text: DSpace Community: http://hdl.handle.net/2381/322 2015-03-30T02:21:47Z 2015-03-30T02:21:47Z Being Nothing: Paradoxy and Looking for Headless Cameron, Angus W. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31934 2015-03-28T03:00:16Z 2015-03-27T16:17:55Z Title: Being Nothing: Paradoxy and Looking for Headless Authors: Cameron, Angus W. Editors: Zielińska, J.; Maroto, D. Description: The file associated with this record is embargoed while permission to archive is sought from the publisher. The final published version may be available through the links above. 2015-03-27T16:17:55Z Towards a Method for studying Affect in (micro)Politics: The Campfire Chats Project and the Occupy Movement Feigenbaum, Anna McCurdy, Patrick Frenzel, Fabian http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31933 2015-03-28T03:00:10Z 2015-03-27T15:59:23Z Title: Towards a Method for studying Affect in (micro)Politics: The Campfire Chats Project and the Occupy Movement Authors: Feigenbaum, Anna; McCurdy, Patrick; Frenzel, Fabian Abstract: This paper begins with a brief review of existing social movement scholarship on the study of affect that can be applied to protest camps. We then introduce our Campfire Chats methodology and describe its operationalisation through pilot runs in Ottawa and Montreal. Following from this, we move into a discussion of findings arising from this first set of Campfire Chats to explore the roles affect plays in specific acts of 'building together' at Occupy protest camps. We conclude by looking at the possibilities for expanding this methodological framework more broadly to study protest camps and related, place-based political groups, organisations and movements [Taken from Introduction] 2015-03-27T15:59:23Z Protest camps: An emerging field of social movement research Frenzel, Fabian Feigenbaum, Anna Mccurdy, Patrick http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31931 2015-03-28T03:00:17Z 2015-03-27T15:19:37Z Title: Protest camps: An emerging field of social movement research Authors: Frenzel, Fabian; Feigenbaum, Anna; Mccurdy, Patrick Abstract: Recently protest camps have emerged around the world as a highly visible form of protest. Part and parcel of new social movement activism for over 40 years, they are important sites and catalysts for identity creation, expression, political contention and incubators for social change. While research has punctually addressed individual camps, there is lack of comparative and comprehensive research that links historic and contemporary protest camps as a unique area of interdisciplinary study. Research on the phenomenon to date has remained punctual and case based. This paper proposes to study protest camps as a distinct new field of research in social movement studies. Existing literature is critically reviewed and framed in three thematic clusters of spatiality, affect and autonomy. On the basis of this review the paper develops a research approach based on the analysis of infrastructures used to make protest camps. We contest that an infrastructural analysis highlights protest camps as a unique organizational form and transcends the limits of case-based research while respecting the varying contexts and trajectories of protest camps. Description: This is the accepted version of the following article: Frenzel, F., Feigenbaum, A., and McCurdy, P., Protest camps: an emerging field of social movement research,The Sociological Review, Volume 62, Issue 3, pages 457–474, August 2014 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-954X.12111/abstract;jsessionid=2B2BBCDE65D32EC81BAB3433117209DA.f02t03. 2015-03-27T15:19:37Z Value Struggles in the Creative City: A 'People's Republic of Stokes Croft'? Frenzel, Fabian Beverungen, Armin http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31928 2015-03-28T03:00:23Z 2015-03-27T12:14:45Z Title: Value Struggles in the Creative City: A 'People's Republic of Stokes Croft'? Authors: Frenzel, Fabian; Beverungen, Armin Abstract: In this paper we explore the case of Stokes Croft, Bristol, UK, as a neighbourhood in a city which has appropriated the discourse of the creative industries from the bottom up in order to foster its regeneration against capital's art of rent. We show how Stokes Croft's self-branding as a cultural quarter has led to struggles over the creative and cultural commons thus produced, which we conceptualise as value struggles where localised value practices clash with capital's imposition of value. Our case study including two vignettes points both to the productivity of such value struggles in producing new value practices understood as commoning, as well as the limits of reproducing a common life in the face of existing financial and property regimes. Stokes Croft therefore serves as a case in point of the tragedy of the urban commons and points to potential ways of overcoming it. 2015-03-27T12:14:45Z Slum Tourism and Urban Regeneration: Touring Inner Johannesburg Frenzel, Fabian http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31927 2015-03-28T03:00:17Z 2015-03-27T12:00:35Z Title: Slum Tourism and Urban Regeneration: Touring Inner Johannesburg Authors: Frenzel, Fabian Abstract: Much attention has been paid to township tourism in South Africa, a practice of tourism that emerged in Apartheid South Africa with different organised tours catering for governmental officials, faith-based groups and anti-apartheid activists. In democratic South Africa, township tourism has developed into a mainstream tourism activity, and operators now offer township tours, township stays and other tourist activities in townships across rural and urban South Africa. Township tourism has also been one central empirical pillar of the relatively new research area of slum tourism, addressing tourism in slums and areas of relative urban poverty across the globe. Based on recent preliminary empirical research in Johannesburg, this paper shows that slum tourism can now also be observed in areas other than townships in South Africa, including perceived 'no-go areas' in inner-city Johannesburg. The expansion of slum tourism beyond townships in Johannesburg points to an increasingly complex picture of urban poverty in South Africa. It also allows reflections on the role of slum tourism in poverty alleviation and urban regeneration, responding to and addressing 'territorial stigma' and other related symbolic aspects of poverty. Analysing the motivations and perspectives of tour operators of some of these new tours, the paper finds that the new slum tourism in South Africa is pursued in order to serve as an urban development and regeneration tool from below. It responds to an absence of action or perceived failure to respond to poverty by urban policy, and its potential lies in particular in addressing invisibility, overcoming territorial stigma and empowerment of the urban poor. Description: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9236-2 2015-03-27T12:00:35Z It's the People, Stupid! - Formal Models of Social Interaction in Agile Software Development Teams Corbett, A. Holcombe, M. Wood, Stephen J. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31895 2015-03-19T03:00:16Z 2015-03-18T17:12:08Z Title: It's the People, Stupid! - Formal Models of Social Interaction in Agile Software Development Teams Authors: Corbett, A.; Holcombe, M.; Wood, Stephen J. Abstract: The success of modern ICT systems is not just about the technology. The human and social dimensions are also critical – especially in terms of understanding the context and environment within which the systems operate. This is true also about the environment in which the system is developed. Although much effort has been expended on building and analysing formal models of software systems, little has been done in terms of how software development teams work and how this might be studied in a formally-based way. This research looks at one of the fundamental aspects involved in collaborative teams working in projects – the transactive memory system (TMS). This, well established, concept in psychology is an approach to how the different people in a team regard the capabilities (knowledge and abilities) of each other as it changes over time. These capabilities are the basis for decision making in software projects about who does what, and when. Using a formal model of the TMS of a team, based on agent-based modelling, simulations were made of how teams might operate under different circumstances. The initial model was validated against published data. The model was then investigated in terms of how different types of project management affected the TMS of a team and on the team's performance. In particular, a comparison was made between a traditional, plan-based approach against an agile method using pair programming. The result demonstrates strong benefits in terms of performance and learning with the agile approach. 2015-03-18T17:12:08Z Ifjúság és Elias: A Fiatal Munkás projekt O'Connor, Henrietta Goodwin, John Plugor, Reka http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31871 2015-03-17T02:02:12Z 2015-03-16T11:35:11Z Title: Ifjúság és Elias: A Fiatal Munkás projekt Authors: O'Connor, Henrietta; Goodwin, John; Plugor, Reka Editors: Goodwin, John; Hadas, M.; Hughes, Jason R. A.; Plugor, Reka Abstract: Ebben a tanulmányban röviden bemutatjuk Eliasnak egy "elveszett" kutatási projektjét, amelyet az 1960-as évek elején végzett Leicesterben a fi atal munkások munkahelyi szerepekhez és felnőtt helyzetekhez való alkalmazkodásáról: A Fiatal Munkások Alkalmazkodása a Munkahelyi Helyzetekhez és a Felnőtt Szerepekhez. Az elveszettnek hitt interjús ütemtervek felfedezése levéltári kutatással kiegészítve lehetőséget nyújtott arra, hogy összerakjuk a projekt hátterét és Elias ifj úságról alkotott elméleti megközelítését. Elméleti modelljének azt a részét vázoljuk fel, amely a sokk hipotézisre és a gyermekeknek a felnőtt világtól való elválasztására koncentrál. Description: Embargoed pending copyright clearance from publisher 2015-03-16T11:35:11Z Bevezetés: Norbert Elias és a folyamatszociológia Goodwin, J. Hadas, M. Hughes, Jason R. A. Plugor, Reka http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31870 2015-03-17T02:02:12Z 2015-03-16T11:23:40Z Title: Bevezetés: Norbert Elias és a folyamatszociológia Authors: Goodwin, J.; Hadas, M.; Hughes, Jason R. A.; Plugor, Reka Editors: Goodwin, J.; Hadas, M.; Hughes, Jason R. A.; Plugor, Reka Abstract: 2014 júniusában fontos konferencia került megrendezésre a Leicesteri Egyetemen Elias munkásságáról, amelynek apropóját az életművet bemutató összkiadás (Th e Collected Works of Norbert Elias) kötetsorozatának befejezése szolgáltatta. Az összkiadást a University College Dublin Press adta ki Stephen Mennell szerkesztésében [az ezzel kapcsolatos információkat lásd a hasznos oldalak között a kötet végén]. A konferencia főszervezői John Goodwin és Jason Hughes voltak, a szervezésben aktívan részt vett Plugor Réka, és – a mintegy kéttucatnyi országból érkezett konferencia-résztvevő között – jelen volt Hadas Miklós is. Itt merült föl annak ötlete, hogy elkészüljön ez a különszám. Description: Embargoed pending rights clearance with publisher. 