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This case study of the State of Qatar examines government educational policy and economic development in Qatar’s strategy to diversify its oil and gas-based economy into knowledge…
Abstract
This case study of the State of Qatar examines government educational policy and economic development in Qatar’s strategy to diversify its oil and gas-based economy into knowledge production. Qatar presents a particularly interesting case since its substantial investments in the past decade in education, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), research and development (R&D), and coastal development and tourism are all highly intertwined both in practice and from a national policy perspective. Armed with billions of dollars of sovereign wealth funds (SWF) from its gas and oil industries, the government of Qatar has embarked on both domestic and overseas investment campaigns including education, sports, internet and telecommunications, healthcare, overseas land purchases (food security), cultural institutions and museums, increased desalinated water capacity, and coastal development and tourism projects. Education and research, most notably Qatar Foundation’s Education City, Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), and the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), stand at the heart of Qatar’s investment in human development and long-term economic and social sustainability. Despite large outlays in knowledge economy initiatives, the country, however, is facing significant challenges in rapid population growth, reliance on expatriate labor for its skilled labor needs, an underdeveloped education system, and an undiversified economy which revolves around hydrocarbon rents.
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Sujata Mukherjee and Rajat Jyoti Sarkar
Knowledge capital formation through investment in education has been at the center of the recent economic planning and management. Increase in labor productivity and technological…
Abstract
Knowledge capital formation through investment in education has been at the center of the recent economic planning and management. Increase in labor productivity and technological innovation is the outcome of Research and Development (R&D) which is a part of the higher education system of a country. Therefore, to achieve long-run sustainable growth, an economy should dynamize its higher education framework along with strengthening the primary and secondary education to reflect the changing realities. The study examines the interplay between the percentage of educational expenditure in total expenditure and per capita net state domestic product (NSDP) of eight selected metro city states of India during the period 2005–2006 to 2015–2016. The result shows strong positive impact of educational expenditure on per capita NSDP. Therefore, the study suggests to increase the percentage share of educational expenditure in total expenditure.
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Michel Foucault and Max Weber dominate contemporary organisation theory. At least in part, Foucault can be read as an extension of Weber's concepts of bureaucracy and…
Abstract
Michel Foucault and Max Weber dominate contemporary organisation theory. At least in part, Foucault can be read as an extension of Weber's concepts of bureaucracy and rationalisation. Or, more profitably, Weber can be read through Foucault and vice versa. Central to the development of the bureaucracy was the construction of the career as a life-long project of the self. From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, British banks developed extensive forms of surveillance predicated upon the career. Not all clerks satisfied the banks' close inspection of the individual's personal life. Here, we use Weber and Foucault to tell the story of William Notman, a Scottish bank clerk who successfully sued his employers for dismissing him because he married against their wishes.
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This paper presents an historical reconstruction of the radicalisation of Alan Fox, the industrial sociologist and a detailed analysis of his early historical and sociological…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents an historical reconstruction of the radicalisation of Alan Fox, the industrial sociologist and a detailed analysis of his early historical and sociological writing in the classical pluralist phase.
Design/methodology/approach
An intellectual history, including detailed discussion of key Fox texts, supported by interviews with Fox and other Biographical sources.
Findings
Fox’s radicalisation was incomplete, as he carried over from his industrial relations (IR) pluralist mentors, Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg, a suspicion of political Marxism, a sense of historical contingency and an awareness of the fragmented nature of industrial conflict.
Originality/value
Recent academic attention has centred on Fox’s later radical pluralism with its “structural” approach to the employment relationship. This paper revisits his early, neglected classical pluralist writing. It also illuminates his transition from institutional IR to a broader sociology of work, influenced by AH Halsey, John Goldthorpe and others and the complex nature of his radicalisation.
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To demonstrate how awareness of Neo-Marxist critical theory and Neo-Weberian comparative–historical sociology would have been beneficial to U.S. policy planners and…
Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate how awareness of Neo-Marxist critical theory and Neo-Weberian comparative–historical sociology would have been beneficial to U.S. policy planners and decision-makers, especially Presidents.
Methodology/approach
This study employs qualitative analysis of available sources rather than quantitative data analysis.
Findings
Based on its practical application to a specific historical instance, the heuristic value of Max Weber’s ideal-type model of traditional authority (Herrschaft [domination]) is confirmed, as it is apparent that Henry Kissinger’s interpretation of the meaning of Realpolitik harmed U.S. foreign policy.
Practical implications
There is an imminent need to be critical of claims to expertise by advisors of major decision-makers. The practical relevance of possessing an adequate grasp of a given situation as the context in which actors must make choices is evident, as applies with regard to the current crises facing the world, which must be approached and addressed as scrupulously as possible.
Originality/value
Prevailing critiques of Kissinger and American foreign policy have tended to accept the premise that Kissinger was well-informed and giving good advice based on extensive and appropriate scholarship. That was not the case in Vietnam, in Indonesia, or in other regions. There are no available studies that examine Kissinger’s Eurocentric and limited perspective in light of critical theory and comparative–historical sociology.
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