Accommodation Practices Research Articles

Mobility, familiarity and prejudice: living together in a multiethnic town in southern Laos

ABSTRACTResearch on coexistence and urban diversity (notably in the United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore) has demonstrated the ways individuals of diverse backgrounds routinely manage differences and interact meaningfully in multicultural societies, drawing on shared cultural knowledge and habits. This paper argues for a deeper exploration of societies where intercultural know-how is more limited and the capacity to negotiate difference has not been inculcated. This description fits several Southeast Asian societies wherein the politics of majority-minority is a dominant feature. This article investigates the possibilities of familiarity and friendship in a multiethnic town in southern Laos where the predominant ideology towards cultural diversity has been one of assimilation. In doing so, the paper reveals ways of creating a sense of belonging and community other than the practices of cultural accommodation. These processes draw on competences and dispositions which individuals have acquired through their mobility, producing a sense of togetherness, albeit contingent and fragmented.

The Politics of Secular Federalism and the Federal Governance of Religious Diversity in Asia

A secular approach has dominated federal studies, perhaps because there seems a natural fit between federalism and secularism. However, the federal systems or practices of Asia bring that close association into question, and the federal accommodation of religious demands has not been examined fully. This article focuses on how religion has been approached, accommodated or resisted in federal and quasi-federal states in Asia. We select India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Nepal as cases. We first explore the relationship between federalism, secularism and religion, and find that secular values at the point of federalisation played an important role in federalism's establishment, but that they were later modified in the practice of federal accommodation of religion. We also identify and examine the federal governance of religious diversity, which features three types of accommodation—centrally-based, unit-based and group-based accommodation—with accommodative practices sometimes being for the benefit of a majority religion, and sometimes for a minority one.

A Novel Method for Assessing Prosthesis Use and Accommodation Practices of People with Transtibial Amputation.

ABSTRACT Introduction Practitioners typically rely on patient self-report for information about prosthesis use and limb volume accommodation. Electronic monitoring may provide a more accurate and easier means of collecting these data. Methods A novel low-profile sensor was used for 2 weeks to track when the limb was within the socket. Each participant also recorded daily prosthesis don times, doff times, and sock changes in a written log. Results Participants (n = 21) wore their prosthesis frequently, for approximately 14.1 hrs/day (interquartile range [IQR], 12.5–14.9), and doffed their prosthesis for 0.5 hr/day (IQR, 0.1–1.2). Of those participants who performed sock changes, participants most often performed sock changes 0.4 times per day (IQR, 0.3–1.0) and socket releases (temporary doffs) 1.3 times per day (IQR, 0.5–3.8). Measured and self-reported beginning-of-prosthesis day were not significantly different (P = 0.002), whereas end-of-prosthesis day were significantly different (P = 0.573). Conclusions The developed electronic monitor may improve recording of prosthesis use and monitoring of socket releases. Data collected in this study may serve as a starting point for characterizing socket wear and accommodation in people with limb loss.

Disability Disclosure and Workplace Accommodations for Youth With Disabilities: Youth and Employer Perspectives

To explore how young people with disabilities disclose their condition and ask for workplace accommodations, and understand employer accommodation practices and how they create an inclusive environment.

Hotspot geopolitics versus geosocial solidarity: Contending constructions of safe space for migrants in Europe

This article examines how contending constructions of safe space for migrants reflect the geopoliticization of humanitarianism and its geosocial discontents. It contrasts geopolitical constructions of safe space that have been used by European authorities to justify and administer Hotspots with geosocial efforts to construct safe space through practices of solidaristic accommodation. The article documents the ways in which Hotspots have made migrants unsafe, even as they have been simultaneously justified in humanitarian terms as making both Europe and refugees safer. It further illustrates, by contrast, how counter-constructions of safe space can take divergent geosocial forms. These varied geosocial formations of accommodation emerge out of embodied space-making struggles for physical safety, personal dignity, organizational autonomy, radical democracy, spatial liberty, and social community. They create context-contingent alternatives to Hotspot geopolitics as well as opportunities for migrants and their allies to critique the limits of official humanitarianism. But they also remain overdetermined by the dominant border politics that Hotpots are supposed to secure. For these reasons, the borderlands between the abstract geopolitics of Hotspot humanitarianism and the embodied geosocial constructions of solidarity show safe space to be at once complex, compromised, and constantly contested.

