Family identity construction: an interpretation of the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner consumption ritual

PurposeFamily dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve is the most important and most ritualized feast for families in China. It is the time for the entire family to reunite. Families gather together to reflect their past and talk about the future. Through the lens of consumer culture theories, this study explores how Chinese consumers construct family identity.Design/methodology/approachBased on constant comparative analysis of primary data including in-depth interviews and participant observation, and secondary data including historical archives, cultural tracing, documentary reports and essays, the authors deconstruct the consumption rituals of family dinner on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve. The authors focus on four aspects, including participants, place, time and related activities, and analyze Chinese consumers' ritual experiences.FindingsThe authors’ findings show how young consumers construct and strengthen individual self-identity, relational identity and family identity in various ways through consumption and ritual practices during Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.Originality/valueThe study of family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve helps the authors understand contemporary consumer culture in three aspects. First, it helps the authors understand the relationship between consumption and culture. Second, the study shows the changes and continuities of consumption rituals. Third, the research highlights the experience of “home” among contemporary Chinese consumers.

Experiences of families involving a parent with progressive deafblindness

Usher syndrome is a progressive form of deafblindness, which can have significant psychological consequences. This study aimed to get insight in the perceived impact of Usher syndrome type 2 (USH2) on families with a parent affected by this syndrome, and in the experiences of these families with social, professional, and peer support. Participants were 10 parents with USH2 living in the Netherlands, 10 of their co-parents, and 10 of their children. The parents filled in questionnaires and participated in a semi-structured interview. A photo-elicitation interview and a semi-structured interview were administered to the children. Interviews were transcribed and systematically coded, using thematic and open coding. Parents rated the family’s quality of life in general as satisfactory. Both negative and positive consequences were described of USH2 for the family. Parents without USH2 and their children stated to provide support to the parent with USH2, which was often described as self-evident. Some parents without USH2, however, described their family tasks as a burden. Some parents also reported that psychological problems of the parent with USH2 affected the well-being of other family members. Several parents and some children expressed that the syndrome was hardly discussed within the family. Unfulfilled family support needs were mentioned, a lack of involvement of family members in the professional support, as well as a lack of professional and peer support for children and partners. This study revealed that USH2 in a parent has impact on the entire family. Family-centred approaches are recommended for professionals who support parents with Usher syndrome.

Attributes of Farm Income Operating on Conservation Agriculture: TheMultivariate and ANN Analytics

Conservation agriculture (CA) is the combination of environmental management, modernand scientific agriculture, which employs farmers’ ability to utilize, innovate, and adapt tochanging situations, as well as their holistic acceptance of knowledge along with ensuringsustainability. Farm-level adoption of CA is related to reduced labour and agricultural inputs,more consistent yields, and increased soil nutrient exchange capacity. A good quality landyields good results to everyone, confers good health on the entire family, and causes growthof money, cattle, and grain. The present study depicts hard evidences by identifying markervariables impacting income augmentation through conservation agriculture. A score of 50farmers has been selected from two blocks of Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, bynon-probability snowballing sampling techniques with a total of eighteen independentvariables along with income from major crop is used as the dependent variable through astructured interview schedule. A basket of multivariate analytical techniques has been appliedalong with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) as well. The results depict that a blend ofdiversified farming and farming experiences in CA contributed immensely to scale up incomefrom conservation agriculture approaches.

The Making of Business Nobility. The Social Rise of Austrian Businessmen after 1848

In the 19th century, the society of the Habsburg monarchy underwent a fundamental transformation. The changes associated with the year 1848 and the demise of the estate society also significantly affected the social position of businessmen. Their position before this date was not legally defined and prestige did not depend on their property, but on their place in the traditional ranking of the social hierarchy associated with the possession of burgher rights or the noble title. Their prestige began to grow after this date, mainly due to the ever closer cooperation with the state and growing political influence. In the new era, the noble title was not a prerequisite for belonging to the elite, but for many people it was still a symbol of prestige and many businessmen sought it. They saw in it a demonstration of their achievements and a fulcrum for the historical memory of their entire family.

