How does working on university-industry collaborative projects affect science and engineering doctorates' careers? Evidence from a UK research-based university

This paper examines the impact of industrial involvement in doctoral projects on the particular nature of the training and careers of doctorates. We draw on an original survey of job histories of doctorates in physical sciences and engineering from a research-based university in the UK. Using multivariate probit analysis and linearised (robust) and resampling (jackknife) variance estimation techniques, we found that projects with industrial involvement are associated with higher degree of socialisation with industry. There is some evidence showing that these projects are also more likely to focus on solving firm-specific technical problems or developing firm-specific specifications/prototypes, rather than exploring high-risk concepts or generating knowledge in the subject areas. Crucially, these projects result in fewer journal publications. Not surprisingly, in line with existing literature, we found that engaging in projects with industrial involvement (in contrast to projects without industrial involvement) confers advantages on careers in the private sector. Nevertheless, there is also a hint that engaging in projects with industrial involvement may have a negative effect on careers in academia or public research organisations. While acknowledging that the modelling results are based on a small sample from a research-based university and that therefore the results need to be treated with caution, we address implications for doctorates, universities and policymakers

Environmental sustainability, time and uncertainty.

The ways in which issues of differential times and time-scales make themselves felt in environmental politics are explored. Official and industrial `control' of time-scales within environmental regulatory processes is seen to be an important determinant of the forms such politics take in countries like the UK. It is argued that the opening up of `time' debates carries far-reaching and positive implications for `sustainability' aspirations in the industrial world

Trust relationships between children, social welfare professionals and the organisations of welfare

The chapter considers the dynamic relations of trust between children and young people, welfare professionals and the institutions of welfare. It uses three levels of analysis including individual relationships between children and welfare professionals, the organizations and institutions of welfare and wider social cultural attitudes towards children. The narrative of trust within managerialist driven welfare organizations is explored to assess the way this impacts on the dynamics of trust between children and welfare professionals. The analysis includes the dynamic interaction between the process of participation of individual children and young people in everyday governance as well as the relationship with institutions of welfare. The focus is on active ‘voice’ for children and young people and processes of participation and consultation within social welfare. The challenge is for individual professionals and institutions of child welfare to recognise the significance of the process and relations of trust within this often fraught and contested arena of social welfare work with children. The examination of the wider implications of societal attitudes towards children and youth bring us into the broader arena of human rights and social justice

Spirituality expressed in creative learning: young children's imagining play as space for mediating their spirituality

Historically underpinning principles of the English curriculum framework for children from birth to five years explicitly acknowledged a spiritual dimension to children's uniqueness and well-being. Yet spirituality receives scant reference in the discourse of creative learning and teaching. This paper considers the relationship of spirituality to creativity and argues for a greater attentiveness to children's spirituality in early childhood education that acknowledges its presence in expression of children's thinking, creating and imagining. Located within an interpretive paradigm, this ethnographic study of children aged two and three years in a day nursery in England, explores how they express spirituality. A hermeneutic approach underpins the analysis and interpretation of the data. Findings reveal how in imaginative play, most often recognised in the early years curriculum as part of creative development, young children show a capacity for expressing meaning-making and negotiating identity, key dimensions of the spiritual in childhood