Notion Of Change Research Articles

Электронное правительство vs цифровое правительство в контексте цифровой трансформации

Работа затрагивает вопросы преобразования электронного правительства в цифровое в рамках процесса цифровизации, охватившего развитые страны мира. Цель исследования заключается в рассмотрении сущностей электронного правительства и цифрового правительства и разведении этих понятий. Ставится вопрос: является ли цифровое правительство лишь этапом развития электронного правительства или это масштабный проект, представляющий концептуальное развитие электронного правительства, но имеющий принципиальные отличия от него? Методология исследования включает исторический, аналитический методы, системный и сетевой подходы, социологические и статистические методы, эмпирические методы (рейтингование, включенное наблюдение).
 В статье анализируются сущность и этапы становления и развития электронного и цифрового правительств. Изучение аналитических исследований, в частности десяти докладов ООН по развитию электронного правительства с 2001 по 2018 гг. и ряда других документов, позволило проследить эволюцию определений, понимания электронного правительства и направлений его развития, а также зафиксировать момент концептуального сдвига от электронного правительства к цифровому. Сформулированы базовые принципы и даны обобщенные характеристики цифрового правительства.
 Сделаны выводы о том, что в концепции электронного правительства основное внимание было сосредоточено на предоставлении услуг в электронном виде. Цифровое правительство, являясь развитием электронного правительства, уникально отличается от него, будучи всеобъемлющей концепцией и обладая рядом специфических аспектов, которые должны стать ключевыми стратегическими элементами политики государства, осуществляющего цифровую трансформацию.

Public Management Development in England: New Right, New Left and Third Way

This article aims to evaluate the changing notions of public services as expressed in NPM, and to place these in the context of the emergence of new political ideas which are associated with the New Right, New Left and Third Way. There have been different attempts to theorise and formulate the rapidly changing nature of political and managerial re-organisation in Britain. Additionally, there have been different ways of defining and describing these developments. However, similar themes have been emphasized and an agenda of common concerns are recognised that can be articulated as a modernisation movement seeking to enhance democratic governance and effective public service delivery. Among new ideas, most emphasis was placed on corporate management, strategic planning, performance measurement and fundamental corporate review, quality management and administrative accountability. There is also a new emphasis on central-local government relations.

A pan-cancer analysis of microsatellite instability as a predictor of Lynch syndrome in Chinese population.

1574 Background: Microsatellite instability (MSI) and mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) are primarily tested in colorectal (CRC) and endometrial cancer (EC) to aid Lynch Syndrome (LS) diagnosis. A pan-cancer study presented at 2018 ASCO, however, revealed that up to 50% of LS patients had tumors not typically associated with LS, suggesting that patients with an MSI-high (MSI-H) phenotype should proceed to germline testing regardless of tumor type or family history. We thus set out to examine this potentially practice changing notion in Chinese population. Methods: MSI status and germline mutations in MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2 genes were determined using a targeted next generation sequencing panel covering 100 MSI loci as well as MMR genes. Tumor mutation burden (TMB) levels were calculated for LS patients with MSI-H and MSS tumors, and intergroup differences were assessed using Mann Whitney U test or Fisher’s exact test. Results: Of 6,288 advanced tumors spanning > 27 cancers, 0.8% (48/6,288) were EC, 21.6% (1,362/6,288) were CRC, and 77.6% (4,878/6,288) were other malignancies. 3.6% (224/6,288) of the samples were found to be MSI-H and 3.5% (217/6,288) harbored MMR mutations (somatic and germline). Germline mutations indicative of LS were identified in 0.1% (8/6,064) of the MSS group and 17% (38/224) of the MSI-H group (p < 0.001). In contrast with the 2018 ASCO report, up to 63.8% of the 224 MSI-H tumors were CRC/EC, and only 8.9% (3/38) of the LS patients had MSI-H non-CRC/EC tumors (1 ovarian clear cell, 1 small bowel, and 1 gastric cancer). LS patients with non-CRC/EC tumors were more likely to be MSS compared to those with CRC/EC (70.0% vs 2.7%, p < 0.001). Alterations in MLH1/ MSH2 were present in 78.3% (36/46) of the LS patients, and they demonstrated significantly better correlation with a MSI-H phenotype than MSH6/PMS2 alterations (94.4% vs. 40.0%, p = 0.0005). Additionally, in line with previous reports showing co-ocurrence of MSI-H and high TMB in gastrointestinal cancers, the LS patients with MSS tumors had a significantly lower median TMB compared with the MSI-H population (4.6 muts/Mb vs. 91.8 muts/Mb, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study showed that in Chinese population, CRC/EC still predominated among LS-associated cancers, while non-CRC/EC LS patients were more likely to present with an MSS phenotype. The value of MSI-H/dMMR as a predictor of LS across different tumor types warrant further investigation.

