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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1991

Barbara A. Misztal

Emergencies commonly reveal the disorder from which routine order is painfully extracted. They dramatise social fissures, inconsistencies and ignorance that ordinarily remain…

204

Abstract

Emergencies commonly reveal the disorder from which routine order is painfully extracted. They dramatise social fissures, inconsistencies and ignorance that ordinarily remain hidden or can be ignored without damage or controversy. They transform the taken‐for‐granted into the up‐for‐discussion, compel the formation of decisions and accompanying justifications, and demand action of a special and urgent kind. Using Unger (1988) terminology, we can say that emergencies might reduce fixed distance between context and routines, thus they can be perceived as “context‐revising” situations, providing possibilities for lifting “a powerful constraint over all social practices, forcing them into a specific mould of predictable routines” (Unger 1988, p. 125). AIDS (an acronym formally designating the most developed stage of HIV infection but misleadingly used in our lexicon of public concern to stand for the disease as a whole), is such an emergency, not only due to the extent of the spread of the disease, but because this epidemic presents so many difficult ethical, legal and technical issues, and because of growing and changing knowledge about the disease, it requires continuous rethinking of strategies and adopting them to new discoveries.

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International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2024

Peregrine Schwartz-Shea and Dvora Yanow

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Informality in Policymaking: Weaving the Threads of Everyday Policy Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-280-7

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Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2024

Kristin Anabel Eggeling and Larissa Versloot

Diplomats are often considered to be masters of informality. Scholars and practitioners alike have long suggested that the real work of diplomacy happens in the corridor, during…

Abstract

Diplomats are often considered to be masters of informality. Scholars and practitioners alike have long suggested that the real work of diplomacy happens in the corridor, during the coffee break and cocktail parties. But while everyone agrees that informality is a key ingredient of diplomatic work, few have explicitly explored it, and we lack a conceptualisation of how informality becomes meaningful. In this chapter, we unpack the question: through which spaces and practices is informality performed in diplomacy? Based on thick descriptions generated through ethnographic research in and around the institutions of the European Union (EU), we make two key contributions. First, we map local understandings of the term and give a grounded account of how diplomats use informality and interpret its functions. Second, we take these ‘tales from the field’ (van Maanen, 2011[1988]) and consider them in the light of theoretical debates on informality, particularly through the concept of boundary. Where and how is the boundary between the formal and informal constituted? Who has the power to draw and move these boundaries? How does it matter, politically, if something is ‘formal’ or ‘informal’? Based on our analysis, we find that informality comes in many forms and can be both politically productive and disruptive. In diplomacy, handling informality is a key diplomatic skill that is learned over time to be, eventually, mastered.

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Informality in Policymaking: Weaving the Threads of Everyday Policy Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-280-7

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Book part
Publication date: 19 July 2007

Nigel Norris

Given the importance of trust in social life, the concept has had little direct attention from evaluators.1 Trust is central to the seeming integrity of social processes…

Abstract

Given the importance of trust in social life, the concept has had little direct attention from evaluators.1 Trust is central to the seeming integrity of social processes, including, of course, the social processes we call evaluation. Evaluation depends for its success on cooperative relationships and a measure of trust. Evaluation stands in an interesting relationship to trust. The credibility and utility of evaluation rests on trust. Loss or lack of trust is a major impetus to evaluation, and evaluation sometimes takes the place of trust. The process of evaluation requires trust, and evaluation is used to underpin or provide a warrant for trust.

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Dilemmas of Engagement: Evaluation and the New Public Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-439-3

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Article
Publication date: 4 July 2016

Tomasz Chady, Ryszard Sikora, Mariusz Szwagiel, Bogdan Grzywacz, Leszek Misztal, Pawel Waszczuk, Michal Szydlowski and Barbara Szymanik

The purpose of this paper is to describe a multisource system for nondestructive inspection of welded elements exploited in aircraft industry developed in West Pomeranian…

252

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe a multisource system for nondestructive inspection of welded elements exploited in aircraft industry developed in West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin in the frame of CASELOT project. The system task is to support the operator in flaws identification of welded aircraft elements using data obtained from X-ray inspection and 3D triangulation laser scanners.

Design/methodology/approach

For proper defects detection a set of special processing algorithms were developed. For easier system exploitation and integration of all components a user friendly interface in LabVIEW environment was designed.

Findings

It is possible to create the fully independent, intelligent system for welds’ flaws detection. This kind of technology might be crucial in further development of aircraft industry.

Originality/value

In this paper a number of innovative solutions (new algorithms, algorithms’ combinations) for defects’ detection in welds are presented. All of these solutions are the basis of presented complete system. One of the main original solution is a combination of the systems based on 3D triangulation laser scanner and X-ray testing.

