Meredith Davis
North Carolina State University, North Carolina, USA
Abstract
This article makes a case for why design research is important to contemporary design practice and the deepening of the design disciplines, especially at this point in our history. It identifies the pressures on knowledge generation exerted by the shift from a mechanical, object-centered paradigm for design practice to one characterized by systems that: evolve and behave organically; transfer control from designers to users or participants; emphasize the importance of community; acknowledge media convergence; and require work by interdisciplinary teams to address the complexity of contemporary problems.Further, the text addresses the rather checkered past of design research programs in universities in the United States of America (USA), and the international positions by professional design associations on the development of research cultures. Included in this discussion is data on what American design professionals, faculty, and students think about design research and what this data tells us about growing research activity.
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Saturday, April 24, 2010
The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union: Fears, Challenges, and Reality
Jacek Więcławski
Department of International Political Relations
Lazarski School of Commerce and Law, Warsaw
Abstract: This essay focuses on the Eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) and its impact on internal and external relations. Considering the analyses and forecasts available before enlargement, it presents the real consequences of the process, as well as challenges the EU has faced after the accession of new members from East-Central Europe.
The article analyses the most important consequences, including problems in the area of decision-making and management in the EU, social consequences of the enlargement, as well as the effect of the accession of East-Central European members on the international position of the EU. Considering the opportunities, chances, and dangers of the Eastern enlargement for the future of European integration, the article seeks to address the concept of globality in its regional European context.
Keywords: East-Central Europe, Eastern enlargement, European integration, EU foreign policy, labor migration, regional globality, social fears
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Department of International Political Relations
Lazarski School of Commerce and Law, Warsaw
Abstract: This essay focuses on the Eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) and its impact on internal and external relations. Considering the analyses and forecasts available before enlargement, it presents the real consequences of the process, as well as challenges the EU has faced after the accession of new members from East-Central Europe.
The article analyses the most important consequences, including problems in the area of decision-making and management in the EU, social consequences of the enlargement, as well as the effect of the accession of East-Central European members on the international position of the EU. Considering the opportunities, chances, and dangers of the Eastern enlargement for the future of European integration, the article seeks to address the concept of globality in its regional European context.
Keywords: East-Central Europe, Eastern enlargement, European integration, EU foreign policy, labor migration, regional globality, social fears
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Consumption patterns and living conditions inside Het Steen, the late medieval prison of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium)
Liesbeth Troubleyn, Frank Kinnaer, Anton Ervynck, Luk Beeckmans, Danielle Caluwé, Brigitte Cooremans, Frans De Buyser, Koen Deforce, Konjev Desender, An Lentacker, Jan Moens, Gaston Van Bulck, Maarten Van Dijck, Wim Van Neer, Werner Wouters
Keywords: archaeology, history, Flanders, late medieval urban society, prison, material culture.
Abstract
Excavations at the Main Square (Grote Markt) of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) have unearthed the building remains of a tower, arguably identifiable as the former town prison: Het Steen. When this assumption is followed, the contents of the fills of two cesspits dug out in the cellars of the building illustrate aspects of daily life within the early 14th-century prison.An integrated approach of all find categories, together with the historical context available, illuminates aspects of the material culture of the users of the cesspits, their consumption patterns and the living conditions within the building.
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Keywords: archaeology, history, Flanders, late medieval urban society, prison, material culture.
Abstract
Excavations at the Main Square (Grote Markt) of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) have unearthed the building remains of a tower, arguably identifiable as the former town prison: Het Steen. When this assumption is followed, the contents of the fills of two cesspits dug out in the cellars of the building illustrate aspects of daily life within the early 14th-century prison.An integrated approach of all find categories, together with the historical context available, illuminates aspects of the material culture of the users of the cesspits, their consumption patterns and the living conditions within the building.
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Escape of the Atmosphere of Rotating Planet
M.K.M. Ahmed and Z.M. Hayman*
Astronomy & Meteorology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt, 12613
Abstract:
The problems of escape of a planetary atmosphere is reviewed. Formulae are derive for the rates of loss of mass and angular momentum from a unit area and from the whole planetary surface. The resulting formulae are applied to find the residence times of H, O, N2, O2 and CO2 in Martian atmosphere. All constituents are so stable while hydrogen is never stable and cannot be retained to my extent.