Sisyphus, crisis discourse, and the theory-practice gap in physical education: a polemic

ABSTRACTThe constant and perennial plea by academics in the field to reform or change physical education share some similarities with the myth of Sisyphus from Greek mythology. Just as Sisyphus was condemned to an eternity of endless frustration of rolling an enormous stone up a mountain as punishment for trying to be too clever, we argue that if the physical education profession continues down the path of more of the same unquestioned assumptions surrounding notions of change will be tantamount to being condemned like Sisyphus was to the torment of the stone. Part of the problem as we see it relates to insufficiently rigorous engagement with theory, and hence why we argue that physical education could benefit from a shift from a disproportionate focus on practice or practices to theory as a means to closing the gap between theory and practice. We do understand that our position may be uncontroversial to some; however, we equally understand that there will be many who will find our position controversial in the field. From our position, this has become an unavoidable problem due to the inherent way in which the relationship between theory and practice is understood differently by academics, teachers, and other actors in this context.

Featured artist

Research Article| May 01 2019 Featured artist Piyarat Piyapongwiwat Piyarat Piyapongwiwat Piyarat Piyapongwiwat is a multidisciplinary artist who works with various media, including video, photography, text, sound, mixed media, and installation. Her work usually reflects her surrounding experiences, including the questioning of contemporary issues such as gender, notion of margin, cultural change, and globalization. Her artistic research is informed by theories of social science, anthropology, and philosophy. She holds a BA from RMIT University in Australia and a BFA from Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier Agglomération in France. She has presented works locally and internationally and currently lives and works in Chiang Mai. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google positions (2019) 27 (2): 289–296. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7522677 Connected Content Errata: Erratum Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Piyarat Piyapongwiwat; Featured artist. positions 1 May 2019; 27 (2): 289–296. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-7522677 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll Journalspositions Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2019 Duke University Press2019 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Protection Against Good Intentions: The Catholic Role in the Campaign to Ban Proxy Adoption, 1956–1961

Abstract:The debate over the practice of proxy adoption sheds light on changing notions of proper intercountry adoption practices and standards of family planning as they developed in the mid-twentieth century. The practice of proxy adoption was born out of a loophole in U.S. immigration legislation, initially used by Americans to adopt European orphans after World War II. After the Korean War, the practice was again utilized to bring Korean children in even greater numbers to the United States. Through proxy adoption, adoptive parents bypassed the standard checkpoints of the adoption process as established by U.S. social welfare agencies. Although initially hailed as a humane practice, proxy adoption was ultimately banned in 1961 after a successful antiproxy adoption campaign waged by a coalition of social welfare workers, Catholic leaders, and U.S. senators. The role of Catholic agencies in this debate is essential, yet remains largely unexplored. This article sheds light on this significant and underresearched history of the Catholic institutions involved in the proxy adoption debate.The Catholic agencies, namely the National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Catholic Committee for Refugees, stood apart from both the government social welfare establishment and other humanitarian actors. Their actions must instead be understood through the context of their own institutional history of domestic social welfare programs and overseas humanitarian work, dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article analyzes their relationship with the U.S. social welfare establishment, as well as joint advocacy efforts to reform intercountry adoption practices.

