Canadian Christian Nationalism?: The Religiosity and Politics of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada

In this dissertation I examines the worldview and concerns held by members of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada (CHP) as a means of understanding Canada’s Christian Right. I present a perspective of Canada’s Christian Right that challenges assumptions made about this religio-political ideology by showing how the political choices made by members of the CHP make sense within the members’ context. The CHP is a federal political party, first registered in 1986, that markets itself as “Canada’s only pro-life party.” Although the party was initially developed by a group of conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics, the majority of its members are Dutch-Canadians who attend Dutch Reformed (Calvinist) Churches. The main questions addressed in the dissertation are: 1) how do various social networks and identity characteristics correlate with individuals investing themselves in this religious-political movement, and 2) how do these individuals manage their identity and worldview in the face of on-going opposition and challenges both within and external to the CHP? In other words, what is it about the CHP that makes the party “common sense” to its members, when it seems less than common sense to the majority of Canadians? In order to answer these questions, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 79 party members across Canada and observed various party events between August 2010 and July 2012. Each chapter of this dissertation highlights a major theme that arose from the ethnographic data I collected. These themes include: 1) comparisons with the American Christian Right, 2) the implications and significance of Dutch-Canadian majority in the party, 3) links between the party’s name and its Christian identity, 4) the CHP’s prolife identity (particularly regarding its pro-capital punishment stance and the positioning of Roman Catholics within the party), 5) the role of education in the lives of party members, and 6) the perceived enemies of the party, namely, secular humanism, the “homosexual agenda,” and radical Islam. Overall, these themes illustrate the construction and maintenance of the members’ particular social conservative Christian identity, and a tension within the party between upholding the members’ Christian principles and being a pragmatic, electable political party

The Pion-Photon Transition Form Factor and New Physics in the Tau Sector

Recent measurement of the $\gamma\gamma^\ast$ form factor of the neutral pion in the high $Q^2$ region disagrees with {\em a priori} predictions of QCD-based calculations. We comment on existing explanations, and analyze a possibility that this discrepancy is not due to poorly understood QCD effects, but is a result of some new physics beyond the standard model (SM). We show that such physics would necessarily involve a new neutral light state with mass close to the mass of $\pi^0$, and with stronger than $\pi^0$ couplings to heavier SM flavors such as $c$, $\tau$, and $b$. It is found that only the coupling to the $\tau$ lepton can survive the existing constraints and lead to the observed rise of the pion form factor relative to $Q^{-2}$ at high $Q^2$. We perform numerical fits to data and determine the allowed range of masses and couplings for such new particles. This range of masses and couplings could also reduce or eliminate the tension between the $e^+e^-$ and $\tau$ decay determinations of the hadronic vacuum polarization. Dedicated experimental analysis of $\tau$ pair production in association with such new states should provide a conclusive test of the new physics hypothesis as an explanation to the pion form factor rise. We also comment on the calculations of the pion form factor in the chiral quark model, and point out a possible dynamical origin of the quark mass scale inferred from the form factor measurement.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, revtex4-1; v2: additional references, improved discussion of pion mixing case, published versio

New Developments in Practice IV: Managing the Technology Portfolio

Due to the unrelenting pace of technological change, the task of managing an organization\u27s IT portfolio can be formidable. Failure to accomplish this task effectively can expose an organization to technology failure and/or financial risk. This paper, based on discussions with a focus group of senior IT managers from a number of leading-edge organizations, outlines the challenges of managing the IT portfolio and presents recommended, tried-and-true strategies to tackle the problem

Developments in Practice XVIII-Customer Knowledge Management: Adding Value for Our Customers

The nature and quality of a firm\u27s dialogue with its customers is a core capability. Few firms are able to manage this dialogue effectively and use what they know to add more value for customers and ultimately improve firm performance. Knowledge management (KM) functions are therefore being asked how their expertise can help companies do a better job in this area. This paper examines the wide variety of ways organizations use KM in their customer relationships. It begins with an examination of the need for Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) and how it differs from Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It then looks at the four different dimensions of customer knowledge and at some of the innovative ways companies use them to add value for their customers. It next discusses the key organizational challenges of implementing CKM. The paper concludes with some best practices and advice about how to implement a program of CKM successfully in an organization. It suggests that CKM is not a tool like CRM but a process that is designed to dynamically capture, create and integrate knowledge about and for customers

Developments in Practice XIV: IT Sourcing - How Far Can You Go?

