The symbolic meaning of creativity - perceptions of routines and creativity in a contemporary office setting

Our main finding was that creativity could be understood as a symbolic. The perceptions of creativity can be contagious, when the routinized worker associates him or herself with the creative outcome of the team. For the employee the symbolic meaning might also work as a distraction from alienation and provide more meaning to performing routinized tasks. We also saw how routines can be perceived enabling to reach work efficiency and organizational goals. However, we found that from an individual perspective the same routines can be perceived differently, where the employee might be constrained from performing challenging tasks and creative work. Routines in our case company stem from commercial goals such as work efficiency. We found that a salient commercial focus in organizations might direct creativity to a reactive nature. Hence, in Fashion Inc. employees mostly perceived creativity as solving problems in a creative manner

Fostering Innovation in Philanthropy

Innovation is a buzzword with growing resonance in the philanthropic community. But how are foundations going about adopting innovative practices? In this guide, you'll learn the definition of "innovation"; 8 approaches to philanthropic innovation; key practices of innovative funders; recommendations to become innovative and support innovation; and more

Fearless Friday: Jerome Clarke

Today is Fearless Friday and we’re honoring the magnificent Jerome Clarke ’17! Originally from Philadelphia, (aka the “city of Bromance”), Jerome is currently a Junior at Gettysburg College and is involved in countless activities and clubs, many of them geared towards social justice. [excerpt

Lipdubs as an Instrument to Overcome Invisibility in the Mass-Media. A study of four enthusiastic cases recorded in Quebec, USA, Catalonia and the Basque Country

This paper summarizes the principal conclusions of an investigation into lipdub as an instrument used by social movements in order to get more social influence. Since its creation in 2006, the phenomenon of lipdubs has increased\ud considerably. This research presents an analytical model for this type of video, providing general data, figures about the number of participants, characteristics of the song used and information about the profile of the audience. The work\ud highlights the main hypothetical features and components of a good lipdub. Four videos with high impact on Youtube are analyzed. This work claims that, at this time, a good lipdub can be a crucial tool for social movements in order to\ud overcome the invisibility with which the mass-media often punishes any expression which challenges mainstream tendencies

The territoriality paradigm in cultural tourism

A typical geographers' approach to tourism is to emphasise the analysis of spatial flows and space uses and the synthesis of territorial coherence between people, place and product. The renewed interest in the territorial aspects of tourism can be seen as a response to globalisation on the one hand and the search for unique, authentic and grass-rooted experience on the other. In recent tourism studies the focus and methods shift from a description of patterns to the analysis of processes of change that are induced by tourism (touristification). Understanding the forces that are transforming cultural landscapes (urban and rural) into tourismscapes is a crucial condition for visionary planning and responsible management of regions and places. Some reflections on the future research agenda in geo-tourism will be included

A Perspective from the Judiciary on Access to Justice

I decided early in 2009, upon becoming Chief Judge and the steward of the justice system in New York, to focus my energy on ensuring that everyone gets their day in court. Regardless of how a person looks or where he or she was born, and regardless of whether or not a person has resources or power, justice cannot be about the color of your skin or the amount of money in your pocket. Justice must mean that when people are fighting for the necessities of life, for the roof over their heads, they must get the legal assistance that they need, and the scales of lady justice will be exquisitely balanced. Learned Hand’s famous quote—“thou shall not ration justice”—is the one cardinal rule of our democracy. The constitutional and moral mission of the judiciary is equal justice. This is what we do as judges going back to biblical times: “Justice, and only Justice shall you pursue;” “both low and high, Rich and poor together.” If, as judges, we do not fulfill this commitment, we might as well close the courthouse doors. That focus generated so many things that I am proud of in New York, and that as leaders in the access to justice movement, we can all be proud of

The Design of Free-Market Economies in a Post-Neoclassical World

The ‘Washington Consensus’ supporting competitive frames and market solutions in economics and law was shown inadequate to address social problems in non-U.S. settings. So would diversity and dynamics suggest theories in need of adjustment to other realities such as culture, increasing returns and market power. Reform must account for an economics of falling cost, ecological limits and complementarity in our relations. Such shall open new applications for economics and law. In this paper a theory of planning horizons is introduced and then employed to raise some meaningful questions about the neoclassical view with respect to its substitution, decreasing returns and independence assumptions. Suppositions of complementarity, increasing returns and interdependence suggest that competition is inefficient by upholding a myopic culture resistant to change. Growth – though long believed to rise from markets and competitive values – may not derive from these sources. Instead, as civilizations advance, shifting from material wants to higher-order intangible output, they evolve from market tradeoffs (substitution and scarcity) into realms of common need (complementarity and abundance). If so, then neoclassical arguments shall no longer apply to any advanced information economy also restrained by its ecology. Indeed, this paper opens standard theory into a more general framework constructing ‘horizon effects’ into a case for cooperation – as more efficient than competition for all long-term problems of growth. The case is made that competition is keeping us stupid and immature, rewarding a myopic culture at the expense of learning and trust, therefore retarding economic growth instead of encouraging it as believed. The policy implications of horizonal theory are explored, with respect to regulatory aims and economic concerns. Such an approach emphasizes strict constraints against entry barriers, ecological harm, market power abuse and ethical lapses. Social cohesion – not competition – is sought as a means to extend horizons and thereby increase efficiency, equity and ecological health. The overriding importance of horizon effects for regulatory assessment dominates other orthodox standards in economics and law. In sum, much of the reason for the failure of the Washington Consensus stems from myopic concerns central to any horizonal view. Reframing economics along horizonal lines suggests some meaningful insight to how regulations should be designed to keep pace with this approach in economics and law