The Village Voice: Masculine Identity Construction within an Interpretive Community

This paper looks at how young Irish men construct their masculine self/identity/body keeping in mind the mediated world within which they find themselves, and considering their own more immediate social surroundings and influences, that is to say, their interpretive community. The research paper combines Foucault’s later writings on technologies of the self with literary theory, using critics such as Stanley Fish (1980) and his work on ‘Interpretive Communities’ to inform the study

The Negotiation and Consumption of Mediated Masculinities in the Artistry of the Male Self

Much research has been conducted to date considering the construction of identity in many disciplines. However this essay explores Irish men’s construction of their identity in tandem with their lived existence in the social world. The interrelations and influences of their family, friends, peers and the media, ultimately human interdependency itself, all serve as potential cues upon which young men borrow to craft their own masculine identity

Exploring Customer Contexts: How a Communitarian Business Model Enables Meaningful Customer Relationships

Broadly this study explores the individual’s constructions of identity as situated within historically and locally particular cultural practices. Following this approach facilitates a better understanding of how consumers negotiate the world around them. In turn this provides marketers with valuable insights that better equip them to engage with their customers. The subject matter is the male consumer engaging in bodywork practices to construct a desired body type. The subjects are situated within two discursive regimes: practices of self-presentation and national sport. Moreover, looking across these contexts reveals situational differences that contribute further to managerial decision-making, helping build stronger customer relationships

Tracking of Salmonella through the Pork Slaughter Process

End of project reportTo help address the problem of salmonellosis in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), a national Salmonella control programme was introduced in 1997 with a view to reducing the prevalence of Salmonella in pigs on the farm and on pig carcasses. The primary objective of this present study was to determine the correlation between the Salmonella serological and bacteriological status of pigs presented for slaughter and the Salmonella status of pork cuts following slaughter, dressing and chilling. Two additional studies investigated the prevalence and numbers of Salmonella spp. in the boning halls of four commercial pork abattoirs and at retail level in butcher shops and supermarkets in the RoI. The results indicated that categorisation of pig herds on the basis of a historical serological test for Salmonella was not a good predictor of the bacteriological Salmonella status of individual pigs at time of slaughter. However, it is acknowledged that serological testing does help in giving a rough estimate of the overall Salmonella status of a pig herd. There was a linear correlation between prevalence of Salmonella in caecal contents and on pork cuts at factory level; therefore, if the number of herds presented for slaughter with high levels of Salmonella (category 3) was reduced, there would be less potential for contamination of the lairage, equipment etc. and so less likelihood of Salmonella contamination on pork. The impact of crosscontamination during transport, lairage, processing and distribution cannot be ignored and measures to diminish this would significantly reduce the dissemination of Salmonella in the chain and the consequent risk posed. A key finding was the considerable variation in the incidence of Salmonella on different sampling days and in different slaughter plants.National Development Plan 2007-201

Save Your Wardrobe: Digitalising Sustainable Clothing Consumption

This preliminary research examines the role of digitalisation in changing how consumers respond to, manage and maintain more sustainable approaches to clothing. It brings together the mission and vision of Save Your Wardrobe, with expert consumer researchers from University of Glasgow. Using a qualitative approach (in-depth consumer interviews and wardrobe audits) we explore existing clothing behaviours and how the Save Your Wardrobe (SYW) application (app) could be used as a digital wardrobe management solution

Save Your Wardrobe: Digitalising Sustainable Clothing Consumption

This preliminary research examines the role of digitalisation in changing how consumers respond to, manage and maintain more sustainable approaches to clothing. It brings together the mission and vision of Save Your Wardrobe, with expert consumer researchers from University of Glasgow. Using a qualitative approach (in-depth consumer interviews and wardrobe audits) we explore existing clothing behaviours and how the Save Your Wardrobe (SYW) application (app) could be used as a digital wardrobe management solution

Beyond good and bad practice :disrupting power and discourse at "Urban Youth": a Foucauldian analysis of the possibilities of youth work

Youth work, as a form of engaging young people "in which the participation of young people is voluntary and the aims are broadly educational" (Harrison and Wise (eds.), 2009: 1) has been positioned as an inherently ethical practice (see: Sercombe, 1998; National Youth Agency, 1999). However, what makes youth work ethical and what constitutes ethical youth work is currently the subject of some debate. At present, two broad, overlapping schools of thought exist: that youth work is made ethical by the fact that the procedures within it are more equitable and fairer (Young, 1999; NYA, 1999); or that youth work is made ethical by the fact that it holds the young person as its primary constituent, receiving its 'mandate' directly from them (Sercombe, 1998; 2010). To this debate I would like to provide an alternative model of ethics which focuses on the potential to disrupt unequal relations of power and unsettle discourse. In doing so I will be able to highlight the existent possibilities for and limitations on the production of an ethical youth work practice. This model is drawn from a Foucauldian reading of ethics. Foucauldian ethics focuses on the capacity of the subject to disrupt discourse and challenge power relations. Applying this Foucauldian ethics, the thesis explores what about youth work creates openings for the subject to disrupt discourse. These openings, I argue, are rooted in the ambiguity of the discourse of youth work. This ambiguity is the result of the production of youth work discourse by multiple, contradictory understandings of youth, adulthood and 'good' youth-adult relations. These manifest in the varying sub-discourses of positive youth work co-existent within the overarching youth work discourse. Using evidence from policy textwork and ethnographic fieldwork at a youth club in Nottingham (Urban Youth) I illustrate how the co-existence of these understandings renders the subject-positions and subject-functions of youth workers and young people in youth work discourse ambiguous. As such what constitutes positive youth work, a 'good' youth worker and the dimensions of positive youth worker-young person relationships is unclear. Because of this ambiguity, openings for critical reflection and disassembling of the subject (what Foucault considers as the epitome of being ethical) emerge

Accessing Jobcentre Plus Customer Services: a qualitative study

In recent years Jobcentre Plus has introduced a number of initiatives to improve the delivery of services to customers. There has been a rapid expansion in the use of telephony and web-based services, and so the number of ‘channels’ through which people can access Jobcentre Plus services has increased. The Accessing Jobcentre Plus Customer Services (AJCS) model was introduced into offices to help deal with rising levels of unappointed footfall and to help customers utilise the service channel that best meets their needs. This evaluation provides early feedback following the national roll-out and examines whether AJCS is operating as intended. The evaluation focused on ten Jobcentre Plus local offices and their associated Benefit Delivery Centres (BDCs) and involved: observational studies and in-depth face-to-face staff interviews in the selected Jobcentre Plus local offices; telephone interviews with staff in the five BDCs; and a focus group with the National Jobcentre Plus Customer Representative Group Forum (hereafter referred to as customer representatives)