Overcoming Roadblocks to Learning

{Excerpt} The gulf between the ideal type of a learning organization and the state of affairs in typical bilateral and multilateral development agencies remains huge. Defining roadblocks, however numerous they may be, is half the battle to removing them—it might make them part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Organizational learning is collective learning by individuals, and the fundamental phenomena of individual learning apply to organizations. However, organizational learning has distinctive characteristics concerning what is learned, how it is learned, and the adjustments needed to enhance learning. These owe to the fact that an organization is, by general definition, a collective whose individual constituents work to achieve a common goal from discrete operating and supporting units. Practices bring different perspectives and cultures to bear and shape data, information, and knowledge flows. Political considerations are the most serious impediment to becoming a learning organization. However, by understanding more fully what obstacles to learning can exist in a complex organization in a complex environment, one can circumscribe the problem space and create enabling environments for a more positive future. Such environments would facilitate self-organization, exploration of the space of possibilities, generative feedback, emergence, and coevolution.They would create an explanatory framework and facilitate action

Prime, Perform, Recover

This thesis examines the formal and conceptual framework of my artistic practice as it culminated in the installation of my thesis exhibition, Prime, Perform, Recover. My exhibition seeks to operate as an analysis and critique of the separation inherent in media presentation and rhetoric surrounding natural disasters. I utilize the aesthetics and vocabulary of disaster capitalism and prepping culture in order to pose direct questions about ecological and social change. I examine the role of images within mass media image production as an all encompassing Now-Time. In this paper I describe frameworks that my practice proposes as potential solutions to these problems, and I position my research in the context of artists and artworks that have influenced me and operate within similar channels as my own

Англійська мова для навчання і роботи Т. 4. Професійне іншомовне письмо

Подано всі види діяльності студентів з вивчення англійської мови, спрямовані на розвиток мовної поведінки, необхідної для ефективного спілкування в академічному та професійному середовищах. Містить завдання і вправи, типові для різноманітних академічних та професійних сфер і ситуацій. Структура організації змісту – модульна, охоплює певні мовленнєві вміння залежно від мовної поведінки. Даний модуль має на меті розвиток у студентів умінь і навичок писемного спілкування, що пов’язане з майбутньою професією студентів, та основ медіації і письмового перекладу, які спрямовані на розвиток умінь писати тексти різних типів і жанрів, такі як резюме, листи, анотації тощо. Ресурси для самостійної роботи (частина ІІ) містять завдання та вправи для розвитку словникового запасу та розширення діапазону функціональних зразків, необхідних для виконання певних функцій, та завдання, які спрямовані на організацію самостійної роботи студентів. За допомогою засобів діагностики (частина ІІІ) студенти можуть самостійно перевірити засвоєння навчального матеріалу та оцінити свої досягнення. Граматичні явища і вправи для їх засвоєння наводяться в томі 5. Призначений для студентів технічних університетів гірничого профілю. Може використовуватися для викладання вибіркових курсів з англійської мови, а також для самостійного вивчення англійської мови викладачами, фахівцями і науковцями різних інженерних галузей

The Making of a “Philanthropreneur” (Interview with Trevor Field and Mark Melman, Playpumps International)

“Be mindful of taking care of yourself without excesses.” In the case of Playpumps® International, an NGO based in Johannesburg, South Africa, coupling a not-for-profit with a for-profit company produced the needed incentive to bear truth to the idiom that one person, one simple idea can really change the world. Trevor Field and his partner, Mark Melman, former executives in the outdoor advertising industry, have done just that. With the invention of the PlayPump® water system, government agencies, NGOs and for-profit business have converged to address the disturbing reality that over one billion people lack access to clean water. According to Field, “I remember when I first looked at this water pump; I could never imagine that this is something that could possibly change the world. I remember when I came up with this idea and everyone was laughing. They’re not laughing now.

