Case Study Material Research Articles

ИЗМЕНЕНИЕ ПОДХОДОВ К ПОДДЕРЖКЕ ПОТРЕБИТЕЛЬСКОЙ КООПЕРАЦИИ: ОТ ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННОЙ ФОРМЫ К ПРОЦЕССУ КООПЕРАЦИИ

The development of traditional agricultural consumer cooperatives, created within the framework of Federal Law-193, in Russia is extremely slow. This is facilitated by a number of economic, institutional and psychological constraints. Accordingly, despite the rapid growth of production in peasant farms, and the still significant share of households in the gross agricultural output, for the most part they are not members of agricultural consumer cooperatives. However, cooperative interaction is especially important for small businesses. At the same time, in practice, there are numerous forms of cooperation between small agricultural producers that do not fit into the framework of traditional cooperatives. The identification and systematization of these emerging “bottom”forms, recommendations for their support is, therefore, an urgent task. This paper systematizes casestudy materials by types of informal cooperation outside the framework of consumer cooperatives, obtained during field research in 2019. Based on the analysis of measures of state support within the framework of federal and regional programs for the development of agriculture, individual measures have been identified that contribute to overcoming the small-scale production of small businesses. At the same time, the analysis showed the absence of measures to support the already existing non-traditional forms of cooperative interaction. Recommendations for supporting these forms are formulated.

Carceral Spaces and Social Reproduction: Exploring Export Processing Zones in Sri Lanka and Prisons in Argentina

AbstractThe article reflects on the ways in which social reproduction intersects with (im)mobility in export-processing zones in Sri Lanka and the outskirts of prisons in Argentina. Framing factories and prisons as “carceral spaces” and drawing upon diverse case study materials, it focuses on (i) the daily circulations and waiting that take place around these closely regulated sites and (ii) the relations of care that emerge in these sites. The article analyzes how gendered care work can be an active form of agency and resistance to structural confinement and violence, which is nevertheless embedded in broader forms of depletion.

Compiling Diplomacy: Record-Keeping and Archival Practices in Chosŏn Korea

Abstract The Chosŏn court kept meticulous records of its interactions with their Ming, and later, their Qing neighbors. These materials, especially those that predate the nineteenth century, survive not in the form of original materials but rather as entries in court-sponsored compilations. For instance, the monumental Tongmun hwigo, published in 1788, categorizes diplomatic activity according to areas of policy concern. Its organizational scheme, handy for a Chosŏn official searching for relevant precedents, has also provided ready material for historical case studies. What has been less appreciated, however, are how such records came into being in the first place. By interrogating the status of these compilations as “archives,” this article follows how diplomatic documents were produced, used, and compiled as both products and instruments of diplomatic practice. In reading these materials as instruments of knowledge, rather than mere sources of historical documentation, this essay also makes the case for going beyond diplomatic history as interstate relations and towards a cultural and epistemic history of Korean diplomatic practice.

Application of case study material in undergraduate learning

When we review a case study it can be very tempting to judge the actions of the people involved with the benefit of hindsight. Because we know the outcome, it seems obvious what decisions led there. This hindsight inhibits our ability to learn from the event because we fall into the trap of justifying why we would not make the same decision. To counter this, the IChemE Safety Centre started to develop some case studies that try to minimise hindsight bias. These case studies were developed with a non-technical workforce audience in mind, and have been successfully employed in a variety of industrial and commercial settings containing wide-ranging audiences. Furthermore, this has enabled them to be utilised at universities to impart process safety knowledge at an early stage in undergraduate studies and bring a realistic industrial setting into an academic environment. University College London is one such university, where they have adapted the case studies to gain other additional insights and support learning outcomes of introductory safety courses given to second year undergraduates who are still developing their core chemical engineering knowledge and have had limited exposure to industrial settings. This paper will explore the basis for the case study development and they key requirements to reduce hindsight bias. It will then explain different options for how they can be used in an educational setting to give students the experience of a process safety incident as well as an understanding of the varying demands on a worker in an operational facility. Reflections upon how the case studies have already been used in academia and some suggestions on further ways in which the case studies can be used in an academic setting are made. Finally, some recommendations for additional support material that could be developed by the IChemE Safety Center to further encourage the use of the case studies in academia are made.

