Jane Sixsmith, Saoirse Nic Gabhainn, Collette Fleming and Sioban O'Higgins
The purpose of this paper is to present an exploration of parents', teachers' and childrens' perspectives on children's understanding of wellbeing with the aim of illuminating and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an exploration of parents', teachers' and childrens' perspectives on children's understanding of wellbeing with the aim of illuminating and comparing the conceptualisation of wellbeing from these three perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The participatory method developed to undertake the study in this paper stems from the adoption of the “draw and write” technique, with children taking photographs rather than drawing and participating in data analysis. Children aged eight to 12 years took 723 photographs representing wellbeing, while a second set of children grouped the photographs into categories. A third set organised these categories, developing and illustrating through schemata the pattern of relationships between categories. This process was repeated for parent and teacher groups drawing on the photographs taken by the children.
Findings
The findings in this paper show that differences emerged between parents and teachers and children and adults. Parents provided a more detailed conceptualisation than teachers. Children included pets where adults perceived school as being more important in children's wellbeing. The identification of the differing perspectives between children and adults suggests that this approach has enabled children to illuminate their own unique perspective on wellbeing. The paper also demonstrates that children can express complex understandings of abstract concepts.
Originality/value
In the paper the findings reinforce the need to gain children's perspectives rather than relying on adult perceptions of children's perspectives, in order to inform quality service, practice and policy developments.
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This chapter addresses growing concerns that, despite being a radically intentioned community, Critical Management Studies (CMS) lacks an orientation to achieve pragmatic change…
Abstract
This chapter addresses growing concerns that, despite being a radically intentioned community, Critical Management Studies (CMS) lacks an orientation to achieve pragmatic change. In response I argue that the failure to address the continuing marginalisation of the subaltern is key to CMS being negatively represented as an elitist self-preoccupied endeavour. This state of affairs is linked to a legacy of the ‘postmodern’ turn, which emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, as evidenced by the nature of contemporary debates continuing to reflect the stylistic fetishes of that time. I contend that the ghost of postmodernism is evident in the continuing predilection to produce signification discourses marked by symbolic absences, which politically confine such texts to the level of epistemology. The lack of integration of ontological concerns means that corporeal aspects of daily life are neglected, resulting in an abstracted ‘subjectless’ mode of representation. To address these limitations, a feminist activist version of post-structuralism (PSF) of the time is revisited, which through its distinctive attention to community concerns, enabled the linking of epistemological and ontological representations; thereby facilitating the creation of a framework for pragmatic change. As the chapter demonstrates, by drawing attention to the integral relationship between the modes of representation, power relations and subsequent social effects, poststructuralist feminists were able to achieve praxis outcomes. Accordingly, I argue this treasure house of ideas needs to be reclaimed and provides illustrations of the design principles proffered to support my contentions.
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Elisabetta Sieni, Paolo Di Barba, Fabrizio Dughiero and Michele Forzan
The purpose of this paper is to present a modified version of the non-dominated sorted genetic algorithm with an application in the design optimization of a power inductor for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a modified version of the non-dominated sorted genetic algorithm with an application in the design optimization of a power inductor for magneto-fluid hyperthermia (MFH).
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed evolutionary algorithm is a modified version of migration-non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms (M-NSGA) that now includes the self-adaption of migration events- non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms (SA-M-NSGA). Moreover, a criterion based on the evolution of the approximated Pareto front has been activated for the automatic stop of the computation. Numerical experiments have been based on both an analytical benchmark and a real-life case study; the latter, which deals with the design of a class of power inductors for tests of MFH, is characterized by finite element analysis of the magnetic field.
Findings
The SA-M-NSGA substantially varies the genetic heritage of the population during the optimization process and allows for a faster convergence.
Originality/value
The proposed SA-M-NSGA is able to find a wider Pareto front with a computational effort comparable to a standard NSGA-II implementation.
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Robert D. Hisrich and Mateja Drnovsek
Interest in the field of entrepreneurship has significantly increased among academics, practitioners and government officials in the past decade both in the USA and in Europe. The…
Abstract
Interest in the field of entrepreneurship has significantly increased among academics, practitioners and government officials in the past decade both in the USA and in Europe. The increased interest is reflected in the increased number of courses, majors and minors at colleges and universities throughout the world; the increased number of endowed chairs; the increased number of journals in the field; the increased coverage of the field by the media; and the increased interest in the provision of government support. In light of this significant increased interest, it is important to understand the state of research in the field in Europe in the last few years, the focus of this article.