2015-03-16T11:23:40Z Developing a Relational View of the Organizing Role of Objects: A study of the innovation process in computer games Scarbrough, Harry Panourgias, Nikiforos S. Nandhakumar, Joe http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31866 2015-03-14T02:02:44Z 2015-03-13T15:44:50Z Title: Developing a Relational View of the Organizing Role of Objects: A study of the innovation process in computer games Authors: Scarbrough, Harry; Panourgias, Nikiforos S.; Nandhakumar, Joe Abstract: Innovation processes create distinctive challenges for coordination. Objects are seen as supporting coordination in such settings by enabling the emergent action needed to deal with a dynamic and uncertain process. Thus, previous work has highlighted the role of different types of objects in coordinating the collaborative tasks undertaken by expert groups, either by motivating the creation of new knowledge or through the translation of understanding. Through an empirical study of innovation processes in the computer games sector, our paper adds to this previous work by finding that the relations between objects, and not the objects alone, help to orchestrate multiple collaborative tasks towards a final outcome within temporal and resource constraints. The relational view which emerges from this study shows how such a 'system of objects' is able to stabilize coordination of the process while preserving the emergence and autonomy of games developer practices needed to achieve innovation. 2015-03-13T15:44:50Z Applying Standardised, Interoperable and Innovative Automated Solutions: Corporate Treasuries and the Development of Globally Connected Financial Services Buschman, Tom Panourgias, Nikiforos S. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31865 2015-03-14T02:02:43Z 2015-03-13T15:37:46Z Title: Applying Standardised, Interoperable and Innovative Automated Solutions: Corporate Treasuries and the Development of Globally Connected Financial Services Authors: Buschman, Tom; Panourgias, Nikiforos S. Abstract: Large multinational corporations operate in a wide variety of countries with a range of risks associated with their size, infrastructures and operational practices. Increasingly ubiquitous and powerful ICTs have enabled the centralisation of many support functions from local operations to the corporate headquarters. This, in turn, has led to a concentration of contracting for financial services with global and strong regional banks, primarily in Western countries by corporate treasuries. In this context, the development and adoption of standardisation in informational linkages can become a crucial component in remote and centralised decision-making by providing a mechanism for re-engaging financial service providers in emerging markets in the execution of financial services with limited intermediation from global or regional banks. Prime broker services, for example, combined with an efficient processing of transactions, can facilitate enhanced international market access for local financial institutions by providing the necessary credit intermediation between multinational corporations and local financial institutions. This paper seeks to show how the corporate treasury of a large multinational corporation, through the use of ICT-enabled transactional process innovations, is developing effective and efficient mechanisms for the management of the credit, concentration, and operational risks involved in contracting with local financial services firms. It also demonstrates how interoperability based on ICT standards is an essential component of such an arrangement if the risks of operating in a volatile and heterogeneous global financial environment are to be mitigated rather than just displaced or obscured. The paper also illustrates how over the past five years, significant progress has been made in constructing the infrastructures and establishing the services that will be needed to enable financial services institutions in emerging markets to benefit from enhanced access to global markets. It further shows how the pro-active engagement of these local financial services firms and their regulators with such arrangements is an indispensable part to any strategy to reversed, or at least mitigate, the current trend of financial services provisions migrating from local institutions to regional and global banks. Such a pro-active engagement should involve a focused seeking-out of new ways to deliver financing, liquidity management, FX and related services to international multinational firms. This, as will be show, entails a high degree of standardisation, automated supporting of transaction services, active contracting with prime broker services and engagement with regulators in order to ensure automation of reporting requirements and rapid authorisation processes for cross-border transactions. 2015-03-13T15:37:46Z Entanglements of creative agency and digital technology: A sociomaterial study of computer game development Panourgias, Nikiforos S. Nandhakumar, Joe Scarbrough, Harry http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31864 2015-03-14T02:02:34Z 2015-03-13T15:16:46Z Title: Entanglements of creative agency and digital technology: A sociomaterial study of computer game development Authors: Panourgias, Nikiforos S.; Nandhakumar, Joe; Scarbrough, Harry Abstract: Digital technology, with its distinctive characteristics that result from the fundamental process of digitalization that underpins it, is seen as fundamentally altering processes of creativity. However, we currently have limited understanding of creativity in relation to the development of digital technology. Computer game development, with its combination of esthetic, affective and cultural use features and highly sophisticated digital technologies, is a valuable setting for investigating these issues. In this paper, we explore how computer games are shaped through the interplay between the creative intentions of developers and the digital technologies involved in their production and playing. Drawing on in-depth studies conducted at three leading computer game development studios and a leading producer of the software system used in game development, this paper shows how the game developers' creative ideas for imagined novel game-playing experiences relate to a) the development of relevant digital technologies, and b) the emergence of new game development practices. The article goes on to propose a view of creativity as an on-going flow that, following an initial 'creative impulse', ripples through the sociomaterial entanglements of a particular setting, reconfiguring them in the process and spreading out in time and space in often unexpected ways. 2015-03-13T15:16:46Z From Knowing It to "Getting It": Envisioning Practices in Computer Games Development Nandhakumar, Joe Panourgias, Nikiforos S. Scarbrough, Harry http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31861 2015-03-13T02:02:06Z 2015-03-12T15:10:13Z Title: From Knowing It to "Getting It": Envisioning Practices in Computer Games Development Authors: Nandhakumar, Joe; Panourgias, Nikiforos S.; Scarbrough, Harry Abstract: The development of information systems and software applications increasingly needs to deliver culturally rich and affective experiences for user groups. In this paper, we explore how the collaborative practices across different expert groups can enable this experiential dimension of use to be integrated into the development of a software product. In an empirical study of computer games development—an arena in which the novelty and richness of the user experience is central to competitive success—we identify the challenges of conceptualizing and realizing a desired user experience when it cannot be readily specified in an initial design template, nor represented within the expertise of existing groups. Our study develops a theoretical framework to address these challenges. Through this framework, we are able to show how achieving a desired user experience requires developer groups to not only work across the boundaries that arise from specialized expertise, but also across wider fields centred on cultural production and software development, respectively. We find that their ability to do this is supported by distinctive "envisioning practices" that sustain an emerging shared "vision" for each game. The key research contributions that we then make are (a) grounding envisioning practices as a means of theorizing the collaborative practices centred on conceptualizing the user experience; (b) identifying how these practices are interwoven with the "producing practices" of software development, thus enabling collaboration to span expert groups and disparate fields; and (c) theorizing the role of vision as an emerging conceptual boundary object in these practices. 2015-03-12T15:10:13Z Local government, local legislation: municipal initiative in parliament from 1858 to 1872 Morris, Roger John Bowring http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31847 2015-03-11T02:02:27Z 2015-03-10T16:38:31Z Title: Local government, local legislation: municipal initiative in parliament from 1858 to 1872 Authors: Morris, Roger John Bowring Abstract: The years between the first Local Government Act 1858 and the establishment of the Local Government Board in 1872 saw great changes in England and Wales: growing populations brought growing problems in crowded living conditions, but there were also increasing wealth, manufacturing and intellectual resources in a context of major international influence and self-confidence, and rapidly expanding countrywide infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the municipal authorities of this period had few general law powers to regulate local conditions, or to provide services. While Parliament was still – at least at the outset – broadly antagonistic to centralisation and the enactment of common standards, it was willing to grant private Acts – special local Act powers – to those places that sought, and could justify and pay for, the means to improve and invest in their localities. This thesis identifies and analyses for the first time the 335 local Parliamentary Bills, and from them the 278 resulting Acts, that municipalities promoted in the years 1858 to 1872 inclusive. Three things stand out from the huge mass of local statute-book material which these 278 Acts comprise – themselves only a small fraction of the total of private Acts passed in the era of railway mania, and of much else besides. The first is that, far from being an unco-ordinated mass of inconsistent, quixotic provisions as private Acts are sometimes thought or assumed to be, these Acts have a substantial degree of cohesion as a body of material. Secondly, the towns and cities of northern England secured more than half of them. Thirdly, the costs of promotions (and the vested interests involved in them) represented a huge and often wasteful outlay that a more pragmatic and forwardlooking Parliamentary attitude could have greatly reduced. These and other matters are examined in detail across the whole spectrum of local legislation for the first time. There are no acknowledgements requiring to be listed. 