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Received Wisdom (received + wisdom)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	58%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	33%

Selected Abstracts

Uncovering the value of the right word

BOARD LEADERSHIP: POLICY GOVERNANCE IN ACTION, Issue 58 2001
Caroline Oliver
Most people join boards for selfless reasons, because they want to "make a difference." Received wisdom tells us that making a difference is grueling and overwhelming work, and unfortunately the muddled governance procedures of most boards seem to prove the case. In this article, Caroline Oliver, chair of the International Policy Governance Association, shows us why the Policy Governance board must disabuse itself of the orthodoxy that says that there is a one-to-one relationship between effort and effectiveness. Relying on just a handful of concise policies, the Policy Governance board dictates a whole range of organizational ends and so has more time to govern than the board that busies itself with staff means. The Policy Governance board may have a more straightforward job than the traditional board, but it is also more effective. [source]

What Happens to the State in Conflict?: Political Analysis as a Tool for Planning Humanitarian Assistance

DISASTERS, Issue 4 2000
Lionel Cliffe
It is now part of received wisdom that humanitarian assistance in conflict and post-conflict situations may be ineffective or even counterproductive in the absence of an informed understanding of the broader political context in which so-called ,complex political emergencies' (CPEs) occur. Though recognising that specific cases have to be understood in their own terms, this article offers a framework for incorporating political analysis in policy design. It is based on a programme of research on a number of countries in Africa and Asia over the last four years. It argues that the starting-point should be an analysis of crises of authority within contemporary nation-states which convert conflict (a feature of all political systems) into violent conflict; of how such conflict may in turn generate more problems for, or even destroy, the state; of the deep-rooted political, institutional and developmental legacies of political violence; and of the difficulties that complicate the restoration of legitimate and effective systems of governance after the ,termination' of conflict. It then lists a series of questions which such an analysis would need to ask , less in order to provide a comprehensive check-list than to uncover underlying political processes and links. It is hoped these may be used not only to understand the political dynamics of emergencies, but also to identify what kinds of policy action should and should not be given priority by practitioners. [source]

"GEOGRAPHY IS TWINNED WITH DIVINITY": THE LAUDIAN GEOGRAPHY OF PETER HEYLYN

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2000
Article first published online: 21 APR 2010, Dr. ROBERT J. MAYHEW
ABSTRACT. This critical history of geography looks to the political concepts that historical actors held and analyzes the incorporation of these concepts into geography. Peter Heylyn, who politicized his geographical books Microcosmus (1621) and, still more, Cosmographie (1657), followed William Laud's characteristic brand of High Church Anglicanism, avowedly hostile both to Roman Catholicism and to Calvinist forms of Protestantism, while upholding an ideal of the Church of England as both independent and apostolic. Further, Laudians were stalwart defendants of monarchy as a divine institution. This Laudian vision of church and state informed Heylyn's geographical works, which goes against a received wisdom that they are divorced from his polemical historical, political, and theological tracts. We thus recover the politics of early modern geography as contemporaries might have understood them. [source]

If the Armada Had Landed: A Reappraisal of England's Defences in 1588

HISTORY, Issue 311 2008
NEIL YOUNGER
The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 stands as one of the greatest triumphs of Elizabeth I's reign, but, the success of the navy notwithstanding, received wisdom presents the land defences as woefully inadequate. This article shows that the existing picture of the English preparations is flawed in several ways and that they were better organized, more efficient and more willing than has been recognized. The privy council was called upon to deploy limited forces to defend a long coastline against an unpredictable attacker, and the evidence shows that they contrived to maximize the effectiveness of the available resources whilst balancing the calls of military practicality, financial necessity and political constraints. An assessment is also made of the response from the counties, using the mobilization as a test case of the structures put in place by the Elizabethan regime to deal with such an emergency. [source]

Who Decides in the Council of the European Union?*

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 3 2008
FRANK M. HÄGE
This study presents reliable cross-sectoral data on the relative involvement of working parties, senior committees and ministers in legislative decision-making of the Council of the European Union. In general, the results challenge the received wisdom that ministers are hardly involved in legislative decision-making. However, the findings also indicate that the involvement of different Council levels varies considerably across policy sectors. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the debate about the democratic legitimacy of Council decision-making. [source]