What’s Inside the Box? Mapping Agency and Conflict within Victims’ Organizations

Abstract∞ This article provides a better understanding of victims’ individual-level agency and their differences in terms of transitional justice preferences and capabilities by inquiring into intra-organizational conflict. While it is primarily conceptual, it combines secondary literature with case study material from Colombia and Panama, converging on Latin America as a geographical area and the crime of forced disappearance. Tracing the evolution of the 2004/2005 fragmentation of the Colombian Association of Relatives of Detained Disappeared Persons, it argues that victims’ collective action and perceived homogeneity is a performance that builds on much internal negotiation between members. When deliberations have clear winners, they end in adjustments of the mission statement of the group, purges and voluntary member withdrawal, but fragmentations result from situations where the leaders of opposing coalitions are evenly matched and their proposals equally engaging to peers.

Assembling social innovations in emergent professional communities. The case of learning region policies in Germany

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we use the notion social innovation to shed light on the complex interrelations between the emergence and consolidation of new policy approaches and their geographical mobility. Empirically, the paper deals with learning region policies in Germany, which epitomize a shift of the main approach from ‘catching up’ to ‘reflexive experimentation’ during the 1980s/1990s in Germany. We highlight the nature of social innovations in spatial planning as complex assemblages of material, organizational and conceptual elements. These elements are not necessarily new themselves. Rather, the novelty lies in the unprecedented ways, in which these elements are re-combined. From an innovation perspective, the unfolding of the learning region policy model co-evolves with the growth and proliferation of a related professional community of practice. Longitudinal data covering the whole innovation process is analysed in combination with case study material from two recent instantiations of the respective policies: the REGIONALE 2016 Westmünsterland and the ‘Competition Impulse Regions’ in Saxony.

Can tools contribute to integration in MSP? A comparative review of selected tools and approaches

The role of tools and approaches is currently much debated in maritime spatial planning (MSP). Past evaluation has mainly concentrated on decision support tools and the tangible outputs these can provide for MSP, but little attention has so far been been given to the soft or indirect benefits tool use can have in MSP. This paper assesses the potential benefits of tool use in the context of four common integration challenges in MSP. Drawing on case study material from the Baltic Sea region, the paper reviews the potential contribution of five selected tools and approaches to multi-level and transboundary, policy and sector, stakeholder and knowledge integration. Specific end points are defined for each integration challenge, including general desired outcomes of integrated MSP processes as a template for assessment. Our review shows that the selected tools play different roles in moving towards the various end points of MSP integration. There is an important difference between the potential of each tool, or its inherent capacity, and how it is applied, e.g. in a participative or non-participative setting. Another lesson is that some integration benefits can be achieved by the tools alone, while others – often secondary benefits - depend on how the outcomes of tool use are taken up by the subsequent MSP process. Although the nature of a tool does restrict its potential contribution to MSP integration challenges, the secondary “soft” benefits that can be achieved through certain styles of application and good links to the MSP process can add important integration benefits up and beyond the tool itself. The results presented here may also be relevant to other types of spatial planning and conservation management.

Using eye-tracking to for analyzing case study materials

Case studies are an important part of management education, but especially when working with diverse classes, differences in understanding the case materials or in cognitive processing are often unclear. Existing studies use interviews, questionnaires or tests, but cannot gain deeper insights into information processing. Information-processing data would be valuable in designing case materials, e.g., to be able to adjust the cognitive load to different groups of students by assessing difficulty or reading depth. Eye tracking can provide information about where participants focused for how long, what level of cognitive processing took place, and in which areas of the case materials provided. The objective of this paper is to show how eye tracking can be used to gain additional insights into how participants work with the cases. This is illustrated with the help of a study with Indian and German management students and a small case on Expected Utility Theory. Different variables for analyzing case materials are introduced, e.g., fixation duration, dwell time, or reading depth. It is argued that eye tracking can be used more often to analyze case studies to ensure that the cognitive processing matches the intended level and inform instructors about what does and does not attract attention.

