Points Of Friction Research Articles

Towards modelling instructional quality for music class-rooms: Exploring subject-specific application of the TA-LIS/GTI generic framework

Arts subjects have so far been absent from large-scale studies on instructional quality as well as from related methodological development. The purpose of this article is to explore whether an observation scheme that builds on generic theoretical models and aims to capture instructional quality across school subjects might be meaningfully employed in general music education so that it could serve as a basis for empirical research and reflective practice. We evaluated instructional quality criteria proposed in the video observation system from the study Global Teaching InSights, the third cycle of OECD’s large-scale Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS/GTI) by exploring the system’s observation codes for analysis of music lessons on video and comparing the criteria with quality criteria from general music education. We found that the generic models are helpful and may have more to offer both research and practice in music education than we initially expected. The risk when attempting to apply quality criteria that are intended to be generic is that those aspects may be overemphasised while criteria that are essential for music education are pushed out of sight. However, we argue that modelling instructional quality in music classrooms is worthwhile in itself and that the friction points where generic criteria do not fit our subject are particularly interesting. A systematic discussion of quality criteria can sharpen our views and understandings of general music education and connect music education research with interdisciplinary discourse and with a much-needed, broad dialogue within the educational sciences.

The 1977 Chicago Call: Debating Evangelical Identity

In 1977, a diverse group of forty-five leaders and scholars drafted the “Chicago Call”, urging evangelicals to reconnect with historic Christianity and embrace a richer understanding of worship and sacrament. The Call highlighted tensions between those who understood evangelicalism as a movement within the broader Church and those who prioritized Reformation principles and scriptural authority. This article begins by exploring the origins of the conference, key leaders, and its historical context. It then moves to a comparison of primary documents, revealing points of friction that arose between conference participants as they worked to draft the statement. I conclude by assessing the Chicago Call’s limitations, emphasizing the inherent fragility of the evangelical coalition and the ongoing challenge of negotiating a theological consensus.

"Dear Newly Graduated Physical Therapist": A Direct Message Containing Advice We Wish We Had Received.

SYNOPSIS: This Viewpoint provides practical guidance for early-career musculoskeletal clinicians who are navigating the complexities of clinical practice. Key themes are embracing uncertainty, seeing and treating the whole person, avoiding judgemental mindsets, embracing shared decision-making, focusing on building strong therapeutic relationships and finding a work-related niche that resonates with one's own passions and strengths. We encourage clinicians to consume information carefully in an era of social media health influencers, and suggest ways of accurately identifying reliable sources of information. We do not presume to inoculate against all challenges that clinicians will encounter. Instead, we strive to help early-career clinicians navigate potential friction points in clinic and research based on our collective experience. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2024;54(10):621-624. Epub 17 September 2024. doi:10.2519/jospt.2024.12676.

The recipe for success in creating frictionless customer journeys

Customers now demand seamless experiences across all points of contact. To deliver on this expectation, organisations need a reliable marketing architecture for accurate omnichannel customer journey analysis. This allows them to identify and eliminate friction points that hinder customer satisfaction. However, disparate channels of data often utilise different customer identifiers, creating a challenge in unifying data for comprehensive analysis. By focusing on a strong customer identity strategy and leveraging technological advancements to seamlessly combine data at the individual level, organisations gain an advantage in crafting consistent and frictionless customer experiences. This approach follows a specific recipe, with key steps to identify and remove friction points. Professionals involved in creating or measuring omnichannel experiences will find valuable insights and practical tips within this paper, along with learnings from renowned customer-centric companies like Uber, Netflix and Amazon. Delivering consistently exceptional customer experiences allows companies to command premium prices, build long-term brand loyalty and solidify their reputation as truly customer-focused organisations.

Protests by political activists around friction points may backfire: Evidence from checkpoints in the West Bank.

Protests by political activists around friction points may backfire: Evidence from checkpoints in the West Bank.

