New ideas of socialism

This paper discusses attempts to rethink socialism in the light of recent economic, social and political developments such as the rise of neo-liberalism, post-fordism, the demise of state socialism and globalization. It posits four new revisionist models of socialism - individualist socialism, market socialism, citizenship (or radical democratic) socialism and associational socialism. It examines each critically, arguing against the first and second models and in favour of the third and fourth. Associationalism, it is argued, provides a means for achieving the goals of citizenship or radical democratic socialism - a participatory pluralist and communitarian socialism. Associationalism, based on a strong role for associations in civil society and a co-operative polity, is outlined and advocated

Better by design: Business preferences for environmental regulatory reform

We present the preferences for environmental regulatory reform expressed by 30 UK businesses and industry bodies from 5 sectors. While five strongly preferred voluntary regulation, seven expressed doubts about its effectiveness, and 18 expressed no general preference between instrument types. Voluntary approaches were valued for flexibility and lower burdens, but direct regulation offered stability and a level playing field. Respondents sought regulatory frameworks that: are coherent; balance clarity, prescription and flexibility; are enabled by positive regulatory relationships; administratively efficient; targeted according to risk magnitude and character; evidence-based and that deliver long-term market stability for regulatees. Anticipated differences in performance between types of instrument can be undermined by poor implementation. Results underline the need for policy makers and regulators to tailor an effective mix of instruments for a given sector, and to overcome analytical, institutional and political barriers to greater coherence, to better coordinate existing instruments and tackle new environmental challenges as they emerge

Students and staff co-creating curricula: a new trend or an old idea we never got around to implementing?

Within higher education, there is increasing interest in conceptualising students as producers, partners and co-creators of their own learning (Little, 2010; McCulloch, 2009; Neary 2010; Werder and Otis, 2010). One particular area of interest focuses upon students and academic staff co-creating curricula (Bovill et al, 2011; Delpish et al, 2010). The nature of co-created curricula can vary greatly and might include: students being consulted about changes to the content of course design; students designing part of a virtual learning environment; students designing marking criteria; or designing some of their own learning outcomes. The concept of co-created curricula is not new. However, discussion about co-creation of curricula has been most strongly evident in schools based literature, with many important discussions framed within ‘student voice’ and critical pedagogy discourse. In contrast, there has been less engagement in co-creation discussion and practice within higher education contexts until more recently

Population policies and education: exploring the contradictions of neo-liberal globalisation

The world is increasingly characterised by profound income, health and social inequalities (Appadurai, 2000). In recent decades development initiatives aimed at reducing these inequalities have been situated in a context of increasing globalisation with a dominant neo-liberal economic orthodoxy. This paper argues that neo-liberal globalisation contains inherent contradictions regarding choice and uniformity. This is illustrated in this paper through an exploration of the impact of neo-liberal globalisation on population policies and programmes. The dominant neo-liberal economic ideology that has influenced development over the last few decades has often led to alternative global visions being overlooked. Many current population and development debates are characterised by polarised arguments with strongly opposing aims and views. This raises the challenge of finding alternatives situated in more middle ground that both identify and promote the socially positive elements of neo-liberalism and state intervention, but also to limit their worst excesses within the population field and more broadly. This paper concludes with a discussion outling the positive nature of middle ground and other possible alternatives

Argumentation in school science : Breaking the tradition of authoritative exposition through a pedagogy that promotes discussion and reasoning

The value of argumentation in science education has become internationally recognised and has been the subject of many research studies in recent years. Successful introduction of argumentation activities in learning contexts involves extending teaching goals beyond the understanding of facts and concepts, to include an emphasis on cognitive and metacognitive processes, epistemic criteria and reasoning. The authors focus on the difficulties inherent in shifting a tradition of teaching from one dominated by authoritative exposition to one that is more dialogic, involving small-group discussion based on tasks that stimulate argumentation. The paper builds on previous research on enhancing the quality of argument in school science, to focus on how argumentation activities have been designed, with appropriate strategies, resources and modelling, for pedagogical purposes. The paper analyses design frameworks, their contexts and lesson plans, to evaluate their potential for enhancing reasoning through foregrounding the processes of argumentation. Examples of classroom dialogue where teachers adopt the frameworks/plans are analysed to show how argumentation processes are scaffolded. The analysis shows that several layers of interpretation are needed and these layers need to be aligned for successful implementation. The analysis serves to highlight the potential and limitations of the design frameworks

REGIONALISM AS A NEW BASIS FOR PLANNING

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Facilitating Meaningful Change Within U.S. Law Schools

Despite the widely recognized challenges and complaints facing U.S. legal education, very little is understood about how law schools can adapt faster and better. This Article uses institutional theory, behavioral economics, and psychology to explain why change has proven so difficult for U.S. law schools. Next, using institutional entrepreneurship, the Article explains the theoretical steps necessary to overcome the institutional resistance to change. The Article then discusses the characteristics of opportunities that are most likely to better meet the needs of law students while also providing sustainable benefits to the individually innovating law schools. Using management theory, the Article then proposes a seven-step change process model to enable individual law schools to systematically overcome institutional resistance, formulate unique strategies, and actually achieve meaningful change

Towards inclusion? Models of behaviour support in secondary schools in one education authority in Scotland

This article draws on data emerging from an evaluation of behaviour support strategies in secondary schools in an education authority in Scotland. The authors all work at the University of Glasgow. Jean Kane has research and teaching interests in the area of special educational needs; she offers consultancy to local authorities in the development of inclusive policies and practices in schools. Dr George Head has research and teaching interests in the area of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and social inclusion; he is also an experienced teacher. Both Jean Kane and George Head are lecturers in the Faculty of Education. Nicola Cogan is a researcher at the Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research and has a background as a research psychologist in the health sector. In Scotland, the growth of behaviour support provision is closely related to broader policy on social inclusion. It is argued in this article that new models of behaviour support can be developed in the light of previous and related experience in the development of inclusive support systems in schools. The authors present a typology of behaviour support, drawing upon their evaluation of provision, and discuss the characteristics of the types of support that emerge. Using data from exclusion statistics, pupil case studies and interviews with teachers, managers, pupils and parents, Jean Kane, George Head and Nicola Cogan explore the implications of their work for future developments in support for pupils who present difficult behaviours

Restructuring and rescaling water governance in mining contexts: the co-production of waterscapes in Peru

The governance of water resources is prominent in both water policy agendas and academic scholarship. Political ecologists have made important advances in reconceptualising the relationship between water and society. Yet, while they have stressed both the scalar dimensions, and the politicised nature, of water governance, analyses of its scalar politics are relatively nascent. In this paper, we consider how the increased demand for water resources by the growing mining industry in Peru reconfigures and rescales water governance. In Peru, the mining industry’s thirst for water draws in, and reshapes, social relations, technologies, institutions and discourses that operate over varying spatial and temporal scales. We develop the concept of waterscape to examine these multiple ways in water is co-produced through mining, and become embedded in changing modes and structures of water governance, often beyond the watershed scale. We argue that an examination of waterscapes avoids the limitations of thinking about water in purely material terms, structuring analysis of water issues according to traditional spatial scales and institutional hierarchies, and taking these scales and structures for granted