Invisible pioneers? The impact of women on the recreation movement

Abstract

This article explores and describes the impact of women on the American recreation movement from 1900 to 1960. The theses that emerged in this article are that women were actively involved in the early and middle years of the movement, that their activities were different from men's activities and thus largely invisible as recorded in the history of the recreation movement, and that the social “ethic of caring” embodied the professional and volunteer activities that women undertook. These theses provided a transitional history about the women who were involved with the recreation movement in various capacities. Although notable women were identified through the data collection, it was the “collective biography” of the women in the field that provided the archetypical model that described the impact of women on the recreation movement.     

The Evolution of Fiscal Policy in Australia

This paper examines the evolution of Australian fiscal policyand the fiscal policy framework over the past quartercentury.Following the early 1980s recession, a sustained fiscal consolidationsaw the general government budget balance (for all levels ofgovernment) move from a deficit of 3 per cent of GDP in 1983/4to a surplus of 1 per cent 5 years later in 1988/9. A severerecession in the early 1990s interrupted this process, and thebudget returned to sizeable deficits which peaked at 4 per centof GDP in 1992/3. The second half of the 1990s saw a repeatof the experience a decade earlier, with the budget returningto surplus in 1997/8. In contrast to the 1980s experience, however,the general government sector (for all levels of government)has recorded surpluses for the subsequent 8 years to the present.The paper outlines Australia's macroeconomic experience overthis time and argues that there have been two significant medium-termfactors motivating the extended periods of fiscal consolidation.The first factor, relevant since the mid-1980s, has been thelarge Australian current-account deficits since that time, andthe associated build-up of net foreign liabilities. The secondfactor, which entered the public debate more recently, is adesire to provide fiscal policy flexibility to respond to theageing of the population and the projected rising public costof health services—both influences that are likely tobe of increasing importance over the next generation or so.The paper discusses the introduction and evolution of Australia'smedium-term fiscal framework which has been put in place torespond to these challenges. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: dgruen{at}treasury.gov.au; asayegh{at}treasury.gov.au     

The quest for food

The Quest for Food is an educational project written and planned by Kenneth P. Wilkinson, a professor of rural sociology at The Pennsylvania State University. The project is offered as a one credit college course and consists of both a written and television component. The television part of the course includes interviews with Sterling Wortman, the Vice President of The Rockefeller Foundation in New York; Frances Moore Lappé, the Director of the Institute of Food and Development Policy in San Francisco; and, Rustom Roy, the Director of the Materials Research Laboratory, and Science, Technology, and Society Program (STS), both located at The Pennsylvania State University.     

Status of Image Management Research in Public Relations: A Cross-Discipline Content Analysis of Studies Published Between 1991 and 2011

This study reviews the status of image management research published in public relations-specific journals, as well as broader management, business, strategic communication, and communication journals, to extrapolate important trends for future research and practice. A content analysis of relevant research (n = 261) was conducted based on several criteria (area focus, application group, country of study, methodology, application of theory or conceptual framework, type of focus on image, communication type and medium). Findings suggest two considerations for the strategic communication of organizational image: 1) image as outcome, and 2) image as social influence in online communication.     

Degrowing tourism: rethinking tourism

Abstract

Concerns with growth have steadily advanced since the Limits to Growth report due particularly to human impacts on the natural environment. Since that time, neoliberal capitalism has become increasingly reliant on growth exacerbating these problems. The destructive outcomes of these strategies has led to a growing interest in degrowth. Analysts are examining how we can create economies that eschew a growth imperative while still supporting human thriving. Tourism as a key facet of capitalism is implicated in these issues and recent concerns with “overtourism” are only one symptom of the problem. This article presents a conceptual consideration of issues of degrowth in tourism. It examines current tensions in international mobility and argues just and sustainable degrowth will require greater attention to equity. This analysis suggests that essential to such an agenda is redefining tourism to focus on the rights of local communities and a rebuilding of the social capacities of tourism. This article argues for the redefinition of tourism in order to place the rights of local communities above the rights of tourists for holidays and the rights of tourism corporates to make profits.     

Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm

Learning algorithms, technologies that generate responses, classifications, or dynamic predictions that resemble those of a knowledge worker, raise important research questions for organizational scholars related to work and organizing. We suggest that such algorithms are distinguished by four consequential aspects: black-boxed performance, comprehensive digitization, anticipatory quantification, and hidden politics. These aspects are likely to alter work and organizing in qualitatively different ways beyond simply signaling an acceleration of long-term technology trends. Our analysis indicates that learning algorithms will transform expertise in organizations, reshape work and occupational boundaries, and offer novel forms of coordination and control. Thus, learning algorithms can be considered performative due to the extent to which their use can shape and alter work and organizational realities. Their rapid deployment requires scholarly attention to societal issues such as the extent to which the algorithm is authorized to make decisions, the need to incorporate morality in the technology, and their digital iron-cage potential.     

The effects of firm size,corporate governance quality,and bad news on disclosure compliance

Motivated by calls for increased compliance, size-based regulation, and continued exemption of small firms from internal control reporting requirements, we assess the incremental effects of firm size, corporate governance quality, and bad news on disclosure compliance. We examine compliance with the disclosure requirements of an SEC-mandated filing that requires no computations or complex judgments but is nonroutine and may reveal value-decreasing information (bad news) that otherwise would not become public. The disclosures studied are those that firms provide in Form 8-K Item 4 when changing external auditors. We find that noncompliant firms have lower quality corporate governance and less need for external financing but are not smaller than compliant control firms. Additional analyses indicate that compliance is negatively associated with bad news.     

The secrets to successful strategy execution

When a company finds itself unable to execute strategy, all too often the first reaction is to redraw the organization chart or tinker with incentives. Far more effective would be to clarify decision rights and improve the flow of information both up the line of command and across the organization. Then, the right structures and motivators tend to fall into place. That conclusion is borne out by the authors' decades of experience as Booz & Company consultants and by the survey data that they have been collecting for almost five years from more than 125,000 employees of some 1,000 organizations in more than 50 countries. From this data they have distilled--and ranked in order of importance--the top 17 traits exhibited by the organizations that are most effective at executing strategy. The single most common attribute of such companies is that their employees are clear about which decisions and actions they are responsible for. As a result, decisions are rarely second-guessed, and accurate competitive information quickly finds its way up the hierarchy and across organizational boundaries. Managers communicate the key drivers of success, so frontline employees have the information they need to understand the impact of their day-to-day actions. Motivators--like performance appraisals that distinguish high, adequate, and low performers and rewards for fulfilling particular commitments--are also important but are most effective when applied after decision rights and information flows have been addressed. That holds true for structural moves as well. Surprisingly, the most effective structural moves turn out to be promoting people laterally--and more slowly. How can you make the most educated and cost-efficient decisions about which change initiatives to implement? The authors have developed a powerful online diagnostic and simulation tool that can help you test the effectiveness of various approaches virtually, without risking significant amounts of time and money.