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Growing Focus (growing + focus)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Corporate reputation: Meaning and measurement

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 2 2005
Rosa Chun
Corporate reputation has attracted interest from a wide range of academic disciplines. It is also a growing focus for business and media attention. This paper examines the construct of corporate reputation, first by untangling the terminological problems that have been caused by the interdisciplinary nature of much of the earlier work in the area. The construct of reputation and the allied constructs of image and identity are each reviewed. A structure is proposed in which the three constructs can be seen as labelling different but allied concepts. I then move on to consider how reputation has been measured. The paper uncovers considerable confusion in the use of what might appear to be basic terms and links this to a subsequent lack of grounded measurement tools in the sector, until relatively recently. With a clearer understanding of the construct of corporate reputation and the allied constructs of image and identity, researchers are now well placed to test the relationships widely claimed by practitioners between corporate reputation and other variables such as commercial performance and employee and customer satisfaction. The review ends by illustrating some of the issues that can be assessed from the basis of a clearer conceptualization of reputation and its measurement. [source]

Heavenly Visions: Otago Colonists' Concepts of the Afterlife

JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 1 2006
ALISON CLARKE
This paper explores popular beliefs about heaven and hell in the largely Presbyterian colony of Otago, New Zealand, during the second half of the nineteenth century. The heresy trials of two prominent clerics resulted, in large part, from the questioning of traditional doctrines on hell, particularly as they related to the fate of dead infants. Although fierce debate surrounded these trials, the diaries, letters, and headstones of Otago residents reveal a pervasive popular belief in heaven as the afterlife destination of all children and most adults. This reflected a growing focus on the innocence, rather than the original sin, of children, coupled with an increasing emphasis on the loving, rather than judgmental, characteristics of God. While clergy emphasized God's presence as the great pleasure of the afterlife, popular visions of heaven clung instead to the hope of joyful reunions with family and friends. [source]

MODERN SOVEREIGNTY IN QUESTION: THEOLOGY, DEMOCRACY AND CAPITALISM

MODERN THEOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
ADRIAN PABST
This essay argues that modern sovereignty is not simply a legal or political concept that is coterminous with the modern nation-state. Rather, at the theoretical level modern sovereign power is inscribed into a wider theological dialectic between "the one" and "the many". Modernity fuses juridical-constitutional models of supreme state authority with a new, "biopolitical" account of power whereby natural life and the living body of the individual are the object of politics and are subject to state control (section 1). The origins of this dialectic go back to changes within Christian theology in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. In particular, these changes can be traced to Ockham's denial of the universal Good in things, Suárez's priority of the political community over the ecclesial body and Hobbes's "biopolitical" definition of power as state dominion over life (section 2). At the practical level, modern sovereignty has involved both the national state and the transnational market. The "revolutions in sovereignty" that gave rise to the modern state and the modern market were to some considerable extent shaped by theological concepts and changes in religious institutions and practices: first, the supremacy of the modern national state over the transnational papacy and national churches; second, the increasing priority of individuality over collectivity; third, a growing focus on contractual proprietary relations at the expense of covenantal ties and communal bonds (section 3). By subjecting both people and property to uniform standards of formal natural rights and abstract monetary value, financial capitalism and liberal secular democracy are part of the "biopolitical" logic that subordinates the sanctity of life and land to the secular sacrality of the state and the market. In Pope Benedict's theology, we can find the contours of a post-secular political economy that challenges the monopoly of modern sovereignty (sections 4,5). [source]

Complementary and alternative medicine: the move into mainstream health care

CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OPTOMETRY, Issue 2 2004
Kylie O'Brien BSc (Optometry) BAppSc (Chinese Medicine) MPH
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Australia is extensive with over 50 per cent of the Australian population using some form of complementary medicine and almost 25 per cent of Australians visiting CAM practitioners. Expenditure on CAM by Australians is significant. The scope of CAM is extremely broad and ranges from complete medical systems such as Chinese medicine to well-known therapies, such as massage and little known therapies, such as pranic healing. There is a growing focus on CAM in Australia and worldwide by a range of stakeholders including government, the World Health Organization, western medical practitioners and private health insurance companies. CAM practices may offer the potential for substantial public health gains and challenge the way that we view human beings, health and illness. Several issues are emerging that need to be addressed. They include safety and quality control of complementary medicines, issues related to integration of CAM with western medicine and standards of practice. The evidence base of forms of CAM varies considerably: some forms of CAM have developed systematically over thousands of years while others have developed much more recently and have a less convincing evidence base. Many forms of CAM are now being investigated using scientific research methodology and there are increasing examples of good research. Certain forms of CAM, including Chinese medicine in which ophthalmology is an area of clinical speciality, view the eye in a unique way. It is important to keep an open mind about CAM and give proper scrutiny to new evidence as it emerges. [source]