724 research outputs found
Design
A work of fiction in which, much to the dismay of her band director father, a 13 year old girl is fired from her acolyting position
Constructing ethnicity statistics in talk-in-interaction: producing the 'White European'
This article âlooks behindâ official statistics, analysing the social context of their production. It uses conversation analysis to examine how an organizationâs ethnic monitoring statistics are constructed in and through interactions between callers and volunteers on its telephone helpline. In particular, it examines how the process of self-categorization is shaped by the response categories on the organizationâs monitoring form and by the format in which the ethnic monitoring question is asked. These analyses contribute to developing understandings of the social construction of âraceâ/ethnicity and of organizationally generated statistics
Anglo-American corporate governance and the employment relationship: a case to answer?
The corporate governance environment in the UK and US is generally thought to be hostile to the emergence of cooperative employment relations of the kind exemplified by labour-management partnerships. We discuss case study evidence from the UK which suggests that, contrary to this widespread perception, enduring and proactive partnerships may develop, in conditions where management can convince shareholders of the long-term gains from this approach, and where other regulatory factors operate to extend the time-horizon for financial returns. We conclude that there is more scope than is commonly allowed for measures which could reconcile liquidity in capital markets with cooperation in labour relations competition rather than EC legislationcorporate governance, labour-management partnerships, stakeholding
A qualitative meta-synthesis of young peoples' experiences of âsextingâ
Objective: To conduct a meta-synthesis of the qualitative research to explore young people's experiences and use of smart phones to send and receive sexually focused messages and images. Design: A qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted on the retrieved papers following a systematic search of PUBMED, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), COCHRANE, Embase, Medline and Psycinfo. The sample included five qualitative studies with a total sample size of 480 participants. Results: The meta-synthesis of the papers resulted in the development of four central themes: gender inequity, popularity with peers, relationship context, and costs and benefits. Conclusions: Drawing the qualitative work together highlights the manner in which âsextingâ is more nuanced than traditional âcyber-bullyingâ. The consensual sending of intimate images is a highly gendered activity. The gender issues require work with female students to explore the issue of âsextingâ and how it can be harmful. Work with male students around the issues of respect and gender harassment in relation to âsextingâ is also required and should contribute to sex and relationships education. The results indicate that school nurses working with young people need to build discussions about the use of technology within relationships into their work with young people
Using conversation analysis in feminist and critical research
Conversation analysis â the study of talk-in-interaction - is proving a valuable tool for
politically-engaged inquiry and social critique. This article illustrates the use of
conversation analysis in feminist and critical research, drawing on a range of empirical
studies. After introducing conversation analysis â its theoretical assumptions,
methodological practices, and empirical findings â it highlights projects based on two key
conversation analytic domains: turn-taking and turn-design, and sequence organization
and preference structure. The final section examines the key contributions of
conversation analysis to feminist and critical work in the areas of categories and gender;
LGBT issues; womenâs labour; and the politics, ethics and design of the research process
Feminists fighting breast cancer: the personal and the political
El artĂculo indaga en las principales estrategias feministas para luchar por un cambio social en relaciĂłn con el cĂĄncer de mama. Arranca con un breve repaso de los factores de riesgo de cĂĄncer de mama en el contexto de las estadĂsticas europeas sobre su incidencia y mortalidad. La parte central, que se apoya principalmente en mi propia investigaciĂłn mediante grupos de discusiĂłn, demuestra lo comĂșn y lo diverso de la experiencia vital del cĂĄncer de mama, dentro de su contexto social y polĂtico. El artĂculo termina con un debate sobre otras formas de activismo feminista que incluyen la lucha por mejores servicios y recursos, la oposiciĂłn a la invisibilidad de las mujeres con cĂĄncer de mama, asĂ como una crĂtica polĂtica de la âindustriaâ del cĂĄncer de mama.This article examines key feminist strategies for pursuing social change in relation to breast cancer. It begins with a brief overview of breast cancerrisk factors in the context of European statistics on breast cancer incidence and mortality. The central section, based primarily on my own focus group research, documents the commonality and diversity of womenâs lived experience ofbreast cancer, considered within its social and political context. The article endswith a discussion of other forms of feminist activism, including campaigningfor improved services and resources, challenging the invisibility of womenwith breast cancer, and a political critique of the breast cancer âindustryâ
Intervening with conversation analysis in telephone helpline services: strategies to improve effectiveness
