Interpretive Perspective Research Articles

The professionalization of a national sport organization as event hosting legacy

PurposeThe role of a national sport organization (NSO) is prominent when a country hosts a mega-sporting event since the organization is responsible for athlete preparation and coordinating with other organizations to ensure successful hosting. This research examines the impact of hosting a mega-sporting event on the professionalization of an NSO and its consequences on the sport, using the case of the Korea Ice Hockey Association (KIHA).Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes a qualitative single-case study approach grounded in an interpretivist perspective. Data for this study included semi-structured interviews with key individuals (n = 16) and archival materials.FindingsThe findings indicate that hosting a mega-sporting event was a strong catalyst for the professionalization of the KIHA. KIHA underwent changes in its organizational structures and processes, human resources and interorganizational linkages, all of which contributed to significant transformations in the sport during the event preparation period.Originality/valueThe study elucidates how hosting can lead to increased professionalization and its subsequent impact on the sport. However, the current case demonstrates that the KIHA overlooked certain impacts of professionalization (e.g. internal conflicts and neglected parts of the sport) that should be enacted in order to further the sport’s development. Therefore, NSOs and event stakeholders must carefully assess their sport’s environment and attributes.

Stained glass ceilings: Gender and race in accounting academia in Brazil

AbstractBrazil is divided into five large regions marked by profound economic and social inequalities. Such vast differences can make people feel like “foreigners”, even though they live in the same country. Here, meritocracy is seen as the criterion for assessing and promoting people, which is conflicting given the absurdly unequal contexts in the country. This choice widens inequalities of gender, race and, above all, social class. Between 2000 and 2018, Brazil experienced profound social transformations. Female participation in the labor market grew, although there were still barriers to access and professional advancement for women, which were exacerbated in the case of black women. When it came to leadership positions, they were almost always blocked by processes which depended on subjective decisions from evaluators. These circumstances occur through daily confrontations with processes of sexualisation and racialisation. These transformations were followed in the most recent period by clear setbacks, deepened by the COVID‐19 pandemic and intense political polarization. A milestone in terms of Esperançar, a verb proposed by Paulo Freire (1992), were the 2022 presidential elections, understood as a process of re‐democratisation. The social achievements that have been maintained, however, are ‘advances’ that work differently when the diversity of the population and regional differences are taken into account. With this particular context in mind, the aim of this study is to investigate how the “glass ceiling” phenomenon has been present in the daily interactions and academic trajectory of black women in the accounting field. The question that underpinned this study was: how can the academic accounting environment, considering practice and discourse, boost or hinder the “glass ceiling” phenomenon in the professional career of black female academics? This is a qualitative study with a post‐structuralist approach, based on the adoption of auto‐ethnographic and oral history techniques. The evidence was built up through semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews with female academics who had graduated from postgraduate programmes. This corpus was analyzed from an interpretivist perspective and the findings reveal that the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is present in accounting academia in Brazil and is expressed in barriers specific to the field. Barriers are erected in processes of closure, blocking the path of black women who aim to succeed in prestigious academic spaces, regardless of their level of qualification. In this way, they are conceptualized as “stained glass ceilings”, because the barriers become visible and concrete in a country where racism is a structuring element of social relations.

Suspect, Officer, and Situational Dynamics Underlying Violent Resistance Against Police: A Critical Interpretative Synthesis

ABSTRACT Assaults against police officers pose a significant challenge to law enforcement safety, yet the factors driving such violence remain complex and underexplored. This critical interpretative synthesis (CIS) is the first literature review to examine violent resistance from an interpretative perspective. By reviewing 38 studies from 2000 to 2024, identified through various methods, we develop a theoretical framework to better understand and contextualize factors linked to assaults against officers. Results indicate that certain suspect, officer, and situational characteristics are linked to violent resistance, both independently and through their interactions. These interactions between predictors help explain inconsistencies across studies. Additionally, we note a lack of diversity in how risk and protective factors of violent resistance have been studied. We suggest areas for future research and offer recommendations to inform police practices and improve officer safety.

