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A large proportion of the text of the article “Quality assessment: two traditions (a review article)” by Robert Withers ( QAE, Volume 3 Number 2, 1995) concerned itself with a review of the book, Assessing Quality in Further and Higher Education by Allan Ashworth and Roger C. Harvey. Here, the book′s authors present a constructive and detailed discussion of Dr Withers′ article, with reference to – inter alia – the needs for correct training of quality assessors, numerical understanding (the “numbers dimension”) and statistical information, and to the work of Her Majesty′s Inspectorate of Schools.

Identifies two approaches to quality assessment in education. The Higher Education Funding Council for England favours the control paradigm which renders assessment political. Until recently, Her Majesty′s Inspectorate (HMI) practised assessment within the enhancement paradigm, intended to enhance the practice of the assessed tutor or teacher. Evaluation should be based on a review of evidence, but is now widely treated as a simple matter of political rhetoric by apologists for control. The control paradigm cannot be properly evaluated for some time, but the changing practice of HMI examined here, raises important questions: could control also bring about enhancement, or does change from enhancement to control necessarily involve relinquishing key values?

What are the value theories used by art economists which can help define the field as a unique research program? We categorize the research program in art economics in Lakatosian terms and find that art economists share a value system around art which is that art contains value beyond that of exchange. This difference introduces a “paradox” of value to be addressed (either implicitly or explicitly) by the art economist in practice, in that mainstream economics assumes value is realized through exchange only. We then survey the literature and find evidence to support this value paradox claim. We also find that the art economics research program does not adequately address the potentiality of the state using art as instrumental value and introduce political economy to factor in a self-interested state using art production as a means to reproduce and ideally expand state legitimacy and power in society. We then give two examples of art-statism in practice to illustrate the possibility of art’s instrumentality.

The Editor of Library Review has invited me to write an article on my literary beginnings. It is a task at one and the same time happy and—well, if not sad it does make one aware of how “the sunrise blooms and withers on the hill.” I might best begin with the return of my people from South America to Glasgow (beloved by them) where, I recall, I was long homesick for the land of my birth. Charles Darwin, visiting my native country, Chile, was impressed chiefly by its sunshine, the visibility there, the keen clarity of its atmosphere. Though in time I learned to love Glasgow it seemed, in comparison, smoky.

The island of Arran is situated in the Firth of Clyde astride the Highland Boundary fault zone. It is 19 miles long by 10 miles wide. Although similar in size to the Isle of Wight it has only a twenty‐fifth of that island's population. The number of inhabitants in 1981 (4743) is almost the same as in 1755 (4600). The island's population reached its highest level in 1821 (6541) and fell steadily for the rest of the century, reaching a figure similar to its present level in 1911.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

A reply to responses by Prem Sikka and Tony Willmott (“The withering of tolerance and communication in interdisciplinary accounting studies”) and Robert Scapens (“Reactions on reading ‘The withering of criticism’”) to Tony Tinker's initial paper, “The withering of criticism”.

The paper employs argument and discourse to critique the responses and defend the author's position.

The paper offers the authors' view of the comparative research approaches of Briloff, Sikka and Willmott.

The paper extends critical debate on North American and UK contributions and approaches to critical accounting scholarship.

The 40-letter correspondence concerning the French translation of The General Theory, between John Maynard Keynes and his translator, Jean de Largentaye, is a testimony of their close collaboration, which also involved Piero Sraffa in 1938 and 1939. Largentaye’s lexicon appears at the end of the French edition, providing definitions in French of technical terms used by Keynes. After its publication by Payot in 1942, the French edition of The General Theory was well received in France and no doubt contributed to the economic and social successes of the country in the subsequent 25 years.