Parallel Themes Research Articles

Acculturation Experiences Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Immigrants in Canada

In the current study, we used a grounded theory methodology to understand the acculturation process of LGBT immigrants in Canada. Results revealed two parallel themes: Cultural Identity Development and Sexual and Gender Identity Development. Heterosexism and cissexism in the culture of origin was a central phenomenon in the development of the cultural, sexual, and gender aspects of LGBT immigrant identity. Moreover, LGBT immigrants’ culture of origin and Canadian culture influenced their sexual and gender identity development before and after immigration. Results suggest that many LGBT immigrants assume a Western orientation as a coping response to heterosexism and cissexism in their culture of origin, even before immigration occurs. The current study identified the perceived challenges and advantages that LGBT immigrants experience during the acculturation process as well as various acculturation outcomes. We discuss clinical implications and future research directions in light of the results.

RPG method improving business games

The business game methodology is applied for the best universities in the world and has been improved itself throughout the years. Using simulated backgrounds, the players live some experiences that could live in their professional future and take decisions to have success in the game. As all research stream, business game’s evolution not only has to prove your methods and benefits, but also has to know your criticisms. This paper studies these criticisms about the teaching model, specifically the fact that a round of decisions forces the student to take a decision, without he or she realized the real necessity of it. A business game literature review is needed so, and also about some parallel themes that could increase the knowledge and identify news alternatives for the criticisms, mainly about the role-playing-games method characteristics, proposing a new direction for the following researches focusing the improvement of the learning based in games.

Introduction

Recent news brings more and more reminders that we live in troubled times, with human suffering and displacement on a massive scale brought on by natural as well as political causes. In addition to the recent hurricanes and earthquakes, our sense of living in a turbulent moment is enhanced by ever larger mass shootings and intensifying concern about nuclear weapons. Even our classic means of escape from political worries, like sports, remind us through the NFL players' protests of police treatment of black citizens that racial injustice is something some Americans cannot simply choose to escape. Trying to understand the dynamics and precursors of our current moment is an important yet daunting response to such turmoil. In this spirit of analysis and understanding, we present a special issue of Soundings on “Hope and Fear.” Just after the 2016 presidential election and the divisions it highlighted within the US, Carroll College organized an interdisciplinary conference on this theme, and a small selection of essays given there have been revised for this journal. Dane Cash of Carroll College was a conference organizer and proposed this special issue. He serves as guest editor and provides a contextualizing essay about the conference and overviews of the featured articles.The goal of these selected articles is to offer helpful insight into our current moment by looking backward and forward simultaneously and drawing on philosophy, political theory, literary criticism, and historical events to spur this reflection. Pondering these goals, I was reminded of Nathan Bracher's article, “The Twentieth Century and the Lessons of History,” in Soundings 100.3. Bracher argues that “while rightly remaining wary of glibly formulated ‘lessons of history,’ we cannot and should not eschew the complex, never-ending task of learning from the crimes of the past if we are to achieve more lucid, ethically informed approaches to the present and projections for the future” (2017: 255). To achieve this goal, Bracher recommends: “Rather than searching for ready-made, clear cut “remedies,” we should undertake a never-ending series of analyses and reflections while continually striving to achieve a less violent and conflicted world” (2017: 254). I would like to suggest one such series of analyses and reflections framed by the order of articles in this special issue of Soundings. By alternating theoretical pieces with specific case studies, we can see some common themes and patterns sharply illuminated. The first two articles, by Elvira Roncalli and Max Uphaus, take up the problem of totalitarianism and the possible antidote to it when diverse groups talk and work together. Min Seong Kim's complementary discussion of the political theories of Ernesto Laclau and Alan Badiou as Sisyphean and Promethean conceptions of political struggle is thought provoking on its own. Considering it in conjunction with Patrick O'Connor's exploration of the Danville tobacco riot of 1883, we can see the legacy of those intertwined racial and economic tensions that O'Connor describes surviving in the “hegemonic articulation” of our current political divisions. Finally, Jason Reddoch's definition of a politically engaged Stoic perspective puts in counterpoint the decidedly non-Stoic fears that Dane Cash traces in the political opinion journalism during the Korean War that echo clearly again in fears about nuclear weapons in North Korea today. Bringing different pairs of articles in conversation by reading them adjacently could emphasize other parallel themes beyond my suggestions here. While we may currently lack much in the way of good news, we certainly have limitless permutations for analysis of our social ills, and, we hope, some insights from these considerations can lead to positive change.

