Practice-based Perspective Research Articles

Thinking Critically about Intellectual Liabilities: A Practice-Based Perspective

The aim of this study is to understand ILs for a practice-based perspective. This research will try to answer the following research questions: How do companies conceive ILs? How do they measure ILs? and how do they manage ILs? Alvesson and Deetz’s (2000) critical management research framework was selected for the examination. The study is based on a field study that has involved large Italian companies. 
 
 The main findings are the following. First, there is a relevant gap between theory and practice as most of the ideas about ILs seem to have not entered into organizations. Second, the use of expressions like “intangible risk” appear to be more effective and understandable than “intellectual liabilities. as the word “intangibles” is more understandable than “intellectual capital”. Third, companies tend to focus on human capital risks, customer risks, and IP risks as they are perceived as the most relevant ones. Fourth, ILs’ measurements seem to be stand alone, ambiguous, simple and designed (or co-designed) by their direct users. Fifth, the management of ILs appear to be rather informal and fragmented.

Embedding Knowledge Management Theory in Learning and Teaching Approach

The article focuses on the role of management of knowledge can have on organisations and looks at practical knowledge management (KM) practices from industry that can be employed by educational institutions. There is a view that KM is primarily business concept that can provide competitive advantage for commercial organisations. However, the KM processes such as knowledge creation, capture, sharing and use are not exclusive to business; good KM practices can bring benefits to all organisations. While KM is a growing field in almost last 20 years, very little has been written about it in the educational context. This is surprising, considering that education is about the creation and application of knowledge. Given that higher education institution’s (HEI) priority of developing and creating knowledge, an integrated approach that prioritise KM can be used to underpin university’s organisational processes particularly its learning and teaching approach. This article illustrates how attention to two main perspectives exists in KM field; objectivist perspective and practice-based perspective, can inform the learning and teaching approach; surface and deep approach. The approach of this paper is basically conceptual and descriptive. Drawing from empirical research in UK car manufacturing industry, the article is to address the way in which KM practices are being implemented and elaborates on the need the KM in teaching-learning process. This suggests an integrated approach to provide for a balanced strategy in terms of KM implementation that can be applied in HEI. It is important for educators in HEI to understand how certain KM perspective and influence can lead to different to different learning and teaching strategy. Thus, HEI can realise the potential of KM in order to enhance the learning of students.

Nursing perspectives on Integral Theory in nursing practice and education: An interpretive descriptive study.

While for decades nursing has advocated for theory-informed practice, more recent attention has tended to focus on mid-range theory rather than the earlier focus on developing grand theory to encompass all of nursing practice. However, there has been continued interest in the holistic nursing community on grand theory and, in particular, on Integral Theory. Although Integral Theory's four-quadrant (AQAL) perspective is familiar in nursing, little is known about how it is being used by nurses in direct practice. The purpose of this interpretive descriptive study was to provide a practice-based perspective on Ken Wilber's Integral Theory in professional nursing practice. The following research question was investigated: How does Integral Theory assist nurses in describing and understanding their professional work? Nurses participating in this study used Integral Theory as a map or heuristic that gave structure to an inquiry process in professional nursing practice and in nursing education in a manner that was holonic, multiperspectival, and self-reflective. Challenges constraining nurses' use of Integral Theory included its intricacy, as well as contextual factors in practice environments. Implications for nursing practice and education for the use of Integral Theory's meta-framework are described.

Bronchiectasis: Treatment decisions for pulmonary exacerbations and their prevention.

Interest in bronchiectasis has increased over the past two decades, as shown by the establishment of disease-specific registries in several countries, the publication of management guidelines and a growing number of clinical trials to address evidence gaps for treatment decisions. This review considers the evidence for defining and treating pulmonary exacerbations, the approaches for eradication of newly identified airway pathogens and the methods to prevent exacerbations through long-term treatments from a pragmatic practice-based perspective. Areas for future studies are also explored. Watch the video abstract.

