Inter Action Time in Virtual and Physical Spaces

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to summarise a number of presentations at Day 1 of the Internet Librarian International conference, London, UK (16 October 2018). This was the 20th conference in the series, and the three key themes included were the next-gen library and librarian; understanding users, usage and user experience; and inclusion and inspiration: libraries making a difference. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports from the viewpoint of a first-time attendee of the conference. This summarises the main issues raised by each presentation and draws out the key learning points for practical situations. Findings The conference covered a variety of practical ways in which libraries can use technology to support users and make decisions about services. These include developing interactive physical spaces which include augmented reality; introducing “chat-bots” to support users; using new techniques to analyse data; and piloting new ways to engage users (such as coding clubs). A key theme was how we use and harness data in a way that is ethical, effective and relevant to library services. Originality/value This conference focussed on practical examples of how library and information services across sectors and countries are innovating in a period of huge change. The conference gave delegates numerous useful ideas and examples of best practice and demonstrated the strength of the profession in adapting to new technologies and developments.

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#reimagining Arab Women’s Social Media Empowerment and the Postdigital Condition

Social Media + Society ◽

10.1177/20563051211010169 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 205630512110101

Author(s):

Zoe Hurley

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Social Networking Sites ◽

Women's Empowerment ◽

Women’S Empowerment ◽

The Novel ◽

Social Actor ◽

Critical Perspective ◽

Self Presentation ◽

Physical Spaces ◽

Self Presentations

Social media intersects across physical spaces, digital infrastructures, and social subjectivities in terms of what is being called the “postdigital,” in an increasingly merging offline/online world. But what precisely does it mean to be “postdigital” if you are an Arab woman or social actor in the Global South? How does access to social networking sites, while increasing visibilities, also provide potential for increased agency? This study is concerned with the extent to which Arab women’s self-presentation practices on Instagram could be considered as empowering, or otherwise, within the postdigital condition. First, the study takes Instagram as a case to develop a theoretical framework for considering social media as a tertiary artifact, involving material, routine-symbolic, and conceptual affordances. Second, it applies the artifact framework to explore a corpus of self-presentations by five Arab women influencers. Feminist postdigital theorizing offers unique contributions to problematizing normative, ethnocentric, and neoliberal conceptions of Arab women’s empowerment. The application of the novel framework leads to an interpretative discussion of Arab women’s influencing practices across merging offline/online and transnational boundaries. Overall, the critical perspective begins to reimagine Arab women’s empowerment, not simply as individualized or material processes, but as agencies that are interwoven within the commercialized and conceptual dynamics of visual social media.

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Post-digital prosumption and the sharing economy of space: The pay-per-minute cafe

Journal of Consumer Culture ◽

10.1177/14695405211022080 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146954052110220

Author(s):

Alexandra Kviat

Keyword(s):

Consumer Culture ◽

Digital Technology ◽

Sharing Economy ◽

Digital Culture ◽

Cultural Impact ◽

Pricing Policy ◽

Digital Platforms ◽

Brick And Mortar ◽

Physical Spaces

Although prosumption and the sharing economy are currently at the cutting edge of consumer culture research, little attempt has been made to explore the theoretical relationship between these concepts and approach them with a pluralistic, dynamic, nuanced and ethnographically informed lens moving beyond the dichotomies of capitalism versus anti-capitalism, rhetoric versus reality, exploitation versus empowerment and traditional versus digital consumer culture. This article addresses these gaps by focusing on the phenomenon of pay-per-minute cafes – physical spaces inspired by digital culture and meant to apply its principles in the brick-and-mortar servicescape. Drawing on a multi-site, multi-method case study of the world’s first pay-per-minute cafe franchise, the article shows a multitude of ways in which prosumption and the sharing economy, both shaped by different configurations of organisational culture, physical design, food offer and pricing policy, are conceived, interpreted and experienced by the firms and customers across the franchise and argues that conflicts and contradictions arising from this diversity cannot be reduced to the narrative of consumer exploitation. Finally, while both prosumption and the sharing economy are typically defined by the use of digital platforms, this article makes a case for a post-digital approach to consumer culture research, looking into the cultural impact of digital technology on traditional servicescapes.