Keywords: Escape of a planetary atmosphere, loss of mass-residence times
Affiliation: Astronomy&Meteorology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo Universiy, Giza, Egypt
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Astronomy & Meteorology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt, 12613
Abstract:
The problems of escape of a planetary atmosphere is reviewed. Formulae are derive for the rates of loss of mass and angular momentum from a unit area and from the whole planetary surface. The resulting formulae are applied to find the residence times of H, O, N2, O2 and CO2 in Martian atmosphere. All constituents are so stable while hydrogen is never stable and cannot be retained to my extent.
Keywords: Escape of a planetary atmosphere, loss of mass-residence times
Affiliation: Astronomy&Meteorology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo Universiy, Giza, Egypt
Download FULL PAPER
read more ...
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Evaluating Knowledge Management Performance
Clemente Minonne1 and Geoff Turner2
1Switzerland and University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia
2Universities of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus and University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia
As organisations become increasingly aware that knowledge is among their most valuable strategic assets, they will be forced to re-evaluate the way in which they engage with the source of that knowledge to underpin their sustainable development. This will create a fundamental change to established practice; a change that results in a paradigm shift from the traditional operational approach to a more strategic involvement in knowledge management. This change is promoted by the knowledge management maturity model (KM3). KM3 is founded on the idea that successful knowledge management comprises four forms of integration, namely cultural, organisational, procedural and methodical. Despite an emphasis on one of these forms by many organisations, it is understood that all forms of KM integration should be considered in parallel to implement knowledge management practices in an integrative manner. Key indicators that measure the performance of knowledge management integration are needed. They need to measure both effectiveness and efficiency. In many cases, organisations having, and actively executing, a knowledge management strategy tend to focus on the efficiency dimension because it can be evaluated more easily than the effectiveness dimension. Yet this path is fraught with danger because, as with many other aspects of business, the management of knowledge has to be effective before it may provide efficiency gains. Nevertheless, organisations require appropriate forms of measurement. Those that are unwilling, or unable, to develop effective measuring and reporting systems are likely to suffer from product or service quality decreases, lower productivity growth and a reduced ability to compete because they will be less successful in acquiring and using relevant knowledge resources. Key performance indicators that are developed to assess the progress of organisations in this compelling activity need to be aligned with one or another of the four forms of integration and may be either qualitative or quantitative in nature. The balanced scorecard concept is used to measure performance of the KM3 where the balance between the four forms of integration is the prime consideration. Each of these is represented by one segment of the knowledge management monitor (KM2) to facilitate a better understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships. It does so by providing structured information about an organisation's knowledge resources: how they are nurtured and how they contribute to organisational sustainability. At the same time, use of KM2 is related to organisational economy. Good economy means good resource management, which for many organisations translates to how they manage individual and accumulated organisational knowledge. This has become so important that they are looking for a more integrated way of managing the three interdependent and complementary pillars of knowledge management, which are organisational learning management, organisational knowledge management and intellectual capital management. Although these three concepts lack a unifying vision, they all relate to each other by informing one another and provide the pathway for a knowledge-based orientation of strategic management.
Keywords: strategic knowledge management, performance measurement, integrative approach
Download Full Paper
read more ...
1Switzerland and University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia
2Universities of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus and University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia
As organisations become increasingly aware that knowledge is among their most valuable strategic assets, they will be forced to re-evaluate the way in which they engage with the source of that knowledge to underpin their sustainable development. This will create a fundamental change to established practice; a change that results in a paradigm shift from the traditional operational approach to a more strategic involvement in knowledge management. This change is promoted by the knowledge management maturity model (KM3). KM3 is founded on the idea that successful knowledge management comprises four forms of integration, namely cultural, organisational, procedural and methodical. Despite an emphasis on one of these forms by many organisations, it is understood that all forms of KM integration should be considered in parallel to implement knowledge management practices in an integrative manner. Key indicators that measure the performance of knowledge management integration are needed. They need to measure both effectiveness and efficiency. In many cases, organisations having, and actively executing, a knowledge management strategy tend to focus on the efficiency dimension because it can be evaluated more easily than the effectiveness dimension. Yet this path is fraught with danger because, as with many other aspects of business, the management of knowledge has to be effective before it may provide efficiency gains. Nevertheless, organisations require appropriate forms of measurement. Those that are unwilling, or unable, to develop effective measuring and reporting systems are likely to suffer from product or service quality decreases, lower productivity growth and a reduced ability to compete because they will be less successful in acquiring and using relevant knowledge resources. Key performance indicators that are developed to assess the progress of organisations in this compelling activity need to be aligned with one or another of the four forms of integration and may be either qualitative or quantitative in nature. The balanced scorecard concept is used to measure performance of the KM3 where the balance between the four forms of integration is the prime consideration. Each of these is represented by one segment of the knowledge management monitor (KM2) to facilitate a better understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships. It does so by providing structured information about an organisation's knowledge resources: how they are nurtured and how they contribute to organisational sustainability. At the same time, use of KM2 is related to organisational economy. Good economy means good resource management, which for many organisations translates to how they manage individual and accumulated organisational knowledge. This has become so important that they are looking for a more integrated way of managing the three interdependent and complementary pillars of knowledge management, which are organisational learning management, organisational knowledge management and intellectual capital management. Although these three concepts lack a unifying vision, they all relate to each other by informing one another and provide the pathway for a knowledge-based orientation of strategic management.