Issues and problems in human resource development in the NER (India)

The demographic canvas of the North Eastern Region of India (NER) is perhaps the most colourful and enchanting in the whole nation. We do not find in any other part of the country such a variety – anthropologically, socially, linguistically, culturally, economically, politically and historically diversified stock of mankind. If the biologists are correct to correlate diversity with survival, sustenance, development and growth, the NER possesses the most potent prospects for the same. The human resources in any region have three aspects increasingly more important in the sequel: (1) physical fitness – relating to physical effort, easily captured by the number of workers, their general health (corporal), number of man-hours devoted to work, etc, (2) dexterity – agility, skill, expertise, ability, proficiency – inculcated by training, and (3) attitude, outlook and mindset – imbibed modernization ideals (in the sense of Gunnar Myrdal) and their practice at a mass level. This third aspect makes ‘soft resources’ or the ‘social capital.’ The first two aspects of human resources are generally considered in planning for development. A need to devise suitable and practical programs for preserving and generating social capital may not be overemphasized. It is a difficult area often bypassed by the economic planners under the umbrella of non-economic factors. But this neglect is anti-productive. In this paper we have touched upon several aspects of human resource development issues and problems. First, the growth of population, very fast in the region demands immediate attention. It is not because growth of population by itself is undesirable. But when economic growth of a region does not lend support to growth of population, resources are spent on maintaining the life than enriching it. Secondly, we have noted the features of occupational distribution. Proportion of workers in the primary and the tertiary sectors are overwhelmingly large, while the secondary sector, most important for material prosperity, employs very small proportion of workers. If human resources are to be better utilized, industrialization of the NER economy is the first prerogative of planning for development. In the same tune, the region produces ‘educated’ manpower that suits the swelling tertiary sector at most and is possibly ‘unemployable‘ in the secondary sector. Once industrialization takes place, the demand for skilled manpower will increase. The existing educational institutions will have to start technical and professional education programs. Several new educational institutions will have to be started especially for technical and professional courses suiting to the need of the growing economy. Urbanization in the region is on an increase. But it appears that it is largely due to urban accretion, peopled by the migrant rural inhabitants in search for some remunerative occupation. It is partly because there are no significant openings and opportunities in the rural areas and partly because the urban pull forces attract them from the rural areas. The educated youth from the rural areas seldom go back to their places of origin and stick on to the urban centers in search of some opportunities. Such urbanization overloads the urban infrastructure. It is estimated that about 35% of the total population is below poverty line in the NER. Poverty is related to efficiency of the human resources and expenditure on removal of poverty is an investment. Industrialization of the regional economy would go far to remove poverty of the people in the region.Human resources; Physical fitness; dexterity and attitude; soft resources; social capital; poverty; urban accretion; Occupation distribution; Assam; Arunachal Pradesh; Manipur; Meghalaya; Mizoram; Nagaland; Sikkim; Tripura; unemployment; unemployability; Qualitative aspects of human resources; modernization ideals

Land institutions and land markets

In agrarian societies land serves as the main means not only for generating a livelihood but often also for accumulating wealth and transferring it between generations. How land rights are assigned therefore determines households'ability to generate subsistence and income, their social and economic status (and in many cases their collective identity), their incentive to exert nonobservable effort and make investments, and often their ability to access financial markets or to make arrangements for smoothing consumption and income. With imperfections in other markets, the institutions governing the allocation of land rights and the functioning of land markets will have implications for overall efficiency as well as equity. The authors examine how property rights in land evolve from a situation of land abundance. They discuss factors affecting the costs and benefits of individual land rights and highlight the implications of tenure security for investment incentives. They also review factors affecting participation in land sales and rental markets, particularly the characteristics of the agricultural production process, labor supervision cost, credit access, the risk characteristics of an individual's asset portfolio, and the transaction costs associated with market participation. These factors will affect land sales and rental markets differently. Removing obstacles to the smooth functioning of land rental markets and taking measures to enhance potential tenants'endowments and bargaining power can significantly increase both the welfare of the poor and the overall efficiency of resource allocation. Drawing on their conceptual discussion, the authors draw policy conclusions about the transition from communal to individual and more formal land rights, steps that might be taken to improve the functioning of land sales and rental markets, and the scope for redistributive land reform.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Municipal Housing and Land,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Housing and Land,Economic Theory&Research,Real Estate Development