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1 – 10 of 367
Article
Publication date: 30 September 2019

Rebecca Warren, David Bernard Carter and Christopher J. Napier

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an element of the internal politics of standard setting by reference to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) movement…

1248

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate an element of the internal politics of standard setting by reference to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) movement to the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-Sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). The authors examine the politics of the IASB’s expertise in technocratic governance by focussing on how the IASB defined SMEs, gave the standard a title and issued a guide for micro-entities.

Design/methodology/approach

The narrative case study focusses on central “moments” in the development of IFRS for SMEs. The authors employ Laclau and Mouffe’s condensation, displacement and overdetermination to illustrate embedded politics in articulating IFRS for SMEs.

Findings

The authors extend literature on the internal politics of standard setting, such as agenda setting, by examining the condensing of disagreements between experts and political pressures and processes into central decision moments in IFRS for SMEs. The authors illustrate these moments as overdetermined, manifesting in an act of displacement through the production of a micro-entity guide. This form of politics is hidden due to the IASB’s attempt to protect their technocratic neutrality through fixing meaning.

Originality/value

The authors make three contributions: first, overdetermination through condensation and displacement illustrates the embedded nature of politics in regulatory settings, such as the IASB. Second, the authors provide a theoretical explanation of the IASB’s movement from listed entities to IFRS for SMEs, drawing on Laclau and Mouffe. Third, the authors reinforce the necessity of interrogating the internal politics of standard setting to challenge claims of technocracy.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 33 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 September 2021

Lisa Porter, Katherine Barko-Alva and Socorro Guadalupe Herrera

Power, policy and politics set the landscape for technocratic approaches in the educational system. Efficiency and money-saving initiatives that adhere to a one-size-fits-all…

Abstract

Purpose

Power, policy and politics set the landscape for technocratic approaches in the educational system. Efficiency and money-saving initiatives that adhere to a one-size-fits-all approach drive the response to complex and multifaceted challenges within education. This has been made apparent through the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. This paper aims to explore one of the most pronounced and gaping realities that became evident during this crisis in how the system dehumanizes those in the margins. By not centralizing the biographies of families served in the schools, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse families, the system has failed to capitalize on the assets and affirm their wisdom.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper juxtaposes the technocratic and humanistic approaches of family engagement and provides alternative narratives rooted in authentic cariño (Bartolomé, 2008; Herrera et al., 2020; Valenzuela, 1999) and radical kinship (Boyle, 2017).

Findings

Currently, the educational system has sought to address complex issues by attending to the structures (i.e. plexiglass) and instructions (i.e. technology) as a way of responding to life-altering events that are in need of humanistic approaches.

Originality/value

The authors ask educators to reflect on the ways that power, policy and politics often stifle opportunities to move outside what is known to transform educational contexts. The authors conclude with critical questions to create new pathways guided by empathy and hope.

Details

Journal for Multicultural Education, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-535X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 June 2007

Petter Aasen and Bjørn Stensaker

The purpose of this research is to analyse how participants in leadership training programs in higher education value and perceive their training process.

2055

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to analyse how participants in leadership training programs in higher education value and perceive their training process.

Design/methodology/approach

A stylized theoretical model is developed indicating that leadership training may be designed along a collegial‐managerial continuum. To study how participants placed themselves on this continuum, a questionnaire was distributed to participants in three different leadership training programs.

Findings

The study shows that leadership training programs are tools to modernize higher education without resulting in a rejection of inherent values and characteristics of the sector.

Originality/value

Leadership training programs need to be supplemented with broader organisational development activities and a more systematic follow‐up process after completion of the program.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

The Red Taylorist: The Life and Times of Walter Nicholas Polakov
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-985-4

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1990

Veronica Davies

It is a frequent lament among the new technocracy that British culture seems irretrievably locked into a system of values deriving from the pre‐industrial age. Business activity…

Abstract

It is a frequent lament among the new technocracy that British culture seems irretrievably locked into a system of values deriving from the pre‐industrial age. Business activity is thus still scorned as in some way grubby; arcadian and gentry values are extolled; and the old professions still enjoy a monopoly of prestige and esteem. The new director of the Institute of Directors hammered out this theme at his inaugural address, singling out for especial criticism the influence of the church and the Oxbridge colleges. It is not my purpose to go through the old arguments all over again. They have, after all, been a commonplace since the 1950s and acquired wide circulation with the publication a few years ago of Martin Wiener's British Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit. What I would like to suggest, however, is that the arguments presented by Dahrendorf, Wiener, et al. do have a certain relevance to the world of the library and of information management which has not yet been entirely appreciated.

