Club Med Research Articles

Impact of country-specific business integrity and firm-specific ESG on earnings quality: evidence from EU civil law jurisdictions

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether variations in country-specific business integrity (BI) and firm-specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions can explain variations in earnings quality (EQ) in Northern and Southern EU civil law countries. Design/methodology/approach Regarding EQ, the analysis builds on the “small gain, small loss” (SGSL) model of Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) and Burgstahler and Chuk (2015). The authors explain SGSL with the BI. Southern Europe or “Club Med” is typically associated with a less rigorous institutional regime than Northern Europe. Findings Results evidenced higher EQ in the Northern EU compared with the Southern EU. Furthermore, EQ is explained successfully with the Business Integrity Index (BII) and ESG. The results suggest that BII and ESG represent different dimensions, and, therefore, both should be included in the models explaining EQ. Practical implications The results show that the Northern EU civil law countries have higher EQ compared with the Southern EU civil law countries. The difference is explained by the BII variable. For the Southern EU, legislators and other public policy decision-makers should build up and apply tools to limit and fight corruption in those jurisdictions. The impactful elimination of corruption would, in turn, establish a firmer basis to foster ethical behavior and financial market sophistication developments. Originality/value The study offers additional insights on the determinants of EQ in the EU civil law countries. The prior literature has argued that, categorically, in common law countries firms engage in higher-quality reporting than those in civil law countries. The results evidence that EQ varies within the EU civil law countries; that is, a country’s BI and firm-specific ESG contribute to the explanation for EQ. A more specific explanation for the reasons in the EQ “within” civil law jurisdictions could be related to legislators and other public policy decision-makers in charge of establishing regimes and public policies supporting high-quality accounting.

Dynamics of convivial affective atmospheres

This article examines the dynamics of affective atmospheres in explaining compelling touristic service experiences. Extending affect-theoretical research, we theorize and examine the role of affective bodily encounters through which convivial atmospheres are (re)produced. Based on multi-sited ethnographic research in iconic Club Med resorts, our findings emphasize the spontaneity and fragility of convivial affective atmospheres, meaning they are difficult to control, but also how their ongoing “bubbling” is shaped by materiality, ritual activities, and temporality. We contribute by (1) developing the concept of convivial affective atmosphere, and by (2) offering a theoretical framework that helps advance research into the affective entanglement and dynamics of atmospheres in tourism. Finally, we critically discuss what service providers can do to facilitate and re-produce convivial atmospheres.

Spatial productions of a legendary holiday village: Club Med Foça

Spatial productions of a legendary holiday village: Club Med Foça

When the Modern Was the Tradition: Carlo Mollino at Sestriere and His Last Unpublished project (1973)

The Alps have often been considered a laboratory for architectural modernity. Buildings there were a litmus test to reveal the attitudes of 20th-century architects towards design. When Carlo Mollino designed a project for a Club Med hotel in Sestriere in 1973, which was neither built nor published, he was at the end not only of his career but also of an important era for architecture that had begun just after World War II and ended in the economic crisis of the early 1970s. During this time, a debate on modern architecture acquired a new and increasingly important focus on context; Alpine architecture was at the forefront. The Club Med design was the culmination of Mollino's series of reflections on modernism. In the 1950s, he conceived of buildings for a sophisticated public, and his final project was a megastructure for mass tourism. The ski-resort town of Sestriere, founded by the Agnelli family in the early 1930s, was created for the consumption of nature by the masses, just as the Agnelli family produced Fiat cars for mass consumption. It was the first resort town where rationalism, speed, mass consumption, and the dominion of man over nature were the focus of urban and architectural design. Mollino's Club Med design was for a hotel that would be a machine for tourist consumption in the mountains. The project was one of the last examples of a way of consuming the Alps that vanished in subsequent years.   

JPS “Hidden Gems” and “Greatest Hits”: Capitalism in Palestine; A Historical Snapshot

In addition to selecting a “greatest hit” and a “hidden gem,” here, Sreemati Mitter provides readers with a broad overview of Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS) content on the topic of capitalism in Palestine. Mitter singles out Alexander Schölch’s classic, “The Economic Development of Palestine, 1856–1882” (1981) as a greatest hit and Peter Lagerquist’s haunting “Vacation from History: Ethnic Cleansing as the Club Med Experience” (2006) as a hidden gem. Read together, she argues, these two pieces help elucidate how powerful forces of global market capitalism converged on Palestine’s storied Mediterranean coast to shape its economy in the modern period.

