Cross-disciplinary Perspective Research Articles

Awareness of Effective Interventions for Autism among Practicing Pediatricians in the UAE

Awareness of Effective Interventions for Autism among Practicing Pediatricians in the UAE

Crossing Borders? A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective on the Study of Mesoamerican Visual Culture

Following an introductory essay, six short contributions by academics and museum curators in the United States (US) and Europe tackle the current state and future of Pre-Columbian visual culture studies. They explore the field’s impressive growth in this century, as well as some of the dangers it currently faces as a result of that growth. Several trace its present state to its origins and the part played by early Mexican and US nationalism, the popularity of world’s fairs, and the civil rights movement, among other factors. Also considered are problems inherent in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century separation of the preconquest past from the newly labeled colonial period, as well as the concurrent embrace of the term “Pre-Columbian.” Other essays take a hard look at the present and future relation of art history to archaeology and cross-disciplinary studies within the field, which is defined in part by their dependence on, or skepticism regarding, iconography. Whereas academics wrestle in these essays with the implications of a declining job market, museum curators struggle with limited funding. Nonetheless, possible new strategies and opportunities for the future are proposed, including engagement with issues posed by the rising interest in decoloniality and global indigeneity.RESUMEN Luego de un ensayo introductorio, seis contribuciones cortas de académicos y conservadores de museos en los Estados Unidos y Europa abordan el estado actual y el futuro de los estudios de cultura visual precolombina. Se explora el impresionante crecimiento del campo en este siglo, así como algunos de los peligros que enfrenta actualmente como resultado de este crecimiento. Varios colaboradores trazan el estado actual del campo hasta sus orígenes y notan la influencia en él de las primeras manifestaciones de los nacionalismos de México y los Estados Unidos, la popularidad de las ferias mundiales y el Movimiento por los derechos civiles, entre otros factores. También se consideran los problemas inherentes a la separación entre el pasado precolombino y el llamado período colonial que se establecía entre fines del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX, así como la aceptación simultánea del término “precolombino”. Otros ensayos analizan detenidamente la relación presente y futura de la historia del arte con la arqueología y los estudios interdisciplinarios dentro del campo, que se define en parte por su dependencia o escepticismo con respecto a la iconografía. Mientras que los académicos discuten en estos ensayos las implicaciones de un mercado de trabajo decreciente, los curadores de museos abordan las restricciones presupuestarias. No obstante, se proponen posibles nuevas estrategias y oportunidades para el futuro, como la participación futura en cuestiones planteadas por el creciente interés en la descolonialidad y la indigeneidad global.RESUMO Após um ensaio introdutório, seis curtas contribuições de acadêmicos e curadores de museus nos Estados Unidos e na Europa abordam o estado atual e o futuro dos estudos da cultura visual pré-colombiana. O impressionante crescimento do campo neste século, bem como alguns dos perigos que atualmente enfrenta como resultado desse crescimento, são explorados. Diversos colaboradores traçam o estado atual do campo até suas origens e o papel desempenhado pelo nacionalismo inicial do México e dos Estados Unidos, a popularidade das feiras mundiais e o Movimento dos direitos civis, entre outros fatores. Também são considerados os problemas inerentes à separação, no final do século XIX e início do século XX, entre o passado pré-conquista e o recém-rotulado período colonial, bem como a aderência simultânea ao termo “pré-colombiano”. Outros ensaios dedicam olhar atento à relação presente e futura da história da arte com a arqueologia e estudos interdisciplinares dentro do campo, que é definida em parte por sua dependência ou ceticismo em relação à iconografia. Enquanto os acadêmicos lutam nesses ensaios com as implicações de um mercado de trabalho em declínio, os curadores de museus lutam com recursos limitados. No entanto, são propostas possíveis novas estratégias e oportunidades para o futuro, incluindo o envolvimento futuro com questões levantadas pelo crescente interesse na decolonialidade e na indigeneidade global.

Intercultural skills in primary health care: a challenge for higher education in contexts of cultural diversity

Contemporary society is marked by four interconnected phenomena leading to the need to develop intercultural skills in the framework of primary care: migratory movements, different ethnic groups, cultural diversity, and social and cultural construction of the Western medical system. The multicultural reality of the contexts in which primary care is practiced requires integrative theoretical models that allow understanding this reality in order to provide timely, high-quality care that is pertinent to the respective communities, considering the existing diversity. It is thus necessary to implement and teach intercultural skills for health care teams and students, allowing to sustain such care from a holistic perspective. Educational interventions in intercultural skills should be conducted from a comprehensive, integrative, and cross-disciplinary perspective that allows intervening in attitudes, feelings, social behaviors, and cultural agendas at the individual, institutional, and social levels. The current essay aims to reflect on the importance of learning and developing such skills in primary care teams, meanwhile producing a list of strategies that allow acquiring these skills in basic training, with the understanding that skills are the result of experiences and can change during the process.

Digital Health: Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

Digital Health: Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

Postgrowth Imaginaries: New Ecologies and Counterhegemonic Culture in Post-2008 Spain - Part 1, Chapter 1

This chapter introduces the main tenets of postgrowth economics and the degrowth movement, in order to familiarize the reader with these notions. The first part of the chapter provides an overview of the cultural and ecological situation in Spain in the twenty-first century, focusing on cultural scholars’ responses to the Spanish neoliberal crisis and showing how such critical interventions might be significantly enriched by paying attention to the ongoing ecocritical transnational debate. The next section studies a number of recent Iberian socioecological essays that have adopted a cross-disciplinary perspective to critique the unsustainable social and environmental degradation caused by global capitalism and its addiction to growth. The last part of the chapter makes the case for the value of advancing a degrowth-inspired ecocriticism within a Euro-Mediterranean context. Degrowth provides an alternative to mainstream Euro-American reform environmentalism. The latter is infused with a neoliberal rhetoric, rationality, and sensibility that promotes technical fixes to avoid engagement in the social and political changes needed to avert ecological collapse. While degrowthers advocate radical cultural change to achieve environmental justice, reform environmentalism only supports minor modifications to the existing order, such as sustainable development, green growth, and ecological modernization.

Deborah Lupton: Digital Health. Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

Abstract Deborah Lupton: Digital Health. Critical and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives London–New York: Routledge, 2018

International perspectives on the pedagogy of climate change

Education is key to the advancement of environmental sustainability. Climate change education is a complex topic where a number of factors play key roles. One such factor, namely the ongoing debate around whether climate change is real poses a significant challenge to the delivery of a climate change curriculum. This factor and others suggest the need to revisit the question of education for sustainability across wider social contexts. The purpose of the following article is to extend previous research and consider how education for sustainability is envisioned across culturally diverse settings around the world. Drawing from survey and interview data, distinguished scholars from Brazil, China, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United States of America provided detailed analyses of the social context of climate change and their visions of an education for sustainability. Results of the survey data indicated that the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change agreement, political and economic barriers to climate change, sustainability initiatives, and university-industry linkages were notable contextual features of a climate change pedagogy across the countries studied. In addition, the scholar's visions of an education for sustainability revolved around five main visions: teaching all forms of scientific knowledge as rooted in some level of uncertainty, complexity, and nuance; comprehensive empirical knowledge of climate change that includes its main principles, myths, and debates; critical inquiry, integration, and engagement with global and cross-disciplinary perspectives; transformative and learner-centered pedagogies conducive to a climate change and sustainability curricula; and student-learner authentic participation in the study and mitigation of climate change. The implications for the practice of education for climate change are discussed. It is argued that global insights have the potential to enrich the practice of education for climate change and towards a more sustainable future.

Theory and Practice of Using Mixed Methods in Translational Research: A Cross-disciplinary Perspective

Theory and Practice of Using Mixed Methods in Translational Research: A Cross-disciplinary Perspective

Game Science: Foundations and Perspectives

Background. Game studies offer cross-disciplinary perspectives, but the body of knowledge is not yet in the form of a cohesive game science paradigm. Klabbers (2018a) argues that a comprehensive and coherent view on game science is needed that connects three levels of inquiry: the philosophy of science level, the science level, and the application level. Aim. This single-theme symposium issue On the Architecture of Game Science is especially devoted to the reflection and discussion on the foundations and principles of gaming and simulation. Method. Raising a debate among scholars and professionals, addressing the questions and frame-of-reference presented in the introductory article of Klabbers (2018a) and completed by his rebuttal. Results. The contributions range from the linkages between game science and complex social systems design through gaming simulation, to gamification science, and game studies, focusing on the ludosphere and the growing field of digital games. Conclusion. The articles present an overview of the current state of the art, craft, and science of gaming simulation, gamification and game studies. They present a stimulating and challenging debate, and a good basis for advancing the principles and foundations of game science.

