Los Angeles OneSource System: Youth Employers: Customer Satisfaction Survey

The City of Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board contracted with California State University Northridge to conduct a customer satisfaction survey of youth employers that participated in the OneSource Centers Youth Program in the 2010-11 program year. The results of the survey show very high levels of satisfaction (9.1 on a 10 point scale), with little variation between centers. The overall satisfaction was primarily driven by satisfaction with the services provided by the centers. In this report we provide the results of our analysis, including detailed findings for each OneSource Center in the appendix.Technical Repor

Los Angeles Onesource System: Youth Participant: Customer Satisfaction Survey 2010-2011

The Consulting Center at the College of Business and Economics, California State University, Northridge, contracted with the City to survey youth participants served during the 2010-11 program year. We collected data on services received, satisfaction with services received and the characteristics of youth served. This report presents the results of the survey for the program as a whole and for each OneSource contractor individually. Where possible we compared results for this year with data from earlier years to identify trends in the data that may be valuable to program operators and the WIB.Technical Repor

Los Angeles WorkSource System Intercept Customer Satisfaction Survey

The City of Los Angeles’ Community Development Department contracted with California State University Northridge to conduct customer satisfaction surveys at 18 WorkSource Centers. This study is part of the larger Contractor Certification System, which includes a performance management system known as SOFA, which refers to Customer Satisfaction, Outcomes, Flow of customers, and Administrative performance.Technical Repor

Engaging the audience through videography as performance

The audience is an important part of videography, but its role tends to be seen as passive and unengaged. The audience’s experience is often guided in videography, with intended reaction made clear. Yet such an approach to the audience does not make use of the possibilities of videography for inciting active interaction and incorporating multiple interpretations. Previous research has suggested that videography has potential for interventional influence on audiences by taking on the performative turn in research. Developing more deeply the notions of performance and performativity in the context of videography, this paper proposes that one way to activate audiences, interact directly with them and engage them in meaning-making is to approach videography as performance. To provide practical suggestions for creating such performance, the paper contextualises videography as a recording medium, thus establishing its ontological position and ties to other media

Using photo-elicitation to understand reasons for repeated self-harm: a qualitative study

Background: Reasons for self-harm are not well understood. One of the reasons for this is that first-hand accounts are usually elicited using traditional interview and questionnaire methods. This study aims to explore the acceptability of using an approach (photo-elicitation) that does not rely on solely verbal or written techniques, and to make a preliminary assessment of whether people can usefully employ images to support a discussion about the reasons why they self-harm. Method: Interviews with eight participants using photo elicitation, a method in which photographs produced by the participant are used as a stimulus and guide within the interview. Results: Participants responded positively to using images to support a discussion about their self-harm and readily incorporated images in the interview. Four main themes were identified representing negative and positive or adaptive purposes of self-harm: self-harm as a response to distress, self-harm to achieve mastery, self-harm as protective and self-harm as a language or form of communication. Conclusions: Employing this novel approach was useful in broadening our understanding of self-harm

The sadness of lives and the comfort of things: Goods as evocative objects in bereavement

This paper seeks to understand the texture and emotional tenor of the relations that bereaved people can have with a range of objects, including those that seem mundane or simply part of the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. Taking Joan Didion's best-selling book, The Year of Magical Thinking, as its focus, the paper examines the varied and significant roles that certain objects played as she negotiated the vagaries of her first year as a widow. While previous literature has mined the memorialising function of goods for survivors, our analysis suggests that goods and consumption experiences can also play a powerful role as tools to think with for those struggling to create a meaningful narrative of death and loss. It concludes by considering the contribution of the analysis to the understanding of goods as ‘active life presences’ (Turkle, 2007), the relationship between consumption and bereavement, and ‘the sadness of lives and the comfort of things’ (Miller, 2008)

Ambivalent Relationships and Projection Onto Indexical Objects Ambivalent Relationships and Projection onto Indexical Objects

It is well-established in consumer culture theory that an object's meaning often resides in its ability to represent or trigger memories of others or relationships with others. The context of familial intergenerational transfers of gifts and heirlooms has been a particularly fertile area for investigating this phenomenon. This article draws on the findings from a study of heirlooms. It merges insights from the semiotic perspective of objects representing others with a projection perspective where consumers project their ambivalence about relationships with others onto their relationships with the objects that index those others. [to cite]: Deborah Heisley and Deborah Cours 636 Advances in Consumer Research Volume 34, © 2007 Ambivalent Relationships and Projection onto Indexical Objects ABSTRACT It is well-established in consumer culture theory that an object's meaning often resides in its ability to represent or trigger memories of others or relationships with others. The context of familial intergenerational transfers of gifts and heirlooms has been a particularly fertile area for investigating this phenomenon. This article draws on the findings from a study of heirlooms. It merges insights from the semiotic perspective of objects representing others with a projection perspective where consumers project their ambivalence about relationships with others onto their relationships with the objects that index those others