Reconnecting Religion and Community in a Small City: How Urban Amenities Afford Religious Amenities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audra Dugandzic
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Small City ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Urban Amenities ◽  
The Creation

Abstract Recently, sociologists of religion have argued that rather than treating geographical location as a mere backdrop against which religion happens, scholars ought to theorize how place characteristics influence, and are shaped by, religion. In particular, they focus on urbanicity, a key variable in the secularization debate. Drawing on interviews with 50 Catholic and non-Catholic residents of a small city just outside of Washington, D.C. along with participant observation data, I argue that one way to examine how urbanicity—and space and place more generally—matters for religion is to identify its affordances, or features of an environment that allow for certain lines of action. Specifically, I show how urban amenities can afford the creation of religious amenities that support religious practice. I also demonstrate how the concepts of affordances and amenities can be used to theorize place characteristics, and their relationship with religion, more systematically.

ON THE ISSUE OF CREATING TOURIST CLUSTERS IN KHMELNYTSKYI REGION

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-133
Author(s):  
Olesia Dolynska
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Synergetic Effect ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Pollution Transport ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Regional Tourism ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Green Tourism ◽  
The Creation

Important issues in the development of regional tourism are the provision of tourist services, formation of the market of services and infrastructure improvement. The creation of clusters in the tourism sector remains relevant. From the standpoint of geographical science, the formation of tourist clusters is quite studied. The tourist potential of Khmelnytskyi region first of all includes the objects of nature reserve and historical-cultural funds available in the regional territory, which have not been involved in tourist activity yet. They are the basis for the formation of new tourist attractions, which can be used for the development of rural tourism, job creation, finding sources of income for newly formed territorial communities in order to obtain a positive effect from their formation. It is established that the synergetic effect promotes the creation of clusters with similar specialization. Determining the prospects of the tourist cluster of Khmelnytskyi region, special attention should be paid to such a form of tourism as rural (green) tourism. Extensive implementation of green tourism in the practice of newly formed united territorial communities in the region will provide additional resources to enhance their socio-economic development. Especially relevant tourist and recreational activities are in the buffer zones of national nature parks and landscape Regional Park, which are located in the Khmelnytskyi region. It is described that the material and technical base of tourism consists of: temporary accommodation facilities; specialized transport companies; tourist and excursion institutions and their subdivisions; information and advertising services; enterprises for the production and sale of tourist goods. Social infrastructure is also important for the organization of high-quality recreation for tourists: the availability of housing and communal services, cultural and household services, health care, and trade. From the standpoint of traditional economic and geographical complex formation, all factors of tourist complexes are divided into two major groups: socio-economic (labor, transport, trade and catering, souvenirs, city tourist development) and natural (geographical location, nature surface area, air temperature) etc. Many scholars, as the main social factors in the development of the tourist complex distinguish: socio-cultural: cultural-historical (architectural-historical) resources, settlement, administrative-territorial division; production and economic: labor resources, the structure of the city's economy, sources of environmental pollution, transport, land resources. Analysis of the location of these factors from the standpoint of social geography will justify measures aimed at enhancing the development of tourism in the regional tourism complex. Mass tourism is possible only if the needs of travelers in food and accommodation are met. Relevant facilities should have a range of hygiene and waste disposal facilities for tourists. Therefore, it is important, especially in rural areas, to provide in the plans of socio-economic development and general schemes of rural development places for temporary stay of tourists, appropriate infrastructure facilities, to reserve land for their arrangement. The analysis of the possibilities of Khmelnytskyi region in the tourist market of Ukraine showed that it occupies the middle places. This is due to the transit transport and geographical location. Within this region there is a clear polarization of tourism development, which determines the spatial features of the regional tourist complex development. Key words: tourist cluster, Khmelnytskyi region, green tourism, socio-economic development of the region.

scholarly journals ABCD 3.0 Ready to Use

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fichtmueller ◽  
Walter G. Berendsohn ◽  
Gabriele Droege ◽  
Falko Glöckler ◽  
Anton Güntsch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Annotation ◽  
Xml Schema ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Darwin Core ◽  
Individual Concepts ◽  
Semantic Concepts ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Description Framework ◽  
Interactive Modelling ◽  
Machine Readable

