Application Of Theoretical Perspectives Research Articles

Governing Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture—Taking Stock of an Emerging Field of Research

The need for fundamental changes in the way humans interact with nature is now widely acknowledged in order to achieve sustainable development. Agriculture figures prominently in this quest, being both a major driver and a major threat to global sustainability. Agricultural systems typically have co-evolved with other societal structures—retailers, land management, technology, consumer habits, and environmental and agricultural law—and can therefore well be described as socio-technical regimes in the sense of the sustainability transitions literature. This paper aims to give an overview of the emerging field of governing transitions to sustainability agriculture and the topics and trends covered, focusing on how agricultural transitions are being governed through a variety of actors and at a variety of levels. We conduct a systematic review of 153 articles published before the year 2019. We identify two main perspectives: papers that analyse the status quo in farming practices and reasons for lock-in, and papers that explore potential transition pathways and their governance. Predominantly, papers study (local) niche developments and discuss governance options for upscaling, rather than actual regime change. Seven distinct perspectives emerge from our reading of the selected articles: application of theoretical perspectives from the literature on socio-technical transitions; governance and regulation; knowledge and learning; concrete approaches to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural systems; urbanisation, urban agriculture, and local food networks; the role of agri-food businesses; as well as the role of gender. While a variety of local case studies shows potential for small-scale changes that might be transferable to other regions and higher levels of governance, it generally appears that more integrative, comparative work and perhaps more coherence in conceptual approaches would benefit the currently highly fragmented field.

Partnering Academics and Community Engagement: A Quality Enhancement Plan for a Diverse and Non-Traditional University

Research suggests that application of theoretical perspectives, specific program principles and components, and various institutional models of service learning, can positively affect persistence and completion for college students. Academic community engagement provides such an application, as well as a vehicle for professional interaction between community partners and faculty members, and is the theme for our university-wide quality enhancement plan (QEP). This paper describes our QEP roadmap from conception through the first four years of our five-year initiative, detailing the work done to align with the university’s strategic goals; incorporate flexibility, coordination, and partnerships; ensure authentic projects that benefit community partners and students (traditional and non-traditional); and assess impacts on the institution, students, and community. We describe various types of community partnerships and provide specific examples of lower-level and upper-level undergraduate courses designed and delivered, in a variety of academic programs and disciplines, as well as lessons learned from our experiences.

The Role of Family: Understanding the Childhood and Current Family Environment of Early Care and Education Teachers

The Role of Family: Understanding the Childhood and Current Family Environment of Early Care and Education Teachers Tracey M. Barnett PhD, LMSW, Natasha Thorne, D. Crystal Coles PhD, LICSW, Taren Swindle, PhD Abstract Through qualitative inquiry and application of family systems theoretical perspective, this study sought to explore the experiences of Early Care and Education Teachers (ECET) and what role their family environment (childhood and current family) had in them choosing their career and how communication and family connections during mealtimes made an impact. Three overarching themes and dimensions captured the experiences of Early Care and Education Teachers (ECETs) and what role their family environment (childhood and current family) had in their career choice, and how communication and family connections during mealtimes made an impact. While family environment is certainly not the only consideration when choosing a career or staying on a career path, it is arguably one of the biggest. Through critical analysis and application of theoretical perspectives, broader understanding was brought to the experiences and family environments of ECETs and the initial influence these factors played in their career selection. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jehd.v8n4a2

Creating communities: the use of technology in craft and DIY communities of practice

Purpose– The purpose of this study is to gain insight into craft and do-it-yourself (DIY) communities of practice (COPs) and how the use of technology provides ways for participants to connect, share and create. Gaining deeper insights into the practices of these communities may provide new opportunities to utilise within this flourishing domain.Design/methodology/approach– Qualitative methods were adopted to collect data and analysed through an interpretivist lens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of craft and DIY COPs to gain a deep understanding of the broader ethnographic study. Existing theoretical perspectives surrounding COPs have been applied to further current perspectives.Findings– Findings from this study suggest that being part of a COP allows participants to connect to others, build creative enterprise and learn or enhance skills. Insights gained from this study indicate some of the detailed ways in which the application of technology redefines craft and DIY COPs.Research limitations/implications– This study provides a succinct exploration of a vast and fluid domain; if presented with more time and wider resources, the research would include further exploration of virtual COPs.Originality/value– The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of Information Systems (IS) and Technology Management to this domain is regarded as an original research and furthers knowledge in these areas.Originality/value– The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of ICTs within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of IS to the domain of craft and DIY culture is original research and extends existing concepts to include skills sharing as a previously unexplored domain.

