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This paper gives an account of important aspects of Smith’s methods in An Inquiry Concerning the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WN). I reinterpret Smith’s distinction between natural and market prices, by focusing on Smith’s account of the causes of the discrepancies of market prices from natural prices. I argue that Smith postulates a “natural course” of events in order to stimulate research into institutions that cause actual events to deviate from it. Smith’s employment of the fiction of a natural price should, thus, not be seen merely as an instance of general or partial equilibrium analysis, but, instead, as part of a theoretical framework that will enable observed deviations from expected regularities to improve his theory. For Smith theory is a research tool that allows for a potentially open-ended process of successive approximation. These are the Newtonian elements in Smith. I provide evidence from Smith’s posthumously published Essays on Philosophical Subjects (EPS, 1795), especially “The History of Astronomy” (“Astronomy”), that this accords with Smith’s views on methodology.¹ By way of illumination, Smith’s explanation of the introduction of commerce in Europe is contrasted with that of Hume as presented in “Of Commerce.” I argue that Smith’s treatment is methodologically superior.

This chapter provides a critical assessment of an article on higher education and economic development, by analyzing the ways the authors reflect on the importance of building technological capabilities. The need to demonstrate the use of evolutionary economics and innovation systems approach in demonstrating higher education contribution to economic growth motivated the article. The critique begins by examining the dominant theories and reflective pieces used by scholars to explain higher education’s contribution to economic development, and then situate the evolutionary economics and innovation systems approach used in the article in this discourse. This critical assessment also delves into how the article approaches the subject matter of higher education; and, the methods used to gather evidence for the case of higher education in South Africa. The chapter then condenses popular views on the role of higher education in economic development and assesses whether “building technological capabilities” is one such view or it is an emerging role. In conclusion, the chapter synthesizes the various sections in the article and isolates the key issues that underpin each of the sections and how each issue is manifested in the higher education sector. The conclusion unloads the overall construction of the article to succinctly knit the bigger argument advanced by the article and provide reasons for the viewpoints supported by this assessment.

This chapter details a practice-based investigation of a 19th-century astronomical device known as ‘Janssen’s apparatus’. It questions traditional narratives of linear technological advancement and ‘sole inventor’ to reframe the historical artefact as a site which makes visible a network of technological knowledge interconnecting astronomy and visual culture. Approached from this perspective, the Janssen artefact is reframed as an ‘intersite of knowledge’, exploring how the various know-how contained within the device is located across disciplines rather than within a single field. Originally developed to calculate the Astronomical Unit during the 1874 Transit of Venus, Janssen’s apparatus failed in its endeavour as a measuring instrument, but its motion mechanism was successfully adapted into early cinema technologies. This chapter applies praxis through the development of a prototype artwork and the concept of ‘techne’ as speculative means of understanding how this mechanism was transferred from astronomy to the Western cultural realm. It proposes that the development of the apparatus was partially gleaned from moving image techniques already in use within 19th-century visual culture. The development of the prototype artwork is discussed in relation to the specific timing mechanism of the Janssen apparatus and how it establishes its own ‘intersite of knowledge’ relevant to its contemporary context. Finally, this chapter elaborates on how witnessing the Janssen mechanism in motion provided unique insight and how creating a dialogue between historical and contemporary apparatus facilitates a reconsideration of how galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] and other host institutions that contain artefacts might share their hidden stories.

Adam Smith is revered as the father of modern economics. Analysis of his writings, however, reveals a profoundly medieval outlook. Smith is preoccupied with the need to preserve order in society. His scientific methodology emphasises reconciliation with the world we live in rather than investigation of it. He invokes a version of natural law in which the universe is a harmonious machine administered by a providential deity. Nobody is uncared for and, in real happiness, we are all substantially equal. No action is without its appropriate reward – in this life or the next. The social desirability of individual self-seeking activity is ensured by the “invisible hand,” that is, the hand of a god who has moulded us so to behave, that the quantity of happiness in the world is always maximised.

