An inquiry into the barriers to participation within the fitness industry for people living with mobility challenges

This qualitative study was designed to inquire about the barriers to participation within the fitness industry for people living with mobility challenges. i\n examination of the insights, stolies~ and experiences with barriers through interviews gi ven by 4 people living with mobility challenges (PMC) formed the core of the research. An analysis of the interviews from the 4 PMC informants was performed at t\\/O levels. First, a content analysis served to identify general and specific categories related to barrier issues within various fitness environments. Secondly, in-depth thematic analyses of the entries related to the insights and stories from the 4 informants which emerged from the content analysis of the data gave rise to fi ve thematic statements. From the thematic statements a fitness industry awareness protocol was created in the fonn of a statement response questionnaire. The protocol, which was given to 4 fitness assessors/trainers, \vas used to provide a snapshot of the fitness industry's readiness to work vvith disability. Throughout the process, the four PNIC informants formed a collaborati vely involved group of coresearchers, adding their voices to the narrative of the fitness-barrier experience. The result of the study suggests that barriers to participation within the fitness industry for PMC exist in various forms and levels of severity. The results also suggest that the fitness industry needs to better prepare their people and environment for working with people with physical disabilities, such as PMC, and provide a more open and positi ve environment for participation. Within the context of any fitness-related environment, recognizing that barriers to participation do exist, and acknowledging and accepting people with disabilities for who they are as indi viduals, will serve to develop a relationship where fitness practitioners and people with disabilities can work towards creating an inviting, inclusive, accessible, and barrier-free fitness environment for all.

Project Business: a quasi-experimental study of co- operative interaction between schools and industry

This project is a quasi-experimental study involving eight classrooms in two senior elementary schools in St. Catharines, Ontario which received a Project Business Program and were pre- and post-tested to determine the growth of knowledge acquisition in the area of business concepts. Four classrooms received a Project Business treatment while four classrooms acted as a control. The Project Business Program is sponsored by Junior Achievement of Canada; it occurred during a twelveweek period, February to May 1981, and is run by business consultants who, through Action, Dialogue and Career Exploration, teach children about economics and business related topics. The consultants were matched with teacher co-ordinators in whose classrooms they taught and with whom they discussed field trips, students, lesson planning, etc. The statistical analysis of pre- and post-test means revealed a significant statistical growth in the area of knowledge acquisition on the part of those students who received the Project Business Program. This confirms that Project Business makes a difference. A search of the literature appears to advocate economic programs like Project Business, whfch are broadly based, relevant and processoriented. This program recommends itself as a model for other areas of co-operative curricular interactions and as a bridge to future trends and as a result several fruitful areas of research are suggested.

A case study of the Ottawa Valley whitewater rafting industry : standards and risks

This qualitative case study identifies and discusses the standards and risk management practices of the Ottawa Valley whitewater rafting industry and the impacts of the government enforced Special-purpose Vessels Regulations are discussed. Data collection occurred using a single case study design, which included interviews and document analysis. This study found that internal, industry, and actual standards are influenced through a variety of sources. These standards were found to affect the risk management practices of commercial whitewater rafting providers. In general, these standards promoted a high level of risk management within the Ottawa Valley rafting industry. The Special-purpose Vessels Regulations were found to be non-influential in raising the risk management standards of the Ottawa Valley whitewater rafting industry.

Examining and describing professional development and continuing education in the personal training and fitness industry : sites and issues of disconnect

The following phenomenologically oriented study examines and describes the relevance and effectiveness of professional development and continuing education programs for real-world situations of personal trainers. The participants were personal trainers, facility managers, and persons involved in the accreditation process. Data collection took place in 3 phases. The first phase consisted of the participants completing the PUMP Questionnaire, followed by focus groups with personal trainers and interviews with managers. The study's 3 data sets required reduction via a content analysis by question, content analysis by existential categories, and further thematic analysis using the lived relation existential dimension. The discussion contains the salient sites and issues of disconnect between clients, personal trainers, and facility managers and how they might affect the personal training experience. The intergenerational disconnect emphasized between Boomers as clients and Millennials as personal trainers requires further exploration and dialogue and underscores the need for different approaches to content and delivery of professional development and continuing education experiences for personal trainers and managers of fitness facilities.