Praxeological Change and the Density of Rational Numbers: The Case of Pre-service Teachers in Denmark and Indonesia

The present study aims to introduce the notion of praxeological change, developed based on the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic, to describe a necessity of changing mathematical praxeologies when passing from natural to rational numbers. It is applied to study and compare Danish and Indonesian pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) knowledge of the density of rational numbers. They work in pairs to solve and discuss a hypothetical teacher task, which involves both mathematical and didactical tasks, related to the density of rational numbers. The findings highlight significant differences of the mathematical and didactical knowledge which are shared by the Danish and Indonesian PSTs. In particular, the Danish PSTs are more successful than the Indonesian PSTs in proposing didactical praxeologies to support pupils’ praxeological change. They use the mathematical idea of converting fractions into decimals or vice versa and representing fractions and decimals on the same number line, while the Indonesian pairs tend to suggest pupils to order fractions and decimals based on the ordering properties of natural numbers.

Rethinking the role of the academy: cognitive authority in the age of post-truth

ABSTRACTThe concept of ‘post-truth’ is here explored within the context of education and educational technology. Contemporary political discourse is often characterised by a polarisation of political belief and scepticism about scientific and expert authority has become commonplace. We explore tensions between democratic and technocratic impulses in describing changes that are taking place in the way that authority typically operates in higher education. We analyse changing notions of academic authority to understand some of the implications for the practice of teaching, learning and administration. We argue that technocratic, administrative authority increasingly supplants cognitive authority and subject expertise. One result of increased emphasis on performative/administrative authority is the nature of authority both within the academy and the wider public sphere is changed. We examine the implications for pedagogy, curriculum and academic practice, suggesting that performative approaches to criticality, openness, truth and transparency offer potential routes to new constellations of cognitive authority.

Transforming the attitudes of young men about gender roles and the acceptability of violence against women, Bihar

Although the importance of working with young men to transform traditional gender norms has been widely acknowledged, programmes for young men remain sparse in highly gender stratified settings such as India, and those that have been implemented have not reached those in rural areas and those out-of-school. Drawing on data from a cluster randomised controlled trial with panel surveys, of a gender-transformative life skills education and sports-coaching programme conducted among young men aged 13–21 who were members of youth clubs, this paper examines the extent to which it transformed the gender role attitudes of young men and instilled in them attitudes rejecting violence against women and girls. The intervention succeeded in changing gender role attitudes and notions of masculinity, attitudes about men’s controlling behaviours over women/girls, attitudes about men’s perpetration of violence on a woman/girl and perceptions about peer reactions to young men acting in gender-equitable ways. Effects were particularly significant among young men who attended regularly, underscoring the importance of regular attendance in such programmes.

The perception of climate-related coastal risks and environmental changes on the Rangiroa and Tikehau atolls, French Polynesia: The role of sensitive and intellectual drivers

French coastal policies have recently put greater emphasis on the need to better inform coastal populations about coastal risks in the context of climate change, in particular in French overseas territories that are nationally recognized as hotspots. It is therefore critical to further assess local populations' knowledge and perceptions of climate-related coastal risks. In this respect, we ran a social survey among inhabitants of two atolls of French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean, using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews largely based on images of landscapes. The results show that (1) coastal risks are not considered as a danger but only as a problem, and that (2) inhabitants have a very clear perception of the changes that have occurred locally over the last 70 years with respect to weather, climate, corals and beaches. (3) Interviewees generally show some knowledge about the notion of global climate change and its potential local impacts. (4) However, a multiple correspondence analysis distinguishes four groups (the ‘informed’, ’poorly informed, ‘uninformed’ and ‘distant’ groups) separated by age and gender, but also by levels of education and urbanization. The discussion therefore focuses on the most important drivers of climate change perception, showing a disconnection between atolls and generations: rural and older inhabitants present more sensitive mechanisms of risk perception and urban and younger interviewees more intellectual ones. A major challenge consists in bringing these dimensions closer by better integrating, on an intellectual level, local climate-related coastal risks into school programs, and by defining, on a more sensitive level, an ambitious cultural and environmental policy to allow young generations to keep contact with their original living environment. Highlighting the interest of this survey, risk management and adaptation policies now support the reactivation of local knowledge and practices.

