127 research outputs found

    LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 277, GIScience 2023, Complete Volum

    Exploring experiences of power in therapeutic relationships between NHS service users and Clinical Psychologists

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    Background: A positive therapeutic relationship is often cited as the most stable predictor of outcomes in psychotherapy (Horvath, Del Re, Flückinger & Symonds, 2011). However, this is poorly understood from the perspective of the service user. Power is theorised to be an important factor in therapeutic relationships for service users but there is no current empirical research investigating this from a service user perspective. Aims: This portfolio aims to identify and synthesise the current literature on factors that impact NHS services users’ experiences of the therapeutic relationship and undertake novel empirical research into how NHS service users experience of power in therapeutic relationships with Clinical Psychologists. Methodology: A systematic review was conducted, and from this thematic synthesis investigated factors that impact NHS service users experience of therapeutic relationships. Further, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was undertaken to explore NHS service users’ experiences of power in therapeutic relationships with Clinical Psychologists. Results: Four themes relating to NHS service users’ experiences in therapeutic relationships were developed in the systemic review. In the empirical paper, one superordinate theme emerged ‘the dynamic tapestry of power’, constructed by three subsidiary themes. These spoke to the different experiences of disempowerment prior to therapy, balancing of power in the relationship and pivotal therapeutic moments or ruptures. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that that power operates on a number of complex levels within the therapeutic relationship in ways that may not be attended to by clinicians. It also showed how power can be used positively and the benefits of power being made more visible so that it can be attended to by clinicians, service users, and policymakers. Implications and future research options are discussed

    12th International Conference on Geographic Information Science: GIScience 2023, September 12–15, 2023, Leeds, UK

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    No abstract available

    The determinants of value addition: a crtitical analysis of global software engineering industry in Sri Lanka

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    It was evident through the literature that the perceived value delivery of the global software engineering industry is low due to various facts. Therefore, this research concerns global software product companies in Sri Lanka to explore the software engineering methods and practices in increasing the value addition. The overall aim of the study is to identify the key determinants for value addition in the global software engineering industry and critically evaluate the impact of them for the software product companies to help maximise the value addition to ultimately assure the sustainability of the industry. An exploratory research approach was used initially since findings would emerge while the study unfolds. Mixed method was employed as the literature itself was inadequate to investigate the problem effectively to formulate the research framework. Twenty-three face-to-face online interviews were conducted with the subject matter experts covering all the disciplines from the targeted organisations which was combined with the literature findings as well as the outcomes of the market research outcomes conducted by both government and nongovernment institutes. Data from the interviews were analysed using NVivo 12. The findings of the existing literature were verified through the exploratory study and the outcomes were used to formulate the questionnaire for the public survey. 371 responses were considered after cleansing the total responses received for the data analysis through SPSS 21 with alpha level 0.05. Internal consistency test was done before the descriptive analysis. After assuring the reliability of the dataset, the correlation test, multiple regression test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test were carried out to fulfil the requirements of meeting the research objectives. Five determinants for value addition were identified along with the key themes for each area. They are staffing, delivery process, use of tools, governance, and technology infrastructure. The cross-functional and self-organised teams built around the value streams, employing a properly interconnected software delivery process with the right governance in the delivery pipelines, selection of tools and providing the right infrastructure increases the value delivery. Moreover, the constraints for value addition are poor interconnection in the internal processes, rigid functional hierarchies, inaccurate selections and uses of tools, inflexible team arrangements and inadequate focus for the technology infrastructure. The findings add to the existing body of knowledge on increasing the value addition by employing effective processes, practices and tools and the impacts of inaccurate applications the same in the global software engineering industry

    Law & The Good Life

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    Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held November 10, 2022

    Interactions of Actors and Local Institutions in Policy Process - From Patriotic Health Campaign to Healthy City in Shanghai

