This is the editorial paper for the virtual special issue “Using Q methodology in higher education: Opportunities and challenges”, consisting of nine original research studies from different international contexts. In addition to presenting novel findings, contributors were invited to discuss the following two questions at the center of the special issue call: In what sense has Q methodology served as a fitting approach to investigate subjectivity in higher education? What methodological opportunities and challenges arise with Q methodology in higher education settings? This editorial provides an overview and discussion of the various justifications mentioned for Q methodology. Furthermore, it collates the opportunities and challenges contributors discuss in relation to their studies using this almost 90-year-old methodological approach. The editorial paper concludes with recommendations for future Q methodological studies in higher education and beyond.
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This special issue of Journal of Heritage Tourism on dark tourism aims to encourage and advance theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research on dark tourism. The call for papers was inspired by the editor’s theoretical and research interest in dark tourism studies. The collection of articles in this special issue provides original, innovative and international tourism research that is embedded in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological thought in the study of dark tourism. Finally, this editorial will address a few lines of future research directions focusing on the experience and emotions of visitors at ‘dark tourism’ sites.
This article reflects on the previous articles in this special issue by discussing some common themes and raising some proposals for future research on the topic of workplace learning and its boundaries. The article subsequently discusses objects and results of workplace learning, the issue of learning through acquisition and/or participation, the interplay between organisational and individual factors, the issue of access to learning opportunities, the role of workplace learning in education and HRD, respectively.
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Due to societal developments, like the introduction of the ‘civil society’, policy stimulating longer living at home and the separation of housing and care, the housing situation of older citizens is a relevant and pressing issue for housing-, governance- and care organizations. The current situation of living with care already benefits from technological advancement. The wide application of technology especially in care homes brings the emergence of a new source of information that becomes invaluable in order to understand how the smart urban environment affects the health of older people. The goal of this proposal is to develop an approach for designing smart neighborhoods, in order to assist and engage older adults living there. This approach will be applied to a neighborhood in Aalst-Waalre which will be developed into a living lab. The research will involve: (1) Insight into social-spatial factors underlying a smart neighborhood; (2) Identifying governance and organizational context; (3) Identifying needs and preferences of the (future) inhabitant; (4) Matching needs & preferences to potential socio-techno-spatial solutions. A mixed methods approach fusing quantitative and qualitative methods towards understanding the impacts of smart environment will be investigated. After 12 months, employing several concepts of urban computing, such as pattern recognition and predictive modelling , using the focus groups from the different organizations as well as primary end-users, and exploring how physiological data can be embedded in data-driven strategies for the enhancement of active ageing in this neighborhood will result in design solutions and strategies for a more care-friendly neighborhood.
Denim Democracy from the Alliance for Responsible Denim (ARD) is an interactive exhibition that celebrates the journey and learning of ARD members, educates visitors about sustainable denim and highlights how companies collaborate together to achieve results. Through sight, sound and tactile sensations, the visitor experiences and fully engages sustainable denim production. The exhibition launches in October 2018 in Amsterdam and travels to key venues and locations in the Netherlands until April 2019. As consumers, we love denim but the denim industry, like other sub-sectors in the textile, apparel and footwear industries, faces many complex sustainability challenges and has been criticized for its polluting and hazardous production practices. The Alliance for Responsible Denim project brought leading denim brands, suppliers and stakeholders together to collectively address these issues and take initial steps towards improving the ecological sustainability impact of denim production. Sustainability challenges are considered very complex and economically undesirable for individual companies to address alone. In denim, small and medium sized denim firms face specific challenges, such as lower economies of scale and lower buying power to affect change in practices. There is great benefit in combining denim companies' resources and knowledge so that collective experimentation and learning can lift the sustainability standards of the industry and lead to the development of common standards and benchmarks on a scale that matters. If meaningful, transformative industrial change is to be made, then it calls for collaboration between denim industry stakeholders that goes beyond supplier-buyer relations and includes horizontal value chain collaboration of competing large and small denim brands. However collaboration between organizations, and especially between competitors, is highly complex and prone to failure. The research behind the Alliance for Responsible Denim project asked a central research question: how do competitors effectively collaborate together to create common, industry standards on resource use and benchmarks for improved ecological sustainability? To answer this question, we used a mixed-method, action research approach. The Alliance for Responsible Denim project mobilized and facilitated denim brands to collectively identify ways to reduce the use of water and chemicals in denim production and then aided them to implement these practices individually in their respective firms.
Rugpijn komt voor bij veel paarden. De pijngrens van ieder paard is verschillend, het is lastig te constateren of een paard rugpijn heeft. De oorzaken van rugpijn kunnen uiteenlopen zoals slecht passend zadel, kreupelheid, orgaanproblemen, manier van rijden, overbelasting of wervelblokkades. Momenteel wordt rugpijn geconstateerd middels handelingen zoals voelen aan spieren of wervels, visueel beoordelen van de rug. Objectieve analyses op gebied van rug problematieken en bewegingskwaliteit zijn op dit moment erg uitdagend. Het is mensenwerk en vaak zijn de meningen verdeeld zelfs tussen experts met ruime ervaring. Het equine back measurement system kan voor de sector een gamechanger worden door de mogelijkheid om de rug/romp beweging van het paard te objectiveren en kwantificeren en zodoende rugklachten te kunnen aantonen. Het equine back measurement systeem maakt met behulp van sensoren een 3D scan van het rugoppervlak tijdens bewegen (stap/draf) op een lopende band. Middels AI software analyse volgt hieruit een resultaat van de metingen en geeft het systeem aan waar opvallende afwijkingen zitten in de bewegende oppervlaktepatronen. Met deze informatie kan dan bijv. een zadelmaker het zadel op de juiste manier instellen voor het betreffende paard of zijn er indicaties voor nader veterinair onderzoek. Het equine back measurement system zou gecombineerd kunnen worden met alle bestaande lopende band opstellingen voor paarden. In de toekomst zou het systeem zelfs gebruikt kunnen worden om een nieuw te ontwikkelen zadel met luchtkamers aan te sturen. In dit project ligt de focus op genereren van een 3D model met behulp van sensoren zoals dieptecamera’s. Op basis van de ervaring met bewegingsmetingen bij paarden van projectpartner Equimoves is gebleken dat het systeem 200 - 300 metingen per seconde moet kunnen maken om voldoende details te kunnen zien. Bij dit project zijn verder betrokken Peard (zadeldrukmetingen) en Paardenkliniek Venlo.