While bilinguals frequently mix languages in everyday conversation, these hybrid language practices have often been viewed from a deficit perspective, particularly in classroom contexts. However, an emerging literature documents the complexity of hybrid language practices and their usefulness as an academic and social resource for bilingual students. This chapter examines hybrid language practices among English- and Spanish-speaking high school students in an astronomy/oceanography classroom in southern Arizona. Microethnography, or fine-grained analysis of video recordings from long-term ethnographic observation, is used to reveal what bilingual students accomplished with hybrid language practices in the classroom and to outline implications for teachers who want to engage their students’ hybrid repertoires. Specifically, the analyses reveal that careful attention to hybrid language practices can provide teachers with insights into students’ academic learning across linguistic codes, their use of language mixing for particular functions, and their beliefs about language and identity. The research is necessarily limited in scope because such in-depth analysis can only be done with a very small amount of data. Nevertheless, the findings affirm that hybrid language practices can enrich classroom discourse, academic learning, and social interaction for emergent bilinguals. The chapter highlights a teacher’s story in order to offer practical guidance to other teachers who seek to capitalize on the promise of hybrid language practices in their own classrooms.

Three myths of life on other celestial bodies are examined as potential motivators for space tourism. The historical myth of extraterrestrial planetary life was debunked by modern astronomy. The twentieth-century myth-like belief in the existence of stellar civilizations or extraterrestrial intelligence has engendered an extensive search for transmitted signals from such civilizations, but none have yet been detected. The post-modern myth of aliens visiting the Earth by unidentified flying objects, engendered new religious movements; however, it is silent about the aliens’ stellar origins, while the new religions do not encourage adherents to visit the aliens’ abodes. In the final analysis, none of the three myths offers an incentive for space travel and tourism.

This chapter describes a successful research-developed representation construction approach to teaching and learning that links student learning and engagement with the epistemic practices of science. This approach involves challenging students to generate and negotiate the representations (text, graphs, models, diagrams) that constitute the discursive practices of science, rather than focusing on the text-based, definitional versions of concepts. The representation construction approach is based on sequences of representational challenges that involve students constructing representations to actively explore and make claims about phenomena. The key principles of the representation construction approach, considered a form of directed inquiry, are outlined with illustrations from case studies of whole topics in forces and astronomy within several middle-years’ science classrooms. This chapter also outlines the manner in which the representation construction approach has been translated into wider scale implementation through a large-scale Professional Development (PD) workshop program. Issues associated with wider scale implementation of the approach are discussed.

This article investigates the links between universities’ opportunities to shape their research profiles, the changing state interest concerning these profiles, and the impact of profile building on research at university and field levels. While the authority of the Dutch state over research profiles of Dutch universities has increased, university management has considerable operational authority over the inclusion of new research fields and removal of existing research fields. Since all universities have begun to follow the same external signals prescribing applied research, research that has easy access to external funding, and research in fields prioritised by the state, a ‘quasi-market failure’ may emerge, as is demonstrated for evolutionary developmental biology and Bose-Einstein condensation.

Like brands memes earn their own value (Csikszentmihályi, 1993), which we describe as meme value derived from brand equity theory (Aaker, 1996; Keller, 2003). This meme value is rather temporary that may quickly escalate and suddenly drop, therefore its circumstances of appearance and subsistence are to be further investigated. The purpose of this study is to uncover underlying factors of internet meme value. Internet meme value comprises of length of subsistence, number of contributions, number of variations, areas of applicability, ability to convey messages, quality of creativity.

We recorded 95 respondents’ narratives about 125 different memes, altogether 281 memes (2013 spring), and further 47 respondents’ narratives (2014 autumn). Recorded narratives reflect these dimensions.

Our exploratory research showed that internet memes would become successful – exist, spread and vary – if their central thought is clear and is applicable in a variety of contexts. Furthermore, meme value could be enriched by humorous content (Shifman & Thelwall, 2009) societal questions, emotionally involving situations, and potential for self-expression.

Based on our results we extend the internet meme value concept with a meteorite metaphor that explains the speed, scope, impact of internet memes. We use the notions of astronomy Meteoroid, Meteor (shooting star), Fireball, Meteorite, Comet and suggest a future classification of internet memes that could be: MEMEoroid, MEMEor, MEMEball, MEMEorite, CoMEMEt.