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Book part
Publication date: 4 August 2021

Sudeshna Lahiri

With the implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education since April 2010, the responsibility and role of the teachers in Indian school has been changed. Once…

Abstract

With the implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education since April 2010, the responsibility and role of the teachers in Indian school has been changed. Once again, the teacher quality in Indian schools has taken a center stage in nation-wide debate. The discussion on teacher quality has reappeared in submitted report as Draft National Education Policy (DNEP) on May 31, 2019, that gets endorsement in cabinet approved NEP 2020. The evaluation, as a process and system, starts with the very moment when a teacher assumes its duties in K-12 schools. This chapter addresses the main research questions as: what is the status of teacher evaluation in Indian schools as mentioned in various Commission reports, policies, and draft regulations? How does teacher evaluation could be reframed for local setting based on global standards laid in international and multinational context? This chapter employs qualitative research through review of policies, draft regulations, research, articles, and government documents as data analysis and frames hypotheses through comparative analysis. The objectives of this chapter are to frame hypotheses regarding policies and recommendations for: teacher quality; teacher appraisal process; teacher appraisal in local, regional, and national settings; and teacher appraisal in multinational context.

Abstract

Details

Health Policy, Power and Politics: Sociological Insights
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-394-4

Book part
Publication date: 22 August 2016

Franca Bimbi

The chapter is an auto-ethnographic account of the self-management of a chronic illness within the context of a participatory research project on Mediterranean Diet (MD). A group…

Abstract

Purpose

The chapter is an auto-ethnographic account of the self-management of a chronic illness within the context of a participatory research project on Mediterranean Diet (MD). A group of Italian women with type 2 diabetes is following a non-medical, personal interpretation of the Mediterranean-style diet. The research account is preceded by a critical appraisal of the scientific narratives of the MD.

Methodology/approach

Analysis of epidemiological research on MD examines some methodological aspects of gender blindness in its scientific approach. The ethnography concerns self-management of MD diet and redefinition of gender relations.

Findings

MD is analyzed as a case of transplantation of yesterday’s cultural and social capitals of the peasant classes, to today’s discourses on food considered as appropriate for affluent people suffering from satiety diseases. The ethnography highlights gender aspects of biographical work, examining in particular a “conversion” dietary model.

Research limitations

The ethnography must be amplified to include women and men from different social classes with various Mediterranean cooking habits, and family and gender patterns.

Practical implications

The chapter highlights cultural processes for women’s empowerment in self-managing type 2 diabetes.

Originality/value

This chapter may represent a seminal sociological work on chronic illness, gender and food studies in one of the “native” contexts of the Mediterranean-style diet.

Details

Gender and Food: From Production to Consumption and After
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-054-1

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 6 May 2019

Mitch Blair, Denise Alexander and Michael Rigby

Primary care (PC) is a strong determinant of overall health care. Children make up around a fifth of the population of the European Union and European Economic Area and have their…

Abstract

Primary care (PC) is a strong determinant of overall health care. Children make up around a fifth of the population of the European Union and European Economic Area and have their own needs and uptake of PC. However, there is little research into how well PC services address their needs. There are large differences in childhood mortality and morbidity patterns in the EU and EEA countries, and there has been a major epidemiological shift in the past half century from predominantly communicable disease, to non-communicable diseases presenting and increasingly managed in PC. This increase in multifactorial morbidities, such as obesity and learning disability, has led to the need for PC systems to adapt to accommodate these changes. Europe presents a challenging picture of unexplained variation in health care delivery and style and of children’s different health experiences and health-related behaviour. The Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) project aimed to describe the PC systems in detail, analyse their components and appraise them from a number of different viewpoints, including professional, public, political and economic lenses. It did this through nine work packages supported by a core management team, and a network of national agents, individuals in each MOCHA country who had the expertise in research and knowledge of their national health care system to answer a wide range of questions posed by the MOCHA scientific teams.

Details

Issues and Opportunities in Primary Health Care for Children in Europe
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-354-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 30 May 2013

Asmund Rygh

International business (IB) research is traditionally heavily reliant on economics. In this chapter, we review selected debates in the philosophy of science of economics and…

Abstract

International business (IB) research is traditionally heavily reliant on economics. In this chapter, we review selected debates in the philosophy of science of economics and consider their relevance for economics-based IB research, given important characteristics of IB such as phenomenon-orientedness, concern with data and facts and limited use of formal mathematical models and unrealistic assumptions in the analysis. We argue that, like in the case of mainstream economics, Lakatos’ concept of scientific research programmes (SRPs) is more useful for understanding the philosophy of science of economics-based IB than Popper’s falsificationism. Following this, we discuss characteristics of two possible IB SRPs, internalization theory and Dunning’s Ownership-Location-Internalization paradigm. Finally, we discuss the approach to modelling in IB, finding it to reflect a relative commitment to scientific realism.

Details

Philosophy of Science and Meta-Knowledge in International Business and Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-713-9

Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2005

Daniel Bodansky

Although the general theory of greenhouse warming has been understood by scientists since the end of the nineteenth century, an international regime to address the problem of…

Abstract

Although the general theory of greenhouse warming has been understood by scientists since the end of the nineteenth century, an international regime to address the problem of climate change began to develop only in the late 1980s.1 In the decade and a half since then, the regime has undergone a remarkable evolution. In 1992, states adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took effect in 1994 and serves as the “constitution” for the international climate change regime.2 In 1997, the UNFCCC was supplemented by the Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrialized countries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect (so-called “greenhouse gases” or GHGs for short). And the 2001 Marrakesh Accords further elaborate the Kyoto Protocol's regulatory regime, setting forth detailed rules for how the Kyoto Protocol will operate.