Black economic empowerment policy and state–business relations in South Africa: the case of mining

ABSTRACTThe article analyses contestation of black economic empowerment ownership transfer policies in South Africa’s mining industry. Using case study material from platinum, the article examines the transition between the first Mining Charter of 2004 and the third Mining Charter of 2018. It argues that the inherent fragilities of this financialised redistribution mechanism have generated poor redistributive outcomes and achieved limited progress in the formation of a black capitalist class aligning political and economic power. This has contributed to increased factional and ideological contestation over the pace and method of economic transformation, and a deterioration in relations between the state and big business in mining.

Deactivation of field cultivation in communal areas of South Africa: Patterns, drivers and socio-economic and ecological consequences

Smallholder production is a significant contributor to rural livelihoods and rural economies in much of the developing world. Yet, there is evidence of increasing disengagement in some regions, including southern Africa. However, there has been little consideration of the rates and the livelihood, ecological and policy implications of such. In this paper we examine previous studies on rates of deactivation of crop fields by smallholders in the communal areas of South Africa, supported by repeat photo images and case study material. Together these various methods show that it is a widespread phenomenon occurring at variable rates. Over short periods deactivation of crop fields can be balanced through some reactivation or intensification of homegardens. But over longer periods there is a net decline in the area of fields cultivated in many areas, with corresponding increases in the area of fallow land which, through time, may undergo changes towards more natural vegetation. We review the drivers of this deactivation of field cropping, and then contemplate the possible socio-economic and ecological implications at local and national scales. We show that there are numerous and profound implications that require greater understanding and policy responses.

Political Settlements and the Delivery of Maternal Health Services in Rural Uganda

Technical questions, such as systems development and management; governance, the role of service users in financing and decision-making and resource availability, have long dominated research on healthcare provision in developing countries. The importance of the broader political context, specifically the way power is organised and exercised and the extent to which it meets the acceptance of a country’s ruling elites, or, more specifically, the prevailing political settlement, is usually disregarded (DFID, 2010:22). This ESID-commissioned research explored whether, and the extent to which, ‘the balance or distribution of power between contending social groups and classes, on which [the Ugandan] state is based’ (di John and Putzel, 2009:4) matters with regard to government capacity for delivering maternal health services. Findings indicate that within Uganda’s weak-dominant political settlement, sub-national level settlements exert a profound effect on the capacity and commitment of local government to deliver services. Since the mid-2000s, the health sector in Uganda has been governed for political ends, rather than geared towards higher levels of performance. This has undermined any system-wide efforts to improve service delivery. Case study material from two otherwise very similar districts, Ssembabule and Lyantonde, which record very different levels of progress in reducing maternal mortality, illuminates this argument. At the district level, good performance is driven by developmental coalitions of local politicians, bureaucrats, health sector professionals and civil society organisations with the capacity and commitment to devise and enforce innovative approaches to governing the sector.

A study to investigate the impact of a blended learning teaching approach to teach pharmacy law.

