Paper Traces (paper + traces)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition

ECONOMICA, Issue 2009
ROGER E. BACKHOUSE
Robbins' Essay gave economics a definition that came to dominate the professional literature. This definition laid a foundation that could be seen as justifying both the narrowing of economic theory to the theory of constrained maximization or rational choice and economists' ventures into other social science fields. Though often presented as self-evidently correct, both the definition itself and the developments that it has been used to support were keenly contested. This paper traces the reception, diffusion and contesting of the Robbins definition, arguing that this process took around three decades and that even then there was still significant dissent. [source]


The Assessment of Land Resources: Achievements and New Challenges

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002
Donald A. Davidson
It is surprising that despite all the pleas and policies regarding the development of sustainable land use systems, there is still considerable ignorance regarding the nature and significance of land resources. This paper traces the development and achievements of land evaluation during the 20th century, with particular reference to soils. The most active period was between 1950 and around 1980 with the development of soil and land capability surveys, methodological advances initiated with the FAO Framework for Land Evaluation, and regional land resource assessments. Thus there were considerable achievements in land evaluation by the early 1980s, and subsequently there have been important advances in the subject through the application of GIS, spatial analysis, modelling and fuzzy set algebra. Since the late 1990s there has been a phenomenal rise in interest in soil quality assessment. Considerable debate has focussed on definition, and methods of assessment and monitoring. The latter part of this paper discusses the major challenges to the development and application of land evaluation. The inadequacy of much soil survey data in terms of variables, quality, spatial coverage and scale is emphasised. Also, there is a continuing need to highlight the centrality of land resource issues in any attempt to develop sustainable land use systems. [source]


The Nation as a Problem: Historians and the "National Question"

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2001
Elías José Palti
How is it that the nation became an object of scholarly research? As this article intends to show, not until what we call the "genealogical view" (which assumes the "natural" and "objective" character of the nation) eroded away could the nation be subjected to critical scrutiny by historians. The starting point and the premise for studies in the field was the revelation of the blind spot in the genealogical view, that is, the discovery of the "modern" and "constructed" character of nations. Historians' views would thus be intimately tied to the "antigenealogical" perspectives of them. However, this antigenealogical view would eventually reveal its own blind spots. This paper traces the different stages of reflection on the nation, and how the antigenealogical approach would finally be rendered problematic, exposing, in turn, its own internal fissures. [source]


The Devil's Insatiable Sex: A Genealogy of Evil Incarnate

HYPATIA, Issue 1 2003
MARGARET DENIKE
This paper traces the political economy of the Christian concept of "evil" incarnate and its concomitant operations of sexual abjection and the repudiation of femininity, beginning with the early church's inaugural struggles to impose its monotheistic Law against maternal paganism. With attention to how "evil" has been deployed to sanction and sanctify the persecution of scapegoats, and particularly of heretics and witches, I examine the masculinist struggles for jurisdiction and control over women. [source]


The story of socio-technical design: reflections on its successes, failures and potential

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006
Enid Mumford
Abstract., This paper traces the history of socio-technical design, emphasizing the set of values it embraces, the people espousing its theory and the organizations that practise it. Its role in the implementation of computer systems and its impact in a number of different countries are stressed. It also shows its relationship with action research, as a humanistic set of principles aimed at increasing human knowledge while improving practice in work situations. Its evolution in the 1960s and 1970s evidencing improved working practices and joint agreements between workers and management are contrasted with the much harsher economic climate of the 1980s and 1990s when such principled practices, with one or two notable exceptions, gave way to lean production, downsizing and cost cutting in a global economy, partly reflecting the impact of information and communications technology. Different future scenarios are discussed where socio-technical principles might return in a different guise to humanize the potential impact of technology in a world of work where consistent organizational and economic change are the norm. [source]


The struggle for methodological orthodoxy in nursing research: The case of mental health

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 2 2003
Edward White
ABSTRACT: This paper is not intended as an exhaustive review of contemporary mental health nursing research. Rather, the intention is to explore some of the competing arguments for different methodological approaches in social research, using mental health nursing as a case example. The paper questions the extent to which the artificially dichotomized debate over quantitative versus qualitative research impacts upon the working lives of practitioners, managers and policy makers. In particular, the paper traces the development of survey method, during this its centennial anniversary year. It also traces its subsequent decline, in favour of what will be referred to as the new methodological orthodoxy in nursing research. It is also interwoven with occasional accounts of personal experience, drawn from an international perspective. The paper calls for a rapprochement between different wings of methodological opinion, in deference to a publicly unified position for nursing research in which the achievement of quality becomes the over-arching concern. [source]