The TDWG standard ABCD (Access to Biological Collections Data task group 2007) was aimed at harmonizing terminologies used for modelling biological collection information and is used as a comprehensive data format for transferring collection and observation data between software components. The project ABCD 3.0 (A community platform for the development and documentation of the ABCD standard for natural history collections) was financed by the German Research Council (DFG). It addressed the transformation of ABCD into a semantic web-compliant ontology by deconstructing the XML-schema into individually addressable RDF (Resource Description Framework) resources published via the TDWG Terms Wiki (https://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/ABCD_2). In a second step, informal properties and concept-relations described by the original ABCD-schema were transformed into a machine-readable ontology and revised (Güntsch et al. 2016). The project was successfully finished in January 2019. The ABCD 3 setup allows for the creation of standard-conforming application schemas. The XML variant of ABCD 3.0 was restructured, simplified and made more consistent in terms of element names and types as compared to version 2.x. The XML elements are connected to their semantic concepts using the W3C SAWSDL (Semantic Annotation for Web Services Description Language and XML Schema) standard. The creation of specialized applications schemas is encouraged, the first use case was the application schema for zoology. It will also be possible to generate application schemas that break the traditional unit-centric structure of ABCD. Further achievements of the project include creating a Wikibase instance as the editing platform, with related tools for maintenance queries, such as checking for inconsistencies in the ontology and automated export into RDF. This allows for fast iterations of new or updated versions, e.g. when additional mappings to other standards are done. The setup is agnostic to the data standard created, it can therefore also be used to create or model other standards. Mappings to other standards like Darwin Core (https://dwc.tdwg.org/) and Audubon Core (https://tdwg.github.io/ac/) are now machine readable as well. All XPaths (XML Paths) of ABCD 3.0 XML have been mapped to all variants of ABCD 2.06 and 2.1, which will ease transition to the new standard. The ABCD 3 Ontology will also be uploaded to the GFBio Terminology Server (Karam et al. 2016), where individual concepts can be easily searched or queried, allowing for better interactive modelling of ABCD concepts. ABCD documentation now adheres to TDWG’s Standards Documentation Standard (SDS, https://www.tdwg.org/standards/sds/) and is located at https://abcd.tdwg.org/. The new site is hosted on Github: https://github.com/tdwg/abcd/tree/gh-pages.

scholarly journals Work in Progress on the Creation of the Three-Stringed Kulcapi

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-271
Author(s):  
Panji Suroso ◽  
Rahmat Riswan Aidil Syahputra Siregar
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
Optimal Function ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
The Creation

This research tittle ‘work in progress on the creation of the three-stringed kulcapi’ wanted to examine how the work process of the creation of the kulcapi music instrument and can be explained descriptively. The kulcapi musical instrument which is considered to still have limitations in terms of producing its notes, and only having 2 strings, seems to be the cause of the less than optimal function in exploring the notes. In addition, the form of the kulcapi instrument is seen to be still very plain and very simple, this is felt to be one of the issues that must be overcome to be able to explore the kulcapi musical instrument to be more functional, both in producing tones and adding aesthetic value to the form of the kulcapi music instrument. In this research, a qualitative descriptive method is used. The process of tracing data and information is done diachronically to find out in full and complete about the kulcapi music instrument. The data collected comes from two sources, they are primary and secondary data. Primary data obtained through in-depth interviews and participant observation that aims to collect data followed by focus group discussions. This research produces findings including: a) The creation of three-stringed kulcapi instruments has a wider range of tone areas. b) can be functioned more flexible and can be explored in playing pentatonic and diatonic tones. c) The shape has the characteristic of the Karo people with the presence of ethnic Karo ornaments on the kulcapi’s body.

scholarly journals Compassionate Conservation: Exploring the Lives of African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) in Botswana

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valli-Laurente Fraser-Celin ◽  
Alice J. Hovorka
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Lycaon Pictus ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Animal Geography ◽  
African Wild Dogs ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Wild Dogs ◽  
Animal Subjectivity

This paper argues for a more compassionate conservation by positioning animals as subjects in research and scholarship. Compassionate conservation is a multidisciplinary field of study that broadly attends to the ethical dimensions of conservation by merging conservation biology and animal welfare science. However, animal geography is rarely discussed in the compassionate conservation scholarship despite sharing similar tenets. This paper argues that responsible anthropomorphism and animal geography concepts of animal subjectivity (lived experiences) and agency (capacity to act) positions African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) as subjects in conservation research and scholarship. It merges biological research, public communication, and interview and participant observation data to present wild dogs as thinking, feeling, self-conscious animals with agency, and whose welfare is negatively affected in human-dominated landscapes in Botswana. This paper argues for more attention to be paid to animal subjectivity and agency to foster more compassionate relations with wildlife. It argues that positioning animals as subjects in research and scholarship is an ethical starting point for moving compassionate conservation forward. This ‘enriched’ scholarly approach moves us closer to appreciating the lives of wildlife and the complexity of their circumstances and experiences.

Ageing/body/sex/work – Migrant women’s narratives of intimacy and ageing in commercial sex and elder care work

Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072094459
Author(s):  
Lena Näre ◽  
Anastasia Diatlova
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Elder Care ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Women's Narratives ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ageing Body

This article analyses how sex and elder-care workers negotiate intimacy and ageing in their work. We find surprising similarities between sex and care work that derive from the ways in which Eastern European migrant women are sexualised in the sites of our studies: Italy and Finland. The bodywork and intimate labour conducted by the women is defined in part by the social status of their work in society, in part by the ageing bodies upon whom the work is done, and in part by the ways in which the bodies of the workers are gendered, sexualised and racialised. The article draws on interview and participant observation data collected during two ethnographic research projects with female migrants from post-socialist countries working as eldercare workers in Italy and in sex workers in Finland.

Kyoto Cuisine Gone Global

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg de St. Maurice
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Food Culture ◽  
Local Difference ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Culinary Knowledge ◽  
Food Economy

In the face of globalization, chefs in Kyoto, Japan have worked to protect local food culture and revive the local food economy. Their actions do not constitute “resistance,” nor are they simply signs of the persistence of local difference in the context of large-scale changes. Drawing primarily on interviews I conducted with prominent chefs of “traditional” Kyoto cuisine and participant observation at events related to Kyoto cuisine, this article examines chefs’ approaches to outside influence and promotion efforts abroad. I pay specific attention to the incorporation of new foreign ingredients into Kyoto cuisine and new efforts to share culinary knowledge with foreign chefs, namely the establishment of a work visa system and the creation of a cookbook series targeted at professional chefs abroad. Kyoto's chefs, this article demonstrates, have been strategically engaging with globalization, actively refashioning the local to try to control it at a global scale.

scholarly journals Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) in High Schools: Subtle but Potentially Important Student Gains Detected from Human-Centered Curriculum Design

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alissa Ruth ◽  
Joseph Hackman ◽  
Alexandra Brewis ◽  
Tameka Spence ◽  
Rachel Luchmun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
School Students ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Engineering Projects

A major goal in Engineering training in the U.S. is to continue to both grow and diversify the field. Project- and service-based forms of experiential, problem-based learning are often implemented with this as a goal, and Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) High is one of the more well-regarded and widely implemented. Yet, the evidence based on if and how participation in such programs shapes student intentions and commitment to STEM pathways is currently limited, most especially for pre-college programming. This study asks: How do high school students’ engineering mindsets and their views of engineering/engineers change as they participate in project–service learning (as implemented through an EPICS High curriculum)? This study employed a mixed method design, combining pre- and post-test survey data that were collected from 259 matched students (63% minority, 43% women) enrolling in EPICS High (total of 536 completed pre-tests, 375 completed post-tests) alongside systematic ethnographic analysis of participant observation data conducted in the same 13 socioeconomically diverse schools over a two-year period. Statistical analyses showed that participants score highly on engineering-related concepts and attitudes at both pre- and post-test. These did not change significantly as a result of participation. However, we detected nuanced but potentially important changes in student perspectives and meaning, such as shifting perceptions of engineering and gaining key transversal skills. The value of participation to participants was connected to changes in the meaning of commitments to pursue engineering/STEM.

scholarly journals Variation in the delivery of telephone advice by emergency medical services: a qualitative study in three services

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 556-563
Author(s):  
Rachel O'Hara ◽  
Lindsey Bishop-Edwards ◽  
Emma Knowles ◽  
Alicia O'Cathain
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Emergency Medical Services ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Alternative Response ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Telephone Advice ◽  
On The Road

