The lasting social value of mega events: experiences from green point community in Cape Town, South Africa

A growing area of mega event research focuses on the long-term social value of outcomes and the impact of their far-reaching benefits. This paper questions whether mega events present opportunities for interventions through an exploration of the social value of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the community of Green Point, Cape Town. Drawing on Chalip’s (2006) understanding of the liminal social value of events, the main considerations are whether the outcome of feel-good experiences were leveraged to enable community building in the long-term. Following the narrative inquiry approach, stories were collected from community members. The findings suggest community members from Green Point have a mixed perception of the event’s lasting social value. These perceptions were influenced by the participants’ wide-ranging experiences of the event and subsequent outcomes. The findings have a number of implications for future practice, affirming that the issues and challenges related to leveraging social impacts beyond the existence of a mega event can affect people’s perceptions of the social value attached. Looking to future research, this paper calls for investigations that involve repeated exploration of participant experiences over a longer timeframe, suggesting the value of the longitudinal perspective

Static Trace-Based Deadlock Analysis for Synchronous Mini-Go

We consider the problem of static deadlock detection for programs in the Go programming language which make use of synchronous channel communications. In our analysis, regular expressions extended with a fork operator capture the communication behavior of a program. Starting from a simple criterion that characterizes traces of deadlock-free programs, we develop automata-based methods to check for deadlock-freedom. The approach is implemented and evaluated with a series of examples

Worker exploitation in the gig economy: the case of dark kitchens

The emergence of dark kitchens in the restaurant industry is a contemporary phenomenon, arising most recently in the context of the so-called Gig Economy. This new business model flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale. Despite their popularity, considerable negative publicity exists in the news related to poor working conditions. To highlight this new phenomenon, this paper explores the existing literature on worker exploitation in dark kitchens in the context of the Gig Economy. A systematic literature review of hospitality and tourism databases generated 1430 articles, 18 of which met our inclusion criteria for the final analysis; and 1030 anecdotal sources, of which 47 were included. Thematic analysis was used to identify the key themes and summarize the findings to be used for further studies. The popularity of dark kitchens as a business model is premised on the fact that it dramatically reduces the operational cost and increases productivity. On the other hand, the working conditions and contractual agreements of the gig workers in dark kitchens raise several questions from operational, legal and ethical perspective. These poor working conditions create the conditions for worker exploitation and further damage the sector’s image. This study advocates that companies and managers are responsible for implementing and monitoring fair working conditions in dark kitchens. The existence of poor working conditions increases employee turnover, and overall, affects the industry’s reputation. This explorative study provides insights into the working conditions and contractual agreements in dark kitchens. Currently, there is no other study (empirical or conceptual) to shed light on the working practices. It is hoped that this study will trigger further discussion and empirical research on this field

Talent pool exclusion: the hotel employee perspective

Purpose- The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of employees excluded from a talent pool and to identify what career development is provided for them. Design/methodology/approach- A qualitative approach was adopted, and narrative inquiry was selected as the optimum route to obtaining detailed and rich accounts of the experiences of employees excluded from a talent pool. 15 in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 employees and 7 managers in a small hotel chain in the south of England. Findings-The study shows that employees who are excluded from a talent pool feel frustration, mistrust in the organisation, have low expectations of career development and show an intention to leave the organisation. Research limitations/ implications-The study was conducted in a chain of hotels where TM strategies are one of the key priorities in the organisation. The results may be different in hotels where TM strategies are less formal and talent pool segmentation is not clearly identified. Practical implications- Hotel managers should consider employees who are excluded from a talent pool and build effective TM strategies and provide career development in order to minimise adverse reactions and improve commitment and motivation. Originality/value- This research contributes to understanding talent pool exclusion and its consequences for the hotel sector. Narrative interviewing is used in this context for the first time

An international qualitative feasibility study to explore the process of using social innovation (co-production) strategies with older people: the SAIL project

