Claudia Marà, Lander Vermeerbergen, Valeria Pulignano and Karin Hannes
Revitalisation of quality of working life (QWL) research points to non-standard work such as remote platform work as a compelling setting where research on QWL is needed. Whereas…
Abstract
Purpose
Revitalisation of quality of working life (QWL) research points to non-standard work such as remote platform work as a compelling setting where research on QWL is needed. Whereas the literature on working conditions in remote work platforms is rich, knowledge on the topic is fragmented. This systematic review aims to synthesize and integrate findings from existing literature to offer an encompassing and multidimensional understanding of QWL and the managerial practices linked to it in remote work platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of 24 empirical qualitative studies selected based on a multiple-database search using Boolean search engines. The selection of studies to be included in the review was performed through a four-steps procedure, following the PRISMA protocol. A thematic analysis of the studies was performed to synthesize findings.
Findings
We synthesize and show how remote platform workers experience a degrading QWL along five QWL dimensions, and we illustrate how these QWL dimensions are influenced by platforms’ managerial practices such as client-biased systems, rate-setting mechanisms, reputational systems, global competition schemes, lock-in systems, monitoring and nudging systems and information asymmetry.
Originality/value
The study contributes to reinvigorating QWL literature by producing a systematic synthesis of workers’ experience of QWL in the non-standard work context of remote platform work and the managerial practices that influence QWL. Our study overcomes two main shortcomings of the existing empirical studies published: (1) studies examine only a few QWL dimensions and/or (2) examine some platforms’ managerial practices that influence QWL, overlooking others.
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The US fossil fuel industry is vulnerable to opposition from other sectors of the ruling class. Non-fossil fuel capitalists might conclude that climate breakdown jeopardizes their…
Abstract
The US fossil fuel industry is vulnerable to opposition from other sectors of the ruling class. Non-fossil fuel capitalists might conclude that climate breakdown jeopardizes their interests. State actors such as judges, regulators, and politicians may come to the same conclusion. However, these other elite actors are unlikely to take concerted collective action against fossil fuels in the absence of growing disruption by grassroots activists. Drawing from the history of the Obama, Trump, and Biden presidencies, I analyze the forces determining government climate policies and private-sector investments. I focus on how the climate and Indigenous movements have begun to force changes in the behavior of certain ruling-class interests. Of particular importance is these movements' progress in two areas: eroding the financial sector's willingness to fund and insure fossil fuels, and influencing judges and regulators to take actions that further undermine investors' confidence in fossil fuels. Our future hinges largely on whether the movements can build on these victories while expanding their base within labor unions and other strategically positioned sectors.
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Addresses the problem of psychotherapy coming to understand itself formally as a conversation in which healing of distortions and breakdowns in communication occurs. The paper…
Abstract
Addresses the problem of psychotherapy coming to understand itself formally as a conversation in which healing of distortions and breakdowns in communication occurs. The paper proposes making concepts the basis for the psychotherapy conversation by linking psychotherapy to second‐order cybernetics and utilizing Pask’s conversation theory. The first part describes cybernetics as the context for the study of the distortions and breakdowns in communication. The second part discusses conversation theory as a formal description of the procedures of psychotherapy, as a way to converse in psychotherapy, as a way to talk about psychotherapy and as a way to change the conversation of psychotherapy. The final part discusses four distinctive characteristics of the evolving conversation of psychotherapy where psychotherapy composes itself as a conversation. These characteristics are what psychotherapy is (its definition), what it is about (its object), how it proceeds (its methods), and what it is for (its value).
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Diagnosing pain and pain inflicting diseases are crucial issues in the health care of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Diagnosing pain and pain inflicting diseases are crucial issues in the health care of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to delineate possible peculiarities in pain perception, characterizing a syndrome-specific spectrum of pain causing diseases as well as particular features of pain expression in Rett syndrome (RTT).
Design/methodology/approach
A selective review of the literature on pain, dolorous disorders and diseases, molecular aspects of pain transduction, pain perception, and expression of painful conditions in RTT was undertaken.
Findings
RTT causing mutations in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2) have an impact on various endogenous molecules modulating pain transmission. Individuals with RTT are specifically prone to numerous pathological states which can cause pain. By thorough observation/application of proper tools, it is possible to recognize painful states in persons with RTT.
Originality/value
This paper imparts empirical/evidence-based data on pain perception/transmission, possible syndrome-specific causes of pain and pain expression/assessment in RTT, with the objective of promoting the quality of clinical practice in this crucial issue.
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Pask’s great contribution to cybernetics is to take seriously the notion of interaction in the circular processes that lie at the heart of the subject. From his earliest days he…
Abstract
Pask’s great contribution to cybernetics is to take seriously the notion of interaction in the circular processes that lie at the heart of the subject. From his earliest days he worked with interactive systems. His master work, conversation theory, epitomises the interactive system, which he then extended and generalised into the interaction of actors theory. In this paper, the requirements that conversation places on our understanding of participants is presented in the form of a specification. In particular, the ways of behaving and the assumptions under which we have to behave if we are to be able to converse with success are expounded. These are in great contrast to neo‐Darwinian assumptions. The difference between communication by code and communication by conversation is explored, and the primacy of conversational communication is argued. Finally, it is claimed that the ways of behaving and the assumptions that are the requirements for a conversation to take place are presented as personal qualities that were particularly apparent in Pask himself.