Visions in assemblages: Future-making and governance in FabLabs

The impacts of socio-technical future-making on the governance of innovation processes are increasingly important in sociological STS research and technology assessment (TA). Through the case of the emergence of FabLabs, a global network of several hundred of organizations that aim to make digital fabrication machines such as 3D printing accessible to diverse audiences, and their transformation from elite to collective Fab Labs this paper sheds light on the constitutive interplay between socio-technical futures in practices and changes of the governance of an innovation process. To grasp the processes of future-making and its governance we apply a practice-based perspective inspired by assemblage theory of Deleuze and Guattari and combine this theoretical model with the analytical concept of visions as socio-epistemic practices, a new approach in TA. With this approach we show how future-making is often unequally distributed and governed. We show that future-making and the governance of socio-technical innovation can be democratized if the means to make and explore futures are themselves democratized. Future-making depends upon assemblages in becoming and if we want to change future-making and innovation processes we need to focus on how we can create conditions that make desirable changes of assemblages more likely.

Teaching whole-number multiplication to promote children\u2019s proportional reasoning: a practice-based perspective from Japan

Whole-number arithmetic is a core content area of primary mathematics, which lays the foundation for children’s later conceptual development. This paper focuses on teaching whole-number multiplication (WNM) to build a stepping stone for children’s proportional reasoning. Our intention in writing this paper is to obtain a practice-based perspective on the teaching of WNM, given the growing attention being given to significant connections between children’s understanding of multiplication and their proportional reasoning. To this end, we review studies on teaching WNM that were conducted in Japan. Our review highlights several aspects of teaching WNM that are integral to building an initial understanding of proportional relationships. Linear representations such as tape diagrams and number lines are also found to help make explicit the important properties of proportional relationships that can be used progressively across grade levels.

Wholly local? ownership as philosophy and practice in peacebuilding interventions

ABSTRACTThis paper engages with the theme of local ownership in peacebuilding from a practice-based perspective which suggests that the way in which the external actors reach out and work with local constituencies shows conceptual and practice gaps that limit the applicability of local ownership in day-to-day peacebuilding operations. We examine how, in the case of EU peacebuilding policies, such gaps impair the potential for effective, inclusive and sustainable peacebuilding. Using a whole-of-society (WOS) lens, the paper demonstrates how current modalities of EU engagement fail to embrace the diversity of local society and its authentic forms of mobilisation and action in order to pursue peacebuilding objectives that resonate with locally relevant forms of peace. The paper further reflects on how WOS perspective can provide pointers for enhancing peacebuilding practices in this area.

Grinding the moor – ideasthesia and narrative

ABSTRACTWhat is the relationship between the ideas that underlie narrative and the language used to convey those ideas? What modes of poiesis are involved? What are the dynamics of the conversion process? The concept of ideasthesia can be used to tackle these questions. This article investigates the concept of ideasthesia using Nikolić’s definition of the concept, which arises from the ‘Ancient Greek words idea (for concept) and aesthesis (for sensation). Hence […] the term ideasthesia [or] sensing concepts’ (Nikolić, D. 2016. ‘Ideasthesia and art.’ http://www.danko-nikolic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Ideasthesia-and-art.pdf; emphasis in original). Ideasthesia is a means for understanding writing process – a way of deconstructing the ways in which writers sense concepts (ideas) in metaphorical, associative and sensory ways. Narrative arises from everyday ideas that are subsequently transformed. This article reflects upon the process of writing the short story ‘Like Clay’, a story about a form of postpartum psychosis known as olfactory hallucination (Prendergast, J. 2015. ‘Like Clay.’ Island Literary Magazine. http://aawp.org.au/files/Prendergast_0.pdf). The article unpacks meta-level processes of association from a practice-based perspective. Tracking the use of connotative language, this article reflects upon the writing process: asking how an image might represent an idea that simmers beneath the surface.

Was it Merely a Coincidence? Towards a Practice-Based Perspective on Early Internationalisation of SMEs

Objective : The aim of this this paper is to analyse the relation between some aspects of reflexive actions and the routinization within the internationalization process. The article provides a new insight into the phenomenon of early internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. Research Design & Methods : A qualitative research offers an alternative approach to the problem of how enterprises explore foreign opportunities in the realms of daily performed activities. Findings: A qualitative research provides a framework of the relation between various types of reflexive actions, and their routinization, as well as the internationalization of everyday practice. Implications & Recommendations: This work contributes to the deeper understanding of the early internationalization process and that it sheds some new light on its potential explanatory categories. The notion of daily activities may be perceived as important units of analysis in management. Contribution & Value Added: The analysis of everyday activities of early internationalization of SMEs may comprise here a promising research area and therefore, a ‘theoretical bridge’ between the practice-based perspective and IE may develop.

