17,862 research outputs found
Less sculptural more intellectual: conceptualizing landscape in the architecture of 1990s and 2000s
The aim of this paper is to discuss the radical shift which emerges in the 1990s and enhances architecture in the 2000s by turning it into a less sculptural more intellectual field of design. Hence, architects rather focus on ground than figure in design projects. This leads them to interrogate the conventional relationships between figure and ground enabling figure to dominate the ground in architecture for decades. They discover the mutual relationships between figure and ground, and design grounded structures instead of ungrounded sculptures. These artificial structures seem like the extensions of the natural landscape, as such the conceptual and categorical distinction between artificial and natural blurs in architecture. Another conceptual blurring emerges between the concepts of landscape, ground, and field. These are generally used as interchangeable concepts, but landscape encompasses ground and field, making it a more comprehensive concept for architects. It is revealed in the paper that landscape is a re-emerging concept which refers to the conceptual shift from form and function to flow and force in architecture. Landscape, therefore, awaits to be explored as a field of flows and forces by even more architects in this century in which cities are characterized by sculptural forms and objects
Testing the nomological network for the Personal Engagement Model
The study of employee engagement has been a key focus of management for over three decades. The academic literature on engagement has generated multiple definitions but there are two primary models of engagement: the Personal Engagement Model of Kahn (1990), and the Work Engagement Model (WEM) of Schaufeli et al., (2002). While the former is cited by most authors as the seminal work on engagement, research has tended to focus on elements of the model and most theoretical work on engagement has predominantly used the WEM to consider the topic.
The purpose of this study was to test all the elements of the nomological network of the PEM to determine whether the complete model of personal engagement is viable. This was done using data from a large, complex public sector workforce. Survey questions were designed to test each element of the PEM and administered to a sample of the workforce (n = 3,103). The scales were tested and refined using confirmatory factor analysis and then the model was tested determine the structure of the nomological network. This was validated and the generalisability of the final model was tested across different work and organisational types.
The results showed that the PEM is viable but there were differences from what was originally proposed by Kahn (1990). Specifically, of the three psychological conditions deemed necessary for engagement to occur, meaningfulness, safety, and availability, only meaningfulness was found to contribute to employee engagement. The model demonstrated that employees experience meaningfulness through both the nature of the work that they do and the organisation within which they do their work. Finally, the findings were replicated across employees in different work types and different organisational types.
This thesis makes five contributions to the engagement paradigm. It advances engagement theory by testing the PEM and showing that it is an adequate representation of engagement. A model for testing the causal mechanism for engagement has been articulated, demonstrating that meaningfulness in work is a primary mechanism for engagement. The research has shown the key aspects of the workplace in which employees experience meaningfulness, the nature of the work that they do and the organisation within which they do it. It has demonstrated that this is consistent across organisations and the type of work. Finally, it has developed a reliable measure of the different elements of the PEM which will support future research in this area
Technical Dimensions of Programming Systems
Programming requires much more than just writing code in a programming language. It is usually done in the context of a stateful environment, by interacting with a system through a graphical user interface. Yet, this wide space of possibilities lacks a common structure for navigation. Work on programming systems fails to form a coherent body of research, making it hard to improve on past work and advance the state of the art.
In computer science, much has been said and done to allow comparison of programming languages, yet no similar theory exists for programming systems; we believe that programming systems deserve a theory too.
We present a framework of technical dimensions which capture the underlying characteristics of programming systems and provide a means for conceptualizing and comparing them.
We identify technical dimensions by examining past influential programming systems and reviewing their design principles, technical capabilities, and styles of user interaction. Technical dimensions capture characteristics that may be studied, compared and advanced independently. This makes it possible to talk about programming systems in a way that can be shared and constructively debated rather than relying solely on personal impressions.
Our framework is derived using a qualitative analysis of past programming systems. We outline two concrete ways of using our framework. First, we show how it can analyze a recently developed novel programming system. Then, we use it to identify an interesting unexplored point in the design space of programming systems.