Emotions, community, and citizenship: Cross-disciplinary perspectives

Emotions, community, and citizenship: Cross-disciplinary perspectives

Reconceptualising workplace resilience - A cross-disciplinary perspective.

<p>Stressful situations, performance pressure, and setbacks are part of contemporary organizational life. The dynamic nature of technological advances and globalisation of business leads to tougher competitive pressures and constant change. People’s responses to these challenging circumstances vary widely. Some bounce back and adapt to increasing challenges and adversity, others’ healthy functioning is significantly impaired. Even though resilience is recognised as a crucial issue in the workplace, the rates of new cases of work-related stress and depression have remained broadly flat for more than 10 years. Resilience research within Applied Psychology typically focuses on the psychological domain of a person’s functioning. This means that also resilience trainings or interventions focus on only one area. The present paper aims to build a comprehensive conceptualization of workplace resilience ultimately to assist in informing targeted intervention and in developing a model to move the research area forward as a whole. A cross-disciplinary understanding of and approach to individual resilience in the workplace would allow to better understand the mechanism of why some people bounce back from adverse events whereas others’ well-being declines. We propose a resilience framework with antecedents considering psychological (cognitive and emotional) and physiological correlates (cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and metabolic). </p>

Deconstructing the reinvention of operations management

PurposeThe purpose is to provide an intellectual history of Operations Management, particularly noting recent developments and its underlying continuity with earlier systems and thinking. Operations Management as a discipline identifies its “modern” incarnation as dating from the 1960s when it became more rigorous and managerially focused. This re-invention constructed a “narrative” that the profession still follows, yet a critical perspective reveals significant, though under-appreciated continuity with earlier theory and practice.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a comprehensive literature review and comparative analysis of historic developments in management and academia.FindingsIn the early 1900s, F. W. Taylor’s Shop Management established Operation Management, but its main component, Scientific Management, had stagnated by the 1950s. At that point, the rise of Management Science both reinvigorated Operations Management and threatened it with a competing new discipline. To compete Operations Management then modernized by redefining itself, reasserting its interest in several areas and co-opting Operational Research tools for those. It also contracted, withdrawing from areas considered vocational, or more suited to Industrial Engineering.Research limitations/implicationsThis historical overview shows the critical importance of drawing research agenda from practical managerial concerns.Practical implicationsPractitioners benefit from the intellectual rigor that academics provide and a historical perspective shows that the relationship has been mutually beneficial.Social implicationsThe disciplines of Operations Management, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering are complementary and competitive in addressing many problems that transcend their boundaries, and use common ideas and techniques. The demands of “academic rigor” have had a deleterious effect on the practical managerial relevance of these disciplines.Originality/valueA long-term, cross-disciplinary perspective provides a unique understanding of the research interests and practical orientations of these disciplines.

Three Different Ways to Skin a Cat: Financialization in the Emergence of National e-ID Solutions

The growing phenomenon of financialization influences an array of societal dimensions that go beyond the economic realm, to include public policy-making and information technology (IT). This study presents a cross-country analysis of the emergence of national electronic identification (e-ID) solutions as the result of interaction between the financial and the public sector in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Drawing on on-line sources, documents, and interviews with key actors in the three cases, we adopt a cross-disciplinary perspective by applying the lens of collective action theory to identify the role of interests, resources, and governance in the emergence of national e-ID solutions. Findings show that different governance solutions can emerge as the result of the convergence of interests and of interdependency of resources between the actors over time. We contribute to research on financialization and IT by proposing a dialectic process model and identifying five mechanisms that drive the process forward.

