Search results

1 – 10 of over 5000
Book part
Publication date: 20 March 2001

Mark Blaug

Abstract

Details

A Research Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-072-2

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2020

Bob Colenutt

There is a sense of loss among planners, community workers and built environment professionals that the enthusiasm and utopian thinking of the post-war New Towns have largely…

Abstract

There is a sense of loss among planners, community workers and built environment professionals that the enthusiasm and utopian thinking of the post-war New Towns have largely disappeared. Contemporary planning is struggling with a reality of pro-market ideologies and disempowered local government. The utopian thinking that went into the New Towns was part of a modernist project focused on planning future urban spaces and communities founded not just on new buildings and innovative design but on a social mission – an egalitarian ethos that intended the New Towns to deliver social progress. This essay explores the loss of this ethos using the framework of ‘hauntology’ developed by the cultural critic Mark Fisher.

Details

Lessons from British and French New Towns: Paradise Lost?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-430-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2023

David Yates and Muhammad Al Mahameed

Through this reflexive, theoretically informed polemical piece, this paper aims to seek to reflect on the role of accounting education in United Kingdom Higher Education (UKHE)…

Abstract

Purpose

Through this reflexive, theoretically informed polemical piece, this paper aims to seek to reflect on the role of accounting education in United Kingdom Higher Education (UKHE). The authors reignite an old, but pertinent debate, whether accounting graduates should be educated to be accountants or receive a holistic, critical education.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt a theoretical position drawing on the work of Slavoj Žižek and Mark Fisher, and their fusion of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Marxism, in particular Fisher’s (2009) conceptualisation of “capitalist realism” to take a critical standpoint on the effects that UKHE marketisation is having on the teaching of accounting and other business-related disciplines.

Findings

The authors outline four key aspects of where accounting education in UKHE is influenced by capitalist realism, as a result of the marketisation of UKHE.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is a reflexive polemic and so is limited by this written style and presentation.

Social implications

The authors argue that capitalist realism is a dominant theme that influences accounting education. They propose that universities now, more than ever, must focus on their societal duty to foster critical viewpoints in their graduates and dispose of a model that is subject to capitalist realism ontology.

Originality/value

The theoretical stance allows for a potentially deeper consideration of issues surrounding marketisation of higher education, from the micro level of social interaction (that of the accounting academic and their impact/perceptions of the reality).

Details

Accounting Research Journal, vol. 36 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1030-9616

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 20 January 2017

Mark Jeffery, Daniel Fisher, Mirron Granot, Anuj Kadyan, Albert Pho and Carlos Vasquez

In 2001 Accenture took the bold step of separating from its parent, Arthur Andersen. The new firm that emerged had a bright future ahead, but it also faced the challenge of…

Abstract

In 2001 Accenture took the bold step of separating from its parent, Arthur Andersen. The new firm that emerged had a bright future ahead, but it also faced the challenge of building a new IT infrastructure that could support a global organization that consults on leading-edge technology. Accenture's CIO at the time, Ed Schreck, knew that becoming a master of your own trade was not an easy task. Frank Modruson, Schreck's successor and the person responsible for carrying forward the IT transformation challenge from 2002 on, had ambitious plans for the new technology infrastructure that was to replace Arthur Andersen's legacy systems. Difficult decisions had to be made. Should the firm continue with a decentralized approach to managing technology platforms, in which each country chooses its own IT platforms and has autonomy to run them? Or should the firm take a mixed approach, in which the same standard applications would run throughout the enterprise but would be managed independently by individual offices? Or should Accenture espouse a “one-firm” approach and boldly shoot for a centralized implementation of its most critical systems, with all its offices interconnected on the same “instance” of a software platform? Furthermore, should the firm retain its traditional conception of IT as cost center, or should it migrate to a scheme that recognizes IT as a service provision center that generates measurable value for the organization? These questions and many others drove Accenture's CIO team to undertake one of the most remarkable IT transformations in a global organization in recent years.

To understand best practices for transforming an IT infrastructure. To offer a step-by-step approach to rationalizing a billion-dollar-plus IT technology infrastructure. To understand the connection between strategy and architecture in delivering high performance for an organization. To understand organizational change strategies and approaches in dealing with complexity in very large companies.

Book part
Publication date: 22 September 2015

Victoria C. Ramenzoni

The study assesses the significance of environmental uncertainty and its effects on fishing strategies of small-scale fishermen in Ende, Flores, Indonesia. Periodic environmental…

Abstract

Purpose

The study assesses the significance of environmental uncertainty and its effects on fishing strategies of small-scale fishermen in Ende, Flores, Indonesia. Periodic environmental cycles such as the moon phase can have important effects on fishing strategies by regulating the behavior of stocks and tides. Traditional lunar calendars are used by subsistence fishermen to decide when and where to go fishing. Environmental uncertainty, specifically unprecedented changes in oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, is threatening the predictability of traditional systems of ecological knowledge.

Methodology/approach

Methods included ethnographic and observational techniques. Interviews (n = 58) and surveys (n = 132) are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. A combination of standard statistical tests, multilevel models, and cluster analysis is applied to long-term repeated observations of fishing events (n = 2,633).

Findings

Endenese fishermen emphasized the importance of the traditional lunar calendar to allocate their effort in interviews and surveys. This belief does not coincide with observed behavior. Contrary to expectations from the traditional calendar, the lowest probability of fishing happens in the intermediate phases, with fishing also occurring during the full moon. Differences between individuals play an important role in explaining variability in returns. Finally, based on the consideration of variability, three different fishing strategies are identified that suggest an effect of environmental uncertainty in effort regulation.

Research implications

The paper underlines the importance of studies of variability to identify behavioral flexibility and adaptation. Results emphasize the value of considering individual traits in the analysis of subsistence practices.