Creating Collaborative Learning Opportunities for Indigenous Youth with Archaeology-Based Environmental Education

AbstractArchaeologists are in a unique position to promote heritage and preservation through environmental education, the fundamentals of which have overlapping and parallel themes in archaeology education and outreach. Recently, successful community-based collaborative research and archaeology fieldwork initiatives between archaeologists and Native American/First Nations communities have prompted tribal leaders to pursue ways for youth in their communities to engage in contemporary cultural and natural resources work, thus inspiring future stewardship and introducing youth to professional pathways. With the guidance of archaeologists and tribal community educators, youth can participate in authentic, hands-on archaeological activities that place them into the roles of scientists and researchers and allow them to interpret their own archaeological heritage. A July 2015 partnership between archaeologists and the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin provided a place-based archaeological learning experience at a site area that was personally relevant to the student participants. A solid and collaborative planning process between archaeologists and tribal staff contributed to a successful workshop where all parties met their goals of strengthening partnerships and providing an enriching experience for the students. The integration of science-based archaeology with a traditional cultural learning environment provided a comfortable setting that resulted in noticeable engagement and enthusiasm.

WPA - social justice for the mentally ill.

WPA - social justice for the mentally ill.

Intellectual Property Cell Creations by Indian Entities

By and large, the applications/invention disclosures prepared by the inventors are not examined prior to their filing by the attorneys. Inventors and attorneys look into the application thereafter only at the time of prosecution. Indian entities (IE) must develop an internal system to prepare robust and enforceable invention disclosures. In today’s scenario, it has become important for the Indian entities to set up an intellectual property (IP) Cell. There is no other way out. Society at large will be beneficiary. Indian patents will have more value and will attract licensees. Infringers will think twice. There will be an all-round awareness on IP issues. IP management and leveraging it for successful commercial ventures will receive a fillip and in the comity of global scientific community, the Indian R&D, by virtue of its growing IP metric, will be viewed and treated with respect.IE’s preparedness in the IP matters has been analyzed and the gap areas have been identified. Such an IP Cell will provide the required help to the inventors and help IE handle its IP obligations. IP Cell may be designed under parallel concurrent themes with a view to ensure an independent functioning of IP Cell. Further, IP Cell would have choice of multiple service providers in situations like conflict of interest or quality issues. The activities by each IE may be different and it is quite likely that not every activity has been listed herein. Therefore, the IEs may have to evolve their own and unique scope of work. Similarly, it is time that even Indian IP firms keen to work with IEs may have to reorganize themselves and project their firms as not merely the service providers, but as a contributor in the national economy by working to help the inventors and IEs. Ultimately, IEs as well as Indian IP firms have to prepare themselves to identify the emerging challenges to overcome them in the process of developing a future India.