Accommodation practices for gifted students

Previous studies on Indian education have urged educators to address serious concerns about inequality and inequity in gifted education, and about the assessments for students educated in extremely diverse social and cultural landscapes in India. Although it is believed that appropriate test accommodations ensure valid and meaningful test results, accommodation practices for gifted students are rarely examined worldwide. To narrow this research gap, the present study examined a large-scale provincial literacy assessment in Ontario, Canada, as a test case, to investigate the accommodations used by gifted students and teachers. In particular, we analyzed 3-year assessment data sets to track the patterns of accommodation practices over time. Furthermore, we discussed potential implications for future research and the development of assessments for assessing gifted Indian students while being mindful of diverse cultural and educational landscapes in the context of India.

After the Bouchard-Taylor Commission: Religious Accommodation and Human Rights in Quebec

Like other liberal democracies, Canada and Quebec is facing important challenges raised by moral and religious diversity, such as the legitimacy of reasonable accommodations and the meaning of secularism in a pluralistic society. Focusing on these latter issues in the context of Quebec’s recent history and political culture, with a particular emphasis on the 2007-08 Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences, I intend to outline the current state of the debate in Quebec. First, I define the legal obligation to accommodate and specify what are its limits. Second, I pinpoint the meaning of secularism and defend a liberal and pluralist conception. Third, I discuss the main piece of legislation (Bill 94) that was drafted by the Government of Quebec in response to the recommendations of the aforementioned Commission.Published online: 11 December 2017

The Sociolinguistic Economy in Contexts of Transience and Change in Danish Multinational Companies

Adopting a language ideological perspective, this article explores corporate sociolinguistic economies and the values given to languages and communicative competences within them. The focus is on how values are attributed to language choice and accommodation practices, and the impact of conditions of transience and change on these values. Using interview data from three Danish‐owned multinationals, questions of language management, language exclusion and inclusion, accommodative competences, and instrumentality are explored. It is shown that issues of scale, global to local, as well as numbers, affect values within sociolinguistic economies as do tensions between communicative efficiency and fair access to knowledge. It is argued that conditions of flux favor the instrumental value of English, which is perceived as both a stable resource and a stabilizing force, but in local contexts, other languages, such as Danish, provide alternative and valued resources. Transience can be a disruptive factor, which becomes part of managerial decisions concerning linguistic exclusion and inclusion. Foreign languages, other than English, have situated value and tend to be linked to more long‐term prospects or to more durable relations of varying frequencies of contact.

The pragmatics of mimesis: A case study of intercultural email communication

Researchers have pursued interest in how the mimetic practice types of convention and ritual influence the ways in which people build up and maintain interpersonal relationships. Arguably, mimetic interactional acts that animate conventional and ritual practices are key to capturing fundamental aspects of interpersonal phenomena such as politeness, impoliteness, and humour, since language users tend to produce and interpret interpersonal behaviour through normative and repetitive moves, which may develop into routines. Despite the importance of mimetic acts in language use, little research has been done on mimesis itself in the realm of interpersonal pragmatics even though memes themselves have received attention. In this paper, we consider how mimetic chunks of interaction may develop into localised convention and possibly ritual by examining a corpus of 955 business emails between a British sole trader and her international clients, specifically focussing on mimetic practices present in greeting, signing-off and conversation topic. In particular, we attempt to show that by looking into habitual and everyday communication, the origins of conventional and ritual practices may be uncovered. A marked convergence towards using the same greeting or sign- off convention is noticeable in our quantitative data analysis and when examining the data qualitatively. The data also show that participants occasionally engage in relational practices that involve repeated and consistent responses to the same stimuli. The results indicate a tendency for accommodative communicative practices to be used, although there is no point at which mimesis can be interpreted as permanently “switched on”.

