“It's practical, but no more controllable”: Social representations of the electronic purse in Austria

The electronic purse (chip-card) is promoted as an option offering consumers an easy means of payment. It also offers advantages to traders and banks by reducing transaction costs. However, successful launching of the electronic purse depends mainly on consumers' acceptance, which in the past was very low in Austria. We study consumers' acceptance of the electronic purse, cash and established non-cash payment systems by analysing social representations of payment facilities. Semantic contents of associations raised in response to the stimulus words “means of payment in general”, “cash”, “cheque”, “ATM-card”, “credit-card” and “electronic purse” have been analysed. Overall, 264 people were studied applying two techniques: the “associative network” and the “conceptual network”. It is shown that means of payment are categorised on two dimensions: cash and non-cash. Non-cash payment facilities are characterised by high abstraction levels, and loss of subjective control over expenditures. The electronic purse is perceived as highly dissimilar to other means of payments.     

Control fraud, gambling for resurrection, and moral hazard: Accounting for white-collar crime in the savings and loan crisis

This paper reviews the relevant literature regarding the role of control fraud, or major frauds committed by controlling organizational insiders, in the savings and loan crisis. Using both economics and criminological concepts, it contrasts the claims made by “fraud minimalists” with those who saw fraud playing a significant role in the crisis. The paper concludes that the economics-based official history of the debacle that sees moral hazard and gambling for resurrection as responsible for major financial losses is not supported by the empirical data generated by criminological research.     

The financial simulacrum: The consequences of the symbolization and the computerization of the financial market

In a first step, we present the symbolic evolution of financial market that illustrates the growing “consumer-oriented” dimension of finance. We introduce then the technological evolution of finance, that derives from the growing computerization of finance. The third part of the paper shows that this double evolution in finance allows us to consider the financial market as a “hyper-market”. The financial market is then presented as a result of what Baudrillard calls a “hyper-reality”. In the last section, we show that this hyper-reality allows a plurality of theoretical interpretations of the financial reality.     

Gender violence, fan activism and public relations in sport: The case of “Footy Fans Against Sexual Assault”

This paper is based on the belief that online activism is essential for understanding the role and potential of public relations in modern campaigns. In relation to the issue of gender violence against women in football, analyzed and compared are the responses of two official, resource-rich organisations – the National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football League (AFL) – and an unofficial, resource-poor fan advocacy group, called Football Fans against Sexual Assault (FFASA). In cooperation and conflict with the leagues, FFASA positioned itself in the market place, taking the widely unoccupied niche of “fan advocacy”—different from “expert advocacy” or “player advocacy”.The article discusses in more detail the major strategy of the group, the Purple Armband Games, which carries many elements of cutting-edge public relations such as advocacy as third-party endorsement; “fan activism” as empowering of “expert advocacy”; “symbolic outsourcing” of participants by facilitating their mode of engagement, the “emblematic richness” of the purple armband symbol, the “oneness” of which overcomes any confrontational dualism.     

“We're Not Old!”: Older Women's Negotiation of Aging and Oldness

This article is based on participant observation research at a seniors' center in central Canada in which the writer sought to acquire an understanding of how older adults define, interpret, and negotiate their realities and identities. Through activity and group membership, the center members — the majority of whom are single, older women between the ages of 50 and 90 — seek to distance themselves from the category of “old” and the accompanying ageist stereotypes. Striving to establish and preserve their precarious membership in the “not old”, center members struggle to reconcile their belief and experience of older adulthood as a time of activity, health, and happiness with their ever-present fear of declining health and the realities of widowhood and the loss of youthful attractiveness.     

Public relations as “practice:” applying the theory of Alasdair MacIntyre

Public relation’s search for a unifying theory may be fulfilled through application of Alasdair MacIntyre’s concept of a “practice,” a very specific and value-laden concept. This article explores what it would mean to be a public relations practice in MacIntyre’s concept of the term and argues that such an approach to public relations is of value for the field.     

