Aida Guerra, Juebei Chen, Xiangyun Du, Helle Nielsen and Lone Kørnøv
The integration of ESD is a complex problem. It calls for an innovative, student-centred curriculum, as well as professional learning and agency, by which university teachers feel…
Abstract
Purpose
The integration of ESD is a complex problem. It calls for an innovative, student-centred curriculum, as well as professional learning and agency, by which university teachers feel empowered to change their practice and direct their peers and institutions towards ESD. This study aims to explore what university teachers consider to be the most important attitudes in supporting their agency to deliver Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) via a Problem Based Learning (PBL) programme.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a theoretical framework for professional agency comprising three domains: intrapersonal, action and environmental. A Q methodology is adopted to explore university teachers’ perceptions of the most important environmental factors in supporting their ability to deliver ESD via a problem-based learning (PBL) programme. Twenty-eight participants from six Southeast Asian universities took part in a PBL-based professional development programme designed to improve teachers’ ESD- and PBL-based skills and competencies.
Findings
The results indicate that the participants were confident in their ability to implement PBL and saw PBL as an approach suitable for addressing current educational, professional and societal challenges. This study offers a series of recommendations to help university teachers develop their ESD and PBL practices.
Originality/value
Although the literature on human agency is extensive, research surrounding teachers’ professional agency in the context of ESD and PBL in higher education is lacking. The present study addresses this gap by capturing individual teachers’ beliefs, perceptions and views and by using Q methodology to examine the subjectivity of study participants.
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Helle Lohmann Rasmussen, Per Anker Jensen, Susanne Balslev Nielsen and Anders Højen Kristiansen
This paper aims to focus on deliberate actions by the building client to integrate knowledge of facilities management, in particular building operation, in design and construction…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on deliberate actions by the building client to integrate knowledge of facilities management, in particular building operation, in design and construction of sustainable facilities. Examples of current practices are studied to answer the following questions: Which initiatives to enable operational friendly and sustainable buildings are currently used by building clients in Denmark? Which initiatives could be appropriate to use in the future, and which parties are in the best position to implement the various initiatives?
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a hermeneutic multi-method study, which consists of a review of former research, a case study and a survey. It starts with theoretical background based on earlier research with the aim to identify initiatives to ensure the use of operational knowledge in building design. Hereafter, the paper presents, analyses and discusses two studies: a case study of current practices at a university campus organisation and a survey of five swimming facilities. All cases are from Denmark.
Findings
In all, 31 initiatives to enable use of operational knowledge in building design were initially identified. In the case study, 11 additional initiatives were found. The case study and the survey of swimming facilities show different degrees of implementation, varying from 18 to 31 initiatives implemented. However, the studies show that introducing the initiatives is not sufficient; it takes deliberate actions to get the initiatives well implemented. Within the building client organisation, three main actors should care for implementing the initiatives: Top management, building client division and operation division.
Originality/value
Research-based literature on practices in relation to knowledge transfer from operation to design is limited. This paper provides insights into deliberate efforts on transferring knowledge from operation to design among Danish building clients.
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Per Anker Jensen, Susanne Balslev Nielsen and Helle Lohmann Rasmussen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the collaboration between researchers and practitioners on developing standards and guidelines for Facilities Management (FM).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the collaboration between researchers and practitioners on developing standards and guidelines for Facilities Management (FM).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a longitudinal case study on research on FM value adding and its impact on FM standardization and development of a FM Value Guide. The sources used are literature and documents on FM value adding and standardization, published and planned FM standards, the FM Value Guide, internal documents and participant observations and experiences. All authors of this paper have both research and practical background. Two of them have been – and one still is – actively involved in developing European and international FM standards, and all three have been involved in developing the FM Value Guide. The research methodology can be characterized as retrospective action research.
Findings
The literature review shows that even though there are many references to standards in research papers, particularly in relation to definitions of concepts, there are only few studies on how research influences standardization and how researchers collaborate with practitioners on developing standards and guidelines. This paper presents a case study showing how research can contribute to standardization and development of guidelines in collaboration with practitioners and makes suggestions on how such collaboration can be improved.
Practical implications
The results of this paper provide understanding and inspiration for how researchers and practitioners can collaborate in the development of standards and guidelines.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first study on collaboration between researchers and practitioners on developing FM standards and guidelines.
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Travel and tourism have had a long history in the Nordic countries, but research on tourism has a relatively short tradition in the region. Recently, academic interest in the…
Abstract
Travel and tourism have had a long history in the Nordic countries, but research on tourism has a relatively short tradition in the region. Recently, academic interest in the Nordic tourism space has grown and diversified especially as a result of increasing numbers of academics and institutions involved with tourism geographies and studies and education in the region. The Nordic context has provided thematic focus areas for empirical studies that characterize tourism geographies in the region, with topics including nature-based tourism, utilization of wilderness areas, second-home and rural developments, impacts in peripheries, and tourism as a tool for regional development. In addition, there are emerging research themes outside of the traditional core topics, such as urban, events, and heritage tourism.
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Helle Neergaard, Sarah Robinson and Sally Jones
This paper introduces “pedagogical nudging” as a method, which can transform student dispositions and their perceived “fit” with the field of entrepreneurship. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces “pedagogical nudging” as a method, which can transform student dispositions and their perceived “fit” with the field of entrepreneurship. The authors investigate what characterises the identity change process experienced by students when exposed to pedagogical nudging.