The Mismatch of Intrinsic Fluctuations and the Static Assumptions of Linear Statistics

The social and cognitive science replication crisis is partly due to the limitations of commonly used statistical tools. Inferential statistics require that unsystematic measurement variation is independent of system history, and weak relative to systematic or causal sources of variation. However, contemporary systems research underscores the dynamic, adaptive nature of social, cognitive, and behavioral systems. Variation in human activity includes the influences of intrinsic dynamics intertwined with changing contextual circumstances. Conventional inferential techniques presume milder forms of variability, such as unsystematic measurement error, as in a Gaussian distribution. Inferential statistics indicate an elementary Newtonian cause-effect metaphor for change that is inconsistent with known principles of change in complex systems. Pattern formation in self-organizing systems and quantum probability are used to illustrate theoretical metaphors that instantiate alternative notions of change in complex systems. Inferential statistics and related techniques are crucial scientific resources. However, in the social and behavioral sciences, they must be practiced in conjunction with an appropriate general systems framework that accommodates intrinsic fluctuations and contextual adaptation.

Instructing / improvising health: neoliberalism and prediabetes prevention on a US college campus

ABSTRACTGlobal rates of type 2 diabetes have doubled since 1980. From a biomedical perspective, the most effective ways to manage type 2 diabetes is through prevention and behaviour change among ‘at risk’ populations. In the United States, public institutions, such as universities, have increasingly become involved in America's ‘war on fat’. This ethnographic study of a campus-based diabetes-prevention programme tracks the links between neoliberalism and instructions for ‘health’. It outlines the production of a ‘prediabetic’ population and changing notions of what constitute health risks. It describes how students come to interpret their bodies with respect to its capacity to be (re)productive. The paper argues that new conditions for higher education exhaust students in ways that ironically jeopardise their ability to be ‘productive’. Health programming works to hold individual bodies accountable for the structural demands of contemporary overwork and exhaustion.

Jaka jest reprezentacja formalna wsi w Polsce? Studium wojewódzkich programów odnowy wsi = What is the formal representation of the rural in Poland? The case of rural renewal programmes

The paper presents results of the research concerning formal representations of the rural in Poland. K. Halfacree’s (2006) research model of rural space was applied. Theoretical framework of the study also comprises debate on defining the rural under post-structuralism and some considerations of rural renewal. The research employed content analysis of rural renewal programmes in Poland. The outcomes were interpreted and discussed in relation to a broader process of socio-economic and cultural transformation and the notion of change in the rural space. It was explained how the formal representation of the rural is created in the rural renewal programmes. The formal representation of the rural in rural renewal programmes does not vary in regional terms, often being chaotic and incoherent. The rural is perceived through rural community and rural space separately, and as a broader concept opposite to the urban. Representation refers to, first and foremost, rural identity. However, it does not specify what defines such identity. It merely reproduces certain tags and slogans about the rural, and thus it is based on the rural myth. It also dissociates itself from agriculture as an economic function, but not as a culture-forming one.