Much research effort focuses on building programming systems that are easier to use, accessible to non-experts, moldable and/or powerful, but such efforts are disconnected. They are informal, guided by the personal vision of their authors and thus are only evaluable and comparable on the basis of individual experience using them. By providing foundations for more systematic research, we can help programming systems researchers to stand, at last, on the shoulders of giants
Tietoperustaisuus perusopetuksen digitaalisen transformaation hallinnassa – Systeeminen näkökulma tietoperustaisuuden rakentumiseen
Digitalisaatio muovaa perustavanlaatuisesti opetuksen ja oppimisen todellisuutta suomalaisissa peruskouluissa. Huomiot erityisesti kuntien ja koulujen välisten erojen kasvamisesta digitalisaation mahdollisuuksien hyödyntämisessä paineistavat kiinnittämään huomiota digitaalisen transformaation hallintaan.
Perusopetuksen digitaalisen transformaation tutkimus hallinnon tutkimuksen näkökulmasta on ollut vähäistä. Näkökulma digitaalisesta transformaatiosta johtamisen institutionaalisena sekä systeemisenä tietoperustaisuushaasteena on lisäksi puuttunut. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on avata ja jäsentää perusopetusjohtajien antamien merkitysten ja tulkintojen avulla hallinnan rakenteisiin ja sisältöihin liittyvää institutionaalista ja organisaatiotason todellisuutta. Tutkimus lisää tietämystä digitaalisen transformaation hallinnan rakentumisen yksilö- ja organisaatiotason sekä institutionaalisen tason kompleksisuudesta sekä tämän kompleksisuuden vaikutuksista tietoperustaisen hallinnan rakentumiseen.
Tutkimustehtävänä hallinnan rakentumisen ja muutoksen analyysi institutionaalisesta näkökulmasta on edellyttänyt monitieteisen sekä järjestelmäteoreettisen lähestymistavan valintaa tutkittavaan ilmiöön. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys rakentuu Bungen (2003) järjestelmäontologian sekä digitaalisen transformaation, informaatiohallinnon sekä julkisen johtamisen tutkimuksen näkökulmien yhdistämisen pohjalle. Tutkimustehtävän toteutusta ohjasivat seuraavat tutkimuskysymykset: 1) missä ulottuvuuksissa digitaalisen transformaation hallinnan tietoperustaisuus rakentuu perusopetusorganisaation tasolla sekä 2) millaisina tietoperustaisuuden rakentumisen ja tietoperustaisen hallinnan systeemiset edellytykset perusopetusinstituution tasolla näyttäytyvät. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostui yhdeksästätoista (19) perusopetusjohtajien eli rehtoreiden sekä sivistystoimenjohtajien tai toimialajohtajien yksilöhaastattelusta. Puolistrukturoitujen haastatteluiden analyysi perustui Bungen (2003) analyysi-synteesi-lähestymistapaa soveltavaan sisällönanalyysiin.
Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella tietoperustaisuus digitaalisen transformaation hallinnan osa-alueella rakentuu yksilö-, organisaatio- sekä institutionaalislähtöisten tekijöiden seurauksena. Hallinnan rooleja, vastuita ja sisältöjä määrittelevä lainsäädäntö, kuntien paikallista hallintaa korostava institutionaalisen ohjauksen arvo-orientaatio sekä perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet tulkinnanvaraisena institutionaalisen ohjauksen välineenä luovat perusopetuksen digitaalisen transformaation ilmiasua. Analyysin perusteella perusopetusjohtajan rooli digitaalisen transformaation tietoperustaisen hallinnan organisaatiotason rakentumisen mahdollistajana ja edellytysten luojana on keskeinen. Digitaalisen transformaation hallinnan tietoperustaisuuden rakentumista organisaatiotasolla tukee perusopetusjohtajan pedagoginen johtajuus, kehittyneet yhteistyökäytänteet sekä opetuksen uudistamiskulttuurin vakiinnuttaminen. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella digitaalisen transformaation hallinta tarvitsee tuekseen institutionaalisen tason linjauksia, jotka luovat ensisijaisesti hallinnan pedagogisia tavoitteita täsmentämällä prosessuaalista pohjaa organisaatiotason yhteistyökäytänteiden kehittymiselle sekä teknologiavalinnoille. Lisäksi poliittisen päätöksenteon on suositeltavaa tukea kuntien samatahtisempaa kehittymistä vahvistamalla hallinnan taloudellisia ja kulttuurisia edellytyksiä.Digitalisation is fundamentally shaping the reality of teaching and learning in Finnish comprehensive schools. Growing disparities have been observed in the use of digitalisation opportunities, especially between different municipalities and schools. This is creating pressure to pay attention to the management of digital transformation.