2015-03-10T16:38:31Z Transitions and Translations. The story of carrying out higher education field research in three languages in two countries. Plugor, Réka http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31833 2015-03-11T02:45:06Z 2015-03-10T11:55:33Z Title: Transitions and Translations. The story of carrying out higher education field research in three languages in two countries. Authors: Plugor, Réka Abstract: This paper is my "story" about the dilemmas I encountered and choices I made whilst carrying out narrative research in higher education in England and Romania, and the role languages played in the study. The research is rooted in my own life events, characterised by transitions and translations within/between languages and cultures, in much the same way as in the lives of the students I researched. 2015-03-10T11:55:33Z Bank efficiency and lending propensity: evidence from commercial banks in Indonesia Anwar, Mokhamad http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31807 2015-03-07T02:02:38Z 2015-03-06T16:07:55Z Title: Bank efficiency and lending propensity: evidence from commercial banks in Indonesia Authors: Anwar, Mokhamad Abstract: Indonesia is one of the emerging economies, which has been adopting a bank-based system in the economy. It is very important to investigate the Indonesian commercial banks' performance given their substantial contribution to the development of the country. This thesis aims to measure and analyse the performance of Indonesian banks in terms of their efficiency and lending propensity over the period 2002-2010. The period testifies the recovery phase after the turmoil caused by the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98 as well as the revocation of the regulation of minimum threshold on commercial banks' small business loans (finance) in 2001. This thesis employs frontier methods in estimating bank efficiency where both parametric and non-parametric linear programming approaches are used, namely Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The former is used to estimate the technical efficiencies and the latter is used to estimate the cost efficiencies of Indonesian banks over the period 2002-2010. This thesis also examines the lending propensity of Indonesian banks reflected by the tendency of their total loans and small business loans over the study period. The findings suggest that the technical efficiency of Indonesian banks tends to decrease whilst the opposite tendency is associated with their cost efficiency during the period. The downward trend of their technical efficiency stems from the fact that the period was the post-crisis of 1997-98 where banks were still unsteady to maintain high level of outputs over inputs. While the upward trend of their cost efficiency reflects their intensity to operate more economically in employing their resources during the period. The latter result testifies that Indonesian bank management took lessons learnt from the failure of their previous operations during the crisis. In addition, their total lending propensity is prone to increase over time during the period albeit they have not reached yet the optimum proportions. In contrast, their lending propensity to small businesses witnessed a diminishing pattern over the period. A regulatory change in 2001 seems to discourage Indonesian banks to lend to small businesses. Loans to deposits or lending proportions emerges to be the most important factor enhancing bank efficiency, whilst bank size and bank deposits are the foremost factors influencing the lending propensity of Indonesian banks over the study period. 2015-03-06T16:07:55Z Spaces of possibilities : Workers' self-management in Greece Kokkinidis, George http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31746 2015-02-28T02:02:34Z 2015-02-27T13:36:52Z Title: Spaces of possibilities : Workers' self-management in Greece Authors: Kokkinidis, George Abstract: This article focuses on the process of workers' self-management brought about by a wave of experimentation with alternative organizational forms taking place in Greece since the beginning of the current financial crisis. The discussion is supported by empirical evidence from qualitative fieldwork conducted in three workers' collectives. Drawing on the findings of my research, I argue that the members' values and everyday practices give shape and meaning to their aspirations of creating a space that not only critiques the existing forms of work but also puts into practice other possibilities that give emphasis to reciprocal relationships and prioritize collective working, egalitarianism and autonomy. I also argue that their established consensus-based decision-making models, far from representing a state of agreement, allows—within collectively determined boundaries—the creation of a space where diverse opinions flourish rather than being suppressed.This encourages the development of more inclusive models of participation and the construction of rule-creating rather than rule-following individuals. 2015-02-27T13:36:52Z Temporary Employment, Job Satisfaction and Subjective Well-being Dawson, C. Veliziotis, M. Hopkins, Benjamin http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31744 2015-02-26T02:02:08Z 2015-02-25T10:44:08Z Title: Temporary Employment, Job Satisfaction and Subjective Well-being Authors: Dawson, C.; Veliziotis, M.; Hopkins, Benjamin Editors: Magnusson, L. Abstract: This paper is concerned with whether employees on temporary contracts in Britain report lower well-being than those on permanent contracts, and whether this relationship is mediated by differences in dimensions of job satisfaction. Previous research has identified a well-being gap between permanent and temporary employees but has not addressed what individual and contract specific characteristics contribute to this observed difference. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, this paper finds that a large proportion of the difference in self-reported well-being between permanent and temporary employees appears to be explained by differences in satisfaction with job security. Other dimensions of job satisfaction are found to be less important. In fact, after controlling for differences in satisfaction with security, our results suggest that temporary employees report higher psychological well-being and life satisfaction. This leads us to believe that an employment contract characterised by a definite duration lowers individual well-being principally through heightened job insecurity. 2015-02-25T10:44:08Z Improving design with open innovation: A flexible management technology. Christiansen, John K. Gasparin, Marta Claus J., Varnes http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31736 2015-02-25T02:02:14Z 2015-02-24T11:27:35Z Title: Improving design with open innovation: A flexible management technology. Authors: Christiansen, John K.; Gasparin, Marta; Claus J., Varnes Abstract: Is it necessary or even possible to apply the management technology of open innovation to all projects in the same way? An analysis of the practices used in different product development projects in the same European medical company shows that commercially successful projects did apply many of the best practices for open innovation. However, projects were not equally successful. The outcome seems to be highly influenced by the type of collaborative arrangements used and their application. In particular, the analysis indicates that organizational factors seem to be indicative but not sufficient for success, and some open innovation practices were more successful than others. The most open and exploratory practices were not so successful in this company. This might be due to the nature of innovation, which develops in unpredictable and nonlinear ways. These observations suggest that those involved in open innovation need both a broad knowledge of the various potential elements of an open innovation effort and a flexible attitude toward their application. Description: Embargoed while checking copyright permissions with publisher 2015-02-24T11:27:35Z New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing. Focus area - Leicester and the East Midlands Hammer, Nikolaus Plugor, Réka Nolan, Peter Clark, Ian http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31720 2015-02-20T02:01:55Z 2015-02-19T12:18:23Z Title: New industry on a skewed playing field: supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing. Focus area - Leicester and the East Midlands Authors: Hammer, Nikolaus; Plugor, Réka; Nolan, Peter; Clark, Ian Abstract: The UK apparel manufacturing industry, after significant decline, has experienced renewed growth in recent years as many retailers and brands have commenced or increased sourcing from local suppliers. This presents significant opportunities for regional economies as it can offer local garment manufacturers entry points into global value chains as well as employment opportunities for their community. At the same time, as this industry revives, anecdotal evidence has emerged about considerable risks in the form of violations of work and employment regulations. Recent media reports have highlighted serious labour rights issues and other concerns such as unauthorised subcontracting within UK apparel manufacturing. Particular concerns have been raised about working conditions in the garment manufacturing hub of Leicester and its surrounding areas, relating to both registered factories and smaller unregulated production units. Alleged workers' rights issues included excessive working hours, poor health and safety conditions in the workplace and night shift subcontracting, among others. It was also thought that some registered factories may be subcontracting to unregistered units to meet high volume and short turnaround order commitments within tight cost constraints. These concerns came to the attention of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a UK-based alliance of lead firms, trade unions and NGOs that promotes respect for workers' rights around the globe. ETI members include many well-known UK fashion brands and retailers, for whom Leicester represents a sourcing destination for some product lines. Poor working conditions often result from a wide range of political, social and economic factors. ETI's work is grounded in the belief that to truly bring about sustainable change to workers' lives, the root causes of labour rights issues need to be identified, understood and tackled collaboratively. ETI identified the need for substantive research to better understand supply chain relationships and working conditions within the UK garment sector, with a focus on Leicester, before deciding on what action to take. The University of Leicester's Centre for Sustainable Work and Employment Futures was commissioned to lead a research study, due to its focus on industrial relations and labour rights and strong connections with local stakeholders. Dr Nik Hammer and his research team brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the project, and worked closely with a wide spectrum of stakeholders through the research process. The following report represents the outcome of this commission. (Preface) 2015-02-19T12:18:23Z Ethical Principles of Old Testament Economics: Implications for the Teaching of Business Ethics Wagner-Tsukamoto, Sigmund A. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31719 2015-02-19T02:02:00Z 2015-02-18T17:32:30Z Title: Ethical Principles of Old Testament Economics: Implications for the Teaching of Business Ethics Authors: Wagner-Tsukamoto, Sigmund A. Abstract: The paper reviews ethical principles, including certain theological principles that have been drawn from the field of economic research on the Old Testament. It critically examines the type of lessons that can be learned from adherence to such principles for the teaching of business ethics, and how such principles can subsequently inform and be incorporated into management practises. In terms of ethical assessments, on the one hand the paper connects to the Judeo-Christian tradition, and to institutional and constitutional economics on the other. The paper reviews several stories from the Old Testament and extracts ethical principles on good management practice, in particular from the stories of Joseph and Solomon. These stories appear to be especially rich in terms of ethical principles for business activity. Also, certain deficits of Old Testament based economics as compared with a contemporary economic approach to business ethics have been highlighted. Description: about 9000 words long 2015-02-18T17:32:30Z Pharmacological routes to everyday exceptionality Smith, C Land, CD http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31717 2015-02-19T02:02:00Z 2015-02-18T16:56:10Z Title: Pharmacological routes to everyday exceptionality Authors: Smith, C; Land, CD Abstract: In a modern era of speed, uncertainty, pleasure and anguish, the boundaries between pharmacologically healing and enhancing the mind are being redefined [Pieters, T., and S. Snelders. 2009. "Psychropic Drug Use: Between Healing and Enhancing the Mind." Neuroethics 2 (2): 63–73]. Whether smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and coffee, or taking illicit drugs, some degree of intoxication is an everyday practice for many [Bancroft, A. 2009. Drugs, Intoxication & Society. Cambridge: Polity Press]. Despite this 'normalization' of even illicit drug taking, normative political and managerial literatures both homogenize and demonize drug taking, discursively constituting an undifferentiated 'drug user' who is presumed unable to take drugs and work effectively. This paper suggests an alternate articulation of the relationship between drugs, work and everyday life. Analysing interviews with self-identifying drug using creative and knowledge workers, as well as reportage on prescription drug 'misuse', we argue that some drug use is increasingly being positioned within, rather than against, a managerialist performative ethos concerned with the enhancement of both the physical and cognitive aspects of everyday working lives. 2015-02-18T16:56:10Z Anti-leaders(hip) in Social Movement Organizations: The case of autonomous grassroots groups Sutherland, Neil Land, Christopher Böhm, Steffen http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31716 2015-02-19T02:01:59Z 2015-02-18T16:06:59Z Title: Anti-leaders(hip) in Social Movement Organizations: The case of autonomous grassroots groups Authors: Sutherland, Neil; Land, Christopher; Böhm, Steffen Abstract: Through the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement, the idea of horizontal, leaderless organization has come to the attention of the mass media. In this article we explore radical, participative- democratic alternatives to leadership through an empirical study of four Social Movement Organizations (SMOs). Whilst there has been some writing on leadership within SMOs, it has mirrored the 'mainstream' assumption that leadership is the product of individual leaders possessing certain traits, styles and/or behaviours. In contrast, critical leadership studies (CLS) recognize that leadership is a relational, socially constructed phenomenon rather than the result of a stable set of leadership attributes that inhere in 'the leaders'. We utilize this framing to analyse how leadership is understood and performed in anarchist SMOs by examining how actors manage meaning and define reality without compromising the ideological commitments of their organizations. Furthermore, we also pay attention to the organizational practices and processes developed to: (a) prohibit individuals from permanently assuming a leadership role; (b) distribute leadership skills and roles; and (c) encourage other actors to participate and take-up these roles in the future. We conclude by suggesting that just because an organization is leaderless, it does not necessarily mean that it is also leadershipless. 2015-02-18T16:06:59Z Rogue Logics: Organization in the Grey Zone Land, Christopher D. Loren, S. Metelmann, J. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31700 2015-02-18T02:01:59Z 2015-02-17T16:17:41Z Title: Rogue Logics: Organization in the Grey Zone Authors: Land, Christopher D.; Loren, S.; Metelmann, J. Abstract: This paper explores the concept of the 'rogue' through an examination of how the figure appears in business ethics and as the rogue trader. Reading the rogue trader through institutional logics and Jacques Derrida's book Rogues, we suggest that the rogue is not on the dark side of organization so much as in an indeterminate grey zone, where the boundary between acceptable behaviour and misconduct is unclear. We further argue that this boundary is necessarily unclear as it is in the nature of organization, at least within capitalist trading systems, to push the boundaries of what is possible and acceptable. The rogue thus helps produce the boundaries of ethically acceptable organizational behaviour in the very act of transgressing them. The location-bound specificity of the rogue, as well as the symbolic process of naming an individual or a state a rogue, finds a relevant correlate in the villain, as Derrida suggests. But what we call 'rogue organization' may be constitutive of organization per se. As such, there is a potential roguishness in organization that should be addressed when considering the dark side of ethics in organization studies. 2015-02-17T16:17:41Z Exhibiting China in London Barnes, Amy Jane http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31667 2015-02-17T02:01:34Z 2015-02-16T10:25:59Z Title: Exhibiting China in London Authors: Barnes, Amy Jane Abstract: [From introductory paragraph] FOR CENTURIES THE WEST has been fascinated with China or, at least, an image of China mediated through exoticised cultural imaginings and fuelled by fantastical semi-mythical accounts. Until the mid-nineteenth century and the advent of the popular press, the material products of China – silk and later, porcelain and tea – or those manufactured in Europe in the 'Chinese style', remained the main means by which the vast majority of Europeans could conceive of China. Indeed, porcelain became so synonymous with its country of origin, that in the West it came to be known simply as 'china'; a term now applied as a generic descriptor for all types of ceramic, from within and without China, but which nevertheless ascribes an aura of rarity, value and status. Exotic and evocative, and produced by unknown and thus seemingly magical technologies, these products, enthusiastically consumed by fashionable Europeans, came to symbolise an imagined China and sparked successive phases of imagineering, alternating between fascination, ambivalence and distrust. 2015-02-16T10:25:59Z FORUM: Museums and Mental Health - Introduction Barnes, Amy Jane http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31658 2015-02-11T16:28:48Z 2015-02-11T16:26:49Z Title: FORUM: Museums and Mental Health - Introduction Authors: Barnes, Amy Jane Abstract: [From introduction] For this edition of Museum Worlds: Advances in Research, we have asked a group of museum practitioners to respond to a thought-provoking article about a Taiwanese project that explored the particular needs of visitors diagnosed with schizophrenia. Allegaert, Besley, Coleborne, Chynoweth, Gale, and Sirik have used Chen et al.'s article as a jumping off point from which to write on the broader topic of mental health provision in museums' engagement programs from their own international perspectives. The forum was convened by Sandra Dudley and curated by Amy Jane Barnes. 2015-02-11T16:26:49Z Political environment and foreign direct investment: Evidence from OECD countries Wisniewski, Tomasz P. Pathan, S. K. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31645 2015-02-12T02:01:49Z 2015-02-11T11:42:48Z Title: Political environment and foreign direct investment: Evidence from OECD countries Authors: Wisniewski, Tomasz P.; Pathan, S. K. Abstract: This paper examines the role that political factors play in the investment location decisions of multinational enterprises. It has been found that foreign direct investors shy away from countries with excessive government spending, especially when this spending is directed towards the military. They also seem to have a slight preference for leftist executives and be negatively predisposed toward situations in which the ruling party has held power for prolonged periods of time. Ceteris paribus, more FDI flows to countries that have presidential systems, established political parties and where the party of the executive controls all houses with lawmaking powers. 2015-02-11T11:42:48Z Dimensions and location of high-involvement management: fresh evidence from the UK Commission's 2011 Employer Skills Survey Wood, Stephen J. Burridge, Mark Rudloff, Daniela Green, William Nolte, Sandra http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31639 2015-02-12T02:01:33Z 2015-02-11T10:03:33Z Title: Dimensions and location of high-involvement management: fresh evidence from the UK Commission's 2011 Employer Skills Survey Authors: Wood, Stephen J.; Burridge, Mark; Rudloff, Daniela; Green, William; Nolte, Sandra Abstract: High-involvement management is typically seen as having three components: worker involvement, skill and knowledge acquisition and motivational supports. The prescriptive literature implies the elements should be used together; but using data from the UK Commission's Employer Skills Survey of 2011 we find that these dimensions of highinvolvement management are in reality separate. Two types of involvement, role and organizational, are not strongly related, and motivational supports are not strongly correlated with other practices or each other. Size of workplace and the sector in which it operates are associated with the dimensions of high-involvement management. But, there is variety in their other predictors. For example, organizational involvement and skill acquisition are positively related to workplace size while role involvement is negatively associated with it. The research illustrates the value of scaling methods over blanket indexes to measure high involvement management and highlights the independent effects of quality and operational management methods. 