Details

Records Management Journal, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0956-5698

Book part
Publication date: 6 April 2023

Laura Alessandra Nocera

Purpose – This chapter aims to analyze the pandemic situation in a legal and political point of view, to find what measures have been adopted by States to face the spread of the…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter aims to analyze the pandemic situation in a legal and political point of view, to find what measures have been adopted by States to face the spread of the contagion, and whether those measures have been determinant in the redefinition of democracy. Emergency dispositions were enacted when an “emergency state” was declared, containing a series of dangerous elements for the correct application of the rule of law.

Methodology/Approach – The approach considers a “pluralistic methodology” that refers to a comparative law study, but also uses the approach of political science, history of institutions, and sociology. From this point of view, this chapter regards similarities and differences, between two or more legal systems, as coincidences or dissonances, comparing cases in a diachronic and synchronic way at the same time to evidence what is the democratic erosion.

Findings – This chapter doesn’t want to provide a mere chronicle of what happened during the COVID-19 situation, but it finds that in some peculiar cases emergency affected a degeneration of democratic institutions, and an acceptance of a new model of state, with hypertrophic executives, weak legislative bodies, not equilibrated balance of fundamental rights, and a rise of technocracy.

Originality/Value – Based on other studies focused on state-by-state oversights during the pandemic, our theory intends to enlighten the COVID-19 as a “black swan” in the international political and legal scenario, or a sort of turning point in an inevitable and unstoppable transformation of the state model that appears to aspire to a return of some autocratic attitudes.

Details

Crime and Social Control in Pandemic Times
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-279-2

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 25 September 2012

Yifei Li

Purpose – The net increase in China's urban population in the last 50 years equals the current total population of the European Union. The scale and speed of urbanization in China…

Abstract

Purpose – The net increase in China's urban population in the last 50 years equals the current total population of the European Union. The scale and speed of urbanization in China requires a sustainable solution to unprecedented energy demands and elevated carbon emissions. As low-carbon development emerges in urban China, it offers a unique vantage point to examine some fundamental theoretical questions of the environmental state. How do structural socioeconomic changes affect the environmental state? Does the rise of the environmental state offer a basis for regulatory reform on a broader scale?

Methodology/approach – Case study of five low-carbon cities in China provides the empirical evidence for the analysis. The five cities represent a continuum in their levels of postindustrialization. I compare low-carbon development strategies in postindustrial cities with those strategies in industrial cities. Evidence is collected primarily by way of interviews with planning bureau officials, urban design professionals, involved NGOs, academics, and private sector individuals familiar with the matter.

Findings – First, in cities where the level of postindustrialization is high, state resources support innovative low-carbon development strategies that attempt to achieve emission reductions in a variety of sectors. In industrial cities, however, the environmental state's regulative power is limited to one or two (sub)sectors. Second, and more importantly, a new pattern of governance is emerging in postindustrial cities. Low-carbon development in postindustrial cities is a much less centralized process, having local levels of governments as key players of low-carbon policy making. When the environmental state intersects with the postindustrial city, it gives birth to a new urbanism that has profound implications for political structuring in China.

Research limitations – The analysis in this chapter is based on evidence from a purposefully selected set of Chinese cities, which may render the results biased. Future studies should aim for a more systematic analysis of cities in order to establish more generalizable conclusions. In addition, given the increasing availability of quantitative data at the city level in China, future studies should also seek to incorporate quantitative analyses to better substantiate existing knowledge derived from qualitative sources of evidence.

