Work, Change and Workers
Provides a fresh account of the changing nature of work and how workers are changing as result of the requirements of contemporary working life. It explores the implications for preparing individuals for work and maintaining their skills throughout working life. This is done by examining the relations between the changing requirements for working life and how individuals engage in work. An analysis that engages the psychological, sociological, philosophical and anthropological literatures as they relate to work as well as recent empirical research that examines and elaborates perspectives of work and work practice as social institutions and as a vocation that individuals exercise with intentionality and agency. So a key basis for considering changing work and changing workers is the relationships between the social institutions and cultural needs and practices that necessitates and constitutes paid work and how individuals engage and elect to participate and learn in that work. Implications for vocational education, professional development and on-going learning throughout working life are addressed.
Vocational Teacher Education in Central Asia : Developing Skills and Facilitating Success
This book is open access under a CC-BY license. This open access volume presents papers on vocational education, project-based learning and science didactic approaches, illustrating with sample cases, and with a special focus on Central Asian states. Thematically embedded in the area of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the book examines the following main topics: project-based learning (PBL), specific didactics with a linkage to food technologies and laboratory didactics, media and new technologies in TVET, evaluation of competencies including aspects of measurement, examination issues, and labour market and private sector issues in TVET, and research methods with a focus on empirical research and the role of scientific networks.
Universal Access in Ambient Intelligence Environments ; 9th ERCIM Workshop on User Interfaces for All, Königswinter, Germany, September 27-28, 2006, Revised Papers
This volume contains the proceedings of the last ERCIM “User Interfaces for All” Workshop. The work of the ERCIM WG UI4ALL led in 2001 to the establishment of the - ternational Conference on Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction 3 (UAHCI) , which takes place in the context of the HCI International Conference se- 4 ries . UAHCI has established an international forum for the dissemination and - change of scientific information on theoretical, methodological and empirical research that addresses all issues related to the attainment of universal access in the devel- ment of interactive software, attracting participants from a broad range of disciplines and fields of expertise.
Transforming Higher Education : A Comparative Study
Carries forward the findings of an international research project, first published in 2000, on the radical higher education reforms introduced since the 1970s. It is based upon documents, statistics and extensive interviews with politicians, institutional leaders and academics from a range of institutions and disciplines in three countries. It is one of only a handful of contemporary comparative studies that combine strong empirical research with theoretical analysis developed within a thematic rather than a country based framework.
The Management of Continuous Product Development : Empirical Research in the Online Game Industry
Discusses theoretically and empirically the trade-off relationship between the frequency of product adaptation activities and the constraints on development resources, and how companies can respond to these constraints. The objective of this book is to identify effective management practices in continuous product development. With the continuation of development activities, companies are required to constantly adapt their products to changes in the external environment. In continuous product development, the development process extends beyond product release, and interaction with the external environment is not limited to the planning stage but occurs multiple times throughout the process.
Teaching and learning mathematical modelling : Approaches and developments from German speaking countries
Provides an overview of the German discussion on modelling and applications in schools. It considers the development from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, and discusses the term “mathematical model” as well as different representations of the modelling process as modelling cycles. Different trends in the historical and current debate on applications and modelling can be differentiated as perspectives of modelling. Modelling is now one of the six general mathematical competencies defined in the educational standards for mathematics introduced in Germany in 2003, and there have been several initiatives to implement modelling in schools, as well as a whole range of empirical research projects focusing on teachers or students in modelling processes. As a special kind for implementing modelling into school, modelling weeks and days carried out by various German universities have been established.
Sustainability Accounting and Reporting
This is the best contributions on environmental management accounting (EMA) from around the world. It has been developed by the Environmental Management Accounting Network (EMAN). Contributions are drawn primarily from papers presented at EMAN-EU and EMAN-Asia Pacific conferences in the last two years. Brought together in this volume are international examples of leading thinking and practice in this rapidly developing area. The book discusses new developments in environmental accounting and investigates topics in and links between corporate environmental and sustainability issues as well as between strategy, measurement and information management, and between accounting and reporting.
Subsidiarity and Economic Reform in Europe
Subsidiarity in the European Union, as the guiding principle of decision-making "close to the people", is often motivated and discussed from a predominantly political perspective. In this book, twenty-five renowned economic researchers and policy experts draw the demarcation between national and European policies from an economic viewpoint. Insights from economic theory and empirical research are used both to analyse the assignment of policies between the EU and its Member States and to identify appropriate levels of decision-making. Four key areas of the renewed Lisbon strategy are highlighted for their policy relevance: education and innovation, the internal market, corporate taxation, and regional and transport policy.
Strategic Management
The fastest growing Strategy title in the market because it uses a unified, singular voice to help students synthesize and integrate theory, empirical research, and practical applications with current, real-world examples. It prepares students with the foundation they need to understand how companies gain and sustain competitive advantage, while developing students’ skills to become successful future leaders capable of making well-reasoned strategic decisions.
Selected Essays in Empirical Asset Pricing : Information Incorporation at the Single-Firm, Industry and Cross-Industry Level
Financial researchers extensively discuss the efficiency of capital markets and the existence of possible misreactions in the information incorporation process. Christian Funke aims at developing a better understanding of a central asset pricing issue: the stock price discovery process in capital markets. He provides new evidence on the information incorporation process at the single-firm, industry, and cross-industry level. In three essays that display original empirical research using U.S. capital market data, he investigates the importance of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for stock prices and examines economic links between customers and supplier firms. Return predictability at the single-firm, industry, and cross-industry level are documented which support the view of behavioral finance researchers that capital markets are not perfectly efficient.
