The aim of this paper is to illustrate the particularities and challenges associated with creating municipal environmental governance institutions in the Peruvian Amazon.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the particularities and challenges associated with creating municipal environmental governance institutions in the Peruvian Amazon.
Design/methodology/approach
A case‐study approach based on qualitative research, document analysis and interviews is used based on field research between 2007 and 2009.
Findings
Findings reveal the limitations of municipal governance institutions to reflect local environmental concerns illustrated by the example of oil exploration. Whereas municipal institutions put in place resulted in environmental plans and policies, they failed to effectively address major sustainability concerns within their territorial boundaries. On the one hand, policy ambiguities about the meaning of “local” action reflect longstanding divides between centralised policy making and local agenda setting. On the other hand, findings point to the flexibility of local environmental processes easily neglecting core environmental problems.
Practical implications
The conclusions justify reinforcing policy efforts to strengthen the mandate and competencies of municipalities on broader environmental matters. They also reinforce the need for more locally responsive and socially inclusive environmental agenda setting.
Originality/value
The study sheds light on poorly described environmental governance aspects from an area of global significance. Amazonian affairs are emblematic for environmental conflicts related to deforestation, extractive industries and ecological complexity. Analyzing the importance of municipal processes is critical in this respect.
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Evaluation in general and performance indicator systems in particular play an increasing role in society. We do not have a long historical set of experiences which helps us…
Abstract
Evaluation in general and performance indicator systems in particular play an increasing role in society. We do not have a long historical set of experiences which helps us understand what exactly happens when, say, performance data for schools are made public on the internet and in news, because the emerging rules of the game in what some observers call the “knowledge society” (Stehr, 1994, 2001) and “reflexive modernization” (Beck, 1997a, 1997b) have inaugurated new relations between evaluation and performance data on the one hand and political, organizational and practical realities on the other.
Thomas Dahl and Eirik J. Irgens
Is there a specific way of thinking about organisational learning in Nordic countries? Are concepts such as organisational learning and learning organisations imported, or do they…
Abstract
Purpose
Is there a specific way of thinking about organisational learning in Nordic countries? Are concepts such as organisational learning and learning organisations imported, or do they emerge with specific meanings from more local discourses? Beyond that, are they supported by specific learning theories? The purpose of this paper is to trace the way that the concepts of organisational learning and learning organisations appear in research and policy documents in Norway and to identify what sort of learning theories pertain to those concepts. The authors discuss whether Norway’s case exemplifies a Nordic way of thinking about learning in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an archaeological investigation into the concepts of organisational learning and learning organisations, the authors explore the theoretical and cultural framing of the concepts in research and policy. The authors limit our work to large industrial field experiments conducted in the 1960s and to large education reform in the 2000s.
Findings
During the industrial field experiments in the 1960s, the concept of organisational learning evolved to form participatory learning processes in non-hierarchical organisations able to contribute to democracy at work. Education policy in the 2000s, by contrast, imported the concept of the learning organisation that primarily viewed learning as an instrumental process of knowledge production. That strategy is incommensurable to what we define as a Nordic way, one in which learning is also understood as a cultural and social process advanced by democratic participation.
Originality/value
The authors add to organisational learning theories by demonstrating the importance of cultural context for theories and showing that the understanding of learning is historically and culturally embedded.
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Abstract
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons why the human rights-based approach should be used in the preservation of cultural heritage.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons why the human rights-based approach should be used in the preservation of cultural heritage.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is a combination of an essay and illustrative case studies. The thesis is based on experience in heritage protection on national and international level and the discussions of the “Heritage and Human Rights” training in Estonia 1.-6.05.2019.
Findings
Cultural heritage is the common good regardless of its ownership. The protection of something, especially in living environments, includes compromises in the rights of one or another counterpart. Restrictions are often ground for conflicts that can be settled with good communication, but sometimes just communication is not enough. In these cases, human rights-based approaches enable to identify the problems, scale the rights of different stakeholders and thus enable discussion to reach consensus.
Practical implications
The research is useful for heritage conservationists, policy makers and urban planners with regards to management and implementation of human rights-based approach and community involvement in heritage protection on World Heritage, national and local levels.
Originality/value
The research is a part of a series of discussions, trainings and project reports of the Our Common Dignity – Rights Based Approaches (OCD-RBA) working group of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and contributes to the follow-up activities worldwide.
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Mary C. MacDonald, Amanda Izenstark, Brian T. Gallagher, Jim Kinnie and Peter Larsen
The purpose of the paper is to describe the development of a series of forums on issues of the information age, created to address ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standard…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to describe the development of a series of forums on issues of the information age, created to address ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standard Five.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a case study, including citations to relevant literature.
Findings
The paper provides a technique for addressing ACRL Information Literacy Standard Five, examples of topics, discussion of logistics, and value to students.
Originality/value
The ideas and methods presented in the paper may be used by other librarians to arrange forums at their own institutions. A checklist to assist in preparation is also included.
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For library service, bibliomining is concisely defined as the data mining techniques used to extract patterns of behavior‐based artifacts from library systems. The bibliomining…
Abstract
Purpose
For library service, bibliomining is concisely defined as the data mining techniques used to extract patterns of behavior‐based artifacts from library systems. The bibliomining process includes identifying topics, creating a data warehouse, refining data, exploring data and evaluating results. The cases of practical implementations and applications in different areas have proved that the properly enough and consolidated data warehouse is the critical promise to successful data mining applications. However, the data warehouse creation in the processing of various data sources obviously hampers librarians to apply bibliomining to improve their services and operations. Moreover, most market data mining tools are even more complex for librarians to adopt bibliomining. The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical application model for librarian bibliomining, then develop its corresponding data processing prototype system to guarantee the success of applying data mining in libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
The rapid prototyping software development method was applied to design a prototype bibliomining system. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the system, there was a comparison experiment of accomplishing an assigned task for 15 librarians.
Findings
With the results of system usability scale (SUS) comparison and turn‐around time analysis, it was established that the proposed model and the developed prototype system can really help librarians handle bibliomining applications better.
Originality/value
The proposed novel application bibliomining model and its developed integration system are proved to be effective and efficient in bibliomining by the task‐oriented experiment and SUS to 15 librarians. Comparing turn‐around time to accomplish the assigned task, about 35 per cent in terms of time was saved. Librarians really require an appropriate integration tool to assist them in successful bibliomining applications.
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To demonstrate that, at its core, Marx’s critical theory is not a critique of a mode of class exploitation that distorts modernity, undertaken from a standpoint that affirms…
Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate that, at its core, Marx’s critical theory is not a critique of a mode of class exploitation that distorts modernity, undertaken from a standpoint that affirms labor, but rather one that uncovers and analyzes a unique form of social mediation and domination that structures modernity itself as a historically specific form of social life.
Methodology/approach
Critical reconstruction, interpretation, and application of Marx’s critique of political economy as developed in the Grundrisse and Capital, to the massive global transformations of the past four decades.
Findings
Marx’s critical analysis is well-suited to function as the foundation for a theory that systematically illuminates modern society in the 21st century. It is more conducive to grasping the contemporary world than traditional Marxism or most versions of post-Marxism.
Originality/value
The historical transformations of the past century suggest the central significance of a critique of capitalism for an adequate critical theory today. Such a critique must be capable of grasping the core of a social formation that is generative of a peculiar dynamic of identity and non-identity, of pointing beyond itself while reasserting itself. It indicates that the realization of the possibility of the abolition of proletarian labor is a necessary response to a deep structural crisis of capitalism.