Designing User‐Centered Humanitarian Technologies with Displaced People in Iraq: Lessons from Refunite's Mobile Family Tracing Platform

As almost all adults in Iraq own a mobile phone, there is great scope to reach and engage with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq through mobile technologies. This article argues for the importance of a user‐centered design approach when using mobile technologies in humanitarian response. A user‐centered approach considers context and places IDPs’ lived experiences as active technology users at the forefront of project design and implementation. The argument is supported by a case study of Refunite, a family tracing platform that uses mobile technologies to help people find their missing loved ones. This article seeks to address the gap in the literature on user‐centered humanitarian mobile technology projects, particularly in relation to the Middle East. Given the current lack of guidelines on mobile technologies in humanitarian response, the article concludes by recommending that humanitarian practitioners draw on an existing framework, the Principles for Digital Development (2016).     

Vegetation on and around large-scale buildings positively influences native tropical bird abundance and bird species richness

High population growth in the tropics is driving urbanisation, removing diverse natural ecosystems. This is causing native species to suffer while introduced synanthropes flourish. City planners are developing urban greenspace networks, in part trying to address this issue. Architects contribute to these greenspace networks by designing elevated and ground level green spaces on large-scale buildings. However, little evidence is available on whether building green spaces support native fauna. This is true for birds in tropical Singapore that support important ecosystem services and have existence value. Therefore, in this study, we conducted bird surveys and statistical analyses to determine, if and how vegetation on three building green space types (ground gardens, roof gardens and green walls) have a positive impact on native or introduced bird species. We found that elevated greenery (roof gardens and green walls) on large-scale buildings supported a higher richness of birds and abundance of urban native birds than control roofs and walls without vegetation. Ground gardens supported similar levels of native species as roof gardens but also a larger proportion of generalist synanthropes. However, we found no tropical forest habitat specialists across any space type. Therefore, we recommend roof gardens and ground gardens as a potential space for urban natives outside of a less competitive ground-level urban environment. Our study also found certain building design elements (height of elevated space, presence of specific plants) supported different species groups. Therefore, we suggest that these ecological requirements for different species groups are considered when designing a building’s green space.

     

Identifying the Drivers of the Exceptionally High Rates of Lethal and Racially Biased Violence by Police in the United States Requires Geographically Resolved Data and Analysis

This essay serves as a response to Hirschfield's (2015) article, “Lethal Policing: Making Sense of American Exceptionalism,” published in the December 2015 issue of this journal.     

Linking perceived organizational support with employee work outcomes in a Chinese context: Organizational identification as a mediator

Perceived organizational support (POS) is viewed as an important explanatory framework for understanding the relationship between employees and the workplace, and is regarded by some researchers as central in understanding job-related attitudes and behaviors of employees. However, less research has taken into account the role of organizational identification, which reflects how individuals define the self with respect to their organization, as a potential influence on such relationships. Drawing on a cross-organizational sample of 238 subordinate-supervisor dyads from the People’s Republic of China, we examined whether organizational identification mediates the effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on work outcomes including turnover intentions, work performance, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results from the current study showed that organizational identification fully mediates the relation of POS to OCB-directed to individuals, and partially mediates relations between POS and other work outcomes (turnover intention, work performance, OCB-directed to organization). Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.     

An Exploration of the Construction of Commitment Leading to Marriage

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how newly married couples construct and reconstruct commitment through events in courtship and early marriage. Fifteen newly married couples, 30 participants, were interviewed individually. Through the use of grounded theory six different themes (friendship, gradual process, positive examples, negative examples, planning for the future, and words of affirmation) emerged in the construction, origination, and communication of commitment. The results of this study have specific implications for theory, research, and practice with young adult couples. The concept of resilient commitment is introduced and briefly discussed.     

Gamers,gender, and cruel optimism: the limits of social identity constructs in The Guild

Abstract

Video game culture has a long, ongoing history of problems with representation and inclusivity, as a wide variety of forces have constructed video games and gaming as masculine. Against this background, the popular gamer-oriented web series The Guild (2007–2013) appears to offer a unique counterperspective, presenting a gender-diverse cast and focusing primarily on female protagonist Cyd “Codex” Sherman. As such, the show could potentially diversify popular conceptions of gamers. Through a close reading of The Guild, however, we demonstrate that it fails to do so. More specifically, the show’s portrayal of gamer identity serves as a form of cruel optimism, presenting it as an ideal that promises game players a consistent subculture and a sense of belonging, but ultimately traps them in narrow roles and identity constructs. Furthermore, the show’s gamer ideal also reproduces particular forms of gendered inequalities that posit aggressive, competitive masculinity as superior to both more passive masculinities and all forms of femininity. Overall, this leads The Guild to reinforce gaming culture’s existing problems with sexism and regressive stereotypes. Because of this, the show presents a relation of cruel optimism, assuming the appearance of positive change while failing to deliver on it.     

A regression approach to estimating the average number of persons per household

In the housing unit method, population is calculated as the number of households times the average number of persons per household (PPH), plus the population residing in group quarters facilities. Estimates of households and the group quarters population can be derived directly from concurrent data series, but estimates of PPH have traditionally been based on previous values or estimates for larger areas. In our study, we developed several regression models in which PPH estimates were based on symptomatic indicators of PPH change. We tested these estimates using county-level data in four states and found them to be more precise and less biased than estimates based on more commonly used methods.