SYNAT i ΩΨR - ku ekosystemowi wsparcia informacyjnego nauki i uczelni polskich

Cel/teza: Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie głównych rezultatów zadania badawczego SYNAT (Sys­tem Nauki i Techniki), które zrealizowano w ramach grantu Narodowego Centrum Badań i Rozwoju (nr SP/I/1/77065/10), pt. Utworzenie uniwersalnej, otwartej, repozytoryjnej platformy hostingowej i komunikacyjnej dla sieciowych zasobów wiedzy dla nauki, edukacji i otwartego społeczeństwa wiedzy, a w szczególności zaprezentowanie systemu zarządzania bazą wiedzy naukowej ΩΨR (Omega-Psir), przeznaczonego dla uczelni i placówek badawczych. SYNAT może stanowić punkt wyjścia do utwo­rzenia ekosystemu wsparcia informacyjnego nauki i edukacji w Polsce. Koncepcja/metody badań: Metodę realizacji zadania badawczego SYNAT oparto na prowadzeniu prac równolegle w dwóch wątkach, którymi były: (a) badania naukowe m.in. nad strukturalnymi i semantycznymi zagadnieniami reprezentacji informacji i wiedzy (w postaci tekstowej i multime­dialnej), nad nowymi algorytmami semantycznego pozyskiwania, wyszukiwania, odkrywania, analizy i przetwarzania wiedzy, nad algorytmami semantycznego przetwarzania języka naturalnego, ze szczególnym naciskiem na metody eksploracji tekstów w języku polskim, nad modelami komunika­cji naukowej w środowiskach otwartych oraz nad ochroną i bezpieczeństwem otwartych systemów informacyjnych dla nauki, oraz (b) budowa prototypowych sieciowych, otwartych platform informa­tycznych o wysokim poziomie niezawodności, skalowalności i bezpieczeństwa oraz interoperacyjności z podobnymi platformami zagranicznymi. Zadaniem tych platform jest dostarczenie użytkownikom usług informacyjnych (funkcji i aplikacji) wspierających działalność naukowo-badawczą i edukacyjną oraz zapewnienie skutecznej i przyjaznej komunikacji oraz dostępu do posiadanych zasobów wiedzy i usług, i ponadto – dostępu do innych systemów krajowych i zagranicznych z możliwością wymiany informacji w różnych formatach. Wyniki i wnioski: Prace w ramach zadania SYNAT doprowadziły do zdefiniowania potrzeb w zakresie usług, metod, procedur i narzędzi niezbędnych do informacyjnego wspierania badań naukowych i edukacji. Do niedawna oczekiwania badaczy w stosunku do systemów informacyjnych były sto­sunkowo proste, głównie o charakterze bibliograficznym. Obecnie pracownicy naukowi spodzie­wają się także dokumentów źródłowych, pomocy w formułowaniu kwerend i heurystyk, wstępnej analizy zebranych danych i informacji, informacji bibliometrycznej, możliwości repozytoryjnego umieszczania własnych prac, informacji faktograficznej o trendach badawczych i przemysłowych oraz o trendach społecznych, a także danych o projektach, zespołach i placówkach badawczych oraz o możliwościach finansowania badań zarówno ze środków publicznych, jak i prywatnych. Nawet więcej – oczekuje się, że systemy informacyjne oferując wspomniane funkcje pokażą również relacje ekosystemami wsparcia informacyjnego zmieniając jakościowo sposób korzystania z informacji w badaniach. SYNAT, a zwłaszcza dwa jego najważniejsze komponenty, tj. portal INFONA i system ΩΨR wychodzą naprzeciw tym oczekiwaniom. Oryginalność/wartość poznawcza: Wyniki naukowe (metody, algorytmy i architektury systemów), platformy oraz systemy informatyczne i informacyjne, które są rezultatem realizacji zadania SYNAT mają charakter innowacyjny, kładąc nacisk na semantyczne, sieciowe i spersonalizowane podejście do problemów integracji usług informacyjnych dla nauki i edukacji, tworząc solidną podstawę do dalszych prac nad budową ekosystemu informacyjnego dla nauki i edukacji polskiej.

Transition to self-management after pediatric heart transplant.

Little is known about adolescent transition to self-management after heart transplant. This gap in knowledge is critically important because the consequences of poor self-management are costly and life-threatening, often resulting in nonadherence, rejection, repeated hospitalizations, and poor quality of life. To explore how adolescents and parents perceive their roles in self-management, and how adolescents integrate self-management into their daily lives and navigate the transition from parent-dominated to self-management. Qualitative descriptive design, using online focus groups. Online focus groups using itracks, an online qualitative software program. A purposive sample of 4 adolescents, 13 to 21 years old, who were at least 6 months posttransplant, and of 6 parents of adolescent heart transplant recipients. Several parallel themes emerged from the parent and adolescent online focus groups. Managing medications was the predominant theme for both parents and adolescents. For the remaining themes, parents and adolescents expressed similar ideas that were categorized into parallel themes, which included staying on top of things/becoming independent, letting them be normal/being normal, and worries and stressors. The transition to self-management after heart transplant was a clear goal for both parents and adolescents. The transition is a shared responsibility between parents and adolescents with a gradual shift from parent-directed to self-management. The process of transition was not linear or smooth, and in several instances, parents described efforts to transfer responsibility to the adolescent only to take it back when complications arose. Additional research with a larger sample is needed in order to fully understand adolescent heart transplant recipients' transition to self-management.

International women physicians' perspectives on choosing an academic medicine career.