Identify the equilibrium of residential construction output

PurposeDue to the complicated nature of houses, the driving factors of the residential construction output can be investigated from different perspectives of interests. However, little research has provided an insight of the trend of the residential construction output from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The purpose of this paper is to identify the long-run equilibrium types of residential construction output, including external equilibrium, solo-market equilibrium and dual-market equilibrium.Design/methodology/approachA vector error correction model is applied into longitudinal data in the eight Australian states and territories to overview the regional variations of the residential construction output.FindingsThe empirical results show that the equilibrium of regional residential construction outputs in New South Wales and Victoria are determined by the external factors; the equilibrium in Western Australia is dominated by the construction market; and the equilibriums in the other five states and territories are influenced by both construction and house markets.Research limitations/implicationsThe simplified approach may overlook the detailed explanation of the external factors, such as regional population, economy, policy and so forth. Given this limitation, future studies can introduce the correspondingly variables as per research interests.Originality/valueImplementing the existing research into residential construction output and house supply, this research provides a simplified approach that demonstrates the linkage between construction and real estate sectors to identify the long-run equilibriums across regions. The underlying research sheds light in delivering inter-disciplinary research into the residential construction output.

High-Rise Urbanism in Contemporary Europe

This issue of Built Environment seeks to contribute to emerging debates around vertical urbanism by emphasizing the recent sharp upward trajectories of European cities. The skylines of London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, or even Saragossa and Malmo have been transformed dramatically by new tall buildings. This resurgence of skyscrapers that began in the early 2000s is a major phenomenon, both intense and widespread. This post-2000 boom is not necessarily exemplified in super-tall futuristic structures such as the ones that have been erected in Dubai or Beijing during this period, but in supposedly compact energy-efficient urban blocks according to new high-rise urbanism principles. Woven into the existing city fabric, these projects are often framed from the ground up, as initiatives to reinvigorate local deprived or de-industrialized neighbourhoods and to create urban amenities around transport nodes, embodying new sets of discourses and practices among built environment professionals and planning authorities.Through a combination of particular case-studies across Europe with wider analyses of national and international trends, this special issue investigates the relationship in European cities between high-rise built fabric and planning regimes, financial flows, cultural representations, technical innovations, and forms of modernist heritage. Developing cross-disciplinary perspectives and engagement with both academic and practitioner insights, the issue provides a sustained assessment of high-rise Europe in the context of a wider world of vertical urbanisms.

The future of labour law in Europe

This contribution contains the text of the first Roger Blanpain Lecture held at the Law Faculty of the University of Leuven on 8 May 2017. The Roger Blanpain Lecture Series aims to bring a renowned expert in the field of labour law and labour relations to the Law Faculty of the KU Leuven once per year. The idea is to stay close to the academic approach of professor Blanpain and the Institute for Labour Law, which implies the study of labour law from an international, comparative and cross-disciplinary perspective. The lecture aims to offer a ‘window to the world’ to our students and the Institute’s academic and professional partners as well as the wider public.

What is sustainability in the wine world? A cross-country analysis of wine sustainability frameworks

Sustainability is a paradigm that affects many sectors due to an increasing of stakeholders’ pressure, economic or political reasons. The wine industry is concerned about sustainability in both senses: it confronts threats from sustainability issues, such as climate change, chemical exposure and water and energy availability and its activities have their own impacts. In this sense, understanding sustainability in the wine world requires identifying definitions and principles, but also a review of current practices. This paper sets forth a cross-country analysis about current sustainability assessment frameworks in six countries (South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, US, Chile and France) in order to identify their main aspects, drivers and issues. A cross-analysis discusses the presentation, the scale, the scope, the governance, the deepness, the learning potential and the content, in a cross-disciplinary perspective. The common grounds are summarized in terms of main indicators linked with official guidelines. Most of the frameworks are certifications or labels in voluntary programs, using a qualitative approach to check compliance with guidelines, without proposing the improvement of sustainability performance. They are more focused on operation and on mitigating impact. All frameworks have indicators considering the main environmental issues to the wine industry. The frameworks development should move toward a more effective proposition for improving wine sustainability, in order to answer to the operational challenges with a strategic thinking. The analysis performed can contribute to the development of sustainability programs, improve current methods and encourage the diffusion of sustainability practices to the individuals or in terms of national programs.