Globalization, creative alliance and self-Orientalism: Negotiating Japanese identity within Asics global advertising production

This article deploys the notion of ‘self-Orientalization’ to empirically investigate the signifying practices across the East–West divide for the construction of global advertising campaigns by Japanese sport brand Asics. In this context, Asics engaged in the practice of self-Orientalization as it formed a creative alliance with Western advertising agencies that represented Japanese culture and identity on behalf of the Japanese-based global headquarters. With insights from interviews with key advertising personnel, the article illuminates practices of negotiation and accommodation between Japanese and European creative workers in shaping ‘authentic’ and ‘cool’ signs of Japan. Overall, it suggests that self-Orientalization: (a) entails negotiations over the cultural-economic politics of representation between the Orient and the Occident and (b) simultaneously functions to blur such distinctions at the micro level of social relations and personal identification of creative workers when embodying and performing the Other on behalf of the Self.

ELT policy interpretations and translations in rural Colombia

ABSTRACTDrawing on a study of English language teachers’ practices and identities in rural Colombia at a time of active education policy promoting English, this paper reports on how such policy has been “interpreted” and “translated” in rural schools. Informed mainly by the theory of policy enactment [Ball, S. J., Maguire, M., & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools. London: Routledge], the paper shows how school contexts, external pressures, values of teachers and schools, as well as infrastructure and resources available are factors that filter policy implementation and, in turn, generate reinterpretations and practices of both resistance and accommodation to policy. Particularly, the analysis suggests that although teachers’ views on the importance of English seem to converge with those of policy-makers, they have reinterpreted policy goals in more socially sensitive terms. Likewise, it is shown how teachers’ professional judgement has come to counterbalance the idealisations and demands of policy. However, the analysis also indicates that some pressures are harder to resist and teachers are then led to adapt their practices in an attempt to comply.

Utopian Science Fiction from Quebec, from National Allegories to Cultural Accommodation: Joël Champetier's RESET—Le Voile de lumière (2011)

This article surveys utopian science fiction from Quebec with an analysis of a contemporary novel, drawing on national allegory and imperialism. The literature is significantly concerned with domestic amelioration rather than foreign domination, notably through historical revision and idealized social organization. In Joël Champetier's 2011 novel RESET—Le Voile de lumière, characters in a Quebec village have suffered amnesia via bedazzling light. What actually took place was an alien incursion and subsequent attempt to reeducate the population according to puritan principles. Chaos ensues as factions of the alien conglomerate act according to differing ends and the humans respond to the occupation, increasingly viewed as an invasion rather than an aid effort. The intercultural dynamics in RESET play on the debate surrounding reasonable accommodation practices by mirroring and warping them. The novel problematizes a conflicting appreciation of history through seemingly genuine and manifestly skewed memory, based on an incomplete understanding of the self and of the intentions of those who represent alterity. Champetier nuances the legitimacy of competing values and relativizes the authenticity of those who assert their authority by invalidating rival models. This articles offers a critical appreciation of the corpus by shedding light on patterns specific to these works.

Green Practices of Accommodation and Lodging Establishments in Siquijor Province, Philippines

The hospitality industries strive to be more environment-friendly and responsible nowadays. Many hotels are now using Green Mark rating scheme audaciously to signify their involvement in the trending greening phenomena. Embracing green practices is not only a cost-saving undertaking but also a wise utilization of the depleting resources and exhausts the tradition of reusing, recycling and reducing. This study is aimed at determining the green practices of the local accommodation and lodging establishments in Siquijor, Philippines. This descriptive type of research probed green practices in the housekeeping and kitchen departments of the 11 establishments employing survey questionnaire based from modified Best Environmental Practices (BEP) for the hotel industry. This includes BEP in four categories, namely: water efficiency and conservation, energy efficiency, solid waste minimization, and environmental purchasing. The research found out that there are evident green practices among the local establishments in the town of Siquijor. However, they have to consider the sustainability and improvements of their practices.