Charles Dickens as an Agent of Change eds. by Joachim Frenk and Lena Steveker

Reviewed by: Charles Dickens as an Agent of Change eds. by Joachim Frenk and Lena Steveker Jonathan Buckmaster Joachim Frenk and Lena Steveker, eds. Charles Dickens as an Agent of Change. New York: Cornell UP, 2019. Pp. xx + 242. $26.95 ISBN: 9781-50173627-8 Writing to William Macready from Geneva in 1846, Charles Dickens spoke admiringly of the recent revolution: "I believe there is no country on earth but Switzerland in which a violent change could have been effected in the Christian spirit shown in this place, or in the same proud, independent, gallant style" (Letters 4: 646). This collection proves Dickens to have been a keen student of change throughout his life. Its contributors aim to "address the multitudinous ways in which the notion of change has found entry into and is negotiated in Dickens's works" (xvii) and consider how Dickens promotes social change, how he presents changes of power, how he changes his own techniques, and finally how his presentation of change has inspired others. However, as with all well-curated compilations, there are significant crosscurrents linking these broad themes, inviting the reader to trace suggestive correspondences between its parts. One central preoccupation is the role of the individual within the process of change. Jerome Meckier shows how modest changes of heart prove to be more effective than sudden, reactive gestures in The Pickwick Papers, and Joel Brattin identifies the same sentiment prevailing in Bleak House. The good works that Mr. Pickwick and Esther quietly perform are modest acts within their respective "circle[s] of duty" (34), which have an ameliorative effect on those around them, while for Robert Heaman, Carton's personal self-sacrifice is the most enduring catalyst for communal improvement in A Tale of Two Cities. Elsewhere, Meckier regards Scrooge as "the quintessential paradigm for reversal as reform [occurring] independent of politics and legislation" (10), and Brattin extends this genealogy of quiet revolutionaries to Sissy Jupe and Amy Dorrit. The collection offers up many important instances of straightforward, minor, personal acts of positive change, which, as Nancy Aycock Metz notes, invite readers "to share a compensating optimism in the[ir] value" (80). She points out that Dickens's belief in a non-violent evolution of the species occurs within a wider scientific dialogue that recognized the potency of small actions in affecting great changes over long periods of time, in the [End Page 362] manner of water droplets carving out great canyons. Dickens's work treats the larger interventions that it describes with skepticism as he critiques what Metz calls "the 'catastrophist' paradigm of history, with its emphasis on great men and cataclysmic events" (77). Meckier shows how Pickwick's gentler approach is offset by the transformative brutality meted out to the hypocrite Stiggins, and Brattin traces a similar juxtaposition within Bleak House, in which Esther's domestic revolution is set against a figurative backdrop of more forceful insurrections, including Sir Leicester's fears of mutiny, Boythorne's explosive anger, Krook's combustion, and allusions to the Peasant's Revolt. Despite its enervating effects on his imagination, Dickens never regards the large-scale popular agitation of the mob as the correct vehicle for social change, and his depictions of ruthless, bestial rioters in Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities present violent change as a symptom of the failure of moderate politics. Despite this distrust of collective agitation, several chapters demonstrate how Dickens was also interested in the arguments for wider social change proposed by radical thinkers. Norbert Lennartz challenges perceptions of Dickens as a spokesman for bourgeois cosiness by revealing the "romantic radicalism" (129) within his work, tracing his associations with Hazlitt and Hone, his distrust of the prevailing political and cultural climate, and opposition to the doctrines of Malthus and Utilitarianism. Moments of radical sentiment irrupt from the text of Bleak House, and these find further expression in two popular dramatizations discussed by Chris Louttit. These East End productions from 1853 devote much stage time to the scenes of "low life" in Krook's rag-and-bottle shop, the shooting gallery, and the brickmaker's cottage. While this accords with the commercial popularity of urban melodrama, it also fits within...