Concerns about recruiting physicians into academic careers is an international issue. A qualitative study with United States (US) women physicians revealed insights into how, when, and why physicians choose an academic career in medicine. The current study explored international women physicians’ perspectives on their career choice of academic medicine and determined if different themes emerged. We expanded the 2012 study of US women physicians by interviewing women physicians in Canada, Pakistan, Mexico, and Sweden to gain an international perspective on choosing an academic career. Interviews were thematically analyzed against themes identified in the previous study. Based on themes identified in the study of US physicians, qualitative analysis of 7 international women physicians revealed parallel themes for the following areas: Why academic medicine? Fit; People; Aspects of academic health centre environment. How the decision to enter academic medicine was made? Decision-making style; Emotionality When the decision to enter academic medicine was made? Practising physician; Fellowship; Medical student. Work-life balance, choosing academic medicine by default, serendipity, intellectual stimulation, mentors, research and teaching were among the areas specifically highlighted. Conclusion: Parallel themes exist regarding how, why, and when US and international women physicians choose academic medicine as a career path.

The Economics of Rural and Agricultural Ecosystem Services: Purism versus Practicality

Ecosystem goods and services (we henceforth refer to these solely as services] have been defined in general terms as outputs of natural systems that benefit society (Daily 1997, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005] or, more precisely, as the flows from an ecosystem that are of relatively immediate benefit to humans and occur naturally (Brown et al. 2 0 0 7, p. 3 3 4]. Economists have long recognized capacity of natural systems to provide market and nonmarket benefits. Models to quantify these benefits have existed for decades (Krutilla 1967], The more recent concept of ecosystem services provides an alternative framework through which these values may be conceptualized and communicated. Among factors that distinguish an ecosystem service framework from traditional economic analysis, at least in principle, is a more fundamental multidisciplinary focus, including an emphasis on both ecological production and economic value (Johnston et al. forthcoming, Wainger and Mazzotta 2011], The ecosystem service perspective also seeks to distinguish benefits provided by natural ecosystems from those provided by human capital, labor, and technology, thereby providing a more direct perspective on benefits provided by natural systems (Bateman et al. 2011, Brown et al. 2007, Johnston and Russell 2011],One advantage of ecosystem service framework is its resonance with noneconomists, including ecologists and others who study biophysical processes through which ecosystems produce outcomes that are valued by society (Brown et al. 2007, Carpenter et al. 2009, Daily 1997], The framework provides a means by which to link changes in ecosystem processes and outputs to effects on social welfare, thereby facilitating cost-benefit analysis of policies and projects affecting natural systems (Wainger and Mazzotta 2011], Research in this area typically seeks to quantify tradeoffs and promote more efficient or socially beneficial policy outcomes. In part due to these attractive features, there has been an exponential rise in number of published papers on ecosystem services and related topics (Fisher etal. 2009] and numerous calls to incorporate ecosystem service information in policy analyses (e.g., Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 2011, Environmental Protection Agency 2009],Rural and Agricultural Ecosystem ServicesMuch of recent emphasis on ecosystem services has targeted services linked in some way to rural and agricultural ecosystems. These ecosystems both provide and rely upon a broad array of services (Dale and Polasky 2007, Swinton et al. 2007], Bergstrom and Ready (2009] reviewed two decades of research estimating value of agricultural amenity benefits in United States, many related to ecosystem services. Parallel themes appear in research related to economics and preservation of nonagricultural rural lands (Johnston and Swallow 2006], The multifunctional agriculture movement in United States and Europe similarly recognizes that agriculture provides benefits beyond traditional food, fiber, and fuel, including those related to ecological functions of agro-ecosystems (Batie 2003, Boody et al. 2005, Duke and Johnston 2010], Examples include provision of nutrient cycling, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, and recreational opportunities. As a heavily managed land use, agriculture is also source and recipient of numerous ecosystem disservices-effects on or of agriculture that directly or indirectly diminish human welfare.1Because many services and disservices of rural and agricultural ecosystems are realized outside organized markets, value of these services is often unrecognized or underappreciated (Swinton et al. 2007], Lack of recognition of these values in markets and policy is among primary causes of marketfailure in rural and agricultural systems and threats to agricultural sustainability (e. …