PREDIKSI POLA PERSEBARAN TUMPAHAN MINYAK MENGGUNAKAN DATA CITRA SATELIT SENTINEL-1 DI PERAIRAN BINTAN, KEPULAUAN RIAU

Bintan is one of the regions with annual cases of oil spills, which were excluded from tank cleaning and black waste disposal activities. In arranging oil spill response, it is important to know the areas that are potentially affected, using oil spill trajectory model by GNOME. SAR (Sentinel-1) data is used to create coordinates for oil spills location in GNOME. SAR data processing is using SNAP software, with Lee Algorithm filter (window 5x5). The areas that potentially exposed to oil spills are known based on Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI). In this model, oil spill will reach the Bintan Coast within 2 to 5 days with average surface current speed of 4.28 m/s (West Monsoon). The estimated of oil total amount is 1,767 barrel, which 1,157 barrel polluted the coast, 606 barrel has evaporation and dispersion and the other 4 barrel was off map. The most sensitive area to oil spills are Trily Resort Center Bintan and Sebong Bay (Index 10D). The ESI average among the Bintan region are Index 3A and 3B such as Lagoi, Tanjung Berakit, Pulau Pangkil, Pulau Mapur, Cabana, Pulau Lobam, Pantai Mayang Sari, Pantai Indah Club Med Bintan, Bintan Lagoon Resort, Pantai Senggiling, and Pengudang.

Club Med Foça: The Transformation of Leisure Culture in Turkey

In this paper, we trace the transformation of leisure culture and emergence of tourism as a form of life-style consumption in Turkey by analyzing the representation of Club Med Foça, in Turkish media between 1967 and 2005, during the Club’s active period in which it served as a catalyst for such cultural transformation. We deploy Critical Discourse Analysis as a methodological framework for this purpose, and examine a variety of historical resources including popular magazines, news pieces, feature films, postcards, official documents and a photo-romance series for analyzing the representational contexts involving Club Med Foça. Our analysis shows that leisure culture and life-style consumption in Turkey has emerged between the tension of national identity and westernization, yet, at a later stage of the country’s modernization process, the main axis of tension shifted from an ambivalent relation of Turkish national identity with its western other to an ambivalent relation between the social classes in Turkey.

Finland’s great depression of the 1990s: Lessons about financial reform based on econometric macro evidence

AbstractThe paper re‐examines the Finnish Great Depression of the 1990s, based on an open macro model, with specific dummy variables to identify the initial effects of liberalized financial markets and capital mobility, and of the Russian trade collapse. It is shown that the explosive credit expansion resulting from the simultaneous liberalization of the financial markets and international capital movements in 1986 has played the most important role in explaining the uncontrolled growth and the subsequent depression in 1989 in real economic activity in Finland. Their effects were strengthened by a vicious circle between the financial and asset markets. The Russian trade collapse in 1991 had a smaller partial effect on economic activity than did any other explanatory variable. The results suggest that some of the present day problems in the euro area, especially those occurring post‐2008 in the “Club Med” countries, are very alarming. In many cases, they are results of expansionary policies based on unsustainable capital imports, made possible by the introduction of the euro, and the consequences resemble in many ways those during the 1990s Great Depression period in Finland.

Act Natural, and: Aurelia Plath Confesses, and: The Last Resort, and: Stood Up, and: Woman in the Moon

