(un)Doing standards in education with actor-network theory

Recent critiques have drawn important attention to the depoliticized consensus and empty promises embedded in network discourses of educational policy. While acceding this critique, this discussion argues that some forms of network analysis – specifically those adopting actor-network theory (ANT) approaches - actually offer useful theoretical resources for policy studies. Drawing from ANT-inspired studies of policy processes associated with educational standards, the article shows the ambivalences and contradictions as well as the possibilities that can be illuminated by ANT analysis of standards as networks. The discussion outlines the diverse network conceptions, considerations and sensibilities afforded by ANT approaches. Then it shows four phenomena that have been highlighted by ANT studies of educational standards: ordering (and rupturing) practice through ‘immutable mobiles’, local universality, tensions among networks of prescription and networks of negotiation, and different co-existing ontological forms of the same standards. The conclusion suggests starting points, drawing from these ANT-inspired network analyses, for examining policy processes associated with educational standards

Editorial: Reclaiming the professional development agenda in an age of compliance

This issue of the journal takes as is starting point a global context, which has seen certain powerful and pervasive discourses underpinning a raft of educational reforms in a number of educational settings, in particular the United Kingdom, USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. These reforms have, among other things, been characterised by a rhetoric of devolution accompanied, ironically, by an assertion by the state and other central agencies of control over the what (curriculum) and how (pedagogy) of teaching, often driven by a "standards" agenda. These changes have had an enormous impact on the nature of teachers' work through the implementation of managerial organisational practices and other accountability mechanisms. It can be argued that in such a context, professional development, in being yoked to a reform agenda, has become little more than induction into ideological compliance. This issue seeks to bring together the voices of educational researchers and reflective teachers who have investigated the changing nature of professional development across a range of educational settings

Coordination and Conflict: The Persistent Relevance of Networks in International Financial Regulation

This thesis presents SiGe(C)/Si(C) multi quantum well (MQW) layers individually or in combination with Si(C) Schottky diodes as material structures to detect infrared (IR) radiation. The performance of devices was investigated in terms of SiGe/Si periodicity and quality of SiGe/Si interface. The structures were grown by chemical vapour deposition using GeH4 and SiH4 sources at 650 °C and processed into pixel arrays with sizes of 25×25, 100×100 and 200×200 μm2. The device response to thermal variations was expressed by temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and the signal-to-noise-ratio was evaluated by noise measurements. The strain relaxation in SiGe layers was investigated by implementing oxygen at the interface of SiGe/Si or during SiGe growth. A minor amount of 10 ppb oxygen at the interface can be detected by noise measurements while the material characterizations could reveal defects for significantly higher defect density. Oxygen and water contaminations should be accounted for in low temperature epitaxy (350-650 °C) of the layers. Furthermore, an empirical model was developed to describe the kinetics of the SiGe growth using Si2H6 and Ge2H6 as precursors at low temperature. The model takes into account the energy for dissociation of gas molecules, diffusion of the molecules from the gas boundaries toward the substrate and the incorporation of absorbed molecules. A good consistency was observed between the experimental and calculated data.QC 20150211</p

The Law of Political Economy: Transformation in the Function of Law. Edited by Poul F. Kjaer

This book develops the law of political economy as a new field of scholarly enquiry. Bringing together an exceptional group of scholars, it provides a novel conceptual framework for studying the role of law and legal instruments in political economy contexts, with a focus on historical transformations and central challenges in both European and global contexts. Its chapters reconstruct how the law of political economy plays out in diverse but central fields, ranging from competition and consumer protection law to labour and environmental law, giving a comprehensive overview of the central challenges of the law of political economy. It also provides a sophisticated and multifaceted framework for further enquires while outlining the contours of new law of political economy

