Representation and the problem of bibliographic imagination on Wikipedia

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Luyt

Purpose The astonishing thing about Wikipedia is that despite the way it is produced, the product is as good as it is and not far worse. But this is no reason for complacency. As others have documented, Wikipedia has representational blind spots, produced by the nature of its editorial community and their discursive conventions. This article wishes to look at the potential effect of sources on certain of these blind spots.Design/methodology/approach The author used an extended example, the Wikipedia article on the Philippine–American War, to illustrate the unfortunate effects that accompany a lack of attention to the kind of sources used to produce narratives for the online encyclopaedia. The Philippine–American War article was chosen because of its importance to American history. The war brought to the fore a debate over the future of the USA and the legitimacy of a republic acquiring overseas colonies. It remains controversial today, making it essential that its representation on Wikipedia is soundly constructed.Findings Inattention to sources (a lack of bibliographical imagination) produces representational anomalies. Certain sources are privileged when they should not be and others are ignored or considered as sub-standard. Overall, the epistemological boundaries of the article in terms of what the editorial community considers reliable and what the community of scholars producing knowledge about the war think as reliable do not overlap to the extent that they should. The resulting narrative is therefore less rich than it otherwise could be.Originality/value While there exists a growing literature on the representational blind spots of Wikipedia (gender, class, geographical region and so on), the focus has been on the composition of the demographics of the editorial community. But equally important to the problem of representation are the sources used by that community. Much literature has been written that seeks to portray the social world of the marginalized, but it is not used on Wikipedia, despite it easily meeting the criteria for reliability set by the Wikipedia community. This is a tragic oversight that makes Wikipedia's aim to be a repository for the knowledge of the world, a laudable goal to strive for, even if in reality unobtainable, even harder to achieve than ever.

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Elizabeth Vickery

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how African-American women, both individually and collectively, were subjected to both racism and sexism when participating within civil rights organizations. Design/methodology/approach Because of the intersection of their identities as both African and American women, their experiences participating and organizing within multiple movements were shaped by racism and patriarchy that left them outside of the realm of leadership. Findings A discussion on the importance of teaching social studies through an intersectional lens that personifies individuals and communities traditionally silenced within the social studies curriculum follows. Originality/value The aim is to teach students to adopt a more inclusive and complex view of the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Medianeira Bolzan ◽  
Claudia Cristina Bitencourt ◽  
Bibiana Volkmer Martins

Purpose Social innovation is a recent theme, and the practices related to this area are characterized by punctual actions and projects restricted by time and space that make it difficult to develop strategies that can be sustained in this field. Therefore, one point that deserves to be highlighted in studies on social innovation is a matter of scalability. This paper aims to deal with a bibliometry whose objective was to map the existing studies about scalability of social innovation carried out in the Capes and EBSCOHost portals. Design/methodology/approach This paper deals with a bibliometry. The topic researched in this bibliometry is scalability of social innovation. The databases chosen for this research were Portal Periódico Capes and EBSCOHost because they are the leading providers of search databases. Findings A total of 42 papers were considered, distributed between 2002 and 2017. The analysis criteria for the study were origin (composed by year, author, country of origin, periodical and impact factor), focus of the investigations, justification, method and main techniques of research, contributions and theoretical advances and challenges and paths. Originality/value Among the main results found, one of them is that scalability is a topic that began to be researched recently, so that the USA and Brazil lead the research. Most of the studies focused on the scalability process and justified the importance of studies on the subject as a way to explore the potential of expanding the social impacts of a social innovation. Several studies have emphasized the role of networks as being quite positive for the scalability process and have been concerned with identifying factors that contribute to the scalability process. The challenge that most stood out among the papers was the financial sustainability of a social innovation. At the end, a research agenda was proposed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald A. Fullerton