Small health pilgrimages: Place and practice at the holy well

While established pilgrimage sites have extensive literatures, holy wells are less well documented, yet remain significant sites of pilgrimage with healing associations within more localised settings (Rattue 1995). Health geographers describe such settings as therapeutic landscapes where established reputations for healing are central to the production of place (Gesler 2003). Drawing from a sample of holy wells in Ireland, the operation of holy wells as markers of mind/body/spirit health is explored through a deep mapping of place. Taking account of material, symbolic and inhabited dimensions of wells, they are explored under three parallel themes. Retreat is identified as a core aspect of the well visits informed by phenomenological engagements and material spaces of the well where stillness forms the basis of a spiritual health practice (Conradson 2007). The histories of the wells also contain surprisingly liminal and carnivalesque recreational elements wherein the sacred mingled regularly with the profane. Finally, well pilgrimages connect to a range of scale issues around their position as between special-and-everyday spaces within which heterogeneous healing practices emerge. In the sustenance and revival of holy well visits, the notion of the small pilgrimage as a performance of health emerges to broaden our understanding of the wider pilgrimage process.

The Evolution of Erastianism: Hugo Grotius’s Engagement with Thomas Erastus

This article tracts the development of Erastianism from the Heidelberg disciplinary controversy of 1568 to the works of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). Thomas Erastus (1524-1583), a Swiss-Reformed Physician and lay theologian working in the Electoral Palatinate, developed a theory of church-state relations which privileged the magistrate and denied independent disciplinary power to the church consistory. His program served as a counter-ideology to the prevailing disciplining urges of International Calvinism. Such Erastian ideas, whether from Erastus or other Swiss theorists such as Rudolf Gwalther, resonated with Dutch Libertines and Arminians before Grotius wrote his strongly Erastian Ordinum Pietas in 1613. While the Ordinum Pietas reveals only limited dependence on Erastus, other works of Grotius such as De Imperio display significant engagement or parallel themes with Erastus’s thought. “Grotian Erastianism,” with a healthy measure of Hebraism, is an apt descriptor for the seventeenth-century theories of church-state relations which favored the magistrate.

Materials Engineering with a Social Context: A course on Materials, Ethics, & Society

ABSTRACTA sophomore level Materials Engineering course entitled, “Materials, Ethics, & Society” at Cal Poly analyzes the interactions between technology and society, and emphasizes the communication of societal and ethical impacts of technology to diverse audiences. Students study materials in a historical context, not only to highlight specific materials science concepts, but also to explore societal-technology connections. Starting from the Stone Age, advances in civilizations have come about through discoveries and new uses of materials. World geography, history, and culture become intertwined with the casting of metals, alloy development, ceramics, and phase diagrams. Students highlight the social relevancy of materials throughout history, and seek parallel themes in today’s world. While learning about the development of the atomic bomb, students also examine the ethical dilemmas of the scientists and the current NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers. In addition, the role of the engineering profession is examined with the NAE Engineering Grand Challenges and current news items. Students investigate how materials engineering can help society through examples of appropriate technology solutions, such as designing porosity in ceramics for water filters and food storage pots. Students develop their analytical and communication skills by discussing C.P. Snow’s “two cultures” and debating a rationale for scientific literacy. Students are also trained in informal science learning in preparation for NanoDays with young and diverse audiences. At the same time, they learn about nano-scale science and technology principles, and the associated societal and ethical implications. The course culminates with student-created videos for the general public that highlight a material or technology of importance to society and integrates the material science with ethical, environmental, and societal dimensions.

Ciało Me, Wklęte W Korowód Istnienia…” O Poszukiwaniu „Słów Do Pieśni Bez Słów” Mieczysława Karłowicza / “My Body, Charmed And Blended Into The Pageant Of Life…” On Seeking Words For Mieczysław Karłowicz’S Eternal Song Without Words

The present article looks at the music of Mieczysław Karłowicz from the perspective of Bolesław Leśmian’s philosophical poetry. The aim of the discussion, however, is not to seek parallel themes or musical transpositions but to capture certain traits of ideological attitude, which is founded on the question about the meaning of human existence. Leśmian’s poetry is characterized by profound meditation on the mystery of existence, by the search for truth about man, and by familiarization with death through discovering its diverse manifestations in art, nature, and in life. His poems show a strong presence of mystical experience, the so-called “oceanic feeling” or “pantheistic experience of unity”, which was one of the leading motifs of Young Poland poetry. It was readily utilized by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Jan Kasprowicz, or Antoni Lange. In the symphonic music of Mieczysław Karłowicz we can recognize a similar type of sensitivity and emotional mood that perfectly harmonizes with the spiritual and artistic atmosphere of the period. His works reflect the tendency, characteristic of modernism, to cross boundaries and penetrate the mystery of being. Listening to this “song without words” is at the same time an encouragement to enter the world of values and human experiences, which is usually omitted by scholars in musicological analyses.

