Narrative Approaches to Wellbeing

The importance of narratives in therapeutic processes such as convalescence, psychotherapy and counselling is well-established. Such narrative-based approaches highlight the benefit of sense-making, coping and positive affect in circumstances of illness or psychological distress. These phenomena are consistent with theories of narrative which emphasise contextualisation and the restoration of equilibrium. This paper proposes to open up further areas of enquiry by examining a range of theoretical models of narrative as an imaginative space. It will examine a selection of established models of narrative in literary and media disciplines, and identify some themes and categories which recur in the practice of story-telling – such as inevitability and agency, community and individuality, freedom and destiny, absurdity and purpose. The paper will conclude by articulating some of the major themes that narrative suggests as a discipline, and which therefore might prove fruitful in understanding not only how story-telling plays a part in therapeutic processes, but how narrative might help to formulate a more generalised notion of wellbeing

All Men Are Created Equal

One hundred sixty-nine years ago, on July 4, 1776, a group of men drew up the document which is known today as the Declaration of Independence. These men did not meet with that end in mind. Their primary purpose in having that historical meeting was to evolve a plan whereby they might, in some way, overthrow the severe restrictions they were suffering at the hands of the British Crown. Foremost in the minds of them all was a feeling that had motivated the colonization of this hemisphere; the feeling that had instilled within them a vivid will to perpetuate a free world for all men, a world founded upon the proposition that, All men are created equal

All the Forces at Work Here

In this essay by Joe Wilkins, a mistake is straightened out with the help of a family friend

Open innovation research, management and practice

The concept of open innovation has become increasingly popular in the management and policy literature on technology and innovation. However, despite the large volume of empirical work, many of the prescriptions being proposed are fairly general and not specific to particular contexts and contingencies. The proponents of open innovation are universally positive but research suggests that the specific mechanisms and outcomes of open innovation models are very sensitive to context and contingency. This is not surprising because the open or closed nature of innovation is historically contingent and does not entail a simple shift from closed to open as often suggested in the literature. Research has shown that patterns of innovation differ fundamentally by sector, firm and strategy. Therefore, there is a need to examine the mechanisms that help to generate successful open innovation. In this book, the authors contribute to a shift in the debate from potentially misleading general prescriptions, and provide conceptual and empirical insights into the precise mechanisms and potential limitations of open innovation research and management practice

Construction of Good Rank-1 Lattice Rules Based on the Weighted Star Discrepancy

The ‘goodness’ of a set of quadrature points in [0, 1]d may be measured by the weighted star discrepancy. If the weights for the weighted star discrepancy are summable, then we show that for n prime there exist n-point rank-1 lattice rules whose weighted star discrepancy is O(n−1+δ) for any δ>0, where the implied constant depends on δ and the weights, but is independent of d and n. Further, we show that the generating vector z for such lattice rules may be obtained using a component-by-component construction. The results given here for the weighted star discrepancy are used to derive corresponding results for a weighted Lp discrepancy

Video violence : cognitive and cultural implications

There is nothing unprecedented about the peak of popularity which is currently being enjoyed by horrific stories and films depicting violent situations. Given the fact that there is a tradition of this type of fiction, however, there are a number of significant changes in just what is today taken to constitute the horrific and shocking, as well as in the manners in which this subject is handled. In this essay I propose to place the phenomenon of contemporary horrific fiction within the context of a wider cultural debate. This will involve the alignment of some of this fiction's underlying assumptions and concerns with some of the theories, beliefs and anxieties which have dominated our century's attempts to understand itself, and with some of the images which contemporary society has found fit to express its conception of itself and of its habitat. The arguments developed here, therefore, build on the understanding that our perceptions of the environment both determine and are expressed in the myths of our times.peer-reviewe

Think local, act local? Issues of co-ordination and integration in Local Agenda 21

The political response to the complex package of environmental problems which threaten the future of our planet has been to introduce a new agenda of environmental action based on the principles of sustainability and subsidiarity. This has been crystallised in world agreements signed at the Earth Summit in Rio. One of these, Agenda 21, calls for the governments and communities of the world to prepare action plans for their areas which can build consensus between the various stakeholder groups and feed the principles of sustainable development back into their policies and day-to-day practices. This paper explores the experience of Local Agenda 21 type processes at three levels in the South East of England: the regional, county (sub-regional) and local level. In particular it undertakes a critical appraisal of the success of these participatory and consensus-building exercises in developing an integrated and co-ordinated approach to environmental action planning. It concludes that, although much useful work has been done in raising awareness and modifying policy and practice, there are significant cultural and institutional barriers which are hindering progress