7,761 research outputs found

    Entrepreneurship and regional development in Europe: a comparative, socio-anthropological case study in Germany and Spain

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    This paper summarises the design, data and results of our research on the emergence and consolidation of forms of institutionalisation based on innovative entrepreneurial action in rural European territorial contexts. The investigation was conducted between the years 2006 and 2010. We present data obtained in two territorial references, the regions of Los Pedroches in Andalusia, Spain and Mühldorf in Bavaria, Germany. The paper explores the contributions of social anthropology to prevailing economic entrepreneurship theory by focusing on intangible, cultural variables that influence the implementation of local entrepreneurial initiatives. Presenting data from a case study of two European rural areas of different levels of economic development, the text argues that entrepreneurial research needs to incorporate qualitative data on the sociocultural preconditions of emerging innovative institutions. The research emphasises the need for a broader concept of entrepreneurial behaviour that is able to overcome the reductionist idea of firm creation, and presents a theoretical model for actor-based territorial development studies founded on the combined social theories of Niklas Luhmann and Pierre Bourdieu.Prispevek predstavlja zasnovo, podatke in rezultate našega raziskovanja pojava ter konsolidacije oblik institucionalizacije, ki temeljijo na inovativnih podjetniških akcijah v ruralnih evropskih kontekstih. Zbiranje podatkov je potekalo med letoma 2006 in 2010, v prispevku pa so predstavljeni podatki dveh regij, Los Pedroches v Andaluziji, Španija ter Mühldorf na Bavarskem, Nemčija. Prispevek proučuje doprinose socialne antropologije k prevladujočim teorijam gospodarskega podjetništva, s tem, da se osredotoča na neoprijemljive, kulturne spremenljivke, ki vplivajo na implementacijo lokalnih podjetniških iniciativ. S predstavitvijo podatkov dveh evropskih ruralnih regij na različnih stopnjah ekonomskega razvoja, želimo pokazati, da preučevanje podjetništva zahteva vključitev kvalitativnih podatkov o družbeno-kulturnih predpogojih vzhajajočih inovativnih institucij. Raziskava poudarja potrebo po širšem konceptu podjetniškega vedenja, s katerim je mogoče preseči zgolj redukcionistično idejo ustanovitve podjetja ter predstaviti teoretski model študij razvoja regij, ki se osredotoča na akterje in temelji na kombinaciji družbenih teorij Niklasa Luhmanna ter Pierra Bourdieuja

    Transparency in planning, warranting and interpreting research

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    Pitfalls of Agent-Oriented Development

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    While the theoretical and experimental foundations of agent-based systems are becoming increasingly well understood, comparatively little effort has been devoted to understanding the pragmatics of (multi-) agent systems development - the everyday reality of carrying out an agent-based development project. As a result, agent system developers are needlessly repeating the same mistakes, with the result that, at best, resources are wasted - at worst, projects fail. This paper identifies the main pitfalls that await the agent system developer, and where possible, makes tentative recommendations for how these pitfalls can be avoided or rectified

    The personal created through dialogue: enhancing possibilities through the use of new media

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    This paper explores the relationships between a number of different developments in higher education pedagogy, which are subsumed under the broad heading of progress files. The overall concern of the paper is to explore the ways in which personal reflection and learning is enhanced through dialogue. The paper explores the ways learners engage in dialogue in two environments that use different aspects of digital technologies to support the development of portfolios. The findings from the case studies point to the ways in which different technologies facilitated personal reflection mediated through sharing and dialogue. We develop the idea of affordances as a relationship whereby the learner is involved in a purposeful engagement with the possibilities created by their environment. The affordance of digitised technologies in supporting dialogue is, therefore, conceptualised in relation to the characteristics of the learner, not as a simple technology relation

    Synergistic literacies: Fostering critical and technological literacies in teaching legal research methods at the University of Waikato

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    Nowadays, new law courses are not approved unless both the "needs analysis" is convincing and the "consumer demand" is certain. Needs and demands today are driven by new pressures for technological literacy accelerated by globalisation and the current revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs). The popular logic is that new global "knowledge economies" need "knowledge workers" or "wired workers" to labour in the new e-markets for goods and services and to use the burgeoning number and high quality of electronic information databases now essential to legal research. Students are acutely aware of these developments as well as of the highly competitive nature of the contemporary labour market for law graduates. Consequently, students are demanding more "how to" research skills training. This article puts in context the reasons why, at the University of Waikato, we regard creating synergy between critical and technological literacy as essential for teaching and learning law-in-context research methods, and then describes the curriculum we designed for a legal research methods course in order to trial this approach. From the start we have been clear that the new course was not just to be a "how to" course, and that we would be concentrating on critical literacy as much as technological literacy. For us, critical literacy is fundamental because it relates to the way in which one analyses the world, a process described as "becoming aware of the underlying structure of conceptions".1 This awareness includes the politics in the architectures that constitute the Internet and the assembly of information accessible on it. We designed our curriculum for critical literacy around five types of analysis. Our shorthand for this is to call these "the five 'Cs'". Our five interrelated categories for analysis focus on: Change - in society, economy and culture Concepts - legal and sociological concepts and analytical frameworks Critique (and standpoint or perspective) Comparisons (and Contrasts) Contexts. We argue that, at a minimum, these are the conceptual tools necessary to critique and engage the operation of the law in the context of society, noting especially inequalities and injustices. Throughout the course students are encouraged to harness technological literacy to each dimension of their analysis. This article consists of two main parts. The first part ("Context and Assumptions") explores in some depth the reasons for the need to teach critical literacy alongside technological literacy. The second part ("The Legal Research Methods Course") describes our efforts to promote the synergy between critical and technological literacies in the context of a fourth year optional course, Legal Research Methods 2000, at the University of Waikato School of Law

    Archaeological practices, knowledge work and digitalisation

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    Defining what constitute archaeological practices is a prerequisite for understanding where and how archaeological and archaeologically relevant information and knowledge are made, what counts as archaeological information, and where the limits are situated. The aim of this position paper, developed as a part of the COST action Archaeological practices and knowledge work in the digital environment (www.arkwork.eu), is to highlight the need for at least a relative consensus on the extents of archaeological practices in order to be able to understand and develop archaeological practices and knowledge work in the contemporary digital context. The text discusses approaches to study archaeological practices and knowledge work including Nicolini’s notions of zooming in and zooming out, and proposes that a distinction between archaeological and archaeology-related practices could provide a way to negotiate the ‘archaeologicality’ of diverse practices
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