Disembedding the Italian economy? Four trajectories of structural reform

Southern Europe’s debtor nations need far-reaching structural reforms if they are to prosper within the strictures of the single currency, runs the constant refrain of the Euro crisis. 1 Yet Italy, the target of many such recent complaints, had already transformed its economy fundamentally over the past two decades, among other reasons in order that Italy could participate successfully in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The need to comply with the Maastricht convergence criteria drove major budgetary reforms in the mid- to late 1990s, as well as banking reform, privatization, decentralization, judicial reform, deregulation, and changes to the labor market and the welfare system. Europe provided a “vincolo esterno” or external constraint (Dyson and Featherstone 1996) that pushed Italy into accepting structural reforms which would otherwise have been resisted. Italy was “rescued by Europe” (Ferrera and Gualmini 2004)

The Effects of Training on Visual-spatial Disembedding Skills in Early Childhood

The overall goal of the present study was to develop, implement, and test the effectiveness of a curriculum designed to improve spatial thinking amongst preschool children. Specifically, the study explored the effects of shape-based training on 4-year-old children’s ability to disembed and whether the training transferred to improvement in mental rotation skills. Participants were recruited from preschools in the Central California Coast region. The treatment group included 20 children, 9 boys and 11 girls (M= 4.48, SD= .27) and the control group included 20 children as well, 10 boys and 10 girls (M= 4.50, SD= .27). Children in the control condition received a basic shape curriculum that focused on teaching children about shape attributes. Children in the treatment condition received the basic shape curriculum as well but also participated in activities that encouraged the development of disembedding skills.Findings from this study suggest that minimal training can improve preschool children’s spatial abilities. Children in both conditions showed improvement on an embedded figures test and two newly developed spatial measures but there were no intervention group effects. That is, both the intervention and control group children improved in their ability to recognize shapes and disembed shapes. However, the improvements did not transfer to a mental rotation task. Correlations provide evidence to support the newly created measures as methods of assessing preschool children’s ability to disembed hidden figures and mentally rotate objects. The significance of the findings as well as implications for future research are discussed

An Investigation into Attitudes towards Computers and Biological Problem Solving among Scottish Secondary School Pupils

A survey of the relevant literature was carried out. This covered a large number of topics relating to the different areas covered by this work: computer use in schools, attitudes of girls and boys to computers, pupil attitudes in general, problem solving skills, areas of difficulty in Biology, perception and memory. The role of the computer in the classroom was investigated. Pupil attitudes to the microcomputer and its use in the classroom were investigated using a questionnaire. The areas investigated were: general expectation of use, mode of use within the classroom, links with other subjects and the world outside, expectations of boys and girls. The survey was also linked to questions about the use of home computers. The attitude survey made use of two different measurement techniques (Likert and Semantic - Differential). Pupil attitudes were measured at the beginning of first and third year secondary schooling. The same pupils were questioned a year later at the beginning of second and fourth year respectively. Concurrently with the attitude survey, an investigation of an area of difficulty within the Biology syllabus was carried out. The area chosen was that of the construction of biological keys. The aim of this part of the work was to make a computer program to improve the learning of this topic. As a result of the design exercise necessary to construct the computer program, further work on the analysis of key making skills was carried out. Analysis of the skills needed to make a biological key showed that these skills were divided into two main areas. The choosing of the correct biological features and the mechanics of key construction. Initially, each of these areas was investigated separately. Hypotheses concerning these skills and the influence of the psychological factors of working memory and ability to disembed were formulated. The key making skills were tested using written material developed during the course of the work. The psychological factors were investigated using standard tests. All three tests were completed by two hundred and eighty five third year biology pupils from a range of schools in the West of Scotland. Both the attitude questionnaire and the key-making test material were developed through a series of pilot studies. The data collected was analysed and underwent statistical analysis. Relevant conclusions were drawn. Finally, conclusions drawn from the results have been summarised, recommendations made and further work suggested

Social Innovation: Integrating Micro, Meso, and Macro Level Insights From Institutional Theory

© The Author(s) 2018. Social innovations are urgently needed as we confront complex social problems. As these social problems feature substantial interdependencies among multiple systems and actors, developing and implementing innovative solutions involve the re-negotiating of settled institutions or the building of new ones. In this introductory article, we introduce a stylized three-cycle model highlighting the institutional nature of social innovation efforts. The model conceptualizes social innovation processes as the product of agentic, relational, and situated dynamics in three interrelated cycles that operate at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. The five papers included in this special issue address one or more of these cycles. We draw on these papers and the model to stimulate and offer guidance to future conversations on social innovations from an institutional theory perspective

Field Dependence/Independence and its Relationship to Schema Utilization during Discourse Processing

This study investigated the relationship between field dependence/independence and the ability to utilize prior knowledge during discourse processing. A sample population of thirty-one eighth grade students were given the Group Embedded Figures Test, a measure of field dependence/independence, and one of two narrative passages designed to measure the degree to which an individual utilizes prior knowledge. The scores of these two measures were analyzed to determine if there was a significant difference between the field dependents and the field independents in their performance on the constrained and unconstrained passages, measuring schema utilization. A significant difference was found in the mean score of the two groups on the constrained passage, no difference was found in their performance on the unconstrained passage. This analysis leads to the conclusion that in this testing population of eighth graders, the field independent students were better able to utilize their prior knowledge to comprehend a written passage than the field dependent students

Field Dependence/Independence and its Relationship to Schema Utilization during Discourse Processing

This study investigated the relationship between field dependence/independence and the ability to utilize prior knowledge during discourse processing. A sample population of thirty-one eighth grade students were given the Group Embedded Figures Test, a measure of field dependence/independence, and one of two narrative passages designed to measure the degree to which an individual utilizes prior knowledge. The scores of these two measures were analyzed to determine if there was a significant difference between the field dependents and the field independents in their performance on the constrained and unconstrained passages, measuring schema utilization. A significant difference was found in the mean score of the two groups on the constrained passage, no difference was found in their performance on the unconstrained passage. This analysis leads to the conclusion that in this testing population of eighth graders, the field independent students were better able to utilize their prior knowledge to comprehend a written passage than the field dependent students

Naming trouble in online internationalized education

This paper offers an analysis of cultural politics that emerged around naming practices in an ethnographic study of the interactions within an online MBA unit, offered by an Australian university to both ‘local’ Australian students and international students enrolled through a Malaysian partner institution. It became evident that names were doing important identity, textual and pedagogical work in these interactions and considerable interactive trouble arose over the social practices surrounding names. The analysis uses sociolinguistic concepts to analyse selected slices of the online texts and participants' interview accounts. The analysis shows how ethnocentric default settings in the courseware served to heighten and exacerbate cultural difference as a pedagogical problem. These events are related to the larger problematic of theorising the context of culture in times of globalisation and increasingly entangled educational routes, with implications for the enterprise of online internationalised education

Cultural and ethical effects on managerial decisions : examined in a throughput model.

Financial and cost accounting information is processed by decision-makers guided by their particular need to support decisions. Recent technological advances impacting on information as well as organizations such as the European Community mandating financial reporting requirements for many countries is rapidly changing the landscape for decision making using accounting information. Hence, the importance of individuals'' decision making is more important than it was previously. These decisions are also influenced by individuals'' ethical beliefs. The Throughput Modeling approach to cultural and ethical concerns provides a way of dealing with accounting information processed through various pathways by decision-makers. This modeling approach captures different philosophical perspectives from which to understand what is involved in "thinking scientifically." In the Throughput Modeling approach, pathways highlight the importance of how different philosophical perspectives may be used by individuals in arriving at a decision. This paper highlights key concepts involved in rethinking the basis of moral decision making in terms of an underlying process, rather than focusing on the application of principles or the development of a virtuous character. Examples are provided from both English and Spanish settings to help emphasize the importance of modeling ethical decision making globally.Decision making; Ethical behavior; Judgment and choice;

Objecting (to) Infrastructure: Ecopolitics at the Ukrainian Ends of the Danube

In southern Ukraine, two hydraulic infrastructures continue to exist despite environmentalist campaigns that have exposed them as fragile, broken or unprofitable. The Danube-Dnister Irrigation Project (DDIS), a Soviet mega-project that diverted water from the Danube and turned the Sasyk estuary into a reservoir, receives state funding despite a 1994 ban on its use for irrigation. The Bystre Shipping Canal, built in 2004 despite domestic and international opposition, is losing money but continues to operate. These cases exemplify the material politics of infrastructuring in which infrastructure is understood as an antagonistic process of assembling networks of humans and nonhumans rather than a fixed facility. This approach helps explain how the confluence of unruly coastal matters and the politics of expertise have facilitated these shipping and irrigation infrastructures’ re-embedding in bureaucratic networks. These cases show that obduracy and fragility, as well as visibility and invisibility––conditions that figure prominently in infrastructure studies––should be considered in terms of oscillation rather than as ontologically distinct or static conditions. This analysis also highlights the limits of the modernist search for scientific certainty in resolving environmental conflicts in Ukraine, and some possibilities to experiment politically with new decision-making procedures. This account can thus serve as a “story that intervenes” by pointing beyond reform impulses that re-enact modernist narratives of progress within a strict nature-society divide