Technical Education in 'Lived Markets': University Technical College leaders' perceptions of and responses to competitive pressure

This study analyses the complexities of competition and competitive practices within lived markets across nine University Technical College (UTC) case studies. The research built upon Jabbar’s (2015) conceptual framework of school competition in the USA to conceptualise how competition and competitive practices may be conceived in England. Despite the growth in UTC numbers since 2010, with 50 operating (July 2019) and each with a capacity for between 500 and 800 students aged from 14 to 19 years, relatively little was known about how these providers interacted with existing local provision. The research analysed UTC leaders’ perceptions of competition, the mediating factors they believe have contributed to perceived competition and competitive pressure, the range of strategies they developed in response to those perceptions, and the resulting outcomes. The findings indicated that these leaders’ perceptions of competition and the associated competitive pressures were broadly in tension with their belief in technical education, the national ethos and vision for UTCs, the government’s national accountability measures, and partnership working with local providers. The findings analyse the consequences of these tensions and, in so doing, contribute to a greater theoretical and conceptual understanding of the contemporary expansion of the tenets of the quasi-market into mainstream and technical schooling. The main contributions of this thesis are that it provides; a greater understanding of the ways in which competition and supply side liberalisation operate at a local level, and offers a new conceptual framework for researching school-to-school competition in England. The study highlights the need for further research of the impact of competition on all schools and students within a given region, and highlights the importance of strengthening policy ‘memory’ with regards to technical education. The findings will be of broad interest to researchers interested in technical education, leadership roles, quasi-markets and competition, parental choice, and social segregation. Key words: Competition, competitive practices, lived market, parental choice, quasi-market, social segregation, technical education

Is lean service promising? A socio-technical perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of lean practices in the service sector. Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the impact of lean service on firm operational and financial performance. Exploratory factor analysis is used to reduce the data and identify the underlying dimensions of lean service, and partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to test the developed model. Findings – The results indicate that the social bundles of lean service had an independent positive impact on firm operational and financial performance. Furthermore, while the technical bundles had an independent positive effect on only the operational performance, they interacted with the social bundles to improve both the operational and financial performance. The findings suggest that service managers must follow a systematic approach when implementing lean service practices without focusing on one side of the system at the expense of the other. Practical implications – The paper highlights the importance of implementing lean service as a socio-technical system (STS) if service firms are to achieve the best possible benefits from their implementation. The motivation factor (social side) and the customer value factor (technical side) are capable of improving all operational performance dimensions and profit margin even if implemented alone. Therefore, service managers with limited resources are encouraged to start lean service implementation with practices within these factors. However, they can also expect improved operational and financial performance from implementing other factors as they positively interact to further improve performance. Originality/value – Viewing lean service as a STS, this paper incorporates a larger set of lean practices than previous studies and demonstrates empirically their capability of improving service firms’ operational and financial performance. It contributes significantly to the emerging literature on lean service by empirically testing the mechanism through which lean service affects firm performance

Biomass production and land use management in the Italian context: regulations, conflicts, and impacts

Renewable energy sources, such as biomass can make a positive impact on climate change phenomenon by decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. The use of biomass energy is directly linked to the use of the land, from which biomass feedstock is obtained, such as farm land and forests, and its ecosystem services. The biomass production and the use of land and ecosystem services are usually associated with a wide range of environmental and social impacts, depending on what choices are made regarding what types of biomass are used, as well as where and how they are produced. Choosing management practices that minimize negative impacts and complement planning policies and energy production objectives is often associated with land-use conflicts among both different institutional levels, local, national and European, and different social actors. Yet, European Directive 2009/28/CE establishes that the energy production from renewable energy by 2020, as well as from biofuel, defined for each member state (Annex 1), must be achieved through a “sustainable†production. Such definition is assigned to national and local contexts, arising issues in policy making, conflicts analysis and methodologies. The present paper discusses on the recent acknowledgment of the above mentioned EU directive in several Italian Regions, such as Puglia and Marche, which have defined regulations/guidelines regarding their potential contribution to the national objectives of production and consumption of energy from renewable sources (EFR). Moreover, the present paper confronts such regulations with results found in literature. Several analyses have been done on the energy production from biomass based on technical and economic aspects of the problem. However, few studies have applied integrated approaches able to take into consideration crucial aspects such as biodiversity conservation and landscape fragmentation, as required by EU Directive 2009/28/CE, side by side with the economic and social dimensions. This paper aims at filling this gap proposing the application of an integrated framework of analysis, based on multi-criteria approaches able to take into consideration socio-economic, environmental and landscape criteria, as well as institutional and social conflicts linked to the biomass production.

The Mundane Computer: Non-Technical Design Challenges Facing Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence

Interdisciplinary collaboration, to include those who are not natural scientists, engineers and computer scientists, is inherent in the idea of ubiquitous computing, as formulated by Mark Weiser in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, ubiquitous computing has remained largely a computer science and engineering concept, and its non-technical side remains relatively underdeveloped. The aim of the article is, first, to clarify the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration envisaged by Weiser. Second, the difficulties of understanding the everyday and weaving ubiquitous technologies into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it, as conceived by Weiser, are explored. The contributions of Anne Galloway, Paul Dourish and Philip Agre to creating an understanding of everyday life relevant to the development of ubiquitous computing are discussed, focusing on the notions of performative practice, embodied interaction and contextualisation. Third, it is argued that with the shift to the notion of ambient intelligence, the larger scale socio-economic and socio-political dimensions of context become more explicit, in contrast to the focus on the smaller scale anthropological study of social (mainly workplace) practices inherent in the concept of ubiquitous computing. This can be seen in the adoption of the concept of ambient intelligence within the European Union and in the focus on rebalancing (personal) privacy protection and (state) security in the wake of 11 September 2001. Fourth, the importance of adopting a futures-oriented approach to discussing the issues arising from the notions of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence is stressed, while the difficulty of trying to achieve societal foresight is acknowledged

Are Uber and Transportation Network Companies the Future of Transportation (Law) and Employment (Law)?

