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This edited book brings together leading scholars from a range of disciplinary fields such as Sociology, Management and Organization Studies, and Geography to explore the nature and effects of contemporary capitalism through engaging with Boltanski and Chiapello's seminal text, The New Spirit of Capitalism. It provides a comprehensive overview and interrogation of the text and develops new insights into contemporary neo-liberal or 'financialized'capitalism.
Developing learners' competence is an important part of the mission of higher education. The kind of competences that higher education should develop depend on what we see as the purposes of higher education. The term "converging competences" points to the need not only to train individuals for specific tasks, but to educate the whole person. Education is about acquiring skills, but also about acquiring values and attitudes. As education policies move from an emphasis on process to a stronger emphasis on the results of the education processes, learning outcomes have come to be seen as an essential feature of policies both in Europe and North America. This book explores the roles and purposes...
Over the last decade the structure of higher education in most countries has undergone significant change brought about by social demands for expanded access, technological developments, and market forces. In this period of change the traditional concerns with access and cost have been supplemented by a new concern with academic quality. As a consequence, new public policies on academic quality and new forms of academic quality assurance have rapidly emerged and swiftly migrated across continents and around the globe. The growing public debate about academic quality assurance within and across countries however has not always been well informed by analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of ...
Philanthropy in Practice shows how philanthropic organizations can effectively address this predicament. Drawing on the public philosophy of Pragmatism, it argues that, to be effective, they need to go for the solution of social problems of middle range.
Philanthropic foundations play an increasingly important role in attempts to enhance the performance of school systems. Based on case studies from Germany, Switzerland and the US, this book develops an innovative model of effective education philanthropy for successfully tackling problems in the complex field of education.
Network research in the social sciences has successfully followed a structuralist approach where social phenomena are studied with regard to the pattern of relations between actors. These patterns of relations - social networks - are seen as the decisive level of social structures. Other features like formal roles, cultural norms, and values, are treated as secondary. As such, the field of social network research is currently divided between technically sophisticated analyses and complex, elusive theorizing. In Social Networks of Meaning and Communication, Jan Fuhse offers a coherent theory of social structures as networks of relations interwoven with meaning. Drawing upon and extending the ...
Not by bread alone gathers essays on higher education, including some written especially for this book. They cover three key areas: the missions of higher education, public responsibility and qualifications. Together, these essays spell out a view of higher education as a key factor in developing modern societies built on the fundamental Council of Europe values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. They also underline the key role of higher education in developing the ability of our societies to conduct intercultural dialogue. To fulfil its role, higher education needs to prepare for citizenship as well as for employment, for personal development as well as for the development of a broad knowledge base. Our vision of higher education and its multiple purposes must be reflected in the way we view qualifications. We also need to take a close look at how the public responsibility for higher education and research can best be exercised in a society with many actors, all of which have their own legitimate agendas. In this situation, public authorities have an overall responsibility for coherent education policies.
This engaging and timely book demonstrates how a deeper understanding of theories about organizations are necessary for the development of a relational sociology and provides an in-depth explanation of globalization and social change. It also examines how social bonds are constructed through combinations of different forms of communication and investigates the bonds of intimate relationships and partially organized relationships such as street gangs, brotherhoods, and social movements.
This definitive Handbook addresses the current lack of research into European policymaking and development using an interpretive perspective. Questioning areas that mainstream approaches tend to neglect, contributors target the ways in which ideas, arguments and discourses shape policies in the institutional context of the EU.