This article overviews the way conversation analytic work on telephone helplines can make an impact in practical situations. It takes three illustrative themes in helpline research: (a) the giving, receiving, and resisting of advice; (b) the expression of strong emotion and its identification, management, and then coordination with helpline goals; and (c) how helplines' policies and practices shape the interactions between caller and call taker. For each of these themes, we show how conversation analysis research insights have been applied to improve helpline effectiveness. This has been done through a variety of practice-based reports, consultancy exercises, and training initiatives, including workshops where we aim to identify and facilitate good practice. Intervention studies of this type are at the forefront of interactional research on telephone helplines. Data are in Australian and British English
The crystal structure of superoxide dismutase from Plasmodium falciparum
Background: Superoxide dismutases (SODs) are important enzymes in defence against oxidative stress. In Plasmodium falciparum, they may be expected to have special significance since part of the parasite life cycle is spent in red blood cells where the formation of reactive oxygen species is likely to be promoted by the products of haemoglobin breakdown. Thus, inhibitors of P. falciparum SODs have potential as anti-malarial compounds. As a step towards their development we have determined the crystal structure of the parasite's cytosolic iron superoxide dismutase. Results: The cytosolic iron superoxide dismutase from P. falciparum (PfFeSOD) has been overexpressed in E. coli in a catalytically active form. Its crystal structure has been solved by molecular replacement and refined against data extending to 2.5 angstrom resolution. The structure reveals a two-domain organisation and an iron centre in which the metal is coordinated by three histidines, an aspartate and a solvent molecule. Consistent with ultracentrifugation analysis the enzyme is a dimer in which a hydrogen bonding lattice links the two active centres. Conclusion: The tertiary structure of PfFeSOD is very similar to those of a number of other iron-and manganese-dependent superoxide dismutases, moreover the active site residues are conserved suggesting a common mechanism of action. Comparison of the dimer interfaces of PfFeSOD with the human manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase reveals a number of differences, which may underpin the design of parasite-selective superoxide dismutase inhibitors
Co-operation in production, the organisation of industry and productive systems: a critical survey of the "District" form of industrial organisation and development
Liberal economics has traditionally put strong emphasis on individualisation
and specialisation â and has struggled with the notion of co-operation. Thus,
Alfred Marshall's pioneering work on the English industrial districts of his day
posed a significant challenge to the conventional wisdom, which embraced
laissez-faire markets and Adam Smith's claim that improvements in efficiency
depend upon the increased division of labour within firms competing in them.
Marshall found that an important determinant of the competitive success of
industrial districts was effective co-operation within and between firms,
supported by a dense network of institutions, and markets regulated by agreed
rules, norms and standards. He theorised that these generate external economies
of scale and scope that enable the district and its constituent small firms to
successfully compete with large, vertically integrated firms. From the mid1920s, however, with the emergence and growth of very large, highly successful
firms, the conventional wisdom shifted to suppose that the historical tendency in
capitalist development was towards large firm dominance; and the small firm
sector was progressively reduced to a residuum. However, the rediscovery of
the industrial district by Italian scholars during the 1960s revived interest in
Marshallâs notion of localised productive systems and attracted considerable
attention to this form of industrial organisation. This paper traces themes within
this literature, from the earliest theorising by the Classical Political Economists
to the present, focusing on the role of co-operation in production, the
relationship between the organisation of production and markets, and the nature
and functioning of productive systems
Pursuing a response by repairing an indexical reference
Prior conversation analytic research has demonstrated that when, following a sequence-initiating
action, a response is relevantly missing (or is forthcoming but is apparently inadequate), speakers may
use a range of practices for pursuing a response (or a more adequate response). These practicesâ-
such as response prompts, preference reversals, or turn extensionsâtreat the missing (or inadequate)
response as indicative of some problem, and they may either expose or mask the response pursuit
and the problem they attempt to remediate. This article extends this prior research by showing that
speakers can also use repair technologyâspecifically, repair of an indexical referenceâas a resource
for pursuing a response. It demonstrates that speakers can use repair of indexicals, particularly when
no uncertainty as to the referent seems possible, in order to pursue a response while obscuring some
other possible source of trouble. Initiating repair on an indexical reference in transition space claims
that a missing response is due to a problem of understanding or of recognizing the reference, and by
repairing it, the speaker makes available another opportunity for a response without exposing recipient
disinclination as the possible source of the trouble. Likewise, repairing an indexical reference in
the third turn can pursue a more adequate response, while avoiding going on record as doing so, by
treating the sequence-initiating turn as the source of the trouble. We show that, by ostensibly dealing
with problems of reference, repairs on indexicals manage (covertly) other more interactionally
charged issues, such as upcoming disagreement or misalignment between interlocutors
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