Making Sense of an Elusive Concept: Academics’ Perspectives of Quality in Higher Education

Objective: Since the 1990s studies on how stakeholders in higher education perceive quality have burgeoned. Nevertheless, the majority of studies on perception of quality in higher education focus on students and employers. The few studies on academics’ perceptions of quality in higher education treat academics as a homogeneous group and, therefore, do not point out cross-disciplinary perspectives in perceptions of quality. This article explores how academics across six disciplines perceive quality in higher education. Method: The article is anchored in the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected from 14 purposely selected academics at Makerere University in Uganda and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings show that academics perceive quality in higher education as transformation, fitness for purpose, and exceptional. The findings further demonstrate that a stakeholder group or an individual stakeholder can subscribe to a notion of quality in higher education but voice divergent views on its variants. Similarly, the academic discipline, the perceived purpose of higher education, and the problems within a higher education system have an influence on stakeholders’ conception of quality in higher education. Conclusions: From the findings it can be inferred that quality in higher education defies a single definition and that stakeholders’ perceptions of quality do not take place in a vacuum. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: The multidimensional nature of quality and the contestations around it necessitate a multidimensional approach to assuring and assessing it.

The Ecology of Exercise: Mechanisms Underlying Individual Variation in Behavior, Activity, and Performance: An Introduction to Symposium.

SynopsisWild animals often engage in intense physical activity while performing tasks vital for their survival and reproduction associated with foraging, avoiding predators, fighting, providing parental care, and migrating. In this theme issue we consider how viewing these tasks as “exercise”—analogous to that performed by human athletes—may help provide insight into the mechanisms underlying individual variation in these types of behaviors and the importance of physical activity in an ecological context. In this article and throughout this issue, we focus on four key questions relevant to the study of behavioral ecology that may be addressed by studying wild animal behavior from the perspective of exercise physiology: (1) How hard do individual animals work in response to ecological (or evolutionary) demands?; (2) Do lab-based studies of activity provide good models for understanding activity in free-living animals and individual variation in traits?; (3) Can animals work too hard during “routine” activities?; and (4) Can paradigms of “exercise” and “training” be applied to free-living animals? Attempts to address these issues are currently being facilitated by rapid technological developments associated with physiological measurements and the remote tracking of wild animals, to provide mechanistic insights into the behavior of free-ranging animals at spatial and temporal scales that were previously impossible. We further suggest that viewing the behaviors of non-human animals in terms of the physical exercise performed will allow us to fully take advantage of these technological advances, draw from knowledge and conceptual frameworks already in use by human exercise physiologists, and identify key traits that constrain performance and generate variation in performance among individuals. It is our hope that, by highlighting mechanisms of behavior and performance, the articles in this issue will spur on further synergies between physiologists and ecologists, to take advantage of emerging cross-disciplinary perspectives and technologies.

Adam Burke and Pbm Plastics: Message in a Bottle

This case is used in Darden's EMBA and Global EMBA programs. It works well in courses dealing with turnaround specialists or change management. With a cross-disciplinary perspective, this field-based case uses the experience of a company with a supplier that fails to meet its production commitment to set the stage for an analysis of supplier power, human capital, operational effectiveness, and leadership. It offers a discussion around the interaction between people, process, and purpose, and provides an opportunity to introduce basic operational, market, management communication, and leadership terms that can be explored in following classes. The material includes an overview of a manufacturing business and the issues involved in day-to-day production. Excerpt UVA-OM-1491 Rev. Mar. 21, 2013 ADAM BURKE AND PBM PLASTICS: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE Between his responsibilities at his new job and trips to his old company, Adam Burke, former president of PBM Plastics, was scrambling. Only four months after selling his disposable preformed baby bottle liner business in August 2005, the buyers were unable to meet orders. Ordinarily, that might not be a former owner's problem—but his current company, PBM Products, had a supplier exclusivity contract with his former firm, which was now part of a company called SparPack. Within weeks, PBM Products needed to ship SparPack product to retailers or default and incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines—not to mention let customers down. On top of that, pulling the contract from his former company could put the SparPack division out of business and all his former employees out of work. Given the scarcity of liner suppliers, Burke was in a bind—there was no one else who could meet the obligation. Was there something he could do to get his former company back on track in time? What should he do next? Disposable Baby Bottles . . .