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This paper aims to explore the relationship between the contemporary forms of manufacturing rationalization and the reproduction of communities of practice (CoPs) centred on tasks and craft. Building on critical literature highlighting the tensions between CoPs and rationalization, this paper aims to develop a nuanced account of how CoPs are reproduced in the context of rationalization.

A qualitative case study of a CoP involved in the production of automotive components was conducted. Following a change in ownership, the company was instructed to rationalize production according to the principles of lean production. Data were collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews.

The CoP of the case study reinterpreted, resisted and redefined the lean production practices according to the established norms and values. In collusion with local management, workers protected the integrity of the community by engaging in hypocritical reporting. While lower-level managers buffered the rationalization pressures, workers would “get the work done” without further interference.

The critical research approach may be applied to a wide range of cases in which informal or professional work organization collides with change programmes driven by management. Future research is encouraged to investigate more closely how CoPs gain access to formal and informal power by enrolling lower-level managers in their joint enterprise and world view.

Managers should be aware that attempts to rationalize community-based work forms may lead to dysfunctional patterns of organizational decoupling.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine the relationship between CoPs and manufacturing rationalization.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how implementation of a management concept is interpreted by a team within a multinational company. The headquarter “rolls out” a standardized version of teamwork within a lean production system. The authors want to investigate what happens.

The paper is based on a case study approach in a single company with available data over a long period of time.

Instead of being a vehicle for involvement and responsibility through the increased visibility, the tools and techniques become a perceived control mechanism because of a lack of connection between norms and values and tools. Despite the initiating enthusiasm of manager stating that “we are now at day one of a new life”, the system is perceived as yet another management concept, and the tools implemented did not represent any meaningful improvement.

The paper is based on a single company, describing a particular phenomenon.

The paper highlights the importance of involvement when new concepts are transferred into a new social context.

The in-depth study of a team within a multinational corporation implementing a management concept is unusual. The main theoretical contribution is to combine conceptualization of both social context and management principles.

Anthropology was a late‐comer to the Caribbean and only after World War II did the study of Caribbean culture and societies become less exceptional. Early in this century when anthropology was first making itself over as an ethnographic science, anthropologists concentrated on tribal peoples. For most of the post‐Columbian era, the Caribbean region, with a few minor exceptions, was without indigenous tribal societies. Even after anthropology turned its attention to the study of peasantries, Caribbean peasantries were ignored in favor of more stable and tradition‐oriented peasant societies in other parts of Latin America. When anthropologists began to study Caribbean peoples in a more serious and systematic fashion, they found that they had to develop new concepts to explain the variation, flexibility, and heterogeneity that characterized regional culture. These concepts have had a significant impact on social and cultural theory and on the broader contemporary dialogue about cultural diversity and multiculturalism.

Few people living in informal settlements in the Global South spontaneously claim that they are “resilient” or “adapting” to disaster risk or climate change. Surely, they often overcome multiple challenges, including natural hazards exacerbated by climate change. Yet their actions are increasingly examined through the framework of resilience, a notion developed in the North, and increasingly adopted in the South. To what extent eliminate’ do these initiatives correspond to the concepts that scholars and authorities place under the resilience framework?

Three longitudinal case studies in Yumbo, Salgar and San Andrés (Colombia) serve to investigate narratives of disaster risks and responses to them. Methods include narrative analysis from policy and project documents, presentations, five workshops, six focus groups and 24 interviews.

The discourse adopted by most international scholars and local authorities differs greatly from that used by citizens to explain risk and masks the politics involved in disaster reduction and the search for social justice. Besides, narratives of social change, aspirations and social status are increasingly masked in disaster risk explanations. Tensions are also concealed, including those regarding the winners and losers of interventions and the responsibilities for disaster risk reduction.

Our findings confirm previous results that have shown that the resilience framework contributes to “depoliticize” the analysis of risk and serves to mask and dilute the responsibility of political and economic elites in disaster risk creation. But they also show that resilience fails to explain the type of socioeconomic change that is required to reduce vulnerabilities in Latin America.

This paper is based on the analysis of a few photographs published by El Heraldo de México in 1968 about the student movement. The purpose of this paper is to consider the photograph as an act in which the observer is included. From this point of view, the observer could identify a discursive line of the newspaper and build an independent interpretation. The librarian is an observer.

It is a theoretical description about the objective character of the photographs published by El Heraldo de México in 1968. Considering photography as an act, this paper proposes to empirically identify the whole context of three cases of photographs of the newspaper, as examples.

Based on the contextualized interpretation (or photograph as an act), the photograph is identified as an information object and, therefore, an epistemological object, too. There is a relation between the image and the building of knowledge, through the interpretation of the observer.

There are many studies about cataloguing and classification of images, but there is no study on the theoretical implications. The theory presented in this document comes from the work of other specialists and from other disciplines.

Learning to read visual information is as necessary as reading texts. The visual world waits to be decoded. And the twenty-first-century librarian knows how to organize, preserve and disseminate documentary collections (as photos). Value is how to find, access, decode and build knowledge over them.

In this document, the authors take a position in the library discussion about the image as an information object. Also, this paper promotes development of theoretical studies about this topic by librarians.

The purpose of this study is to reflect on some actions carried out in Colombia, both at the governmental and organizational levels, that can be considered collaborative innovations and that have emerged within this pandemic context seeking to generate an increase in trust and the awakening of others’ emotions, as well as manifestations or expressions of trust and emotions by the population.

Through a qualitative descriptive study, innovation strategies applied by different sectors to address the current situation of preventive isolation are identified, with the subsequent identification of manifestations resulting from the execution of the strategies and analyzes of the implications in terms of emotions and confidence as research constructs.

