How did the Welsh government manage to reform council tax in 2005?

Repeated calls have been made for council tax (CT) in the UK to be reformed. A ‘tyranny of the status quo’ suggests that politicians will avoid this because they fear a backlash from the losers of reform. This paper claims that the tyranny of the status quo is not a fixed law. The Welsh government revalued CT in 2005 but did not communicate the complexity of reform sufficiently. Reform requires greater efforts to communicate the complexity of winning and losing

The role of institutional and family embeddedness in the failure of Sub-Saharan African migrant family businesses

There is considerable interest among European politicians and policymakers in how to integrate migrants in the local and national economy. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 owners of Sub-Saharan African migrant family businesses (SSAMBs) in the United Kingdom, this article critically examines why SSAMBs fail or underperform. This investigation draws upon three streams of literature – notably migrant business failure, institutional theory and family embeddedness. The findings highlight the challenges of doing business and the reasons for business failure among this group. These are different from other small businesses and include culture, family interference and ethnicity. The main contribution of the article lies in the development of a conceptual model that highlights the relationships between institutional contexts and migrant family business outcomes. The model proposes that institution and family embeddedness results in the enactment of ethnic behaviours that drive migrant businesses into cultural markets leading to business underperformance or failure

Lived experience of connected practice : Clavier

Actors in a large scale Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) (O’Dowd, 2016) known as Clavier (MacKinnon, 2016) took time to reflect on their personal experiences of an OIE Network (OIEN) through creating auto ethnographic accounts (Nunan & Choi, 2010). Data reflect different contexts, roles and identities. The data were analysed using a grounded theory method to explore the various perspectives, convergences, and divergences. Through this analysis, “[t]he researcher creates an explication, organisation and presentation of the data rather than discovering order within the data. The discovery process consists of discovering the ideas the researcher has about the data after interacting with it” (Charmaz, 1990, p. 1169, cited in Willig, 2013, p. 77, emphasis in original). This ‘discovery process’ was followed by a series of online discussions where we grappled with the question of how best to present this complex picture with its many facets given the short period of presentation time in the conference. An account emerged of the transformative nature of connected practice. The process of preparing this performance for the UNICollaboration conference in Krakow took the actors to a new point in their professional lives

Life interrupted and life regained? Coping with stroke at a young age

Stroke is a leading cause of disability across the developed world, affecting an increasing number of younger people. In this article, we seek to understand the experience of stroke as a disabling life situation among young people and the strategies that they use to recover and cope. Directed content analysis was conducted from interviews with 17 community-dwelling stroke survivors aged 55 years and younger across the United Kingdom. The sample was drawn from a larger maximum variation sample of stroke survivors. Using the sociological concepts of biographical disruption and biographical repair as a guide, excerpts from the interviews pertaining to aspects of the patients’ life that were interrupted, in addition to how they coped with the changes, were selected and analysed. All individuals described an ‘‘altered sense of self,’’ a theme that included loss of identity, family disruption, and/or loss of valued activities. Individuals sought to adapt their sense of self by seeking external support, by restoring normality, and/or through positive reflection. Despite the adapted self that emerged, most individuals continued to experience impairments. While young stroke survivors adapt to their illness over time, they continue to experience impairments and disruptions in their personal and work lives.Aholistic model of rehabilitation that helps individuals regain the capacity for everyday activities related to work, family life, and leisure can begin to address the emotional ramifications of diseases such as stroke, restore wellness, and work towards minimizing the burden felt by family caregivers and children

Building community broadband: Barriers and opportunities for community‐based organizations in the federal BTOP and BIP broadband development programs

Despite $7.2 billion of recent federal investments in broadband infrastructure through the Broadband Technology Opportunities and Broadband Initiatives Programs (BTOP and BIP), questions around the effectiveness of such national‐scale initiatives at the local level remain. Drawing on ethnographic interviews, observation, and documentary evidence, this paper charts the experience of twenty‐seven grassroots and community‐based organizations (CBOs) from around the country that have engaged the BTOP and BIP process. We explore the challenges CBOs have faced in initiating, developing partnerships, and executing BTOP and BIP grant applications. We find that CBOs often struggled to define the effective scope of potential BTOP projects; to align these with traditional organizational goals; to develop effective project partnerships, including with larger and more institutionalized partners; and to meet the formal evaluation, reporting, and management requirements of a large‐scale and sensitive federal program. Despite these barriers, several community‐based organizations have engaged in successful BTOP and BIP applications, which are now moving into operational stage. This paper documents these experiences, and concludes with recommendations for reform of the BTOP, BIP, or possible successor programs that could improve the inclusion and effectiveness of community‐based organizations as agents of broadband development and social change.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90169/1/14504801169_ftp.pd