Data driven cost-sensitive boosted tree for interpretable banking systemic risk prediction

Systemic risk (SR) in the banking sector poses a significant threat to both the financial system and the real economy. Its inherent characteristics of nonlinearity, non-equilibrium, and interconnectedness make it challenging to analyze using conventional statistical methods. In this paper, a cost-sensitive gradient boosting tree algorithm, FLXGBoost, is proposed for predicting SR. FLXGBoost considers the boosted tree, XGBoost as the base framework, boosting trees as the fundamental framework, guaranteeing the robustness of SR prediction. Additionally, to tackle the challenge of extreme data imbalance prevalent in SR prediction tasks, a cost-aware loss function, focal loss, is embedded into the boosted tree to enable FLXGBoost a risk-aware fashion. Moreover, a tree-derived interpretable algorithm SHAP is incorporated into this cost-sensitive solution, making FLXGBoost an accurate and interpretable risk-aware model. Experimental results on a financial risk prediction dataset pertaining to banking SR evince the capacity of FLXGBoost to significantly reduce the misclassification rate of risk banks, thereby mitigating substantial losses attributed to erroneous predictions of risky scenarios. Moreover, compared with classical imbalanced machine learning-based SR prediction approaches, the diverse evaluation metrics of FLXGBoost show that it is a competitive solution for accurate SR prediction. Besides, the explanatory analysis further demonstrates that FLXGBoost is a promising solution to address the issue of biased predictions in imbalanced banking SR in the interpretation perspective.

Rearticulating Realism: Chains of Reference and Epistemic Success in the Sciences

In recent decades, the long-standing debate about the scientific status of the social sciences and their explanatory nature has been rearticulated through perspectivist, interpretivist, and mechanistic approaches. Whereas mechanistic approaches advocate for realism in sociological models, perspectivist and interpretivist perspectives challenge this by emphasizing the multiple interpretations and meaningful nature of social reality, as opposed to the natural sciences. Currently, the metatheoretical discussion centers on competing views regarding the relationship between theories and the objects they address. In contrast to this focus on theories, I propose a rearticulation of Hacking’s interventionist argument. I argue that all sciences share a common epistemic activity—the construction of chains of reference—which points to shared notions of success. This paves the way for realism through a practice-based argument that does not originate from ontological disputes, suggesting that our best theories are those literally embedded in scientific practice.

Cultural Interpretation and Traditional Perspectives in Ahmed Yerima’s Akudaaya

Culture remains a clear indicator of the organic identity of mankind. Cultural materials are therefore one of the dominant sources from which playwrights have continued to draw. However, an attempt to dramatise certain inherent cultural practices of a people often comes with challenges especially for a playwright who does not belong to such culture. Hence, this study examines Ahmed Yerima’s Akudaaya with the view to define the cultural trajectories and traditional dispositions reflected in the play. Through textual analysis, the study analyses the selected play-text. It is revealed that Ahmed Yerima’s attempt to reflect the cultural identity and traditional perspectives of the Yoruba people is manifested in his dramatisation of the symbolic representation of the king’s crown; the cultural interpretation of akudaaya and the dichotomy of language; cultural norms and the significant position of Iyalode; ritual aesthetics and the spirito-cosmic identity of the Yoruba people. The study concludes that Ahmed Yerima’s Akudaaya remains one of the notable plays written by a Nigerian playwright which reflects the cultural identity of the akudaaya view among the Yoruba people. However, Yerima is able to achieve cultural reconstruction and initiate a challenge to create cultural consciousness through his play-text.

Lovely tents: a Jewish ecospiritual perspective on urban homeless encampments

ABSTRACT Engaging with Jewish texts through a lens of ecospiritual social work provides a framework to incorporate housing rights and homelessness into ecospirituality. This article deploys a Jewish Ecospirituality perspective to consider the issue of urban homeless encampments as a spiritual and environmental justice issue. This article incorporates biblical interpretation and ecospiritual perspectives to situate a Jewish understanding of ecospirituality. It draws connections between the diasporic history of the Jewish people and the displacement found in urban park encampments utilizing Jewish environmental ethics and ecospiritual social work theory to deconstruct the rightful use of public space in the context of urban citizenship.

