s negotiation of poetry’s relationship, during the 1930s, with the emerging mass culture. Rather than contextualizing Yeats’s view on the future with a traditional critical framework such as Romantic apocalyptical discourse, a closeness to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and dystopian novels is explored. The main focus is on an unfinished draft for A Vision, “Michael Robartes Foretells,” and the way it envisages the changing situation for literature at the end of an epoch. Yeats’s use of classical parallels and linking of poetry and cinema are given special attention. His suggestion that the poetry of the future may be affected by the emergent medium of cinema provides an ambivalent perspective, not simply suggesting the degeneration of poetry in a context of Americanized mass culture but also possibilities of metamorphosis and spirituality. The interpretation of “Michael Robartes Foretells” is framed by other examples of Yeats’s engagement with mass media in the 1930s, in the form of Virginia Woolf’s diary report of table talk and Yeats’s radio broadcasts. All in all, Yeats’s view on poetry’s position balances between a conservative fear of marginalization and a more hopeful view of its potential to reinvent itself in a new historical context.

‘An elephant cannot fail to carry its own ivory’: Transgenerational ambivalence, infrastructure and sibling support practices in urban Uganda

This article examines how urban Ugandans navigate family support systems through a focus on the under-researched area of sibling care practices. We conceptualise such systems as transgenerational infrastructure to capture the complex flows, negotiations and dilemmas of both inter- and intra-generational relationships, orderings and power, situating family support practices within their spatial, structural and social contexts. Drawing on grounded narratives of lived experience collected in Jinja, Uganda, the article offers an alternative interpretation to what is commonly portrayed as a weakening of family support systems in sub-Saharan Africa. We develop a transgenerational ambivalence perspective which allows for a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity and fluidity of family support as an ethical practice replete with complex emotions and dilemmas shaped in the junctures between social norms, agency, resources and material conditions. Through focusing on working-age Ugandans, we demonstrate the potential for a transgenerational ambivalence approach to make visible contradictions at structural and subjective levels and focus greater attention on the importance of sibling relationships and birth order than is evident in the existing intergenerational literature. This can help researchers in the task of linking family dynamics to the growing precarity and uncertainties of life in the marginal socio-economic contexts of urban sub-Saharan Africa.

‘At least it’s not a ghetto anymore’: Experiencing gentrification and ‘false choice urbanism’ in Rotterdam’s Afrikaanderwijk

Gentrification has become a central pillar of urban policy in cities around the world. Proponents often frame it as a necessity and the sole alternative to neighbourhood decline. Critics call this a ‘false choice’ as it ignores other possibilities for improvement without gentrification. But how do working-class residents who live through the process of gentrification view the impact it has on their neighbourhood? Do they see it in such a stark binary way? This article addresses these questions by using qualitative interviews with long-term residents of the Afrikaanderwijk, a multicultural neighbourhood in Rotterdam where municipally-led gentrification is taking place. In contrast to much of the Anglo-Saxon literature on experiencing gentrification, our respondents had far more mixed, complex and ambivalent perspectives on the process. To some extent, this was due to the neighbourhood’s recent history as a stigmatised ‘ghetto’ and the expectation that the arrival of white, ethnically Dutch middle-class people would help to improve the neighbourhood, which was ranked worst in the country in 2000. We also stress the role of local context, such as the early phase of gentrification and the comparatively strong social housing sector and tenant protection laws in the Netherlands, in contributing towards a more nuanced experience of gentrification.

Parent–child relationships among older immigrants from mainland China: a descriptive study using the solidarity, conflict, and ambivalence perspectives

ABSTRACT Older Chinese immigrants are one of the largest and fastest growing groups of older immigrants in many Western countries. This study examined their relationships with children using multiple dimensions drawn from the solidarity–conflict model and the ambivalence perspective. A convenience sample of 62 older Chinese immigrants was recruited and data were collected through standardized interviews. The majority of participants lived independently from their children and had at least weekly contact with them. Most were involved in some kind of intergenerational exchange with their children and had relatively high expectations about filial obligations. Despite half considering that their parent–child relationships were good, three-quarters reported conflict and ambivalence in these relationships, and half reported generational differences in values. The results highlight the complexity of parent–child relationships among older Chinese immigrants and suggest that although filial piety continues to influence parent–child relationships in this group, many changes have occurred in its practice.

