The perceptions of social responsibility for community resilience to flooding: the impact of past experience, age, gender and ethnicity

Community resilience to flooding depends, to a large extent, on the participation of community members to take more responsibility for enhancing their own resilience. The perception of social responsibility (SR) which is argued to be one of the antecedents influencing individual’s willingness to undertake resilient behaviours can significantly contribute to community resilience through individual and collective actions. Understanding of factors influencing the perceptions of SR of individuals within community might help with developing strategies to increase the perceptions of SR. This research explores perceptions of SR in relation to flooding for householders and local businesses and establishes their relationships with experience of flooding and demographic factors of age, gender and ethnicity. The data were obtained via a questionnaire survey of three communities in Birmingham and one community in South East London, UK, three with experience of flooding and one without. A total of 414 responses were received and used in the multiple regression analysis. The analysis identified ‘experience of flooding’, ‘age’ and ‘South Asian’ ethnic group as significant variables, suggesting that older individuals from South Asian ethnic groups with previous experience of flooding are likely to be more socially responsible than others without these attributes

Workplace Learning in Dual Higher Professional Education

Workplace learning is considered an effective strategy for the development of vocation, career and professional identity. Dual training programs, in which learning at a vocational school and learning at work in a company are combined, are seen as strong carriers for skill formation processes. In this study we explore workplace learning in dual training programs in Dutch higher professional education. To gain an understanding of these learning environments and processes, a qualitative multiple case study was conducted in seven sectors. The findings show substantial differences in learning environments between and within sectors. However, cooperation between school and practice is minimal in all of the cases. Although students develop personal and job-related competencies that are useful for daily work routines, they acquire hardly any profound theoretical knowledge at the workplace. School fails to direct workplace learning. Given the considerable share of workplace learning in dual training programs, and the demands to higher professional education graduates in terms of being able to solve complex problems and develop new knowledge during their career as reflective practitioners, it is important that these shortcomings are resolved. More promising alternatives for workplace learning environments and questions for further research to improve workplace learning in higher professional education are discussed

Effective Use of an Expert in Sexually Violent Predator Commitment Hearings

This chapter will look critically at the use of experts in sexually violent predator commitment proceedings. It will begin by providing some important background information before suggesting the qualifications a sexually violent predator expert ideally should have. The chapter will then delve more deeply into the nuts and bolts of the proceedings themselves. It will discuss the expert’s role in proving or disproving that the accused has a mental disorder that makes him likely to engage in future predatory acts of sexual violence

Where is search in Information Literacy : A Theoretical Note on Infrastructure and Community of Practice

In this conceptual paper theory of infrastructure is combined with one of situated learning, with a focus on search and search engines. The aim of the paper is to make a theoretical contribution to the information literacy research field by discussing theoretical contradictions as well as strengths when combining the two theoretical perspectives. Search engines and their use are part of the contemporary information infrastructure and are a such often not thought of when being used. It is argued that a critical perspective on information literacy in relation to search seems to demand that they are treated as situated and general at the same time. The paper concludes that sociomaterial perspectives on information literacy research offers both infrastructures and practices a place