(Re)membering and (Re)living: A Methodological Exploration of Postmodern and Constructivist Feminist Approaches to Interviewing Women Leaders in Higher Education

Research cannot be conducted without conscious or unconscious use of underlying theoretical principles (Broido & Manning, 2002). As such, even studies that seem void of theoretical underpinnings subscribe to some semblance of theoretical principles. Broido and Manning (2002) argue that postmodernism, feminist theory, and critical theory, among others, offer higher education researchers “new ways to consider their relationships with students, colleagues, institutions, and society” (p. 444). Moreover, Abes (2009) encourages researchers to consider experimenting with the choice and application of theoretical perspectives. To answer these calls, this article provides an in-depth exploration of the differences and similarities of feminist postmodern focus group interviews and constructivist one-on-one interviews with 38 women elected as leaders in a national higher education association. The women both (re)member and (re)live their experiences. The author intentionally follows two feminist theoretical perspectives-and their congruent methodologies, methods, and findings-in order to reflect on the complexities and power of researchers’ determinations in the hopes of advancing critical conversations about methodology in higher education.

Cancer surviving patients' rehabilitation – understanding failure through application of theoretical perspectives from Habermas

This study aims to analyze whether the rehabilitation of cancer surviving patients (CSPs) can be better organized. The data for this paper consists of focus group interviews (FGIs) with CSPs, general practitioners (GPs) and hospital physicians. The analysis draws on the theoretical framework of Jürgen Habermas, utilizing his notions of 'the system and the life world' and 'communicative and strategic action'. In Habermas' terminology, the social security system and the healthcare system are subsystems that belong to what he calls the 'system', where actions are based on strategic actions activated by the means of media such as money and power which provide the basis for other actors' actions. The social life, on the other hand, in Habermas' terminology, belongs to what he calls the 'life world', where communicative action is based on consensual coordination among individuals. Our material suggests that, within the hospital world, the strategic actions related to diagnosis, treatment and cure in the biomedical discourse dominate. They function as inclusion/exclusion criteria for further treatment. However, the GPs appear to accept the CSPs' previous cancer diagnosis as a precondition sufficient for providing assistance. Although the GPs use the biomedical discourse and often give biomedical examples to exemplify rehabilitation needs, they find psychosocial aspects, so-called lifeworld aspects, to be an important component of their job when helping CSPs. In this way, they appear more open to communicative action in relation to the CSPs' lifeworld than do the hospital physicians.Our data also suggests that the CSPs' lifeworld can be partly colonized by the system during hospitalization, making it difficult for CSPs when they are discharged at the end of treatment. This situation seems to be crucial to our understanding of why CSPs often feel left in limbo after discharge. We conclude that the distinction between the system and the lifeworld and the implications of a possible colonization during hospitalization offers an important theoretical framework for determining and addressing different types of rehabilitation needs.

The sun has got his hat on…

Hello and welcome to issue five of the British Journal of School Nursing. With the weather smiling on us as it has been lately, it is time for school health thoughts to turn to that most seasonal of health promotion causes, sun safety. The slip, slap, slop campaigns have proved to be memorable and successful and examples of the translation of these messages into locally appropriate service delivery is essential. In this issue, we have an article from the Isle of man which clearly demonstrates the application of theoretical perspectives to a needs-led, locally appropriate service. What is more, this article provides practical evaluation of such a service and demonstrates the powerful nature of process evaluation to changing practices to keep up with the needs of our populations.

Politics of national tourism policy in Britain

Although tourism is increasingly viewed as an important issue for governments, analysis of the politics of tourism policy is less developed than in other areas of leisure policy. This article attempts to link developments in British tourism policy to wider policy contexts. The historic development of tourism policy from private interest group formation, through government subsidy to statutory status reflects patterns evident elsewhere in leisure. Similarly, the subsequent shift from pluralism through welfarism to economic realism in leisure is clearly reflected in the changing role of the national tourist boards in the last 25 years. Although private interest groups in tourism have benefited considerably from government intervention in the past, it seems that government has become progressively less inclined to treat tourism as a special case in recent years. It is argued that application of theoretical perspectives developed in the field of leisure policy can help to illuminate the processes driving the ...

A Graduate Seminar on Social Problems: Community Professionals and the Urban Community as Laboratory

T his paper reports an innovative, instructional program for the study of social problems at the graduate level. The basic features are: (1) a view of the community as laboratory; (2) regular and continuing participation by key community professionals; and (3) a combination of seminar procedure and field assignments. Although the program is still in process and will be modified, we hope that this progress report will encourage other sociologists to draw upon our experiences in developing their own seminars. The goals of the seminar are: (1) to provide additional depth to the graduate program in the sociology of social problems through field application of theoretical perspectives and research techniques; (2) to develop an integrated approach to the study of complex social problems in the community; (3) to advance scientific knowledge of urban social problems by