Decolonizing the Academic Study of Science and Religion? Engaging Wynter’s Epistemic Disobedience

With roots in the early 1960s, decoloniality as a sub-sect of postcolonial studies made successful attempts at redefining and unearthing essentially Western conceptualizations of knowledge and knowledge formation across different fields of endeavor. Many academic disciplines have benefited from decolonial studies’ self-reflective theories and deconstructive approaches, and religion and science should not be an exception. Within religion and science as an academic field, Western and European intellectual frames have been overwhelmingly presented as definitive of globalized perspectives and knowledge, especially the definition of “religion” and “science” within the academic field. The subtle but evident impact of adopting Western epistemology as ‘the’ definitive reference frame for all peoples and cultures is the transposition of colonial and overtly Eurocentric conceptualizations and definitions of what religion and science mean as perfunctory for what religion and science should mean within non-Western frames as well as a disregard for the latter. This has led to the presentation (or overrepresentation, according to Sylvia Wynter) of a single homogenized perspective for meaning-making and interpretation of topics and themes within the field, a decision which has not only significantly impacted the field, in terms of ongoing dialectics about the relationship between religion and science, but which has also seen the exclusion of other forms of beneficial epistemic reference frames, which have been viewed as subaltern. Drawing from Wynter’s epistemic disobedience, this paper highlights decolonial approaches for engaging in the academic study of science and religion, and which will advance the path towards delinking the field from Euro-Western conceptualizations. This will unravel the rich epistemic formation within non-Western knowledge frames and the inclusion of which will greatly enrich and redefine the academic study of religion and science in the days ahead.

Identity work responses to workplace stigmatization: Power positions, authenticity, religious coping and religious accommodation for skilled practising Muslim professionals

AbstractDespite the challenges Muslims face because of their stigmatized religious identity, little is known about how they navigate that identity in the workplace. Adopting an interpretivist perspective of identity work, this study investigates this issue by building on two‐round in‐depth interviews (35 in round‐one and 21 in round‐two) with skilled practising British Muslim professionals. It extends work on power positions to show the privileges those in senior managerial positions have, including assertiveness and control over workplace interactions and outcomes. It further advances understanding of authenticity, revealing that, despite their experiences of stigmatization, these professionals tend to remain true to their religious identity, openly practising their religion in the workplace. They perceive identity re‐interpretation to be part of authenticity, and a responsibility to contest religious stigma. Importantly, this study conceptualizes proactive religious coping as an identity work response to workplace stigmatization, theorized in this organizational context as turning to God and religious rituals for meaning, comfort, resilience and reconciliation, whilst also being proactive and fighting to challenge experiences of stigmatization. However, unlike for other stigmatized groups, inclusive organizational practices, particularly religious accommodation, are not a driver for authenticity, but rather a signal for environment‐fit and authenticity is instead driven by religious identity.

Understanding human–technology interaction: evolving boundaries

PurposeThis paper explores the intricate evolution of human–machine interaction within the framework of Society 5.0, highlighting how technological advancements influence human behavior and societal progress.Design/methodology/approachA multidimensional framework is developed through a qualitative approach to analyze the evolution of human–technology interaction. This innovative conceptual model provides a comprehensive understanding of these dynamics.FindingsThe proposed model unveils a significant shift from perceiving technology as a mere tool to acknowledging its profound influence on daily routines and potential enhancements. This revelation underscores the critical role of human-centric strategies, enlightening us about the evolving nature of technology.Research limitations/implicationsThe study synthesizes existing research to present a comprehensive framework for understanding human–machine interaction, providing insights that can inform future research and theory development.Practical implicationsThis study equips policymakers, researchers and practitioners with actionable strategies to enhance technology use. By incorporating human-centric approaches, addressing issues such as technostress and promoting effective digital knowledge management, this research empowers the audience with practical solutions.Social implicationsThe paper underscores the broader impact of technology on societal progress. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating human-centric strategies in technology implementation to promote fairness, inclusivity and overall societal well-being.Originality/valueThis paper introduces an innovative conceptual model based on a multidimensional framework to analyze the complex evolution of human–technology interaction. It enriches the ongoing debate by highlighting the nuanced relationship between humans and technology, addressing significant gaps in existing literature and offering an original interpretative perspective.

