‘Never take pity’: an average French boxer’s ethnobiography

Based on a long-term ethnographic study of a group of French boxers, this article retraces the biography of one of its members. Éric was an average boxer who never truly mastered the art of dodging his opponents. He never left the ranks of amateur boxing either, although in fact he never truly hoped he would step into the limelight reserved for the very few champions who make it. His anonymous and relentless commitment to boxing was in fact filled with a different meaning that his ethnobiography brings to light. His commitment to boxing can be better understood in light of the trials he faced in “the poor life”, a life he described as flavorless, mired in unemployment and survival delinquency. Despite his repeated defeats in the ring, for him boxing was the only part of his identity that elevated his status and set him apart from those who only had the streets to hang out on. By revealing the meaning he gave to his pugilism, Éric’s ethnobiography offers a new perspective on the links between boxing, violence, and poverty. It also paves the way for exploring the dark side of a leisure activity and its struggles that extend far beyond the ring itself.     

探析横管式煤气初冷器阻力大的原因及应对措施

在焦化行业内,炼焦过程必将产生大量焦炉荒煤气,采用煤气鼓风对焦炉荒煤气进行处理就成为工作重点,不仅能够促进环境的改善,还可以回收荒煤气中大量的化工原材料,并带来较大的经济效益。但在焦化厂实际生产中,横管式煤气初冷器常常因阻力过高发生故障,对煤气鼓风机的正常运作形成干扰,造成装置沉积物阻塞与环境污染等问题。论文以湖北中平鄂钢联合焦化有限责任公司的横管式煤气初冷器为实例,简要分析阻力增大的原因及应对措施。     

农网改造升级工程接地施工若干质量问题的防控探讨

当前我国已经将决战脱贫攻坚、决胜全面建成小康社会作为主要的战略目标,为了实现这一目标,实现脱贫攻坚,电力保障是一个非常重要的因素。近年来我国全面推进农网改造升级工程。农网改造工程的接地施工质量的重要性毋庸置疑,但是农网改造工程的特殊性又使得接地质量的判断变得不好把握,本文从农网改造工程接地质量现状、防控措施等方面进行探讨。     

Vacationers and the economic “double dip” in Europe

The subject of this study concerns individual vacationers' reactions to the global economic crisis. This crisis is lasting longer than expected, resulting in Europe in a “double dip”. Vacationers can use different strategies to cope with this crisis: from pruning (giving up the vacation) via cheese-slicing (economizing on vacation attributes) to non-economizing. Based on a theoretical framework, it was predicted that over time the pruning segment would become larger than the cheese-slicing segment. A longitudinal study in The Netherlands, covering 4 years, shows economic developments having a relatively minor effect on vacationers' holiday plans and intentions, with no increase in the size of the pruning segment. Six vacationer segments were found, three of which can be considered to be crisis-resistant. Each segment pursues different economizing strategies, with each requiring a customized marketing strategy. Five explanations are proposed for the relatively limited influence of the economic “double dip” on Dutch vacationers. Future research can be directed to comparing vacations with other consumer products, in order to explain the crisis-resistance of vacation planning during this economic crisis.     

Fashionable subjects and complicity resistance: power,subjectification, and bounded resistance in the context of plus-size consumers

ABSTRACT

The relationship between consumer governability and consumer resistance has received increasing attention in consumer research, especially with regard to consumers’ physical bodies. However, a deeper understanding of how consumers juxtapose different forms and strategies of governability with respect to which discourses they embody or resist is necessary. Through an analysis of various sources of data, including interviews, fashion blogs, an online retailer’s website, and a fashion magazine, we explore the nuances between processes of subjectification and resistance in the fashion field by considering the multiple powers that act on overweight female consumers’ bodies. We demonstrate the complicated process by which these vulnerable consumers attempt to establish themselves as fashionable subjects as they move between adherence to expectations (biopower and subjectification) and resistance when faced with the impossibility of subjectification in a creative-agentic manner. Finally, we propose the idea of complicit resistance. This resistance only partially confronts the strategies of biopower in the process of subjectification because it is limited by a threshold imposed by biopower.     

Barriers toward purchasing from online travel agencies

Online travel agencies (OTAs) are expanding their services to many segments of the travel and tourism industry. While they are beneficial to travelers, OTAs also face a great deal of consumer resistance. However, prior literature has largely focused on travelers’ adoption intentions toward OTAs, scarcely exploring the causes of such resistance. Addressing the gap, this study extends the innovation resistance theory (IRT) to examine the barriers to positive purchase intentions toward OTAs. A mixed method research design with open-ended essays and cross-sectional survey is used to test the proposed model. Findings suggest that benefits barrier is the chief inhibitor of purchase intentions. In comparison, privacy and security concerns and the vulnerability barrier show positive association with intentions. As a moderator, visibility influences the strength of the association between benefits barrier and purchase intentions. Further, the strength of this association differs among young, middle-aged, and old users.     

Making out and making do: how employees resist and make organisational change work through consent in a UK bank

This article draws on fieldwork conducted in the back‐office of a major retail UK bank and explores how, when introducing change, management drew on contradictory normative and rational discourses. Its primary concern is to explore how, in this context, employees engaged in contradictory acts that combined elements of both resistance (‘making out’) and consent (‘making do’) that are difficult to disentangle. It is argued that although both are moves within the game, they can be distinguished from each other because the former works against the grain of corporate intentions, whereas the latter works with them.     

Innovation and antibiotic use within antibiotic classes: Market incentives and economic instruments

We analyze a monopolist's incentive to innovate a new antibiotic which is connected to the same pool of antibiotic treatment efficacy as is another drug produced by a generic industry. We outline the differences of antibiotic use under market conditions and in the social optimum. A time- and state-dependent tax-subsidy mechanism is proposed to induce the monopolist and generic industry to exploit antibiotic efficacy optimally.     

论鲁迅笔下封建社会的女性悲剧——以《祝福》中的祥林嫂为例

鲁迅《祝福》中塑造的祥林嫂这一形象,代表了旧式中国劳动妇女的共性,她们被封建礼教束缚、压迫,但不失反抗精神;同时也反映了当时中国社会对妇女的蔑视和欺压。像祥林嫂这样的下层女性,即便勤劳、善良、坚韧,但以她的身体从暴烈到干枯的经历实际上是对封建权力暴行的控诉。她在旧式中国不能争取到一丝尊严,不能得到作为一个人的起码的权利,取而代之的却是被践踏、被奴役、遭压迫、受欺凌。     

Knowledge management through the development of knowledge repositories: towards work degradation

This paper questions the consequences of the use of electronic knowledge repositories for work and employment. Drawing on critical research suggesting that knowledge management associated with such tools presents similarities to scientific management principles, it proposes to examine the following key research question: how do employees experience the transformation of the employment relationship when a knowledge repository is introduced to the workplace? The inquiry is grounded in an exploratory qualitative case study of a knowledge management system designed to foster knowledge‐sharing in a Belgian public administration. The findings illustrate two complementary outcomes: this system resulted in employees experiencing deskilling and work degradation, and was met with resistance. Significantly, this paper considers work degradation as a reflexive phenomenon in the context studied, where knowledge‐sharing systems produced deskilling and resistance as part of a specific re‐regulation process.