The Velvet Cage of Educational Con(pro)sumption

In the year that George Ritzer publishes the ninth edition of The McDonaldization of Society, moving his famous theory firmly Into the Digital Age, critical educator Petar Jandrić and sociologist Sarah Hayes invited George to a dialogue on the digital transformation of McDonaldization and its relationship to consumer culture. In this article, George first traces for us the origins of his theory that has endured for four decades. A key dimension of McDonaldization is the ‘iron cage’ of control, via rationalization, that was once contained within physical sites of bricks and mortar. Increasingly now, we encounter a ‘velvet cage’ in sites of digital consumption, at the hands of non-human technologies, that threaten human labour and autonomy. Exploited as unpaid con(pro)sumers, we labour to provide information for corporate digital billionaires, keeping McDonaldization alive, well, and even more predominant in augmented settings, including Higher Education, in the form of the McUniversity. With the rise of prosuming machines such as blockchain and bitcoin, that can both produce and consume without intervention from human prosumers, George concludes that prosumer capitalism will explode into unprecedented and unpredictable directions in the years to come

Media cities : mapping urbanity and audiovisual configurations

Abstract: The prime research question of this special issue of the Journal of African Cinemes focusses on the urban configuration of cities as media hubs. Placed within the broad research agenda of developing “systematic analyses of trends [...] in South African ‘media cities’” (Tomaselli 2013), the issue offers case studies of selected Southern African cities as both home to media production, distribution and exhibition as well as the subject of media imaginations. In line with this, the overall focus of the study is on mapping urbanity in an African context by analysing media environments and audiovisual configurations of cities from both textual and contextual perspectives. This case study research design constructs the respective media cities examined as single units while remaining attentive to how these developments relate to similar cities outside the case studies under investigation

'For this I was made': conflict and calling in the role of a woman priest

There has been an increasing focus on ‘work as calling’ in recent years, but relatively few empirical sociological accounts that shed light on the experience of performing calling work. Although callings have generally been referred to as positive and fulfilling to the individual and as beneficial to society, researchers have also suggested there is a ‘dark side’ to calling, and have drawn attention to the potential conflicts and tensions inherent in the pursuit of calling, especially for women. This article explores these themes through the first-hand experiences of one woman who felt called to work as a priest. Her narrative illustrates how callings draw the individual irresistibly towards a particular line of work. It also shows how calling work can be both satisfying individually and beneficial to the wider community but, at the same time, involves sacrifice, compromise and a willingness to defer personal rewards

The changing nature of consumption and the intensification of McDonaldization in the digital age

© The Author(s) 2018. In this article, we re-examine the McDonaldization thesis in light of social changes that occurred since the 1990s and notably in light of the onset of digital forms of consumption. The argument is presented that while the theory of McDonaldization remains profoundly relevant to the consumption of bricks-and-mortar locales, it is even more applicable in the digital age, as well as “bricks-and-clicks” consumption sites. The ways in which McDonaldization is played out in three iconic companies, namely, McDonalds, Amazon, and Wal-Mart is critically interrogated. On this basis, the article seeks to understand what the intensification of McDonaldization means for our understanding of the contemporary consumption experience. Arguing that theories are routinely outpaced by the pace of social change, we contend that the digital speeds up processes of rationalization while intensifying levels of consumption. The article concludes by reflecting on what this might mean given that we now live in an age of networked individualism, for our understanding of the relationship between place and consumption: the degree to which digital platforms appear to consumers to be “natural” and thus ideologically powerful, being of particular concern. For this reason, we suggest that the McDonaldization thesis is, in fact, more relevant in the digital future than it was in the bricks-and-mortar past

Prosumer and Product Design Through Digital Tools

Currently, the growing interest of users and consumers in the participation of the creative process has led to the typical “maker culture” practices. Consequently, there is an increasing number of prosumers - users who produce what they consume - who want to be part of the design and transformation process of the products. In order to achieve it, prosumers have begun to use digital tools that greatly facilitate this task. These tools could vary depending on the number of users involved in the process and the freedom of participation that they have on the product. It has been presented a number of qualitative classification of cases involving the end user, individually or collectively, that has influenced as a prosumer in the product design process. The objective is to study the use of digital tools in the creative phase within the design process according to their different levels of participation with respect to the final product. The cases are shown in four tables according to the number of users involved in the process and their level of participation. In these tables, other important aspects related to the study of digital tools such as the type of contribution of the prosumer to the product or the design phase in which he participates will be identified. In conclusion, this work will show if there is a pattern in the use of digital tools according to the number of users involved in the process and the freedom of participation that they have and which are the reasons for their use

