Black Reconstruction as Decolonial Sociology

ABSTRACTPrivate higher education (PHE) in Taiwan, similar to other East Asian systems, is a distinct sector that has played several significant roles. It experienced growth and prosperity during the massification of the entire higher education system. However, a multitude of emerging circumstances has ushered in dramatic changes and crises, impacting not only PHE but also the entire sector as a whole. These ongoing developments have the potential to fundamentally reshape the current components and structures of Taiwanese higher education. Therefore, we have adopted conjunctural analysis as a methodological approach to examine these forces and their effects on the evolving role of the private sector in the context of higher education system reconfigurations in Taiwan. Our findings reveal that PHE has faced a series of crises, encompassing demographic shifts, financial challenges, and legal complexities. The pursuit of greater “publicness” and the implementation of intervention measures through policy enactment and legal regulations have shifted the entire system toward a more “publicized” configuration. This new direction marks the onset of a new era in Taiwanese higher education.

The article explains the current methodological approaches to the analysis of the export conjuncture (on the example of Russian ma nufacturing enterprises), including a new methodology for its integral assessment. This assessment is made by modeling the global demand for domestic products and their price competitiveness in the international market.The importance of the analysis of the current phase of Russia's economic development is emphasized, when a structural transformation of industrial and export policy is taking place and a new contour of foreign economic activity is being formed. This necessitates the improvement of methods for export climate assessment. The author underlines the relevance of using not only qualitative and quantitative indicators, but also their hybrid modifications in the economic and statistical analysis of export trends. The article presents a new hybrid measure – the Export Climate Index (ECI), which aggregates the indicators of demand for domestic manufactured goods and their price competitiveness in the international market. The methodology for its calculation is based on theoretical developments, adapted to the specifics of the Russian economy, and the best world practices for measuring and analyzing export trends.The quantified results of business and consumer surveys in the countries that are Russia's main trading partners, as well as the real effective exchange rate of the ruble according to the Bank of Russia, are used for empirical calculations.The calculations results revealed a significant leading correlation between the ECI dynamics and the dynamics of the referent – the indicator of export of goods in value terms, confirming the possibility of using the new index not only for an integral assessment of the export climate in Russia, but also as a short-term predictor that effectively supplements statistical measures.

Investigating Interdisciplinary Practice: Methodological Challenges (Introduction)

Networked learning remains a new field and many methodological, theoretical and other perspectives are used to learn more about it. Moreover, there is encouragement for the field's interdisciplinary researchers to take alternative methodological approaches. This paper provides valuable insights into a methodological approach which is little used in networked learning research. It reports an exploratory study to establish the value of a discursive psychology lens to understand uses of technology by international learners, and specifically how the language students’ use conveys their practices. The study was prompted when I questioned how multiculturalism might affect an institution’s virtual presence and whether students from alternative cultures had varying online learning needs. Discursive psychology was selected as the methodological approach as it has the potential to show how the social world is enacted in a more insightful and sophisticated way than happens when qualitative data are accepted at face value. The study involved secondary analysis of an ESRC-funded dataset and this paper illustrates analysis of talk by four undergraduate learners from Africa and Asia. The paper shows how participants constructed their identities and gave meaning to their talk. It also exemplifies the dynamics of talk and the work undertaken via the expression of thoughts, and how these supplement the descriptive meaning of words. Aspects of what is emotional about participants' talk are highlighted, including their sense of struggle. A gap is found between students’ uses of technology for learning purposes and what would be required in a networked learning environment. There is also evidence of threshold moments within learners' positioning. It is clear that educational experiences could be enhanced by educators recognising that students' needs vary, evolving over time. An argument to place the learner at the centre and to design from learners' perspectives to be better able to lead them forward from where they are regarding use of technologies to where learning can take place is made. Given this paper's focus on talk from international students it is particularly relevant that those in global online learning contexts appreciate the extent of meaning suggested by this paper's findings. A lack of such awareness carries with it a risk of not sufficiently appreciating what learners are thinking and this gap will leave educators ill-prepared to provide optimal learner-centric support structures.

The agricultural sector is one of the most sensitive to climate change, with potentially significant implications for food security and welfare. Alternative methodological approaches—such as process models, statistical models and integrated assessment models—have been used to estimate climate impacts on agriculture, not always with consistent results. This focus issue intends to shed light on the sign and order of magnitude of agricultural impacts under 2 °C and higher warming levels. This letter synthesizes the set of articles in the focus issue that have been tasked with providing a systematic assessment of how results from these different methodological approaches compare and why they are different. From this synthesis, we offer thoughts on research priorities going forward to fill key voids in the literature on this important topic.