Details

Perspectives on Climate Change: Science, Economics, Politics, Ethics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-271-9

Book part
Publication date: 28 February 2020

Andy Miah

This chapter examines the utilisation of drones for creative expression, focussing on applications which span the use of drones as artistic inquiry and exploration, to their uses…

Abstract

This chapter examines the utilisation of drones for creative expression, focussing on applications which span the use of drones as artistic inquiry and exploration, to their uses as political activism. It begins by discussing the common ground between art and science, proceeding to then analyse critical artistic interventions using drones. Such works function as forms of critical design and investigate the creative potential of drones, as performers and props. In sum, it characterises the emergence of drone art as a distinct new media art form, which locates collaboration at its heart and which exemplifies the value of bridging the art, science and technology divide.

Details

Drones: The Brilliant, the Bad and the Beautiful
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-985-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 31 December 2003

Bill McKelvey

Organizational researchers live in two worlds. The first demands and rewards speculations about how to improve performance. The second demands and rewards adherence to rigorous…

Abstract

Organizational researchers live in two worlds. The first demands and rewards speculations about how to improve performance. The second demands and rewards adherence to rigorous standards of scholarship (March & Sutton, 1997, p. 698).Those of us who study organizations and are professors of management work on the front lines, so to speak, where the beliefs we have about how to improve managerial performance get passed directly on to practitioners. The question is, What right do we have to put our beliefs in a privileged position? Beliefs, by definition, are supposed to be true. According to Webster’s (1996) a belief is a conviction about the truth of some statement and/or reality of some phenomenon, especially when based on examination of evidence. Are all of our lectures based on consensually agreed upon evidentiary standards? What are these standards and who should maintain them?

Details

Post Modernism and Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-573-4

Book part
Publication date: 18 February 2004

Ronnie J Phillips and Douglas Kinnear

In 1978, Philip Klein wrote about institutional economists of the Veblen-Commons-Mitchell-Ayres variety:Whatever we call ourselves, we are not given much credit generally among…

Abstract

In 1978, Philip Klein wrote about institutional economists of the Veblen-Commons-Mitchell-Ayres variety: Whatever we call ourselves, we are not given much credit generally among our fellow economists, but I think there is evidence that an ever-wider group of economists has begun to hear what we are saying and to accept a number of our premises…institutionalism must be viewed as either never having died or as being in the process of a resurrection which I suggest will endure (Klein, 1978, p. 252).Klein’s optimism seems justified by the following quote from Joseph Stiglitz’s new book, Globalization and its Discontents: Old-fashioned economics textbooks often talk about market economics as if it had three essential ingredients: prices, private property, and profits. Together with competition, these provide incentives, coordinate economic decision making, ensuring that firms produce what individuals want at the lowest possible cost. But there has also long been a recognition of the importance of institutions (Stiglitz, 2002, p. 139; emphasis in original).Klein and other original institutionalists should be buoyed when they hear such a statement from a recent Nobel Prize winner. One problem, however, is that the “old-fashioned textbooks” are still being published in 2003. The quote also raises a question: just who recognized the importance of institutions and when did they recognize it? Statements such as the above by Stiglitz irk original institutionalists, but why? Is it because he underestimates the prominence of perfect competition in current texts, because he is understating original institutionalists’ positions as “keepers of the faith,” or both? In any case, we may not be able to hoist the V(eblen)-C(ommons) banner and claim total victory but, increasingly, more of economics today is institutional economics. A recent article by Allan Schmid demonstrates that indeed though everyone is not an institutionalist in the Veblen-Commons mold, “good economists find it useful to embrace some of its various elements” (Schmid, 2001, p. 281).

Details

Wisconsin "Government and Business" and the History of Heterodox Economic Thought
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-090-6

Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2013

Ryan Gunderson

Contemporary sociologists implicitly assume or explicitly state that classical social theorists shared the Enlightenment’s optimistic vision that society would become more…

Abstract

Purpose

Contemporary sociologists implicitly assume or explicitly state that classical social theorists shared the Enlightenment’s optimistic vision that society would become more rational, free, ethical, and just overtime. I reexamine the primary works that laid the foundation for sociology and resituate them in their neo-Romantic origins.

Design/methodology/approach

Close readings of formative texts are provided to revisit modernist critiques of social progress in turn of the century sociology. The works of Ferdinand Tönnies, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber exemplify this tradition.

Findings

Insights from social theory written during and around the neo-Romantic period mirrored the Zeitgeist, a time fascinated with irrationality, moral decay, unconsciousness, decadence, degeneration, cynicism, historical decline, and pessimism. However, classical sociology’s pessimism should not be interpreted as anti-modern. Rather, it contributed to the Enlightenment’s maturation.

Research limitations/implications

Contemporary sociologists should recover the spirit of classical sociology’s gloomy extension of the modern project and bring societal processes to consciousness through human reason, untainted by the fable of progress. Without rational grounds for optimism, the most honest and sincere way to preserve the hope for alternatives and emancipation is through the continuation and advancement of the pessimistic tradition. To formulate new disillusioned theories of society, sociology ought to draw from its ignored tragic legacy.

Originality/value

Rather than accept accounts of classical sociologists as believers in progress, the tradition reveals a world of increasing disenchantment, atomization, anomie, alienation, confusion, quarrel, rationalization devoid of value, and unhappiness. Providing society thoughtful, systematic accounts of its own estrangement advances the project of modernity.

Details

Social Theories of History and Histories of Social Theory
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-219-6

Keywords

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