Misunderstanding corruption and community: comparative cultural politics of corruption regulation in the Pacific

This paper will take as its empirical foundation the author’s experience of corruption and regulation in small Pacific island states. The argument is that notions of corruption and strategies for its regulation suitable for modernized societies, which lack cultural specificity and community engagement, may in fact stimulate corruption relationships in transitional cultures. The other consequence of the imposition of inappropriate definitions and regulation strategies is a profound misunderstanding of communities of dependence. In fact, corruption control can misconstrue and exacerbate economic and political dependence environments, fostering the conditions for corruption which accompany socio-economic development. Two remedies are suggested. First, corruption requires an appreciation which is ‘community-centered’, while at the same time not being neutralized by disconnected cultural relativity. Second, an enterprise theory of corruption in modernized societies and international political/commercial entities may assist in the relevant translation of global anti-corruption policies in a way which advances good governance in traditional communities. This is so when corruption is conceived as dependant on phases of modernization, and the tensions which arise when the interests of societies at different phases intersect. Corporate citizenship and compliance with anti-corrupt business practices by major corporations with a commercial interest in these transitional economies may be more beneficial than deference to uniform international codes of governance

Juror comprehension and the hard case - Making forensic evidence simpler

The complexity/comprehension nexus as it impacts on juror decision-making is addressed in the particular context of prosecution-led DNA evidence. Such evidence is for jurors the subject of pre-trial preconceptions, and is notoriously difficult to present and argue before a jury. The article looks at the comprehension of forensic evidence by jurors, a task qualified by the opinion of legal professionals whose responsibility it is to present and interpret such evidence in adversarial contexts. Jurors were surveyed post-verdict in trials where forensic evidence featured in circumstantial cases. These insights into comprehension were qualified by contesting views of legal professionals, and critical reflections from independent observation teams regarding the manner in which this evidence was used and its intended impact on the jury. What results is both declared and implicit indicators of comprehension, not so much against broad measures of complexity [Findlay, 2001. Juror comprehension and complexity: strategies to enhance understanding. British Journal of Criminology 41/1, 56.], but rather the particular place of popularly endowed forensic evidence within the circumstantial case. The article explores the utility of a multi-methodological study of comprehension from the perspectives of the proponents, commentators, recipients and observers of the adversarial contest. To this is employed a interactive analysis of important decision-sites and relationships of influence in the trial as they may impact on comprehension and be measured as ‘complex’

The role of practical work in the developing practice of beginning physics teachers

The role and rationale of practical work in teaching school science are receiving renewed scrutiny (Abrahams and Saglam, 2010). This paper is a case study which reports part of a larger longitudinal study which used semi-structured interviews to explore the approaches of beginning teachers of physics to teaching electricity during Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and beyond. The interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. One of the emergent themes was the use of practical work in secondary school science. All of the beginning teachers had embedded the use of practical work in their teaching. This paper discusses their reasons for doing so and compares their responses with the rationales suggested by Hodson (1993), Lunetta, Hofstein, Clough, Abell, & Leerman (2007) and Abrahams (2011). The implications for ITE and continuing professional development (CPD) are discussed

Terrorism and relative justice

Terrorist violence and violent justice responses have much in common. While contextually dependant, both forms of violence lay claim to contestred legitimacies. The relationships between terrorism and justice responses require both theoretical and empirical examination if the prospects for controlling the violence they perpetrate is to be sharpened

Estimating the Demand for Union-Led Learning in Scotland

This research paper was commissioned and funded by the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC). It is being disseminated through the TUC’s unionlearn High Road project. The project is part of a community programme called Equal – a European Social Fund initiative that tests and promotes new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequality in the labour market. The GB Equal Support Unit is managed by ECOTEC. Unionlearn is the TUC organisation that supports union-led strategies on learning and skills. It helps unions open up learning and skills opportunities for their members and to develop trade union education for their representatives and officers.

Child’s play? Skills, regulation and reward amongst ‘early years’ workers

The persistence of gendered pay inequality some 30 years after its formal prohibition raises questions over the mechanisms sustaining it. Recent contributions highlight the role of low skills visibility and valuation in maintaining pay inequality in predominantly female occupations. We examine the skills and rewards of early years’ workers and the organisational processes that define them. We do so at an important juncture when the importance and regulation of the ‘early years’’ sector has increased significantly; and following extensive organisational restructuring aimed at delivering pay equality. We conclude that whilst the application of more systematic forms of skill measurement have improved the relative rewards of nursery nurses, highly gendered constructions of their skills, particularly those most closely linked to mothering, continue to impact negatively on their valuation. The presence of caring activities appears to eclipse their role in education. Complex institutional and organisational factors maintain important aspects of gender inequality.caring, early years’, gender, grading, inequality, pay, skills, valuation

More effective skills utilisation : shifting the terrain of skills policy in Scotland

This paper examines shifts in skills policy in Scotland towards emphasising the importance of effective skills utilisation. Turning policy into practice, however, requires a better understanding than currently exists of skills utilisation in order to facilitate better measurement, evaluation and intervention. This paper aims to contribute to such an understanding. We suggest that effective skills utilisation comprises two distinct elements: the use of better skills and the better use of skills, with the former crucial to the development of a high skills economy and the latter crucial to realising existing untapped workforce potential. We further argue that skills utilisation is most likely where workers have the ability, motivation and opportunity to deploy their skills effectively. We conclude by advocating greater collaboration in skills utilisation practice and research between relevant stakeholders, drawing on European experiences and an approach – which we call ASPiRRE – that envelops actors, structures, protocols, responsibilities, resources and expertise in order to align distinct stakeholder interests and encourage innovative practice in skills deployment

The quantum auxiliary linear problem & Darboux-Backlund transformations

We explore the notion of the quantum auxiliary linear problem and the associated problem of quantum Backlund transformations (BT). In this context we systematically construct the analogue of the classical formula that provides the whole hierarchy of the time components of Lax pairs at the quantum level for both closed and open integrable lattice models. The generic time evolution operator formula is particularly interesting and novel at the quantum level when dealing with systems with open boundary conditions. In the same frame we show that the reflection K-matrix can also be viewed as a particular type of BT, fixed at the boundaries of the system. The q-oscillator (q-boson) model, a variant of the Ablowitz-Ladik model, is then employed as a paradigm to illustrate the method. Particular emphasis is given to the time part of the quantum BT as possible connections and applications to the problem of quantum quenches as well as the time evolution of local quantum impurities are evident. A discussion on the use of Bethe states as well as coherent states and the path integral formulation for the study of the time evolution is also presented.Comment: 20 pages Latex. Contribution to the proceedings of the Corfu Summer Institute 2019 "School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity", 31 August - 25 September 201