Details

Climate Change, Culture, and Economics: Anthropological Investigations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-361-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 December 2013

Peter Doran

This chapter posits that we underestimate the way in which our immersion in the ‘social logic’ of capitalist consumption constrains our attempts to understand and respond to the…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter posits that we underestimate the way in which our immersion in the ‘social logic’ of capitalist consumption constrains our attempts to understand and respond to the ecological crises at both a personal and political level – and that both dimensions of our response are bound together.

Methodology/approach

Survey of literature on psychology, well-being and mindfulness.

Findings

How has the culture of capitalism – its psychic investment in colonizing our attention – compromised our ability to respond meaningfully to the challenges of sustainable development? In an acknowledgement of a certain closure around such themes within Western thought, I look to a point of exteriority in Peter Hershock’s work, drawing on China’s Chan Buddhist philosophy, for intimations of a worldview that challenges the West’s over-commitment to forms of ‘control’ in favour of a cultivation of mindful and careful awareness – and an offering of unconditional attention.

Social implications

Draws attention to a new phase of ‘enclosure’ in the cultural processes of capitalism.

Originality/value of paper

Original introduction of a critical approach to mindfulness in the debate on well-being.

Details

Environmental Philosophy: The Art of Life in a World of Limits
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-137-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Ron Fisher, Mark Francis, Andrew Thomas, Kevin Burgess and Katherine Mutter

The purpose of this paper is to consider value as individual and experiential, based on the relationships between conceptions of value, rather than attempting to identify a common…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to consider value as individual and experiential, based on the relationships between conceptions of value, rather than attempting to identify a common factor. The authors use the term “family” to represent the relationships between conceptions of value and provide a philosophical basis that underpins this. The authors also propose an appropriate method for researching value as family resemblances.

Design/methodology/approach

In this conceptual paper, the authors propose a new approach to understanding the nature of value in terms of family resemblances. In many marketing studies, value is described as being phenomenologically based, with an increasing number also emphasizing its experiential nature. Attempts to conceptualize value phenomenologically lead to tension between the search for an essence and the qualitatively different ways in which value is experienced by individuals. The authors propose phenomenography as a research approach that accommodates value based on differences rather than essences.

Findings

Recognizing that there is no necessary condition or essence by which value may be defined resolves the tension that has arisen from the simultaneous search for a common feature and the assertion that value is experientially created by individuals. The research also highlights that the nature of value may differ between people, time and place or some aspects of it may be the same. Regarding value in terms of family resemblances accommodates actors’ different conceptions of value. Phenomenography is an appropriate approach to operationalize conceptions of value in terms of family membership.

Research limitations/implications

Understanding value as a family, and using phenomenography as method, provides methodological clarity to a long-standing research issue. Using the approaches outlined in this study will enable empirical studies of the nature of value in any context to be conducted soundly and relatively quickly. It will also provide a more inclusive and holistic set of values based on the experiences of individuals.

Practical implications

The research provides important insights for practitioners through clearer conceptions of value. These include the ability to plan and deliver business outcomes that are more closely aligned with customer values. Understanding the conceptions of value experienced by actors in marketing, as determined through family resemblances, has clear implications for researchers and practitioners.

Originality/value

Understanding actors’ conceptions of value through the lens of family resemblances resolves a long-standing research issue. Using phenomenography as method is an approach seldom used in marketing that addresses the need for increased use of qualitative research in marketing.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2018

Thomas Raymen

This chapter draws upon ethnographic observation and walking interviews with private security staff to offer in-depth insight into the hyper-regulation of the city and the lived…

Abstract

This chapter draws upon ethnographic observation and walking interviews with private security staff to offer in-depth insight into the hyper-regulation of the city and the lived dynamics of parkour’s inconsistent inclusion and exclusion from urban space. This chapter argues that the street-level governance of urban space is largely incoherent, fractured and characterised by a myriad of conflicting spatial interests. As neoliberalism has privatised and fractured the city into a series of microspheres of spatial sovereignty, there is a lack of any notion of the common urban good; therefore, what should be allowed and prohibited from urban space. This is a manifestation of the broader trend towards post-political forms of governance. It is argued that the confusion and contradiction that surrounds what city spaces should be for actively contributed to the forms of spatial compromise developed between private security and the traceurs.

Details

Parkour, Deviance and Leisure in the Late-Capitalist City: An Ethnography
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-812-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1988

Martin Walker

Any review of a new publication needs to satisfy certain criteria, and I should perhaps begin by stating my position. I have been asked to write this review article on Books in

Abstract

Any review of a new publication needs to satisfy certain criteria, and I should perhaps begin by stating my position. I have been asked to write this review article on Books in French, a publication produced by Library Services Ltd, a company owned by Library Services Trust, which was set up by the Library Association and its London and Home Counties Branch, and managed through that Branch. My review will attempt a fair and honest assessment based on my past experience, in particular my fifteen years selecting modern languages stock. My views are of course subjective ones — that is the strength of any review. If someone reading this article writes to the Editor expressing a view opposite to mine, we should both be delighted, since healthy debate is usually the sign of a profession willing to challenge accepted beliefs.

Details

New Library World, vol. 89 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Mark Fisher

During 2001‐2002 a union database of holdings of biomedical journals in a number of higher education and research institutes in London was created. The project was one of several…

Abstract

During 2001‐2002 a union database of holdings of biomedical journals in a number of higher education and research institutes in London was created. The project was one of several funded through the British Library's Co‐operation and Partnership Programme. This paper describes the practical steps involved in designing the database (using Microsoft Access software), collecting the data and developing an appropriate Web‐based search interface. The technical and human problems involved in a collaborative project such as this are highlighted.

Details

Program, vol. 37 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0033-0337

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000