Purpose This paper aims to present the feasibility study findings from a four-year project funded by the European Union Commission (the SAIL project, Staying Active and Independent for Longer). The funding stream was Interreg 2Seas which offers opportunities for coastal areas on both sides of the English Channel to work together on complex practical issues. The project focused on enabling older people to stay active and independent for longer using social innovation (co-production) approaches. Design/methodology/approach Ten pilot projects were developed, and each of the pilots worked with an academic partner to undertake a feasibility study that included 10 pilots across the four countries involved, France, Belgium, Holland and England. Findings This paper presents barriers and facilitators (using logic models) to the social innovation process with older people, which has wider relevance in terms of social innovation and its application. Research limitations/implications The findings which inform this paper are extensive, and this is a longitudinal qualitative study with much of the data collection being done using an online wiki (complemented by interviews and documentary analysis) which is a relatively new method for data collection. However, the consistency of the findings when analysed by three researchers was clear and pragmatically this complex method was required to examine complexity in the process of implementing social innovation in practice. Practical implications This project has enabled greater understanding of how social innovation can be applied and has highlighted contextual issues that can undermine or enable attempts to adopt the approach. Social implications For the 10 pilot projects generated, there were obviously important cultural and geographical differences in terms of engagement and practical implementation of social innovation. Some of which, as mentioned in this paper, are very important for the successful implementation of social innovation in a particular setting and indeed may be a strength or a barrier in terms of engaging with local people and agencies. Originality/value The development of logic models is a useful approach when the topic under study is complex and likely to produce a diverse set of process outcomes. The logic model focuses upon the relationships between the resources that are used to create the intervention and what is produced in terms of outcomes. Ultimately, this enables the identification of the factors that contribute to a successful intervention. Thus, in relation to this study, logic models have helped to provide an evidence-based framework that can support decision-making regarding the most effective use of limited resources to support successful social innovation processes in the future. The logic model for each area of the findings presented here can in the future be used to help implement social innovation; also, to consider how it can be improved in future research

Stellar:A Programming Model for Developing Protocol-Compliant Agents

An interaction protocol captures the rules of encounter in a multiagent system. Development of agents that comply with protocols is a central challenge of multiagent systems. Our contribution in this chapter is a programming model, Stellar, that simplifies development of agents compliant with information protocols specified in BSPL. A significant distinction of Stellar from similar approaches is that it does not rely upon extracting control flow structures from protocol specifications to ensure compliance. Instead, Stellar provides a set of fundamental operations to programmers for producing viable messages according to the correct flow of information between agents as specified by a protocol, enabling flexible design and implementation of protocol-compliant agents. Our main contributions are: (1) identification of a set of programming errors that commonly occur when developing agents for protocol-based multiagent system, (2) definition of Stellar’s operations and a simple yet effective pattern to develop protocol-compliant agents that avoid the identified errors, and (3) demonstration of Stellar’s effectiveness by presenting concrete agents in e-commerce and insurance policy domains

Who should be prioritized for renal transplantation?: Analysis of key stakeholder preferences using discrete choice experiments

Background Policies for allocating deceased donor kidneys have recently shifted from allocation based on Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) tissue matching in the UK and USA. Newer allocation algorithms incorporate waiting time as a primary factor, and in the UK, young adults are also favoured. However, there is little contemporary UK research on the views of stakeholders in the transplant process to inform future allocation policy. This research project aimed to address this issue. Methods Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) questionnaires were used to establish priorities for kidney transplantation among different stakeholder groups in the UK. Questionnaires were targeted at patients, carers, donors / relatives of deceased donors, and healthcare professionals. Attributes considered included: waiting time; donor-recipient HLA match; whether a recipient had dependents; diseases affecting life expectancy; and diseases affecting quality of life. Results Responses were obtained from 908 patients (including 98 ethnic minorities); 41 carers; 48 donors / relatives of deceased donors; and 113 healthcare professionals. The patient group demonstrated statistically different preferences for every attribute (i.e. significantly different from zero) so implying that changes in given attributes affected preferences, except when prioritizing those with no rather than moderate diseases affecting quality of life. The attributes valued highly related to waiting time, tissue match, prioritizing those with dependents, and prioritizing those with moderate rather than severe diseases affecting life expectancy. Some preferences differed between healthcare professionals and patients, and ethnic minority and non-ethnic minority patients. Only non-ethnic minority patients and healthcare professionals clearly prioritized those with better tissue matches. Conclusions Our econometric results are broadly supportive of the 2006 shift in UK transplant policy which emphasized prioritizing the young and long waiters. However, our findings suggest the need for a further review in the light of observed differences in preferences amongst ethnic minorities, and also because those with dependents may be a further priority.</p