Outsourcing is now a widely accepted part of dong business. What started as a mechanism to lower costs became an integral part of a much larger IT strategy. Today, newer forms of outsourcing are on the horizon and newer approaches that will change yet again how IT sourcing decisions are made. Better connectivity, the availability of high quality staff, and much lower costs in other countries are changing sourcing markets and expanding sourcing possibilities for companies. To examine how sourcing is changing in IT organizations, the authors convened a focus group of senior IT managers from a variety of companies. This paper explores the evolution of sourcing and how sourcing strategies are shifting. Then it looks at emerging sourcing models and particularly at offshore/nearshore outsourcing. Finally, it identifies critical factors for successful sourcing. The paper concludes that while sourcing is changing the nature of the work that is done internally in IT, it is unlikely that it will eliminate this function altogether or reduce the its value to that of a utility. To the contrary, more and more organizations will need the systems thinking, architectural understanding, and strategic awareness embodied in a modern IT department to ensure that they don\u27t end up with a hollow shell of an organization which provides limited added value to the marketplace

Developments in Practice XV: Information Delivery: IT\u27s Evolving Role

Until recently, investments in information analysis and decision support languished as companies undertook higher priority IT projects with more direct and immediate impact on their bottom lines. Today, the success of how some companies use information for competitive advantage and operational effectiveness (e.g., Wal-Mart, Dell) is causing business leaders to look more carefully at how well their firms are leveraging information. Furthermore, web technology makes it both technically and financially feasible to deliver literally millions of pages of text to desktops as needed. The technologies available to manage different types of information are also improving rapidly and converging. Software, while still imperfect, is therefore opening the door to a host of new possibilities for information management and delivery. These factors are placing new pressures on IT to focus more thoughtfully on the information component of their function. This paper explores how IT\u27s role in information delivery is changing and evolving in organizations. It first surveys the rapidly expanding world of information and technology and why information delivery became so important so rapidly. Then, it discusses the value proposition of information in organizations. Next it describes the important components of an effective information delivery function in IT. Finally, it looks at how information delivery will likely evolve over the next five to ten years and what this will mean for IT and organizations. The paper concludes that information delivery in IT is an idea whose time has finally come. For the first time, senior business executives are ready to hear about the value of information. However, the challenges for IT are huge. Not only does effective information delivery require new technologies, it also means that IT must develop new internal non-technical and analytic capabilities and makes its work much more visible in the organization

Developments in Practice XIII Electronic Communications: Strategies for Coping with the Deluge

The good news is that technologies (e.g., PDAs, mobile computing) allow individuals to communicate with others virtually anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. Among other things, the expanded communications allows business to be transacted in real time by curtailing traditional lags. The bad news is individuals now communicate with others virtually anytime, anyplace and anywhere. As a result, the volume of messages increased significantly, extraordinary demands are placed on managers\u27 time, and businesses face increased costs and liabilities. A new set of management issues were created to manage electronic communications effectively. Based on the insights of a group of senior IT managers from leading edge organizations, the authors explore the issues arising from the proliferation of electronic communication channels and share proven strategies for tackling the issues

Enabling Collaboration with IT

Globalizing organizations, outsourcing, mobile work, inter-organizational teams, innovation, and reaching out to suppliers and customers are driving today’s need to improve collaboration within firms. And information technology (IT) is at the center of these trends. Businesses are also experimenting with different types of collaboration. While IT functions provide the “heavy lifting,” such as connectivity and information integrity, without which most collaboration efforts would not be effective, how new applications are implemented is often as important as the technology itself in delivering business value. This article explores IT’s role in enabling collaboration in organizations, and at the same time, what IT’s role should not be (i.e., what responsibilities and accountabilities should properly be the function of the business). It presents the results of research with a focus group of senior IT managers, looking first at why collaboration is becoming so important and the business value it enables. Next, it examines some of the different characteristics of collaboration and the key components of a collaboration program and at IT’s role in one. It concludes that effective collaboration will not result from implementing more collaboration software. Instead, this will require a proactive and holistic strategy that integrates business goals and technology potential