A manifesto for Web Science

A clarion call for a new research agenda has been sounded, notably by Berners-Lee et al (2006a 2006b) and Hendler et al (2008) for a ‘science of decentralised information systems’ to ‘discover’ generative mechanisms, and synthesise knowledge and technology to push both forwards. Computer Science alone - focussing as it does on the engineering/technology of the web - could not deliver the ambitions of this new agenda. Equally, other disciplines implicated in Web Science might use the web to support their research, or be interested in virtual life, but they lacked a coherent or unifying mandate for engaging with the web. By calling for Web Science these pioneers opened up a new space. But this is uncharted terrain. As a technology the web is still new. While it has grown rapidly and unexpectedly we are only just beginning to think about the web as a phenomena to be studied. The proponents of Web Science had the vision to see that this new approach had to include disciplines beyond their own; it had to be greater than the sum of the parts of individual disciplines. This is a radical call to leave disciplinary silos and work collaboratively to produce something bigger and better. Moreover, it takes in the founding principles of the web and a desire for a web that is pro-human: this is a call for a science that is capable of insight and intervention to create a better world. Our paper aims to take up this challenge and suggests how we might map the Web Science terrain. We come at this from a slightly different direction to the web science pioneers and want to demonstrate how social science can, and indeed must, contribute to developing Web Science. This paper will explore the contribution of social theory and sociological concepts that shape how we engage with the web. We focus on four key aspects which seem to be central to this understanding. Firstly co-constitution, the fact that the web both shapes and is shaped by humans/society. Secondly the importance of heterogeneous networks of multiple and diverse actors (including technologies themselves) that make the web as we know it. Thirdly the significance of performativity, that the web is an unfolding, enacted practice, as people interact with http to build ‘the web’ moment by moment. Finally, drawing these ideas together we see the web we have now as an immutable mobile or temporarily stabilised network. We use these ideas to map what web science could be and to suggest how we might use sociology to understand the web. Our aim is to provoke and stimulate debate and to move beyond superficial popular psychology and sociology (which envisages engineering human behaviour) and to challenge some of the ways in which social science has engaged with technology and technical actors. To facilitate this, and taking our lead from Donna Harroway, the paper sets out a radical manifesto for web science

Transnationalism and Social Work Education

Transnational movements, networks, and relationships are everywhere in this “world on the move” (Williams & Graham, 2014, p. i1). Transnational peoples maintain relationships of interdependence and support with families and communities in their places of origin, often returning regularly, while starting new lives and making new connections. Transnationalism is characterized by mobilities and networks, by social integration, and by extended and extensive relationship ties of family, neighborhood, religious faith, or combinations thereof (Valtonen, 2008). While disciplines across the world including sociology, human geography, and cultural anthropology engage with the implications of transnationalism (Bauböck & Faist, 2010), social work in England and mainland Europe has not achieved similar levels of engagement. As Cox and Geisen state: “the social world is being transformed by migration and social work is playing catch-up” (2014, p. i162)

Literacy policy and English/literacy practice: : Researching the interaction between different knowledge fields

This article considers the role of research in disentangling an increasingly complex relationship between literacy policy and practice as it is emerging in different local and national contexts. What are the tools and methodologies that have been used to track this relationship over time? Where should they best focus attention now? In answering these questions this paper will consider three different kinds of research perspectives and starting points for enquiry: 1. Policy evaluation. The use of a range of quantitative research tools to feed policy decision-making by tracking the impact on pupil performance of different kinds of pedagogic or policy change (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2010). 2. Co-construction and policy translation. This has for some time been a central preoccupation in policy sociology, which has used small-scale and context specific research to test the limits to the control over complex social fields that policy exercises from afar (Ball, 1994). Agentic re-framings of policy at the local level stand as evidence for the potential to challenge, mitigate or reorder such impositions. 3. Ethnographies of policy time and space. Ethnographic research tools have long been used to document community literacy practices, and in training their lens on the classroom have sought to focus on the potential dissonance between community and schooled practices. It is rarer to find such research tools deployed to explore the broader policy landscape. In the light of debate within the field, part of the purpose of this article is to examine how ethnographic research tools might be refined to study how policy from afar reshapes literacy practices in the here and now. (Brandt and Clinton, 2002)