Global Villages and Rural Cosmopolitanism: Exploring Global Ruralities

This paper explores the meaning of globalization in rural places, as well as the emergence of rural globalities, and even of rural cosmopolitanisms. While the discussion about globalization has been mainly localized in urban places, and mostly in some core cities, rural places are also intertwined with globality, and can became important nodes in the production and circulation of capital, culture, and ideology. To account for this, I explore a new meaning for the concept of ‘global villages’, not used in McLuhan's sense, but rather in terms of rural places that become truly global. As case studies, the paper addresses three ‘global villages’ in Latin America: the Central Valley in Chile, a node in the global food system; Otavalo in Ecuador, a core of cultural representations; and La Realidad, in Chiapas, Mexico, a center of ideological production.     

The devil in high heels: drugs,symbolism and Kate Moss

This paper contributes to critical voices on the issue of organisational responses to employee drug use. It does so by exploring symbolic readings of organisations’ relations with drugs and drug‐taking. Our focus is recent coverage of, and organisational responses to, the UK tabloid media’s exposé of fashion supermodel Kate Moss’s alleged cocaine use. We consider that the celebrity endorsement in this particular case highlights the ambiguities created by the symbolic associations between the organisation and the ‘image’ projected by the celebrity. Overall, we use this case to explore symbolic relationships between drugs, sex, femininity and organisation. Through highlighting these connections, we question further the rationality of organisational responses to employee drug use and, utilising Derrida’s (1981 Derrida, J. 1981. Dissemination, London: Atholone Press.  [Google Scholar]) extension of Plato’s notion of the pharmakon, consider whether workforce drug testing might be fruitfully seen as a symbolic mechanism for scapegoating and sacrifice in order to protect the organisation’s (masculine) moral order.     

Young adolescents, tobacco advertising, and smoking

BACKGROUND: In adolescents aged 12-14, we measured attitudes to tobacco advertising. Our purpose is to understand the relation of these attitudes to tobacco use and identify the groups most influenced by the advertising. METHODS: Survey of adolescents on Gran Canaria Island, Spain, about aspects of family, school, peers, tobacco consumption, and tobacco advertising. The subjects of the double-stratified cluster sample were 1910 students at the same grade level in 33 schools; 86.6% were 13 or 14 years old, and 51.2% were boys. We generated measures for attitudes to tobacco advertising from replies to seven questions with ordinal scales by an analysis of categorical principal components. To relate attitude to tobacco advertising and the profiles of these adolescents, we used multiple regression and logistic regression models. RESULTS: Attitudes to tobacco advertising are related to some home and school factors, but most significantly to tobacco and alcohol consumption, to amount of time at home without adults, and to peer influence. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible to draw up profiles of the students most vulnerable to tobacco advertising, and to cluster them in two groups, the "vitalists" and the "credulous." The effect of cigarette ads is different between these groups. This study can help to orientate smoking prevention.     

Subjectivation processes and gender in a neoliberal model of science in three Spanish research centres

From a Foucauldian approach, neoliberal rationality in science can be understood as a form of governance of the self that produces mechanisms through which the subject is constructed and subordinated at the same time. In this study we examine subjectivation processes and gender in centres of research created under neoliberal scientific rationality. We analyse 19 semi‐structured interviews of men and women researchers conducted in three highly competitive centres of excellence — a context rarely addressed in the literature of academic subjectivities. Following a critical discourse analysis, we show how subjectivation processes of neoliberal rationality result in two main discursive mechanisms of subjection that prevent or hinder alternative subjectivities and collective resistance, especially for women, presenting a double turn that we call: a ‘turn on oneself’ and a ‘gendered turn on oneself’. We conclude that these centres are spaces which provide the conditions of possibility to develop a scientific entrepreneurial self, excluding ‘other’ scientific subjectivities and preventing possible resistances that could emerge from them.     

Senegalese migration to Spain: transnational mothering practices

This article analyses the relationship between pre-migration fostering practices and the transnational strategies of a group of Senegalese mothers living in Spain. In Senegal, large households, residential separation of couples, and collective fostering are the norm; it is not unusual for children to be under the care of women other than their mother, even for long periods of time. Drawing from data collected during 2 years of transnational multi-sited fieldwork that followed Senegalese mothers between their households of origin and destination, we argue that these women sought to reproduce the Senegalese mainstream mothering ideology in Spain. They did this by adopting two main strategies: long-distance mothering and circular mothering. These strategies were used depending on the age of the child, the constraints imposed on mother and children by migration legislation, and the social capital available to the migrant. This article seeks to integrate a wider range of experiences and the influence of pre-migratory mothering ideologies, kinship systems, and household structures on transnational mothering practices into the existing literature on transnational mothering.     

Critical success factors and green supply chain management proactivity: shedding light on the human aspects of this relationship based on cases from the Brazilian industry

Abstract

By applying the resources-based view (RBV) theory to green management, this study aims to analyse the relationship between critical success factors (CSFs) and the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices for some Brazil-based manufacturers of automotive batteries considered focal in their supply chains. It also analyses how human issues, known as green human resource management (GHRM) aspects, can help to increase the effectiveness of CSFs for GSCM strategies that are still not totally well-managed, justifying a RBV perspective. This research assumes that firms tend to be in different stages of GSCM development (more strategic or less strategic) and tests four research propositions to determine whether more proactive GSCM is related to higher levels of effectively managed CSFs. Three focal companies that operate in the Brazilian automotive battery industry were studied. Research results suggest that more proactive GSCM practices correlate to more effectively managed CSFs and to a greater support from GHRM. We argue that managers with a clear GHRM strategy will have more success in GSCM adoption, using more green training, green recruitment and selection, green performance evaluation and employee rewards.     

Simultaneous inference for functional data in sports biomechanics

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - The recent sports science literature conveys a growing interest in robust statistical methods to analyze smooth, regularly-sampled functional data. This...     

Social attitudes in southern Spain to shape EU agricultural policy

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the most important European policies. Since its inception, the CAP has been reformed in response to high budgetary costs, international trade pressures and socio-economic changes. Despite the reforms, this policy did not always serve the best interests of farmers and provoked social criticisms. In anticipation of the post 2013 design, it is widely agreed that the forthcoming CAP should be more understandable to taxpayers. In this study, the social preferences towards the budgetary allocation of this policy, its equity, and its co-financing are investigated by means of the Choice experiment methodology to shed light on how to shape the future CAP to gain social legitimacy. Results reveal that the CAP post 2013 proposal is more in line with public preferences, although alternative measures are needed to tailor it effectively to regional needs.