Towards a Reconciliation Between Simulational, Ludic, and Historiographical Practices in Research

Background Simulations, ludic or otherwise, have so far struggled to gain a foothold in mainstream historiography. Some authors suggest there may be fundamental incompatibilities between history and the language of simulations and scholarly games. Others believe that designing, employing, and validating historical simulations may be simply too costly and/or labor-intensive to justify their widespread adoption. Intervention This paper intends to identify points of friction between historiography and simulation-based research and suggest practical solutions to these issues. Methods My discussion is based on the description and analysis of a case study, the ThomondSim/ The Triumphs of Turlough research project. The initiative consisted of the development and application of an agent-based computational model (ABM) and a scholarly board game to investigate the possible associations between economic, environmental, and military hazards in 13th and 14th centuries Ireland. Results and Discussion Ensuring the simulations matched historical evidence to a standard deemed acceptable by the historiographical community limited their phase space, compromising their capacity to explore emergent phenomena. The intricacy of the underlying conceptual model suited the ABM better than the board game, which struggled to reconcile complexity with good game design practices. The board game, however, proved to be an effective validating tool for the ABM. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research The project espoused an overt simulation- and game-centric approach, paying little attention to unguided play. Recent literature suggests that fostering, rather than hindering, playful exploration could address some of the pitfalls identified by this project. Conclusion Play could be a means of reconciliation between simulational, ludic, and historiographical practices. However, to ensure that projects adhere to epistemic standards, it is recommended that a methodology is developed to integrate it into research in ways that can be tested and evaluated.

Whose disaster? Disaster response as a conflicted field between cooperation and competition

Disasters reveal solidarity as well as contestation in many different aspects. This article deals with the increasing significance of spontaneous volunteers (here non-official responders to disasters) and the resulting impacts on the established population protection system in Germany. Considering respective changes and differences, it explores subliminal and manifested conflicts among official and non-official responders. Based on a survey among disaster officials (n = 1957), qualitative interviews (n = 12) and workshop outcomes, the findings reveal competing opportunities to participate in disaster response, clashes of logics of disaster response practice, challenges in task distribution, and points of friction due to shared public recognition. This article uses a Bourdieusian lens to analyze these obstacles to cooperation against the background of habitus-related role expectations, shifting dispositions, newly emerging demands for official disaster response, and altered volunteering reward patterns and attractiveness. It concludes with a discussion on underlying hurdles for cooperation among different disaster responders, changing social norms as the significance of non-official volunteers increases, cascading effects of different conflict lines, and effects of societal dynamics on disaster response systems.

Public support for withdrawal from international organizations: Experimental evidence from the US

The United States has helped create and lead many international organizations (IOs). Yet in the last six years, the US announced its withdrawal from several IOs including the World Health Organization, UNESCO, and the Universal Postal Union. Do Americans care about US withdrawals from IOs? When do Americans support withdrawing from IOs and support candidates who propose this? We argue that Americans’ support for multilateralism tends to divide along party lines, and that IO withdrawal can activate those preferences. We also argue that framing an IO withdrawal as benefiting US national interests can make Americans more likely to favor IO exit. Data from four US survey experiments during the 2016–2020 Trump administration support these arguments. Democrats tend to oppose IO withdrawals while Republicans tend to support them. Further, results show that IO withdrawal (and how it is framed) affects candidate choice and policy support. This suggests that announcing IO withdrawal can be used to rally domestic electoral support. Still, the data also show that a large proportion of the US public values remaining in IOs, even when IOs are imperfect or challenging. In these cases, we note that sunk cost fallacies, status quo bias, and loss aversion may pose friction points for supporting withdrawal. Our findings have important implications for research on public opinion about international cooperation, backlash against IOs, and their life cycles.

