Städtische Lebenswelten in Bewegung: In Afrika und darüber hinaus

Although throughout the history of anthropology the ethnography of urban societies was never an important topic, investigations on cities in Africa contributed to the early theoretical development of urban studies in social sciences. As the ethnography of rural migrants in towns made clear, cultural diversity and creativity are foundational and permanent elements of urban cultures in Africa (and beyond). Currently, two new aspects complement these insights: 1) Different forms of mobility have received a new awareness through the concept of transnationalism. They are much more complex, including not only rural–urban migration, but also urban–urban migration, and migrations with a destination beyond the continent. 2) Urban life-worlds also include the appropriation of globally circulating images and lifestyles, which contribute substantially to the current cultural dynamics of cities in Africa. These two aspects are the reasons for the high complexity of urban contexts in Africa. Therefore, whether it is still appropriate to speak about the “locality” of these life-worlds has become questionable. At the same time, these new aspects explain the self-consciousness of members of urban cultures in Africa. They contribute to the expansive character of these societies and to the impression that cities in Africa host the most innovative and creative societies worldwide.Auch wenn die Ethnographie städtischer Gesellschaften in der Geschichte der Ethnologie nie eine große Rolle gespielt hat, leisteten doch Untersuchungen zu urbanen Lebenswelten in Afrika einen wichtigen Beitrag zur frühen theoretischen Entwicklung sozialwissenschaftlicher Stadtforschung. Wie die Ethnographie von Migranten aus ländlichen Räumen in afrikanischen Städten schon damals deutlich machte, sind kulturelle Diversität und Kreativität grundlegende und dauerhafte Elemente urbaner Kultur in Afrika (und weltweit). In letzter Zeit haben zwei wichtige Aspekte diese frühen Einsichten ergänzt: 1) Verschiedene Formen der Mobilität haben durch das Konzept der Transnationalität neue Relevanz gewonnen. 2) Zu urbanen Lebenswelten gehört auch die aktive Aneignung global zirkulierender Bilder und Lebensstile; sie trägt wesentlich zur kulturellen Dynamik afrikanischer Städte bei. Beide Aspekte sind ursächlich für die außerordentliche Komplexität heutiger urbaner Lebenswelten in Afrika. Daher steht infrage, ob es noch angemessen ist, von der „Lokalität“ dieser Lebenswelten zu sprechen. Zugleich erklären diese Aspekte das Selbstbewusstsein der Angehörigen urbaner Gesellschaften in Afrika. Sie tragen zum expansiven Charakter dieser Gesellschaften bei sowie zu dem Eindruck, städtische Gesellschaften in Afrika gehörten zu den innovativsten und kreativsten weltweit

Capitalizing On Diversity: Interpersonal Congruence In Small Work Groups

We examine interpersonal congruence, the degree to which group members see others in the group as others see themselves, as a moderator of the relationship between diversity and group effectiveness. A longitudinal study of 83 work groups revealed that diversity tended to improve creative task performance in groups with high interpersonal congruence, whereas diversity undermined the performance of groups with low interpersonal congruence. This interaction effect also emerged on measures of social integration, group identification, and relationship conflict. By eliciting self-verifying appraisals, members of some groups achieved enough interpersonal congruence during their first ten minutes of interaction to benefit their group outcomes four months later. In contrast to theories of social categorization, the interpersonal congruence approach suggests that group members can achieve harmonious and effective work processes by expressing rather than suppressing the characteristics that make them unique.Managemen

Brain Drain or Brain Exchange?

This paper explores the “brain drain” hypothesis – the idea that New Zealand is losing many of its most talented citizens to other countries. We conclude that we are experiencing more of a brain exchange than a brain drain. There have been net outflows of New Zealand citizens for forty years, and we have been replacing those leaving with non-New Zealand citizens. On the basis of the data available, our immigrants appear to be more skilled than our emigrants (and than our general population). But there may be some cause for concern if immigrants cannot get jobs to make use of their skills. Migration flows to and from Australia are different from those with the rest of the world. New Zealand consistently loses its citizens to Australia, but they are not just the highest skilled. Instead, they are representative of the general population of New Zealand. That is, there is no brain drain to Australia either, but what might be called a “same drain”. This is likely to be a consequence of the common labour market. Policy responses could focus on both outflows and inflows. Limited policy levers exist for attracting and retaining New Zealand citizens within the country, other than making the country a more attractive place to work, and live. The key policy issue for inflows is the improvement of the selection, settlement, and integration of immigrants. The paper ends by calling for a more sophisticated debate on immigration and emigration, and a more accurate conception of what will be an ongoing trend – that is, the increasingly free flow of people (including New Zealanders), around the globe.International migration, brain drain

Creating and Sustaining Professional Learning Partnerships: Activity Theory as an Analytic Tool.

