Data Visualization as Participatory Research: A Model for Digital Collections to Inspire User-Driven Research

The emerging creative practices of digital collections are increasing in prominence thanks to the access to, and appeal of, data visualizations. Interactive data visualizations, such as a map, timeline, chart, graph, or artist’s rendering of data, enable users to pursue their own research interests within a collection and participate in new areas of research. Use of these data visualizations enhances the scope of the collection and enables a modern and diverse thematic collection to emerge. This article considers the question: Does the addition of data visualizations affect how users participate with a research collection? Impacts on collection development, application of user-centered design, and analysis of users’ exploratory strategies are discussed. Examples of data visualizations used in digital humanities projects and digital collections are presented as case studies.     

Policy-Practice Proximity: The Scope for College-Based Higher Education and Cross-Sector Collaboration in Wales

In relation to the size of its population, Wales has a relatively large number of higher education institutions, several of which are small and located in rural areas. Compared with other parts of the United Kingdom, only a small number of higher education students are taught in Welsh further education colleges. Nevertheless, efforts have been made to increase higher education provision in the colleges, beginning in the late 1980s with the encouragement of franchising arrangements by the Wales Advisory Body and later with a joint initiative by the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils for Wales to expand some sub‐degree higher education in the colleges by direct funding. These developments represent just one strand of activity linking the higher and further education sectors in Wales and have not been a subject of major or regular policy attention. For reasons of scale and geography, and through the enabling structures and processes serving both funding councils, cross‐sector initiatives and collaboration have generally been given high priority in strategies to widen access and build progression. The administrative devolution reflected in these arrangements has been increased by political devolution since 1999, with as yet unclear implications for the future development of higher education in the colleges.     

Financial Feeling: An Investigation of Emotion and Communication in the Workplace

There is growing interest in the role of emotion when considering communication in the workplace. This work has most often considered workers in front-line service positions in investigations of emotional labor, and human service workers in investigations of empathy and emotional work. In this study, we consider processes of both emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. Financial planners occupy a role requiring ongoing relationships with clients, conversations about the often emotional topic of money, and a need to manage emotion in a variety of interaction contexts. Thus, from extant theory and literature regarding emotion and communication, we proposed research questions regarding the roles of emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. These questions were investigated in a web-based survey study of almost 300 professional financial planners and supporting interviews with 14 financial planners. Results indicate support for existing theory on emotional work, extensions to current research regarding emotional labor, and important implications for the role of emotion and communication in a range of professional service roles.     

A Model for Quantitatively Analyzing Representations of Social Class in Screen Media

Content analyses of prime-time television provide a picture of predominant cultural stereotypes and social trends. The present research is a quantitative content analysis of social class in popular broadcast and cable television in the United States. This research advances scholarship by systematically analyzing character class in addition to more commonly examined variables such as race and gender. A model for the operationalization of class for quantitative content analyses of mediated texts is offered. This proof of concept study demonstrates the viability of studying media representations of class quantitatively to systematically document patterns of portrayal.