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In a recent essay entitled “Value‐relevant Sociology”, David Gray (1983:405–416) argues that if sociology has to be socially relevant, “it is essential that sociology becomes consciously value‐relevant, not value‐free.” He maintains that sociologists cannot analyse the consequences of social structure, forces, and change in a value‐free context if their works are to be relevant for social policies. He then goes on to say, “Between the extremes of value‐free, non‐relevant, sometimes trivial, sociology on the one hand, and immediate response to pressing socioeconomic problems and prevailing political winds on the other, where does the significant sociology lie?” (1983:406). For Gray, both extremes are inappropriate for a worthy academic discipline.

In this monograph the author discusses the problems in constructing a logical and ethical‐empirical foundation so that relevant social values may be studied by the scientific method. Part One is concerned with the difficulties posed by the prevailing methodology. Part Two presents a new research programme based on the simultaneous equilibrium versus disequilibrium approach in conjunction with Wittgenstein's logic and the current research in ethics.

The economic science is again in a crisis and a new solution prolegomena to any future study in economics, finance and other social sciences has just been published by the International Institute of Social Economics in care of the MCB University Press in England. The roots of the major financial and economic problems of our time lie in an open conflict between theory and practice. In the 1930s and before the conflict was between classical theory and given realities. In the 1990s the conflict appears between the now prevailing modern, Keynesian theory and the actual realities. In addition during the twentieth century a great argument developed between the two schools of thought, argument which is not yet settled. In one sentence, the prolegomena tried and was successful to solve the conflict between theory and practice and the big doctrinal dispute of the twentieth century. It was a struggle of research and observation over half a century between 1947 and 1997.

The study of educational administration is narrowly conceived and becoming moribund. It has come to his condition because of an overreliance on, and an uncritical acceptance of, structural‐functionalism as its world view and value freedom, objectivity and nomothetic analysis as the guiding principles of its inquiries. The recent phenomenological critique has focussed attention on these matters and has stimulated some debate. This debate is much needed and to be welcomed, for it opens new avenues for pursuing the study of educational administration, avenues which may prove to be more productive than those travelled during the last twenty five years.

In this study, the aim is to address the void in the comparative literature of criminology and criminal justice by investigating public attitudes toward law enforcement in a rapidly developing country, Turkey.

Three different models of satisfaction with law enforcement, the demographic model, the quality of life model and the experiential model are subjected to empirical scrutiny in the context of policing in Turkey. In line with extant research on satisfaction with law enforcement in the West, all three models significantly explain the variation of satisfaction with law enforcement across a random sample of 6,713 individuals living in urban and rural parts of Turkey. Specifically, the quality of life model and the experiential model had considerable impact on public satisfaction with law enforcement and in general, all three models produced results in the predicted direction.

Overall, the findings suggest the robust nature of the integrated demographic, quality of life, and experiential models in explaining public satisfaction with law enforcement. In the demographic model, however, income and education had significant negative impact on global satisfaction with law enforcement. Considering the fact that more educated and well off citizens are likely to value freedom more and that law enforcement may represent an oppressive part of a democratic government, this might account for the reaction of higher socioeconomic classes to the power distance between the state, the police in particular, and civil society.

In terms of policy recommendations, to the extent that community policing is regarded as a set of strategies for improving the quality of police‐citizen encounters and reforming police organizations, these findings lend support for the potential of community policing in Turkey.

Studies which look at disaster affected people’s use of communications technologies often fail to take into account people’s communication rights in their analyses, particularly their right to freedom of expression. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to this issue by exploring the link between freedom of expression, community participation and disaster risk reduction in the use of digital feedback channels offered by aid and government agencies in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Ethnographic fieldwork was undertaken in the Philippines between 2014 and 2015 in Tacloban City and Sabay Island, both in the Visayas, which have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan. A total of 101 in-depth interviews were conducted with affected people, local and national officials, community leaders, civil society groups, telecommunications companies and humanitarian agencies.

The interviews reveal that majority of disaster-affected Filipinos chose not to engage with formal feedback platforms offered by government and aid agencies out of fear of giving critical feedback to those in authority. They were concerned about the possibility of losing their entitlement to aid, of being reprimanded by government officers, and of the threat to their lives and of their loved ones if they expressed criticism to the government’s recovery efforts. Nonetheless, 15 per cent used backchannels while 10 per cent availed of the formal means to express their views about the recovery.

The paper sought to draw links between people’s lack of engagement with the formal feedback mechanisms offered by government and aid agencies in the wake of Haiyan and the restrictive sociopolitical environment in the Philippines. Further research could be undertaken to examine how freedom of expression plays a role in disaster prevention and mitigation. Research into this area could potentially provide concrete steps to help prevent the occurrence of disasters and mitigate their impacts.