Willard Waller’s Sociology of Teaching Reconsidered

Willard Waller’s (1932/1976) classic account of what teaching does to teachers is examined through the lens of psychoanalytic theory in conjunction with Ovid’s myth of Narcissus. Parallel themes within the two texts are analyzed and interpreted as suggesting that narcissistic psychological processes played a part in distorting teachers’ personalities in the 1930s. Role expectations and tasks associated with being a teacher, it is suggested, reinforced a narcissistic pattern of behavior that influenced identity formation and teacher stereotypes. Transformation is considered in light of contemporary psychoanalytic understandings of narcissistic disturbances and interpretations of the Narcissus myth, recent relevant research in cognitive science, and implications for transforming educational practice.

Colour and Light, Illness and Death: A New Interpretation of Kafka’s Der Proceß by Barbara McKenzie (review)

Reviewed by: Colour and Light, Illness and Death: A New Interpretation of Kafka’s Der Proceß by Barbara McKenzie Roxane Riegler Barbara McKenzie, Colour and Light, Illness and Death: A New Interpretation of Kafka’s Der Proceß. Bern: Peter Lang, 2011. 351 pp. Since its publication in 1925, Franz Kafka’s Der Proceß has enjoyed a variety of interpretive approaches that has kept pace with the novel’s multiple layers of meaning: for instance, as an autobiographical representation of the author’s (inner) life, as an expression of his personal or metaphysical guilt and desire for punishment, as a critique of the Austro-Hungarian bureaucratic system, or as a prophetic view of National Socialism. McKenzie’s careful and overall fascinating study adds a new and unexpected dimension to existing analyses. Against a more traditional approach to the text as a series of dreamlike scenes, the author maintains that Der Proceß consists of a series of anxiety dreams. Second, she differs from the established reading that Der Proceß is about a trial, locating the text instead in a medical setting. Thus Joseph K. is not summoned before a court but has to deal with hospital stays and the progression of a serious disease, namely tuberculosis. Lastly, McKenzie examines how art, color, and myth illuminate the manifestations of illness in K.’s dreams without excluding well-known parallel themes such as guilt, sexuality, or family issues (311). Kafka’s own use of Sigmund Freud’s “Die Traumdeutung as a textbook” (21) or as a foil for the novel substantiates McKenzie’s claim and explains how she arrives at such assumptions. Here she goes much further than other scholars who in her opinion “fall short of applying this conclusion in a methodical fashion” (21). Through her systematic inquiry of Kafka and Freud [End Page 160] she underscores the irrational thoughts and behavior of the novel’s characters, the incoherence of images, the shifts in narrative—all of which make sense only within a dream framework that naturalizes deficiencies in the plot and the ambiguous and startling use of vocabulary that is so characteristic of Der Proceß. McKenzie demonstrates repeatedly that K. is definitely battling tuberculosis. According to her, the text refers to K.’s illness by alluding continually to symptoms of tuberculosis (tiredness, headaches, chills). Furthermore, the author identifies various diseased or deformed characters that populate Der Proceß and surround K. McKenzie even goes so far as to diagnose Leni (chapter 6, “Der Onkel”) as having Cri du chat syndrome (100). For Leni, who is also a nurse, has a very round face (acrocephaly) and webbed fingers (syndactyly). Claims such as these, which might otherwise strike readers as a bit exaggerated, read instead as cogent explications of the text as a whole. For instance, as a perceptive observer, McKenzie points to Kafka’s uncommon use of certain objects in the text. Thus the unexpected yet dominant role of beds and bedside tables, nightgowns and shirts, aprons and pinafores (the customary uniform of nurses at the time) all point to a universe of illness and not to the legal system. What renders the author’s investigation even more engaging is her fairly risky, but no less compelling, attempt to explain other textual details as references to illness. Again drawing on Freud’s Traumdeutung, McKenzie studies a fairly large group of words in the text that could point to “a web of underlying meaning through different kinds of word-plays” (192) and ciphers to illness. In studying the context of those words and looking at unanticipated repetitions or accumulations, the author solidifies her argument. Perhaps the most intriguing part of McKenzie’s study is her attempt to uncover Kafka’s use of art in the text and to make it an inherent part of her analysis. Through painstaking and meticulous analysis of Kafka’s complex use of symbolism—colors, myth, and characters—she gathers information about painters and their paintings, including several Italian Renaissance artists (Tintoretti, Titian, Crivelli) who serve as models for Kafka’s court painter Titorelli. While most painters can be situated in sixteenth-century Venetian Renaissance, one artist that figures prominently in McKenzie’s interpretation was Kafka’s contemporary Edvard Munch. McKenzie...