2015-02-11T10:03:33Z Technology: Understanding corporate life Corbett, J. Martin http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31635 2015-02-10T02:01:46Z 2015-02-09T14:01:42Z Title: Technology: Understanding corporate life Authors: Corbett, J. Martin Editors: Hancock, P.; Spicer, A. Abstract: [From Introduction] Perhaps it is because of the ubiquity and taken-for-grantedness of technology in corporate and everyday life that Organisation Studies (OS hereafter) has never really quite got to grips with the world of machines and technology. Whatever the reasons for this hesitancy, the historical trend in OS reveals a tendency to insist on a distinct epistemological separation of the social/cultural from the technological, and the pursuit of an understanding of how these two realms interact at the organisational and societal level. For well over 100 years, the same mantra has been chanted: culture is concerned with people, agency, and desire whilst technology is to do with all things non-human and mechanical. 2015-02-09T14:01:42Z How Does Size Matter? Skill formation processes in large and small engineering firms Bishop, Daniel http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31633 2015-02-10T02:01:30Z 2015-02-09T11:43:18Z Title: How Does Size Matter? Skill formation processes in large and small engineering firms Authors: Bishop, Daniel Abstract: Objectives The paper reports on one part of a research project that aims to improve understanding of how skill formation processes operate in firms of different sizes. The particular focus of the paper falls upon apprentices in mechanical engineering firms, and how their experience of the apprenticeship differs depending on the size of their employing organisation. Prior Work This issue is raised at a time when recent recessionary conditions have placed investment in skills at risk, and is prompted by survey evidence showing that small firms (which employ over half of the private sector workforce) display much lower levels of employee training, on average, than do their larger counterparts. Consequently, some commentators have claimed that small firms represent a learning-impoverished – or 'restrictive' – environment that disadvantages both the firms and those who work within them. Others, however, have argued that surveys of training neglect other, more informal modes of learning on which small firms tend to rely. As yet, no research has systematically confronted this debate; it is this gap that the study aims to address. Approach Qualitative research (focusing on interviews, supported by some documentary analysis and workplace observation) has been conducted in three firms of differing sizes in the mechanical engineering sector. Results Emerging themes suggest that generalisations about the informality or paucity of learning in small businesses relative to their larger counterparts – while partly accurate – tell only part of the story. Formal and informal learning combine in complex ways – with differing implications for employees – in all sizes of organisation. It is not inevitably the case that small firms or their employees are disadvantaged by their lower rates of training participation. Implications The findings have significant implications for government skills policy. In particular, policy makers should assist small firms in forming their own 'expansive learning environments' without assuming that formal, accredited training is the only valid conduit for learning. Value The paper's value lies in its capacity to shift academic debate beyond formal / informal dichotomies when it comes to learning in small firms, and to provide a firmer evidence base for government skills policies. 2015-02-09T11:43:18Z When EU Leaders Speak, the Markets Listen Wisniewski, Tomasz P. Moro, Andrea http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31623 2015-02-06T02:01:36Z 2015-02-05T16:25:43Z Title: When EU Leaders Speak, the Markets Listen Authors: Wisniewski, Tomasz P.; Moro, Andrea Abstract: We use content analysis software to examine certain characteristics of communications arising from European Council meetings. These characteristics appear to explain a large proportion of variation in stock returns around the meeting dates. More specifically, stock market investors react favorably when the conclusions and declarations issued by heads of states convey a positive sentiment and demonstrate a stance of moral rectitude. On the other hand, the returns tend to be negative when the communications are obfuscated by an excessive use of abstract words and fixated on regional rather than global issues. 2015-02-05T16:25:43Z Information asymmetry and power in a surveillance society Lightfoot, Geoffrey Wisniewski, Tomasz P. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31613 2015-02-06T02:01:35Z 2015-02-05T14:02:27Z Title: Information asymmetry and power in a surveillance society Authors: Lightfoot, Geoffrey; Wisniewski, Tomasz P. Abstract: This paper fuses Lukes' (1974) three-dimensional view of power with the economic concept of informational asymmetry to explicate how access to information is organized and how power relationships arise from this organization. We argue that many observed asymmetries are deliberate and, drawing from the economics and finance literature, we posit that their outcomes are inevitably detrimental. The paper examines the techniques that foster information imbalances, such as media and propaganda, knowledge production, educational systems, legal and organizational structures, exclusive information networks, and surveillance. We conclude that in the absence of greater transparency, the deleterious effects of unequal access to information will continue and deepen. We further suggest that the analysis of the complexities of the issues warrants a broad, multidisciplinary approach and we suggest what this might include. 2015-02-05T14:02:27Z Small firms and the failure of skills policy: adopting an institutional perspective Bishop, Daniel http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31578 2015-02-05T02:01:46Z 2015-02-04T11:27:29Z Title: Small firms and the failure of skills policy: adopting an institutional perspective Authors: Bishop, Daniel Abstract: Both skills and small firms have been increasingly prominent in policy agendas across the world in recent years. Skills are now seen as being crucial to economic prosperity, yet evidence consistently shows much lower levels of training, on average, in small firms than in larger businesses. Policy makers in various countries have sought to address this perceived problem and to stimulate skills development in small firms, but have attempted to do so in different ways and with varying degrees of success. It is this divergence in national skills policies, as well as its causes and implications for skill formation in small firms, that this paper seeks to illuminate. In doing so, it adopts an 'institutional' perspective that advances current understanding of how and why skills policies adopted in different countries appear to have varying effects on small firms. Through employing this institutional analysis, the paper promotes an awareness of how historical, social and economic forces in the 'corporatist' systems, found for example in Germany and Scandinavia, tend to provide a more supportive context for skills development in small firms than the liberal free market systems found elsewhere in the world, such as in the USA, Canada and the UK – which is highlighted as an illustrative case in this paper. 2015-02-04T11:27:29Z Norbert Elias and Figurational Research: Processual Thinking in Sociology Dunne, Stephen http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31570 2015-02-04T02:01:49Z 2015-02-03T15:13:04Z Title: Norbert Elias and Figurational Research: Processual Thinking in Sociology Authors: Dunne, Stephen Abstract: Review of Norman Gabriel and Stephen Mennell (eds.) (2011) Norbert Elias and Figurational Research: Processual Thinking in Sociology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell/The Sociological Review. 2015-02-03T15:13:04Z Branding and Organisation Higgins, Matthew http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31563 2015-02-04T02:01:45Z 2015-02-03T11:49:18Z Title: Branding and Organisation Authors: Higgins, Matthew Abstract: Issues of branding and organizational identity have traditionally straddled the business disciplines and have received increasing attention since World War II. Branding and organizational identity refer to a process through which a pattern or a structure is ascribed to a group of individuals and recognized as unique, autonomous, and relatively stable in space and time. Organizational identity is a concern with what and who the organization is, and branding is primarily concerned with how the organization is represented to key stakeholders. 2015-02-03T11:49:18Z Toward a formalization of a two traders market with information exchange Haven, Emmanuel E. Bagarello, F. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31560 2015-02-04T02:01:48Z 2015-02-03T10:37:39Z Title: Toward a formalization of a two traders market with information exchange Authors: Haven, Emmanuel E.; Bagarello, F. Abstract: This paper shows that Hamiltonians and operators can also be put to good use even in contexts which are not purely physics based. Consider the world of finance. The work presented here models a two traders system with information exchange with the help of four fundamental operators: cash and share operators, a portfolio operator, and an operator reflecting the loss of information. An information Hamiltonian is considered and an additional Hamiltonian is presented which reflects the dynamics of selling/buying shares between traders. An important result of the paper is that when the information Hamiltonian is zero, portfolio operators commute with the Hamiltonian and this suggests that the dynamics are really due to the information. Under the assumption that the interaction and information terms in the Hamiltonian have similar strength, a perturbation scheme is considered on the interaction parameter. Contrary to intuition, the paper shows that up to a second order in the interaction parameter, a key factor in the computation of the portfolios of traders will be the initial values of the loss of information (rather than the initial conditions on the cash and shares). Finally, the paper shows that a natural outcome from the inequality of the variation of the portfolio of trader one versus the variation of the portfolio of trader two, begs for the introduction of 'good' and 'bad' information. It is shown that 'good' information is related to the reservoirs (where an infinite set of bosonic operators are used) which model rumors/news and external facts, whilst 'bad' information is associated with a set of two modes bosonic operators. 