Scientism and Education : Empirical Research as Neo-Liberal Ideology
This volume offers a critical examination of the growing pressure to apply scientific principles as a means to improve education. The authors trace the ideology of scientism to the early faith Auguste Comte placed in science and the scientific method as a panacea to all human problem solving.
Regulatory Risk and the Cost of Capital : Determinants and Implications for Rate Regulation
This book develops a comprehensive concept of regulatory risk integrating existing theoretical and empirical research. The focus is on explaining how the design of the regulatory system influences the risk of a rate-regulated firm, as well as on elaborating appropriate methods for the determination of the regulatory rate base and the allowed rate of return. Regarding the regulatory rate base, the question of whether market value of capital or book value of assets should be employed and the choice of the depreciation scheme are at the center of the discussion. Specific methodical issues concerning cost of capital assessment for rate-regulated firms are analyzed, i.e. the circularity of rate regulation, the sharing of risks between capital owners and rate payers, the length of the regulatory review period, the regulation of the capital structure as well as the conversion of a post-tax to pre-tax weighted average cost of capital.
Regional and Local Development in Times of Polarisation : Re-thinking Spatial Policies in Europe
This volume contributes to the debates about polarisation and regional development by focussing on questions of spatial justice, power distribution and policy transfer. Theoretical and empirically grounded contributions show that European policies are indeed reproducing socio-spatial inequalities instead of challenging them. The book shows further the existing potentials and limits of individuals, economic, political and civil society actors to respond to polarisation on the regional and local level. In this book conceptual thoughts on polarisation, regional policy and regional development are combined with empirical research and resulting implications for policymaking.
Outdoor Learning and Play : Pedagogical Practices and Children's Cultural Formation
Examines children’s participation in dialectical reciprocity with place-based institutional practices by presenting empirical research from Australia, Brazil, China, Poland, Norway and Wales. Underpinned by cultural-historical theory, the analysis reveals how outdoors and nature form unique conditions for children's play, formal and informal learning and cultural formation. The analysis also surfaces how inequalities exist in societies and communities, which often limit and constrain families' and children's access to and participation in outdoor spaces and nature. The findings highlight how institutional practices are shaped by pedagogical content, teachers' training, institutional regulations and societal perceptions of nature, children and suitable, sustainable education for young children. Due to crises, such as climate change and the recent pandemic, specific focus on the outdoors and nature in cultural formation is timely for the cultural-historical theoretical tradition. In doing so, the book provides empirical and theoretical support for policy makers, researchers, educators and families to enhance, increase and sustain outdoor and nature education.
Non-Native Language Teachers : Perceptions, Challenges and Contributions to the Profession
Now that non-natives are increasingly found teaching languages, and particularly English, both in ESL and EFL contexts, the identification of their specific contributions and their main strengths has become more relevant than ever.As a result, there has recently been a surge of interest in the role of non-native teachers but little empirical research has been published so far. This volume is particularly rich in providing different approaches to the study of non-native teachers: NNS teachers as seen by students, teachers, graduate supervisors, and by themselves. It also contributes little explored perspectives, like classroom discourse analysis, or a social-psychological framework to discuss conceptions of NNS teachers.
Mobile Professional Voluntarism and International Development : Killing Me Softly?
This book explores the impact that professional volunteers have on the low resource countries they choose to spend time in. Whilst individual volunteering may be of immediate benefit to individual patients, this intervention may have detrimental effects on local health systems; distorting labour markets, accentuating dependencies and creating opportunities for corruption. Improved volunteer deployment may avoid these risks and present opportunities for sustainable systems change. The empirical research presented in this book stems from a specific volunteering intervention funded by the Tropical Health Education Trust and focused on improving maternal and newborn health in Uganda.
Missions of universities : Past, present, future
provides an analysis of university missions over time and space. It starts out by presenting a governance framework focusing on the demands on universities set by regulators, market actors and scrutinizers. It examines organizational structures, population development, the fundamental tasks of universities, and internal governance structures. Next, offers a discussion of the idea and role of universities in society, exploring concepts such as autonomy and universality, and the university as a transformative institute. The next four chapters deal with the development of universities from medieval times, through the Renaissance, towards the research universities in the nineteenth century in Europe and the United States.
Interdisciplinary Mathematics Education : The State of the Art and Beyond
This book is the first major publication on the topic of “Interdisciplinary Mathematics Education” It offers extensive theoretical insights, empirical research, and practitioner accounts of interdisciplinary mathematics work in STEM and beyond (e.g. in music and the arts).
Identities at Work
This edited volume on Identities at Work brings together international theory and empirical research that deals with continuity and change of identity formation processes at work under conditions of modern working processes and labour market flexibility. Modern work processes in manufacturing and service organisations increasingly rely upon responsible and competent employees who are willing and able to engage in the tasks that their job requires and in continuous learning. That employees are able to engage in taking up new forms of responsibility and master complex work situations is, on the one hand, dependent upon employees’ skills and how well they are trained. On the other hand, it requires that employees identify with what they do and commit to their work and the performance of tasks.
Heinz Werner and Developmental Science
This book will be of interest to developmental psychologists, sociologists and historians of science, philosophers, practitioners working in special education and neuropsychology, and for general readers interested in the history of ideas and life courses of scientists.



