The Archaeology of the Kelp Industry in the Northern Islands of Ireland

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2006
W. Forsythe
The manufacture of kelp in Ireland from the 17th to early 20th centuries provided soda and later iodine for contemporary industries. It was an immensely important element of coastal economies, and notably for island communities, often impoverished and with limited agricultural means. This paper traces the origins and development of the industry in Ireland and examines the evidence for production in the islands off the northern coast. The results of a recent survey of surviving kelp monuments are presented. The form of the monuments, in particular kilns, is considered as well as the role of the industry in island economies. © 2006 The Author [source]


The alien tort and the global rule of law

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 185 2005
Ruti Teitel
This paper traces the genealogy of legal developments regarding the expansion of civil jurisdiction for human rights abuses. It endeavours to illuminate the relation between these civil remedy developments in alien tort action and globalisation. It elucidates the dimensions of this development, implied by the transformations in substantive and procedural jurisdiction, as well as in legal personality, and subjectivity, reflecting upon the ways that these normative changes help to constitute global rule of law. It ends by concluding that, whatever their contribution, these transnational remedies are best conceived as complementary to the protections offered by state legal systems. [source]


"The Outside Is the Result of an Inside": Some Sources of One of Modernism's Most Persistent Doctrines

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2002
THOMAS L. SCHUMACHER
One of the most pervasive doctrines of composition for modernism was the necessary correspondence between the interior and the exterior as expressed in Le Corbusier's maxim, "The outside is the result of an inside." Many Modern movement architects interpreted this maxim as requiring that both "space" and "program" be expressed on the exterior of their buildings. Although Modern movement architects and theorists themselves wrote little on this subject, a number of earlier writings, including some nineteenth- and twentieth-century books by traditionalists, reveal the academic roots of these precepts. This paper traces the development of these ideas. [source]


Prospective Registration of Clinical Trials in India: Strategies, Achievements & Challenges

JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE, Issue 1 2009
Prathap Tharyan
Abstract Objective This paper traces the development of the Clinical Trial Registry-India (CTRI) against the backdrop of the inequities in healthcare and the limitations in the design, conduct, regulation, oversight and reporting of clinical trials in India. It describes the scope and goals of the CTRI, the data elements it seeks and the process of registering clinical trials. It reports progress in trial registration in India and discusses the challenges in ensuring that healthcare decisions are informed by all the evidence. Methods A descriptive survey of developments in clinical trial registration in India from publications in the Indian medical literature supplemented by firsthand knowledge of these developments and an evaluation of how well clinical trials registered in the CTRI up to 10 January, 2009 comply with the requirements of the CTRI and the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trial Registry (WHO ICTRP). Results Considerable inequities exist within the Indian health system. Deficiencies in healthcare provision and uneven regulation of, and access to, affordable healthcare co-exists with a large private health system of uneven quality. India is now a preferred destination for outsourced clinical trials but is plagued by poor ethical oversight of the many trial sites and scant information of their existence. The CTRI's vision of conforming to international requirements for transparency and accountability but also using trial registration as a means of improving trial design, conduct and reporting led to the selection of registry-specific dataset items in addition to those endorsed by the WHO ICTRP. Compliance with these requirements is good for the trials currently registered but these trials represent only a fraction of the trials in progress in India. Conclusion Prospective trial registration is a reality in India. The challenges facing the CTRI include better engagement with key stakeholders to ensure increased prospective registration of clinical trials and utilization of existing legislative opportunities to complement these efforts. [source]


Tours of Duty, Cross-Identification and Introjection: The Colonial Administrative Mind in Wartime Indochina

JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2-3 2008
ANNE RAFFIN
Others have linked policymaking to the use of colonial space as experimental laboratories of modernity; while others assert that the overseas was a terrain for finding solutions to some of the political, social and aesthetic problems which were affecting France at the time. In contrast, this paper traces how colonial policies can be explained at the level of individual colonial administrators. It does so not only by reference to the social backgrounds of officials, but also their inner "psychic processes." This study addresses the colonial tendency to imagine cross-identification between France and the colony. It presents three case studies of colonial officials in Indochina to investigate how administrators' perceptions of France became projected onto the colonies, and how one of them incorporated within himself some of the attributes of the colonized, an example of introjection. It is argued that these processes had an impact on policymaking. My theoretical goal with this piece was to apply a psychoanalytic approach to the study of the empire. [source]