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    The majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and more and more people are migrating to urban areas. However, the health hazards of urban life affect the population as well. They often suffer from non-communicable diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and psychosocial problems. To address the increasing concerns about urban health, the WHO developed health promotion initiatives, known as the Healthy Cities programmes in 1986, which aim to place health high on the agendas of decision-makers and to promote comprehensive local strategies for health promotion and sustainable development. It successfully engages local governments in health development from thousands of cities worldwide in both developed and developing countries, including China. In 1994, China started to develop Healthy City pilot projects in the name of Healthy Cities with the suggestion of the WHO. However, the Chinese government started related activities about the environment and health long before WHO introduced the concept of Healthy Cities. The Patriotic Health Campaign was launched in 1952; despite it being a social movement that was not exclusively oriented to urban areas, it paved the way for Healthy Cities programmes in China. Since 1984, the National Government developed more than 40 policies and National Hygienic Cities to improve the urban environment and support Healthy Cities-related activities. However, the implementation of national policies depends on local level actions where collaboration across sectors is problematic, especially since different ministries tend to work separately according to their own prioritized programme. Shanghai is the first mega-city in China to initiate the action for Healthy City development. It was successful in raising high standards for the health status of the population and improving the urban environment in a quantitative way. However, institutional change, especially intersectoral collaboration remains a big challenge for the implementation. Therefore, it would be interesting to know how the local actors develop the Healthy City programme in the specific context of China. However, there is a lack of empirical studies on the Healthy City programme, and few studies focus on intersectoral relationships in Healthy City development; some researches only include limited actors, and some fail to identify the local institutional settings and connect with the international context. On this background, it looks into the policy making processes of making different programmes at different stages as well as the respective modes of policy implementation. This research aims to unfold how local actors develop the Healthy City programme in Shanghai. Two propositions are guiding the analysis: first, whereas policies in China are mainly developed on a national level where everyday challenges of individual local level entities do not play a decisive role, Healthy City policies are implemented on the local level (of cities or city districts) where municipal specificities and local conditions heavily influence the action potentials and actions of authorities and other stakeholders. Second, whereas Healthy City-oriented policies are comprehensive in nature, their implementation is rather fragmented and sectoral. The study applies an approach that is influenced by the discussion about actor-centered institutionalism. The interpretive lens of actor-centered institutionalism is taken to identify the main actors, analyse how they interact with each other, and the underlying institutional settings that are crucial to interpreting policy making and policy implementation. The study will also find out whether the actor-centered institutionalism approach is fully applicable under the conditions of China, or whether certain modifications are to be made. The research follows a qualitative approach, collecting data from multiple sources such as documents, including historic documents in archives, and interviews, combining a variety of research methods including stakeholder analysis, discourse analysis and network analysis. Shanghai is used as a case study as it has the longest experience with the implementation of Healthy City programmes in China, and was also the first to issue a Healthy City Action Plan in 2003. It established the first municipal committee for health promotion in 2005. Whereas the older programmes are analysed based on documents, the latest Healthy City programme is scrutinised by employing document analysis and interviews of different stakeholders in order to get an in-depth understanding of the policy making and implementation processes. This thesis aspires to contribute to the empirical knowledge of the development of public policies, the understanding of actors and actor constellations in Healthy City programmes with reference to specific institutional settings in China, and examining the compatibility and limitations of this interpretive lens in the Chinese context. Moreover, policy recommendations related to practice in Shanghai are provided as further motivation and commitment to Healthy City development in China

    The arab and european digital native media coverage about each other, analysis of media in several countries: Spain, Portugal, France and Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia

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    This dissertation examines Arab and European digital native media coverage of issues related to the Arab world and Europe in 2020, twenty years after the events of 9/11 The thesis analyses media coverage in the two worlds from various formal and content aspects. The main objective is to analyze the image of Arabs in the European media and the image of Europeans in the Arab media. Media agendas, language, hate speech, stereotypical images of the other, as well as the importance of news, sources of information, and actors outside journalism who control their work are some of the categories studied. Methodological triangulation is used, combining literature review, content analysis, and in-depth interviews. We have worked with six digital native media, representing a sample from Europe and the Arab world (Spain, France, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Iraq)

    Coordination and Sophistication

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    How coordination can be achieved in isolated, one-shot interactions without com-munication and in the absence of focal points is a long-standing question in game theory. We show that a cost-benefit approach to reasoning in strategic settings delivers sharp theoretical predictions that address this central question. In particular, our model predicts that, for a large class of individual reasoning processes, coordination in some canonical games is more likely to arise when players perceive heterogeneity in their cognitive abilities, rather than homogeneity. In addition, and perhaps contrary to common perception, it is not necessarily the case that being of higher cognitive sophistication is beneficial to the agent: in some coordination games, the opposite is true. We show that subjects’ behavior in a laboratory experiment is consistent with the predictions of this model, and reject alternative coordination mechanisms. Overall, the empirical results strongly support our model
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