Stephen G. Wieting

Simulated Research Experiences for Use in Teaching Research Methods

experiences for use in teaching research methods to undergraduates. The experiences are intended to complement traditional instructional strategies which use lecture and discussion formats and reading materials. The fit of the simulations with a suggestive theory of education is described. Results from an evaluation of one implementation of the simulations suggest that they provide: (a) increments in research reasoning and problem solving skill; (b) some enhancement of positive attitudes toward the subject matter; and (c) no significant increment in learning of traditional subject matter of research methods.

TWILIGHT OF THE HERO IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE

Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France in 1903, and Lance Armstrong won in 1999, providing 86 races for analysis (after cancellations for war). Participation, fan interest, and success have been heavily French and by continent almost exclusively European. The bounded population of occurrences and singular geographical locus combine for a useful analytical frame for investigating how particular sports are affected by national cultures. The second race and the 1998 Tour yielded visible scandals, and there have been many other races where riders were censored even as winners were celebrated. A provocative element within the established bases for opprobrium and honor is that there are two (rather than one) normative frameworks: one of the racers themselves and the other of the surrounding society, originally French and now increasingly global. The research intends to illustrate the frequent tension and strong discontinuity between the increasingly complex surrounding normative order and the more contained normative order of the Tour participants. Culture use sports to celebrate moral values by valorizing competitors as heroes. However, the 1998 Tour and the lingering crisis of trust in the integrity of the event in 1999 create the prospect of systemically induced rule infractions and the demise of the sport hero.

Graphical Humor and the Measurement of Attitudinal Ambivalence

The use of graphical humor as an indicator of social and psychological attitudes is reviewed. A novel method for assessing attitudes using cartoons as projective devices is introduced. Analysis of responses from 275 students who were given both discursive, sentence items and graphical humor, projective items, demonstrates the potential of cartoons as stimuli for attitude measurement. The results suggest that graphical humor might be developed successfully in constructing alternative methods for measuring attitudinal ambivalence. Greater attention should be given to the ambivalence dimensions of social attitudes because ambivalence is a common and expected outcome of the inconsistencies and contradictions inherent in social life.

Moments of impact: injury, racialized memory, and reconciliation in college football

If this had not happened, the FA would have incurred a small loss. Tennent and Gillett draw attention to a number of areas where the project could have been better managed. By the time that the FA realized that a prior agreement between FIFA and the European Broadcasting Union prohibited pitch-side advertising, it was too late to do anything about it and a potential revenue stream was blocked. A better deal could have been negotiated with the company owning Wembley Stadium where all England’s matches were played. Even though expectations of income from football-related merchandising were much lower in 1966 than they would be now, it seems incredible that royalties accruing to the FA amounted to just £16,285, the ubiquitous ‘World Cup Willie’ notwithstanding. Bootleg sales may have been a factor but there was little evidence of entrepreneurial drive. As the authors conclude, ‘despite the obvious global reach of the tournament little effort appears to have been made to license products outside of the UK; merchandising was a theme that future World Cups would develop much further’ (148). There were other disappointments which reflected badly on the FA, even though they were not entirely to blame. Having sold the World Cup to provincial cities by promising a boost to tourism, the number of visitors who actually stayed overnight rather than commuting from London was a let-down. Sunderland rolled out the red carpet, but only 400 Italians, 200 Russians, 50 Chileans and 12 North Koreans took advantage of local hospitality. In financial terms FIFA, by exploiting its monopoly position as the proprietor of football’s world championship, was the winner in 1966, the estimated £309,000 it received being sufficient to fund its activities for the next four years. In their conclusion, Tennent and Gillett apply the concept of ‘swarm creativity’ in seeking to devise an encompassing overview of the case study in project management history that the 1966 tournament provides. Thus, they argue, various parties came together to deliver the project, collaborating with each other ‘so that each could gain in ways unachievable on their own’ (166). The analogy with the natural world is compelling. If the 1966 World Cup was a busy hive of activity, FIFA was the Queen Bee who ultimately benefited most from the individual and collective efforts of the surrounding swarm. One senses that this is the academic territory where the authors are most comfortable. As they concede, the idea that a sporting mega-event should leave a legacy was not on the agenda in 1966. What we might regard as the tournament’s cultural legacy was never part of the original project. Arguably, it was unmanaged and essentially unmanageable and the attempt to integrate it into the conceptual framework developed here seems rather forced. That said, Tennent and Gillett have opened up a new perspective on an event with which we were in danger of becoming over-familiar. Historians and sociologists who have fed the obsession with ‘66’ should be grateful.