Malleable Resource Research Articles

Public policy implications of tax-exempt leasing in the United States

We suggest that a type of charade has developed in the tax-exempt leasing arena, one in which lessor/investors are confident of the enforceability of leases with governmental units, while simultaneously governmental officials and citizens are convinced that tax-exempt leases can be cancelled, and therefore do not constitute 'debt' under state laws. We examine this charade using an aspect of institutional theory, one which suggests that ambiguous laws may be interpreted as malleable political resources that can be used to serve interests that go against public policy.

Stages of busi(-)ness and identity

This article explores how space gets mobilised in the performance of “family business”. The very concept of the “family business” collapses some deeply entrenched distinctions in Western modern societies, those between home and work, private and public, family life and business rationality, distinctions that are mapped over space through the creation of boundaries between work space and family space, home and office. The “family business”, especially when run from home, unsticks this ordered sense of space as familial images and business stages are collapsed. Our analysis of small family run boarding kennels focuses on the way space is used to frame different stages of action. In particular, we draw upon theatrical metaphors to explore the work that goes into the staging of identities and social relations. We first discuss the relationships between space, stages, performance and identity through a theatrical lens; we then draw upon material from our study of family run boarding kennels to explore how owner-managers use space as a malleable resource from which they carve out and assemble different stages to perform their business and themselves to different audiences. After going back into the theatre to discuss the role of stages in weaving together coherent stories in the family business or in drama, we close by exploring the limitations of the theatrical metaphor for the analysis of social life.

Managing Personal Human Capital:: New Ethos for the ‘Volunteer’ Employee

The relationship between individual employees and their employing organizations is undergoing fundamental changes. Increasingly, the employee is less a malleable resource for the company and more a mobile investor of his or her own human capital. Defining human capital as the composite of an individual’s intellectual, social and emotional capitals, this article suggests some new ethos that such ‘volunteer’ employees need to adopt as they take greater personal responsibility for both developing and deploying their personal human capital.

Differing World-Views and Collective Action: The Case of Research

This essay combines constitutional choice and the sociologyof science. People do not only differ in preferences but alsoin worldviews. In order to steer research, society needs a basicsocial contract establishing a triple smallest common denominator.First: the provision with malleable resources is the best approximationto a common good to strive for. Second: formal procedures shouldbe used to determine the facts relevant to the question. Third:the maximization of malleable resources is the closest approximationto the incentives of those involved. If a hypothetical constitutionalassembly reaches an agreement on these points, it can designappropriate rules for research.

GIS in Italian urban planning

The paper presents the findings of research into the implementation and use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Italian local authority planning departments. The first part provides contextual information and available data on the diffusion of GIS in Italian local government. This is followed by a discussion of two detailed case-studies undertaken in cities already having 10 years experience in GIS development and use. Based on the findings of these case-studies, and on the earlier evidence presented, the paper suggests that the view of GIS as a “tool” for more rational decision-making, and increased efficiency and effectiveness, may be particularly inappropriate in countries in which these values do not receive high priority. Instead, GIS appears to be a malleable resource able to serve different agendas, through both its technical and symbolic use. In this context, the view of computing as a “package” appears to be useful in explaining some of the characteristics of the cases investigated. Three sets of factors are confirmed as having an important influence on the implementation and use of GIS: the organizational context, people, and environmental stability. In addition, the paper argues that a fourth element, cultural values, plays an important part in shaping the implementation and use of GIS in a given context, and that its significance may be crucial in understanding the experiences of GIS in different countries even when technical solutions are similar.