To describe the implementation and assess the effect of a blended learning approach to teach pharmacy law. Twenty didactic pharmacy law lectures were redeveloped to 9 h of flipped classroom sessions. Presession online videos delivered factual content created in-house. In-class activities explored the application and nuances of law through simulated cases. Stage 2 Pharmacy undergraduate students (n = 69) were administered the Community of Inquiry Survey, measuring the social, teaching and cognitive presence of online learning experiences across 34 items on a Likert scale 1-5 (1 = 'strongly agree', to 5 = 'strongly disagree'). Four focus groups were undertaken and analysed thematically to explore student perceptions. Performance at the final summative law examination was recorded and compared to that of two previous cohorts given traditional, didactic teaching. Fifty-three students (76.8% response) completed the survey. The mean ranking was 3.6 ± 0.7, 3.6 ± 0.6 and 3.3 ± 0.7 for teaching, social and cognitive presence, and most positively rated statements related to material design and organization. All students passed the summative law examination performing not significantly different to the previous cohorts. Focus group discussions demonstrated that students liked the online and interactive case-study materials, but wanted more direction and preferred smaller group sessions. Students had mixed feelings about needing an online social component. Blended learning transformed the pharmacy law teaching from didactic to an interactive learning experience. The student feedback was generally mixed, but offered many recommendations to optimize the design and format of the course. Examination performance appeared to be unaffected by the change in teaching style.

Theatre Photography as a Counterfactual Representation of Aesthetic Reality

Summary The article is an attempt at applying the concept of counterfactuality, typically employed with reference to narrative forms, to the analysis of visual culture, particularly to theatre photography. The material for case studies is provided by the works of Polish photographers who redefine the function of this form of photography. Typically, photography is seen by theatre historians as the prime form of theatre documentation, and therefore treated as subservient to the needs of theatre studies as an academic discipline. Contrary to that, the photographic projects analysed in the present paper (particularly those of Ryszard Kornecki and Magda Hueckel), although made in theatre during performances, have been produced and distributed as autonomous art forms which neither represent nor document theatre productions. In the analysis of these projects, I employ Margaret Olin’s concept of “performative index”, which describes the relationship between the image and the viewer as a dynamic creation of meaning. With reference to this theoretical framework, I argue that counterfactuality of theatre photography is a strategy of turning this medium into an autonomous form of art.

Arguments for biodiversity conservation: factors influencing their observed effectiveness in European case studies

Making a strong case for biodiversity protection is central to meeting the biodiversity targets in international agreements such as the CBD and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Effective arguments are needed to convince diverse actors that protection is worthwhile, and can play a crucial role in closing the implementation gap between biodiversity policy targets and outcomes. Drawing on a database of arguments from 11 European case studies, along with additional interview and case study material from all 13 case studies of the BESAFE project, we analysed relationships between potential and observed effectiveness of arguments. Our results show that strong logic, robustness, and timing of arguments are necessary but not sufficient conditions for arguments to be effective. We find that use of multiple and diverse arguments can enhance effectiveness by broadening the appeal to wider audiences, especially when arguments are repeated and refined through constructive dialogue. We discuss the role of framing, bundling and tailoring arguments to audiences in increasing effectiveness. Our results provide further support for the current shift towards recognition of value pluralism in biodiversity science and decision-making. We hope our results will help to demonstrate more convincingly the value of biodiversity to stakeholders in decision processes and thus build better cases for its conservation.

Tribological behaviors in titanium sheet and tube forming at elevated temperatures: evaluation and modeling

Warm forming has been an efficient approach to exploiting the forming potential of titanium alloy sheet and tube materials. However, the tribological condition between Ti-alloy sheet/tube and tools at elevated temperatures is a non-trivial issue and has yet not been fully explored and articulated. Taking CP-3 tube and Ti-6Al-4V sheet as case study materials, the tribological behaviors between Ti-alloy sheet/tube and tools at elevated temperature are revealed and modeled. The main results show that (1) by using the high-temperature twist-compression test combined with the design of experiments, the suitable tool materials, surface modification approaches, and lubricants are determined for warm forming of Ti-alloy sheet/tube, and the significant influential factors and their affecting rules/mechanisms on the coefficient of friction are identified; (2) a pressure- and temperature-related dynamic friction model is developed and implemented in the 3D-FE simulation of warm forming via ABAQUS/VFRIC; taking warm rotary draw bending of CP-3 tube as an application, the proposed friction model is experimentally validated, and the comparisons between the experimental results and the simulated ones indicate that the proposed model is much better than the Coulomb friction model in prediction of forming defects, such as wall thinning/thickening and wrinkling instability.