Originality/value of chapter – First, this chapter challenges the Western bias in the existing literature on the environmental state. The role of the civil society is far from salient in the Chinese context, and yet the environmental state demonstrates a robust level of activity despite the weak civil society. It therefore seems that a general theory of the environmental state can be built from existing literature, but needs to be sensitive to non-Western social conditions that might falsify parts of the theoretical claims. Second, the environmental state literature can be consolidated and further developed when examined in conjunction with other literatures in the modernity tradition. I have demonstrated the connection between the environmental state and the postindustrial city. More studies are needed to examine other facets of the environmental state, as it intersects with a multitude of (post)modern conditions.

Details

Urban Areas and Global Climate Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-037-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 August 2015

David Heald and Ron Hodges

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how austerity has impacted to date upon European Union (EU) financial reporting developments and how this might influence future reforms…

1991

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how austerity has impacted to date upon European Union (EU) financial reporting developments and how this might influence future reforms. It considers how a critical juncture in EU financial reporting might be recognized and factors which might prevent or delay such a juncture being realized.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the theoretical conceptualization of the territorializing, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles of accounting (Miller and Power, 2013), linked to document analysis and interviews with members of the relevant policy communities. In technical terms, austerity makes accounting subject to greater demands for consistency and uniformity. In political terms, accounting is implicated in increasing external fiscal surveillance of sovereign states.

Findings

The authors have shown how the Miller-Power framework illuminates these developments. The territorializing role of accounting in sovereign states creates an environment which facilitates the mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing roles. Austerity promotes re-territorializing, yet also creates incentives for governments to hide risks and guarantees: the comparability of financial reports and national accounts may be achieved only at a rhetorical level. Evidence for a critical juncture would be termination of national traditions of financial reporting, greater harmonization of accounting across tiers of government, weakening of the linkages to private sector accounting, and stronger alignment of government financial reporting with statistical accounting.

Originality/value

The paper provides a theoretically based analysis of how austerity influences government financial reporting and statistical accounting and brings them into closer contact. This analysis is located within broader tensions between technocracy and democracy that are institutionalized in EU fiscal surveillance.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1999

C. Bruce Kavan, Margaret T. O’Hara, Edward C. Patterson and Robert P. Bostrom

This paper uses the Socio‐Technical Systems (STS) model as a conceptual framework to explore client/server information system implementations, and demonstrates the logical…

1186

Abstract

This paper uses the Socio‐Technical Systems (STS) model as a conceptual framework to explore client/server information system implementations, and demonstrates the logical disconnect between traditionally developed mainframe systems and the flexibility required to meet rapidly changing environments. Such flexibility can be afforded by client/server and web enabled technologies; however, to exploit these technologies, managers must improve the interaction between the technical and social systems of the organization during the information systems development process. In this paper, conditions for successful implementations are presented along with a technology migration model based upon the characteristics of and flexibility afforded by these newer technologies.

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2020

Silviu-Petru Grecu

The aim of this paper is to create the nexus between political culture, citizens' perception of the political system and democratic order. In academic literature, one of the most…

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to create the nexus between political culture, citizens' perception of the political system and democratic order. In academic literature, one of the most important determinants of the democratic order is considered the cultural dimension. Beyond the political institutions and economic indicators, democracy is based on historical heritage, cultural patterns, political attitudes and behaviours. In correlation with all these premises, this article aims to (1) identify associations between social values and political participation; (2) estimate the impact of the political participation in creating premises for tolerance and democracy and (3) observe the relation between political beliefs, ideological position and political participation. Data are collected from secondary sources as World Values Survey, Wave 6. We use as research method the comprehensive case study for post-communist Romania. Empirical results demonstrate weak statistical correlations between personal values and active membership in political and civic associations (r = −0.150, p < 0.001). Traditional dimension of the Romanian post-communist society could be observed in three main variables which reflect personal values and preferences: family, work and religion. Low rates of tolerance are related with the inactivity in the social or political sphere, generating a syndrome of political apathy and alienation. In correlation with personal values, social implication and tolerance we have emphasize the respondents' cognitive bias regarding the meaning and directions of the democratic order.

Details

Understanding National Culture and Ethics in Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-022-1

Keywords

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