It's good to talk in the digital age

Our millennial students may, at times, feel apprehensive about talking face-to-face or on the phone. Whilst the development digital skills is crucial in our connected age, let’s not forget about the importance of verbal communications

The importance and art of articulating thanks: Lessons from non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

Thanking helps organisations to build relationships. In particular, charities need to thank as they build up coalitions of interest around issues, and as, in many cases, they raise income. So what can be learned from some professional thankers, and scholars, in the NGO sector? You’ll learn: • The importance of thanks in interpersonal communications and NGO communications • What we can learn from NGO sector best practice and guidance • A framework for thanking built on NGO researc

Lactosylceramide is synthesized in the lumen of the Golgi apparatus

AbstractRecently, synthesis of lactosylceramide has been described to occur on the cytosolic face of the Golgi [(1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 20907-20912]. The reactions following in the biosynthesis of higher glycosphingolipids are known to take place in the lumen of the Golgi. For our understanding of the functional organization of the multiglycosyltransferase system of glycosphingolipid synthesis in the Golgi, the knowledge of the topology of individual reactions is a prerequisite. We have developed a simple and quick assay system for sphingolipid biosynthesis and have obtained evidence that lactosylceramide is synthesized in the lumen of the Golgi. Because lactosylceramide is generated by galactosylation of glucosylceramide which, in turn, is synthesized from ceramide and UDP-Glc on the cytosolic surface of the Golgi apparatus, further efforts will be directed to the characterization of a glucosylceramide-translocator in the Golgi membranes rather than a lactosylceramide-translocator

A political reading of home and family in English language Singaporean novels (1972-2002).

Homes and families feature in many post-independence, English-language Singaporean novels. They also have pronounced importance in Singaporean politics. In state discourses 'home' symbolizes the Singaporean nation and 'family' society. In addition, government policies are renowned for extending into the private domain. Furthermore, the national value of 'family as the basic unit of society' has been ratified by Parliament. A few published essays link portrayals of home or family in this fiction to national politics (Koh Tai Ann 1989, Philip Holden 1998 and Shirley Lim 2003). These studies often consider depictions of home or family relations in relation to whether they ultimately affirm or shake the status quo. This thesis is the first extended study to examine the potential political meanings or connotations of portrayed homes and families in over a dozen English-language Singaporean novels. It provides a thematic analysis of housing, the overlap between home and nation, inter-class and inter-racial relationships, 'filial' strains and paternalistic behaviour in a politico-historical context. The identified stances in the texts are then related to the long-ruling People's Action Party (PAP) Government's positions on these subjects. The analysis demonstrates that depictions of home and family in the selected texts can be meaningfully related to the hegemonic PAP government's policies, values, ideologies, and forms of authority. The multiple perspectives that emerge from the narratives can present more varied arguments than are commonly found in state discourses. In raising or gently alluding to different viewpoints, the novels may affirm, modify, question to the point of moral interrogation, present alternatives to, and/or critique state stances. In doing so they provide ideas for debate in a society where politics is deemed to be for politicians and where there is censorship and self-censoring

Employability and higher education: contextualising female students' workplace experiences to enhance understanding of employability development

Current political and economic discourses position employability as a responsibility of higher education, which deploys mechanisms such as supervised work experience (SWE) to embed employability skills development into the undergraduate curriculum. However, workplaces are socially constructed complex arenas of embodied knowledge that are gendered. Understanding the usefulness of SWE therefore requires consideration of the contextualised experiences of it, within these complex environments. This study considers higher education's use of SWE as a mechanism of employability skills development through exploration of female students' experiences of accounting SWE, and its subsequent shaping of their views of employment. Findings suggest that women experience numerous, indirect gender-based inequalities within their accounting SWE about which higher education is silent, perpetuating the framing of employability as a set of individual skills and abilities. This may limit the potential of SWE to provide equality of employability development. The study concludes by briefly considering how insights provided by this research could better inform higher education's engagement with SWE within the employability discourse, and contribute to equality of employability development opportunity

Engaging with childhood: student placements and the employability agenda.

Employability is a particular organising narrative within the global, neoliberal economic discourse, with increasing relevance across different educational contexts. For universities in the UK, student employability, that is the readiness of students to gain and maintain employment and contribute to the economy, is a significant feature of accountability with employability outcomes increasingly used by students in making their decision of which university to attend. Yet little attention is paid to the organizing power of the employability agenda and to university students’ participation in that agenda apart from focussing on knowledge and skills relevant to gain employment. This is particularly concerning in university programmes that develop professionals who work with children. Placement, gaining knowledge, skills and experience in the places where children and young people are found, is a common aspect of employability being embedded within programme curricula. This article explores the organising power of the employability agenda for children and young people in a context of university placements. Focused on student experiences on placement in primary school settings in the north of England analysis considers students’ engagement with their own learning and the children who are essential to that learning

The Green Economy: Functional Domains and Theoretical Directions of Enquiry

The green economy is a highly complex construct in terms of its attempts to integrate economic, environmental, and social concerns, the wide range of actors involved, its material outcomes, and the forms of governance needed to regulate processes of economic greening. As such, it poses new empirical and theoretical challenges for social science research on socioenvironmental futures. This paper has two main aims. The first is to survey the emergent features and functional domains of the green economy. The second is to consider theoretical tools that might be used to analyse the drivers and processes shaping the green economy. Focusing on literature on sociotechnical transitions, ecological modernisation, the ‘green’ cultural economy, and postpolitical governance, we argue that understanding the functional and spatial heterogeneity of the green economy necessitates a multitheoretical approach. We then explore how combining branches of research on socioenvironmental governance can lead to theoretically and ontologically richer insights into the drivers, practices, and power relations within the green economy. In so doing, we respond to calls for socioeconomic research on environmental change which is neither just empirical nor bound to one theoretical outlook to the detriment of understanding the complexity of socioenvironmental governance and human–nature relations.</jats:p