From The Editor

From The Editor Michelle M. Hamilton, Editor In this volume of La corónica we are delighted to have for the first time an article in Galician, evidence of our commitment to publish groundbreaking articles on medieval Iberia in the modern languages of the Peninsula. In this article, Ana Boullón underscores that copyists and their reading habits and linguistic background often play an essential role in the linguistic profile of texts that have come down to us in manuscript copies. Boullón explores how the two extant copies of the Crónica de Iria possess archaic linguistic features that suggest the work was composed earlier than the fifteenth century and that Rui Vázquez was not its author. The next article in this volume by Fernando Riva examines the thirteenth-century Castilian Libro de Alexandre and offers an analysis of the letter-symbol tau, a Hebrew letter conflated with the Greek t used by Christian scholars as symbol for the cross and symbol of Christian supercession of Jewish religious truths. Riva argues that the author of the Libro de Alexandre weaves the tau through the narrative to remind readers of the apocalyptic nature of messianism. Rocío Rubio Moirón turns to a more personalized form of the supernatural in the third article, focusing on how changing notions about affect and humor and their role in Christian piety affect how Gonzalo de Berceo chose to depict people possessed by demons. Rubio Moirón invites us to expand the definition of disability to include possession and explores the role of exorcism as an act of community protection. Affect and its expression is also central in Charles Elerick's study of word choice and emphasis in the fourteenth-century Libro de buen amor, the subject of the fourth article in this volume. Joseph Snow, a long-time collaborator and contributor to La corónica's pages, offers a study and English translation of seven of the cantigas d'escarnhio attributed to Alfonso X. These translations are the second in our "Texts and Translations" series, which was inaugurated in 2017 with Isabelle Levy and David Torollo's translation of Jacob ben El'azar's Sefer ha-meshalim (in volume 45, no. 2, 2017). You will also see that the volume opens with a remembrance of Linda Kay Davidson and her work by George Greenia, long-time editor of La corónica, who has generously shared the necrology he wrote for his friend and fellow lover of the Camino which originally appeared in Ad [End Page 1] Limina. Greenia reviews Davidson's important scholarship on the Camino de Santiago, as well as sharing personal anecdotes that give us a sense of her warm personality and important efforts to promote and explain the Camino experience. It also gives me great pleasure to announce in this volume the creation of the Nancy F. Marino Award for Best Essay in Hispanomedieval Studies, which will be awarded at this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo. This prize, which carries both professional recognition and a cash prize, is possible thanks to the generosity of Frank McBath, Nancy's husband, in honor of her service to the field and particularly her mentorship and support of emerging scholars. If you have received your PhDs in the last 4 years or are a graduate student currently enrolled in a MA or PhD program who will be presenting at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo please apply! And if you are a senior scholar, please encourage eligible junior scholars you know and mentor to apply (by April 15). And once again, I would like to thank Isidro Rivera, Managing Editor, and his team at the University of Kansas (Ángel María Rañales Pérez, Indira Y. A. García, Scott Raines, and Juanita Reyes) who have all helped with revision on multiple versions of the articles. In addition, special thanks to Christina Ivers, Víctor Pascual Durán and Robert Hultgren who have also assisted in the editing of this volume. In addition to our work in bringing together this volume, the editors have also organized panels at several of the leading American conferences for scholars...

De crisis, ecologías y transiciones: reflexiones sobre teoría social latinoamericana frente al cambio ambiental global

Este artículo contribuye a desplegar el campo de relaciones que se ha establecido entre las nociones de crisis y cambio ambiental global, a través de la revisión de las principales tradiciones de pensamiento ambiental con influencia en América Latina, a partir de la década de 1970. Con este objetivo, se examinan los rasgos distintivos de la representación de lo ambiental en la producción académica de las ciencias sociales regionales, las construcciones éticas sobre las que se sostiene esta producción y las relaciones que se establecen entre ecología, crisis y desarrollo. El texto presenta un panorama general tanto de la producción identificada con Latinoamérica, como de las adaptaciones e interpretaciones de otros idearios y pensamientos de origen no latinoamericano, pero de reconocida influencia regional. Metodológicamente, se realiza un trabajo de doble hermenéutica sobre la bibliografía relevante, principalmente a través de textos y autores que inspiran y fundan las perspectivas estudiadas. El primer apartado hace un recorrido analítico y descriptivo sobre las nociones de crisis y las respuestas éticas hacia la naturaleza que sirven de base a las propuestas teóricas. El segundo apartado presenta un panorama de la construcción de la problemática ambiental desde cinco grandes grupos de perspectivas teóricas: la economía ambiental y ecológica, el marxismo ecológico, la modernización ecológica, la ecología política, la ontología política y la perspectiva decolonial. Finalmente, se presentan las conclusiones y reflexiones sobre los alcances políticos y prácticos de la producción teórica ambiental en Latinoamérica. Afirmamos que el pensamiento social latinoamericano sobre el cambio ambiental global ―dadas las realidades sociomateriales sobre las que funda su evidencia― se encuentra en una posición privilegiada para aportar a la construcción de otras prácticas no centradas en la apropiación instrumental y a la visibilización de otras ontologías relacionales entre humanos y naturaleza no humana.