Act Natural, and: Aurelia Plath Confesses, and: The Last Resort, and: Stood Up, and: Woman in the Moon Lisa Mullenneaux (bio) Act Natural you said behind those cat-eye sunglassesyou wore, that night with hot pink shorts,and me in Capri pants and a blousetied at the midriff Jean Seberg–styleand weren't you breathless when I stuck outmy thumb and the testosteronefueled,cream-and-green Impala slowed to offer us a lift? Where were we headed, the townies askedand we didn't know, but you said smoothly"Wherever we can get a beer." Big laughs.I'd never tasted it, and I was two years older.Years later you told me you were sneaking drinksbefore school, a 15-year-old lush. The Chicken Box was everything Main StreetNantucket wasn't. We were never cardedand when the riot broke out, you found usa ride with a sailor on a Harley. We got luckyand knew it, so it was back to Omar Sharifand Paul Newman at the buck-a-night Dreamland,always on the lookout for the cream-and-greenImpala on the sandy bike trips home. [End Page 116] Aurelia Plath Confesses After we lost her, I wanted her back—beforeher refusal to be born kept us in suspenseat Mass Memorial. Was she ever ready? Warren heard a groan while the policewere out looking. We found her eating dirt,my child eating her way to China. Otto never held her though she had eyesfor no one else, sneaking into his library, hidingbeneath his desk, a mole tunneling its way among the festschrifts, boxes of manuscriptmy hands had typed. Pinwheel, spin, somersault—anything to get attention. The last time I saw her at Court Green I coulddo nothing right, say nothing right, her Devon farmprimed and ready for the pages of Mademoiselle. I returned to Wellesley, to Tupperware and moonshots,Lawrence Welk's bubble machine, but I fumed:How can she disown me? Was I ever her mother? That was before I became "the mother," a witchwho's baked into gingerbread.I wanted a different ending: I want her back. [End Page 117] The Last Resort Long before Mr. Sammi's arson claimed the clapboardcabins, Mi Casa was Club Med with field mice.Leggy paralegals with the souls of nuns, ex-halfbacksin broker training, someone's sister with fake id pouredfrom the "bozo buses" into a nimbus of party lightsdraped on white pine branches. They shed their city skinsin eucalyptus-scented Jacuzzis with beakersof Boone's Farm or in the pond where algae hidthe poppers. Jack Daniels laid to rest among the minnows. Some tented on Blackberry Hill and wokewhen horned owls called; some danced all nightto "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," the air staticwith imploding lust. In the tall grass, bobcats sulkedyellow-eyed and dreamed of snowfields. By Sundayscorch marks left guests longing for the tediumof their o≈ces, a pastrami sandwich, a hot shower. Weekday bed linens hung to dry, the cleaning crewsipped dregs of the bacchanal. Now the charred beamsfeed on nightshade. Garter snakes sun on the outcropsin a mindless glaze, stray cats nurse their litters in cracksof the stone foundation. Sometimes a former hedonistreturns for a glimpse of '70s folly, stardust meltedto a vitreous pool, gazes at the cratered tennis court,the pit-holed barbeque, and leaves with muddy shoes. [End Page 118] Stood Up as the bride slips outof the silk organza with lace sleevesshe will insist her dazed motherdonate to Goodwill,so I trade the black beadsthat match the heels,the ring, garnet earringssatin blouse and dress slacksfor a frayed terry cloth robeand slippers. The cell phoneI've been staring at for an hourretains its hermetic void.I switch it off and the nightis perhaps not lostbut found. I stroke the leavesof a new book as ifI've just discovered print. Woman in the Moon They say your mouth is a grieving...

What does a family environment mean within hospitality establishments?