Only a small amount of administrative research exists on the digital transformation of basic education. The perspective of digital transformation as an institutional and systemic knowledge- based administrative challenge has also been lacking. The aim of this study is to open up and structure the institutional and organisational reality of governance structures and contents through the meanings and interpretations assigned to them by basic education leaders. This study will increase understanding of the individual, organisational, and institutional level complexities of digital transformation management and the implications of these complexities on the construction of knowledge-based governance.
As a research task, analysing the change and construction of governance from an institutional perspective has required the choice of a multidisciplinary and systems-theoretical approach to the phenomenon under study. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Bunge’s (2003) systems ontology and a combination of the perspectives of digital transformation, information governance, and public management research. The research task was guided by the following research questions: 1) in which dimensions is the knowledge base of digital transformation management built at the level of a basic education organisation, and 2) what are the systemic conditions of knowledge base building and knowledge base management at the level of a basic education institution. The data for the study consisted of nineteen (19) individual interviews with basic education leaders, i.e. primary school principals, directors of education, and departmental heads. The analysis of the semi-structured interviews was based on content analysis, using Bunge’s (2003) analysis-synthesis approach.
Based on the results of the study, the knowledge base in the area of digital transformation management is built as a result of individual, organisational, and institutional factors. Legislation defining the roles, responsibilities and content of governance, the value orientation of institutional administration emphasising local control by municipalities, and the basic education curriculum as an instrument of institutional administration open to interpretation dictate the appearance that digital transformation takes in basic education. Based on the analysis, the role of a basic education leader is central to the process by enabling the organisation-level construction of the knowledge-based management of digital transformation and creating its prerequisites. Building the knowledge base for digital transformation management at an organisational level is supported by the pedagogical leadership of the basic education leader, developing collaborative practices, and establishing a culture of educational reform. Based on the results of the study, the management of digital transformation needs to be supported by policies at an institutional level, which primarily create pedagogical objectives for administration by specifying the procedural basis for the development of cooperation practices and technology choices at an organisational level. It is also advisable for policy makers to support a more synchronised development of municipalities by strengthening the economic and cultural conditions for governance
Categories and foundational ontology: A medieval tutorial
Foundational ontologies, central constructs in ontological investigations and engineering alike, are based on ontological categories. Firstly proposed by Aristotle as the very ur- elements from which the whole of reality can be derived, they are not easy to identify, let alone partition and/or hierarchize; in particular, the question of their number poses serious challenges. The late medieval philosopher Dietrich of Freiberg wrote around 1286 a tutorial that can help us today with this exceedingly difficult task. In this paper, I discuss ontological categories and their importance for foundational ontologies from both the contemporary perspective and the original Aristotelian viewpoint, I provide the translation from the Latin into English of Dietrich's De origine II with an introductory elaboration, and I extract a foundational ontology–that is in fact a single-category one–from this text rooted in Dietrich's specification of types of subjecthood and his conception of intentionality as causal operation
Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders
This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances
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The influence of blockchains and internet of things on global value chain