BackgroundAn emergency ambulance is not always the appropriate response for emergency medical service patients. Telephone advice aims to resolve low acuity calls over the phone, without sending an ambulance. In England, variation in rates of telephone advice and patient recontact between services raises concerns about inequities in care. To understand this variation, this study aimed to explore operational factors influencing the provision of telephone advice.MethodsThis is a multimethod qualitative study in three emergency medical services in England with different rates of telephone advice and recontact. Non-participant observation (120 hours) involved 20 call handlers and 27 clinicians (eg, paramedics). Interviews were conducted with call handlers, clinicians and clinician managers (n=20).ResultsServices varied in their views of the role of telephone advice, selection of their workforce, tasks clinicians were expected and permitted to do, and access to non-ambulance responses. Telephone advice was viewed either as an acceptable approach to managing demand or a way of managing risk. The workforce could be selected for their expertise or their inability to work ‘on-the-road’. Some services permitted proactive identification of calls for a lower priority response and provided access to a wider range of response options. The findings aligned with telephone advice rates for each service, particularly explaining why one service had lower rates.ConclusionSome of the variation observed can be explained by operational differences between services and some of it by access to alternative response options in the wider urgent and emergency care system. The findings indicate scope for greater consistency in the delivery of telephone advice to ensure the widest range of options to meet the needs of different populations, regardless of geographical location.

ASSESSING A DEMONSTRATION FARM APPROACH FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN PASTORAL LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS OF NORTHERN PATAGONIA: PARTICIPANTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STAKEHOLDER ROLES AND INNOVATIONS

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 774-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARKUS FRANK ◽  
MARCOS H. EASDALE ◽  
BRIGITTE KAUFMANN
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Feeding Strategy ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
External Input ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Supplemental Feeding ◽  
Northern Patagonia ◽  
Collaboration Process

SUMMARYUsing a qualitative case study design, a demonstration farm approach implemented in northern Patagonia, Argentina, was assessed to examine differences in perceptions between participating stakeholder groups regarding their roles and how these affect the collaboration process. Moreover, differences in stakeholder perceptions regarding positive impacts and constraints of the implemented innovation (supplemental feeding of small ruminants) were assessed, as one exemplary innovation to improve low-external-input pastoral livestock systems. Three cases of demonstration farm projects were selected and a total of 31 semi-structured and narrative interviews were carried out with participating livestock keepers, extension workers and scientists. Together with information gained by employing visual tools and participant observation, data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results reveal that major decisions regarding the collaboration process were taken by scientists in advance, hence, livestock keepers' participation was used to meet predetermined objectives, which is characteristic to the concept of functional participation. While scientists seemed to transfer the control principles of on-station research to the on-farm situation, extension workers recognised the need for replacing teaching by the aim of creating learning opportunities. Here, incongruences in role understanding indicate an overall lack of joint role definition and the need of balancing power differences. Livestock keepers' perceptions of the supplemental feeding strategy highlight substantial management constraints for implementation, which were not recognised by scientists and extension workers, nor were they captured by the monitoring system implemented. We recommend furnishing the demonstration farm approach with principles, methods and tools of collaborative learning, to create a change in actors' understanding of roles and to induce a shift towards increased transdisciplinarity.

scholarly journals Running a hospital patient safety campaign: a qualitative study

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Ozieranski ◽  
Victoria Robins ◽  
Joel Minion ◽  
Janet Willars ◽  
John Wright ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Patient Safety ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Frontline Staff ◽  
Content Type ◽  
History Of

Purpose – Research on patient safety campaigns has mostly concentrated on large-scale multi-organisation efforts, yet locally led improvement is increasingly promoted. The purpose of this paper is to characterise the design and implementation of an internal patient safety campaign at a large acute National Health Service hospital trust with a view to understanding how to optimise such campaigns. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a qualitative study of a campaign that sought to achieve 12 patient safety goals. The authors interviewed 19 managers and 45 frontline staff, supplemented by 56 hours of non-participant observation. Data analysis was based on the constant comparative method. Findings – The campaign was motivated by senior managers’ commitment to patient safety improvement, a series of serious untoward incidents, and a history of campaign-style initiatives at the trust. While the campaign succeeded in generating enthusiasm and focus among managers and some frontline staff, it encountered three challenges. First, though many staff at the sharp end were aware of the campaign, their knowledge, and acceptance of its content, rationale, and relevance for distinct clinical areas were variable. Second, the mechanisms of change, albeit effective in creating focus, may have been too limited. Third, many saw the tempo of the campaign as too rapid. Overall, the campaign enjoyed some success in raising the profile of patient safety. However, its ability to promote change was mixed, and progress was difficult to evidence because of lack of reliable measurement. Originality/value – The study shows that single-organisation campaigns may help in raising the profile of patient safety. The authors offer important lessons for the successful running of such campaigns.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document