Big data and smart cities: a public sector organizational learning perspective

Public sector organizations (city authorities) have begun to explore ways to exploit big data to provide smarter solutions for cities. The way organizations learn to use new forms of technology has been widely researched. However, many public sector organisations have found themselves in new territory in trying to deploy and integrate this new form of technology (big data) to another fast moving and relatively new concept (smart city). This paper is a cross-sectional scoping study—from two UK smart city initiatives—on the learning processes experienced by elite (top management) stakeholders in the advent and adoption of these two novel concepts. The findings are an experiential narrative account on learning to exploit big data to address issues by developing solutions through smart city initiatives. The findings revealed a set of moves in relation to the exploration and exploitation of big data through smart city initiatives: (a) knowledge finding; (b) knowledge reframing; (c) inter-organization collaborations and (d) ex-post evaluations. Even though this is a time-sensitive scoping study it gives an account on a current state-of-play on the use of big data in public sector organizations for creating smarter cities. This study has implications for practitioners in the smart city domain and contributes to academia by operationalizing and adapting Crossan et al’s (Acad Manag Rev 24(3): 522–537, 1999) 4I model on organizational learning

Longitudinal Study of Children's Reintegration in Moldova

This report documents a 22-month longitudinal study of the reintegration of children in residential care in Moldova. This research was carried out by Partnerships for Every Child, a Moldovan Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO), with the support of Family for Every Child, a network of national NGOs. The overall study -- which also examines the reintegration of street children in Mexico and of child domestic workers in Nepal -- aims to identify successful elements in strategies to ensure the sustainable reintegration of children without parental care by examining the reintegration process over four phases.Moldova leads the region in the proportion of its children living in residential care: 2.2 per cent of boys and girls live without parental care, with over 6,000 in residential care and more than 10,000 in family-based care (out of a population of approximately 750,000). Loss of parental care is caused by a complex array of underlying and immediate factors, which are detailed in the report

Maximizing the benefits of international education collaborations : managing interaction processes

International collaborations are frequently mentioned in university strategies as a way of promoting internationalisation, often in relation to achieving greater connectivity among staff from different backgrounds. Much less explicit attention is paid to the underlying rationale for facilitating such connectivity, or the challenges academic staff may face in participating in such collaborations. In this article I argue that failure to pay adequate attention to such interaction issues can hinder the added value that international projects can offer and that much greater attention needs to be paid to the collaboration process itself in order to maximise benefits. I analyse the interaction experiences of staff who participated in a set of Sino-British collaborative e-learning projects and report and illustrate the key challenges they faced and the ways in which they responded. I conclude with a number of implications and recommendations for personnel involved in researching, planning and/or participating in international education collaborations

ArtWorks Evaluation Final Report

This summary provides an overview of the Final Evaluation Report for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation's (PHF) Special Initiative, ArtWorks. The Evaluation has been undertaken by DHA and the Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester