An examination of motives underlying active sport tourist behavior: a market segmentation approach

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a preliminary sport tourism motivation scale (STMS) that detected unique active sport tourist segments according to their social psychological motives for traveling to a destination to compete in sport. Segments’ conative loyalty were also analyzed to gain a greater understanding of how underlying motives for sport event tourism influences consumers’ behavioral intentions. A convenient sampling approach was used to collect data from 380 athletes participating in the 2014 GoPro Mountain Games in Colorado. In developing the STMS, items derived from previously validated sport and tourism motivation scales were used to reduce and verify a parceled STMS factor structure. Confirmatory Factor Analysis yielded acceptable psychometric properties. Ward’s Hierarchical cluster analysis identified three segments: tourism-oriented, sport tourism enthusiasts, and sport-oriented. The sport tourism enthusiasts, who exhibited favorable valuations on each of the nine STMS factors, demonstrated elevated conative loyalty characteristics above those of the other two segments. Additionally, the STMS was able to explain 30% of the variation in consumers’ conative loyalty with factors, ‘Destination Attributes’ and ‘Competitive Desire’ being the most influential predictors. Overall, the study’s findings may better equip event managers with information necessary to tailor event service elements which may enhance customer satisfaction and lead to greater retention.     

Professor or Knowledge Worker? The Politics of Defining Faculty Work

To define “contractual regulations and institutional practices” for university faculty we need to consider significant changes in academic work in the last two decades. On the one hand, there persists the traditional view of disciplinary knowledge as valuable for its own sake; on the other, universities are a driving force in providing intellectual capital for the new knowledge society. While academic contracts have traditionally focused on defining work regulations and guidelines, faculty freedoms, tenure and so on, within the disciplinary framework, today these issues are deeply dependent on how the university's post‐Fordist organizational model (centralized controls, disaggregated models for managing knowledge) delivers knowledge in which symbolic and exchange values can play conflicting roles.     

Globalisation and Governance: Educational Policy Instruments and Regulatory Arrangements

For more than a decade, the economic, social, political and cultural effects of globalisation have been central topics of debate. Those who see globalisation as a combination of economic transactions and worldwide telecommunications tend to believe that its impact is profound, inasmuch as it is fundamentally altering the way in which we live and creating hybrid cultural styles. No country is immune from the effects of globalisation, and controversy continues to reign about its positive and negative consequences. The present study identifies and examines numerous challenges posed by globalisation and their implications for educational restructuring, with special attention being given to new forms of governance; the relation between the state, the market and civil society; and governmental policy instruments for education.     

Mandatory parental involvement in contraceptive services for minors

This article examines the issues that are raised by the requirement of mandatory parental notification in cases where adolescents are provided with contraceptives. In 1982, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced its intention to institute a new regulation requiring family planning clinics funded under Title X of the Public Health Service Act to notify parents or guardians of unemancipated minors under 18 years of age within 10 days after the adolescent received prescrrption contraceptive devices or drugs. Although this regulation has not been put into effect, it may reappear in the legislative process and social workers should be prepared to respond. Such a regulation undermines a key objective of Title X to reach teenagers through counseling, education, and confidential medical services that would prevent unwanted pregnancies. Mandatory parental notification would force many teenagers to use less effective contraceptive methods or none at all. It further ignores the harmful effect of forcing a confrontation within a family in which a lack of communication may already be a problem. It has been estimated that parental notification stipulations would result in 33,000 more unwanted pregnancies among teenagers 17 years of age and younger who are now practicing effective contraception. School social workers are urged to experiment with varying approaches that have better changes of building ties to the family than parental notification regulations. If the regulation is put in place, social workers and other professionals must be prepared to help students and their families cope as effectively as possible with the practical reality of the situation.     

TV's distorted vision of poverty

Avoiding almost entirely the depiction of poverty during prime‐time broadcasts, television networks present a sentimentalized vision of economic deprivation that omits or minimizes hardship while idealizing the supposed benefits of a spartan way of life. Much happier than the harried members of middle‐ and upper‐income groups, poor and working people on television seldom strive against their economic fates or against the system. Conclusions are based on a monitoring of prime‐time entertainment broadcast by the three commercial networks during “ratings month.”     

Personal Motivation Gone Awry: Burnout in Competitive Athletes

How individuals define themselves has considerable implications within the realms of sport. Considering the large proportion of African Americans participating in high profile college sports, matters of identity likely become quite relevant. This article addresses issues related to athletic and racial identity contextualized in the sport domain. The potential relationship between athletic identity (Brewer, Van Raalte, &; Linder, 1993) and the conceptualization of African American racial identity are explored. The framework of the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI; Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, &; Chavous, 1998) is used to investigate the potentially varied perceptions of African American collegiate student athletes' racial identities. Specifically, the salience and centrality of athletic identity, in addition, the roles that the multiple ideologies of the MMRI may play in sport are discussed. Directions for future research of the intersection of race and sport are forwarded.