Critical Debate (critical + debate)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Multiculturalism and Law: A Critical Debate.

LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 4 2009
By Omid A. Payrow Shabani
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


The Regional Environment and a Firm's Innovative Performance: A Plea for a Multilevel Interactionist Approach

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2007
Sjoerd Beugelsdijk
Abstract: Following the recent critical debate on the role of the firm versus that of the region, this article contends that for a true test of the importance of the role of the region for a firm's innovative performance firm-specific heterogeneity needs to be minimized. Empirical studies have tended to deduce that the region matters from the macrophenomenon of regional clusters of economic activity. This deduction has led to an ecological fallacy, in which global phenomena or data aggregates that are actual representations of lower-level phenomena cannot be generalized to those lower levels. This article argues that if researchers want to analyze how a firm's environment affects its performance, they need to include firm-level strategy and structure. As an empirical illustration of this argument, the article presents a test,controlling for a number of firm-specific factors,of whether regional characteristics like the intensity of regional research and development (R&D), the number of R&D workers in the region, and the presence of a research institute are significantly related to a firm's ability to produce innovations. The findings suggest that the firm-specific drivers of innovation are more important than is a firm's regional environment. The article concludes that a renewed focus on the main actors and their interrelationships is needed, particularly those that involve the exchange of knowledge, to assess the extent to which such interactions are carried out within bounded territories. [source]


How Zaynab Became the First Arabic Novel

HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009
Elliott Colla
This paper is part of a History Compass conference cluster tracing the formation of national culture in Egypt. Guest edited by Walter Armbrust, this cluster of articles was originally part of a conference in Oxford on January 12,13, 2007, organized by Walter Armbrust, Ronald Nettler, and Lucie Ryzova, and funded by the Middle East Centre (St. Antony's), The Faculty of Oriental Studies, The Khalid bin ,Abdullah Al-Sa'ud Professorship (Professor Clive Holes), and The Centre for Political Ideologies. The cluster is made up of the following articles: Guest Editor: Walter Armbrust ,The Formation of National Culture in Egypt in the Interwar Period: Cultural Trajectories', Walter Armbrust, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00571.x,Repackaging the Egyptian Monarchy: Faruq in the Public Spotlight, 1936,1939', Matthew Ellis, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00572.x,How Zaynab Became the First Arabic Novel', Elliott Colla, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00573.x,Women in the Singing Business, Women in Songs', Frédéric Lagrange, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00574.x,Long Live Patriarchy: Love in the Time of ,Abd al-Wahhab', Walter Armbrust, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00575.x,Football as National Allegory: Al-Ahram and the Olympics in 1920s Egypt', Shaun Lopez, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00576.x,The Professional Worldview of the Effendi Historian', Yoav Di-Capua, History Compass 6 (2008), DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00577.x Despite a long-standing critical consensus that Muhammad Husayn Haykal's 1914 novel Zaynab was the first ,mature' Arabic novel, there is much evidence to the contrary. First, in terms of genre, Zaynab was not the first book calling itself by the term that later critics would call ,novel'; second, in terms of the bibliographic record, it was not a unique book on the cultural market in 1914; third, in terms of literary style, it was not at the time a particularly unique formal or thematic experiment in prose fiction; and finally, in terms of reception, it was not recognized as significant even by the small market segment and cultural field in which it initially appeared. This article revisits this critical debate and suggests that the canonization of Zaynab as the first Arabic novel cannot be explained by the work itself, but rather by subsequent developments , most especially, in the film adaptations of the novel and in the nationalization of university curricula during the Nasserist period. [source]


Reflective practice and clinical supervision: meticulous rituals of the confessional