The importance of ICT on knowledge management in organizations

Knowledge management (KM) is a process that transforms individual knowledge into organizational knowledge.Knowledgeis information that is meaningful in cognitive formssuch as understanding, awareness and ability .It is typically acquired by experience, information consumption, experimentation and thought processes such as imagination and critical thinking. communication and information technology(ICT) are technologies which facilitate the management to share knowledge and information .thus ,ICT have a prominent role on knowledge management initiatives. One of the key issues in KM is the role of communication and information technology. this is important from two points. the first is that ICT has played a central role in the primary literature of knowledge management. Second, ICT plays a prominent role in many early knowledge management initiatives. In thisarticle,the importance and role of information technology in knowledge management in organizations has been investigated and analyzed. Keywords: Information and Communication, Knowledge Management Processes Organizational The objectivist and practice-based perspective

A practice-based perspective on the new legislation by prevention workers and health promoters

A practice-based perspective on the new legislation by prevention workers and health promoters

Knowledge Management Methodology: Developing a Phenomenalogical Middle-range Thinking Approach for Knowledge Management Research

In light of the fact that KM research and practice embraces a wide range of activities and interest, complexity emerges when consideration is given to the actual conduct of research to be undertaken. Drawing from numerous literature, KM covers, on the one hand, technological interventions (objectivist perspective) that aim to support knowledge sharing, while on the other hand, it also covers the appreciation of social approaches (practice-based perspective) that emphasise the importance of people in sharing knowledge. Due to the fact that KM covers such a broad spectrum of area, it calls for greater scrutiny into the way that research is undertaken. The aim of this paper is to discuss the methodological issues within which the KM study should be undertaken. The paper considers the appropriateness of a particular methodology stance for the KM research while focusing on research processes. In particular, a phenomenological approach to middle-range theory is used to develop a comprehensive framework of KM as context of the study. The rationale for using a phenomenological to middle-range theory is provided from the viewpoint that it requires researchers to focus on developing theory which produces explanations that are arguably a more realistic depiction of the hard/technical and soft/social nature of KM practices.

Ethics and Issues of Secondary Prevention Efforts in Child Sexual Abuse.

This article discusses the ethical, practical, and moral issues surrounding secondary prevention efforts of child sexual abuse from a professional and practice-based perspective. Transcripts of a semistructured consultation event with n = 15 international experts on the secondary prevention of child sexual abuse were analysed using thematic qualitative analysis. The research identified four main critical areas linked to secondary prevention efforts, including, the psychology of self-reporting and disclosure; the interaction with and within existing legal, social, and professional frameworks; the scale and type of an appropriate response; and potential hurdles (i.e., within media, public, politics). The article outlines these areas, highlighting participant perspectives on risk-enhancing and mitigating factors for each domain.

Practice-based perspectives on multimodal documents: Corpora vs connoisseurship

Multimodal studies are essentially interdisciplinary, crossing boundaries between the verbal and the visual, between creation and consumption, and, it is argued here, between academic analysis and professional practices. This paper presents a practice-based perspective on multimodal document genres which feature typography and page/screen layout. It is argued that in order to reliably account for observed data, analysts need to distinguish between effects which represent an effort to create meaning, those which are by-products of production technology, and those which are intended as navigational support for users. A range of problems is identified, facing those who seek to classify multimodal genres, including problems of method, interdisciplinarity, naming, granularity, and exemplification. Additional problems particular to the study of real documents include design competence, dysfunctional genres, creativity and continuous technical change. Insights from design practice are discussed, introducing a pattern language approach to develop a level of connoisseurship and good judgement that complements the more formal analysis represented by corpus studies and taxonomy.

Scientists\u2019 Understandings of Risk of Nanomaterials: Disciplinary Culture Through the Ethnographic Lens

There is a growing literature on how scientific experts understand risk of technology related to their disciplinary field. Previous research shows that experts have different understandings and perspectives depending on disciplinary culture, organizational affiliation, and how they more broadly look upon their role in society. From a practice-based perspective on risk management as a bottom-up activity embedded in work place routines and everyday interactions, we look, through an ethnographic lens, at the laboratory life of nanoscientists. In the USA and Sweden, two categories of nanoscientists have been studied: upstream scientists who are mainly electrical and physical engineers and downstream scientists who are toxicologists, often with a more multidisciplinary background, including physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. The results show that although the two groups of scientists share the same norms of appropriate laboratory conduct to promote safety and good science practice, they have very different perspectives on risk with nanomaterials. Upstream scientists downplay risk; they emphasize the innovative potential of the new materials to which they express an affectionate and personalized stance. The downstream scientists, instead, focus on the uncertainties and unpredictability of nanomaterials and they see some materials as potentially highly dangerous. The results highlight the ambiguous and complex role of scientific experts in policy processes about the risk and regulation of nanotechnology.