Details

COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, vol. 35 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

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Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2024

Joanna Mason, E. Lianne Visser, Lindsey Garner-Knapp and Tamara Mulherin

This opening chapter introduces key debates in relation to informality in policymaking, laying the theoretical and conceptual groundwork for the individual empirical chapters…

Abstract

This opening chapter introduces key debates in relation to informality in policymaking, laying the theoretical and conceptual groundwork for the individual empirical chapters, beginning with a provocation for how informality can alternatively be understood. Through illustrating where gaps in understanding within current literature exist for how informality acquires meaning, and the physical and material relevance for how it manifests across contexts, this chapter introduces the three thematic clusters that thread through the book’s chapters: boundaries, knowledge mastery and networks. In doing so, it briefly positions each chapter in relation to these flexible and overlapping categories, drawing attention to how each chapter presents a different understanding of informality. Key to this chapter is our contention that while informality escapes definition, without binary or fixed conceptualisations of this concept we are better able to take in its fluidity and envisage how it is interwoven in everyday policy work and its human and non-human enactment. Underpinning this contention is a key contribution of this work, a proposition for a re-conceptualising of informality and formality as in|formality. Methodologically, this chapter argues that informality is better ‘shown’ than ‘told’ – and that this can be achieved through interpretive and socio-material approaches woven through disciplines that foreground narrative, ethnographic and creative approaches to research.

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Informality in Policymaking: Weaving the Threads of Everyday Policy Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-280-7

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Book part
Publication date: 1 October 2018

Naomi Woodspring

Abstract

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Baby Boomers, Age, and Beauty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-824-8

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Book part
Publication date: 3 December 2024

Claire Bynner

This chapter examines the informal through the accounts of a public official who had a leading role in re-making the administration of community grants in her local authority…

Abstract

This chapter examines the informal through the accounts of a public official who had a leading role in re-making the administration of community grants in her local authority during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter explores what happens when there is a rupture to public administration processes, and the rule book is ‘thrown out of the window’. The focus is on the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the weeks following the UK government announcement of the ‘stay-at-home’ order. The analysis draws on practice theory with its focus on the ways in which policy actors engage with concrete situations and negotiate institutional contexts and configurations (Bartels, 2018; Cook & Wagenaar, 2012; Wagenaar, 2004). The analytical framework applies Wagenaar’s (2004) four key elements of public administration practice: context, action, knowledge and interaction. This chapter builds on Wagenaar’s understanding and explores how the entanglement of [in]formal practices made it possible for public officials to keep administrative systems going during the pandemic crisis.

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Informality in Policymaking: Weaving the Threads of Everyday Policy Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-280-7

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Article
Publication date: 14 August 2017

Saif Ur Rehman, Cao Qingren and Gao Weiming

The aim of this paper is to develop a model for presenting level of trust and analyzing the contribution of various trust-building measures undertaken by an organization.

520

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to develop a model for presenting level of trust and analyzing the contribution of various trust-building measures undertaken by an organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual framework for the model is based on previous research and the concept of trust and its implications in business environment. This model includes various stages of trust measured against time and trust building measures (TBM). This trust model relates the trustee’s position with the trustor at any point in time and describes its impact on trustee’s position in terms of trustworthiness (sum of “trust deficit” and “trust gain”). 10;Vectors and linear Algebra equations are used to construct the model supplemented with an example from real-life business environment for better understanding of the model. 10.

Findings

A trust framework, elaborating level of trust between two parties is explained with the help of a mathematical model. The model includes various stages of trust measured against time and TBM.

Research limitations/implications

In the practical application of the model, the authors adopted an existing scale to measure trust levels, which can have its limitations and shortcomings. It is however suggested to choose as specific scale for the industry as possible.

Practical implications

The model can be applied in any situation, person or environment specially to determine the current situation of organizational trust in business which can be helpful in making decisions.

Originality/value

The concept of making trust a part of strategy and a tool for decision-making is novel and applicable in all sectors and situations. By providing a real-time view of the level of trust and impact of TBM will help predict future levels of trust and make it an essential part of decision-making process.

Details

Journal of Modelling in Management, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5664

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Article
Publication date: 23 August 2022

Ina-Maria Jansson

The present study aims to contribute to the understanding of digital participation in heritage collections as a democratizing practice by identifying and challenging silent…

352

Abstract

Purpose

The present study aims to contribute to the understanding of digital participation in heritage collections as a democratizing practice by identifying and challenging silent assumptions concerning how the insufficient influence of participants is conceived of as a problem.

Design/methodology/approach

Three carefully selected scholarly texts incorporating problematizations of insufficient participatory agency were analyzed in detail using a method inspired by Carol Bacchi's approach “what's the problem represented to be?” (WPR), with special emphasis on analysis of ontological elements of the problematizations.

Findings

Participation is problematized based on the assumption that participatory agency risks jeopardizing the protection of heritage and leads to parts of the public memory being forgotten. To challenge the idea that participatory agency is destructive, the present article argues for elaborating an understanding of what forgetting entails for heritage. Framing forgetting as a potentially both harmful and generative concept enables a separation of destructive forgetting (e.g. destruction of historical evidence) and constructive forgetting (re-contextualization).

Research limitations/implications

The study is based on a limited number of texts, and problematizations are investigated in relation to a specific perspective on participatory agency.

Practical implications

By understanding forgetting as a potentially beneficial activity for representation and heritage construction, the article provides a conceptual rationale for facilitating re-contextualization in the design of multi-layered information structures for heritage collections.

Originality/value

There is little earlier research on the silent assumptions that affect how participation is understood and implemented.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 79 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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