Blake Tyson, Roman Iwaschkin, Gillian Mead, David Reid, Peter Gillman, Wilfred Ashworth, Clive Bingley, Edwin Fleming, Sarah Lawson and Kate Hills
AS A RESULT of present economic problems in Britain and attendant cuts in spending, there is a need to achieve maximum cost‐effectiveness in all sectors of public spending…
Abstract
AS A RESULT of present economic problems in Britain and attendant cuts in spending, there is a need to achieve maximum cost‐effectiveness in all sectors of public spending including libraries. This article examines a simple method by which economies could be made in buying multiple copies of books. It is assumed that unless librarians have freedom to buy a single copy of any book they choose, they will not achieve the breadth and depth required of first‐class libraries, be they in the public sector or in academic institutions. Perhaps second copies need cause little concern, but a pilot survey of a polytechnic library revealed cases where as many as four, six or even eight copies of the same edition had been bought on one occasion before the effectiveness of a lesser purchase could have been evaluated.
Emma Killbery Wilkinson, Amanda Lees, Sarah Weekes, Gillian Duncan, Geoffrey Meads and Kit Tapson
In 2019, St Johns Winchester, a CQC-registered charity, launched the Hand in Hand (HiH) Service, a social prescribing (SP) initiative to alleviate social isolation/loneliness…
Abstract
Purpose
In 2019, St Johns Winchester, a CQC-registered charity, launched the Hand in Hand (HiH) Service, a social prescribing (SP) initiative to alleviate social isolation/loneliness amongst older people via integration between primary care and the third sector. Arising from collaborative stakeholder reflection, this article explicates processes instigated to plan, implement and evaluate the HiH service which has been locally recognised as an exemplar of good practice. It aims to fill a gap in the literature which has hitherto lacked contextual description of the drivers, mechanisms and processes of SP schemes, leading to confusion over what constitutes SP and which models can work.
Design/methodology/approach
The article defines the context of, drivers for and collaborative process followed to implement and evaluate HiH and reflects on challenges, facilitators and key points for transferable learning. Early evaluation findings are presented.
Findings
Key features underpinning the success of the pilot phase were: having clear referral pathways, working collaboratively with health and voluntary sector partners, building relationships based on trust, adherence to high-quality standards and governance, a well-trained team of volunteers and access to up-to-date information source. There remains a disparity between the urgent need for rigorous evaluation data and the resources available to produce it.
Originality/value
The article offers a novel contribution for those planning SP at the level of practice and policy and for the developing field of SP evaluation.
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In 2012, I wrote an article titled ‘Māori research collaborations, Mātauranga Māori science, and the appropriation of water in New Zealand’.1 The article attempted to critique…
Abstract
In 2012, I wrote an article titled ‘Māori research collaborations, Mātauranga Māori science, and the appropriation of water in New Zealand’.1 The article attempted to critique Vision Mātauranga (VM)2 policy by examining the relationship between Ngā Pae ō te Māramatanga,3 Ngāi Tahu iwi (tribe) and scientists with interests in freshwater. Seven years on, I admit to having barely scratched the surface regarding the multiple ways the policy is used as a mechanism to advance and create relationships between scientists and Māori communities in the co-production of new knowledge. Back then my commentary was somewhat sceptical of the policy’s design which does not deal with the unequal power relationships created between science experts and flax-root communities. I argued that VM had been created to commodify and globalise Māori knowledge that belongs to Māori communities and had become the expected mechanism for all engagement between university researchers and Māori communities. Much of the risk associated with forming new collaborations rested with Māori communities, and even more so with the Māori researchers who act as intermediaries and brokers between the communities and research teams. Back then, as a scholar trained in social anthropology, the way I understood knowledge transmission and the research part of my world was disconnected from the rest of my life. The probing and critical perspectives I had developed by privileging anthropological ideas and theory overshadowed other ways of interacting and understanding people and place. Like many of my anthropological colleagues I had learnt to be an ‘objective’ participant observer. The aim of participant observation is to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals through intensive involvement with people in their cultural environment, usually over an extended period of time. This method is highly regarded by social and cultural anthropologists around the globe. Now as the Director of a Māori research centre, I am expected to participate in all manner of engagements with Māori and non-Māori groups, and I am constantly confronted by ethical questions when undertaking research projects. VM as a process forces me to ask questions that I never did when I was trying my hand at being a bona fide anthropologist. The questions that shape my scholarship now are as follows: Who will benefit from this research and what will my legacy be?