OPEN FOR INNOVATION? PRACTICES SUPPORTING COLLABORATION IN SWEDISH REGIONAL CLUSTERS

While it could be argued that globalisation would diminish the importance of a company’s location, research has shown that in an increasingly complex, knowledge-based and dynamic economy, regional collaboration has in fact become a critical aspect of enhancing competitiveness, locally as well as globally. Still, in order to create sustainable, innovative and successful clusters, interaction and collaboration among its members is necessary, which is not always easy to accomplish and requires actions that stimulate bottom-up activity rather than top-down directives.Taking a practice-based perspective, this paper explores what cluster management do in their everyday activities to support collaboration among cluster members, based on a qualitative case study of 14 Swedish regional clusters and cluster initiatives. The paper contributes by outlining and discussing two distinct and essential practices–orchestrating and narrating.

Ethics and Evaluative Consultations with Children in Small to Mid-Sized Australian Non-Government Organisations

The value of listening to children's voices is well acknowledged. The vast body of literature surrounding this topic discusses children's voices in pedagogy, theory, methodology, and through empirical research. While some of this literature has focused on ethical considerations surrounding evaluative consultations with children in applied practice settings, there is a shortage of literature specifically relevant to small and medium-sized nongovernment organisations (NGOs). These organisations typically conduct consultations on a smaller scale and with fewer resources than their larger counterparts. This paper refers to Australian ethical guidelines using a practice example from a mid-sized NGO to examine ethics in child consultation from a practice-based program improvement perspective. The paper examines whether consultations with children always require formal ethics approval and discusses terminology and considerations surrounding ethical decision making processes.

Mapping community media impact: iterative cycles, continuous review

ABSTRACTFraming community media evaluation that can trace social impact relevant to organisational objectives requires extensive planning that could be facilitated by impact mapping. This article examines ways to understand social impact from a practice-based perspective informed by a 2014 media production project. Based on the assumption that a broad frame of reference is required to position community media outcomes within a range of evidence unique to each context, an evaluation mapping schema is proposed that draws on existing frameworks such as a Social Impact Creation Cycle, Social Return on Investment, and Communication for Social Change, approaches that have continuous review in common. The case for a ‘meta’ approach arises from pragmatic realities manifested as a variety of issues known to occur in community media practice. Resourcing arrangements can shape the relative importance attached to measurement, according to different stakeholder objectives. Capturing the outcomes of community media, created from the shared efforts of diverse teams of stakeholders with multiple objectives, can’t be a one size fits all. Research of short-term media effects may be one component of longer-term effectiveness. The distinction in terminology here signals a need to loop short- and long-term outcomes together in a cyclical process.

Tourism as practice

The goal of this article is to (re)theorize tourism from a practice-based perspective by introducing the notion of “tourism as practice”. It aims to familiarize newcomers with different theories of practice and their current connections and future perspectives for tourism research. The paper is a theoretical endeavor supported by an epistemology of practice and empirical works that use practice theories to understand the nature of tourism. I advocate that tourism is a set of organizing practices wherein concepts such as “home” and “away”, “tourist” and “non-tourist”, may not be seen as dualisms but as part of a plenum. Tourism as practice also holds that mobility and performativity are not two distinct “paradigms” but rather core elements of tourism’s practices.

The endogenous construction of entrepreneurial contexts: A practice-based perspective

This article investigates ways through which entrepreneurship scholars can overcome some of the methodological weaknesses preventing a more refined understanding of context. It is suggested that a framework based upon insights from ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and broader ‘practice turn’ in organisation studies can offer new perspectives on the situated nature of entrepreneurial practices. This article contributes to entrepreneurship scholarship in two ways. First, through studying real-time interaction data, it is possible to empirically demonstrate how entrepreneurial actors negotiate contextual constraints as they emerge and dissipate over time. Second, this article provides a framework that we hope will encourage a greater focus on actual instances of practice in entrepreneurship scholarship – something that is currently underrepresented.