Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Radio Cultures In Europe: Progress To Date And Prospects For The Future:A Review Of Research Produced By Drace, Brian O'Neill, Stephen Lax

Conference Papers

Digital Radio Cultures in Europe (DRACE), was established in 2004 under the COST Action A20 “The Impact of the Internet on Mass Media in Europe”. The original configuration of the COST A20 group included provision for an internet and music research group but this was re-focussed following a re-organisation in which DRACE was more formally incorporated. The group comprises 14 researchers with specific interests in radio from Norway, Finland, Denmark, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Croatia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The objective of the research group is to be at the forefront of empirical research on changes in radio cultures …

A Decade Of Reflection: Early Childhood Care And Education In Ireland 1996-2006, Noirin Hayes, Siobhan Bradley

Conference Papers

You are welcome to the first seminar in a CSER series intended to consider aspects of early childhood education and care1 [ECEC] from a policy, research and practice perspective and promote discussion and debate. In this introduction to the seminar I want to outline some of the thinking behind the topic for today and present - with limited elaboration - a personal reflection to add to the discussion and debate. In choosing to reflect on the development and impact of early childhood education and care policy in Ireland it is no surprise that the decade 1996 - 2006 should act …

Child Sexual Abuse: How Young People Tell, Rosaleen Mcelvaney

Conference papers

This paper explores the theme of disclosing sexual abuse experiences in adolescence. As children develop increasing autonomy and independence they also develop cognitive, social and emotional skills which facilitate the process of disclosing personal experiences they have struggled for in some cases many years to maintain secrecy. Decision making skills which enable the young person to consider alternative consequences to their behaviour, multiple outcomes and an appreciation of the diverse perspectives of others enables them to weigh up the relative advantages and disadvantages of disclosure. Increased empathy enables them to appreciate the vulnerability of other children to abuse yet also …

To Evaluate The Effects Of The Introduction Of A Smoke-Free Environment On The Lung Function Of Bar Workers In Dublin, Michele Agnew

Masters

It has long been recognised that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) causes respiratory and cardio-vascular disease. A ban, prohibiting smoking in the workplace, was sanctioned by the Irish government and came into effect on 29 March, 2004. Bar staff were an ideal group to study the health effects of the introduction of this ban. Methods Workers were recruited through their Trade Union, Mandate, and 81 participated in the pre-ban phase of testing between September 2003 and March 2004. They attend the Respiratory Laboratory in St. James’s Hospital and underwent lung function tests and measurement of exhaled carbon monoxide (CO). …

Offshore Strategies In Global Political Economy: Small Islands And The Case Of The Eu And Oecd Harmful Tax Competition Initiatives, Richard Woodward

Articles

This article investigates how recent attempts by the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to clamp down on harmful tax competition will affect small island economies with offshore financial centres (OFCs). It argues that although there are legitimate concerns about the initiatives, the likelihood that small island OFCs will disappear is remote. A confluence of factors have forced the EU and OECD to dilute their original proposals to the extent that while some marginal OFCs may be driven out of existence, more sophisticated OFCs will be unharmed and may even benefit from this supposed …

Youth, Governance And The City: Towards A Critical Urban Sociology Of Youth Crime And Disorder Prevention, Matt Bowden

Articles

This article considers the historical and spatial context for the emergence of youth crime and disorder prevention initiatives in Ireland. These initiatives have to be understood in the context of their relationship to the broader ‘urban question’ and in particular the relationship of the peripheral housing estate to the rest of society and the economic sphere. More recent changes in the nature of society and the emergence of a ‘liberal creed’ have resulted in greater use of surveillance technologies for offsetting the opportunities for crime to be committed. In this context, youth crime prevention initiatives must be seen as an …

The International Protean Career: Considerations For Human Resource Management, Marian Crowley-Henry

Conference papers

This paper presents some career patterns from a research undertaking which qualitatively sampled highly educated Western foreign residents in the South of France. In the data collection, their individual career stories were relayed to the researcher from in-depth exploratory interviews. The very personal and individual nature of these careers is underlined in the research findings. The aim of this paper is to share some of the broader findings from the study, which invoke discussion on the wider concerns for career management within the HRM discipline in the future.

Remoulding The Critical Junctures Approach, John Hogan

Articles

This paper improves our understanding of critical junctures, a concept employed in historical institutionalism for exploring change. However, the concept lacks rigour, weakening our ability to define critical junctures. Of late, academics have utilized other mechanisms to identify change in historical institutionalism. Thus, it is within this context that the critical junctures approach is remoulded through the specification of standards, hence reducing uncertainty as to what constitutes a critical juncture. The remoulded approach is employed here in examining change in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ ~ICTU! influence over public policy in 1987.

