Stories from the field:Women's networking as gender capital in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Women are underrepresented in successful entrepreneurial ecosystems and the creation of women-only entrepreneurial networks has been a widespread policy response. We examine the entrepreneurial ecosystem construct and suggest that it, and the role networks play in entrepreneurial ecosystems, can be analysed in terms of Bourdieu's socio-analysis as field, habitus and capital. Specifically, we develop the notion of gender capital as the skill set associated with femininity or from simply being recognized as feminine. We apply this to the development of women's entrepreneurial networks as a gender capital enhancing initiative. Using data from qualitative interviews with network coordinators and women entrepreneurs we reflect on the extent to which formally established women-only networks generate gender capital for their members and improve their ability to participate in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of our analysis for theory, entrepreneurial practice and economic development policy

The Impact of a Filariasis Control Program on Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea

Large-scale intervention programmes to control filariasis are currently underway worldwide. However, a major unresolved question remains: what is the appropriate duration for these programmes? Recent theoretical work and clinical field experience has highlighted how the ecological diversity between different endemic regions hinders decision making processes of when to stop ongoing MDA programs. The goal of our study was to identify the factors determining success for a five year LF elimination program. We undertook different types of surveys together with a pre-existing MDA program in villages from two regions that had different infection prevalence rates. Our study shows that the five yearly cycles of MDA could neither eliminate the disease nor stop transmission in the high prevalence villages, such that low baseline lymphatic filariasis prevalence has a positive influence on the outcome of a program. Thus, the study provides data supporting the recommendation that in certain high prevalence and transmission environments more sustained efforts may be necessary

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

The cave: writing design history

The beginnings of design histories are inconsistent. While industrial design histories tend to begin with European industrialization in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, other design disciplines claim a longer genealogy. Art, interior design and graphic design narratives each claim the Paleolithic caves in Southern France and Spain as their mythical birthplace: Altamira, Lascaux and/or Chauvet are used as a conventional starting point in standard textbook histories. A close analysis of the beginnings of several conventional design histories provides a starting point for addressing the cave's place in design history. While historical writing is rarely considered as a poetic practice, in this article, I will examine the poetic construction of the cave as a space for both the projections of contemporary ideas about design and, more importantly, the starting point of a narrative that anxiously binds progressive civilization to specifically European cultural roots

Modern times: the untold story of modernism in australia

Reviews Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia, March 21 - July 12, 2009. This is the first ambitious survey of Australian modernist visual culture from 1917-1967

Revisiting Herbert Simon's 'Science of design'

Herbert A. Simon's 'The Sciences of the Artificial' has long been considered a seminal text for design theorists and researchers anxious to establish both a scientific status for design and the most inclusive possible definition for a "designer", embodied in Simon's oft-cited "[e]veryone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones".1 Similar to the earlier Design Methods movement, which defines design as a problem solving, process-oriented activity (rather than primarily concerned with the production of physical artifacts), Simon's "science of design" was part of his broader project of unifying the social sciences with problem solving as the glue. This article revisits Simon's ideas about design both to place them in context and to question their ongoing legacy for design researchers. Much contemporary design research, in its pursuit of academic respectability, remains aligned to Simon's broader project, particularly in its definition of design as "scientific" problem solving. However, the repression of judgment, intuition, experience, and social interaction in Simon's "logic of design" has had, and continues to have, profound implications for design research and practice

Simulation and disappearance: the posters of Kan Tai-Keung

In the lead-up to the handover in 1997, there was considerable media interest in Hong Kong and various attempts to define the city's identity. The self-consciousness brought about by the city's imminent change in status resulted in a repetition of cliches about the city and its culture that usually described both as a 'meeting place between East and West'. Within both the popular Western and Chinese discourses of colonisation, this binary opposition has been constantly reinforced. The continual separation of the two cultures served both colonial powers during the 1990s as the struggle for cultural influence intensified. Besides the obvious fact that East and West have been 'meeting' on the coast of China for hundreds of years, Hong Kong itself has long been exposed to a variety of cultures, initially as a trading port and since the 1970s as a global financial centre. For this reason, it is too simplistic to read recent Hong Kong visual culture as a meeting between East and West for it has long been influenced by, and part of, international cultural trends. Since the 1980s, a generation of Hong Kong graphic designers have gained international reputations within the design world. Designers such as Kan Tai-Keung and Alan Chan have developed a visual culture that goes beyond the easy East/West binary, and in the process forged a recognisable Hong Kong visual identity that is both local and global. Kan Tai-Keung's creation of a particular design language evolved through the 1980s and 1990s. My focus in this paper is his posters during these decades---posters for design or art exhibitions, lectures or poster exhibitions as well as special features for magazines---rather than his packaging, logo design or visual art work

Jean Prouvé's Maison Tropicale: the poetics of the colonial object

In June 2007, Jean Prouvé’s prefabricated aluminium bungalow known as the Maison Tropicale was sold at auction in New York for $4,968,000 (see Figure 1). Prior to the sale, the Maison was displayed on the banks of the Seine in Paris, and following the sale, in front of London’s Tate Modern. While the multi-million dollar price tag attracted newspaper headlines, from a design perspective, critics highlighted Prouvé’s innovative design that used industrial technologies and prefabrication techniques. Indeed, a factory produced metallic house such as the Maison Tropicale seemed to embody Le Corbusier’s description of the modern house as a 'machine for living in.

The chameleon and the pearl of the Orient

Hong Kong's design culture has traditionally been discussed in terms of 'East meets West,' a cliche which served to neutralize the impact of colonization in its various forms. This idea of Hong Kong culture as the meeting place between two monolithic cultures is a common stereotype that continues to be used in contemporary criticism, journalism, and tourism promotion. This paper analyzes the work of Henry Steiner, a key figure in the development of modern graphic design in Hong Kong. Over the past thirty years, Steiner's designs have provided a public image for some of Hong Kong's most powerful corporations, and his 'cross-cultural' design theories have provided a model for many other designers. His crosscultural designs carefully maintain the difference between 'Eastern' and 'Western' culture, subtly reinforcing the hierarchies of Hong Kong's colonial situation. The design work and theories of Steiner analyzed in this paper reflect a popular representation of the Colony that lasted from the 1960s until at least the 1990s, and continues to endure in contemporary tourism promotion