Architecture of Peace in Ambon: Reading Dynamics of Peace After Ten Years of Conflict

The dynamics of peace in Ambon have been getting stronger during the last ten years, but to what extent this phenomenon can be considered as a solid basis for peace, would require a critical analysis. This paper is the result of field research on peace in Ambon using the theory of "peace architecture" developed by Luc Reychland (2006). The results of the analysis obtained several important conclusions. First, the peace process in the city of Ambon has been going on in a participatory manner in various aspects of life. Second, in an architectural perspective as put forward by Reychland, the peace in Ambon has sufficient potential to develop into a structure of peace which is getting stronger. It is characterized by the strengthening of an increasingly inclusive dialog and communication between citizens, as well as the effectiveness of public arenas such as markets, offices, schools and coffee shops as a medium of integration. It is also supported by the accommodative practices of economic and political transformation. Third, in line with the positive development, the public still need to be reminded of radical religious ideas and identity politics that are harmful to the sustainability of peace.

Effects of handcuffs on neuropsychological testing: Implications for criminal forensic evaluations

ABSTRACTNeuropsychological evaluations are increasingly performed in forensic contexts, including in criminal settings where security sometimes cannot be compromised to facilitate evaluation according to standardized procedures. Interpretation of nonstandardized assessment results poses significant challenges for the neuropsychologist. Research is limited in regard to the validation of neuropsychological test accommodation and modification practices that deviate from standard test administration; there is no published research regarding the effects of hand restraints upon neuropsychological evaluation results. This study provides preliminary results regarding the impact of restraints on motor functioning and common neuropsychological tests with a motor component. When restrained, performance on nearly all tests utilized was significantly impacted, including Trail Making Test A/B, a coding test, and several tests of motor functioning. Significant performance decline was observed in both raw scores and normative scores. Regression models are also provided in order to help forensic neuropsychologists adjust for the effect of hand restraints on raw scores of these tests, as the hand restraints also resulted in significant differences in normative scores; in the most striking case there was nearly a full standard deviation of discrepancy.

Impact of Development and Accommodation Practices on Older Workers' Job Characteristics, Prolonged Fatigue, Work Engagement, and Retirement Intentions Over Time.

The impact of development and accommodation practices on older workers' retirement intentions was investigated in this prospective study, together with potential pathways and the role of career stage. A subsample of full-time, older workers (n = 678) from the Maastricht Cohort Study was followed-up for 2 years. Regression analysis was conducted for three age groups. Development practices related positively with later retirement intentions in workers aged 55 to 59 years. The accommodation practice of demotion related negatively with later retirement intentions in worker aged at least 60 years. Decision latitude and work engagement were found to link development and accommodation practices with later retirement intentions in particular in workers aged 55 to 59 years. It was indicated in this prospective study that development and accommodation practices may be useful for prolonging working careers.

Awareness and Academic Accommodations Provided by Teachers to Students At-Risk

<div><p><em>The pervasive problem</em><em> that the Philippine education</em><em> faces today is teaching students whose attempts at learning result in failure and eventually dropping out of school. This study attempted to identify students at-risk so that teachers may understand their needs and support them. This descriptive research determined the level of awareness of teachers of West Visayas State University-Janiuay Campus, Iloilo regarding students at-risk and their academic accommodation. This study attempted to determine whether the level of awareness of teachers regarding student at-risk affects their accommodation practices they provide. The respondents of the study were the twenty four (24) first year advisers selected through total enumeration of the population. The study showed that when taken as an entire group and when grouped according to various categories, teachers’ level of awareness of student at-risk was fairly aware. Only teachers who master’s degree holders were very aware and with master’s units were less aware. On the other hand, the level of awareness of teachers on academic accommodation of students at-risk were consistently very aware when taken as an entire group and when grouped according to various categories. Only male teachers and teachers of the schools of Hotel and Services Technology and Industrial Technology were extremely aware.</em></p><p><em>Generally, the most frequently used accommodation practices of teachers while dealing with students at-risk was management followed by assessment and instruction. Another topic featured in the literature includes discussion of the risk factors that act as antecedents to at-risk and the legal foundation of the study.</em></p></div>

An initial study of family accommodation in children and adolescents with chronic tic disorders.