The exclusion of children from hospitality establishments is not new. Not all cultures or properties exclude children, but the cultivation and advertisement of a family environment at properties that do is a topic worthy of further consideration.
 Some luxury properties are projecting a family environment while excluding children, which proposes a new definition of what a ‘family environment’ means and speculation about how such properties achieve this environment. The traditional view of ‘family’ has changed over time, and what is defined as family has also changed. One of these changes is that ‘family’ has morphed into ‘families’ in order to encompass new perceptions of the composition of the ‘family’ [1]. In addition, in many cultures, for example Italian, East Asian and Māori, the extended family rather than the traditional nuclear family is considered the basic unit [2]. The decrease or demise of the nuclear family is accredited to the rise in divorce rates, which has resulted in new forms of family units being formed. However, even though families are splitting and reforming after divorce, linkages through children remain [3]. The term ‘families’ is commonly defined as ‘multigenerational social groups’ comprised of at least one child and one adult [4].
 While conducting interpretivist research on the creation of luxury accommodation experiences, qualitative data were collected from interviews with 81 participants (managers, employees and guests) at six luxury properties in New Zealand. Out of the six properties (classified as three luxury hotels and three luxury lodges), one did not accommodate children (a luxury lodge). Findings of the research revealed the theme of ‘family’ as important to all of the properties, even the property that was ‘childfree’. This raises the question of whether children need to be present before a ‘family environment’ can be experienced within those hospitality establishments.
 All the managers and employees interviewed in the research felt that guests wanted the feeling of being surrounded by family or of being part of a family. Managers and employees acknowledged that in lodges there is a smaller number of service personnel and, at the same time, a higher staff to guest ratio. The service personnel depend on each other and develop close teams, which are like families, in order to produce an outstanding experience for their guests. Managers and employees are closer to their guests in lodges due to guests dining on the premises two if not three times in the day, and managers often dine with the guests in their capacity as hosts, enabling them to build relationships with guests by engaging in conversation during these times. Guests, themselves, felt that staff treated them like family or made them feel part of the lodge family. They also commented that there was a feeling of family between the managers and staff and that they displayed those family bonds.
 It has been suggested that the exclusion of children from some hospitality establishments is perhaps so they can concentrate on the niche market of ‘adult-only’. Advantages of this focus are that it is not necessary to provide amenities and activities that are targeted at children and a premium price can be charged for the exclusivity of being an ‘adult-only’ establishment. Adult-only hotels can be dated back to the 1960s when Club Med was targeting singles [5]. In the 1980s, the hotel chain Sandals started luring Americans to Mexico and the Caribbean with adult-only packages and specific catering for couples [5].
 The research suggests that projecting a family environment is now being used by luxury accommodation providers as a metaphorical term about the intimate attention that can be co-created in the accommodation servicescape through accommodation staff forming ‘special relationships’ with their guests in order to personalise their service. In this light, perhaps it is time to reconsider the nature of family-oriented accommodation in the sector, and to investigate how properties offer a ‘family-like’ environment that makes customers feel ‘part of the family’ while excluding children.
 Corresponding author
 Tracy Harkison can be contacted at: tracy.harkison@aut.ac.nz
 References
 (1) Dumon, W. The Situation of Families in Western Europe: A Sociological Perspective. In The Family on the Threshold of the 21st Century; Dreman S, Ed.; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: London, 1997; chapt. 11.
 (2) Robinson, E. Refining our Understanding of Family Relationships. Family Matters 2009, 82, 5–7.
 (3) Schänzel, H.A.; Yeoman, I. Trends in Family Tourism. Journal of Tourism Futures 2015, 1(2), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-12-2014-0006
 (4) Schänzel, H.A. Whole-Family Research: Towards a Methodology in Tourism for Encompassing Generation, Gender, and Group Dynamic Perspectives. Tourism Analysis 2010, 15(5), 555–569. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354210X12889831783314
 (5) Divac, N. These German Vacationers Don't Take Kindly to the Kinder – Youngsters are Verboten as Hotels Seek Tranquility for Guests; No Cannonballs in Pool. Wall Street Journal, Feb 1, 2016; https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-these-german-vacationers-kids-are-verboten-1454288459 (accessed Mar 20, 2017).

From ‘la petite Europe vaticane’ to the Club Med: the French Socialist Party and the challenges of European integration

Studies of the relationship of political parties to the European Community/Union (EC/EU) increasingly use the perspective of ‘Europeanisation’ to measure such relationships. There is also a case, however, for looking at Europe from the perhaps narrower but no less necessary point of view of intra-party dynamics: in particular, what kinds of challenge does ‘Europe’ represent to party managers and how do they deal with it? By analysing the relationship of the Socialist Party to the EC/EU at three key moments in the history of European integration, the author identifies some common tropisms which continue to operate even as the effects of ‘Europeanisation’ increase.

How to win a takeover battle: the case of Fosun’s purchase of Club Med. The difficulties faced by Chinese companies in overseas M&As

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings In an international merger and acquisition, the merged company often faces many difficulties. If we look into this case, China’s Fosun took many measures to conquer barriers and set a solid foundation: aligning the strategy of the company, choosing the allies, understanding local legal system as well as taking special measures concerning the real conditions. These together raise the possibility for Chinese companies to overcome international challenges. Practical Implications The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

A Place of Your Own on Tito’s Adriatic: Club Med and Czechoslovak Trade Union Holiday Resorts in the 1960s