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This paper reviews a recently developed closed modular masters programme on generic project management as a project management case study of academic‐industrial collaboration…
Abstract
This paper reviews a recently developed closed modular masters programme on generic project management as a project management case study of academic‐industrial collaboration. Literature on some educational issues is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the management of the development of the programme and the delivery phase. The linkage between return‐on‐investment, project management competencies and learning outcomes in the context of industrial‐academic partnerships are explored. The paper also includes a discussion on the drivers, development and implementation of a managed learning environment, using a software package called WebCT. Discussion and conclusions focus on lessons learnt from the development and delivery of the programme.
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This paper introduces the other papers in this issue, describing and arguing for the context in which they were written – a conference that was, unusually, based in conversation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces the other papers in this issue, describing and arguing for the context in which they were written – a conference that was, unusually, based in conversation rather than reporting through the presentation of papers: and a refereeing process that continued after the initial presentation (at the conference) of the work reported, thus allowing responses to critical comments. Many of our authors do not come from scientific backgrounds, and writing papers such as we are used to is a novel experience to, and discipline for, them.
Design/methodology/approach
The organisation and structure of the conference and the processes of refereeing involved are described; and the argument is made that the particularities of each are more cybernetic than the more familiar arrangements.
Findings
The conference processes were greatly valued by the authors. This is evident in the papers presented in this volume, although the convention of presenting only the final form of the paper may mean it is only evident to those who have been involved in the process of writing and refereeing.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the approach presented here are a combination of what we can imagine (supported by hard work) and the cultural willingness of funding sources to accept the unfamiliar.
Practical implications
The contents of this volume, that form an outcome of the conference, show it is possible and interesting to create a “non‐standard” conference based in conversation, which searches for new questions rather than reporting answers to old ones: and that papers produced within a conversational process of refereeing and discussion allow both development of research‐in‐writing, and a good quality outcome. We can and should meet in “better” ways.
Social implications
The conference and papers associated with it show that meetings in which a conversational approach is taken can be viable, not only as academic occasions but in their ability to generate papers of quality. This opens the academic world to different types of meeting and different ways of associating.
Originality/value
The value of this paper lies in the arguments made concerning conferences and refereeing processes. The originality is in the way these are presented as the embodiment of cybernetic understandings and processes (thus realising a cybernetics of cybernetics). The quality of the introduction is enriched by frequent references to material of generation and of record that exists as the legacy of the conference “Cybernetics: Art, Design, Mathematics – A Meta‐Disciplinary Conversation” at frequently cited urls on the conference web site. The evidence is there, as well as in this volume.
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Visual representations of teachers and teachers’ work over the past century and a half, in both professional literature and popular media, commonly construct teachers’ work as…
Abstract
Visual representations of teachers and teachers’ work over the past century and a half, in both professional literature and popular media, commonly construct teachers’ work as teacher‐centred, and built around specific technologies that privilege the teacher as the active, dominant and legitimate principal agent in the educational process. This article analyses a set of photographs that represent an ‘alternative’ educational approach to normalised mainstream schooling, to explore the ways such practices might enact pedagogy within different social relations. Butler’s discussions of performativity and Foucault’s concept of technologies of self, offer a theoretical framework for understanding the educative and political work such visual representations of teachers work might perform, in the construction of capacities to imagine what teachers’ work looks like, with implications for capacities to enact teaching. The photographs analysed present a pedagogy in which the teacher is less visibly central and less overtly directive in relation to children’s learning than in normalised pedagogy. Thus, in important respects, they offer material from which to construct a different vision of what teachers’ work looks like, and, consequently, to enact teachers’ work differently. In this article I explore a set of photographs of Montessori methods at Blackfriars School in Sydney in the early twentieth century. I do so in order to establish whether such photographs offer a representation of teaching that differs significantly from conventional ‘normalised’ understandings of teachers’ work. This in turn is intended to inform one part of a transformative agenda to address problematic aspects of contemporary schooling.
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Sohail Ahmad, Aisha Naz Ansari, Saman Khawaja and Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta
This paper aims to explore contribution of informal learning space - Research Cafe - to enrich research learning experiences of graduate students. Developing strong research…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore contribution of informal learning space - Research Cafe - to enrich research learning experiences of graduate students. Developing strong research skills among graduate students is a prime focus of higher education around the world. Thereby, universities are striving to maximise opportunities that can foster and enrich students’ learning experiences of research; however, the focus is mostly confined to formal opportunities such as research method courses and thesis writing. The provision of informal learning spaces has been recognised as a useful tool for fostering research learning experiences of graduates. This reflective paper is among a few focusing on a model of student-led informal learning space for enriching research experiences in higher education in the context of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a reflective approach to generate a metalogue. The research experiences shared by the participants were further reflected by the authors after each research café session. The authors then shared their collective metacognitive reflections with each other, generating a metalogue, which was used as the data set. The metalogue was analysed thematically to generate themes.
Findings
Findings reveal that the research café is an informal space to promote academic socialisation by providing a conducive environment, peer support and informal supervision opportunities to foster the research learning experiences of graduate students. Importantly, the model presented in this paper provides a complimentary pathway for boosting learning experiences.
Research limitations/implications
This paper would be useful for graduate students, faculty and university manager to acknowledge the potential of informal learning spaces in promoting research learning experiences. This paper highlights opportunities for replication, and further empirical research are needed to establish the efficacy of research café.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the global debate about graduate research learning experiences through informal learning space, which is yet to be explored, particularly in developing contexts like Pakistan. The idea of the research café is original, as it was conceived keeping in consideration the contextual and cultural aspects. The methodology used in this paper was specifically derived which can be replicated by other researchers.