Actions taken by the public administration, instead of generating trust and instilling positive emotions, have generated the opposite and there is evidence of greater acceptance of actions when they come from the general population through strategies that can be assimilated into the application of open collaborative innovation.

This study raises future research challenges, in addition to the practical implications that it may have in terms of the vision of the role of the state and citizens and the impact of administrative decisions regarding the generation of trust and the presence of positive emotions in a crisis context.

El presente artículo tiene como propósito principal reflexionar acerca de algunas acciones realizadas en Colombia tanto a nivel gubernamental como organizacional, que pueden ser consideradas innovaciones colaborativas y que han surgido dentro del contexto de la pandemia buscando generar un aumento de la confianza y el despertar de otras emociones, así como las manifestaciones u expresiones ante las mismas por parte de la población.

A través de un estudio descriptivo cualitativo, se lleva a cabo la identificación de estrategias de innovación aplicadas por distintos sectores para hacer frente a la situación de aislamiento preventivo, posteriormente identificando las manifestaciones a partir de la ejecución de las mismas y analizando sus implicaciones en términos de emociones y confianza como constructos de investigación.

Se ha encontrado que desde la administración pública las acciones tomadas en lugar de generar confianza e impactar con emociones positivas han generado todo lo contrario, así como se evidencia que hay mayor aceptación cuando las acciones provienen de la población en general a través de estrategias que pueden ser asimiladas a la aplicación de la innovación colaborativa abierta.

Este artículo plantea retos de investigación a futuro, además de las implicaciones prácticas que puede llegar a tener en cuanto a la visión del papel del estado, la ciudadanía y el impacto de sus decisiones administrativas en cuanto a la búsqueda de generación de confianza y de presencia de emociones positivas en un contexto de crisis.

O principal objetivo deste artigo é refletir sobre algumas ações realizadas na Colômbia, tanto em nível governamental quanto organizacional, que podem ser consideradas inovadoras em colaboração e surgiram nesse contexto de pandemia, buscando gerar um aumento da confiança e o despertar de outras pessoas. emoções, bem como as manifestações ou expressões diante deles pela população.

Através de um estudo descritivo qualitativo, é realizada a identificação de estratégias de inovação aplicadas por diferentes setores para enfrentar a situação atual de isolamento preventivo, identificando posteriormente as manifestações a partir da execução dos mesmos. e analisando suas implicações em termos de emoções e confiança à medida que a pesquisa é construída.

Constatou-se que da administração pública as ações tomadas, em vez de gerar confiança e impactar com emoções positivas, geraram o oposto, além de evidências de que há maior aceitação quando as ações vêm da população em geral por meio de estratégias que pode ser assimilado à aplicação da inovação colaborativa aberta.

Este artigo levanta desafios futuros de pesquisa, além das implicações práticas que possa ter em termos da visão do papel do Estado, da cidadania e do impacto de suas decisões administrativas em relação à busca por geração de confiança e presença de emoções positivas em um contexto de crise.

The aim of this study is to explore the drivers of the evolution of a subsidiary’s strategic role from an ordinary subsidiary into a springboard subsidiary in multinational corporations, paying special attention to the role of subsidiary management in this transformation.

The authors apply a case study methodology to analyse the transformation of three Spanish subsidiaries of European multinational companies into springboard subsidiaries to pursue opportunities in the Latin American region.

The results present evidence that the development of a springboard subsidiary’s role is influenced by a set of preliminary factors that include: (1) the coincidence of a favourable economic change in the target region of expansion and unfavourable market conditions in the springboard subsidiary’s home market; (2) location-specific advantages of a subsidiary that allow it to develop unique capabilities, such as the ability to reduce the psychic distance between the headquarters and target region, to balance intra-regional conflicts within the target region, and to effectively transfer knowledge from the headquarters to the target region; and (3) micro-political headquarters-subsidiary negotiation processes as a result of the subsidiary’s strong initiative, peculiarities of the structure of a multinational company, and a strong dependency of the headquarters on the subsidiary’s unique capabilities.

The study contributes to the International Business literature by providing an in-depth analysis of the evolution of springboard subsidiaries and explaining how ordinary subsidiaries located in saturated markets can trigger organisational change and achieve the extension of their strategic role.

The purpose of this paper is to map the current organisation and implementation of children’s services in three regions of Spain, to identify strengths and gaps and to suggest proposals for improvement in line with European recommendations.

Spain features a decentralised approach when it comes to the organisation of children’s services. This means that relevant themes for children’s services refer to decentralised policies, which diverge within the regions in the country and therefore to illustrate this the authors focus on three specific regions. The study used an exploratory case study design and relied on qualitative methods, including the answers to open questionnaires provided by senior civil servants at key regional child welfare agencies, children’s services directors and service providers.

The main finding from the review of the legislation and the answers to the questionnaires is that public social services still follow an assistance logic rather than a social investment approach in regards to children’s services. Although a significant development of laws and policies has taken place, ensuring the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and services for children remains a challenge.

The answers provided by the respondents may be subject to limitations imposed by the agencies for which they work. A general disadvantage of qualitative research is the use of subjective criteria to interpret the relevance of the results. The study was further challenged by differences across regions when it comes to their legal and policy frameworks, development of provisions and implementation and outcomes’ evaluation.

The findings could be used to assess the state of play in regards to children’s services across the regions studied and beyond with a focus on children being placed at the centre of public services’ intervention, using a comprehensive approach and promoting critical thinking and reflective practice.

The three selected case studies provide additional insight into policy and legal developments, implementation and evaluation of activities and efforts to improve policy and practice in children’s services.

This paper contributes to the evaluation of the current situation of children’s services in Spain from a decentralised perspective with the aim to facilitate changes to improve planning, implementation and evaluation of children’s services and secure better outcomes for children.