This article presents the disparate, yet similar, stories of foreign tourist resorts built on Yugoslavia’s coast in the 1960s: two of them owned privately, by the French Club Méditerranée, in Pakoštane (Croatia) and on Sveti Marko island (Montenegro); one, in Bečići (Montenegro), the property of socialist Czechoslovakia and its Trade Union organization ( Revoluční Odborové Hnutí). Drawing on archival documents, newspapers, and magazine articles as well as interviews, I discuss why these resorts were established, and how they operated within their specific material, financial, and metaphorical contexts, while also examining how tourists and tourism planners assigned meanings to tourism, and envisioned it within its global context. The French-owned Club Med’s resorts were profit-oriented, private initiatives that catered toward individuals and families on vacations that were envisioned as a means of personal growth. Revoluční Odborové Hnutí’s resort, by contrast, was owned by socialist Czechoslovakia’s labor union. It served union members and their families, and was designed according to principles of social and collective tourism. Nevertheless, as this article argues, each of these resorts embodied core features of the modern, time-restricted, spatially managed, and pleasure-oriented experience of vacation abroad. Moreover, a concept of insularity—the comfort of sojourning in a self-contained space that was at once foreign and familiar—defined each resort’s conception and promotion of their seaside vacations, thus bridging the projects’ ideological and institutional differences, and superseding local understandings of place. The projects’ histories, finally, prefigured contemporary tourism’s contradictions and complexities, such as the dwindling of conventional distinctions (between home and abroad, for instance). At the background of this comparative analysis is the broader history of tourism in postwar Yugoslavia, which held high hopes for tourism as a vector for economic development and the promotion of good international relations.

Is This Gitmo, or Club Med?

Is This Gitmo, or Club Med?

Crossing the Liminal: Why Write Poetry About Art?

cover feature Art Poetry Since the earliest days of civilization, art and poetry have shared a symbiotic relationship. In the following section, thirteen poets take their inspiration from post-1950 visual art. Featuring WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 35 With additional online exclusives by MARJORIE AGOSÍN & ANDRÉS SÁNCHEZ ROBAYNA Curated & introduced by LAUREN CAMP CIRCE MAIA 38 HEDY HABRA 40 RAVI SHANKAR 42 LOLA CRÉÏS 45 RITA MALIKONYTE MOCKUS 46 LAUREN CAMP 48 WAFAA S. JDEED 51 52 TATIANA OROÑO 53 RAMÓN GAYA 54 EDUARDO MITRE 55 ANDRÉS SÁNCHEZ ROBAYNA 56 MARIO ARTECA 57 JOSÉ MATEOS Fiona Hall, Wrong Way Time, 2012–15 (detail), © the artist. Courtesy of the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Clayton Glen. 36 WLT NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2015 I account for large swaths of my life by the art I’ve seen. On a trip to Dallas once, I experienced a giant Rauschenberg “combine”—pattern, color, and image, all fearlessly cozying up together. I have no reason to remember the exact location, or why I was there. It was the art that mattered, and I stood beneath it, and let it talk to me for a long time. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a ten-part Cy Twombly series scribbled out my more organized perspective. Somewhere else, Basquiat’s crossed-out, downtown drawings. In Taos, Agnes Martin’s plain and particular lines. In Marfa, Donald Judd’s boxes. The Rodin sculptures in Paris. I could go on. What affects us in art is deeply personal : a photograph, an illustration, a style, a color. Unfolding our predilections is like choosing the best donuts (crüllers or jellyfilled ?) or the best place to vacation (Club Med or the ancient Mayan city of Tikal?). There is no best. Likewise for the makers; they choose the media and techniques that offer the right amount of tension between the strain of succeeding and the skills they possess. The painter Georgia O’Keeffe avowed, “Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words.” She invoked cattle bones and flowers with her brushes, spilling out their gleaming and elusive details so we, her audience, would look more closely at each notable moment and shadow, and find new resonances in what we already know. Though her statement was true for her, many poets have taken her paintings further—using her creations as their initial canvas and crafting magnificent written pieces. I am both artist and poet, and have spent decades in animated exchange with each medium. In both realms, I color personal references, texture feelings, and find tangible movements for each shape and pattern. Despite my endless attention to them, the two forms of expression are still mystical to me. Poetry and visual art have the ability to highlight and shadow even the smallest intimacy . Both require an “unknowing” to proceed and, I believe, to succeed. Joining the two has the potential to build an intensely evocative new thing. It gives us a chance to ask questions like Why did the artist do this? Why have I never seen in this way before? The resulting poem may help an audience understand the work. It might give a deeper awareness of the artist’s process, the reason for creating the artwork, and the situation under which it was made. Or it may diverge from the painting and enter its own world. It may sleep in the warm space left by the painting, and rise with a bit of its scent. Aldous Huxley wrote in Texts and Pretexts (1932), “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. It is a gift for dealing with the accidents of existence, not the accidents themselves. By a happy dispensation of nature, the poet generally possesses the gift of experience in conjunction with that of expression.” At whatever point a writer decides to explore a work of art with words, he or she is striving for the same thing writers always seek: an alchemy of knowledge and surprise. The completeness of the experience begins with the attention the piece commands for the writer, a connection that might not make sense for even...

