In port cities with declining industries, waterfront redevelopment is one major part of the competitive agenda. The increasing economic importance of service, leisure, and tourism…
Abstract
In port cities with declining industries, waterfront redevelopment is one major part of the competitive agenda. The increasing economic importance of service, leisure, and tourism industries created an opportunity to reuse urban waterfront areas no longer considered profitable. Parque das Nações in Lisbon is a product of such a process: It’s a newly built mixed-use waterfront neighborhood, planned, and developed, first and foremost, to be the site of Expo ’98. This former industrial and port area has been emerging in the last 15 years as a “showcase” for Lisbon: a piece of the competitive strategy of the Portuguese capital. Its public spaces are an important part of that strategy and have been managed in order to remain particularly safe and clean.
On one hand, Parque das Nações is a socially homogenous elite residential neighborhood, on the other hand, it is emerging as a new metropolitan centrality characterized by an intense mobility and by an increasing concentration of urbanites carrying on work and leisure related activities. It is the coexistence of these two complementary and contradictory dynamics that shapes the interactive logic of public life in the area.
This chapter explores the use, appropriation, and interaction patterns afforded by the public spaces of Parque das Nações. I discard both the idealized conception of public spaces that characterizes them as havens of diversity and accessibility and the more contemporary idea of public spaces as empty spaces that no longer promote encounters with others, serving exclusively as marketing tools for real-estate developers. Instead, I argue that the production of urban areas such as Parque das Nações is a socially unequal process resulting in excessively planned and controlled public spaces. However, when they attract different populations for different reasons, these spaces might foster unexpected, emergent, or even transgressive uses and interactions that promote public space vitality.
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What is it about academia anyway? We profess to hate it, spend endless amounts of time complaining about it, and yet we in academia will do practically anything to stay. The pay…
Abstract
What is it about academia anyway? We profess to hate it, spend endless amounts of time complaining about it, and yet we in academia will do practically anything to stay. The pay may be low, job security elusive, and in the end, it's not the glamorous work we envisioned it would be. Yet, it still holds fascination and interest for us. This is an article about American academic fiction. By academic fiction, I mean novels whosemain characters are professors, college students, and those individuals associated with academia. These works reveal many truths about the higher education experience not readily available elsewhere. We learn about ourselves and the university community in which we work.
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000000246. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/EUM0000000000246. When citing the article, please cite: Graham Fowler, (1989), “Improving Vocational Training”, Education + Training, Vol. 31 Iss: 2.
Plans to increase the number of students enteringhigher education are welcomed; although it isargued that student loans do not fit in with thispolicy, and that in reality higher…
Abstract
Plans to increase the number of students entering higher education are welcomed; although it is argued that student loans do not fit in with this policy, and that in reality higher education requires extra funding. The way to expand higher education is seen as through a high‐status vocational route. This is contrasted with current forms of vocational schooling. A good general education for students up to the age of 16 is proposed, with subsequent quality vocational training which encourages access to higher education. The increased status of the vocational route will follow and, in return, high quality vocational education will offer motivation for schools, a higher proportion of graduates and more highly qualified staff.
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The author, an education consultant, criticises the apparent superficiality of National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) provisions and calls for a return to the traditional…
The new vocationalist policies, exemplified by YTS, do virtuallynothing to foster economic development. Such moves are very different tothe vocational training of apprenticeships…
Abstract
The new vocationalist policies, exemplified by YTS, do virtually nothing to foster economic development. Such moves are very different to the vocational training of apprenticeships. However, a simple return to apprenticeships is not appropriate. The future of training should be less specific and more general, thereby reflecting and promoting future demands: relearning, and flexibility. Industry and education should point to the errors of current government policy and seek this economically relevant training.
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The author, an educational consultant, in this latest contribution in a series dealing with Where Education Meets Training, explains that the question posed in the title is…
Abstract
The author, an educational consultant, in this latest contribution in a series dealing with Where Education Meets Training, explains that the question posed in the title is intended to imply that doing so called for involvement in the art of the impossible. The White Paper referred to herein is Employment for the 1990s, to which we will doubtless be returning.
The meaning of balance in the sixth‐form curriculum has beendebated for 30 years. At that time, the Crowther Report suggested theintroduction of General Studies to support…
Abstract
The meaning of balance in the sixth‐form curriculum has been debated for 30 years. At that time, the Crowther Report suggested the introduction of General Studies to support A‐levels. Today, the touted solutions range from the dramatic – just as O‐levels gave way to GCSE, the replacement of A‐levels by less deep (more superficial) study – to the peripheral – AS‐levels to provide pockets of understanding in divergent areas. Such plans are discussed critically in the light of current evidence. The conclusion is that the A‐level option still demands support, and that it is best complemented by General Studies.
As we approach the millennium, we find ourselves in a world that places ever greater weight and significance on the outcome of polls, surveys, and market research. The advent of…
Abstract
As we approach the millennium, we find ourselves in a world that places ever greater weight and significance on the outcome of polls, surveys, and market research. The advent of modern polling began with the use of scientific sampling in the mid‐1930s and has progressed vastly beyond the initial techniques and purposes of the early practitioners such as George Gallup, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley. In today's environment, the computer is an integral part of most commercial survey work, as are the efforts by academic and nonprofit enterprises. It should be noted that the distinction between the use of the words “poll” and “survey” is somewhat arbitrary, with the mass media seeming to prefer “polling,” and with academia selecting “survey research.” However, searching online systems will yield differing results, hence this author's inclusion of both terms in the title of this article.
Chris Brown, Jana Gross Ophoff and Graham Handscomb
The purpose of this study is to begine to address this question. The concept of the ideas-informed society (IIS) represents a desired situation in which citizens actively and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to begine to address this question. The concept of the ideas-informed society (IIS) represents a desired situation in which citizens actively and critically engage with new ideas, developments and claims to truth. Its successful actualisation is dependent on high-quality educational opportunity at all stages of the life course. Social networks represent our connections to one another. Features of our social networks impact on how we engage with ideas. For instance, homophily dictates that individuals form networks with others seen as being like themselves. A key question, however, is whether there are forms of homophily that, by the nature of those they bring together, promote ideas engagement by individuals and the implications of consequent networks for the IIS?
Design/methodology/approach
This study re-analysed survey data from 1,000 voting-age citizens in England. Focusing on friendship networks, the authors used a structural equation model approach to explore the existence and potency of homophilic friendship networks; whether such networks drive respondents’ ideas-engagement with friends; and whether ideas discussions with friends impacts on the importance respondents place on staying up to date.
Findings
Political homophily has the strongest influence on whether people discuss new ideas with their friends (ES = 0.326, p < 0.01). In turn, ideas discussion has a significant impact on the extent to which people value engaging with ideas (ES = −0.345, p < 0.01).
Originality/value
The authors consider whether ideas-related discussion within politically homophilous networks is problematic for the IIS and what is required from education systems if we are to build individuals’ capacity to engage with ideas while escaping echo chambers.