“Beware of the estrogen assault”: Ideals of old manhood in anti-aging advertisements

Previous studies have demonstrated the tendency of recent medical, therapeutic, and pharmacologic discourses on sexuality to advocate a “resexing” of old age, in which aging men purchase means to bolster erections [Marshall, Barbara L. and Stephen Katz. 2006. “From androgyny to androgens: Re-sexing the aging body.” Pp. 75–97 in Age Matters: Realigning feminist thinking, edited by T. M. Calasanti and K. F. Slevin. New York: Routledge.]. This study examines the links between masculinity and age in anti-aging advertisements. Analysis of ninety-six anti-aging websites reveals a vision of manhood as: based on hormones, opposing womanhood, forestalling aging, competing and performing in sexual and employment realms, allowing men to dominate those around them. Rather than challenge ageism, this construction reinforces both age and gender inequalities. It defines men as dominant and defines women in terms of men’s desires. It defines prosperity in old age in terms of younger experiences, and defines aging itself as a sickness that results from a loss of masculinity (testosterone), which only aggressive consumption of anti-aging products can heal.     

“Those people” and troubles talk: Social typing and community construction in senior public housing

Community has developed as an increasingly important research topic in gerontology. As we search for the ever elusive sense of community and social integration among the aged, gerontologists have strangely left aside, for the most part, the interactional formation of community as a phenomenon. How do elders actually achieve this thing in their daily lives? By what interactional mechanisms is it constructed? Using data gathered from an ethnography of a senior public housing complex, I argue that in this particular neighborhood, community is accomplished by residents through “troubles talk.” An important component of this shared talk are social types indigenous to the complex. The act of social typing allows the residents to organize, categorize, and classify each other, providing recognizable and commonly held knowledge of each other, a vital component of community.     

Achievement-related attitudes and the fate of “at-risk” groups in society

What causes poverty and how does an individual escape it? Factors such as intelligence and social class background are thought to be important. However, a number of economists have argued that an individual’s profile of achievement-related attitudes (ARAs) like work-orientation and conscientiousness might play a role in social success and failure. Part of their attraction is that these attitudes are regarded as responsive to nurturing and may be especially significant for those individuals with few formal skills to offer the labour market. The NCDS longitudinal dataset was interrogated to assess whether ARAs predicted an individual’s earnings measured almost two decades later. Results indicated that ARAs explain a good deal of variance in earnings, particularly for “at-risk” males. Social policy implications are discussed.     

Culture and Chinese public relations: A multi-method “inside out” approach

This study adopts an “inside out” approach to examine contemporary Chinese public relations and culture's effect on it, based on an analysis of the top 15 domestic Chinese public relations agencies’ Web sites and 17 in-depth interviews of public relations professionals from multinationals operating in mainland China. Results indicate an emerging trend of Chinese strategic management and a new understanding of guanxi as an ongoing process of one-on-one bonding.     

The Office of Facts and Figures: Archibald MacLeish and the “strategy of truth”

This paper presents a man and a stage seldom cited in the history of public relations—Archibald MacLeish and the Office of Facts and Figures, and his idea of “strategy of truth” as an ethical contribution of propaganda to facilitate the dialogue and debate which are necessary in democratic societies.     

Re-branding the NHL: Building the league through the “My NHL” integrated marketing campaign

This article is a case study examining promotional efforts undertaken by the National Hockey League (NHL) via integrated marketing initiatives launched during the 2005–2006 season. Following the 2004–2005 season player lockout², the NHL worked to promote itself to both fervent and casual fans. By briefly assessing past marketing efforts and the dwindling popularity of the league in recent years, the article provides a fuller picture of how professional hockey was marketed in North America when the NHL returned to play. The focus is on “My NHL” and the league's re-branding efforts as part of its new integrated communications plan. This research reveals that in its attempts to revive the sport the NHL has done a better job than with past efforts, however the current campaign must be aggressively maintained in order to successfully re-brand the league.     

“Paradigms lost”: Some thoughts on choosing methods in evaluation research

Patton agrees with us concerning the need for a catholic approach to method choices in evaluation. However, Patton criticizes us for setting up a straw man when we argued that quantitative and qualitative methods are not inevitably linked to different “paradigms” and that allegiance to a particular paradigm does not force the evaluator into a choice between mutually exclusive qualitative and quantitative methods. The first part of this article shows how some of the past literature creates the impression both of an inevitable method-paradigm linkage and of a forcedchoice between qualitative and quantitative paradigms. It is argued that such impressions could have pernicious consequences for evaluation practice by artificially restricting method choices. In the final section, we consider some of the difficulties of making method choices and suggest that the purposefully developed strengths of different methods should not be completely ignored.     