‘The Fever of Vain Longing’: Emotions of War in Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III

This essay deals with Byron's visit to the field of Waterloo as described in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III. I will suggest that the Canto sees the transformation of the Byronic hero into the man of feeling. Byron re-configures this eighteenth-century character type in a way that his personal grief becomes inseparable from collective feeling and national concerns. The deployment of the man of feeling becomes for Byron a political statement: an aid for the articulation of his disappointment in post-Waterloo European politics and a longing for lost Revolutionary ideals. Through the analysis of the Canto's main organising tropes I will be arguing that Byron's ambivalent perspective on the outcome of Waterloo is the reason for the restless oscillation of conflicting forces in the poem. The essay will re-read Stanza 33's broken mirror simile in the context of eighteenth-century notions of sensibility and sympathy.

Cultura e ambivalenza

Starting from the perspective of ambivalence, as a different way of interpreting social interaction, I propose to use this dual category to analyze contemporary cultural processes. If we observe the phenomenology of the so-called “cultural field” within our globalized world, we must point out two connected trends: first, a changeable profile of second modernity culture, which appears always more hybrid, de-territorialized and hypertrophic (that is, with plural significance, territorial dis-embedding and unlimited imaginative creation); second, this change is related to a disjunction within social structure between the economic and political system, and the cultural system, as argued, in different way, by D. Bell and A. Appadurai. In this perspective, culture becomes typically ambivalent at a double level: with reference to the other subsystems (through a growing autonomy) and referring to the cultural field itself (through a flourishing of possible and personal meanings). We can, therefore, postulate a “weak culture” as a new dimension of contemporary cultural field, able to take in account multiculturalism as well as individualization.

The Good Wife’s (Geo)Politics Between Originality and Stereotypes: A New Wine or Just a New Bottle?

ABSTRACTIn the last 15 years, a new generation of TV series based on complex storytelling and frequently focused on politics has emerged. Critics and commentators have identified this as a new golden age for television, frequently emphasising the accuracy and originality of this generation of TV series, and highlighting its capacity to represent different aspects of our world in an effective and innovative manner. Peculiar and original characters in political TV series are also being recognised in academic studies; in particular, these programs have attracted diffused interest in cultural and political studies and more recently also in popular geopolitics. The aim of this article is to contribute to this debate by analysing the ambivalent geopolitical perspectives transmitted within these forms of contemporary media products. By focusing on the political and legal series The Good Wife, produced by CBS between 2009 and 2016, the paper shows how original and challenging representations of politics and society pair well with very traditional and stereotyped geopolitical representations. Consequently, the paper suggests that in many cases, the acclaimed originality in the form of TV series conceals old and stereotyped contents.

Evaluating app bundling strategy for selling mobile apps: an ambivalent perspective

PurposeMobile appstores have fast sprung up during the last few years. The large number of apps in these appstores results in increased search effort for the customer as well as fierce competition leading to poorer revenues for both appstores as well as developers. Therefore, appstores allow developers to resort to bundling apps so as to increase the revenues and improve customer loyalty. Since an app-bundle is a mix of two or more apps, it may induce both positive and negative emotions simultaneously in the consumer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of app-bundling strategy from consumers’ perspective, and help developers design app-bundles.Design/methodology/approachBased on ambivalence theories, this research investigate different antecedents and influence of positive attitude and negative attitude on purchase behavior, and derives seven key app-bundles attributes through an exploratory study. The data were collected from 930 consumers of app-bundles in China and analyzed using SEM approach.FindingsThe findings indicate that positive attitude and negative attitude are two separate concepts and the identified seven app-bundling attributes have distinct effect on shaping consumers’ positive and negative attitude.Originality/valueThis study makes three key contributions to theory and practice. First, this study identifies the specific attributes of app-bundles using exploratory study. Second, this study addresses the challenges involved in examining bundles using ambivalence theory. In doing so, it characterizes attitude as positive and negative and treats them as separate constructs. Third, as called forth by previous studies, this study establishes the co-existence of positive attitude and negative attitude.