This initial study examined the nature, incidence, and clinical correlates of family accommodation in youth with tic disorders, and validated a brief self-report measure of tic-related family accommodation, the Tic Family Accommodation Scale (TFAS). Seventy-five youth aged 6-18 who were diagnosed with a tic disorder and their parent completed a diagnostic clinical interview, and clinician and parent-report measures of tic severity, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, behavioral problems, family accommodation and impairment. An exploratory factor analysis of the TFAS showed a two-factor structure, with good internal consistency for the Total score, Modification of Child Environment and Modification of Parent Environment subscales (α=0.88, 0.86, and 0.81, respectively). Family accommodation was not associated with tic severity. Family accommodation was associated with increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, higher externalizing, rule breaking, aggressive behaviors and social problems, and with greater tic-related functional impairment. Anxiety and externalizing problems (but not depressive symptoms) predicted family accommodation when controlling for tic severity. Family accommodation predicted high levels of functional impairment over and above the effect of tic severity, anxiety, depression and externalizing problems. Family accommodation is a common phenomenon for youth with tic disorders, with modifications typically encompassing changes to the child and/or parent environments. Accommodation was not associated with tic severity, but was related to higher levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, externalizing symptoms, aggression, and rule breaking behaviors. Results suggest that other emotional symptoms are more likely to drive accommodation practices than the tic symptoms per se.

Supervisor and Organizational Factors Associated with Supervisor Support of Job Accommodations for Low Back Injured Workers.

Purpose Temporary job accommodations contribute to the prevention of chronic work disability due to low back pain (LBP) through the facilitation of early return to work; yet, workplace dimensions of job accommodation are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to determine supervisor and organizational factors associated with supervisors' support for temporary job accommodations for LBP injured workers. Methods Supervisors were recruited from 19 workplaces in the USA and Canada and completed an online survey regarding job accommodation practices and potential associated factors with respect to a case vignette of a worker with LBP. Multivariable linear regression was used to identify the most parsimonious set of factors associated with supervisors' support for accommodations. Results A total of 804 supervisors participated with 796 eligible for inclusion in the analysis. The final set of factors explained 21% of the variance in supervisors' support for temporary job accommodations. Considerate leadership style (β=0.261; 95% CI 0.212, 0.310), workplace disability management policies and practices (β=0.243; 95% CI 0.188, 0.298), and supervisor autonomy for designing and providing workplace accommodations (β=0.156; 95% CI 0.071, 0.241) had the largest effect on supervisor support for accommodations. Conclusion Factors predicting supervisors' likelihood to accommodate LBP injured workers include use of considerate leadership style, workplace disability management policies and practices, and supervisor autonomy. Workplace interventions targeting these factors should be developed and evaluated for their ability to improve work disability prevention outcomes.

What would you ideally do if there were no targets? An ethnographic study of the unintended consequences of top-down governance in two clinical settings.

Top-down policy directives, such as targets and their associated protocols, may be driven politically rather than clinically and can be described as macro-political texts. While targets supposedly provide incentives for healthcare services, they may unintentionally shape practices of accommodation rather than implementation, deflecting practitioners from providing optimal care. Live work activities were observed for two six months periods in a UK NHS Emergency Department and a Mental Health Ward using video and field notes ethnography, with post hoc unstructured interviews for clarification and verification. Sixty-four practitioners were consented. Data were treated as narratives, analysed thematically and theorised using cultural-historical activity theory. The ideal text of patient-centred team working shaped by top-down, politically inspired targets was disrupted, where targets produced unintended consequences. Bottom-up strategies of making meaning of targets in a local context generated sub-texts of resistance, rationalization, and even duplicity that had paradoxical positive effects in generating collaboration and democratic habits. Throughput pressures generated both cross-team conflicts and intra-team identification. What practitioners actually do to make sense of top-down directives is not the same as the ideal expectation framed by targets. Team members pulled together not because of targets but in spite of them, and as a form of resistance to governance. Targets produce unnecessary stress as team members focus on throughput rather than quality of care. Those governing healthcare must look at the unintended consequences of targets.