The experiences of “aging” among formerly homeless adults with chronic mental illness: A qualitative study

Little is known about the life course of older adults with serious mental illness who have also been homeless. Using 44 life history interviews with 25 study participants ages 40 to 62, this study used case study and thematic analysis to examine the lived experience of such individuals as they enter their mid- and later-life years. Participants, whose lives were marred by early-onset substance abuse, symptoms of mental illness and a descent into homelessness, spoke of an awareness of aging and premature mortality. Major themes that emerged were: (1) reflecting on losses, (2) growing older and wiser, (3) struggling with normality, (4) having space and time to reevaluate, and (5) awareness of the future and “time left.” Life histories which focus on the person-in-context and their subjective experiences provide a viable research method to further the understanding of one of the most underserved and hardest-to-reach populations.     

Managing a nation's image during crisis: A study of the Chinese government's image repair efforts in the “Made in China” controversy

The image of a nation is crucial in the conduct of international relations (Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). A favorable image plays a critical role in asserting one's influence (Benoit, W. L., & Brinson, S. L. (1994). AT&T: “Apologies are not enough”. Communication Quarterly, 42, 75–88; Wang, J. (2006). Managing national reputation and international relations in the global era: Public diplomacy revisited. Public Relations Review, 32, 91–96). Often, strategic communication tools like public relations and media diplomacy are used to enhance a nation's image (Giffard, A., & Rivenburgh, N. K. (2000). News agencies, national images, and global media events. Journalism Quarterly, 77, 8–21). In 2007, China's reputation as “the workshop of the world” (Gaulier, G., Lemoine, F., & Unal-Kesenci, D. (2005). China: A workshop of the Cd and a market for Europe. At: http://ideas.repec.org/a/cii/cepill/2005-245.html. Accessed on 14 May 2009) came under severe threat with a series of product recalls. This was arguably the first time that allegations of product deficiencies were targeted at a country. Using the image repair theory, this paper examined the strategies used and the image these strategies generated for China. Findings showed that the initial defensive strategies generated an image of a hurried and harried country. After it was willing to confront the crises through corrective action, a surer and more determined image emerged.     

Cooperatives as the “enfants terribles” of economics: Some implications for the social economy

The cooperatives are too economically oriented to be included in the non-profit sector and too socially oriented to be considered as an economic for-profit organization. These “enfants terribles” are wholly depersonalized. They represent a broader phenomenon, going beyond the dominant global economy. As such, cooperatives are seen as a model based on dual components, an economic and a social. Here lies the source of the incompatibility between the hegemonic economic paradigm and an organizational rationale claiming to be based on the co-existence of two features, the social and the economic.Therefore, this article supports the idea of non-profit economy, the cornerstone of the social economy but facing outward offering competing goods and services which can facilitate the market economy and mitigate the tendency towards oligopoly.     

From civil rights to … civic engagement? Concerns of two older critical gerontologists about a “new social movement” and what it portends

In this essay, we draw on the political economic and humanities paths in critical gerontology, and on our own personal reflections, to further probe the notion of civic engagement in older adults. We ask why, as older women and critical gerontologists, we are so discomfited by this rallying cry. We ponder whether the status of contemporary later life as a unique time in human history necessitates the carving out of a new set of “productive” roles in order for its occupants to be valued. We also look more deeply at the calls for civic engagement (operationalized as volunteering) to fill gaping holes in the safety net and argue that this implicitly lets government off the hook in providing for basic human needs.     

The Inseparability of “Career” and “Personal” Counseling

In this article it is argued that “career” and “personal” counseling should not be viewed as different types of counseling because: (a) the holistic philosophy of counseling emphasizes helping “whole” persons whose lives contain many important and meaningful roles; (b) recent research on the implications of gender and race for career development further demonstrates the inseparability of our career and “personal” lives; and (c) there are numerous commonalities in the “career” and “personal” counseling process.     

On the formation of inflationary expectations: Some empirical evidence from Finland, 1979–1980

The results of a survey of inflationary expectations executed in 1979–1980 are reported. The respondents form one “informed” and one “uninformed” group. The purpose of the study are: (1) to test standard hypotheses on the formation of inflationary expectations, (2) to study the term structure of those expectations, (3) to study their dispersion among individuals, (4) to investigate the uncertainty in the formation of expectations.The results suggest that the adaptive expectations formation model works best for the uninformed group, while the extrapolative model is more satisfactory for the informed group. The lagged rate of unemployment was found to be a significant explanatory variable as well. Long-run inflationary expectations turned out to be very similar to short-run predictions, although the dispersion among individuals was greater in the former case. The uninformed respondents also expressed expectations with a greater dispersion than the informed respondents. The standard deviation of the expectations was quite stable over the observation period. The proxy used for subjective uncertainty also indicates a high degree of stability.