Reconciling External Legitimacy And Organisational Implementation: The Case Of Service Planning In The Irish Health Services, Vivienne Byers

Conference Papers

Whereas, in many OECD countries strategic planning in health care has been in evidence since the 1970s, in Ireland the emergence of strategic management processes in health care planning didn’t occur until the 1990s. The Strategic Management Initiative (SMI), as outlined in Delivering Better Government (1996), gives Government commitment to ‘the reform of our institutions at national and local level to provide service, accountability and transparency’ and forms the backdrop to the Irish public service reforms. One of the central mechanisms of the SMI is the devolution of accountability and responsibility from the centre to executive agencies. Service planning in …

Economic, Environmental And Social Performance Of The Irish Tourism Sector: Towards Sustainability, Kevin Griffin, John Carty

Conference papers

Ireland is promoted a clean, green tourism destination, famous for it’s landscape, environment, natural habitats and biodiversity. However, is this image still realistic and is it an image that can be sustained as Ireland develops post 2006? This question is examined through the course of this paper and relevant tourism policies are drawn on to illustrate this issue further.

Over the past decade, Irish tourism has performed quite well and has made a strong contribution to the national economy[1]. An efficient government sector, a competitive air and maritime transport sector, a strong partnership between public and private sector, …

Making Space For Home... The Second Home, Deirdre Quinn, Nigel Morgan, Annette Pritchard

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Experiences Of Interaction And Participation In Media Communication In A Digital Environment, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

Digital technologies, it is claimed, provide enhanced opportunities for interactivity and participatory engagement in media communication for ordinary audience members. Whether arising simply from the enhanced functionality offered to media consumers, or through utilising the various channels available to audiences to talk back to media providers, it would appear that audiences are empowered in new ways, previously unavailable in the analogue era. This paper examines what use ordinary audience members make of such opportunities. Drawing on a comparative study of layperson participation in broadcast media in three European countries (Norway, Portugal and Ireland), this paper presents findings from the study …

Creating A Framework For A Single European Sky:The Opportunity Cost Of Reorganising European Airspace, Niall Neligan

Articles

The object of this article is to critically evaluate the legal framework for a European Single Sky project in light of the recent European Court of Justice decision in International Air Transport Association v The Department of Transport. The article will examine in detail the framework regulations outlining the major provisions from the recommendations of the Commission's High Level Group in 2000, to the implementation at a micro-level by national authorities of the legislation adopted in 2004. Furthermore, this article will examine whether the savings to air service providers from the Single European Sky project in the long term will …

Osteria Di Passignano, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Articles

This is a review of the Osteria di Passignano restaurant located in a remote part of Tuscanny, Italy, owned by Antonori Wines.

Age Concern: The Future Of The Oecd, Richard Woodward

Articles

‘Life’, so the adage has it, ‘begins at 40’. But, as American journalist Helen Rowland wryly observed, ‘so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times’. Such a sentiment should resonate within the Parisian corridors of the Organisation for Cooperation and Development (OECD) which celebrates its 45th anniversary on 30 September. Rival institutional developments, evolving geo-political realities, hostility from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the absence of a precisely defined mission statement have marred the OECD’s fifth decade and left the organisation struggling to justify its place in …

Layperson Participation On Radio And The Internet In Three European Countries, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

Digital Radio Cultures in Europe (DRACE), the radio panel of the COST A20 action on The Impact of the Internet on Mass Media, has launched a qualitative research project in a number of European countries about participation in broadcast media among the public. The project involves a reception study and analysis, with a focus on experiences of interaction with the media, attitudes towards media participation and evaluations of the context for interactivity provided by digital technologies. This paper introduces the methodology and rationale of the study in the context of previous European studies. We start from the broad category of …

Digital Technologies And The Future Of Radio: Lessons From The Canadian Experience, Brian O'Neill

Conference Papers

This paper reports on an ongoing comparative study of the development of digital radio in Europe and Canada. Focussing on the Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) platform in Canada, of which it was an early adopter, the paper examines the complex interaction of industry, government regulation and the difficulty of policy formation matching the pace of technology development. Based on interviews with leading radio professionals, the paper presents a critical review of the ‘transitional policy’ towards the digitalisation of radio and examines the international market pressures that led Canada to largely abandon this approach in favour of the current …

True Sons Of Erin: Catholic/Nationalist Ideology And The Politics Of Adventure In Our Boys 1914-32, Michael Flanagan

Doctoral

Conservative Irish society perceived itself to be under threat from a variety of “foreign“ cultural expressions in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. The “sensational” nature of newspapers and periodicals produced for the broader metropolitan market and espousing the values of a more urban and less controlled society were particular sources of concern for Irish Catholics, as was the musical hall and the newly available cinema publications. The Christian Brothers entered the leisure reading market in September 1914 with their own magazine, Our Boys. The primary focus of this publication was to compete with the imperial and …

Designing Dining, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Articles

Just like its clothing cousin 'haute couture', the culinary world of 'haute cuisne' is influence heavily by changing fashions. This article outlines the trends for dining in 2006.