Professional learning communities among vocational school teachers: Profiles and relations with instructional quality

Although improving teachers' classroom strategies presents the primary goal of PLCs, empirical evidence is still scarce, mainly derived from case-study material and confined to (pre-) K12 settings. We use profiling techniques and a comparative design to examine (a) distinct configurations in which PLCs occur within vocational school departments, and (b) their relations to instructional quality. Multilevel latent profile analysis, based on teacher assessments of core PLC dimensions, reveals three configurations. Multilevel multiple group analysis of students’ instructional ratings shows that teachers from Advanced PLC departments create more authentic, application-oriented learning environments than teachers from other departments.

Nanomechanical testing at high strain rates: New instrumentation for nanoindentation and microcompression

Micromechanical testing is normally limited to the quasi-static strain rate regime: 10−5 to 10−2s−1. In this work, a nanomechanical testing device has been developed that allows indentation and microcompression at strain rates from the quasi-static regime continuously up to the high strain rate regime. To reach the highest strain rates, the conventional, strain gage-based load cell was replaced with a new piezo-based sensor. The sensor's concept, calibration methods, and measurement strategies are detailed. It is shown, using nanocrystalline Nickel as a case study material, that this new high strain rate device can measure precisely mechanical properties at strain rates up to 1000s−1 by nanoindentation, and strain rates up to 100s−1 by microcompression, enabling the device to measure strain rates over 9 orders of magnitude.

Accounts of the future

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the design and use of scenarios in planning and management control processes.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on an exploratory case-study approach. Qualitative data have been collected between 2008 and 2011 from three energy companies operating in Italy.FindingsThe paper sheds light on three styles of designing and using scenarios. In the first (called “reactive”), scenarios provide a means for corporate actors to analyse past performance in the light of future expected performance. In the second (“proactive”), scenarios contribute to envision different future states of the world. In the third (“disciplined”), scenarios contribute to develop plausible, if not accurate, narratives about future outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is comparative and exploratory. Possible areas for further work based on in-depth studies of scenarios within planning and control processes are identified.Practical implicationsThe comparative analysis of the case-study material has implications for the ways in which flexible forms of management control can be mobilised by managers as a resource of action. It is shown that choices around the design and use of scenarios can mitigate some concerns with traditional planning and management control processes focused on the achievement of a single set of targets, but also raise new ones.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on a scenario-based approach – called “disciplined flexibility” – that avoids the restrictive nature of budgetary controls without losing the benefits of setting a plan and a target for the future. The paper outlines elements that may support the use of “disciplined flexibility”, but also its potential limitations.

The efficacy of control environment as fraud deterrence in local government

Abstract In a globalised scenario, the topic of an enormous increase of malfeasance in the local governments, posing catastrophic threats which come from vicious bureaucratic apparatus, becomes a global phenomenon. This current study uses case study material on the risk management control system specially the control environment in Indonesia local governments to extend existing theory by developing a contingency theory for the public sector. Within local government, contingency theory has emerged as a lens for exploring the links between public sector initiatives to improve risk mitigation and the structure of the control system. The case illustrates that the discretion of control environment - the encouragement of a local government’s control environment - is considered as a springboard for fraud deterrence and might be the loopholes in the government control systems.

The feminist frontier: on trans and feminism

Against a back-drop of ongoing hostility between sections of feminism towards trans communities, and particularly feminist antagonism towards trans women, this paper explores the relationship between feminism and transgender. Through the use of original case study material, gathered by virtual methods, the paper explores events that have occurred since the millennium that are used to highlight particular epistemological and political tensions between feminism and trans. Central themes running through the case studies include the constitution of ‘woman’, the policing of feminist identities and spaces, and questions of bodily autonomy. In conclusion, the paper stresses the importance of rejecting trans-exclusionary feminism and of foregrounding the links between feminism and transgender as a key social justice project of our time.