Free Trade Agreements and World Obesity

We study the causal link between trade openness via free trade agreements and obesity rates. We apply a difference-in-differences approach and exploit the year a country entered a free trade agreement with the United States during the period 1990 to 2016. We find statistically and economically significant results and show that our findings are robust to placebo tests, the use of synthetic control methods, and mechanically maximizing the sample. Additionally, we show that when using event studies the equal trends assumption holds

The transition to ‘patienthood’, the contribution of the nursing assistant: a grounded theory study

The face of nursing is changing, as health-care organizations are looking to new assistant roles to support the registered nurse and potentially provide a source for apprenticeship toward registration. These developments are within a context of an existing assistant staff group, delivering much of the bedside care. Few studies have explored the dyadic relationship between nursing assistant and patient, despite the potential for their interactions to contribute to the patient experience. This study aimed to gain an understanding of patients’ perceptions of the nursing assistant role using constructivist grounded theory. Constant comparison guided data collection and analysis, and 4 core categories emerged: expectation, observation, meaningful connections, and adaptation. Within these core categories, we suggest the assistant plays a part in how participants adapt from the known self to a self of patienthood and the overall patient experience. We conclude that there is a necessity to understand more fully the dyadic relationship between patients and nursing assistants

Reflections on undertaking the Probation Qualifying Framework scheme during the transforming rehabilitation changes

This article reflects upon the author’s experience of undertaking the PQF (Probation Qualifying Framework) training scheme during the chaotic period of Transforming Rehabilitation. The author asserts that the uncertainty and precarious nature of the changes were detrimental to an effective learning environment, which ultimately promoted a practice culture of punitiveness and control and did not allow learners the space to be skilful and confident practitioners, comfortable working autonomously. Furthermore, the author contends there is an emerging culture within the NPS (National Probation Service) increasingly fostered on ‘risk management’, which is reflected in the vocational nature of PQF training and is contributing towards a widening cultural gap that is emerging between the community rehabilitation companies and NPS

Mechanisms of northern North Atlantic biomass variability

In the North Atlantic Ocean north of 40°&thinsp;N, intense biological productivity occurs to form the base of a highly productive marine food web. SeaWiFS satellite observations indicate trends of biomass in this region over 1998–2007. Significant biomass increases occur in the northwest subpolar gyre and there are simultaneous significant declines to the east of 30–35°&thinsp;W. These short-term changes, attributable to internal variability, offer an opportunity to explore the mechanisms of the coupled physical–biogeochemical system. We use a regional biogeochemical model that captures the observed changes for this exploration. Biomass increases in the northwest are due to a weakening of the subpolar gyre and associated shoaling of mixed layers that relieves light limitation. Biomass declines to the east of 30–35°&thinsp;W are due to reduced horizontal convergence of phosphate. This reduced convergence is attributable to declines in vertical phosphate supply in the regions of deepest winter mixing that lie to the west of 30–35°&thinsp;W. Over the full time frame of the model experiment, 1949–2009, variability of both horizontal and vertical phosphate supply drive variability in biomass on the northeastern flank of the subtropical gyre. In the northeast subpolar gyre horizontal fluxes drive biomass variability for both time frames. Though physically driven changes in nutrient supply or light availability are the ultimate drivers of biomass changes, clear mechanistic links between biomass and standard physical variables or climate indices remain largely elusive.</p

Perceptions and images of “typical” Australian dishes: An exploratory study

The research investigates the perceived images that ‘typical’ Australian dishes evoke in the minds of consumers, including words they associate to describe typical Australian dishes. A questionnaire designed and distributed among undergraduate students at various universities yielded 561 usable responses. Three predominant responses, grilled/barbequed meats, steaks, and meat pies associated typical Australian dishes with; in addition, Australian dishes evoked four different images among respondents: positive, related to specific images (e.g., barbequed foods), neutral, negative, and food related. Overall, the findings underline limited knowledge. Consumer education could help broaden understanding, with resulting enhanced images of the country’s culinary attributes