The Impact of Your Leadership in Human Resource Management: An Exploratory Study on the Oil Marketing Company

The importance of the marketing function at board level is often underestimated and its role in driving change in HR is often undervalued. This research examines how marketing can partner with organizational leadership for a mutually beneficial exchange of marketing skills and capabilities to be able to realign human resources quickly enough to deal with shifts in the external business environment and create a sustainable future for the business. The current research explores the concept of “marketing leadership” from an interpretive perspective that challenges the traditional view of marketing and leadership as two separate domains and offers a comprehensive approach to human resource management. The descriptive survey method was used for this research, and the research population was the oil marketing company. The current research assumed that marketing leadership affects human resources management. The research concluded that marketing leadership greatly affects human resources management and its dimensions, with an average effect of (0.52). This indicates a high and significant impact of marketing leadership on human resources management.

Revisiting the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy of Porous Electrodes in Li‐ion Batteries by Employing Reference Electrode

AbstractElectrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), characterized by its non‐destructive and in situ nature, plays a crucial role in comprehending the thermodynamic and kinetic processes occurring within Li‐ion batteries. However, there is a lack of consistent and coherent physical interpretations for the EIS of porous electrodes. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct thorough investigations into the underlying physical mechanisms of EIS. Herein, by employing reference electrode in batteries, we revisit the associated physical interpretation of EIS at different frequencies. Combining different battery configurations, temperature‐dependent experiments, and elaborated distribution of relaxation time analysis, we find that the ion transport in porous electrode channels and pseudo‐capacitance behavior dominate the high‐frequency and mid‐frequency impedance arcs, respectively. This work offers a perspective for the physical interpretation of EIS and also sheds light on the understanding of EIS characteristics in other advanced energy storage systems.

Changes in Korea-Japan medical exchange through Joseon Tongsinsa during the late Joseon period : A focus on medical conversation from a translation and interpretation perspective

Changes in Korea-Japan medical exchange through Joseon Tongsinsa during the late Joseon period : A focus on medical conversation from a translation and interpretation perspective

TBMM’de Siyasal Temsilin Bir Görünümü: Demokrat Parti Örneği (1950-1960 Dönemi)

In representative democracies, it is important that the existence and functioning of political systems are based on effective representativeness. National assemblies are one of the mechanisms through which the representativeness of political systems can be observed. In this study, the ability of the parliaments of the Democratic Party governments, which were formed as a result of the general elections held after the transition of Turkish political life to the multi-party era, to represent the social structure is the subject of this study. In this study, which deals with the national assemblies established after the general elections of 1950, 1954 and 1957, the assumption is that the sociological appearance of the TBMM established in the relevant periods in terms of representing the social structure differs from the previous periods and an analysis is made through secondary data with an interpretivist perspective. It can be stated that the representativeness of the national parliament as a mechanism of political representation is analysed on the basis of four factors: the level of participation in elections, electoral laws and electoral systems, the nomination methods of parties and the socio-demographic data of MPs such as education, occupation and age. Among the conclusions reached as a result of the analysis, it can be shown that the national assemblies established after the general elections of 1950, 1954 and 1957 were limited in reflecting the social diversity of the period in terms of socio-demographic aspects and had an appearance far from the principle of justice in representation in the political context. Key Words: Political Representation, Social Structure, Democrat Party.

Protocol for the process evaluation of the GOAL trial: investigating how comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) improves patient-centred goal attainment in older adults with chronic kidney disease in the outpatient setting

IntroductionThe GOAL Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (NCT04538157) is now underway, investigating the impact of comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) for frail older people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The primary outcome...