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Illuminating Indigenous health care provider stories through forum theater

AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples ◽

10.1177/1177180121995801 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 61-70

Author(s):

Vanessa Van Bewer ◽

Roberta L Woodgate ◽

Donna Martin ◽

Frank Deer

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Indigenous Health ◽

Indigenous Education ◽

Cultural Safety ◽

Lateral Violence ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

Current Context ◽

Physical Spaces

Learning about the historical and current context of Indigenous peoples’ lives and building campus communities that value cultural safety remains at the heart of the Canadian educational agenda and have been enacted as priorities in the Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint. A participatory approach informed by forum theater and Indigenous sharing circles involving collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health care professionals ( n = 8) was employed to explore the above priorities. Through the workshop activities, vignettes were created and performed to an audience of students and educators ( n = 7). The findings emerging from the workshop illuminated that Indigenous people in nursing and higher education face challenges with negotiating their identity, lateral violence and struggle to find safe spaces and people due to tokenism and a paucity of physical spaces dedicated to Indigenous students. This study contributed to provoking a greater understanding of Indigenous experiences in higher education and advancing reconciliation.

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Shaping Physical, Economic, and Policy Components of the Food Environment to Create Sustainable Healthy Diets

Food and Nutrition Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0379572120945904 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 41 (2_suppl) ◽

pp. 74S-86S

Author(s):

Adam Drewnowski ◽

Eva C. Monterrosa ◽

Saskia de Pee ◽

Edward A. Frongillo ◽

Stefanie Vandevijvere

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Food Environment ◽

Food System ◽

Well Being ◽

Food Environments ◽

Healthy Foods ◽

Equitable Access ◽

Nutrition Labels ◽

Healthy Diets ◽

Physical Spaces

Background: Sustainable healthy diets are those dietary patterns that promote all dimensions of individuals’ health and well-being; have low environmental pressure and impact; are accessible, affordable, safe, and equitable; and are culturally acceptable. The food environment, defined as the interface between the wider food system and consumer’s food acquisition and consumption, is critical for ensuring equitable access to foods that are healthy, safe, affordable, and appealing. Discussion: Current food environments are creating inequities, and sustainable healthy foods are generally more accessible for those of higher socioeconomic status. The physical, economic, and policy components of the food environment can all be acted on to promote sustainable healthy diets. Physical spaces can be modified to improve relative availability (ie, proximity) of food outlets that carry nutritious foods in low-income communities; to address economic access certain actions may improve affordability, such as fortification, preventing food loss through supply chain improvements; and commodity specific vouchers for fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Other policy actions that address accessibility to sustainable healthy foods are comprehensive marketing restrictions and easy-to-understand front-of-pack nutrition labels. While shaping food environments will require concerted action from all stakeholders, governments and private sector bear significant responsibility for ensuring equitable access to sustainable healthy diets.

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Coupling of Chiralities in Spin and Physical Spaces: The Möbius Ring as a Case Study

Physical Review Letters ◽

10.1103/physrevlett.114.197204 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 114 (19) ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Oleksandr V. Pylypovskyi ◽

Volodymyr P. Kravchuk ◽

Denis D. Sheka ◽

Denys Makarov ◽

Oliver G. Schmidt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Spaces

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A Longitudinal Study of Pervasive Display Personalisation

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction ◽

10.1145/3418352 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 1-45

Author(s):

Mateusz Mikusz ◽

Peter Shaw ◽

Nigel Davies ◽

Petteri Nurmi ◽

Sarah Clinch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Mobile Devices ◽

Potential User ◽

Mobile Users ◽

Prior Work ◽

Physical Spaces

Widespread sensing devices enable a world in which physical spaces become personalised in the presence of mobile users. An important example of such personalisation is the use of pervasive displays to show content that matches the requirements of proximate viewers. Despite prior work on prototype systems that use mobile devices to personalise displays, no significant attempts to trial such systems have been carried out. In this article, we report on our experiences of designing, developing and operating the world’s first comprehensive display personalisation service for mobile users. Through a set of rigorous quantitative measures and 11 potential user/stakeholder interviews, we demonstrate the success of the platform in realising display personalisation, and offer a series of reflections to inform the design of future systems.

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