Crossing the Liminal: Why Write Poetry About Art?

cover feature Art Poetry Since the earliest days of civilization, art and poetry have shared a symbiotic relationship. In the following section, thirteen poets take their inspiration from post-1950 visual art. Featuring WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 35 With additional online exclusives by MARJORIE AGOSÍN & ANDRÉS SÁNCHEZ ROBAYNA Curated & introduced by LAUREN CAMP CIRCE MAIA 38 HEDY HABRA 40 RAVI SHANKAR 42 LOLA CRÉÏS 45 RITA MALIKONYTE MOCKUS 46 LAUREN CAMP 48 WAFAA S. JDEED 51 52 TATIANA OROÑO 53 RAMÓN GAYA 54 EDUARDO MITRE 55 ANDRÉS SÁNCHEZ ROBAYNA 56 MARIO ARTECA 57 JOSÉ MATEOS Fiona Hall, Wrong Way Time, 2012–15 (detail), © the artist. Courtesy of the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia. Image credit: Clayton Glen. 36 WLT NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2015 I account for large swaths of my life by the art I’ve seen. On a trip to Dallas once, I experienced a giant Rauschenberg “combine”—pattern, color, and image, all fearlessly cozying up together. I have no reason to remember the exact location, or why I was there. It was the art that mattered, and I stood beneath it, and let it talk to me for a long time. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a ten-part Cy Twombly series scribbled out my more organized perspective. Somewhere else, Basquiat’s crossed-out, downtown drawings. In Taos, Agnes Martin’s plain and particular lines. In Marfa, Donald Judd’s boxes. The Rodin sculptures in Paris. I could go on. What affects us in art is deeply personal : a photograph, an illustration, a style, a color. Unfolding our predilections is like choosing the best donuts (crüllers or jellyfilled ?) or the best place to vacation (Club Med or the ancient Mayan city of Tikal?). There is no best. Likewise for the makers; they choose the media and techniques that offer the right amount of tension between the strain of succeeding and the skills they possess. The painter Georgia O’Keeffe avowed, “Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words.” She invoked cattle bones and flowers with her brushes, spilling out their gleaming and elusive details so we, her audience, would look more closely at each notable moment and shadow, and find new resonances in what we already know. Though her statement was true for her, many poets have taken her paintings further—using her creations as their initial canvas and crafting magnificent written pieces. I am both artist and poet, and have spent decades in animated exchange with each medium. In both realms, I color personal references, texture feelings, and find tangible movements for each shape and pattern. Despite my endless attention to them, the two forms of expression are still mystical to me. Poetry and visual art have the ability to highlight and shadow even the smallest intimacy . Both require an “unknowing” to proceed and, I believe, to succeed. Joining the two has the potential to build an intensely evocative new thing. It gives us a chance to ask questions like Why did the artist do this? Why have I never seen in this way before? The resulting poem may help an audience understand the work. It might give a deeper awareness of the artist’s process, the reason for creating the artwork, and the situation under which it was made. Or it may diverge from the painting and enter its own world. It may sleep in the warm space left by the painting, and rise with a bit of its scent. Aldous Huxley wrote in Texts and Pretexts (1932), “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. It is a gift for dealing with the accidents of existence, not the accidents themselves. By a happy dispensation of nature, the poet generally possesses the gift of experience in conjunction with that of expression.” At whatever point a writer decides to explore a work of art with words, he or she is striving for the same thing writers always seek: an alchemy of knowledge and surprise. The completeness of the experience begins with the attention the piece commands for the writer, a connection that might not make sense for even...