2015-02-03T10:37:39Z New Spirits of Capitalism? Crises, Justifications, and Dynamics Dunne, Stephen http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31558 2015-02-04T02:01:49Z 2015-02-03T10:07:19Z Title: New Spirits of Capitalism? Crises, Justifications, and Dynamics Authors: Dunne, Stephen Abstract: Book Review: Paul du Gay and Glenn Morgan (Eds) New Spirits of Capitalism? Crises, Justifications, and Dynamics Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 342pp. ISBN: 978-0-1995-9534-1. £55.00 Reviewed by: Stephen Dunne, University of Leicester, UK 2015-02-03T10:07:19Z Figurational sociology and the rhetoric of post-philosophy Dunne, Stephen http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31556 2015-02-03T02:01:45Z 2015-02-02T16:27:44Z Title: Figurational sociology and the rhetoric of post-philosophy Authors: Dunne, Stephen Abstract: Norbert Elias's early work – specifically 'Idea and Individual' – offers a positive account of philosophy's potential contribution towards historically oriented concrete sociological investigation. His later work, on the other hand, characterizes philosophical investigation as little more than a distraction from the myth-exposing vocation of the (figurational) sociologist. This later 'post-philosophical' account of figurational sociology predominates today. Within this article, however, I suggest it has come to prominence through a series of dubious rhetorical strategies, most notably subtextual hearsay and disingenuous caricature. By dispensing with the post-philosophical rhetoric, I argue, figurational sociologists might again, following the Elias of 'Idea and Individual', take the possibility of a philosophically grounded sociology seriously. If the article does not convince figurational sociologists to revisit philosophy as a potentially positive sociological resource, however, my effort will not have been wasted for as long as it demonstrates the presently dubious nature of their post-philosophical rhetoric. 2015-02-02T16:27:44Z On the Commerce of Thinking: Of Books and Bookstores Dunne, Stephen http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31549 2015-02-03T02:01:43Z 2015-02-02T14:51:51Z Title: On the Commerce of Thinking: Of Books and Bookstores Authors: Dunne, Stephen Abstract: Book review of On the Commerce of Thinking: Of Books and Bookstores, Jean-Luc Nancy (trans. David Wills). New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780823230372 (pbk) 2015-02-02T14:51:51Z Compromising liberty: Friedrich Hayek's The road to serfdom in practice Grocott, Chris A. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31541 2015-02-03T02:01:49Z 2015-02-02T11:39:34Z Title: Compromising liberty: Friedrich Hayek's The road to serfdom in practice Authors: Grocott, Chris A. Abstract: This paper examines a rare and unstudied piece of consultancy work undertaken by Hayek, in 1944, for the British Colonial Office and for the Government of Gibraltar. Hayek's subsequent reports suggested the reorganisation of the state-regulated Gibraltar housing market in line with free market principles, forcing the colony's working class population to relocate into neighbouring Spain. However, rather than freeing Gibraltarians from the evils of state planning, as identified in The Road to Serfdom, published earlier in the year, this proposal would, rather, have delivered them into the dictatorship of General Franco. Not only was Franco's regime brutal, but also it was one which practiced autarkic economic policies virtually identical to those which Hayek maligned in The Road to Serfdom. In sum, Hayek's free market proposals would have benefited Gibraltar's landlords at the expense of the liberty of the majority of the civilian population. 2015-02-02T11:39:34Z More than nothing? Accounting, business, and management studies, and the research audit Harney, S. Dunne, Stephen http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31539 2015-02-03T02:01:45Z 2015-02-02T11:17:18Z Title: More than nothing? Accounting, business, and management studies, and the research audit Authors: Harney, S.; Dunne, Stephen Abstract: This paper argues that business school scholarship can be seen as the example par excellence of what we are calling extreme neo-liberalism. By extreme neo-liberalism we mean the coexistence in the same sphere of extreme externalization of costs and extreme regulation of the sources of value. We argue that this condition is most obvious in the research audits conducted in Britain, and spreading globally, audits that record both the extreme externalization in business scholarship of all the sources of the wealth expropriated by business, and at the same time, regulate the very labour that produces this extreme self-regulation. Although this self-regulated labour regards itself as complete, and although it regards its acts of externalization as acts of self-making, we consider the relation between pedagogy and scholarship in order to show how this pervasive form of self-regarding simply does not hold. We conclude by noting that if business scholarship persists in defining itself against all that makes wealth possible, and thus making itself, logically at least, worthless, it also opens the possibility of starting an investigation of wealth, worth and value, from another point of view, one not dependant of completing business, but competing with it. 2015-02-02T11:17:18Z Sitting on a wall in Northumberland crying: Semi-structured interviews Abusidualghoul, Vicki Goodwin, John James, Nalita Rainnie, Al Venter, Katherine White, Melissa http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31533 2015-01-31T02:01:46Z 2015-01-30T16:59:24Z Title: Sitting on a wall in Northumberland crying: Semi-structured interviews Authors: Abusidualghoul, Vicki; Goodwin, John; James, Nalita; Rainnie, Al; Venter, Katherine; White, Melissa Abstract: [From Introduction] Alan Bryman in the 2nd edition of Social Research Methods (2004) has an extensive Chapter devoted to 'Interviewing in Qualitative Research' as well as sections on Ethnography and Focus groups. The Chapters provide an excellent introduction to issues such as the difference between semi and unstructured interviews, preparing the interview guide, kinds of question, recording and transcription etc. What the chapter does not do is tell you how to deal with the personal trauma of finding out that your tape deck has not worked on one of your very first interviews as a PhD student (sit on a wall outside the factory and cry). Nor does it tell you how to react over 20 years later when a superbly high tech mini cassette proves not to have recorded a single word of a two and a half hour brilliant interview with an old trade unionist (sit in the car outside and weep). In this Chapter we explore the lived realities of qualitative research, particularly the interview itself. We look at issues that arise in trying to gain access (abusive employers, mind numbing negotiations), the terror of technology (see above), the location of the interview (homes, cupboards, pubs), interviewing in another language (does TQM really translate into Polish as Total Management Control?), transcription (the agency cant understand a word Geordie shop stewards are saying), as well as electronic and internet facilitated research. 2015-01-30T16:59:24Z 'Naked Abroad' – The Continuing Imperialism of Free Trade Grocott, Chris A. Grady, Jo http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31522 2015-01-31T02:01:29Z 2015-01-30T11:25:02Z Title: 'Naked Abroad' – The Continuing Imperialism of Free Trade Authors: Grocott, Chris A.; Grady, Jo Abstract: This article draws on Gallagher and Robinson (1953) and combines their concepts with insights offered by, amongst others, Callinicos, Eagleton and Harvey, in order to demonstrate continuities between British and US imperialism. They include the willingness of states to engage in imperial action (despite public statements of anti-imperial sentiment); the use of formal and informal control to secure the frontiers of a state's expanding economy; and the operation of imperialism through collaboration. In order to avoid the problems of earlier Marxist-Leninist interpretations of British imperialism, and in order to extend the analysis, the concepts of ideology, elites and neoliberalism are applied. 2015-01-30T11:25:02Z The financialisation of business ethics Beverungen, A. Dunne, Stephen Hoedemaekers, C. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31512 2015-01-29T02:01:39Z 2015-01-28T15:11:56Z Title: The financialisation of business ethics Authors: Beverungen, A.; Dunne, Stephen; Hoedemaekers, C. Abstract: Business schools have become implicated in the widespread demonisation of the financial classes. By educating those held most responsible for the crisis – financial traders and speculators – they are said to have produced ruthlessly talented graduates who have ambition in abundance but little sense for social responsibility or ethics. This ethical lack thrives upon the trading floor within a compelling critique of the complicity of the pedagogy of the business school with the financial crisis of the global economy. An ethical turn within the curriculum is now widely encouraged as a counteractive force. Within this paper, however, we argue that taking this ethical turn is not enough. For business ethicists to learn from the financial crisis, the crisis' legacy needs to be taken account of, and financialisation needs to be taken seriously. Pedagogical reform cannot bracket itself off from the crisis as if it were coincidental with or separate from it. Post-crisis pedagogy must rather take the fact that it is requested now, in light of the crisis, as its very point of departure. The financial crisis must not be understood as something to be resisted in the name of Business Ethics. Instead, the financial crisis must be understood as the very foundation for contemporary Business Ethics in particular and for contemporary business and management education more generally. 