Social development: the intellectual heritage

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2003
James Midgley
Because social development is primarily concerned with practical matters, little attention has been paid to the ideas, concepts and theories that inform social development interventions. Most publications on social development make little reference to theoretical issues, and most practitioners are unaware of the conceptual derivation of their activities. However, although seldom recognized or acknowledged, social development practice has, in a subtle and indirect way, been informed and shaped by a variety of intellectual ideas that, in turn, reveal a commitment to different normative perspectives. This paper traces the contribution these perspectives have made to social development over the years. By documenting this intellectual heritage, it hopes to promote a greater awareness of theoretical issues and, at the same time, to foster social development's conceptualization. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Agricultural policies and the emergence of cotton as the dominant crop in northern Côte d'Ivoire: Historical overview and current outlook

NATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 2 2009
Oluyede Clifford Ajayi
Abstract In most of sub-Saharan Africa, where the agricultural sector experiences dismal performance and is characterized by a gloomy picture, the cotton sub-sector in Côte d'Ivoire is often mentioned as a "success story" given the spectacular rise in the quantity of cotton production and the profile of the crop within the farming system. What are the historical and political antecedents of the development of cotton and the factors responsible for the feat accomplished in the midst of general failures in the same continent? To what extent can cotton be regarded as a "success story" and, what lessons can be drawn for agricultural development strategies based on the Ivorian case study? This paper traces the historical and socio-political background of cotton development in Côte d'Ivoire and identifies key policy and institutional interventions that have influenced the rise of cotton production and its emergence as the dominant crop in the farming systems of the country. Four stages in Ivorian cotton development are identified: planning, take off, crisis and the renaissance phases. The study demonstrates how a combination of good planning, technological advancement and appropriate policy and institutional conditions have contributed significantly to the rise of cotton production and its influence on the agricultural economy of northern Côte d'Ivoire. The study also highlights how the sustainability of agricultural development has been impacted by domestic and international policies and political events over which smallholder farm families have little control, and can at best only respond to. Important questions about cotton development in Côte d'Ivoire are raised that need to be answered before the program can be categorized conclusively as a success story. The study shows that there are no quick fixes to agricultural development in the sub-region. Rather, good planning and putting the necessary building blocks in place are important prerequisites. It is recommended that agricultural development efforts in the continent take cognizance of the complexity of the sector and address the inter-relationships that exist among the technical, policy, market and institutional factors that combine individually and collectively to influence African agriculture. [source]


Making New Zealanders through commemoration: Assembling Anzac Day in Auckland, 1916,1939

NEW ZEALAND GEOGRAPHER, Issue 1 2006
Matthew Henry
Abstract:, Anzac Day in New Zealand has been traditionally framed within a nationalist discourse, in which the events of the day have provided the medium for the remembrance of a singular national event. Moving beyond this interpretative tradition the paper examines Anzac Day as a moment in the exercise of an ongoing governmental power concerned with issues of contemporary conduct. Focusing on interwar Auckland the paper traces the assemblage of time, space and rhetoric, which enabled the production of a commemorative, governmental landscape. [source]


The Evolution of the Allied Social Science Associations

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 5 2008
Betsy Jane Clary
The organization of the meetings of the approximately 50 economics associations of the Allied Social Science Associations has evolved over the past 140 years, beginning with meetings of the American Social Science Association in 1865, which included social scientists from political science, history, sociology, and economics. Out of this association, the separate disciplines formed their own organizations beginning in the 1880s. Though several of these associations continued to meet together until the 1930s, each discipline gradually separated its meetings from those of the others. During the 1940s, however, other newly formed economics associations began meeting at the same time and place as the AEA, and the Allied Social Science Associations evolved out of these meetings. Though the name of the organization includes "social science," the associations meeting together are predominately, if not completely, economics associations. These associations, however, profess many different approaches to the study of economics. This paper traces the evolution of these meetings and attempts to come to some conclusions concerning the significance of this association, the most important of which is the role of the ASSA in providing a broad and tolerant platform and a vehicle through which different points of view toward economic theory and policy can be discussed. [source]


