Role Of Shops Research Articles

The mediating role of shops stewards´ union citizenship behaviour in the relationship between shop stewards and union members’ loyalty: a multilevel analysis

ABSTRACT We examined the role of shop stewards’ union citizenship behaviours in the transmission of their attitude of union loyalty to rank-and-file union members. We hypothesized that union members (N = 1138) assimilate shop stewards’ (N = 312) union loyalty by observing their participation behaviours. Data on shop stewards´ union behaviours were both self-reported and informed by union members. The results from multilevel analyses confirmed that leaders’ union loyalty was positively associated with union members’ loyalty. In addition, the relation between shop stewards and union members’ loyalty was fully mediated by members’ perceptions of shop stewards’ participation. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.

The Construction of Femininity in Shopping

In different historical stages, the nature of women has been explained from the religious myth, the moral principles, the scientific rationality and the psychological analysis. In the consumer society, the widespread consumption not only changes people’s daily life but also their social relations, world views and values. Men and women with the effect of commodities show different characteristics. The consumption generalization is the basic fact in the consumer society. Women, as the important consuming power, become the key target group for enterprises and media. In order to correspond with the commercial operation, the mass media guides women and constructs a femininity to serve for the commercial profits.Generally speaking, consumption culture constructs femininity from the following two aspects: on the one side, it constructs a modern female beauty standard—young, beautiful and sexy. Women thus become a huge consuming group of hairdressing and fashion. On the other side, it still advocates the traditional image of good housewives. Female consumers are oriented as the agent purchasers for the whole family. It demonstrates in this paper that shopping is sexual consuming. Woman’s beautiful image and good housewives image presents on their “agent purchasers” role in shopping.

Trading on Origins: Signs and Windows of Foreign Shopkeepers in Interwar Paris

Immigration and retail trade both raise, in different but key ways, the question of the relationship between people and space. The construction of ethnicity involves modes of consumption, but also ways in which retailing is distributed. The appropriation of space by signs that denote foreignness is what enables a particular neighbourhood to become known as a quarter of immigration. But what can we say about the role of shops and businesses in the representation of ethnicity? This paper investigates the case of inter-war Paris from this perspective. It argues that this question cannot be answered simply from representational sources, such as contemporary accounts or photographs, and it draws on an indication less correlated with the spatial dimension and yet apparently still constitutive of a representation of alterity in the city: shop signs. The indicator provided by trading names makes it possible to connect discursive sources with sources bearing on practices, by showing the emergence of an issue of identity associated with trading names and designations. A choice that essentially reflects a commercial strategy also appears as the product of a logic of affiliation.

Coping with the costs of illness: the role of shops and shopkeepers as social networks in a low‐income community in coastal Kenya

AbstractThe role of shops as an important first source of treatment for many illnesses is well documented. Far less attention has been directed towards the broader role that shops and shopkeepers may play in household coping behaviour, for example by offering credit to help meet the direct and indirect costs of illness, and to cope with other socio‐economic needs. This exploratory paper draws on the data collected as part of a wider study on affordability of health care to consider the ‘multiple’ roles that shops and shopkeepers play in households' financing of illness related costs. The findings support the potential of working with shopkeepers to design and implement interventions that identify and reach the poor, but also highlight important challenges, including inequities in access to shop services, and the complex relationships that shopkeepers have with their clients. We suggest further specifically designed studies to explore the issues in more detail, to test the transferability of the findings to other settings, and to consider the implications for policy and practice. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The role of shops in the treatment and prevention of childhood malaria on the coast of Kenya

A community survey of 388 mothers in a rural and peri-urban population surrounding a district hospital on the coast of Kenya revealed that the preferred choice of treatment for childhood febrile illnesses was with proprietary drugs bought over the counter at shops and kiosks (72% of interviews). 67% of the mothers who reported using shops claimed they would buy chloroquine-based drugs. Preventative measures such as mosquito nets were uncommon (6·2%), but the use of commercial pyrethrum mosquito coils was reported more frequently (46·4%). Separate investigations of treatment given to 394 children before presentation at hospital with severe and mild malaria was consistent with the reports in the community of high usage of shop-bought anti-malarials and anti-pyretics. The involvement of the private sector in peripheral health care delivery for malaria is discussed.