2015-01-28T15:11:56Z DIWY! Precarity in embodied capitalism Tsianos, Vassilis Papadopoulos, Dimitris http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31422 2015-01-15T02:01:31Z 2015-01-14T14:20:59Z Title: DIWY! Precarity in embodied capitalism Authors: Tsianos, Vassilis; Papadopoulos, Dimitris Editors: Dimitrakaki, A; Lloyd, K 2015-01-14T14:20:59Z A Marxist and an Anarchist Walk into the Occupy Movement: Internal and External Communication Practices of Radical Left Groups Swann, Thomas http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31416 2015-01-15T02:01:51Z 2015-01-14T12:18:35Z Title: A Marxist and an Anarchist Walk into the Occupy Movement: Internal and External Communication Practices of Radical Left Groups Authors: Swann, Thomas 2015-01-14T12:18:35Z Did you hear the one about the anarchist manager? Swann, Thomas Stoborod, Konstantin http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31412 2015-01-15T02:01:50Z 2015-01-14T11:35:58Z Title: Did you hear the one about the anarchist manager? Authors: Swann, Thomas; Stoborod, Konstantin 2015-01-14T11:35:58Z Genealogies of autonomous mobility Papadopoulos, Dimitris Martignoni, Martina http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31411 2015-01-15T02:01:49Z 2015-01-14T10:10:25Z Title: Genealogies of autonomous mobility Authors: Papadopoulos, Dimitris; Martignoni, Martina Editors: Isin, E F; Nyers, P 2015-01-14T10:10:25Z From publics to practitioners: Invention power and open technoscience. Papadopoulos, Dimitris http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31409 2015-01-15T02:01:49Z 2015-01-14T09:42:34Z Title: From publics to practitioners: Invention power and open technoscience. Authors: Papadopoulos, Dimitris Abstract: In technoscientific conditions what counts as knowledge creation is not primarily the individual experimental achievement that gives coherence to scientific practice and separates science from its publics; rather, it is a form of dispersed experimentation in more than human worlds: distributed invention power. Distributed invention power is organised and regulated through the pervasive securitisation of technoscience: surveillance and control of technoscientific fields as well as financialisation of its activities and research outputs. The securitisation of science reorders the traditional split between the public sphere, the private sector and the commons. The folding of each one of these spheres into the other underlies a constant, often antagonistic, oscillation between big science and open science. What is constitutive of the diverse movements that sustain open technoscience is not that they challenge technoscience as such but that they experiment with technoscience to create alternative forms of life. 2015-01-14T09:42:34Z Exit the system? Anarchist organization in the British climate camps Frenzel, Fabian http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31408 2015-01-15T02:01:48Z 2015-01-14T09:23:54Z Title: Exit the system? Anarchist organization in the British climate camps Authors: Frenzel, Fabian Abstract: Protest camps have proliferated in social movement practice globally in recent years. Research has started to address protest camps and this study aims to contribute to the emerging field, focusing in particular on their form of organization. Protest camps appear to resonate with social movement activists because they combine characteristics of networks like fluidity and flexibility with certain elements of organization, in particular the ability to create and pursue an alternative order. They do so, I argue, by pursuing organization in space. In this way protest camps offer practical solutions to the question of how to achieve powerful challenges to the status quo while maintaining a prefigurative politics of social change. In particular elements of organization like hierarchy, membership and rules are significantly altered when organization is pursued in space. I argue that the history of the protest camp as an organisational form is best conceived as a series of experiments with alternative, anarchist organization, where different innovative elements of organisation are invented, modified and adapted to locally specific needs. Two distinct forms of spatial organisation emerge across different camps, the creation of spatial antagonism and decentralisation. Pursing spatial antagonism and decentralisation protest camps enable 'partial organization', somewhere between network structures and full organization. Empirically I discuss the camp for climate action (CFCA). From 2006 to 2010 it made headlines news in the UK and beyond. The analysis of the development of CFCA from previous camps indicates the importance of the spatial antagonism to protest camp organization. If it diminishes, elements of organization like hierarchy, rules, bureaucracy became more visible, a factor that can be understood as contributing to the discontinuation of climate camps in the UK in 2011. 2015-01-14T09:23:54Z Three essays in Turkish banking: development banks, Islamic banks and commercial banks Ozturk, Huseyin http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31399 2015-01-09T02:01:54Z 2015-01-08T15:34:52Z Title: Three essays in Turkish banking: development banks, Islamic banks and commercial banks Authors: Ozturk, Huseyin Abstract: This thesis is composed of three empirical chapters each of which examines separate segments of Turkish banking system from different perspectives. First empirical chapter investigates regional loan distribution of development banks. The findings in this chapter suggest that political connection has played a significant role in development lending. There is also geographical bias which leads to higher volumes of loans in the regions close to the capital city. Second empirical chapter examines Islamic banks and compares them with conventional banks in terms of profitability and competition grounds. The results reveal that Islamic banks earn more returns with respect to conventional banks. The results also suggest that the regulatory changes of the last decade improve market power of these banks. The last empirical chapter investigates micro structure of Repo and Reverse Repo Market of Turkey in which only commercial banks can transact. This chapter initially presents the network topologies of this market that helps one to understand the characteristics of complex network in this market. This chapter then computes a connectivity measure and investigates the drivers of connectivity out of domestic and external factors. Although results provide very rich insights, external factors dominate the behaviour of network in this market. 2015-01-08T15:34:52Z


text:
Rare 'Star Trek' Phaser Sold for $231,000 at Auction
8:38 AM PDT 4/7/2013 by Andy Lewis
The unique prop was used by William Shatner only once in the original series.
A one-of-a-kind phaser rifle used by William Shatner in the second pilot episode made for the original Star Trek series sold for $231,000 at an auction conducted by Julien's.
The price is the second-highest paid at auction for a prop from the 1960s edition of Star Trek, surpassed only by the $304,750 a collector laid out for the captain's chair in 2008. A miniature special effects model of the enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation sold for $576,000 in 2006.
STORY: Star Trek: The Next Generation' Cast Headlines Toronto ComiCon
Props and memorabilia from the original series are highly sought by collectors; many original items from the iconic show were lost or destroyed.
Toy designer Reuben Klamer created the prop for Gene Roddenberry to use in the pilot in exchange for licensing rights to produce toys based on the design. The rifle was seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," which was filmed as the second pilot (the first, "The Cage," was rejected by NBC) but served as the third episode of the series that originally aired Sept. 22, 1966.
The story revolves around a Lt. Commander who gains telepathic and telekinetic powers that threaten the crew. Captain Kirk (Shatner) kills the officer with the phaser rifle when he threatens the crew. After the pilot was completed, the rifle was replaced with the now familiar handgun-style phaser.
The rifle never appeared in another episode, though it was seen in publicity photos of Shatner as Kirk and on an early lunchbox. The prop is made of wood with an aluminum barrel and is adorned with metallic blue-green paint.
After production, the rifle was returned to Klamer. See a video of the designer talking about its origins and construction below.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Plow & Hearth Exclusive
This Owl Wall Shelf adds flying color, a little storage and a lot of character to any indoor or covered outdoor space. Strong powder-coated iron shelf can hold light plants, pictures or small decorative items.
The owl's expressive face is crafted with layers of metal "feathers" to add dimension and interest. It's a wise decorating choice!
• Flying owl metal wall shelf
• Unique shelf adds flying color to your décor
• Holds light plants, small pictures or decorative items
• Expressive owl face with layers of metal "feathers"
• A wise decorating choice!
• Use indoors or outside in a covered area
Tell your friends what you really want this year!
Dear _______:
Want to step in for Santa? We happen to know this is high on _______'s Christmas list!
Olla (Spanish, pronounced "oh-ya") jars have been around since ancient times. Made of unglazed ceramic, ollas traditionally have short, narrow necks with wider bodies, and are made in a variety of shapes. They have been used for thousands of years for cooking, storage, and plant irrigation.
When used to irrigate plants, an olla is buried neck-deep in the ground near a plant's roots, with the opening of the olla extended above the soil so that it can be filled with water periodically. The porous walls of the unglazed pottery allow the water to seep through gradually, constantly and consistently hydrating the plants without overwatering them – and without wasting precious water to evaporation or runoff.
The use of ollas for irrigation was introduced to the American Southwest by Spanish conquistadors during Colonial times, becoming very common among Native American tribes and Hispanic settlers. Though the technique gave way to more modern methods of irrigation some time ago, its superior efficiency, coupled with its simplicity, has caused it to make a comeback. Though the technique has changed little since its introduction, today's ollas are usually capped off, making them even more water-efficient.
Perfect for home gardens, Ollas are a super-easy, eco-friendly, less time-consuming way to water annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables and plants of all kinds in dry, sandy soil, very hot or drought-prone areas, raised beds, and even pots, planters and hanging baskets. Fill the olla before you leave on a short vacation to enjoy worry-free watering – and a smaller water bill!
Water is pulled directly through the terra-cotta!
Read more about Ollas on our blog.


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Floor Plans and Pricing
1 Bedroom
|1 Bedroom 1 Bath
|1 Bathroom
|675 Sq. Ft.
2 Bedrooms
|2 Bedroom 1 Bath
|$625 - $675
|1 Bathroom
|927 Sq. Ft.
|2 Bedroom 1 1/2 Bath Townhome
|$645 - $675
|1.5 Bathrooms
|966 Sq. Ft.
Property Features
- Property Overview
- Special Features
- Community Features
- Apartment Amenities
- Local Schools
- Pet Policy
Park Fairfax in Charlotte, NC
Come discover your peaceful haven at Park Fairfax Apartments. Our apartment homes are designed for discerning people who demand privacy, yet need the convenience of uptown Charlotte. A wooded setting and professionally landscaped grounds provide a peaceful atmosphere for your enjoyment. Choose from one or two bedroom garden apartments or our spacious two bedroom townhouse Our stylish apartments have many options from which you may choose: carpeting, hardwood floors, fireplaces, and washer/dryer connections. Not only do our apartment homes come equipped with fully appointed kitchens, but also with patios or balconies, and wonderful outside storage.