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2001
Tony Gilbert BA MSc PhD RN PGCE
Reflective practice and clinical supervision: meticulous rituals of the confessional Background.,Reflective practice and clinical supervision are progressively asserting hegemony upon nursing practice with claims of emancipation and empowerment. However, this is being achieved in an environment where there is little critical debate about the assumptions on which these practices are based. Aim.,This paper sets out to challenge the basis upon which reflective practice and clinical supervision are promoted within nursing discourse by employing Michel Foucault's (1982) concept of governmentality. Theme.,A broad Foucauldian perspective is used to demonstrate how the technologies of reflective practice and clinical supervision have been accommodated within modern forms of government. These technologies are consistent with the flattened hierarchies and increasing dispersal of practitioners in contemporary health care. In this context reflective practice and clinical supervision can be shown to function in two independent but interrelated ways. First as modes of surveillance disciplining the activity of professionals. Second, as ,confessional' practices that work to produce particular identities , autonomous and self-regulating. [source]


An exploration of mental health nursing students' experiences and attitudes towards using cigarettes to change client's behaviour

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 8 2010
M. J. NASH msc pclt bsc (hons) rnt rmn fhea
Accessible summary ,,This study explores the experiences of mental health nursing students in using cigarettes as a means of token economy. ,,The majority of the sample experienced the use of this particular intervention in various settings but also reported that other items apart from cigarettes were also used as part of a reward system. ,,Respondents generally did not like this practice, feeling that it did not work well, led to client staff conflict, was implemented in an ad hoc way and rarely recorded in a care plan. ,,An open debate on tobacco control and the use of cigarettes in behavioural change programmes is urgently required. Abstract Using cigarettes to change client behaviour is a common, yet little studied, practice in mental health care. A questionnaire survey was used to explore mental health nursing student's experiences and attitudes to this practice. The sample was four cohorts of mental health nursing students (n= 151). Of them, 84% had experienced the practice of using cigarettes to change client behaviour in acute wards (73%), rehabilitation wards (28%) and elderly care (14%). Cigarettes were used to change client behaviour in areas such as attending to personal hygiene (57%) or engaging in the ward routine (39%). However, items such as leave (60%) or drinks (tea and coffee) (38%) were also reportedly used. Of the respondents, 54% inferred that the practice did not work well with 46% stating it was not written up in care plans; 52% felt it was an ad hoc practice, 60% inferred that at times it was used as a punishment while 55% intimated that they felt bad withholding cigarettes. There are ethical and moral dilemmas around using lifestyle risk factors as rewards or using client's nicotine addiction as a means of controlling behaviour. The question of whether this intervention should ever be used, given its associated health risk, requires more critical debate in clinical practice. [source]


Reinventing the Democratic Governance Project through Information Technology?

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2003
A Growing Agenda for Debate
Postindustrial societies have arrived at a moment of immense democratic and entrepreneurial opportunities that has been made possible by information technology. At the same time, however, these opportunities pose potential threats if they are not debated and planned for in consensually,legitimate ways. This article examines the current problems of representative democracy and the impact of information technology on the current and future quality of democratic governance. Four generic models of "electronic democracy" that are made possible by interactive information Technologies,electronic bureaucracy, information management, populist, and civil society,are analyzed in terms of their applicability and impact. Information technology's impact on the roles, responsibilities, and accountability of citizens, elected representatives, the media, and corporations is also examined. This article proposes strategies for reinventing democratic governance, including recognizing community values, accommodating critical debate, and providing access for citizen participation in policy analysis. [source]


Global Visions and the Establishment of Theories of the Earth

CENTAURUS, Issue 4 2006
Kerry V. Magruder
This essay examines how the emergence of visual representations contributed to the establishment of a new print tradition of multicontextual discourse and critical debate. Four vignettes contrast varying uses of global depictions: the incidental global depictions and mathematical vision of Johannes Kepler; the cosmogonic sections and chemical vision of Robert Fludd; the geogonic sections and mechanical vision of René Descartes; and the global views and classical vision of Thomas Burnet. The continuities of visual conventions and the contrasts of disciplinary perspectives and local contexts observed in these vignettes conforms well to the characterization of Theories of the Earth as an interdisciplinary print tradition. [source]