Rural mobility as a response to land shortages: the case of Malawi

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 4 2006
Deborah Potts
Abstract Malawi is the most densely populated country in southern Africa, and its economy and the livelihoods of the vast majority of its people are dependent on agriculture. Rural land is, therefore, a critical resource. Malawi is divided into three Regions and during the colonial period, such economic development as did occur tended to be concentrated in the Southern Region. The Northern Region was often characterised, by contrast, as the ,dead North'. Levels of economic development in the Central Region fell between the other two regions. At independence in the 1960s, internal migration patterns reflected this, with net in-migration to the Southern Region and net out-migration from the Northern. In the 40 years since, there have been marked changes in these patterns, and in the last intercensal period, 1987,1998, the Northern Region was experiencing net in-migration from the Southern Region, and was the fastest growing region. This paper traces these changes over time through analysis of census data, and relates them to increasingly serious land shortages in the south and the geography of tobacco estate development since independence. This analysis is further supported by a range of other surveys and research which indicate the depth of land shortage and rural poverty in the south of the country. The paper concludes that rural,rural migration, although under-studied, particularly in southern Africa, is a vitally important aspect of rural livelihood change and positive adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa which deserves more attention. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


V,Where is Philosophy at the Start of the Twenty-First Century?

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (HARDBACK), Issue 1 2003
Graham Priest
This paper sketches an analysis of the development of 20th-century philosophy. Starting with the foundational work of Frege and Husserl, the paper traces two parallel strands of philosophy developing from their work. It diagnoses three phases of development: the optimistic phase, the pessimistic phase, and finally the phase of fragmentation. The paper ends with some speculations as to where philosophy will go this century. [source]


On the hazards of being a stranger to oneself,

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2008
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone
Abstract This paper traces out the socio-political consequences of self-ignorance and self-deception. These consequences were clearly recognized more than 2,000 years ago by early Greek philosophers, in part along the lines of ,a conceit of wisdom'. The consequences were more recently spelled out in striking ways by Carl Jung in his psychoanalytic analyses of ,mass-minded man' who, through self-ignorance and self-deception, wreaks havoc and cruelty on others. The paper also points up the challenge of attaining self-knowledge and possible paths to its attainment that bolster or augment classic psychotherapeutic approaches. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Devil is in the (Bio)diversity: Private Sector "Engagement" and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2010
Kenneth Iain MacDonald
Abstract:, Intensified relations between biodiversity conservation organizations and private-sector actors are analyzed through a historical perspective that positions biodiversity conservation as an organized political project. Within this view the organizational dimensions of conservation exist as coordinated agreement and action among a variety of actors that take shape within radically asymmetrical power relations. This paper traces the privileged position of "business" in aligning concepts of sustainable development and ecological modernization within the emerging institutional context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Environment Facility in ways that help to secure continued access to "nature as capital", and create the institutional conditions to shape the work of conservation organizations. The contemporary emergence of business as a major actor in shaping contemporary biodiversity conservation is explained in part by the organizational characteristics of modernist conservation that subordinates it to larger societal and political projects such as neoliberal capitalism. [source]


THE HISTORY OF THE BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY PROJECT IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, AND APPLYING NUCLEAR METHODS TO THE FINE ARTS

ARCHAEOMETRY, Issue 2 2007
G. HARBOTTLE
This paper traces the events leading up to the formation of a project in 1954, in the Chemistry Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory, dedicated to the application of those new developments that were rapidly transforming postwar nuclear science to the parallel humanistic disciplines of archaeology and the fine arts. The further evolution of this effort involved the enlightened support of the Department of Energy (then AEC and ERDA) coupled with the lively interests of the archaeological, fine-arts and art-historical communities, their professional academics and the many graduate and undergraduate students who participated in the Brookhaven project. But more than new scientific methodologies, concepts and instrumentation were deployed. What developed was a large-scale, truly interdisciplinary effort, where scholars of the humanities and sciences worked side by side in a remarkable way, each led by the other, to the mutual benefit and increase of their knowledge and understanding. A paradigm of co-operation between arts and sciences was initiated: this paper presents a record of the process and its outcome, a novel blending of science and humanism that is very much taken for granted by research workers today. [source]