This paper contributes to the literature with evidence on the effectiveness of a particular active labour market policy programme, whose traditional design allows international comparisons within the family of programmes facilitating workplace insertions of the unemployed youth. Available evidence on the effectiveness of comparable programmes throughout the world is not consensual. We argue and show that it is crucial to inspect the long-term effects of participation in the funded trainee schemes. We demonstrate this by exploring the treatment effects in the case of the most popular active labour market policy programme targeting the unemployed youth in Slovakia. The empirical analysis is based on a detailed administrative dataset applying three alternative methodological approaches: propensity score matching, inverse probability weighting, and two-stage least squares estimations using an instrumental variable. The results of the empirical analysis show that participation in the programme increases the employment chances of participants during the post-participation period. Yielded estimations are consistent across all three applied methodological approaches. Estimated positive, and statistically significant, employment effects increase 30 months following participation. The positive employment effect is in contrast to a negative income effect on employed participants. The potential association between the increase in the measured effects and the hit of the economic crisis is further explored.

In recent years, debates on impact evaluation of development cooperation have flourished. There has been a marked increase in statistical impact evaluation exercises, most notably randomized experiments, and at the same time, many evaluations with a focus on impact have relied on alternative methodological approaches. The diversity in methodological approaches can be explained by differences in epistemology, characteristics of the evaluand and of the evaluation context. Broadly speaking there are two approaches: impact evaluations that rely on statistical design and/or multivariate analysis with statistical controls as a basis for attribution; and impact evaluations relying on systematic argumentation guided by some type of causal theory of change. Contribution analysis is an example of a heuristic framework that fits in the latter category and this article relates this approach to an evaluation of prizes awarded by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). It discusses the intervention logic underlying UNESCO prizes and the corresponding framework for empirical assessment that in part reflects the institutional context and constraints. Finally, we discuss how the evaluation can provide the basis for a full-fledged impact evaluation of a prize using contribution analysis.

Assessing the quality of sustainability reporting: an alternative methodological approach

Over the past 60 years, thousands of diffusion studies have been conducted in numerous disciplines of study including sociology, education, communication, marketing, and pubic health. With few exceptions, these studies have been driven by a methodological approach that has become institutionalized in diffusion research. This approach is characterized by the collection of quantitative data about one innovation gathered from adopters at a single point in time after widespread diffusion has occurred. This dominant approach is examined here in terms of both its strengths and weaknesses and with regard to its contribution to the collective base of understanding the diffusion of innovations. Alternative methodological approaches are proposed and reviewed with consideration for the means by which they may expand the knowledge base.

조직연구에서 개인 직무, 개인-조직, 개인-환경 사이의 부합수준은 성과에 대한 주요한 영향요인으로 다루어져 왔다. 개인-조직이 추구하는 가치부합수준은 조직의 구성원으로 하여금 동기유발의 주요한 요인으로 조명되고 있다. 그러나 이런 부합수준 성과관련 연구에서 부합수준별 성과, 혹은 성과의 극대화률 설명하는 만족적 부합수준을 경정하기 위해 적용가능한 방법론의 개발관련 연구는 미미한 수준이다. 기존 연구에서 이런 부합수준-성과 간의 관계를 연구하는데 활용되는 지표들은 두 프로파일의 요인별 차이값, 차이제곱값, 차이 절대값, 측정 도구 사이의 상관관계를 나타내는 Q 값, 두 프로파일 사이의 순위상관을 나타내는 <TEX>$Q_r$</TEX>이다 그러나 이런 지표들은 두 프로파일의 부합수준 성과간의 관계를 연구하는데 많은 한계를 보여주고 있다. 특히, Edwards의 단일 설명변수에 대한 다항회귀분석과 반응표면분석을 활용한 방법론은 두 프로파일의 개별 설명변수 차이 값의 종속변수에 대한 영향만을 개별적으로 보여주고 설명변수를 모두 고려할 경우 차이 프로파일을 구성하는 개별요소별 성과를 극대화하는 값이나 수준이 어떠해야 하는지에 대해서는 해답을 주지 못하고 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 이러한 문제의 해결을 위해 다변량 이차다항회귀 모형을 적용하여 다중반응표면분석을 통해 개인-조직, 부합수준-성과 간의 관계를 검증하였다. The studies of congruence in organizational research have explored the concepts such as person-job fit person-organization fit, or person-environment fit. The relevant studies dealt with the fit level as an important influencing factor on the performance. In particular, researchers have agreed that employees can be motivated by the high level fit of person-organization. However, few research developing an alternative methodological approach has been done. For the purpose mentioned above the statistics like D, |D| or <TEX>$D^2$</TEX> and the Q values such as Q(the correlation between two sets of interval measures) or <TEX>$Q_r$</TEX>(the correlation between two rankings) have been conventionally adopted in spite of numerous methodological problems. In general, these traditional indices such as difference scores, or Q values, are nondirectional and add an extra weight to differences of lager magnitude. Therefore, Edwards (1993) introduced the polynomial regression and the response surface analysis to overcome flaws with conventional approaches. However, the method-ological approaches did not reflect the profile characteristics of person-organizational value fit and wouldn't be a proper solution for the fit level of person-organization value maximizing performance. Hence, this paper investigates alternative methodological approaches, the multivariate polynomial regression and the multiple response surface analysis, to avoid the problems issued from conventional ways.

