A critical discourse analysis of racial violence in South Carolina,U.S.A.: implications for traveling while Black

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to present a rich, detailed case that illustrates the way in which the discourse of racial violence has been constructed in the United States (U.S.), and how that has impacted Black travel. Using South Carolina, a state centrally-located along the East coast with historic, political, and social ties to the U.S. South as the context for this analysis, this paper employs a critical discourse analysis to examine the intersection of racial violence and tourism, situating cases of violence – historic to the modern. This study makes a case for more focused attention on the intersection of tourism and violence within the literature, as well as a call to the tourism industry to be proactive to discourses of violence, demonstrate a desire for diversity in their visitors, consider the critical issues of racial representation in their tourism products, and be aware of the emerging organizations supporting and facilitating Black travel.     

Outsourcing of Services and the Productivity Recovery in U.S. Manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s

Manufacturing productivity growth recovered during the 1980s and 1990s, while other sectors, particularly services, did not. In the same period U.S. manufacturing has engaged in the “outsourcing” or “contracting-out” of service functions. Has the recovery of manufacturing been accomplished by industrial reorganization--sloughing off sluggish services--rather than technical progress? We analyze this question by reducing service inputs to their consituent elements of material inputs. Service productivity growth is thus imputed to the goods sectors, reducing the recovery of manufacturing productivity growth in the 1980s by one fifth. The recovery lasted through the 1990s, when high productivity performers in manufacturing have been relatively successful at outsourcing sluggishservices.

     

The Incredible Shrinking Black Woman: Implications of Health Policies

Black American women are shrinking in height at a faster rate than other groups, a phenomenon that has consequences for the physical health and economic well-being of black females. Relative to the cohort born from 1955 to 1974, the most recent cohort (1970–1986) of black American women and girls have lost more than half an inch (approximately 0.56) in height. Adult height is a measure of net nutrition acquired during childhood and adolescence and is correlated with a wide variety of economic and health outcomes. Simultaneously, the body mass index (BMI) among blacks has also increased at a faster rate than whites in both the periods of 1988–1994 (1.06 kg/m2) and 1999–2002. Black women and girls, in particular, experienced the greatest increase in BMI since the 1990s. Evidence that black American women are shrinking and BMI is growing highlights the need to examine the nutritional intake of black girls during childhood and adolescence; early nutritional deficiencies have persistent impact over their life course. In this policy brief, we consider several public health policy interventions that affect black girls’ nutritional intake across the life course, particularly during childhood and adolescence.     

The Impact of Macroeconomic Fluctuations on the Likelihood of African American Female Homeownership

Homeownership, a primary component of household wealth, confers benefits not just in terms of the value of home equity itself, but also the tax benefits and inflation protection associated with owning property. The 1990s represented a booming time in the economy and record low interest rates which allowed homeownership to become more available to more people than ever. As a result, the US housing market experienced significant growth and home values began to soar in part due to rising incomes. However, this period of rapid expansion in the housing market was followed by a rapid decline, precipitated by the recession, as home values began to plummet and foreclosures steadily increased. This study examines the impact that recent macroeconomic fluctuations had on the likelihood of homeownership for African American women compared to their white counterparts. Using data from the American Housing Survey (1997–2009), this tenure spatial analysis used a logistic regression model to examine the odds in favor of homeownership during economic fluctuations along with taking into consideration other important determinants. The empirical results show that there are significant differences in the likelihood of homeownership between African American women and white females.     

How to decrease the national poverty rate and encourage consumer demand in Russia

The main reasons for the high poverty rate and income differentiation among Russia??s population are analyzed, and indispensable governmental measures of income policy are substantiated that will help resolve this problem and encourage domestic consumer demand.     

