Responding to class theft: Theoretical and empirical links to critical management studies

Redrafted submission for inclusion in Remarx Section of Rethinking MarxismThis paper suggests closer linkages between the fields of Postmodern Class Analysis (PCA) and Critical Management Studies (CMS)2 are possible. It argues that CMS might contribute to the empirical engagement with the over-determined relations between class and non-class processes in work organizations (this appears to have received relatively little attention in PCA) and that PCA's theoretical and conceptual commitments may provide one means for CMS to engage in class analysis. CMS's focus on power and symbolic relations has led to the relative neglect of exploitation and class, in surplus terms. Both fields share similar although not identical political and ethical commitments

The organization of organizational discourse

Discourse, as Fairclough, Graham, Lemke, and Wodak (2004) noted in the introduction to their new journal, Critical Discourse Studies, is now well established as a category in social sciences. And yet, as they also note, we find significant differences as to what discourse and discourse analysis refer. These differences are, they argue, because of different theoretical, academic, and cultural traditions and how these traditions "push discourse in different directions" (2004:4). In this review essay I sketch out the key direction that discourse has been pushed or pulled in organization studies. To set the scene, I review two books that seek to advance our understanding of discourse and language analysis in organization studies. Each has its strengths, but both are relatively disengaged from the journal literature in the same field. In response to this weakness, I present a brief, citation-based examination of discourse analysis in the management and organization studies field. This analysis brings to light eight different streams of work that are underway

Creativity and class: Review essay

This essay offer a critical review of form of class analysis presented in the works of the economic geographer Richard Florida. In it we use the example of the sale of the New Zealand internet auction site Trade Me to the Australian media group Fairfax to illuminate some of the problematic features of Florida's work

Making managers in UK further and higher education

This PhD thesis is a critical investigation of the formation of managers in the UK further and higher education (FHE) sector. It explores the character and problematics that surround the development of senior FHE post-holders as managers in the first half of the 1990s. The work draws on interviews with more than 70 senior post-holders in four universities and four further education colleges and observation in one university and one college. It analyses the narratives and practices that make up the changing working lives of the respondents. These are discussed in relation to recent social theory, particularly around approaches to 'discourse', 'the body', and 'identity/subjectivity'. This in turn is set against the backdrop of broad political-economic circumstances and conditions. Two key issues are addressed in the thesis: the problematics that surround the development of managers, and the gendered dimensions of this formation. The thesis is in three sections: 'Epistemological Commitments and Ontological Priorities' (this divides into three chapters: 'Managing Discourse and Discoursing Managers', 'Living Bodies and Inscribing Bodies' and 'The Relative Thickness of Human Material, approaching 'Identity' and 'Subjectivity'), 'Speaking Historically, Politically and of literatures' (this divides into three chapters: 'Making Sense of Making Managers, a review of the critical further and higher education management literature', 'From Methodology to Research Methods' and 'Further and Higher Education's Turbulent Years'), and 'Making Managers in Further and Higher Education' (this divides into three chapters: 'Doing the business, constructing the supervisors of production in further and higher education', 'Just how managed is the New Further and Higher Education? 'and 'University and College management; Is it men's work? '). The concluding chapter draws out the key points from the thesis, discusses these in the context of possible futures for further and higher education, and suggests directions for further research work

The Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment - A plan for integrated, large fire-atmosphere field campaigns

The Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) is designed to collect integrated observations from large wildland fires and provide evaluation datasets for new models and operational systems. Wildland fire, smoke dispersion, and atmospheric chemistry models have become more sophisticated, and next-generation operational models will require evaluation datasets that are coordinated and comprehensive for their evaluation and advancement. Integrated measurements are required, including ground-based observations of fuels and fire behavior, estimates of fire-emitted heat and emissions fluxes, and observations of near-source micrometeorology, plume properties, smoke dispersion, and atmospheric chemistry. To address these requirements the FASMEE campaign design includes a study plan to guide the suite of required measurements in forested sites representative of many prescribed burning programs in the southeastern United States and increasingly common high-intensity fires in the western United States. Here we provide an overview of the proposed experiment and recommendations for key measurements. The FASMEE study provides a template for additional large-scale experimental campaigns to advance fire science and operational fire and smoke models

The Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment—A Plan for Integrated, Large Fire–Atmosphere Field Campaigns

The Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) is designed to collect integrated observations from large wildland fires and provide evaluation datasets for new models and operational systems. Wildland fire, smoke dispersion, and atmospheric chemistry models have become more sophisticated, and next-generation operational models will require evaluation datasets that are coordinated and comprehensive for their evaluation and advancement. Integrated measurements are required, including ground-based observations of fuels and fire behavior, estimates of fire-emitted heat and emissions fluxes, and observations of near-source micrometeorology, plume properties, smoke dispersion, and atmospheric chemistry. To address these requirements the FASMEE campaign design includes a study plan to guide the suite of required measurements in forested sites representative of many prescribed burning programs in the southeastern United States and increasingly common high-intensity fires in the western United States. Here we provide an overview of the proposed experiment and recommendations for key measurements. The FASMEE study provides a template for additional large-scale experimental campaigns to advance fire science and operational fire and smoke models