The new blockbuster film sequel : changing cultural and economic conditions within the film industry

Film sequels are a pervasive part of film consumption practices and have become an important part of the decision making process for Hollywood studios and producers. This thesis indicates that sequels are not homogenous groups of films, as they are often considered, but offer a variety of story construction and utilize a variety of production methods. Three types of blockbuster sequel sets are identified and discussed in this thesis. The Traditional Blockbuster Sequel Set, as exemplified by Back to the Future (1985, 1989, 1990) films, is the most conventional type of sequel set and capitalizes on the winning formula of the first film in the franchise. The MultiMedia Sequel Set, such as The Matrix (1999,2003) trilogy, allows the user/viewer to experience and consume the story as well as the world of the film through many different media. The Lord a/ the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003) set of films is an illustration of The Saga Sequel Set where plot lines are continuous over the entire franchise thus allowing the viewer to see the entire set as a unified work. The thesis also demonstrates how the blockbuster sequel sets, such as the Pirates a/ the Caribbean (2003, 2006, 2007) franchise, restructure the production process of the Hollywood film industry.

History and Theorizing: The Case of Winemaking in the Ontario Wine Industry

Despite the fact that theorization has been established as an important social mechanism in a variety of contexts, little research has explicated how this process works. I argue that theorization entails strategic constructions of history, or rhetorical history, in order to persuade audiences of legitimacy. I examine the role that history plays in actors’ theorizations of the Ontario wine industry as world class. By conducting a rhetorical analysis of the newsletters and websites of Ontario wineries, I find that various themes of history are routinely employed to re-theorize the industry as one that produces world class wines. In general, the findings suggest that the narratives of Ontario wineries tap into global repertoires of fine wine to portray the continuity of current practices with those of Old World winemaking. In addition, wineries sometimes tap into local histories to convey a sense of uniqueness, but they also obscure the history of poor winemaking in the region.

Burgoyne Centre for Entrepreneurship fonds

An Entrepreneurship Centre was established at Brock University in 1988 as a joint venture between the University and the City of St. Catharines. In Januaray 1989, a generous donation was made to the Centre by the Burgoyne family, proprietors of the St. Catharines Standard. The Centre subsequently became known as the Burgoyne Centre for Entrepreneurship (BCE). The Centre’s mission was to “promote excellence in research, education and training for entrepreneur development and new venture creation”. To achieve this objective, it was necessary for the BCE to become a community focal point and serve as a link between academic, private and government sectors in the Niagara Region that were involved in entrepreneurial activities. This was primarily done with the provision of educational programs offered through cooperating organizations. Funding for the Centre came from multiple sources, including fees for services and contract research, endowments and grants, as well as Brock University. An Advisory Council, composed of local prominent businesspeople and chaired by Henry Burgoyne, assisted the Centre with promotion and fundraising. The partnerships established by the BCE with other community bodies such as the Lincoln County Board of Education and the Niagara Region Development Corporation resulted in important collaborative community initiatives such as the Niagara Enterprise Agency and the New Enterprise Store. Such collaborations increased the Centre’s profile without duplicating or competing with services offered by existing agencies. The BCE was also instrumental in establishing an entrepreneurship curriculum for secondary school students, and collaborated with the Faculty of Education at Brock University to offer an Ontario Secondary School Entrepreneurship Specialist Teaching Certificate Program to teachers. As the BCE became more prolific in the community, and the iniatives it fostered in the community began to thrive, the Centre’s leadership required the authority to make instantaneous decisions. This was at odds with the hierarchical structure of the University, to which the BCE was accountable. Ultimately, this situation led to the demise of the Centre. The university focused its efforts on academic research and undergraduate courses, while the community partners took responsibility for any joint programs.