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Despite the increasing proliferation of deploying the internet of things (IoT) in the global value chain (GVC), several challenges might lead to a lack of trust among value chain partners, for example, technical challenges (i.e., confidentiality, authenticity, and privacy); and security challenges (i.e., counterfeiting, physical tampering, and data theft). In this study, we argue that blockchain technology (BT), when combined with the IoT ecosystem, will strengthen GVC and enhance value creation and capture among value chain partners. Therefore, we examine the impact of BT combined with the IoT ecosystem and how it can be utilized to enhance value creation and capture among value chain partners. We collected data through an online survey, and 265 U.K. Agri-food retailers completed the survey. Our data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our finding reveals that BT enhances GVC by improving IoT scalability, security, and traceability combined with the IoT ecosystem. Moreover, the combination of BT and IoT strengthens GVC and creates more value for value chain partners, which serves as a competitive advantage. Finally, our research outlines the theoretical and practical contribution of combining BT and the IoT ecosystem
Embodying entrepreneurship: everyday practices, processes and routines in a technology incubator
The growing interest in the processes and practices of entrepreneurship has
been dominated by a consideration of temporality. Through a thirty-six-month
ethnography of a technology incubator, this thesis contributes to extant
understanding by exploring the effect of space. The first paper explores how
class structures from the surrounding city have appropriated entrepreneurship
within the incubator. The second paper adopts a more explicitly spatial analysis
to reveal how the use of space influences a common understanding of
entrepreneurship. The final paper looks more closely at the entrepreneurs within
the incubator and how they use visual symbols to develop their identity. Taken
together, the three papers reject the notion of entrepreneurship as a primarily
economic endeavour as articulated through commonly understood language and
propose entrepreneuring as an enigmatic attractor that is accessed through the
ambiguity of the non-verbal to develop the ‘new’. The thesis therefore contributes
to the understanding of entrepreneurship and proposes a distinct role for the non-verbal in that understanding
The developing maternal-infant relationship: a qualitative longitudinal study
Aim
The study aimed to explore maternal perceptions and the use of knowledge relating to their infant’s mental health over time using qualitative longitudinal research.
Background
There has been a growing interest in infant mental health over recent years. Much of this interest is directed through the lens of infant determinism, through knowledge regarding neurological development resulting in biological determinism. Research and policy in this field are directed toward individual parenting behaviours, usually focused on the mother. Despite this, there is little attention given to maternal perspectives of infant mental health, indicating that a more innovative approach to methodology is required.
Methods
This study took a qualitative longitudinal approach, and interviews were undertaken with seven mothers from the third trimester of pregnancy and then throughout the first year of the infant’s life. Interviews were conducted at 34 weeks of pregnancy, and then when the infant was 6 and 12 weeks, 6, 9, and 12 months, alongside the collection of researcher field notes—a total of 41 interviews. Data were analysed by creating case profiles, memos, and summaries, and then cross-comparison of the emerging narratives. A psycho-socially informed approach was taken to the analysis of data.
Findings
Three interrelated themes emerged from the data: evolving maternal identity, growing a person, and creating a safe space. The theme of evolving maternal identity dominated the other themes of growing a person and creating a safe space in a way that met perceived socio-cultural requirements for mothering and childcare practices. Participants’ personal stories give voice to their perceptions of the developing maternal-infant relationship in the context of their socio-cultural setting, relationships with others, and experiences over time.
Conclusions
This study adds new knowledge by giving mothers a voice to express how the maternal-infant relationship develops over time. The findings demonstrate how the developing maternal-infant relationship grows in response to their mutual needs as the mother works to create and sustain identities for herself and the infant that will fit within their socio-cultural context and individual situations. Additionally, the findings illustrate the importance of temporal considerations, social networks, and intergenerational relationships to this evolving process. Recommendations for practice, policy, and education are made that reflect the unique relationship between mother and infant and the need to conceptualise this using an ecological approach
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