Books

Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld James B. Twitchell No Logo Naomi Klein     

The Effect of Age and Task Difficulty

Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) is a common technique used to record employee performance. EPM may include counting computer keystrokes, monitoring employees' phone calls or internet activity, or documenting time spent on work activities. Despite EPM's prevalence, no studies have examined how this management tool affects older workers–a steadily increasing labor pool. In the current interdisciplinary study, 85 older (M=46.9 years) and 77 younger participants (M=22.1 years) were randomly assigned to perform a simple or difficult computer data‐entry task under two conditions: monitored or not monitored. ANCOVA results indicated that EPM decreased performance and induced higher stress levels compared to non‐monitored conditions when computer experience levels were controlled. Additionally, older adults showed a trend of being more impacted by EPM when compared with younger adults. Results are discussed in terms of how EPM might be most effectively used by organizations while minimizing employee stress levels.     

Robot caregivers: harbingers of expanded freedom for all?

As we near a time when robots may serve a vital function by becoming caregivers, it is important to examine the ethical implications of this development. By applying the capabilities approach as a guide to both the design and use of robot caregivers, we hope that this will maximize opportunities to preserve or expand freedom for care recipients. We think the use of the capabilities approach will be especially valuable for improving the ability of impaired persons to interface more effectively with their physical and social environments.     

The Marketisation of Education in Singapore: Policies and Implications

This article focuses on the marketisation of education in Singapore since the mid-1980s. It describes and analyses two major manifestations of this phenomenon: the encouragement of greater school autonomy and the fostering of competition among schools. The article argues that the Singapore case does not involve a free market, but rather a regulated market. The promotion of such a quasi-market threatens to exacerbate not only the disparities between schools in terms of educational outcomes but also social inequalities. At the same time, it is not entirely clear whether the desired policy goals will be successfully attained. The discussion adds to the existing literature on the marketisation of education and its accompanying policy implications.     

What must I know to be brave?: revisiting the role of knowledge in the exercise of courage in sport

The Platonic definition of courage as the ‘knowledge of the fearful and the hopeful’ is often eschewed by philosophers of sport. In fact, the passionate nature of sport itself seems to testify against such a definition. Hence, accounts of courage within sport tend to emphasize the affective dimension of courage at the expense of the cognitive dimension. This essay argues in defense of the Platonic vision of courage as a species of knowledge as opposed to contemporary attempts to recover the affective dimension of courage, as exemplified by John Corlett. I shall argue that far from producing an overly intellectualized vision of courage, treating courage as a species of knowledge, even within sport, throws valuable light on the exercise of courage in sport and on the shape of sport itself with regards to the exercise of virtue.     

Situation criticality and basketball officials’ stress levels

Officials are expected to perform impeccably despite the wide range of stressors they experience. A stressor that officials frequently report is situation criticality. Situation criticality is comprised of score differential (i.e., more pressure in close games) and time remaining in a game (i.e., more pressure as time expires), which affects athletes’ stress levels. The present study explored the effect of situation criticality on officials’ stress levels. High school basketball officials (n = 108) with an average of 18.1 (SD = 11.2) years of officiating experience were given a survey packet containing game situations that varied in criticality. For each game situation (n = 9) officials completed the overall stress and appraisal portions of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM). Results revealed that situation criticality has an effect on officials’ perceived stress levels. Both threat and challenge appraisals were positively correlated with perceived stress. Overall, these findings indicate that officials’ stress levels fluctuate within games depending on score differential and time of game. The findings encourage officials to recognise and manage their stress, possibly through their appraisals. Additionally, the findings can affect the training of officials in the management of stress, as well as prompt the consideration of potential rule changes that reflect the increased situational demands on officials in critical situations (e.g., expanded instant replay).     

Ethnic and Urban Intersections in the Classroom: Latino Students,Hybrid Identities,and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Drawing from data collected through classroom observations and in-depth interviews, this article describes and analyzes practices identified as culturally responsive by Latinos students in an urban, multiethnic/racial context. The findings suggest that culturally responsive pedagogy must be more broadly conceptualized to address the cultural identities of students who have complex identities because of their experiences with peers of many varied identities, those whose urban roots have resulted in hybrid identities, and those who are multiethnic/multiracial. Based on these findings, the article forwards the concept of “cultural connectedness” as a framework for practicing a non-essentializing, dynamic approach to culturally responsive pedagogy that acknowledges the hybrid nature of culture and identity.     

Social network markets: a new definition of the creative industries

We propose a new definition of the creative industries in terms of social network markets. The extant definition of the creative industries is based on an industrial classification that proceeds in terms of the creative nature of inputs and the intellectual property nature of outputs. We propose, instead, a new market-based definition in terms of the extent to which both demand and supply operate in complex social networks. We review and critique the standard creative industries definitions and explain why we believe a market-based social network definition offers analytic advance. We discuss some empirical, analytic and policy implications of this new definition.

The relationship between extension of the metatarsophalangeal joint and sprint time for 100 m Olympic athletes

Selected kinematic variables of the foot segments and the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint were investigated in relation to sprinting performance among 100 m sprint athletes at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. It was hypothesized that the kinematics of the MTP joint, and forefoot and rearfoot segments, are related to sprint performance for both male and female athletes. Kinematic sagittal plane data were collected using two digital video cameras recording at 120 fields per second. It was determined that faster male sprinters experienced higher maximal rates of MTP extension, and faster female sprinters touch down with higher posterior sole angles and take off with lower posterior sole angles.