PurposeDuring the 1920s and into the 1930s, German‐language work on consumer behavior led the world; for example, segmentation was clearly discussed from the late 1920s. The purpose of this paper is to show how marketing thought in Germany and Austria reached a peak even as the environmental substructure that sustained it was being seriously eroded by political and economic changes that forever consigned it to a peripheral position upon the world stage.Design/methodology/approachThe design of the study is a critical historical one relying heavily upon documents produced during the period discussed. Statements are weighed and evaluated.FindingsThe paper finds that very impressive, at times world‐leading, work was being done in the 1920s and early 1930s, particularly in the areas of segmentation and what would later become known as consumer behavior. Much of what later became known as Motivation Research, or example, was pioneered in Germany and Austria before 1934.Research limitations/ implicationsThe primary implication is that a great deal of marketing thought developed outside the USA, sometimes drawing upon US marketing thought, in other cases developing completely independently. A second implication is that marketing thought can be weakened by political and economic conditions, as Germany and Austria painfully experienced.Originality/valueThis is the first study to explore historical German and Austrian marketing thought in a cross‐cultural manner, comparing and contrasting them with thought developed elsewhere.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 388-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Cassella

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review recent examples of sophisticated money laundering operations involving financial institutions in Eurasia, including Russia and Moldova, and the resulting flow of licit and illicit capital from that part of the world to the UK, the USA, and other Western countries. Design/methodology/approach Relying on materials from publicly available sources, the study uses several case studies to illustrate various money laundering methods with a view toward identifying common elements and aspects of the schemes that might be considered new or innovative. Findings In particular, the study examines the roles that lax anti-money laundering compliance by financial institutions and the use of shell corporations designed to conceal the beneficial ownership of the companies and their assets have played in virtually all of the money laundering schemes. Originality/value The paper discusses the risks that these emerging money laundering methods pose to Western countries and their financial institutions and the approaches that governments might take to minimize those risks and raise the barriers for the laundering of illicit funds within their jurisdictions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheluchi Onyemelukwe

Purpose The prevalence of domestic violence in Nigeria may be described as epidemic. To address this scourge, several pieces of legislation have been enacted in the past decade at state and federal levels in Nigeria. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the emerging legislation on domestic violence. This paper thus examines the contents of these laws in a bid to determine the potential of these laws to prevent domestic violence, deter perpetrators from further incidents, punish perpetrators, compensate survivors and provide them with the necessary interventions for their rehabilitation. Design/methodology/approach The approach adopted is a content analysis of the provisions of the legislation, using salient parameters that have been drawn from documented best practices, specifically the key components for framing of domestic violence legislation around the world. Findings The author finds that while there is significant attempt in extant legislation to ensure that women are protected within domestic relationships, there are still gaps. Further, the protections are uneven across the states. In addition, there are systemic and contextual challenges that hamper the effectiveness of existing legislation in Nigeria in providing the necessary protections to women. Originality/value This study analyses the provisions of some of the legislation currently in place to protect persons from domestic violence. The impact, potential effect and overall utility of these pieces of legislation continue to require examination.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deniz Çolakkadıoğlu

Purpose In Turkey, where the environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been applied since 1993, there have been numerous amendments in the legal and administrative process of the EIA. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of those amendments to the EIA process. Design/methodology/approach This paper evaluated EIA system performance in the context of procedural effectiveness in Turkey from the day implementation was begun. From its beginning to the present day, the positive and negative developments at the EIA process in Turkey caused by the amendments were evaluated and at which stages. Measures recommended increasing the effectiveness of each of the EIA systems were also identified. Findings As the EIA Directive first came into force in the USA in 1970, EIA procedures have been widely adopted throughout the world. Although it has been implemented for many years, expectations regarding the EIA process have still not been realized which has forced countries to conduct studies to increase the effectiveness of the EIA process. Turkey, like other countries that are implementing the EIA, acknowledges that the EIA is a significant impact assessment tool and continues its studies to implement this system effectively. In this respect, in Turkey, where the EIA has been applied since 1993, there have been numerous amendments in the legal and administrative process of the EIA. Originality/value The results obtained from this study were expected to facilitate the evaluation of the EIA process in Turkey and to guide other similar countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Oliveira Medeiros ◽  
Simone Evangelista ◽  
Simone Pereira de Sá