Teachers’ views on the potential of school science clubs for enhancing their learning

ABSTRACT Background The teaching staff learns as a result of their daily teaching practice, and yet there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of extracurricular activities within the school, such as science clubs, on the professional growth of science teachers. Purpose This study is proposed to deepen the understanding of how teachers perceive science clubs, what learning they obtain from them, and what factors contribute to promoting this learning. Sample Five experienced science teachers involved in coordinating school science clubs participated in the study. They were all experienced science teachers with some experience in running a science club. Design and methods The study may most accurately be described as a descriptive-qualitative study with a comprehensive scope. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews. The collected information was analysed from a descriptive and interpretative perspective using techniques specific to content analysis. Results The results show that teachers value science clubs as an opportunity to enhance both their content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, a space to reconsider what it means to be a science teacher, to get to know and connect more with their students, and to collaborate with other colleagues. Conclusion It is concluded that the study provides evidence that the learning acquired in science club activities complements and expands the interviewed teachers' expertise and contributes to their professional development in all three dimensions: personal, social, and professional.

Landscape in the Twentieth Century Composing in the Aspect of Performing Interpretation

The aim of the study is to cover the topic of landscape in the composer’s practice of the 20th century from the perspective of performing interpretation, as a complex artistic phenomenon consisting of a number of elements. The following research methods were chosen: monitoring the processes of performance of works; systematization of video sources; audio analysis; comparison and synthesis. The conclusions of the study were theses that emphasize the importance of: a deep sense of style, which includes works dedicated to the landscape; perfect performance technique; a creative approach to the pace and nature of the interpretation; the ability of musicians to create a special atmosphere of natural pictures in the sound fabric. The academic novelty of the article is researching the landscape in academic music of the 20th century from the perspective of performance interpretation as a single complex multi-component system. Its practical significance is emphasized by the understanding of the key components of the process of performing such works. Keywords: miniature, components of interpretation, timbre, choral style, dynamic shades

Challenges and Opportunities in Telephone Interpreting: A Study on The Perspectives of Interpreters

Challenges and Opportunities in Telephone Interpreting: A Study on The Perspectives of Interpreters

Se la ricerca si fonde con l’esperienza sul campo: la formidabile eredità pedagogica di Enzo Catarsi

Based on the author’s view and the resulting interpretive perspective, this paper retraces some important moments in Enzo Catarsi’s biography, while placing them in the season of both turbulent and fruitful innovative vitality that marked Italian early childhood pedagogy at the turn of the century. The emergence of nursery schools and the recognition of their educational value, the integrated ECEC services, family education experiences, the passion for documenting and enhancing Tuscan educational experiences: all facts that represent a source of inspiration leading to uphold the value of a human and professional story, built on a combination of fieldwork and academic reflection that still offers testimony and example.

Challenges in the Transition from Acute Hospital Care to Home for Spanish-Speaking Latino Patients with TBI and Families: Perspectives of Healthcare Providers and Interpreters.

Language-based disparities negatively impact patient outcomes. Spanish-speaking Latino patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) transitioning home from acute hospital care and their families have poor TBI-related outcomes; further, they have significant difficulties navigating the healthcare system due to care fragmentation and limited provider support. These challenges are exacerbated by language barriers. There are disproportionately fewer bilingual providers and interpreters in the U.S. healthcare system for patients with TBI for whom English is not their primary language. Although Spanish-speaking Latino patients with TBI and their families communicate with healthcare providers using interpreters on a regular basis, limited research has explored the healthcare delivery perspective. The purpose of this study was to understand the perspectives of healthcare providers and interpreters regarding their experience caring for or supporting Spanish-speaking Latino patients with TBI and their families during the transition home from acute hospital care. This qualitative descriptive study included 10 bilingual (English and Spanish-speaking) participants: 7 interdisciplinary providers and 3 interpreters; findings were analyzed using rapid qualitative analysis to inform intervention adaptation. Four themes were identified: 1) language misalignment decreases health literacy and increases length of stay; 2) TBI-related cognitive impairments, coupled with language differences, make communication challenging; 3) unique social contributors to health directly decrease health equity; and 4) recommendations to improve access and justice in transitional care. There are multiple opportunities to improve transitional care support provided to Spanish-speaking Latino patients with TBI and their families in a manner that is not currently being addressed in research or in practice.