Strength of Evidence for the Effects of Feral Cats on Insular Wildlife: The Club Med Syndrome Part II

Author(s): Hess, Steven C. | Abstract: Various types of evidence have been promulgated as proof for the effects of feral cats on wildlife, typically including numerous studies on predation inferred from diet, mortality attributed to pathogens, and photographic or videographic documentation. The strength of these types of evidence is often short of conclusive. For example, studies of predation inferred from diet provide weak evidence for two reasons: 1) they cannot differentiate depredation from scavenging by feral cats, and 2) they cannot address population-level effects on wildlife because it is rarely understood if mortality acts in compensatory or additive manner. Likewise, pathogens may cause mortality of individuals, but population-level effects of pathogens are rarely known. Photographic or videographic documentation provides direct ‘smoking gun’ evidence that may be useful for positive identification of depredation by cats, or identification of prey designated as threatened or endangered species. However, the most direct and compelling evidence comes from examples where feral cats have been entirely removed from islands. In many cases, several species of seabirds as well as other wildlife have recovered after the complete removal of cats. Where possible, the experimental removal of cats would provide the most conclusive proof of effects on wildlife populations. In other cases where cat removal is not feasible, modeling based on predation rates and life history parameters of species may be the only means of assessing population-level effects on wildlife. Understanding population-level effects of feral cats on wildlife will ultimately be necessary to resolve long-standing wildlife management issues.

Lessons from 35,000 feet: How ALTOUR used an open mind and an open door policy to energize the travel industry

AbstractWhen a former Club Med executive decided to leave his comfortable corporate berth of ten years and dive into the waters of entrepreneurship, he chose to stay in the turbulent travel agency business, even though it was reeling from the airline industry's game‐changing deregulation. Rather than sticking with business as usual, he chose to follow an innovative business model and, subsequently, expand on it by creating ALTOUR. Sound strategy, combined with an ability to adapt to meet the needs of his customers, has led to 20 percent annual growth since the company's founding in 1991. This article explains the discipline behind this accomplishment and offers lessons that can apply across all industries. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Club Med: coping with corporate brand evolution

PurposeThis paper aims to identify how community members of a long‐established service brand, Club Med, negotiate the strategic decision made by management in 2002 to substantially alter the brand positioning.Design/methodology/approachA mixed method approach relied on participant observations, interviews with managers and consumers, and a netnography of an independent website used by Club Med members to exchange information, advice and other holiday tips.FindingsBrand community members responded differently to the repositioning of the brand, according to the core benefit or value they first sought by attending the Club, from the functional and practical to the emotional or experiential reward. Responses also differed according to whether consumers valued the collective ideals of the earlier Club Med or the individualism advocated in the latest positioning. Hence, the value match between brand and consumers appeared predictive of their response.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough limited to the case of one iconic service brand, these findings have implications for marketers. In particular, they warn against unilateral decisions made without due consideration of the brand community which may have developed around the traditional meanings associated with the brand.Originality/valueGiven the paucity of evidence of service brand community, validating the existence of service brand community represents a first and important contribution of the paper. Brand communities have intrigued researchers and practitioners by their loyalty and resilience. Moreover, little or no research has examined how such communities cope with dramatic changes in the brand strategy.

Clint Eastwood and Male Weepies

I think it was Playboy's posting of the 10 worst chick flicks that clinched it for me—the decision to do a project on male weepies. According to the Playboy editors, the research necessary for them to complete their task was the most excruciating torture mankind has had to endure, making, they say with great cultural sensitivity, Abu Ghraib look like Club Med. Never mind that many of Abu Ghraib's victims could very well have been forced to look at images from videos and magazines like Playboy as part of their torture or that the photos taken by the soldiers forced inmates to assume stock porn images ripped from the pages of today's men's magazines. Watching those obscene women's films brought human suffering to a whole new level for our heroic Playboy editors. I could just weep for them. And that is the point. It is my contention that in many male weepies (or male melodramas), real men do not cry, or at best they shed only a few hard-wrung tears; others do the crying for them—usually women and people of color. I am therefore not so much interested in those films like Field of Dreams (1989) which are frankly melodramatic and, for instance, in the case of Field of Dreams, position the spectator as a little boy; rather I want to examine those movies featuring a strong, stoic type whose sorrow lurks under the surface but who is wept over by other characters and by the audience. Who better to turn to in considering the melodramatic potential of such a character type than the iconic figure of Clint Eastwood? In what follows, I will be analyzing certain aspects of Eastwood's relatively recent films. One of my main interests lies in the reaction of melancholy spectators/critics/reviewers who project their “cinematic grief” onto the heroes of the films, and most of all, onto the figure of Eastwood himself. (Indeed, we shall see that reviewers and critics of Eastwood films continually slide between talking about Eastwood characters and Eastwood the man.) Above all, I am hoping to revive an interest in the writing of those feminist scholars—and one in particular—whose path-breaking work on melancholia, one of the most popular subjects in contemporary theory, was lost before it was given its due.