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The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the history, current status and possible future directions for intellectual disability (ID) policy and practice in South Africa (SA).

The paper was developed by academics and practitioners in the field of ID in SA. A review of the literature, accompanied by a joint writing and discussion process was carried out to identify critical issues in the development of ID services, specifically facing the challenge of moving from racially based provision towards equitable services for all citizens with ID.

Progressive policy has replaced practices of scientific racism which were previously used to support the establishment of white supremacism. This positive move is still in process and has not resulted in the immediate establishment of human rights. A vibrant civil society is engaging with this task currently.

The findings point to the need for a human rights approach that takes into account the postcolonial context of SA.

There is a need for continued advocacy that is inclusive of people with ID and their families.

Continuing engagement between government and civil society is recommended to ensure the achievement of human rights for citizens with ID.

This paper is of value to ID researchers and practitioners from the global South as it describes a non-western context that might have resonance with other low and middle income countries.

This chapter critically discusses the many positive aspects that are ascribed to gazelle firms by exploring the external effects and dark sides of high firm growth. On the background of the more general debate on purpose versus profit as a firm’s mission, the chapter theoretically elaborates on the dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative growth of gazelles. This is followed by a case-based illustration and exploration as to how quantitative and qualitative growth interrelates in gazelles and what are impediments for high growth that is purpose driven. The chapter closes with a discussion of the Janus-faced nature of gazelles and how their corporate citizenship can be enhanced.

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.

Using Climbing Lincoln’s Steps- The African American Journey by Suzanne Slade and illustrated by Colin Bootman gives teachers the opportunity to implement a research based lesson plan that integrates reading and the arts into Social Studies. Elementary students are exposed to the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln and African American men and women from the past and present. Student knowledge is enhanced through the implementation of an author introduction, individual research, and the observation of historical videos and use of a website about Civil Rights icons. Students are assessed on their knowledge of a chosen historical figure by participating in a museum theatrical presentation. A comprehension quiz on the Slade text serves as a formal assessment for this lesson. The collaboration of students, teachers, and parents makes this lesson a rewarding learning experience.

Ulla Andin received her MD in 2007 at the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, in the Department of Geriatric Psychiatry. The title of her dissertation was Vascular Dementia, Classification and Clinical Correlates. She is a specialist in geriatrics and has been working as a senior physician at Skaraborg Hospital Group since 2008. Her focus is on elderly patients with multiple illness. Earlier in her career, she worked as a senior physician at USÖ (Universitetssjukhuset i Örebro), where she focused on patients with dementia. In addition, she has served as a supervisor for young physicians.

Purpose – This chapter frames the topic of organizing for sustainable health care in terms of the environmental trends that have rendered current health care approaches unsustainable, the embeddedness of health care in society's triple bottom line, and the need to build adaptive capability within the complex health care ecosystem.

Design/methodology/approach – We synthesize documented trends and empirical findings regarding the viability of current approaches to health care, and provide a theoretically framed treatment of the adaptation process in the complex health care system that can lead to the emergence of sustainable approaches.

Findings – There is a misfit between current approaches to delivering health care and the requirements and trends in contemporary society. Fundamental transformation is required that entails a broadening of purpose, a future orientation, and a rethinking of how health care adds value and how it is embedded in society.

Originality/value – By reconceptualizing health care reform as intricately related to societal sustainability and the triple bottom line, we open the possibility of transcending a narrow focus on reengineering to create more efficient organizations and work processes that consume fewer resources and deliver greater value. We invite health care practitioners and scholars to rethink all the connections in the health care ecosystem, and the need to build in self-organizing capabilities and adaptive capacity. The cases in this book provide knowledge from systems engaged in fundamental transformation, analyzed through the lenses of theoretical frameworks that help us better understand essential dynamics involved in creating sustainable health care systems.

Purpose – To identify the key success factors in a change process and to demonstrate how adherence to the phases of large-scale change contributed to the successful reform of the Irish cancer services and is critical to the sustainability of this large-scale change.

Design – In-depth retrospective analytical case study drawing from face- to-face semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and players.

Findings – The Irish health care reform had been continually thwarted by local politics. The Irish government confronted this trend by bringing in an outside expert to head the cancer services reform project who, with government support, managed both clinician and public resistance and, based on the evidence of international best practice, led the reform. Sustainable change was achieved by attention to how large-scale change works. The leadership of the project is an important element in overcoming the path dependency that is dogged in most health care reforms.

Value – This chapter provides evidence that the four key phases of large system change: understanding the need for change, framing the change, undertaking the change and sustaining the change, coupled with key success factors in relation to timing, financial viability, political will and leadership, public support, well-managed process, and technical infrastructure and capacity are critical to the implementation and sustainability of large-scale change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how deeper psychosocial structures can be examined utilising a contemporary provocative theory within workplace reflection to generate more radical insights and innovation.

This paper outlines a provocative theory and then presents case examples of how deeper structures can be examined at the micro, meso and macro levels.

Deeper psychosocial structures are the forces that keep the status quo firmly in place, but deeper examination of these structures enable radical insights and therefore the possibility of innovation.

Deep psychosocial structures shape and constitute daily action, and so work-based and practitioner researchers can be tricked into thinking they have identified new ways of working, but may be demonstrating the same workplace behaviours/outcomes. Workplace behaviours, including emotional responses to apparent change, are key indicators of deeper structures.

Ideas and processes for examining deeper structures can be integrated into daily reflective practices by individuals, within organisational processes, and wider, system processes. However, because deeper structures can appear in different forms, we can be tricked into reproducing old structures.

Examining deeper structures increases the possibilities for more radical insights into workplace structures, and therefore, how to potentially mobilise innovations which may better serve people and planet.

This paper is the first to examine the work of Slavoj Žižek in the context of work-based learning.