Faking it : counterfeiting and consumer contradictions

Fashion counterfeiting is a multimillion pound business and one which relies on the complicity of the consumer. Frequently seen as a victimless crime, it is a difficult trade to control because as long as consumers desire brands, the greater the market for counterfeits. In this study we consider the way in which consumers relate to fake brands and the implications of counterfeit for consumers creating their identity through commodities. The results point to an inherent and fundamental contradiction in consumers views on counterfeit, willing to buy and wear the fakes but condemning the duplicity of those who do

Centrality of hospitality and tourism education : the case of Strathclyde business school

Hospitality and tourism management education thrives at the University of Strathclyde. As Susan Hart, Kevin O’Gorman and Matthew Alexander explain, following the recent reorganisation, integrating the degree into the Strathclyde Business School has strengthened the university’s presentation of the subject’s distinctiveness. This is how future leaders of the industry will be developed

Dismissing Voices of Resistance? Adolescent Girls and "Teen Angst" Poetry

This paper explores how the label "teen angst poetry" might serve to silence the voices of adolescent girls. It raises issues around how certain discourse traditions and communities label our words and then use these labels to either accept or dismiss our experience of the world.Cet article explore comment l'etiquette donnee a « la poesie existentielle de I'adolescence » sert de moyen pour faire taire les voix des adolescentes. II souleve les questions au sujet de la facon dont les analyses des traditions et des communautes donnent une etiquete a nos mots et ensuite se servent de ces etiquetes soit pour accepter ou pour rejeter notre experience du monde

The innovative practitioner: reconceptualising the special needs task

This study has two main themes. The first is concerned with re-examining the relationship between 'ordinary' and 'special' education in the light of developments in thinking and practice over the past decade. A case study approach was used to explore the limits and limitations of the thesis that 'special educational needs' can be most effectively addressed as part of a process of general curriculum critique and development designed to benefit all children. Pursuing questions and concerns arising from my own experience as a support teacher, the aim of the research was to establish if there is still a place for a concept of 'special' education consistent with this interpretation of the task and, if so, on what basis a distinction might now legitimately be made. Individual children's responses to a particular instance of general curriculum development (in the teaching and learning of writing) were observed, and samples of their writing collected, over a period of several months. The analysis of this material highlighted the need for, and the means to articulate, a discourse and interpretive procedure for responding to concerns about individual children's learning which reflect and enact the critique of 'learning difficulties' understood as an individual problem. Having reformulated the original thesis to include an individual dimension, the study concludes that what is needed to resolve the questions raised initially is not, after all, a new distinction between 'ordinary' and 'special' education, but a distinction of a quite different order: one which draws attention to different kinds of professional thinking, and highlights the critical and innovative nature of the thinking required. The second, subsidiary theme is a methodological one. It explores what the study itself may have to contribute to the establishment of a mode of research derived from teaching. Claiming to use no 'methods' other than the interpretive resources and experience of a teacher, the study uses its own processes to explore and establish its methodological status, and in particular to consider the significance of prior experience in the development of new knowledge about education

Women in enterprise : a different perspective

According to this detailed study of UK women and entrepreneurship produced for RBS by Aston Business School, women do not have any individual or collective entrepreneurial deficit. Instead, this report finds that it is a combination of challenge and choice. Whilst there is clearly a cultural challenge, women also choose to use entrepreneurship differently

A Data Transformation System for Biological Data Sources

Scientific data of importance to biologists in the Human Genome Project resides not only in conventional databases, but in structured files maintained in a number of different formats (e.g. ASN.1 and ACE) as well a.s sequence analysis packages (e.g. BLAST and FASTA). These formats and packages contain a number of data types not found in conventional databases, such as lists and variants, and may be deeply nested. We present in this paper techniques for querying and transforming such data, and illustrate their use in a prototype system developed in conjunction with the Human Genome Center for Chromosome 22. We also describe optimizations performed by the system, a crucial issue for bulk data

LITERACYGROWS.ORG CULTIVATING AN ONLINE PLATFORM FOR TEACHING PROFESSIONALS: A FORMATIVE EXPERIMENT EXPLORING THE EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY, AND APPEAL OF A CO-CONSTRUCTED ONLINE PLATFORM FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this formative experiment (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) was to describe the stages of development of an online platform that cultivated the growth of an online community of practice for teaching professionals. One hundred and forty-eight elementary school professionals participated in this study. Relying primarily on qualitative data, an iterative process of data gathering, analysis, and reflection was used prior to, during, and after the implementation of the intervention, LiteracyGrows.org, to describe performance and determine progress toward the pedagogical goal. Qualitative data were coded for recurring themes derived from the following sources: interview data, user-profile information, Google Analytics, email correspondence and open-rates, webinar archives, heat map data, and a researcher reflection journal. Micro-analysis revealed that the success of the intervention was related to the usability and sociability of the platform. It was easy to navigate and appealed to teachers as a social networking tool that was only for education professionals where they could share information and attend live or archived webinars to extend learning. Reflection on a macro-level was used as a tool to further explore LiteracyGrows.org as a model of professional development. Specifically, how it was situated within the larger landscape of professional development and what it offered in terms of alignment between learning theory, epistemology, and model of professional development and communication, worldview, and knowledge. These constructs were important factors to consider in creating a platform for meaningful dialogue and professional growth to take place. LiteracyGrows.org provides the foundation for future research to further explore how online professional platforms can be utilized to make professional development an on-going and sustainable component of support and growth for education professionals. The growth of online professional platforms by educators will also shift the conversation of professional development further away from delivery and more toward meaningful engagement by educators as active participants in their own knowledge construction. Recommendations include the continuation of the discussion of professional development in terms of epistemological alignment. This study highlights disconnect between teachers and their professional development experiences when expectations, perceptions, and understanding of what they are engaging in for growth do not align. Furthermore, reconstructing the way professional development is embedded within practice to better engage the 21st Century teacher using up-to-date technology

Looking for performance: how innovation and straregy may affect market orientation models

Despite 20 years of research into various aspects of the ‘Market Orientation’ (MO) construct, dubiety persists regarding the existence, nature and significancy of the relationship between market orientation and firm performance. In order to get more evidence some authors suggest including innovation in MO models. Debate also continues to examine whether organizational strategy is an antecedent or a consequence of MO, whilst some argue that strategy moderates the MO-performance relationship. Furthermore, there are sectors of industry and geographies where the phenomenon has received very little investigation, even of an exploratory nature. This study aims to explore the MO-performance relationship and to value the effect of innovation in MO-performance models in a sector where MO was virtually unknown: the Spanish real estate industry. The magnitude of the shifts taking place in this sector enhances its potential as a showcase for processes of anticipation and adaptation to the environment. In addition, the paper aims to shed some light on the question of whether strategy potentially moderates the MO-performance link. Finally, the principal implications of our findings are discussed.Market orientation, innovation, performance, strategy, real estate sector