No Buts! - Researching Children's Consumption, An Exploration Of Conversation And Discourse Analytic Techniques, Olivia Freeman

Conference papers

Contemporary discussion of social research with children revolves around three trends (i) an emphasis on researching children’s ‘experiences’ rather than their ‘perspectives’, (ii) an emphasis on researching ‘with’ children rather than ‘on’ children or ‘for’ children and (iii) a conceptualisation of children as ‘social beings’ not ‘social becomings’. This paper poses questions about how qualitative data is analysed and posits a two-pronged CA/DA (conversation analysis/ discourse analysis) approach as a potential means to enhance richness in qualitative research in the area of children’s consumption phenomena. Drawing on a number of illustrations from an ongoing research project this paper seeks to …

Ballymun Needs Analysis: Summary Report, Noirin Hayes, Siobhan Bradley

Reports

No abstract provided.

Final Evaluation Report Of The Go Project, Louise Mccann

Reports

Evaluation report of the GO project commissioned by the DIT Community Links Programme and the Digital Media Centre, 2006.

Organizational Stress In Social Care, Brian Mccarthy

Other resources

The aim of this research project was to develop a model of understanding, coping with and preventing work-related stress in social care organizations. The research was framed conceptually in a model of organizational stress developed and adapted from Beehr’s (1998) integrative model of organizational stress. The first two stages of the research project explored by interview and survey staff and management perceptions of stress in their organizations. It was found that both acute and chronic stressors occurred and were seen to have increased; organizational stressors were also likely to be more persistent and chronic when they occurred. Interviewees were
concerned …

Challenging The Revenue Management Model In City Hotels, Tony Kiely

Other resources

No abstract provided.

Competing Discourses On Journalism Education, Nora French

Articles

This paper is concerned with the lack of an agreed framework for the curriculum for journalism education. The paper reports on research into the beliefs and values underlying the two main undergraduate degree programmes in journalism in Ireland, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the concepts of journalism and journalism education on which the curricula were based. Critical discourse analysis was used in the research. The discrepancies found in the two concepts within and between different texts make clear that the problems within journalism education reflect the wider problems of lack of closure in the discourses of …

Promoting Values As West Meets East, Michael Foley

Articles

As Western training agencies increasingly promote ‘democratic journalistic values’ in the former communist countries, Michael Foley argues that progress will only occur if the West ceases to see in journalism a way of strengthening the marketplace and helps local experts develop their own models

The Forgotten Role Of Women Insurgents In The 1916 Rising, Tom Clonan

Articles

The Women of the 1916 War is normally spoken of in the exclusively masculine sense – particularly by those with no experience of combat. Historical accounts of war tend to describe conflict almost solely in terms of male participation as combatants - thus reinforcing the myth of combat as an exclusively male preserve. In a similar vein – despite the de facto role that women have always played in war and combat - the current debate around our commemoration of the Easter Rising consists of a highly gendered discussion on reclaiming a legitimate remembrance of this problematic event from certain …

Irish Intelligence Staff Work From Kosovo To Kabul, Tom Clonan

Articles

Normally associated with routine troop deployments and logistic support to UN peace keeping and peace enforcement missions worldwide, the Irish Defence Forces have recently dramatically expanded their international intelligence presence abroad. In the wake of 9/11, Ireland’s Military Intelligence Directorate was expanded in order to assess emerging threats to the state – both external and internal – posed by global terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda. As an independent state agency, Ireland’s military intelligence are focused on long term trends within the global security environment across a broad spectrum of threats, from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons proliferation to the …

The Use Of Relationship Marketing In Developing Network And Co-Operative Links Within Tourism Product Marketing Groups (Pmg’S, Catherine Gorman

Books / Book chapters

Co-operative marketing groups are common in tourism, particularly in the case of destination marketing. Destination tourism marketing groups offer a diverse range of tourism products and experiences which complement each other and are delineated by a specific geographical parameter. Tourism product marketing groups offer similar tourism products or services and through a co-operative approach focus on an identified target markets. Co-operative marketing can make greater impact in terms of market presence and can be more cost effective. Members need to see the value in their membership in order to remain involved. Many tourism product providers are SMTE’s (Small and Medium …

The Importance Of Family And Community Links For Children In The Out Of Home Care System, David Williams

Articles

Regardless of the exact setting in which the social care worker is involved, be it supporting clients in maintaining their position in the community or assisting clients in making a return to the general community, the maintenance of family and community links are key tools to the achievement of the above identified goals. The role of the parents, family and community in general must not be underestimated if we are to fully meet the needs of the vulnerable people with whom we work. In the following article we will discus the reasons why it is important for social care workers …