Not all the bots are created equal:the Ordering Turing Test for the labelling of bots in MMORPGs

This article contributes to the research on bots in Social Media. It takes as its starting point an emerging perspective which proposes that we should abandon the investigation of the Turing Test and the functional aspects of bots in favor of studying the authentic and cooperative relationship between humans and bots. Contrary to this view, this article argues that Turing Tests are one of the ways in which authentic relationships between humans and bots take place. To understand this, this article introduces the concept of Ordering Turing Tests: these are sort of Turing Tests proposed by social actors for purposes of achieving social order when bots produce deviant behavior. An Ordering Turing Test is method for labeling deviance, whereby social actors can use this test to tell apart rule-abiding humans and rule-breaking bots. Using examples from Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, this article illustrates how Ordering Turing Tests are proposed and justified by players and service providers. Data for the research comes from scientific literature on Machine Learning proposed for the identification of bots and from game forums and other player produced paratexts from the case study of the game Runescape

<i>“We’re Seeking Relevance”</i>: Qualitative Perspectives on the Impact of Learning Analytics on Teaching and Learning

Whilst a significant body of learning analytics research tends to focus on impact from the perspective of usability or improved learning outcomes, this paper proposes an approach based on Affordance Theory to describe awareness and intention as a bridge between usability and impact. 10 educators at 3 European institutions participated in detailed interviews on the affordances they perceive in using learning analytics to support practice in education. Evidence illuminates connections between an educator’s epistemic beliefs about learning and the purpose of education, their perception of threats or resources in delivering a successful learning experience, and the types of data they would consider as evidence in recognising or regulating learning. This evidence can support the learning analytics community in considering the proximity to the student, the role of the educator, and their personal belief structure in developing robust analytics tools that educators may be more likely to use

Learning in virtual worlds : Using communities of practice to explain how people learn from play

Although there is interest in the educational potential of online multiplayer games and virtual worlds, there is still little evidence to explain specifically what and how people learn from these environments. This paper addresses this issue by exploring the experiences of couples that play World of Warcraft together. Learning outcomes were identified (involving the management of ludic, social and material resources) along with learning processes, which followed Wenger’s model of participation in Communities of Practice. Comparing this with existing literature suggests that productive comparisons can be drawn with the experiences of distance education students and the social pressures that affect their participation

Blaming Bill Gates AGAIN! Misuse, overuse and misunderstanding of performance data in sport

Recently in Sport, Education and Society, Williams and Manley (2014) argued against the heavy reliance on technology in professional Rugby Union and elite sport in general. In summary, technology is presented as an elitist, ‘gold standard’ villain that management and coaches use to exert control and by which players lose autonomy, identity, motivation, social interactions and expertise. In this article we suggest that the sociological interpretations and implications offered by Williams and Manley may be somewhat limited when viewed in isolation. In doing so, we identify some core methodological issues in Williams and Manley’s study and critically consider important arguments for utilising technology; notably, to inform coach decision making and generate player empowerment. Secondly, we present a different, yet perhaps equally concerning, practice-oriented interpretation of the same results but from alternative coaching and expertise literature. Accordingly, we suggest that Williams and Manley have perhaps raised their alarm prematurely, inappropriately and on somewhat shaky foundations. We also hope to stimulate others to consider contrary positions, or at least to think about this topic in greater detail. More specifically, we encourage coaches and academics to think carefully about what technology is employed, how and why, and then the means by which these decisions are discussed with and, preferably, sold to players. Certainly, technology can significantly enhance coach decision making and practice, while also helping players to optimise their focus, empowerment and independence in knowing how to achieve their personal and collective goals