Design/methodology/approach
Using ethnography, the authors apply an experiential-explorative approach to collecting data. The authors collected 1,015 individual reflection logs from 145 students of which the authors sampled 290 for this paper combined with interviews, observational and documentary data.
Findings
Pedagogical nudging techniques help (1) expose and challenge the student habitus by planting footprints in the mind; (2) straddle the divide between student and nascent entrepreneur by enabling them to recognise and experiment with an entrepreneurial habitus and (3) figuratively learn to climb the entrepreneurial tree by embracing an entrepreneurial habitus. In the first step, the authors use the interventions as cognitive means of influencing (pedagogical nudging). In the second, students participate in an iterative meaning-making process through reflection. In the third, they internalise the “new” entrepreneurial habitus—or discard it.
Research limitations/implications
The authors extend existing knowledge about the effect of particular kinds of pedagogies in entrepreneurship teaching, and how these can support enterprising behaviour. The authors demonstrate how an exploration of the inner self, identity and beliefs develops the capacity for students to re-shape future outcomes and create value.
Practical implications
By using nudging pedagogies, educators can support students to develop new ways of acknowledging and coping with transformative learning.
Originality/value
The research documents how it is possible to 'nudge' our students towards more entrepreneurial behaviours.
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Yuri Merizalde, Luis Hernández-Callejo, Oscar Duque-Pérez and Víctor Alonso-Gómez
Despite the wide dissemination and application of current signature analysis (CSA) in general industry, CSA is not commonly used in the wind industry, where the use of vibration…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the wide dissemination and application of current signature analysis (CSA) in general industry, CSA is not commonly used in the wind industry, where the use of vibration signals predominates. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the use of generator CSA (GCSA) in the online fault detection and diagnosis of wind turbines (WTs).
Design/methodology/approach
This is a bibliographical investigation in which the use of GCSA for the maintenance of WTs is analyzed. A section is dedicated to each of the main components, including the theoretical foundations on which GCSA is based and the methodology, mathematical models and signal processing techniques used by the proposals that exist on this topic.
Findings
The lack of appropriate technology and mathematical models, as well as the difficulty involved in performing actual studies in the field and the lack of research projects, has prevented the expansion of the use of GCSA for fault detection of other WT components. This research area has yet to be explored, and the existing investigations mainly focus on the gearbox and the doubly fed induction generator; however, modern signal treatment and artificial intelligence techniques could offer new opportunities in this field.
Originality/value
Although literature on the use of GCSA for the detection and diagnosis of faults in WTs has been published, these papers address specific applications for each of the WT components, especially gearboxes and generators. For this reason, the main contribution of this study is providing a comprehensive vision for the use of GCSA in the maintenance of WTs.
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Helle Neergaard, William B. Gartner, Ulla Hytti, Diamanto Politis and David Rae
Vibeke Asmussen Frank, Anne‐Sofie Christensen and Helle Vibeke Dahl
Overall within cannabis research, only a few studies have specifically targeted the use of cannabis among the adult population, and consequently very little is known about the…
Abstract
Purpose
Overall within cannabis research, only a few studies have specifically targeted the use of cannabis among the adult population, and consequently very little is known about the consumption practices of this user group. The purpose of this paper is to explore how adult cannabis users integrate cannabis use into their daily life; a use that can be characterized as recreational use, i.e. a non‐problematic use of cannabis for pleasure and to get intoxicated. Despite the fact that cannabis use is illegal and larger societal views on consuming cannabis still is subject to stigmatization and “unruly conduct”.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on qualitative interviews with 39 persons who were cannabis users as well as growers. The interviewees could not be described as “deviants” and the vast majority of them were socially well integrated. For how long the interviewees had been using cannabis depended on age as well as different life circumstances.
Findings
The paper shows how cannabis users commonly employ two strategies when integrating cannabis use into their everyday life and keeping up a meaningful life: refraining from using cannabis in particular situations and smoking alone. The interviewees in particular find it unacceptable to smoke cannabis when around children, engaging with family members, and when at work. The interview narratives reveal how cannabis consumption as narrated by the interviewees is embedded not only in balancing a controlled use applicable to the everyday situations and practices that the interviewees are engaged in, but also to more wider, societal norms and values around acceptable and unacceptable use of cannabis. The main analytical concept applied is moral reasoning.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to research on adult cannabis users.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore how hierarchical accountability can be enacted and accounting control systems mobilized in a way that promotes a sense of felt…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how hierarchical accountability can be enacted and accounting control systems mobilized in a way that promotes a sense of felt responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on interviews, shadowing and observations to explore the implementation of a strategy for “increasing accountability” in a Norwegian Oil Company. The case provided an opportunity to explore the dynamics of hierarchical accountability and felt responsibility, and in particular Roberts (2009) concept of “intelligent accountability”, in an empirical context.
Findings
The case study explores how the strategy of increasing accountability at OilCo was enacted around three operational issues; the control of costs, roles and relationships in the complex matrix structure, and the operation of the management system. It traces how the long history of Beyond Budgeting practices and philosophy in OilCo resulted both in an explicit recognition of the incompleteness of accounting numbers, and trust-based practices which avoided many of the dysfunctional individual and organizational effects typically associated with the exercise of hierarchical control.
Originality/value
The paper explores empirically how OilCo’s embrace of Beyond Budgeting practices and philosophy had created the conditions under which a more intelligent form of accountability could emerge. As a European case study, it calls into question the Anglo-American tradition of accounting research which suggests that externally imposed accountability within a hierarchy mitigates against employees’ felt responsibility.