Search results

Though contemporaries, Adam Smith and Sir James Steuart are commonly portrayed as if they belonged to different eras. Whereas Smith went down in history as both founder of the science of political economy and patron saint of economic liberalism, Steuart became known as the last, outdated advocate for mercantilist policies in Britain. Smith himself was responsible for popularizing the notion of the “system of commerce” as an approach to political economy that dominated the early modern period. As a historiographical concept, the mercantile system became a misguided international trade theory grounded upon the Midas fallacy and the favorable balance of trade doctrine. Smith’s treatment of international trade in the Wealth of Nations, however, was criticized for its inconsistencies and lack of analytical clarity even by some among his own followers. Given Smith’s doubtful credentials as an international trade theorist, the chapter investigates the reasons that led him and Steuart to be placed on opposite sides of the mercantilist divide. The authors analyze the works of both authors in depth, showing that their disagreements had chiefly to do with different views on money and monetary policy. Additionally, the authors explore how early nineteenth-century writers such as Jean-Baptiste Say and J. R. McCulloch helped forge the intellectual profiles of both Steuart and Smith.

There is a substantial body of empirical literature on university students' self‐perceived approaches to learning, but evidence on instructors' perceptions of the way they facilitate their students' learning approaches is less evident. This study aims to investigate the extent of the gap between students' learning approaches and instructors' teaching orientations towards facilitating these approaches. The subsequent employability of accounting graduates depends in part on the nature and extent of this gap. Student learning approaches are measured on two dimensions ‐ deep and strategic approaches ‐ drawn from Tait's and Entwistle's (1995) Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI). Instructors' facilitation of students' learning is measured by a re‐orientation of the same RASI instrument towards teaching approaches. The results reveal several significant differences of emphasis between instructors and students in terms of deep and strategic approaches. Students are falling short of what their instructors believe they are facilitating in terms of the development of their employability competencies and characteristics for a professional career. When students are grouped according to gender, further significant differences are found. Implications of these findings for future change in accounting education are discussed.

The aim of the research was to create a site which could host an archive of moving image associated with the town of Fraserburgh in Scotland, but could also include other digital artefacts to support and enhance the narratives contained within the films. Elements of digital storytelling were utilised, and a purposely designed section, “behind the film”, was included within the site which saw stories presented and supported with the use of archive newspaper clippings, photography and a series of reflective audio clips recorded for the research.

“Fraserburgh on Film” is an online platform created for the purpose of collating digital heritage film from the communities situated in the corner of North East Scotland. The research adopted an ethnographic approach working within the community, with James Taylor and other contributors to collect and curate moving images associated with the town. Archival research then supplemented these films. A digital platform was then constructed, tested and launched as the archival repository for the materials collected.

The research highlights the importance of having a close association with the community in question and provides details about the creation of the platform and framing it in the context of a vehicle for digital storytelling and participatory heritage. The article demonstrates how archive film should be gathered, edited and remastered for long-term preservation and access. Practical aspects such as video hosting, searchability, metadata are explored as are subsequent methods of dissemination and engagement.

The research highlights a number of practical decisions which must be made when considering similar projects. These include gaining access to the moving images in the first place but also significant infrastructural issues around the creation, organisation and dissemination of an online digital repository. These lessons are transferable to other small community-based cultural and heritage organisations.

The archive has been very positively received in the community as an important repository for preserving community heritage and identity. High levels of public engagement have been demonstrated since its launch, which has led to new material being discovered. The archive has a wider cultural legacy across the North East of Scotland because of both the nature of the films and the widespread use of the Doric dialect.

The originality lies in the distinctive amount of moving image (and oral history) collected by local historian, James Taylor and his willingness to allow his materials to be edited and repurposed to ensure their long-term survival. The lessons learnt in this project are transferable to other locations in terms of both collecting material, the creation of the hosting platform and in crowdsourcing background information. The crucial importance of working with community partners in digital heritage work is reinforced. The research affords practical illustrations of steps to be taken and factors to be considered. It demonstrates how a well-crafted digital heritage product can genuinely engage with the community.

WHEN the open access method of lending books was first introduced on safe‐guarded lines at Clerkenwell, over twelve years ago, a considerable amount of dolorous prophecy was set free, which sometimes formed rather depressing reading for those responsible for the experiment. As time went on, it became clear that many of the prophets based their vaticinations on imperfect knowledge of the actual arrangements in use, and it was then only a simple matter of allowing complete play to one's sense of humour, while the comedy of errors proceeded. One imaginative prophet pictured the time when painstaking librarians would be supplanted by a uniformed janitor, who would assume the functions of librarian, by the easy process of supervising the filtration of readers through a turnstile, like sheep through a hurdle. Another equally resourceful Quidnunc saw in his mind's eye, all the riff‐raff of London, filing through the little Clerkenwell wicket, like a Cup‐tie crowd at the Crystal Palace, without introduction, guarantee, or slightest degree of responsibility. Probably it was only a humorist, and not a prophet, who forsaw the introduction of weighing machines at both entrance and exit wickets, as a means of preventing wholesale thefts. These, and many other absurd misconceptions of the actual mechanical arrangements employed to overcome various anticipated difficulties, formed a considerable proportion of the prophetic utterances which advertised the open access system in its early days.