Evaluation and Comparison of a Habitat Suitability Model for Postdrift Larval Lake Sturgeon in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers

We evaluated composition and spatial distribution of riverine nursery habitat for larval Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens in the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River, Michigan, and Fighting Island Channel of the Detroit River, Ontario, using a habitat suitability model (HSM) and fish collections. Although model outputs indicated similar portions of high‐quality habitat in the Middle Channel (16.9%) and Fighting Island Channel (15.7%), larval abundance and dispersal patterns varied between these systems. Analysis with Akaike’s information criterion indicated that a regression model using sand–silt substrate performed best at predicting the observed water‐volume‐standardized CPUE (number of larvae·h−1·m−3) in the Middle Channel. Of 93 larvae that were collected in the Middle Channel, most were found to cluster at three distinct areas of high‐ and moderate‐quality habitat, which was composed predominately of sand–silt substrate. Lengths of larvae varied by as much as 9 mm, and the degree of yolk sac absorption also varied, indicating that larvae in the Middle Channel remained within the channel after a short drift downstream. Of the 25 larvae that were collected in Fighting Island Channel, distribution was sporadic, and occurrence did not significantly correlate with measured habitat variables. Larvae were relatively homogeneous in size and yolk sac stage, indicating that newly emerged larvae did not utilize available habitat in Fighting Island Channel but instead drifted into the main channel of the Detroit River. Dispersal patterns indicate variability in young Lake Sturgeon ecology, which is dependent on local habitat conditions—most notably, substrate composition. Furthermore, modeled larval–habitat associations found in this study were compared to a similar study on larval Lake Sturgeon from the North Channel of the St. Clair River. Model outputs from all three systems accurately accounted for observed larval dispersal patterns among both rivers. This supports the transferability of an HSM parameterized for Lake Sturgeon from individual river reaches within two large river systems.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146299/1/nafm10217.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146299/2/nafm10217_am.pd

Seasonal variations of EPG levels in gastro-intestinal parasitic infection in a southeast asian controlled locale:a statistical analysis

We present a data based statistical study on the effects of seasonal variations in the growth rates of the gastro-intestinal (GI) parasitic infection in livestock. The alluded growth rate is estimated through the variation in the number of eggs per gram (EPG) of faeces in animals. In accordance with earlier studies, our analysis too shows that rainfall is the dominant variable in determining EPG infection rates compared to other macro-parameters like temperature and humidity. Our statistical analysis clearly indicates an oscillatory dependence of EPG levels on rainfall fluctuations. Monsoon recorded the highest infection with a comparative increase of at least 2.5 times compared to the next most infected period (summer). A least square fit of the EPG versus rainfall data indicates an approach towards a super diffusive (i. e. root mean square displacement growing faster than the square root of the elapsed time as obtained for simple diffusion) infection growth pattern regime for low rainfall regimes (technically defined as zeroth level dependence) that gets remarkably augmented for large rainfall zones. Our analysis further indicates that for low fluctuations in temperature (true on the bulk data), EPG level saturates beyond a critical value of the rainfall, a threshold that is expected to indicate the onset of the nonlinear regime. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the EPG data show oscillatory behavior in the large rainfall regime (greater than 500 mm), the frequency of oscillation, once again, being determined by the ambient wetness (rainfall, and humidity). Data recorded over three pilot projects spanning three measures of rainfall and humidity bear testimony to the universality of this statistical argument. © 2013 Chattopadhyay and Bandyopadhyay

High-throughput sequence analysis of variants of human cytomegalovirus strains Towne and AD169

The genomes of commonly used variants of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) strains Towne and AD169 each contain a substantial mutation in which a region (UL/b′) at the right end of the long unique region has been replaced by an inverted duplication of a region from the left end of the genome. Using high-throughput technology, we have sequenced HCMV strain Towne (ATCC VR-977) and confirmed the presence of two variants, one exhibiting the replacement in UL/b′ and the other intact in this region. Both variants are mutated in genes RL13, UL1, UL40, UL130, US1 and US9. We have also sequenced a novel AD169 variant (varUC) that is intact in UL/b′ except for a small deletion that affects genes UL144, UL142, UL141 and UL140. Like other AD169 variants, varUC is mutated in genes RL5A, RL13, UL36 and UL131A. A subpopulation of varUC contains an additional deletion affecting genes IRS1, US1 and US2

Administrative Managers – A Critical Link

Institutional responses to changes in the higher education environment have caused movements in the roles and identities of administrative managers in UK universities. These shifts have highlighted the problem for individuals of balancing traditional public service considerations of administration with institutional innovation and development. Administrative managers find themselves not only acting as independent arbiters, giving impartial advice on the basis of professional expertise, but also becoming involved in political judgements about institutional futures. They increasingly undertake an interpretive function between the various communities of the university and its external partners. As the boundaries of the university have become more permeable, administrative and academic management have inter-digitated, and hybrid roles have developed. In undertaking increasingly complex functions, therefore, administrative managers play a critical role in linking the academic and executive arms of governance in the university