Freedom of expression and its place in disaster risk reduction is rarely explored in disaster studies. The paper addresses this oversight by examining the lack of engagement by communities affected by Haiyan with digital feedback channels provided by aid agencies and government. The findings suggest that despite the provisions for community participation in DRR under the Philippine Disaster Law, people are prevented to express criticism and dissent which puts into question the spirit and purpose of the law.

A “living” wage (LW) is conventionally defined as enabling meaningful participation in society above subsistence through, for example, recreation, supporting a family, and savings. There is increasing debate over LWs due to growing inequality, rising living costs and welfare reform but this remains largely framed by the econometric cost-benefit parameters that apply to minimum wage regulation. The capabilities approach advocated by Sen (1999) offers a different perspective that is inclusive of choice, contingencies and the inter-connections between quality of (paid) work and private life. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper adopts this framework and utilises a qualitative exploration of the narratives of 606 New Zealand employees to understand perceived wage effectiveness. The results suggest that a focus on a specific LW rate might be conceptually limiting, in comparison to a LW range.

First, the findings indicate that there is a pivot range in which people move from self-assessed “survival” to “decent” income. Second, a LW may have more than a simply monetary effect in better meeting employees’ living costs; it can also improve well-being through subjective perceptions of valued freedoms to do with job satisfaction, equity and security.

The results thus draw attention to a wider notion of a LW in terms of personal and family well-being, utilising a capabilities approach, with implications for organisational practice, policy and theory concerning sustainable livelihood and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

To argue that developing countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region should embrace the concept of freedom of information to enable better human rights and economic development.

The paper reviews the current situation through discussion of current legislation and proposed policies.

Whereas several theories abound as to why there has been little development in sub‐Saharan Africa, this paper discusses the status of freedom of information legislations within the SADC region and the implications for accountability and transparency in the management of public resources.

The paper suggests the importance of further research into the importance of freedom of information legislation for economic and human rights development.

The paper has practical implication for those considering the potential of freedom of information legislation in developing countries.

Freedom of information has largely taken a back seat amidst several social, economic and political reforms that have been instituted collectively or by individual countries. It is the view of this paper that freedom of information provides an important link for the economic, social and political reform initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of “freedom of science” (“academic freedom”) for the advancement of society and mankind, which, however, is permanently endangered by powerful organisations, groups and individuals, who in pursuit of their one-sided interests are seeking to constrain information about the truth. As a broad term, freedom of science embraces freedom in research, learning, teaching and publication. All of these activities should be dedicated to identifying the truth and learning about the truth.

Three theoretical approaches are of importance for framing issues related to freedom of science, which in this paper are integrated into the framework of mindset agency theory: freedom is a value; “freedom” is claimed by agents who pursue specific interests (goals), which might constrain others; and individuals are agents who are interacting with each other within a social system – cooperation, ignorance or conflict.

Freedom as a value is at the core of intellectual autonomy. Intellectual autonomy is a necessary condition for innovation and advancement of knowledge. The observable modes of interaction/coexistence among researchers are influenced by individual research goals and by the researchers’ access to resources, which may be deliberately constrained by opponents or other researchers as competitors.

For further research, which is beyond this paper, the authors can refer to: analyses of challenges of “academic freedom” – in terms of ethics, protection of individual human rights, political pressures and conflicts of interests; the issues of truth, i.e. the impact of fake news and creation of “alternate facts”; and the relation between academic freedom and employment (academic tenure) in present-day societies. Owing to lack of space, this paper cannot deal with the danger emerging from powerful organisations or powerful individuals, who are challenging freedom of science.

If there is no freedom of science then social progress is constrained. If there is no access to right data, decisions will be wrong.

So far, a comprehensive cybernetic model was not published, which supports systems thinking about scholars and teachers (inter)acting in research organisations.

Internationalisation has been a theme in UK higher education for a decade or more. The review of this paper, a practice-based case study, is to find how Winchester formulated two successive internationalisation strategies.

The strategies were developed using a research-oriented method: grounded in the literature and an institutional development model, the work included a comprehensive survey of the university’s existing international engagement, two rounds of structured discussions with senior staff, and a formal organisational development process.

The survey of the university’s international engagement was a most useful exercise. It revealed a substantial and diverse range of engagement which provided confidence that the aim to be a “fully internationalised university” was realistic. There was general agreement that Winchester must demonstrate strong levels of engagement through five strategic priorities related to: curriculum and student mobility; European Union/international staff and students; collaboration with international organisations; academic and social integration of students and staff; coordination of practices and processes.

This is a case study of one UK university.

The process by which the strategies were developed should be relevant to other universities.

Winchester is “Values Driven University”: “We value freedom, justice, truth, human rights and collective effort for the common good”. Internationalisation is consistent with these values, fostering an understanding of diverse cultures and an awareness of global issues.

The authors found no published work describing such a structured and participative process for developing internationalisation strategies within a university.