Professionalism and the Millbank Tendency: The Political Sociology of New Labour's employees

This article analyses party employees, one of the most under-researched subjects in the study of British political parties. We draw on a blend of quantitative and qualitative data in order to shed light on the social and political profiles of Labour Party staff, and on the question of their professionalisation. The latter theme is developed through a model derived from the sociology of professions. While a relatively limited proportion of party employees conform to the pure ideal-type of professionalism, a considerably greater number manifest enough of the core characteristics of specialisation, commitment, mobility, autonomy and self-regulation to be reasonably described as 'professionals in pursuit of political outcomes'

Activism and Historical Narratives in the Construction of a Shared Memory of Comfort Women\u27s Trauma

This thesis explores the impact of comfort women activism on collective memory and Japan-South Korea relations. It provides a historical context to understand the moral, legal, and political challenges inherent in the comfort women issue. The thesis emphasizes the role of shared memory in shaping perceptions and interpretations of this topic. The literature review critically engages with diverse perspectives, including the historical origins of the comfort women system and conceptual frameworks such as shared memory theory and trauma studies. Methodologically, the thesis adopts a qualitative analysis approach, drawing from survivor testimonies and navigating ethical considerations in researching sensitive topics. The research traces historical catalysts and the formation of international networks by exploring the emergence of comfort women activism in the 1990s. It sheds light on the pivotal role of survivor testimonies in shaping memory construction and public discourse. Finally, the thesis examines political and diplomatic responses to comfort women\u27s activism, highlighting challenges in memory construction

'Simultaneous Immersion' : How online postgraduate study contributes to the development of reflective practice among public service practitioners

This paper examines how the process of engaging simultaneously in study and work – through online distance-based study – affects students’ capacity to apply their learning in and for the workplace. The paper takes as its starting point the importance of extending notions of “educational effectiveness” beyond course-based attainment to encompass the impact of learning within the workplace. It explores the interface between study and work, focusing on the case of online postgraduate programmes in public management at the University of York. It finds that simultaneous immersion in study and work can create the conditions for “public reflection” that underpin work-based learning and that a key factor is the student-practitioner's ability to mobilise “episodic power.” The paper suggests ways in which existing approaches to online postgraduate learning might be enhanced in order to capitalise on these conditions of simultaneous immersion

The Future of Management Education: Reconsidering Professional Education and Action Learning

We are currently witnessing a duality in management pedagogy: an objective approach represented by the professional education model, and an interpretative approach represented by action learning. Professional education emphasizes theory, academic assessment, breadth of subject matter, and technical problemsolving. Action learning values practice, managerial assessment, depth of subject matter, and problem finding. The author suggests a reformulation of graduate management education that goes beyond a synthesis of the two extant approaches

Building a Career: The Effect of Initial Job Experiences and Related Work Attitudes on Later Employment

Examines the effects of initial job experiences and attitudes of young people in shaping their lifetime employment experience.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1153/thumbnail.jp

Taking the Charisma Out: Teaching as Facilitation

The author provides a personal account of his transition from attempting to use charisma to transmit knowledge to students to removing it so that students can themselves experience knowledge as a basis for learning. Consistent with inquiry-based democratic pedagogy, the author demonstrates how he became more a facilitator of learning than its transmitter. He shows how putting charisma into unscheduled classroom inquiry rather than into the teacher’s delivery can produce knowledge collectively and concurrently co-constructed in service of action

Extension of ketene-mediated asymmetric methodology

Ketenes are molecules containing a carbonyl group connected to an alkylidene group by way of a double bond (a pi-bond). The electrophilic nature of ketenes at their center, sp-hybridized carbon atom is the origin of many of the chemical transformations availible to these molecules. Previously in the Nelson laboratory, ketenes had been successfully employed in the acyl halide-aldehyde cyclocondensation (AAC) reaction. Both Lewis acid- and Lewis base-catalyzed AAC processes provide access to optically active 3,4-disubstituted-syn-2-oxetanones. The work described herein employs ketene in the Lewis base-catalyzed AAC reaction in an attempt to improve and expand the general utility of this reaction technology. This improved AAC methodology was then applied in the total synthesis of the natural product motuporin. Ketene was subsequently employed in the development of a novel ketene-Claisen rearrangement

A mixed method approach to exploring landowner interest in woody plantings to integrate conservation and production on Missouri farms

Agroforestry plantings can provide multiple benefits such as reduced soil erosion, decreased nutrient runoff, increased biodiversity, and greater farm income stability. This array of benefits makes them a promising ecologically based model for agricultural production that simultaneously achieves conservation goals. Despite the benefits conservation programs can provide, many landowners are hesitant to enroll and take land out of agricultural production. This study explores the potential to use food producing tree and shrub species, and/or incorporating cultural benefits like recreation and improved visual quality of the landscape, to increase the likelihood landowners in Missouri would commit to a conservation program. Conservation professionals across the state were interviewed to gather in-depth knowledge on the types of conservation planting designs that include trees and shrubs, conservation agency knowledge and promotion of agroforestry practices, and the relationships between landowners and conservation agencies. The interviews provided direction for a statewide survey to collect landowner perspectives and preferences for different planting plans for their farm and captured their interest in participating in conservation programs to assist in the planting of trees and shrubs on their land. Together, this information helps highlight the opportunities for incorporating agroforestry plantings in conservation programs.Includes bibliographical references

Learning about managing the business in the hospitality industry

This research examines the learning experiences of General Managers (GMs) in the hospitality industry, a sector much neglected in terms of research into management learning and human resource development. Our research focused on four large hospitality organizations (two hotels and two contract catering companies) and adopted an approach that integrates multiple data collection strategies in supporting our qualitative case studies. Data were collected by using document analysis plus detailed, qualitative interviews with 21 general managers, of whom seven were subsequently observed at work and observation notes generated. Data analysis revealed that the participants learned to manage the business primarily through experience, a process consisting of four key stages: Being Challenged, Information Searching, Information Transformation, and Testing. Reflective thinking plays a central role in their learning, taking the form of “actions” involving association, integration and validation, and of “products” involving content, process and context reflections. We argue that the way hospitality managers learn, while sharing the learning approaches taken by other professionals, differs in that these managers’ learning is more highly contextualized