,MERELY MECHANICAL': ON THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYRIGHT IN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN

ART HISTORY, Issue 1 2008
ANNE MCCAULEY
The invention of the medium of photography and its commercialization as a cheap multiple during the 1850s and 1860s led to challenges to extant copyright laws in France and Great Britain. This paper traces the ways that debates over photographic copyright confronted current understandings of originality and mechanization and repeated arguments that had already been raised by laws governing prints and casts. The British Fine Arts Copyright Act of 1862, which extended statutory protection to all photographs, is contrasted with French cases, which struggled to accommodate photographs within the fine arts as defined by the copyright law of 1793. [source]


Master-planned residential developments: Beyond iconic spaces of neoliberalism?

ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 2 2009
Pauline McGuirk
Abstract Master-planned residential development has proliferated as a new residential phenomenon in metropolitan areas globally. The trend, the new governance mechanisms it entails and resultant forms of urban development have been critically theorised as products and vectors of neoliberalisation and iconic spaces of the neoliberal city. However, tracing the emergence and enactment of master-planned residential estate (MPRE) development in Sydney, Australia, this paper suggests that more contingent and contextualised theorisations of such spaces can reveal possibilities for animating a different politics of MPREs. Deploying theorisation sensitive to the multiple drivers, logics and political projects played out through MPRE development in situated contexts, the paper traces the political genesis of these developments in Sydney, outlines the multiple drivers and logics accounting for their growing popularity and points to the salience of the complex performance of land and housing markets in their production. The post-structural political economy approach used here to investigate MPRE development can overcome the politically constraining effects of the dominant neoliberal critique. It does so, first, by opening analysis up to the importance of logics, actions and contexts that are irreducible to neoliberalism and, second, by gesturing towards the potential for an alternative politics to be animated through mechanisms, techniques and processes of MPRE development habitually associated with neoliberalism. [source]


The Asian Financial Crisis: An East Asian Perspective

ASIAN-PACIFIC ECONOMIC LITERATURE, Issue 1 2000
Jesus P. Estanislao
Two views dominate the academic discussion of the root cause of the Asian crisis: the ,panic-illiquidity' view and the ,moral hazard-structural' view. This paper traces the factors that contributed to the build-up of financial vulnerabilities across the affected economies and compares these two accounts of the crisis. The paper argues that the two views are complementary in that policy prescriptions derived from one that disregard the prescriptions from the other would be incomplete. It summarises the medium and long-term post-crisis policy directions at the national, regional and international levels. [source]


Ted White's Legacy to Gibbsite Precipitation Research

ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 5-6 2002
D. Ilievski
Professor E.T. (Ted) White's direct contribution to the understanding of gibbsite precipitation and to the modelling of this process has been enormous. In addition, he has had, and will continue to have, a profound indirect influence on developments in this area through former students, their students, and others following upon work that he has pioneered. The outcomes have been both academically and commercially important. The precipitation of gibbsite (aluminium trihydroxide) is a critical step in the production of alumina from bauxite, and Australia produces over 25% of the world's smelter grade alumina, earning about $3.5bn in revenue. This paper traces some of the recent developments in this area that have built upon the foundations laid by the seminal studies of Ted and his students. [source]


Commentary: Business,Black Swans,and the,Use and Abuse,of a Notion

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 2 2010
Graeme Dean
Historical enquiry reveals how ideas mutate. This paper traces how ideas and practices underpinning initial understandings of fair value accounting (FVA) have changed as the concept drifted from the utility rate-setting context to that of corporate financial reporting. The recall of history for the purpose of ,learning lessons from the past' has frequently resulted in misunderstandings of the historical record and misapplication of so-called lessons. A more fruitful approach to recalling history is to gain insights into the development of the ideas (good and bad) that have contributed to current predicaments. Initially fair value was the basis for specific pricing calculations related to companies with a highly restricted scope of operations. Later, more by accident than design, the concept became a general purpose application used in the financial statements of highly and freely adaptive companies. The mark-to-market (MtM) dispute emerging in the global financial crisis (GFC) has given rise to a further mutation of the use of FVA. Discarding MtM contradicts what history tells us was the purpose of adopting fair value into accounting for adaptive companies. This analysis also highlights how conducive accounting theory and practice are subject to politicisation. Accounting is an apparently unresisting victim of interested parties' special pleading, resulting in the corruption of its technical function , in this case primarily because it is inconvenient to have accounting data,tell it how it is. [source]


The Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board after the Implementation of CLERP 9

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 42 2007
CHRISTINE JUBS
This paper traces the establishment of the reconstituted Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB) as a result of the CLERP (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004, and its progress in developing auditing standards that are "in the public interest". The paper canvasses the composition of the AUASB, its transparency and due process, its relationship with the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Council, and its resourcing and attitude to researching issues of importance in auditing. The paper discusses methods that might be used to provide evidence of the efficacy of the reforms to auditing standard-setting. [source]


Religious Migration and Political Upheaval: German Moravians at Bethel in South Australia, 1851,1907

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 3 2010
Felicity Jensz
During the evangelical awakening of eighteenth-century Europe, numerous religious communities were founded in order to create a geographical space in which religious and social identities could be constructed, including several communities of the Moravian Church. This Protestant Episcopal Church was based in Germany, but expanded from the mid-eighteenth century throughout the colonial world in response to political turmoil. This paper traces the establishment of the Moravian town of Bethel in South Australia and the role of religion and ethnic backgrounds in the identification processes of Europeans in the British colonial world. It further analyses the role of politics both locally and internationally in the formation of such a settlement, and the dynamic exchange between the European headquarters of the Brethren and the "colony" of Moravians in South Australia in order to demonstrate how interactions between migration and religion affected the European world. [source]


Great Expectations?: The Dubious Financial Legacy of Quality Audits

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000
Tracey A. Swift
In recent years there appears to have been a veritable boom in the provision of ,quality audits', that is, audits of organizations' production processes and management systems. Despite the rising significance of this international audit movement affecting hundreds of thousands of organizations world-wide, there has been limited interest in, or critique of, the practice of quality audit by academic auditing researchers. This paper traces the history of quality assurance standards and auditing and finds that quality auditing is not simply an outgrowth of an engineering inspection function. Rather, for several decades, quality auditors have consciously modelled their practice on that of the statutory financial audit, which in turn, exposes them to similar issues with regard to the long standing ,expectations gap' debate. Yet, despite what the authors argue are critical links with the financial audit, there has not been any notable involvement on the part of the accounting profession with quality auditing. The growing demand for ,added-value' audits poses considerable questions for the future development and organizational significance of quality auditing. Current developments in both quality and financial audit services suggest that these two influential audit movements are now competing against each other to promote business excellence and contribute to business strategy. [source]


Prostaglandins, bioassay and inflammation

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY, Issue S1 2006
R J Flower
The formation of the British Pharmacological Society coincided almost exactly with a series of ground-breaking studies that ushered in an entirely new field of research , that of lipid mediator pharmacology. For many years following their chemical characterisation, lipids were considered only to be of dietary or structural importance. From the 1930s, all this changed , slowly at first and then more dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s with the emergence of the prostaglandins (PGs), the first intercellular mediators to be clearly derived from lipids, in a dynamic on-demand system. The PGs exhibit a wide range of biological activities that are still being evaluated and their properties underlie the action of one of the world's all-time favourite medicines, aspirin, as well as its more modern congeners. This paper traces the development of the PG field, with particular emphasis on the skilful utilisation of the twin techniques of bioassay and analytical chemistry by U.K. and Swedish scientists, and the intellectual interplay between them that led to the award of a joint Nobel Prize to the principal researchers in the PG field, half a century after the first discovery of these astonishingly versatile mediators. British Journal of Pharmacology (2006) 147, S182,S192. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0706506 [source]


From sustainable management to sustainable development: a longitudinal analysis of a leading New Zealand environmental reporter

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2006
Helen Tregidga
Abstract This paper reports the results of an interpretive textual analysis of New Zealand's most consistent and arguably leading reporter on environmental and social impacts. Since 1995, Watercare Services Ltd, an Auckland-based water utility, has been an award winning environmental reporter. The paper works with all of the organization's reports since 1993 through 2003 identifying and analysing the emergence and development of a sustainable development discourse. Focusing on the language and images used to construct meanings, and the context in which the reports emerged, the paper traces the organization's reporting developments. The paper illustrates how, in evolving from environmental reports to sustainable development reports, the organization has (re)constructed itself from one that sustainably manages resources to one that practises sustainable development. The implications of these developments are explored in terms of the literature on ,capture' and organizational change. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]