Keywords: strategic knowledge management, performance measurement, integrative approach
Download Full Paper
read more ...
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
THE MARKETING MIX CONTRIBUTION IN IMPROVING THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ROMANIAN HISTORY STRATEGY
RUXANDRA IRINA POPESCU, RAZVAN-ANDREI CORBOS
Keywords: Cultural Institutions, museums, Marketing Mix, strategy, strategic option, goals
Abstract: The National Museum of Romanian History (NMRH) is one of the most important actors in the contemporary Romanian archeology field and leader of the preventive archeology thanks to its big surface and patrimony. Thus, in the context of improving its activity through strategy reshaping, the marketing mix can help develop assets in order to assure NMRH`s leading position.The present paper focuses on the way in which the product policy can mobilize NMRH`s resources in order to build an effective supply, analyses the options for overcoming financing problems (reduced public financing, raising competition for private funds, increasing operational costs, subsidy reduction) and identifies solutions for promotion policies and distribution aimed to effectively inform the target public, as well as other market segments about the cultural products and services NMRH offers.
Full Text: PDF
read more ...
Keywords: Cultural Institutions, museums, Marketing Mix, strategy, strategic option, goals
Abstract: The National Museum of Romanian History (NMRH) is one of the most important actors in the contemporary Romanian archeology field and leader of the preventive archeology thanks to its big surface and patrimony. Thus, in the context of improving its activity through strategy reshaping, the marketing mix can help develop assets in order to assure NMRH`s leading position.The present paper focuses on the way in which the product policy can mobilize NMRH`s resources in order to build an effective supply, analyses the options for overcoming financing problems (reduced public financing, raising competition for private funds, increasing operational costs, subsidy reduction) and identifies solutions for promotion policies and distribution aimed to effectively inform the target public, as well as other market segments about the cultural products and services NMRH offers.
Full Text: PDF
read more ...
A Social Work Model of Empathy
Karen E. Gerdes, Elizabeth A. Segal
Abstract
This article presents a social work model of empathy that reflects the latest interdisciplinary research findings on empathy. The model reflects the social work commitment to social justice. The three model components are: 1) the affective response to another’s emotions and actions; 2) the cognitive processing of one’s affective response and the other person’s perspective; and 3) the conscious decision-making to take empathic action.
Mirrored affective responses are involuntary, while cognitive processing and conscious decision-making are voluntary. The affective component requires healthy, neural pathways to function appropriately and accurately. The cognitive aspects of perspective-taking, self-awareness, and emotion regulation can be practiced and cultivated, particularly through the use of mindfulness techniques. Empathic action requires that we move beyond affective responses and cognitive processing toward utilizing social work values and knowledge to inform our actions. By introducing the proposed model of empathy, we hope it will serve as a catalyst for discussion and future research and development of the model.
Key Words: Empathy, Social Empathy, Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Full Text: PDF
read more ...
Abstract
This article presents a social work model of empathy that reflects the latest interdisciplinary research findings on empathy. The model reflects the social work commitment to social justice. The three model components are: 1) the affective response to another’s emotions and actions; 2) the cognitive processing of one’s affective response and the other person’s perspective; and 3) the conscious decision-making to take empathic action.
Mirrored affective responses are involuntary, while cognitive processing and conscious decision-making are voluntary. The affective component requires healthy, neural pathways to function appropriately and accurately. The cognitive aspects of perspective-taking, self-awareness, and emotion regulation can be practiced and cultivated, particularly through the use of mindfulness techniques. Empathic action requires that we move beyond affective responses and cognitive processing toward utilizing social work values and knowledge to inform our actions. By introducing the proposed model of empathy, we hope it will serve as a catalyst for discussion and future research and development of the model.
Key Words: Empathy, Social Empathy, Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Full Text: PDF
read more ...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