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The aim of this study is to examine how knowledge-intensive born global firms operating in international markets develop and maintain long-term relationships with their customers…
Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine how knowledge-intensive born global firms operating in international markets develop and maintain long-term relationships with their customers that insure their continued growth beyond the initial stage of internationalization. The study adopts a case study approach, focusing on two Indian born global firms operating with the knowledge-based services sector. The study shows that getting to know the customer intimately helps firms to retain customers over long periods of time. Customer-relationship management strategy is in line with the entrepreneurial orientation of the firms under consideration.
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Donal Rogan, Gillian Hopkinson and Maria Piacentini
This paper aims to adopt a relational dialectics analysis approach to provide qualitative depth and insight into the ways intercultural families manage intercultural tensions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to adopt a relational dialectics analysis approach to provide qualitative depth and insight into the ways intercultural families manage intercultural tensions around consumption. The authors pay particular attention to how a relational dialectics analysis reveals a relational change in the family providing evidence to demonstrate how a family’s unique relational culture evolves and transitions.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative insights from a relational-dialectic analysis on 15 intercultural families are used to illustrate the interplay of stability with instability in the management of intercultural dialectic tensions within these families.
Findings
Intercultural dialectical interplay around food consumption tensions are implicit tensions in the household’s relational culture. Examples of dialectical movement indicating relational change are illustrated; this change has developmental consequences for the couples’ relational cultures.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides qualitative insights on relational dialectics in one intercultural family context and reveals and analyses the dialectical dimensions around consumption in the context of intercultural family relationships. The research approach could be considered in other intercultural and relational contexts.
Practical implications
Family narratives can be analysed within the context of two meta-dialectics that directly address how personal relationships evolve; indigenous dialectic tensions within a family can also be identified.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates the qualitative value of a relational dialectics analysis in revealing how food consumption changes within families are the result of reciprocal or interdependent learning, which has consequences for relational change.
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Starting with an explanation of the language of law, the article outlines the characteristics of legal literature and the expectations of computer‐based systems. There follows a…
Abstract
Starting with an explanation of the language of law, the article outlines the characteristics of legal literature and the expectations of computer‐based systems. There follows a brief evaluative survey of the development of major legal text retrieval systems throughout the world with an indication of the areas of research in progress. The final section deals with systems in the United Kingdom and the problems associated with research funding and the general organization of legal information in the country. 8 refs.
This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it…
Abstract
This chapter will examine ideological debates currently taking place in academics. Anthropologists – and all academic workers – are at a crossroads. They must determine what it means to “green the academy” in an era of permanent war, “green capitalism,” and the neoliberal university (Sullivan, 2010). As Victor Wallis makes clear, “no serious observer now denies the severity of the environmental crisis, but it is still not widely recognized as a capitalist crisis, that is, as a crisis arising from and perpetuated by the rule of capital, and hence incapable of resolution within the capitalist framework.”
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White paper on Japanese sci‐tech. Compared to 50% in France, 46% in the US and 37% in the UK, did you know that the Japanese government funds only 19% of the R&D expenditures in…
Abstract
White paper on Japanese sci‐tech. Compared to 50% in France, 46% in the US and 37% in the UK, did you know that the Japanese government funds only 19% of the R&D expenditures in Japan? Are you aware that the US spent 107.7 billion yen on Japanese technology in the 1991 fiscal year, but Japan spent 102.2b yen more — a total of 209.5b yen — on US technology imports?