Contemporary art organizations play a key role in driving cultural tourism, offering visitors memorable experiences. Among the segments of visitors, young adults represent a key target because they are the most interested customers in contemporary arts and they represent 23% of the international travelers. Despite their relevance, little is known about their customer experiences in contemporary arts, and the resulting arts engagement. Although their contemporary arts experiences are expected to generate great benefits in terms of social, ethical, and economical values for the entire society, the relationship between young adults and contemporary arts is typically difficult to understand and, consequently, to facilitate. To address this issue, we run a complex qualitative research project. Distinguishing young adults between those who are familiar with contemporary arts and those who are not, we conduct four research projects by applying two qualitative techniques: the in-depth interview and the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (Z-Met). Further, we extend the in-depth interviews to the contemporary arts experts. In total, 70 consumers and 10 experts participate in the research project providing cognitive and emotional insights by exploring barriers and benefits of consumption in contemporary arts. Our findings show that arts engagement is the key concept, linked to three levels of consumer reactions – cognitive, emotional, and social responses – and that it is caused by three antecedents, namely – involvement, sharing, and comprehension. Implications for the actors in the world of contemporary arts and cultural tourism are discussed to obtain higher levels of arts engagement among young adults, and, consequently, their attractiveness.

TECHNICAL Education, after looming before the British public for half a century, is now with us a recognised factor in our national life. The passing of the Technical Instruction Acts of and 1891, and the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act of gave an impetus to the movement, and has produced results of a most gratifying character. Technical schools, or institutions bearing other names in which technical instruction is given, are now considerably more numerous than Public Libraries. According to a return of the National Society for promotion of Technical Education in England (excluding London), 319 technical schools, under municipal and public bodies, have been erected at a cost of £3,186,102—an average of £10,000 per school in round numbers—and of this sum, one quarter of a million has been involved since 1901. In order to obtain an adequate idea of the extent to which technical instruction is given, it is necessary to take into account the higher grade schools and other institutions which are used for this purpose. But if technical schools be numerically stronger than Public Libraries, the former institution is incomplete without the latter. In such isolation, its relative position to the student, is like a conservatory without a garden to the botanist. A Public Library, with carefully selected books of reference, bearing on the subjects taught in the technical school as well as on all the industries carried on in the neighbourhood, is an indispensable condition to the success of the technical school, and I hope County Councils will, in the near future, use their influence to promote the establishment of Public Libraries in every locality where a technical school is considered essential.

The purpose of this paper is to foreground and analyse the views of people in custody about the management of the COVID-19 pandemic within the Scottish Prison Estate. The project is unique in using a correspondence participatory action methodology to engage with a group of people in custody at one Scottish prison.

At the time of ethical approval (early April 2020), all face-to-face research projects facilitated by the Scottish Prison Service were paused. In response to these methodological challenges, a participatory correspondence methodology was designed to allow people in custody to influence the direction of this project by suggesting research questions and themes. Eight participants were selected due to previous participation in research projects at one Scottish prison. All participants were adult males and serving long-term sentences. After consent was given via post, eight letters were distributed to participants with questions about their COVID-19 experiences. Methodologically, this project illustrates the potential for correspondence methods to facilitate insights into life in custody during what emerges as a particularly challenging time.

Participant suggested questions were used across six subsequent letters to elicit unique insights into the COVID-19 pandemic, of lockdown and subsequent easing of lockdown conditions in custody. The main project findings relate to challenges that the participants faced in relation to communication, feelings of heightened isolation and detachment from family, friends and the normal rhythms of life in prison. Analysis of letters provides unique insights into the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic in custody enhanced the pains of imprisonment, increasing the “tightness”, “depth” and “weight” of participants’ time in custody.

This paper is methodologically, epistemologically and theoretically original in foregrounding the views of people in custody about the management of COVID-19 in prison and using a correspondence participatory action research method. The conclusion considers the extent to which views from what might be considered the bottom of hierarchies of power within prison settings are able to influence the direction of prison policy around the management of COVID-19 and future pandemics.

THE INTER‐RELATIONSHIPS between the flowering of the fourth estate and popular literature, the democratisation of the reading public, and the growth of radicalism in the first half of the nineteenth century have been long recognised. Yet although literary and political historians have dug deeply and frequently in the periodical press of the time for evidence of contemporary attitudes, less attention has been paid to the journalists whose output is represented. It is unsafe to assume that they were typified by literary giants like Dickens (whose editorship of the Daily news was at best undistinguished) or by those who subsequently produced autobiographical accounts. Most were comparatively faceless men, whose social, educational, literary, and political backgrounds can be discovered only through extensive research. Until numerous bio‐bibliographies are compiled on an individual basis, generalisations about the profession as a whole will remain tenuous. William Weir, editor of the Daily news in 1854–58, was one of this powerful new group of substantially‐neglected communicators, but in his case a unique if scattered range of sources permits a reconstruction of the apprenticeship of a Victorian journalist and some interesting insights into the profession.

THE STUDENT OF PUBLIC LIBRARY HISTORY soon accepts without surprise accounts of opposition to the public library. It is perhaps remarkable that a forerunner or pioneer of the public library idea should have encountered it when what he did was of his own volition and to some degree at his own expense, and when he laid no claim to public finance for his idea.

The authors describe the rationale for key worker services for disabled children, factors to consider in developing such services, the role of key workers, how a key worker service is operating in one authority and the impact it has had for families who received it.