Special Features
- 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments and Townhomes from $525
- Swimming Pool
- Close to Charlotte Douglas Airport and I-85
- On CATS Bus Line
- Laundry Facilities
- Mini Blinds
- Fireplaces in Select Homes
- Central Heat and Air
- Private Wooded Setting
Community Features
- Apartment
- Club House
- Garden Style
- Laundry Facility
- Market Rate
- Public Transportation
- Surface Lot
- Townhouse
Additional Information
Apartments in Community: 138
Apartment Amenities
- Air Conditioning
- Cable or Satellite
- Carpet
- Dishwasher
- Fireplace
- Garbage Disposal
- Hardwood Floor
- Patio or Balcony
- Water Sewer and Trash
- Window Covering
Local Schools
- Allenbrook Elementary
- West Charlotte High School
- Whitewater Middle School
We believe school data to be accurate, but do not guarantee that. Please be sure to verify where your children will attend school before making your housing decision.
Pet Policy
Pets Welcome. Restrictions on some breeds.
- Pets Allowed
Contact Park Fairfax
Park Fairfax
Office HoursMon-Fri 8:30-5:30 Sat 10-4 Sunday Closed
Peaceful Living at Park Fairfax Apartment Homes! Our 1 and 2 bedroom garden apartments and townhomes are nestled in a neighborhood and wooded setting. We're conveniently located near Uptown Charlotte, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, I-85, I-485, Billy Graham Parkway and the US National Whitewater Center. Make Park Fairfax your new home today!
From I-85 Southbound, take the exit for Freedom Drive (Exit 34). Take a right onto Freedom Drive and travel for approximately two miles. Park Fairfax is on your right.
As you search for your perfect apartment, please keep in mind that rental rates (including specials and discounts) and availability are very fluid in the apartment industry. Based on many factors, the rental rates (including specials and discounts) and availability can actually change not just daily, but hourly, if not even more quickly. While our advertisers do take steps to keep their information current, the rental rates or availability you may find here now at ForRent.com may not be the same as when you contact the communities.
Quick Links For Your Apartment Search
- Charlotte metro
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Blossoming Begonia in October, Vancouver
I was walking toward VGH today (October 18), Laurel street and couldn't pass the beautiful display of begonias! You think it's a middle of the summer that's how gorgeous and in a full bloom they were!
Anyone knows where I could get those? They obviously didn't mind a few cold nights that we just had!
The red impatients next to them were also very much alive and thriving.
I would appreciate your advice as I'm a novice with gardening and this is the first time for me trying to convince my first begonia to go to dormancy state. I live in Lower Mainland. Thanks!!!
You'll be able to purchase begonia tubers in the spring, and you can buy impatiens at local nurseries, or start them from seed - they're pretty easy.
The foliage of your begonia will die off eventually, after you've had a couple of frosts. Lift the tuber then, shake the soil off and store it in a paper bag in a cool place (mine are in the area in our semi-heated garage where we keep potatoes, carrots and onions). You can plant it again in the spring. Advice given to me that worked was to lay it a bit of soil in a container and as the foliage grows, gradually fill it in with more soil until your container is full. It will need to be hardened off after growing inside, but with your climate, that shouldn't be too hard, and it should be good to grow in no time. :)


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Bird brings word to Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Ah yes, sports in Sweden. It's the home of tennis great Bjorn Borg. And the Swedes rank soccer first, hockey second and bandy, a game in which the skating is like hockey, strategy is like soccer and shooting is like golf, third.
Basketball? After skiing, handball, racquetball, golf, cycling, roller blading, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, sailing and 10-pin bowling, basketball lands somewhere.
|Bird On Pacers
I couldn't help but ask Bird about already making a major decision in his short term in Pacers upper management. Although he wasn't hired long ago, he recently fired Pacers coach Isiah Thomas and replaced him with Bird's former Pacers assistant Rick Carlisle.
"Tough decisions are tough," Bird said. "It's a tough decision. I've made some tough decisions the first couple weeks I've been (back with the Pacers). It was the right decision, but it's tough."
And once veterans arrive at training camp on Oct. 2, Bird may have to deal with another tough situation with Pacers all-star forward Jermaine O'Neal.
O'Neal loved Thomas, who was a major reason why O'Neal re-signed with the Pacers for seven years in July. The news of Thomas' firing definitely bothered O'Neal as he got wind of it while playing for the United States during the Olympic Qualifying Tournament of Americas last month in Puerto Rico. Then add to the fact that the Pacers lost all-star center Brad Miller during the summer, too. After helping USA win a gold medal, O'Neal displayed his affection for Thomas by giving him a shot-out while being interviewed live by a television crew.
How big or little a deal this conflict between O'Neal and Bird is over the Thomas firing remains to be seen. By the sounds of things, a stern Bird expects the situation to blow over.
"I've talked to Jermaine," Bird said. "I think he will be fine over time. I'm not trying to be his best friend. Obviously, we need Jermaine O'Neal.''
Once the press conference concluded, Bird slowly walked out the lecture hall. As I slowly followed behind him, I was almost run over by my fellow media members. I quickly wondered what the big rush was.
As I walked back into the hotel lobby, many of the media members that were just asking questions were know asking Bird to autograph their Eurobasket 2003 media credential. Some asked to have pictures taken, too.
Such a thing is far from a norm for American media, who could be fired for asking for an autograph from someone they are interviewing. The only time I ever saw media members get autographs or pictures from a person they were reporting on was when I was working for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and covering an awards banquet in which Muhammad Ali was named Kentucky's Athlete of the Century.
It's not every day that people get to shake hands with "The Greatest." And it's not every day that "Larry Legend" drops by Sweden either. So in a sense, I understood.
"That was cool," said a European reporter, following the press conference.
Marc J. Spears
So when Sweden landed the 2003 Eurobasket basketball tournament, many other basketball-loving countries nearby which would have loved to maybe host it and probably appreciated it more were shocked. The Swedes couldn't even advance to the quarterfinals in their own tournament.
One local paper, DAGENS NYHETER, showed just how much love it has for this Olympic qualifying tournament in their town by displaying a short story on Thursday about the competition in the middle of page 6 in Sport with a small headline. AFTONBLADET, another local paper, was more disinterested showing no story at all in its 16-page sports section.
For this country to take notice of basketball, something out of the ordinary has to happen. You know, something like Larry Bird showing up.
Bird did show up, in fact. He spoke on Wednesday afternoon with the media. And AFTONBLADET actually did have a story on Thursday about the former Boston Celtics superstar.
The meeting with the media came at the Nordic Sea Hotel, in the central part of town. The room looked more like a lecture hall and was so packed that reporters had to stand on the side. Tucked in the back corner were two interesting looking media members -- or maybe they were fans. One wore a throwback green Boston Celtics Starter jacket; the other had on an ancient Celtics T-shirt that looked like a freebie he received the opening night of the old Boston Garden.
Swedish press chief Keijo Liimatainen, who has also worked with track and field during past Olympics, donned a smile similar to someone meeting a boyhood idol.
"Meeting Larry Bird was a fantastic experience," Liimatainen said. "He's a living legend and an ambassador to the sport. Larry Bird is a person whose presence makes Sweden and the rest of the world know how good USA basketball is. It was a great joy to have him at the press conference. I think he enjoyed it. It was a press conference I will always remember."
As Bird walked into the room, there was silence as if the Pope had arrived. For over 20 minutes, the new Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations held court. It was sort of like a Basketball 101, shall we say, from Professor Bird. And the students paid close attention.
Bird explained his reason for being here.
"I'll be scouting a lot of players,'' he said. "All I am trying to do here is learn some names and see who can play a little bit in European basketball... I am trying to find a diamond in the rough."
The three-time NBA MVP showed that he is still a tough competitor, even when it came to scouting.
When asked about the tourney's top prospects, Bird said: "I can't get into that. If I give you a name of a person, ya'll will know who it is."
Bird also used some comedy before giving Sweden some sound advice on how to become better in basketball.
"Stick to soccer," Bird joked. "That is best thing to do. When I was young I had good coaching. You got to get coaches at a young level and throughout. If you get good coaches when you're young, the good players will get better and better. You have to have good coaching at all levels."
Bird also spoke about the influence that the original 1992 U.S. Olympic Dream Team had on the rest of the world.
"The Dream Team was the best thing that happened to basketball,'' he said. "Every team that played against them and every coach that coached against them knew that to compete against the United States they had to get better in every aspect&
"There have been improvements in European basketball and improvements around the world immensely," he said. "Could they beat the Dream Team? Hell no they can't beat the Dream Team. I'm talking about the real Dream Team, not the stuff they have now."
Sweden still has a long way to go before basketball becomes a major headline in the DAGENS NYHETER or AFTONBLADET. But with the likes of Larry Bird in town, who was announced as an NBA legend and received rousing applause during Wednesday's quarterfinals, the game of basketball did become important for a day while in the land of soccer, hockey and even bandy, too.
"It was great getting an award from Larry Bird," said France and San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, who received a player of the game award from Bird after France's win. "It's not every day you see Larry Bird."
Marc J. Spears, who covers the NBA and Denver Nuggets for The Denver Post, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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