Telematics for community portal development.

Community portals emanate from information and communication technology (ICT) applied to community networking, enabling citizens to access information and services on-line. These telematic portal systems are now deployed globally, facilitating information services to geographic and virtual communities. The context of this research study is one of community portals deployed by UK government local authorities for citizen service interactions. To date there have been few studies that holistically and longitudinally examine the subject of community portals. The 5 year research exercise has been undertaken as a qualitative study using an interpretivist approach and methodology derived > from context-process analysis. The approach was influenced by Mumford’s writings on ‘people and technology' and Schuler’s early work on community network development in the USA. Data collection was undertaken using a national survey questionnaire and qualitative techniques including interviews and mini-case studies. Findings of the research include a new categorisation of community portals into two distinctive types of Civic and Civil portal. Theoretical outcomes include an improved understanding of the methodological, technical, and social dimensions of portal development and deployment. The implications for management include an exposition of the issues involved in community portal development and the important need for citizen engagement in the process. A case study of Blackpool, (and mini case studies of five civic / civil portals), point to lack of collaboration between central and local government portal architects and developers

Building resilience for social-ecological sustainability in Atlantic Europe

This thesis argues that complex adaptive social–ecological systems (SES) theory has important implications for the design of integrated ocean and coastal governance in the EU. Traditional systems of governance have struggled to deal with the global changes, complexity and uncertainties that challenge a transition towards sustainability in Europe’s maritime macro-regions. There is an apparent disconnect between governance strategies for sustainability in Europe’s maritime macro-regions and a sound theoretical basis for them. My premise is that the design of governance architecture for maritime regional sustainability should be informed by SES theory. Therefore, the aim of this research was to gain insight into a multilevel adaptive governance architecture that combines notions of sustainability and development in the context of the Atlantic Europe maritime macro-region. The central research question asked whether it is possible to achieve this insight by using a SES as a framework and analytical tool. This research adopted social ecology and sustainability science as a foundation for understanding society–nature relations. Concepts from complex adaptive systems, SES and resilience theories were integrated into a conceptual framework that guided the investigation and analysis. A study was conducted to conceptualise the European Atlantic social–ecological system (EASES). This was used to represent and understand the Atlantic Europe macro-region as a SES. The study examined the proposition that governance can be focused on building SES resilience to help achieve maritime regional sustainability. A workbook method was developed and used to elicit expert opinion regarding EASES. The study identified sources of resilience and resilience dynamics that require management in the context of multilevel adaptive governance. This research found that the Atlantic Europe macro-region is a key focal level for multilevel adaptive governance architecture. The majority of the findings are specific to Atlantic Europe and not generalisable to other maritime macro-regions in Europe

From Epistemic Bubbles to Generative Possibilities: Knowledge Leadership and Knowledge Mobilization for Child and Youth Care Practicum Education

Child and Youth Care (CYC) Practicum Education (CYCPE) operates in more than 40 public postsecondary institutions (PSI) across Canada. CYC educators instruct and assess, while supervisors mentor thousands of students at child, youth, and family-serving organizations. As an emerging profession, CYC does not yet experience well-established governance, widespread postsecondary research infrastructure, nor public recognition, leaving CYCPE with threats to its credibility and existence. Despite individual CYC educators’ and programs’ extensive professional knowledge, we lack CYC-specific CYCPE organizational knowledge. This problem of practice (PoP) limits CYC educators’ ability to inform, improve, and innovate upon CYCPE’s design and delivery. This organizational improvement plan (OIP) positions CYCPE as an organization, to propose change initiatives that will disrupt its epistemic bubble. A critical postmodern (CPM) perspective forefronts tensions generatively. Organizational culture and discourse theory’s concepts provide a framework to analyze the PoP. Knowledge Leadership (KL)—within a Distributed Leadership (DL) higher education context, along a River Change Model (RCM) change process—propels a change initiative toward a desired state. Organizational knowledge creation and knowledge mobilization (KMb) expands CYCPE’s possibilities. By way of a CYCPE Consciousness-Raising Campaign, two streams of faculty-led change activities are detailed. This inquiry provides a novel perspective on CYCPE’s organization; syntheses of CYCPE’s extant data; application of KL in experiential education; and modification of Outcomes Harvesting (OH) to measure the change initiative’s contributions to a complex context. Ultimately, this inquiry is a call to action, for CYC educators to create and mobilize organizational knowledge, to benefit CYCPE’s complex design and delivery

Identifying threshold concepts in community services work - a new focus for curriculum in vocational education and training

The community services work industry in Australia continues to expand, leading to sustained demand for workers who can adapt to the complex needs of a growing client population. Training of these workers is provided largely through vocational education and training (VET). Both industry and VET exist within volatile environments impacted by change. Changes of government, funding shortages, politically charged events, and pandemics can all result in policy changes that are massive, immediate, and characterised by a focus on directed outcomes and expectations. The community services work environment demands workers who have the capabilities, understanding, and know-how to work with clients and adapt programs within the shifting landscape. There is a need for training that transforms students into the critical thinkers and capable workers needed by this expanding industry to service the complex needs of an ever-increasing client population. The current competency-based curriculum for community services work in VET is both complex and fragmented, providing challenges for VET in meeting these training aims. This study argues that identifying threshold concepts could offer the opportunity to refocus the curriculum for this industry. The original contribution to knowledge this thesis makes is both a framework to identify notable and threshold concepts, and the identification of four threshold concepts in this discipline: client-centred approach, evidence-based approach, self-awareness, and power balance within the worker-client relationship. Threshold concepts are those conceptual ideas in discipline knowledge that are transformative and integrative, opening to learners new ways of seeing the discipline and the interconnections within it, and potentially leading them to see differently the world and their place in it. The research, undertaken between 2012 and 2017, used a grounded theory approach to collect and analyse data from eleven community service workers, eleven teachers and twenty-two students enrolled across five courses in community services work in VET: Alcohol and Other Drugs, Community Development, Community Services, Mental Health, and Youth Work. A multi-stage process was used. First, the data was analysed to identify emerging themes. Then a two-part framework was developed to identify notable concepts and assess these against characteristics of threshold concepts (TCs). A triangulation of the data of the three participant groups added to the overall picture of emerging themes. The findings highlight transformation in learners through grasping concepts that shift their understanding and thinking about the discipline. Many of the participant learners demonstrated being on the threshold between old and new ways of being and thinking, indicating signs of liminal states. Participant teachers and community service workers identified notable concepts and what they believed was required from the training and provided their observations of the impact of training on students. This study argues that TCs in this discipline offer a new lens to refocus the curriculum for community services work in VET. Focussing curriculum development around learning TCs puts the student and the discipline at the centre; it does this by taking seriously the transformations in ways of being and thinking necessary for the modern community services worker, while reducing the complexity and fragmentation in the current curriculum