Corporate conceptions of triple bottom line reporting: an empirical analysis into the signs and symbols driving this fashionable framework

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis that examines the semiotics of triple bottom line (TBL) and how it has been developed since its inception in the early 1990s.Design/methodology/approachThis study was conducted over a period of nine months, during which semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 40 organizations around the world that were considered to be organizations having best practices in non‐financial reporting. The key interviewees were managers and heads of the sustainability departments within the organization.FindingsThis study has attempted using semiotics and coding to show parallel themes within how organizations perceive TBL. The codes of language, compliance, integration and limitations provide symbolic attempts by which sustainability managers create and communicate the perception of “corporate sustainability” through TBL reporting in order to satisfy external pressures and stakeholders. A semiotic analysis of TBL has shown that these four codes or concepts do in fact have a common interpretive scheme.Research limitations/implicationsThe non‐financial reporting process or TBL reporting process tend to be conducted and developed by a sustainability team within an organization, rather than just by an individual. The interviews conducted in this research paper are with the head of the sustainability departments at each organization and hence this is a potential limitation in terms of understanding the semiotic powers of TBL.Originality/valueWhile the codes explained in this paper do not show the entire culture and views on non‐financial reporting, they do capture a major aspect of it through the eyes of TBL and provide examples of how semiotics can be used to study and map the systems of meaning employed by members of a certain occupational setting. Having a semiotic view provides many conclusions about the study of an organizational culture or framework.

“It Could have been Much Worse”: From Travelers' Accounts of Two Natural Disasters

Studies of people involved in accidents and disasters have usually focused on traumatic effects. In contrast this paper summarizes two studies of travelers exposed to the effects of natural disasters where luck is a pivotal theme. Participants in the first study were 85 Norwegian tourists, interviewed after their return from the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia in December 2004. The second study reports interviews with 20 Norwegian travelers who had their travel plans disrupted by the volcanic eruption in Iceland in April 2010. Despite the differences in severity and dramatic qualities of these two disasters, some parallel themes are discernible: Downward counterfactual thoughts about how the situation could have been still worse, downward comparisons with those who were more afflicted, and a focus on being lucky rather than unlucky “after all”. These features can partly be attributed to qualities of natural disasters: They cannot be avoided or undone, they are uncontrollable and potentially catastrophic, and they affect a great number of people at the same time. Downward comparisons have also a self-enhancing and mood-repairing effect, reducing the impact of a threatening experience.

The weight of history: structures, patterns and legacies of secondary education in the British Isles, c.1200–c.1980

This article serves as context for the other papers in this special issue, all of which deal with developments in UK secondary education since c.1980. The paper comprises a review of selected impulses and imperatives that saw the substantial legacy of medieval and humanist schooling in Britain re-shaped, during the period c.1830–c.1980, into the outline of today's landscape of secondary schooling. Three parallel themes are examined: the influence of universities and examinations in framing the secondary curriculum; the role of ideas about ability in shaping the growth of secondary education; and the place of practical/technical education in the secondary school years. By tracing these themes, an account of the changing patterns of institutional provision across the British Isles is provided that, by 1980, had led to a thriving independent sector of schools for a small minority coexisting alongside the massive enterprise of broadly comprehensive, state-funded secondary education in which significant tensions remained between separate 'grammar' and 'upper-elementary' traditions. Conclusions are drawn as to significant aspects of this historic inheritance acting on developments in secondary education in the contemporary era.

The future for research in intellectual disabilities

The future for research in intellectual disabilities