Significant attention has been paid to the forms and practices of effective school-university partnerships in recent times as they are commonly seen as a key element to improve the quality of teacher education programs and thus graduate teachers. However, analysis of the effectiveness of such partnerships has not been so evident. This article critically reviews the notion of partnership and its practice in Australia, then presents a conceptual lens via activity theory through which to analyse opportunities and challenges, particularly with respect to school-university partnerships, within the current climate. A Professional Learning Partners Program in a specific context in Australia is also described to present one initiative that aims to develop an effective partnership between school and university

The World’s Christians:

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Action, activité, " agir " conjoints en didactique : discussion théorique

Following on a paper published by this review, this article aims to discuss the articulation between the Joint Action Theory in Didactics (JATD) and the Activity Theory (AT) designed by the Work and Training Sciences. First, these two frameworks are briefly presented. This entitles us to discuss: 1) the compatibility between the JATD and the principles the AT is based on; 2) a point of view according which the co-activity between two systems of activity (teaching and learning systems) echoes to the teacher's and students' joint action. To conclude this discussion, another point of view is mentioned, articulating (individual) action to (collective and social) activity to account for the joint "didactic acting".En prolongement d'un article publié par la revue, ce document se propose de discuter l'articulation entre la théorie de l'action conjointe en didactique et la théorie de l'activité proposée par les sciences du travail et de la formation, après qu'ils aient été présentés. La discussion porte d'abord sur la compatibilité entre la théorie de l'action conjointe et les principes généraux qui fondent le système conceptuel sur l'activité. Elle porte ensuite sur la possibilité d'envisager, en écho à l'action conjointe entre le professeur et l'élève, la co-activité entre deux systèmes d'activité (le système d'enseignement et le système d'apprentissage). En plus des perspectives liées à la discussion précédente, la conclusion est l'occasion d'évoquer un autre point de vue articulant action (individuelle) et activité (collective et sociale) pour rendre compte de " l'agir " conjoint didactique

Activity Theory Guided Role Engineering

Roles are convenient and powerful concept for facilitating access to distributed systems and enforcing access management polices. RBAC is one the most widely used role engineering models in enterprises. Several threats arise due to insecure and inefficient design of roles when social and interaction dynamics in an organizational setting are ignored. Activity theory is one of the most applied and researched theories in context of understanding human actions, interactions with environments and dynamics against different social entities. The paper, first, presents overview of role-engineering and activity theory. Then the paper presents different methods in which activity theory can be applied for efficient and secure role-engineering processes. A case study, carried out at a US-based midsize financial institution, is also presented to demonstrate 1) how traditional role-engineering processes give way to threats and 2) how using activity theory models (2 used in this paper) can mitigate risks in role-engineering process

Internationalization of University Education in Nigeria: Responding to New Realities and Global Relevance

Internationalization of education has to do with the imparting of knowledge, skills and values associated with universal appeal and application. It is a strong instrument for diversification of goals and objectives of tertiary institutions. Presently, there is competition among tertiary institutions to internationalize. Nigeria should not be left behind. This paper reviewed recent literatures on the rationales and modes of university internationalization. Using Knights four generic dimensions which indicated the shortcomings inherent in the activities, competencies, ethos and processes in the internationalization of university education, the following strategies were used to guide Nigerian universities on the part to global relevance. They include, adequate funding, regular ‘tune-up’ of academic staff through seminars, workshops and conferences of international standard, encouraging ‘classrooms without walls’, open education resources, cross-campus research collaboration and developing partnership models where Nigerian academics can partner with their foreign world-class counterparts. Key words: Internationalization, New realities, global relevance, university education.