Unleash innovation in foreign subsidiaries

In multinational corporations, growth-triggering innovation often emerges in foreign subsidiaries from employees closest to customers and least attached to the procedures and politeness of the home office. But too often, heavy-handed responses from headquarters squelch local enthusiasm and drive out good ideas--and good people. The authors' research into more than 50 multinationals suggests that encouraging innovation in foreign subsidiaries requires a change in attitude. Companies should start to think of foreign subsidiaries as peninsulas rather than as islands--as extensions of the company's strategic domain rather than as isolated outposts. If they do, innovative ideas will flow more freely from the periphery to the corporate center. Basing their arguments on a rich array of examples, the authors say that encouraging such "innovation at the edges" also requires a new set of practices, with two aims: to improve the formal and informal channels of communication between headquarters and subsidiaries and to give foreign subsidiaries more authority to see their ideas through. The challenge for executives of multinationals is to find ways to liberalize, not tighten, internal systems and to delegate more authority to local subsidiaries. It isn't enough to ask subsidiary managers to be innovative; corporate managers need to give them incentives and support systems to facilitate their efforts. The authors suggest four approaches: give seed money to subsidiaries; use formal requests for proposals as a way of increasing the demand for seed money; encourage subsidiaries to be incubators for fledgling businesses; and build international networks. As part of the last approach, multinationals also need to create roles for idea brokers who can link entrepreneurs in foreign subsidiaries with other parts of the company.     

The kinesthetic speaker. Putting action into words

Speeches and presentations offer an interesting catch-22: executives don't want to spend long hours creating them, and people don't want to sit for long hours listening to them. Ultimately, though, executives can't live without them. That's because a good speech or presentation has the power to inspire people to act on the speaker's behalf and create change. Author Nick Morgan, a longtime speech-writer and speaking coach, says what's most often lacking in today's speeches and presentations is what he calls the "kinesthetic connection." Many good speakers connect aurally with their audiences, telling dramatic stories and effectively pacing their speeches to hold people's attention. Others connect visually, with a vivid film clip or a killer slide. Some people do both, but not many also connect kinesthetically. Morgan says the kinesthetic speaker feeds an audience's primal hunger to experience a presentation on a physical, as well as an intellectual, level. Through awareness of their own physical presence--gestures, posture, movements--and through the effective use of the space in which they present, kinesthetic speakers can create potent nonverbal messages that reinforce their verbal ones. In this article, Morgan describes techniques for harnessing kinesthetic power and creating a sense of intimacy with an audience--a closeness that is more widely expected from speakers since the advent of television. For instance, kinesthetic speakers should make use of audience proxies--individuals in the crowd who serve as representatives for the others. Ultimately, the author says, a speech or presentation offers something of great value to business executives: it's the best vehicle for winning trust from large groups of people--be they employees, colleagues, or share-holders.     

THE APPLICATION OF INTANGIBLE ASSET ACCOUNTING AND DISCRETIONARY POLICY CHOICES IN THE UK FOOTBALL INDUSTRY

This paper investigates the use of intangible asset accounting and the selection of accounting policies in the football industry, an environment where discretionary choices were available concerning accounting for transfer fees. Additionally, companies in this dynamic and socially influential industry are unique in recognising investments in human resources on the balance sheet. Proxies representing the level of tax costs, equity depletion, underwriter pressure and auditors used are found to have significant associations with policy selection. This contributes to the debate over the role of discretionary choices, particularly regarding the accounting treatment available for intangible assets, in financial reporting.     

Regional and State Variation in Homeownership Rates; or If California's Home Prices Were as Low as Pennsylvania's Would its Ownership Rate be as High?

There are significant disparities in homeownership rates across the regions and states of the United States. The causes of these disparities are determined within a standard probit model of the individual homeownership decision where the micro-level observations are aggregated to the regional level. Factors which play a significant role at the individual level are evaluated for their ability to explain regional differentiation. The relative price of owning and renting plays a major role as do other market level determinants. Individual demographic characteristics are not as important with the exception of those related to the immigration and citizenship status of the household head.