Transportation network companies (“TNCs”) such as Uber and Lyft manage ridesharing platforms that have increased efficiency and convenience for many passengers. These platforms, however, have also opened the door to many legal and regulatory issues pertaining to their business practices, employment structures, and transportation law and policy. This article provides a perspective on the economic, social, technical, and political aspects of TNCs in two steps, focusing on transportation and employment. First, it examines the future of TNCs in transportation, noting that TNCs could do more in terms of environmentalism to live up to the promise of the “sharing” economy. Second, the article analyzes the interaction of TNCs with labor and employment law. It proposes development of basic protections from the negative side of the TNCs management model, i.e. precarious labor and automatic management through algorithmic surveillance

Smart labs and social practice: social tools for pervasive laboratory workspaces: a position paper

The emergence of pervasive and ubiquitous computing stimulates a view of future work environments where sharing of information, data and knowledge is easy and commonplace, particularly in highly interactive settings. Much of the work in this area focuses on tool development to support activities such as data collection, data recording and sharing, and so on. We are interested in this kind of technical development, which is both challenging and essential for science communities. But we are also interested in a broader interpretation of knowledge sharing and the human/social side of tools we develop to support this. We are keen to know more about how groups of different kinds of scientists can make their work understandable and shareable with each other in a multidisciplinary setting. This is a complex task because boundaries and barriers can emerge between disciplines engendered by differences in discourses and practices, which may not easily translate into other discipline areas. In the worst case, there may be some hostility between disciplines, or at least doubt and scepticism. Nevertheless, sharing approaches to research, research expertise, data and methods across disciplines can be a very fruitful exercise, and encouragement to engage in this activity is particularly pertinent in the digital era. Issues of privacy and security are also key aspects – knowing when and how to release data or information to other groups is crucial to providing a safe environment for people to work, and there are several sensitivities to be explored here. In this paper we describe an evolving situation that captures many of these issues, which we aim to track longitudinally

Desertification in Portugal: causes, consequences and possible solutions

Although desertification is not a new problem, world-wide population awareness is increasing. This problem has a greater impact in developing countries, where subsistence agriculture leads to very serious consequences as famine and sub-nutrition. However, desertification also affects the developed ones, because of, among other factors, unsustainable practices in the Agriculture and Forestry sectors combined with poor land management and weak policies. Without proper action, over 50 million people worldwide could be displaced by desertification and land degradation in the next decade. This paper, through a literature review, will approach the problem of desertification, with a special focus on the Portuguese case, its causes and consequences as well as some possible solutions. We conclude that driving forces of desertification can be separated into climate variations and Human activities and that its main consequences are environmental and social-economic. We also point out that, though technical solutions are abundant, part of the solution to this issue relays on attracting population back to the country side, involving the local people on the solution finding processes and increase the social benefits of exploring scarce resources, always bearing in mind the sustainability and the balance between the agro ecosystems and the natural ecosystems

Desertification in Portugal: causes, consequences and possible solutions

Although desertification is not a new problem, world-wide population awareness is increasing. This problem has a greater impact in developing countries, where subsistence agriculture leads to very serious consequences as famine and sub-nutrition. However, desertification also affects the developed ones, because of, among other factors, unsustainable practices in the Agriculture and Forestry sectors combined with poor land management and weak policies. Without proper action, over 50 million people worldwide could be displaced by desertification and land degradation in the next decade. This paper, through a literature review, will approach the problem of desertification, with a special focus on the Portuguese case, its causes and consequences as well as some possible solutions. We conclude that driving forces of desertification can be separated into climate variations and Human activities and that its main consequences are environmental and social-economic. We also point out that, though technical solutions are abundant, part of the solution to this issue relays on attracting population back to the country side, involving the local people on the solution finding processes and increase the social benefits of exploring scarce resources, always bearing in mind the sustainability and the balance between the agro ecosystems and the natural ecosystems

Does \u2018bigger\u2019mean \u2018better\u2019? Pitfalls and shortcuts associated with big data for social research

\u2018Big data is here to stay.\u2019 This key statement has a double value: is an assumption as well as the reason why a theoretical reflection is needed. Furthermore, Big data is something that is gaining visibility and success in social sciences even, overcoming the division between humanities and computer sciences. In this contribution some considerations on the presence and the certain persistence of Big data as a socio-technical assemblage will be outlined. Therefore, the intriguing opportunities for social research linked to such interaction between practices and technological development will be developed. However, despite a promissory rhetoric, fostered by several scholars since the birth of Big data as a labelled concept, some risks are just around the corner. The claims for the methodological power of bigger and bigger datasets, as well as increasing speed in analysis and data collection, are creating a real hype in social research. Peculiar attention is needed in order to avoid some pitfalls. These risks will be analysed for what concerns the validity of the research results \u2018obtained through Big data. After a pars distruens, this contribution will conclude with a pars construens; assuming the previous critiques, a mixed methods research design approach will be described as a general proposal with the objective of stimulating a debate on the integration of Big data in complex research projecting