PurposeThe paper aims to discuss the tensions between rock and pop genres at Rock in Rio, the most significant music festival in Brazil (which also has had international editions in Portugal, Spain and the USA), analyzing the construction and consolidation of Rock in Rio as a rock-related brand and mapping the disputes, negotiations and controversies between rock and pop music fans.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze those facts from a framework composed by discussions about musical genres (Frith, 1996; Blacking, 1995), social constructions about rock and pop, as well as debates about taste as performance (Hennion, 2007) on digital platforms. The corpus consists of 58 posts published between 2018 and 2019 in the period prior to Rock in Rio 2019, analyzed qualitatively.FindingsBy recalling the history of Rock in Rio, the authors demonstrate that the discourses and strategies involving the festival are contradictory, which reflects on disputes about the meanings of festivals on social media. A diverse set of controversy was found, such as discussions about the artists' authenticity as well as arguments that refer to the social constructions linked to certain musical genres.Originality/valueThe paper analyzes the Rock in Rio music festival from a perspective that is not observed very often, offering insights about the relevance of music genres as mediators of the perception of the festival as a brand and the controversies involving fans and anti-fans.


Author(s):  
Val Jackson ◽  
Alex Perry

Purpose – Open dialogue (OD) is an innovative approach to mental health crises based on close collaboration between services and an individual’s family and social network. The approach was originally designed by Jaakko Seikkula and his colleagues in Tornio, Finland and is now being developed in many countries around the world, in particular Denmark, Germany, Norway and the USA. OD describes both a way of being with families and also a way of organising services aimed at maximising communication and connection. The purpose of this paper is to describe the principles of OD, it’s development in Finland and here in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a description of the principles and outcomes of OD as practised in Western Finland. It also describes the recent developments in the UK using the approach. Findings – This paper is descriptive of the model and is not of a research project. Originality/value – Whilst care must be taken in assuming that these remarkable results are transferable to the UK, other countries and several Mental Health trusts in England are actively engaged with developing an OD approach.


Author(s):  
Robert Bogue

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate how the growth in e-commerce has catalysed innovative developments in robots for use in warehouses. Design/methodology/approach Following a brief introduction to e-commerce and warehouse robots, this first paper discusses Amazon’s involvement with robotic technology. It then considers the community of recently founded companies manufacturing warehouse robots, together with details of their products. The paper concludes with a short discussion. Findings Amazon pioneered the use of robotics in its e-commerce warehouses with Kiva robots. It acquired the company in 2012, renaming it Amazon Robotics, and withdrew the products from open sale, triggering a boom in development activity to fill the gap in the market. Many companies in the USA, Europe and Asia have since been set up to exploit this opportunity and now manufacture robots for use in fulfilment centres around the world. While several products resemble the Kiva robots, others are more sophisticated and feature capabilities such as shelf picking and autonomous navigation. In the longer term, it is anticipated that functions such as product packing will also be conducted by robots, leading to fully automated fulfilment centres. Originality/value This paper discusses the recent and dramatic upsurge in the development of robots for use in warehouses, particularly those serving the rapidly growing e-commerce sector.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Sun ◽  
Michael Alles ◽  
Miklos A. Vasarhelyi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the hurdles, compared with that in the United States, for the implementation of Continuous Auditing in China. As a timely, cost-saving and efficient auditing method, continuous auditing is being increasingly adopted throughout the world. However, while it is increasingly applied in the USA, continuous auditing is still in its infancy in China. Design/methodology/approach – This paper compares and contrasts China and the USA in three important dimensions that determine the “economic architecture” of assurance: the business environment, the audit profession and technology. Findings – The authors find that excessive government intervention in business, the lack of competition, independence of auditors, the support from management and the continuous auditing-specific regulations, as well as the technology gap between these two countries, are the main barriers for the implementation of continuous auditing in China. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this paper provide better understanding of the drivers of continuous auditing adoption in the USA and the barriers toward doing so in China. Practical implications – The term “continuous auditing” has never been formally introduced until the release of the draft of the Internal Control Audit Guide in 2011. Originality/value – The paper highlights how technology by itself is not deterministic, but given the extraordinary rise in the Chinese economy in both its size and its sophistication, it has be to assumed that its “leapfrog” into parity if not outright leadership in continuous assurance is still a matter of “when” and not of “if”.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document