This paper discusses the significance of various theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of organizational culture with respect to the marketing activities of a company. Emphasis is placed on the marketing staff's function as a link between the cultures within and outside of the organization. The currently popular view of organizational culture as a new management tool is criticized; it is shown that the assumptions which underly this research practice do not meet scientific standards. The reason for this is that culture is assumed to be different for every organization; this would imply that cross-organizational and even cross-situational comparisons could not be made and results could never be generalized. Alternative methodological approaches are discussed with respect to their practicability in today's markets.

Social network analysis (SNA) in archaeology has become important for a range of theoretical and methodological approaches that can more generally be characterized as relational. They are relational in that it is the ties between actors (or nodes) that define social connections. Archaeologists are currently employing a diversity of theoretical approaches to networks, and the perspective taken in this review is that SNA can provide insights into a number of different social processes using different theories. Following a brief historical overview, I discuss two aspects of SNA: the structural position of the actor or node, and characterizations of whole networks. I then summarize several broad classes of archaeological networks: historical, spatial, and material. I conclude with a call for more bridging approaches to span alternative theoretical and methodological approaches in the archaeology of networks.

BackgroundA recent and provocative meta-analysis, based on few outcome events, suggested that rosiglitazone increased cardiovascular mortality and myocardial infarction. However, results of meta-analyses of trials with sparse events, often performed when examining uncommon adverse effects due to common therapies, can vary substantially depending on methodologic decisions. The objective of this study was to assess the robustness of the rosiglitazone results by using alternative reasonable methodologic approaches and by analyzing additional related outcomes.FindingsIn duplicate and independently, we abstracted all myocardial and cerebrovascular ischemic events from all randomized controlled trials listed on the manufacturer's web site meeting inclusion criteria of the original meta-analysis (at least 24 weeks of rosiglitazone exposure in the intervention group and any control group without rosiglitazone). We performed meta-analyses of these data under different methodologic conditions. An unconfounded comparison that includes only trials (or arms of trials) in which medications apart from rosiglitazone are identical suggests higher risks than previously reported, making even the risk of cardiovascular death statistically significant. Alternatively, meta-analysis that includes all trials comparing a treatment arm receiving rosiglitazone to any control arm without rosiglitazone (as in the original meta-analysis) but also including trials with no events in both the rosiglitazone and control arms (not incorporated in the original meta-analysis), shows adverse but non-statistically significant effects of rosiglitazone on myocardial infarction and cardiovascular mortality. Rosiglitazone appears to have inconsistent effects on a wider range of cardiovascular outcomes. It increases the risk of a broad range of myocardial ischemic events (not just myocardial infarction). However, its effect on cerebrovascular ischemic events suggests benefit, although far from statistically significant.ConclusionWe have shown that alternative reasonable methodological approaches to the rosiglitazone meta-analysis can yield increased or decreased risks that are either statistically significant or not significant at the p = 0.05 level for both myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death. Completion of ongoing trials may help to generate more accurate estimates of rosiglitazone's effect on cardiovascular outcomes. However, given that almost all point estimates suggest harm rather than benefit and the availability of alternative agents, the use of rosiglitazone may greatly decline prior to more definitive safety data being generated.

The context for planning at the turn of the 19th century, in a newly industrialized world, was based on the need to find solutions to overcrowding and dire urban conditions. Planning decisions made in the post-World War II period were primarily motivated by the desire to reconstruct war torn cities. The forces of influence for planning and development in modern advanced capitalist societies are arguably set within the context of sustainable development. Many developed countries have witnessed a dramatic change in their territorial structures. Urban centres are extending into rural areas and surrounding hinterland, where large tracts of land are being developed in a ‘leapfrog’ low-density pattern. Urban sprawl is the outcome of both statistical realities such as population growthandthepsychologicalcatalystthat‘qualityoflife’issuperiorinthesuburbs.Thischangehasbroughtwith it challenges commonly associated with unpredicted growth: traffic congestion, restricted access to education and a perceived lack of affordable housing. Smart growth, as an alternative philosophical and methodological approach towards urban planning may provide the antidote for the negative effects of urban sprawl. This paper examines the underlying theory of decentrist and centrist development and the emergence of the smart growth movement as the antonym of urban sprawl.

In this special issue, we explore the limits of existing theories for understanding migration governance from a Southern perspective and what the potential for rethinking border controls and their study, such as alternative epistemological and methodological approaches, might engender. We invited contributions to imagine what a ‘Southern perspective’ on the field of border criminologies would look like. In other words, what does it entail to study and theorise border control from the South? We organised a panel at the European Society of Criminology in September 2021 and then invited further authors. We sought to engage multiple disciplinary traditions and diverse case studies that speak to the various disciplinary perspectives and geopolitical dimensions of bordering. Many of the authors in this special issue are early career researchers who, through engaging with postcolonial theory and decolonial approaches, are fostering novel perspectives within border criminologies. Collectively, the articles bring together the different geopolitical, sociocultural and economic ways in which borders in the Global South are imagined, constructed, negotiated and reconstructed. The articles offer a wide range of epistemological and methodological insights for border criminologies to engage with, shifting our understanding from Northern perspectives.