Homemaking by single person households in the northern part of the Netherlands

For over 30 years, the concept of home has been a popular, yet contested subject of research for scholars from different disciplines, e.g. architecture, philosophy, sociology, psychology and cultural studies. In line with this multifaceted, interesting subject, quite some studies have been devoted to the subject of homemaking.However, when reviewing the literature on home and homemaking, a great deal of scholars seems to have overlooked to date the home situation, and thus the homemaking activities and practices of single person households, or so called ‘solo livers’. This is remarkable because the number of single person households is increasing worldwide, as different recent studies show e.g. (Palmer G. , 2006), (Klinenberg, 2012), (Jamieson & Simpson, 2013). The aim of this working paper – which is part of a PhD proposal in progression – is to address the homemaking process from the perspective of solo living people in the geographical setting of the Provence of Groningen, in the northern part of the Netherlands. An underlying assumption is that by focusing on the homemaking of solo living people, i.e. on the individual level, this typical human phenomenon can be studied in its ‘purest form’.In the paper on homemaking in low-cost areas, Aziz & Ahmad (2012) connect the concepts of appropriation, attachment and identity as homemaking mechanisms, through which residents strive to achieve satisfaction and turn the surrounding area into their home. Aziz & Ahmad seek to identify specific behavioural components, called ‘attributes’, that belong to these three different concepts, in which they make a distinction between physical and social attributes. This focus of this paper is on the concept of appropriation as homemaking mechanism and how this concept can be refined to serve as conceptual framework

A better understanding of the housing market through Conjoint Analysis

During the past years a lot of research has been done on measuring and analyzing the stated and re-vealed preferences of house buyers, in order to develop so called new product market combinations for the housing market. It has become clear from these studies that the choice of a house buyer for a cer-tain type of dwelling is based on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, derived from the quantita-tive and qualitative attributes he observes and perceives when confronted with the choice for a dwell-ing. A dwelling as such, can be regarded as a complex ‘product’, consisting of a varied amount of quantitative and qualitative attributes. A dwelling not only offers a place to eat, sleep and live, but also a place of comfort and safety. For a growing group of house buyers their dwelling seems to be-come more and more even like ‘a statement of life style’, in the same way a dwelling was regarded as ‘a statement of richness’ in the earlier days. The focus of researchers is gradually moving towards the qualitative criteria that determine the choice behaviour of house buyers. Or, more specifically, towards the relationships between the preferences, perceptions, emotions and beliefs of the house buyer and the quantitative and qualitative criteria he has in mind. And, secondly, they want to understand how these aspects are related to the actual choice for a dwelling. An intriguing question is how these preferences, perceptions, emotions and beliefs (i.e. psychological factors) can be measured and analyzed in such a way that they can be described and communicated unambiguously to different parties that are involved in the housing market. The aim of this conceptual paper is to make a start with the exploration of the expected added value of Conjoint Analysis and Rule Developing Experiment as tools for measuring and analyzing the combi-nation of quantitative and qualitative criteria that direct the choice behaviour of house buyers. Conjoint Analysis, which has originally been developed for marketing applications, analyzes the joint subjective and psychological factors that influence the choice behavior of consumers. Applying Con-joint Analysis as a method of research, will not only add to the measurement and analysis of stated and revealed preferences of house buyers. It may be also of help to develop knowledge on unstated and even innovative preferences, which will eventually lead to innovative, yet unknown dwelling concepts and dwelling market combinations. These unknown combinations might be found by adding the method of Rule Developing Experiment

Narratology, In and Out of Order: Raphaël Baroni and Françoise Revaz Present Essays on Narrative Sequence

Raphaël Baroni / Françoise Revaz (Eds.): Narrative Sequence in Contemporary Narratology. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press 2016. (= Theory and Interpretation of Narrative Series). 226 pp. USD 85.95. ISBN 978-0-8142-1296-

SMEs and Certified Management Standards: The Effect of Motives and Timing on Implementation and Commitment

Existing research on certifiable management standards (CMS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) tends to focus on large companies and is characterised by disagreement about the role of these standards as drivers of CSR. We contribute to the literature by shifting the analytical focus to the behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that subscribe to multiple CSR related standards. We argue that, in respect of motive and commitment, SMEs are not as different from large companies as the literature suggests, as they are guided by similar institutional and economic motives. Results, based on ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified SMEs in Greece, demonstrate that later adopters are more susceptible to coercive and mimetic motives and are less likely to commit fully to the CMS requirements, while earlier adopters react to normative motives and considerations of internal efficiency gains and tend to carry out CMS requirements with greater diligence

Virtual Training of the Myosignal

To investigate which of three virtual training methods produces the largest learning effects on discrete and continuous myocontrol. The secondary objective was to examine the relation between myocontrol and manual motor control tests.A cohort analytic study.University laboratory.3 groups of 12 able-bodied participants (N = 36).Participants trained the control over their myosignals on 3 consecutive days. Training was done with either myosignal feedback on a computer screen, a virtual myoelectric prosthetic hand or a computer game. Participants performed 2 myocontrol tests and 2 manual motor control tests before the first and after the last training session. They were asked to open and close a virtual prosthetic hand on 3 different velocities as a discrete myocontrol test and followed a line with their myosignals for 30 seconds as a continuous myocontrol test. The motor control tests were a pegboard and grip-force test.Discrete myocontrol test: mean velocities. Continuous myocontrol test: error and error SD. Pegboard test: time to complete. Grip-force test: produced forces.No differences in learning effects on myocontrol were found for the different virtual training methods. Discrete myocontrol ability did not significantly improve as a result of training. Continuous myocontrol ability improved significantly as a result of training, both on average control and variability. All correlations between the motor control and myocontrol test outcome measures were below .50.Three different virtual training methods showed comparable results when learning myocontrol. Continuous myocontrol was improved by training while discrete myocontrol was not. Myocontrol ability could not be predicted by the manual motor control tests

Automotive Industry Response to its Global QMS Standard ISO/TS-16949

With increasing globalization, the intense competition and customer-pressure have spurred many producers from developing/ emerging countries to adopt the best management and organizational practices. The quality issues are paramount for automotive manufacturing. The multiplicity of Quality Management System (QMS) Standards prevalent till the 1990s finally gave way to development of a harmonized automotive industry-specific QMS, namely ISO/TS-16949. This paper analyzes the major factors motivating firms to adopt this Standard: its quality signaling function, especially in international business, and facilitative role in moving up the supply chain. We investigate the inter-national and inter-regional concentration of ISO/TS-16949 certificates and relate those changes to the automotive industry dynamics. Among the top certifying nations - China, India and Brazil included - these certificates and ‘cars and commercial vehicles’ produced are highly correlated. A moderate-to-high worldwide growth of this certification is probable in near future with its gaining popularity among Tier-2 suppliers and for two/ three-wheeler automotive production. The Indian evidence indicates a sizeable proportion of car and commercial vehicle plants being ISO/TS-16949 certified and a high certification incidence among large and medium-large auto component firms. We suggest the creation of a Centre to encourage and prepare SMEs and provide financial assistance for ISO/TS-16949 certification