Food waste tectonics: Points of friction between policy push and practice pull in council-led household-food-waste interventions in Australia

Household food waste is increasingly recognised as a global wicked problem for its greenhouse gas emissions, economic damage, and resource loss. Although targeted in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, countries can only respond according to their capacity. For Australia, national policy has put the pressure on states and territories to divert food waste away from landfill into a nascent circular economy. For councils, this increasingly means implementing a FOGO (Food Organics/Garden Organics) kerbside collection. Despite funding and infrastructure development, many are resisting. Framed by the tenets of policy diffusion, this paper presents the results of a nationwide exploratory survey aimed at identifying how and why council-based waste services staff resist, emulate or lead FOGO implementation. By assessing participants current kerbside systems and their attitudes towards household food waste management, the survey found costs, contamination, and capacity and were key concerns. However, responses to these varied considerably despite similarities of situation, often relating more to collaborative attitudes across waste services, council, and councillors. This paper recognises that a conducive environment for change is urgently needed for Australia to achieve organics diversion targets and shift household food towards a circular economy. It provides a starting point for further research into the complex and nuanced dynamics between council waste services and FOGO implementations, from external drivers and council paradigms to individual attitudes and perceptions.

Difficult Articulacy: Rhetoric, Disability and Early Modern Styling of Bodymind

In early modern theories of ‘proper’ style, ambiguously, difficulty could convey a sense of excellence on one hand (of national belonging, imperial ambition or manly ‘virility’) while also being deployed to denigrate unseemly (too feminine or foreign) speech. Difficulty erupts precisely in the points of friction: when boundaries around ablebodymindedness are drawn or when the available forms of expression are insufficient. Instead of eradicating difficulty altogether, I sift through early modern French, English and Italian writing on rhetoric to make a case for paying closer attention to difficulty, lingering with it, and seeing what these friction points ultimately reveal. The contemporary concept of ‘disability gain’ posits disability not as a defect to be remedied, erased or cured, but rather as a mode of being in the world that allows for innovation, creativity and even added affects, resources or alternative epistemologies. Instead of considering, in the pedagogical domain, how to construct conceptual ‘on-ramps’ for simplifying difficulty, what would we gain by leaning into the unclear, uncertain and potentially joyful ‘other’ forms of communication itself, such as dysfluency, stuttering or Remi Yergeau’s concept of the rhizomatic neuroqueer?

Diagnosis of the use of flipped classrooms in English as a foreign language classes through teachers' perception in secondary education institutions in the city of Ambato

The application of flipped classroom techniques in second language acquisition has garnered increasing attention due to its potential to enhance student academic performance and motivation at the secondary school level. This literature review examines existing research on flipped classrooms within English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction, aiming to contextualize an investigation into teacher perceptions of adopting flipped models in Ambato public middle and high schools. By evaluating educator attitudes and experiences with Flipped EFL classrooms via surveys and interviews. This study intends to provide data-backed guidance to regional institutions and instructors on challenges, outcomes, best practices, and recommendations to enable effective implementation. With strong English proficiency closely tied to academic and career opportunities for Ambato youths, this research seeks to assess the viability of flipped techniques for optimizing local EFL pedagogy by spotlighting teacher-centered perspectives on friction points and successes in employing flipped learning.

Analyzing User Reviews of the First Digital Contraceptive: Mixed Methods Study.

People in Western countries are increasingly rejecting hormone-based birth control and expressing a preference for hormone-free methods. Digital contraceptives have emerged as nonhormonal medical devices that make use of self-tracked data and algorithms to find a user's fertile window. However, there is little knowledge about how people experience this seemingly new form of contraception, whose failure may result in unwanted pregnancies, high health risks, and life-changing consequences. As digital contraception becomes more widely adopted, examining its user experience is crucial to inform the design of technologies that not only are medically effective but also meet users' preferences and needs. We examined the user experience offered by Natural Cycles-the first digital contraceptive-through an analysis of app reviews written by its users worldwide. We conducted a mixed methods analysis of 3265 publicly available reviews written in English by users of Natural Cycles on the Google Play Store. We combined computational and human techniques, namely, topic modeling and reflexive thematic analysis. For some users of digital contraception, the hormone-free aspect of the experience can be more salient than its digital aspect. Cultivating self-knowledge through the use of the technology can, in turn, feel empowering. Users also pointed to an algorithmic component that allows for increased accuracy over time as long as user diligence is applied. The interactivity of the digital contraceptive supports mutual learning and is experienced as agential and rewarding. Finally, a digital contraceptive can facilitate sharing the burden of contraceptive practices or highlight single-sided responsibilities while creating points of friction in the required daily routines. Digital contraception is experienced by users as a tamed natural approach-a natural method contained and regulated by science and technology. This means that users can experience a method based on a digital product as "natural," which positions digital contraceptives as a suitable option for people looking for evidence-based nonhormonal contraceptive methods. We point to interactivity as core to the user experience and highlight that a digital contraceptive might allow for collaboration between partners around contraceptive practices and responsibilities. We note that the user diligence required for the digital contraceptive to provide accurate and frequent data is sometimes not enough. Future research could look at designing (and redesigning) digital contraceptives with primary users and intimate partners, enhancing the experience of tamed naturalness; exploring how trust fluctuates among involved actors and in interactions with the technology; and, ultimately, designing more inclusive approaches to digital contraception.