Leaders’ Impact on Organizational Change: Bridging Theoretical and Methodological Chasms

The notions of leadership and organizational change have been closely linked and frequently discussed in tandem. Whereas we know much about leadership and change, we know relatively little about th...

Making a Living: How Middle-Class Couples in Warsaw Start and Practice a Household

This article is a study of the domestic monetary and financial life of young middle-class couples in Warsaw, Poland, and its suburbs. We use ethnographic evidence presented as case studies to illuminate the practices in which our interlocutors actively appropriate, mobilize, and transform money and finance to pursue moral visions of the good life. The article focuses on the household understood in processual terms of ongoing negotiations between moral and market dimensions. The first section is focused on the ways in which young couples perform relational work aimed at achieving or maintaining moral order. Couples match the diverse possible uses of money at home to their changing notions of the kind of couple they are or wish to become. The second section proceeds from the observation of a widening gap between rising middle-class aspirations and economic possibilities in contemporary Poland and explores the practices of negotiating various forms of assistance from parental households. The third and final section argues that the incursion of technologies into domestic life means that artifacts like software or digital banking increasingly materialize and mediate morality and thus actively contribute to the shaping of the household as a project of a good life.

Public and Private Governance in Interaction: Changing Interpretations of Sovereignty in the Field of Sustainable Palm Oil

Since the 1990s, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses have gained prominence as architects of new forms of transnational governance creating Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). The legitimacy and effectiveness of VSS are dependent on interactions with public authorities and regulation. While studies suggest that the (perceived) gain or loss of sovereignty by a state shapes public–private interactions, we have little understanding on how states use or interpret sovereignty in their interactions with VSS. In this paper, we explore what interpretations of sovereignty are used by states at different ends of global value chains in interactions with VSS. Based on a comparative and longitudinal study of interactions of Indonesian and Dutch state actors with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, we conclude that states strategically use different and changing notions of sovereignty to control the policy and debate regarding sustainable palm oil. When interactions between public and private governance are coordinative in nature, notions of interdependent sovereignty are used. However, when interactions are competitive, domestic and Westphalian notions of sovereignty are used. Our results show conflicting interpretations and usages of sovereignty by different states, which might negatively impact the regulatory capacity within an issue field to address sustainability issues.

Time Perception and Industrialization: Divergence and Convergence of Work Ethics in Chinese Enterprises in Africa

AbstractAs Chinese investors set up business operations in Africa, disagreements between Chinese and Africans regarding work attitudes have emerged. A prevailing view is that cultural differences cause tensions between groups with regards to the meaning of “hard work,” “discipline” and “eating bitterness.” However, we argue that conflicting perceptions of work ethics between Chinese and Africans are instead caused by evolving notions of time that accompany a transition from a pre-capitalist manner of production to that of industrial capitalism. First, we refute the assumption that culture determines work ethics. Second, we show that when a society industrializes, its notions of work ethics and time perception change; we then show how China's industrialization impacts its approaches to operations in Africa. Third, we use two case studies of Chinese investments in Tanzania and Ethiopia to illustrate how Chinese managers are changing African workers’ attitudes through time discipline. Finally, we discuss the implications of a convergence of work ethics between Chinese and Africans.