Meanings Assigned by Primary Care Professionals to Male Prenatal Care: A Qualitative Study

Background: Considering recent strategies used in prenatal care, the involvement of fathers has been considered an important factor in ensuring that pregnancy and delivery are successful. Objective: The aim of this study is to identify the meanings assigned by primary health care professionals to male prenatal care. Methods: This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. A total of 19 interviews were conducted with primary health care professionals registered in the City Health Department of Teresina, Piauí, Brazil. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed according to the Collective Subject Discourse methodology. Results: Three themes emerged from the reports’ analysis: The importance of the role of fathers in the gestational process, attitudes of men toward male prenatal care and formal education and training in primary health care. Health practitioners understand the importance of male prenatal care but reported they lack proper training to provide effective care. Conclusion: The expansion of continuing education strategies focusing on male prenatal care and directed to primary health care professionals is recommended to promote greater adherence on the part of fathers in prenatal care, with the purpose of strengthening bonds and improving the care provided to the entire family. The humanized care can facilitate the approach of the paternal figure during male prenatal care.

The life and music of André Tchaikowsky: A series of performances, an analytical survey of his compositional style, and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano

<p>This thesis focuses on André Tchaikowsky (1935–82) – a Polish émigré musician who was mostly recognised as a brilliant pianist, even though he considered himself primarily a composer. His traumatic childhood spent in bombarded Warsaw during World War II, losing his mother along with almost his entire family due to the Holocaust, and being hidden in several places after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, made a great impact on creating his eccentric and complex personality as well as his artistic outcome. Tchaikowsky’s legacy of seven published works, including compositions for piano, two string quartets, a piano trio, and an opera, as well as several unpublished works, is a small but very significant body of 20th-century music. This research explores the evolution of Tchaikowsky’s compositional style throughout his lifetime, based on selected works with piano, and investigates the elements of war stigma in his compositions. Significant contributions to the existing body of knowledge are the analysis of the selected works and a critical/performance edition of the unpublished Sonata for Piano, written in 1958 by the 33-year-old composer. Some answers can be provided to three main research questions through this analytical survey. The questions are: How did Tchaikowsky’s compositional style evolve over his life? Why does he remain largely unknown even in music circles? How did the Holocaust affect his life and work as a composer and pianist? This thesis consists of two parts, with the first presenting the result of research into the stylistic development of Tchaikowsky’s compositional language and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano, while the second is a performance component comprised of five recitals, which is the prevailing element of this degree. Each recital includes one of the analysed Tchaikowsky compositions, which are connected with other composers and their works in various ways, shaping five concerts of engaging and under-performed music.</p>

The life and music of André Tchaikowsky: A series of performances, an analytical survey of his compositional style, and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano

<p>This thesis focuses on André Tchaikowsky (1935–82) – a Polish émigré musician who was mostly recognised as a brilliant pianist, even though he considered himself primarily a composer. His traumatic childhood spent in bombarded Warsaw during World War II, losing his mother along with almost his entire family due to the Holocaust, and being hidden in several places after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, made a great impact on creating his eccentric and complex personality as well as his artistic outcome. Tchaikowsky’s legacy of seven published works, including compositions for piano, two string quartets, a piano trio, and an opera, as well as several unpublished works, is a small but very significant body of 20th-century music. This research explores the evolution of Tchaikowsky’s compositional style throughout his lifetime, based on selected works with piano, and investigates the elements of war stigma in his compositions. Significant contributions to the existing body of knowledge are the analysis of the selected works and a critical/performance edition of the unpublished Sonata for Piano, written in 1958 by the 33-year-old composer. Some answers can be provided to three main research questions through this analytical survey. The questions are: How did Tchaikowsky’s compositional style evolve over his life? Why does he remain largely unknown even in music circles? How did the Holocaust affect his life and work as a composer and pianist? This thesis consists of two parts, with the first presenting the result of research into the stylistic development of Tchaikowsky’s compositional language and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano, while the second is a performance component comprised of five recitals, which is the prevailing element of this degree. Each recital includes one of the analysed Tchaikowsky compositions, which are connected with other composers and their works in various ways, shaping five concerts of engaging and under-performed music.</p>