The limits of scalability: Uncovering friction between levels of flood risk governance in the French Alps

Flood risk governance can be a source of tension between different government actors and citizens across spatial scales. In this context, we consider the hydro-social contract (HSC) as a framework to understand the formal and informal societal constructs that aid or impede effectiveness in managing flood risk. Specifically, we used Q-methodology to understand different perspectives of flood risk governance and identify points of friction in executing the HSC. We interviewed 62 flood risk management actors from small municipalities (intra-watershed) to regional State agencies (inter-basin) in the Isère River basin of France, from which three perspectives emerged. Most participants correlated to a perspective reaffirming a commitment to integrated and holistic approaches in flood risk management. However, the second and third perspectives illustrate a governance gap due to an upward transfer of risk management responsibilities to a broader watershed approach. At the same time, municipalities remain responsible for crisis management in the advent of flooding. Our findings bring into question the right balance of scale in flood risk governance, particularly regarding hydrological boundaries that are incongruous with political jurisdictions at multiple scales.

“More than a cliché”: Experiencing Hybrid Gifting in the Wild

Gifting is socially and economically important. Studies of gifting physical objects have revealed motivations, values, and the tensions between them, while HCI research has revealed weaknesses of digital gifting and explored possibilities of hybrid gifting. We report an “in the wild” study of a hybrid chocolate gift deployed as a commercial product. Interviews reveal the experiences of receivers and givers, as well as the producer's friction points and tangible benefits. We reveal how in hybrid gifts the digital elevates the physical while the physical grounds the digital. We discuss how hybrid gifts bridge the tension between receiver-preference and relationship-signalling motivations, the need to further strengthen the exchange and reveal stages of hybrid gifting, and to manage the privacy of sensitive personal messages. We propose to extend the concept of hybrid wrapping to include a finer-grained interleaving of digital into complex packaging and multi-layered wrappings to create more holistic gifting experiences.

A qualitative exploration of a financial inclusion service in an English foodbank.

Foodbanks provide emergency food provision. This need can be triggered by a change in circumstance or a crisis. Failures in the social security safety net are the most significant driver for hunger in the UK. There is some evidence that an advisory service which runs alongside a foodbank is more effective in reducing emergency provision and the duration and severity of hunger. The 'Making a Difference' project at an English foodbank is a pilot scheme aiming to increase financial resilience in their service users. From summer 2022, they introduced new advice worker roles, in partnership with Shelter [Housing advice] and Citizen's Advice [General, debt and benefits advice], aiming to pre-empt the need for foodbank use, to triage the financial needs of service users and refer appropriately to reduce repeat visits to the foodbank. This qualitative study involved in-depth interviews with four staff and four volunteers to evaluate barriers, facilitators and potential friction points in referrals and partnership working. Our data were analysed thematically into four themes: Holistic needs assessment; Reaching seldom heard communities; Empowerment; The needs of staff and volunteers. Two case studies illustrate the complexity of people's needs. A financial inclusion service operating within foodbanks giving housing, debt and benefits advice shows some promise in reaching people in crisis at the point of need. Based within the heart of a community, it appears to meet the complex needs of very vulnerable people who may have found mainstream support services inaccessible. This asset-based approach with the foodbank as a trusted provider enabled joined up, compassionate, holistic, and person-centred advice quickly cutting across multiple agencies, reaching underserved and socially excluded clients. We suggest that supportive services are needed for volunteers and staff who are vulnerable to vicarious trauma from listening and supporting people in crisis.