Social computing for internet addiction disorder analysis from a psychological perspective

This study adopts needs theory and affective ambivalence to explore how people obtain psychological satisfaction through internet usage, and to explore how such usage behaviour can lead to the development of a sense of dependence. Few previous studies have incorporated these four perspectives. Data mining techniques are used to identify association rules between needs theory, affective ambivalence, internet use behaviour and internet addiction. This study distributed paper-based and electronic questionnaires, receiving a total of 502 valid responses for a valid response rate of about 88%. From the affective ambivalence perspective, we found that emotional state varies with behaviour and age, leading to different patterns of personal expression and creativity. In addition, empirical results show our findings are consistent with Maslow's hierarchy of needs in that people only seek to address their higher-order needs once their lower-order needs are satisfied. Thus, once internet users have satisfied their needs for security, their attention then turns to demands for social interaction and self-esteem.

Conceptualizing Backlash: (UK) Men's Rights Groups, Anti-Feminism, and Postfeminism

Conceptualizing “backlash” and “postfeminism” is important to understanding the gender politics of men's movements and men's rights groups. Drawing on the work of relevant (feminist) scholars, I argue for a particular understanding of both backlash and postfeminism and map out a typology intended to help situate different men's movements. The typology distinguishes between backlash, postfeminism, and feminism in terms of the different empirical claims and value judgments relevant to each perspective. Backlash is based on the claim that society disadvantages men rather than women. Gender is seen as political and as requiring a collective, anti-feminist politics. Postfeminism is a fundamentally ambivalent perspective that assumes that gender equality has already been (mostly) achieved. Some feminist ideas are taken for granted, while feminism itself is cast as anachronistic. Gender is depoliticized and feminism becomes an individual lifestyle choice. Finally, feminism, like backlash, assumes that significant gender inequalities exist in contemporary society but sees women as the disadvantaged group. Here, gender is politicized, and gendered inequalities necessitate a collective feminist politics. To illustrate the different perspectives articulated by men's rights groups, I discuss UK fathers' rights group (Real) Fathers 4 Justice, arguing that they alternate between postfeminist and backlash narratives.

Byzantium's Apt Inheritors: Serbian Historiography, Nation-Building and Imperial Imagination, 1882–1941

Between the second half of the nineteenth and the middle of the twentieth century, Serbian national historiography underwent a continuous transition, from a romantic-idealistic to a more rigorous, critical approach and interpretation. It was determined by changes both of historical method and the goals of historical inquiry, particularly regarding controversial issues of medieval Serbian history. In contrast to the glorification of the past championed by the ‘romantics’, proponents of the ‘critical school’ advocated the conscientious study of historical sources and the search for historical truth. Nevertheless, certain subjects of Serbian national historiography question this established view. One of these is the complex relationship between medieval Serbia and Byzantium, frequently interpreted by historians not only as an intrinsic part of the nation’s past and the essence of its cultural identity, but also as a convenient frame for examining and justifying contemporary national policies. In mainstream national historiography of the period between the Kingdom of Serbia (1882–1918) and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918–1941, after 1929 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Serbia’s medieval past was set in an ambivalent perspective of simultaneous Byzantinization and de-Byzantinization. It was employed in various disciplines, including political and cultural history, archaeology, art and architectural history, but also went beyond scholarly discourse.

Ambivalent Attitude of Young People in China Toward Rich Kids: Evidence from Behavioral Indices

A social phenomenon of great interest in China is that of young people who have rich parents, commonly referred to as “rich kids.” These rich kids are both liked and disliked by other young people, leading to contradictions in the behavior of their peers toward the rich kids. We conducted 2 studies to examine the attitude that young people hold toward rich kids from an ambivalent theory perspective. In Study 1, we used a free-thinking task and found that participants were ambivalent, associating both good and bad things with the target phrase “rich kids.” In Study 2, we presented participants with a scenario. Participants showed a more negative evaluation of, and more ambivalent emotions toward, the target they were supposed to meet when they were told that the target was a rich kid. These results showed that the participants' attitudinal ambivalence manifested in their emotion but not in their cognitive evaluation.

Ambivalent Perspectives and Characteristics of Diasporas represented in Chinese Literature by Chinese Diaspora

Ambivalent Perspectives and Characteristics of Diasporas represented in Chinese Literature by Chinese Diaspora

Attitudes towards rotating shift work in clinical nurses: a Q-methodology study.

To identify clinical nurses' attitudes towards rotating shift work. Many hospitals worldwide employ rotating shift work patterns to staff their facilities. Attitudes of clinical nurses towards rotating shift work vary. To understand clinical nurses' attitudes towards rotating shift work, Q-methodology, a method for the analysis of subjective viewpoints with the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative methods, was used. Forty-six selected Q-statements from each of the 39 participants were classified into a normal distribution using an 11-point bipolar scale. The collected data were analysed using pc-QUANL program. Three discrete factors emerged as follows: factor I (rotating shift work is frustrating: objectionable perspective), factor II (rotating shift work is satisfactory: constructive perspective) and factor III (rotating shift work is problematic, but necessary: ambivalent perspective). The subjective viewpoints of the three identified factors can be applied in developing various roster designs for nurses engaging in rotating shift work. The findings provide the baseline for nurse leaders in helping nurses adjust and deal with rotating shift work.

Intergenerational Relations and Elder Care Preferences of Asian Indians in North Carolina

The US older population is growing in ethnic diversity. Persistent ethnic disparities in service use among seniors are linked to structural barriers to access, and also to family processes such as cultural preferences and intergenerational relations. There is sparse information on the latter issue for immigrant ethnic minority seniors. Information on the Asian group (the fastest growing senior sub-population) is extremely scarce, due to this group's diversity in national, linguistic, and cultural origins. We conducted a qualitative study among community-dwelling Asian Indian families (including at least one member aged 60 years and older) in North Carolina to examine preferences of seniors and the midlife generation regarding elder care, and the role of intergenerational relations in desired care for elders, exploring the theoretical perspective of intergenerational relationship ambivalence. Our results suggest that cultural preferences, ambivalence in intergenerational relations, and regulations on health service eligibility among immigrant/transnational seniors and midlife adults influence preferences for elder care.

“Sometimes an actor himselfe”: robert burton and therapeutic theatricality

Despite late Jacobean and early Caroline playwrights' appropriation of the idea that theater could serve as an imaginative cure for the melancholic spectator, Robert Burton's 1621 The Anatomy of Melancholy articulates a much more ambivalent perspective on using performance to effect change in audiences or in melancholics who partake too readily in the fictions presented before them. Burton's text argues that entertainments can be harmful for the melancholic individual, whose unstable imagination leads him or her to confuse fiction and reality, sometimes transforming into “an actor himselfe.” Although Burton occasionally mitigates his condemnation of theater, he presents a picture of impressionable melancholics who are susceptible to fiction's power and might cause self or social harm because of their diseased imaginations. Theater, in this case, only exacerbates an already existing condition of ailing discernment in the mind and body. Burton, a self-styled “Anticke actor,” crafts a critique of theater that is part of the wider concern among his contemporaries over unruly audiences and rebellious playwrights, who together threaten to undermine the social structure and political order of England. These concerns help to explain why Burton, in a manner quite different from earlier authors on melancholy, anticipates and participates in a flourishing meta-theatrical discourse in the 1620s and 1630s.

Montaigne’s Tasso: Madness, melancholy and the enigma of Italy

This essay re-examines the question of Montaigne’s view of contemporary Italy and Italians by focusing on his allusions to Tasso in the Essais. It places Montaigne’s Italianism in the context of the virulent anti-Italian polemics in France in the 1570s and 1580s, and argues that his strategic choice of Tasso as an emblem for Italy, following his tour of the peninsula in 1580 to 1581, points to a conflicted, deeply ambivalent perspective on Franco-Italian relations in the late 16th century. In the Essais, Tasso and Italy become associated with brilliance and decay, madness and tragic decline.

Colonial Rebels in Indian Cinema

Historical films are a widely discussed genre of visual narration as it poses the challenge of a reliable balance between history, myth and truth. Indian history and independence have been one of those themes that have been adapted into filmic narration, not only as a national oration, but from an international lens. Unlike any other historical moment, Indian Independence is the most celebrated and recurring themes of historical movies and still continuous to be a vibrant subject for Indian film makers. Dealing with the narration of a nation, often these films are looked at with a skeptical attitude, mostly because of its colonizer’s view of the colonized. This article addresses Bhabha’s ( 1994 ) interstitial perspective and mimicry of ambivalence positing that these films neither dominate nor propagate certain colonial ideologies, nor does it make the colonizer as a virtuous subject, but rather create an ambivalent identity, which is neither colonizer nor colonized, but a hybrid of it. Apart from some English productions on Indian colonial rule and independence, some Indian films are also taken as a case study to elucidate the concept of hybridity in cultural meaning. When the ‘object’ of history or the colonized reacts with their perception, it creates an ambivalence that is far different from the colonizer’s perception.