Resourcefulness Skills Use by Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren: A Longitudinal Case Study Approach

In the U.S., over 2.7 million grandparents are primary caregivers to grandchildren. It is critical to understand the experiences of grandparent caregivers to design tailored, supportive programs. Our aim was to analyze 4 weeks of daily online journals of 129 grandmothers with respect to their use of a set of Resourcefulness Skills© following web-based skills training. Using a thematic analysis approach, coding was completed by a three person team using NVIVO 12. Percent agreement among coders was over 90% (Kappa = .956). Twelve cases were randomly selected for case study development. Comparative case study analysis was used to look within and across cases for instances where skills were used and how skill use changed over time. The pattern of skill use showed that grandmother caregivers used resourcefulness skills to deal with the grandchild’s behavior and developmental issues as well as within the entire family system to manage conflicted relationships with the grandchild’s parents, balance relationships with their spouse/partner, and maintain relationships with other relatives. Case studies will be presented to show skill use over the four weeks of journaling in the context of the family system, as well as the strategies used by participants who improved skill use over time and those who faced barriers to skill use. Findings highlight the use of journals as a means to assess enactment fidelity of treatment interventions and the importance of the family network in skills training program implementation and ways to help grandmothers make use of skills training in the family setting.

Time consistency for scalar multivariate risk measures

In this paper we present results on dynamic multivariate scalar risk measures, which arise in markets with transaction costs and systemic risk. Dual representations of such risk measures are presented. These are then used to obtain the main results of this paper on time consistency; namely, an equivalent recursive formulation of multivariate scalar risk measures to multiportfolio time consistency. We are motivated to study time consistency of multivariate scalar risk measures as the superhedging risk measure in markets with transaction costs (with a single eligible asset) (Jouini and Kallal (1995), Löhne and Rudloff (2014), Roux and Zastawniak (2016)) does not satisfy the usual scalar concept of time consistency. In fact, as demonstrated in (Feinstein and Rudloff (2021)), scalar risk measures with the same scalarization weight at all times would not be time consistent in general. The deduced recursive relation for the scalarizations of multiportfolio time consistent set-valued risk measures provided in this paper requires consideration of the entire family of scalarizations. In this way we develop a direct notion of a “moving scalarization” for scalar time consistency that corroborates recent research on scalarizations of dynamic multi-objective problems (Karnam, Ma and Zhang (2017), Kováčová and Rudloff (2021)).

The Connection Between Social Inequality And Intergenerational Transfers Between Three Generations In Europe

Family members support each other across the entire family cycle. Parents help their adult children with financial transfers and hands-on-support and childcare, while children in mid-life often support their older parents with help and care. However, there is profound social inequalities linked to intergenerational transfers. While there is some research on inequality for some types of intergenerational transfers and some transfer directions, there is still no conclusive study bringing together all different support types between multiple generations from different social backgrounds over time. In our view, taking a longitudinal multi-generational perspective is essential to capture dependencies and negotiations within families from different socio-economic backgrounds within different regional contexts. If middle-aged parents have to take care of their own older parents, they have fewer resources for their(grand-)children, who might then receive less attention and support from them. This may differ according to access to support from public or private institutions. Here, country and regional specifics have a huge impact on support patterns within the family, which can only be captured when looking into developments and change. Using six waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we look at intergenerational transfers between multiple generations over time across European regions, considering mid-aged Europeans in the “sandwich” position between older parents and children and include multiple transfer directions and types over time to assess the links between social inequality and intergenerational solidarity in Europe’s ageing societies. The impact of Covid 19 on this issue will also be considered.