Technostress and hotel guests: A mere hurdle or a major friction point?

The implementation of hospitality service technology is rapidly growing. Although there are practical, economic, and experiential benefits of these technologies, the increased adoption of service technologies such as mobile keys, and check-in kiosks can introduce friction points for the hotel guests. Technostress is stress induced by the usage of technology and this study is among the first to apply this notion to consumer behavior. Based on the transactional model of stress and coping, and social cognitive theory, this study examined the effects of technostress on hotel guests by using a mixed-method approach comprised of three sequential phases. A qualitative examination of guest experiences with hotel technology indicated Wi-Fi, hotel apps, and smart TVs to be the most prominent stress-inducing technologies. These technologies were also associated with four technostressors: techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, and techno-uncertainty. Quantitative examination showed significant relationships between technology self-efficacy, one's locus of control, and technostress; additionally, technostress was shown to significantly impact guest satisfaction. The findings of this study extend technostress literature beyond workplace applications and into consumer behavior.

DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity

Developer experience focuses on the lived experience of developers and the points of friction they encounter in their everyday work. In addition to improving productivity, DevEx drives business performance through increased efficiency, product quality, and employee retention. This paper provides a practical framework for understanding DevEx, and presents a measurement framework that combines feedback from developers with data about the engineering systems they interact with. These two frameworks provide leaders with clear, actionable insights into what to measure and where to focus in order to improve developer productivity.

Policy mixes across vertical levels of governance in the EU: The case of the sustainable energy transition in Latvia

The European Green Deal requires policy alignment horizontally across policy areas but also vertically across governance levels. Accordingly, the diversity of actors and their preferences can hinder sociotechnical transitions. We, therefore, ask: How do policy mixes unfold across vertical scales of governance in sociotechnical transitions? We analyse vertical policy mix characteristics, considering consistency, coherence, comprehensiveness, and credibility, and the inherent feedback loops between politics and policy. Drawing on empirical evidence from Latvia, gathered through content analysis and interviews with senior stakeholders, we highlight two key findings: First, friction points in policy coherence between the national-local governance levels feed back into the vertical policy mix, as EU-level policy strategies are not substantiated with corresponding policy instruments. Second, the lack of political commitment to the transition at the national level perpetuates friction points in comprehensiveness and credibility of the vertical policy mix, hindering transition processes.

Rethinking global health from south and north: A social medicine approach to global health education

ABSTRACT This study examines efforts to integrate social medicine into global health education and its potential to guide the new practice of structural competency. The methods employ participant observation and interviews with program coordinators and participants in a social medicine course. Areas of success included: pedagogical innovation, conscientizing course participants, decentralising global health practice, and promoting reflexivity. Accompanying these successes were points of friction, including: inequities in personal risk and mobility limitations among course participants, as well as complexities and nuances in unintentionally reproducing hierarchies of knowledge. Specifically, further recommendations from our research include: (1) incorporating innovative pedagogical approaches, which highlight social medicine practices outside the global north, prioritising opportunities for cross-collaboration among practitioners from the global south; (2) framing social theory as a bidirectional flow: global south traditions must be included in teaching social theory; (3) practising structural humility by highlighting the perspectives and expertise of communities experiencing social and structural marginalisation, while including strategies in organising and direct pathways to political engagement. These conclusions highlight how social medicine-based training can both build from and move beyond the competencies explicitly specified by the structural competency model to create a global health practice inclusive of diverse thought from around the world.

Guest Editorial: Ecological knowledge co‐production and the contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia

Guest Editorial: Ecological knowledge co‐production and the contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia