The liminality of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship

In this paper, we develop a process model of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship. We focus on the liminal periods experienced by institutional entrepreneurs when they, unlike the rest of the organization, recognize limits in the present and seek to shift a familiar past into an unfamiliar and uncertain future. Such periods involve a situation where the new possible future, not yet fully formed, exists side-by-side with established innovation trajectories. Trajectory shifts are moments of truth for institutional entrepreneurs, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms of how entrepreneurs reflectively deal with liminality to conceive and bring forth new innovation trajectories. Our in-depth case study research at CarCorp traces three such mechanisms (reflective dissension, imaginative projection, and eliminatory exploration) and builds the basis for understanding the liminality of trajectory shifts. The paper offers theoretical implications for the institutional entrepreneurship literature

mLearning in the organizational innovation process

Mobile devices have connected seven billion users across the world (Sanou, 2015) reaching areas that go beyond the electrical grid (Nique and Smertnik, 2015). The ubiquity of mobile devices has created an advantage for organizations to leverage hardware compatible with reaching their target audiences. A strategic response is necessary to address the complexity of employing mobile technology for mobile learning (mLearning) in order to reach it’s full potential as a new learning medium (Peters, 2009). The purpose of this research study was to explore the process by which an organization adopted and engaged in an mLearning initiative. Built on Rogers (2003) diffusion of innovation research, the case study reports on the contextual factors within the organization and department that informed the mLearning adoption process. The researcher gathered observational data over one-year through active participant- observation within an organization’s technology solutions department. Serving as an instructional designer and gathering data as an academic researcher in the same setting allowed the researcher to gain an intimate view of the adoption process. To collect meaningful data the author used Activity Theory as a critical analysis lens and employed a research framework based on the stages of organizational adoption to understand the data in a longitudinal manner. The findings of this study suggest that the initial adoption of mLearning in the organization studied did not reach sustainable implementation because 1) no clear champion for mLearning existed and; 2) an untested mLearning product was heavily relied upon even though it was being developed in parallel to the mLearning implementation efforts. Interest in mLearning at the organization continued, outside departments desired an mLearning learning management system (LMS) to deliver content as soon as possible. Yet the organization simply was not prepared to accommodate due to delays in the mLearning product development. Keywords: Diffusion of Innovation, Technology Adoption, Activity Theory, Mobile Learnin

Sedition, September 11, 1972

Volume 2, Issue 1https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sedition/1012/thumbnail.jp

Cooperative Prototyping: Users and Designers in Mutual Activity

In most development projects, descriptions and prototypes are developed by system designers on their own, utilizing users as suppliers of information on the use domain. In contrast, we are proposing a cooperative prototyping approach where users are involved actively and creatively in design and evaluation of early prototypes. This paper illustrates the approach by describing the design of computer support for casework in a technical department of a Danish municipality. Prototyping is viewed as an on-going learning process, and we analyze situations where openings for learning occur in the prototyping activity. The situations seem to fall into four categories: 1) Situations where the future work situation with a new computer application is simulated to some extent to investigate the future work activity. 2) Situations where the prototype is manipulated and used as a basis for idea exploration. 3) Situations focusing on the designers' learning about the users' work in practice. 4) Situations where the prototyping tool or the design session as such becomes the focus. Lessons learned from the analysis of these situations are discussed. In particular we discuss a tension between the need for careful preparation of prototyping sessions and the need to establish conditions for user and designer creativity. Our conclusion is that users and designers should prepare to learn from breakdowns and focus shifts in cooperative prototyping sessions rather than they should try to avoid them

The status quo of teacher-training courses in the Iranian EFL context: a focus on models of professional education and dynamic assessment

Given that Teacher-Training Courses (TTC’s) have responsibility for assisting prospective teachers with building up a repertoire of technical & pedagogic knowledge, the systematically evaluation of such courses is regarded as seminal (Lynch, 2003 and Peacock, 2009). Therefore, the present study is an attempt to (a) probe into the way professional expertise is acquired by preservice Iranian EFL teachers, (b) analyze the instructional content of TTC’s currently held in Iran, with a focus on teachings on Dynamic Assessment (DA), and (c) examine preservice teachers’ and TTC trainers’ opinions about the TTC’s. To this end, 9 purposefully selected TTC’s were observed, employing participant observation, and content analyses were carried out on their syllabi. Also, 107 TTC participants filled out a questionnaire, and 14 TTC instructors were interviewed; the sampling of the TTC participants and instructors was nonprobability convenient. Results of descriptive statistics showed that accounting for 84.73% of all the instructional attempts, the craft model was the most frequently prevalent model of teacher learning. Content analyses and preservice teacher questionnaire results signified that writing skill was marginalized in all the courses, and none of them included instructions on DA in their syllabi. Open, selective, and axial coding as well as content analyses of the collected data gave rise to eight themes delineating major areas fueling the current research-practice divide in the TTC syllabi. Findings of the study provide an opportunity to examine the status quo, strengths, and weaknesses of the TTC’s. The eight identified impediments to the employment of research in pedagogy could help reach a framework for factors that might induce TTC organizers to disregard the implication of relevant research findings for the courses they run

Democracy, fundamental rights and public finance: a constitutionalist criticism of the Steuerle-Roeper Index

The article proposes to critically discuss the concept of fiscal democracy as operationalized by the means of the Steuerle-Roeper Index. It is assumed that the contemporary sociohistorical context comprises a scenario of crisis or decline of democracies, largely explained by the fiscal difficulties faced by the States. The Fiscal Democracy Index is discussed as a promising scientific contribution for the attribution of empirical tangibility to such a reality. However, a difficulty is identified concerning the non-consideration of fundamental rights as condition for the possibility of democratic politics. Finally, an example from the Brazilian constitutional system is presented in order to illustrate the article´s theoretical argument.

Disabled Autonomy

Disability law is still undertheorized. In 2007, Ruth Colker wrote that disability law was undertheorized because it conflated “separate” with “unequal,” and because disability was largely ignored or poorly understood within theories of justice. The solution for Colker was to attach the anti-subordination perspective, which was developed to apply to race and sex, directly to disability. This Article argues that this transportation from the race and sex contexts was a partial solution, but is not sufficient to give full substance to disability law theory. Concepts from critical race theory and feminist jurisprudence have long been simply transported into the disability context, acting as an imperfect facsimile. The primary purpose of those concepts was to describe, analyze, and remedy problems primarily related to race and gender, not disability. While disability law has benefitted to some extent from inclusion in these legal theories, many of the unique features and complexities of disability law have been left on the table. This Article explores those complexities. Autonomy, usually thought of as an uncomplicated social good for other groups, is challenged in disability theory by two competing values. The value of anti-subordination is critical because it seeks to address, and redress, discrimination, sigma, and stereotyping. An anti-subordination perspective gives a voice and supplies resources to people with disabilities, and will counsel against choices that support stigma and stereotyping. An anti-subordination perspective might seek to limit a right to physician-assisted suicide, for example, because of concerns about exploitation and the messaging that disabled lives are not worth living. This runs counter to an autonomy-focused perspective, which would support the choice to end one’s life in the end stages of a terminal disease. An anti-eliminationism perspective advocates for the preservation of, and resources for, disabled lives. This comes to mean that not only are people with disabilities valued, but their disability is valued too. Instead of seeking to end Autism, for example, an anti-elimination perspective seeks to support Autistics. However, an anti-eliminationism perspective might also support the restriction of choice, and therefore come into conflict with autonomy, where there is a choice that results in the end of a disability. An anti-elimination perspective could seek to restrict the ability to selectively terminate pregnancies when a disability is found, for example. Anti-eliminationism inherently challenges the notion that getting rid of disability is a good thing. Parts I, II, and III of this Article describe the values of autonomy, anti-subordination, and anti-eliminationism in the disability context, and argue that these values are each critical components of disability law and theory. Part IV of this article provides an overview of some real-world examples where these values come into immediate conflict

Exploring limits to performativity : (re)constituting everyday performances through planned change

This thesis addresses a critical conundrum in the strategy-as-practice debate: to what extent and under what conditions can a model be performative during the co-performation of routines and strategy? The concept of performativity argues that models do not merely describe settings but transform and shape the reality within these settings. As evidenced by the failure of most change initiatives, not all models successfully transform settings. Drawing on an ethnographic study of interactional patterns of action in the context of a complex technology-mediated, boundary spanning professional service routine; this work explores the limits to progression and diffusion of a planned change model’s performativity during the co-performation of routines and strategy to achieve the purposeful routinisation and coordination of organizational activities. Through identifying the felicity and infelicity conditions for the performativity of a planned change model and analyzing their dynamic interplay, I develop a model for the co-performation of routines and strategy; and propose a framework for the model’s empirical limits to performativity. I argue that these limits demarcate the space for ‘performativity struggles’ and provide a framework for the analysis of ‘performativity failures’ for new strategy. I add to the literature on strategy-as-practice through theorising on the empirical limits to performativity – a key dynamic within strategy praxis that is as yet under studied within the strategy-as-practice approach.This thesis addresses a critical conundrum in the strategy-as-practice debate: to what extent and under what conditions can a model be performative during the co-performation of routines and strategy? The concept of performativity argues that models do not merely describe settings but transform and shape the reality within these settings. As evidenced by the failure of most change initiatives, not all models successfully transform settings. Drawing on an ethnographic study of interactional patterns of action in the context of a complex technology-mediated, boundary spanning professional service routine; this work explores the limits to progression and diffusion of a planned change model’s performativity during the co-performation of routines and strategy to achieve the purposeful routinisation and coordination of organizational activities. Through identifying the felicity and infelicity conditions for the performativity of a planned change model and analyzing their dynamic interplay, I develop a model for the co-performation of routines and strategy; and propose a framework for the model’s empirical limits to performativity. I argue that these limits demarcate the space for ‘performativity struggles’ and provide a framework for the analysis of ‘performativity failures’ for new strategy. I add to the literature on strategy-as-practice through theorising on the empirical limits to performativity – a key dynamic within strategy praxis that is as yet under studied within the strategy-as-practice approach

Two 'transitions': the political economy of Joyce Banda's rise to power and the related role of civil society organisations in Malawi

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Review of African Political Economy on 21/07/2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2014.90194