Precursors to successful youth-adult partnerships: The role of adult warmth and expertise

Youth-Adult Partnerships (Y-APs) have been found to foster youth engagement and positive youth development. However, existing research tends to confound the characteristics of Y-APs with their general outcomes and the existing methods of evaluating Y-APs tend to be based on correlational methodologies. I sought to create a measure of Y-AP success that did not confound the characteristics of a successful Y-AP with outcomes. Using the existing literature as a guide, three components were selected for inclusion in the Y-AP success measure: 1) perceptions of productivity; 2) positive affect; and 3) having one's contributions welcomed and considered. Using this new measure, I tested a model to assess how adult warmth and expertise interacted with task difficulty to influence three components of Y-AP success. Participants included 402 university students (M = 19.27, SD = 1.28, 89.1 % female) from Brock University and Cape Breton University. Video clips of an adult, depicting all possible combinations of warmth and expertise were created for this study, as well as a pair of hypothetical tasks designed to elicit differential degrees of perceived difficulty. Participants were exposed to one video of a hypothetical adult and two hypothetical tasks and responded to the Y-AP success measures twice, for each ofthe tasks. Results from mixed-model ANOVAs revealed that the adult and task characteristics were not consistently related to all components of Y-AP success. However, several significant interactions suggested that youth perceptions of task difficulty and their impressions of adult partners influenced the extent to which they expected a Y-AP to be successful. The results are discussed in the context of how they support or conflict with the existing literature and serve as a first step in the inference of causality within the study of Y-APs.

Assessing the adaptive capacity of the Ontario wine industry to climate change: A case study

The global wine industry is experiencing the impacts of climate change. Canada’s major wine sector, the Ontario Wine Industry (OWI) is no exception to this trend. Warmer winter and summer temperatures are affecting wine production. The industry needs to adapt to these challenges, but their capacity for this is unclear. To date, only a limited number of studies exist regarding the adaptive capacity of the wine industry to climate change. Accordingly, this study developed an adaptive capacity assessment framework for the wine industry. The OWI became the case study for the implementation of the assessment framework. Data was obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to grape growers, winemakers and supporting institutions in Ontario. The results indicated the OWI has adaptive capacity capabilities in financial, institutional, political, technological, perceptions, knowledge, diversity and social capital resources areas. Based on the OWI case study, this framework provides an effective means of assessing regional wine industries’ capacity to adapt to climate change.

The Myth of Labour-Management Partnerships and the Risk to Labour: A CAMI Automotive Study

The purpose of this study is to examine and explore the level of risk that CAMI workers confront under their existing labour-management partnership arrangement. Risk is explored using two distinct categories, distributive and political. Distributive risk is expressed as tangibly substantive, reflecting the real terms and conditions of employment, and the changing social relations of production on the floor. The second type of risk is political and is concerned with the effects that labour-management partnerships have on the displacement of unions as legitimate agents of/for workers within the workplace. Data was collected using three methods; content analysis, cross-sectional survey and focus group interviews. The study revealed that CAMI workers are exposed to both distributive and political risk under their current LMP arrangement.

The Cool Climate, Oenology and Viticulture Institute at Brock University

A program from Brock University which includes an overview of the plan for CCOVI, a list of the courses for each year of the undergraduate program, notes from the advisory committee, budget information, industry funding requests, and a five year financial chart for spending. The program includes photographs of individuals involved with CCOVI, including two photographs featuring Donald Ziraldo. A direct quote from Mr. Ziraldo is also included: "Education and research will build on each other when they come together in the Institute. The 'cool climate' focus will be unique and attract people world-wide".

Fur Council of Canada records

The Fur Council of Canada is an association that represents people working in all sectors of the Canadian fur trade, including trappers, processors, designers, manufacturers and retail furriers. The association aims to “promote, defend and enhance the professional, economic, social and moral interests of our members”. The Council supports fair trading practices for the benefit of producers and artisans; the responsible use of renewable resources; partnerships between the fur trade and other sectors of the Canadian and international fashion industry; and innovative use of fur by young designers.