Against Desert as a Forward-Looking Concept

JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2009
PETER CELELLO
abstract Fred Feldman and, more recently, David Schmidtz have challenged the standard view that a person's desert is based strictly on past and present facts about him. I argue that Feldman's attempt to overturn this ,received wisdom' about desert's temporal orientation is unsuccessful, since his examples do not establish that what a person deserves now can be based on what will occur in the future. In addition, his forward-looking account introduces an unnecessary asymmetry regarding desert's temporal orientation in different contexts. Schmidtz advances a promissory account of desert, only part of which presents a strong challenge to the received wisdom. After disambiguating the two main elements of his account, I examine Schmidtz's arguments for forward-looking desert. I find these arguments to be unconvincing because they seem to either rely on past or present facts about people, including people's dispositions, or they give us desert without desert bases. I briefly examine the relationship between desert and merit, and I argue that some dispositions might be desert bases and others might be merit bases. I conclude the paper with a summary of the arguments against desert as a forward-looking concept. [source]

A POST-KEYNESIAN AMENDMENT TO THE NEW CONSENSUS ON MONETARY POLICY

METROECONOMICA, Issue 2 2006
Article first published online: 24 APR 200, Marc Lavoie
ABSTRACT A common view is now pervasive in policy research at universities and central banks, which one could call the New Keynesian consensus, based on an endogenous money supply. This new consensus reproduces received wisdom: in the long run, expansionary fiscal policy leads to higher inflation rates and real interest rates, while more restrictive monetary policy only leads to lower inflation rates. The paper provides a simple four-quadrant apparatus to represent the above, and it shows that simple modifications to the new consensus model are enough to radically modify received doctrine as to the likely effects of fiscal and monetary policies. [source]

Diabetes mellitus and female lower urinary tract symptoms: A review

NEUROUROLOGY AND URODYNAMICS, Issue 5 2008
Simon R. Hill
Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) has reached epidemic proportions world wide. Many chronic complications of DM, including neuropathy, retinopathy and nephropathy, have been well studied and although urologic complications have been recognized since 1935, little is known about DM as a pathophysiological risk factor for development of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in women. Diabetic nephropathy, a life-threatening condition, has received considerable attention in the last few years. Diabetic cystopathy, on the other hand, has received far less attention despite having a significant impact on quality of life, and with significant individual health risks. Initial studies suggested that long standing DM causes paralysis of the detrusor muscle leading to voiding difficulties and this has been the received wisdom regarding diabetic cystopathy for many years. In this review, we discuss what is currently known about lower urinary tract function and urinary incontinence in diabetic females, with a critical analysis of the available evidence and suggest areas for future research. Neurourol. Urodynam. 27:362,367, 2008. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Understanding Economic Crises: The Great Depression and the 2008 Recession

THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 2010
LEE E. OHANIAN
Economic crises, involving large and persistent declines in output and employment, are puzzles, particularly in developed countries with economies that typically function at a high level. This article analyses the Great Depression and the 2008 recession using recent developments in business cycle diagnostic procedures, and finds that the key to both episodes is understanding labour market distortions that resulted in the marginal product of labour being much higher than the marginal rate of substitution between consumption and leisure. This finding stands in sharp contrast to the received wisdom, which focuses on the role of banking crises and capital market distortions. The article also discusses possible hypotheses for these labour market distortions. [source]

Policy governance and "best practices"

BOARD LEADERSHIP: POLICY GOVERNANCE IN ACTION, Issue 82 2005
John Carver
A popular phrase that has grown in use over the past couple of decades is "best practices." In this article, John Carver explains why proponents of Policy Governance tend to shy away from the expression. Carver does not object to the notion that it is desirable to make small-scale improvements in individual practices, but he points out that such activity is in itself insufficient to truly improve governance since it implies a reliance on already established conceptual frameworks. Policy Governance calls for a break with received wisdom and the adoption of a more logical governance framework. Once within the structure of Policy Governance, however, boards should indeed look for ways to improve their practices. [source]

Against Desert as a Forward-Looking Concept

Empowering Pyromaniacs in Madagascar: Ideology and Legitimacy in Community-Based Natural Resource Management

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2002
Christian A. Kull
Development practitioners frequently rely on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) as an approach to encourage equitable and sustainable environmental resource use. Based on an analysis of the case of grassland and woodland burning in highland Madagascar, this article argues that the success of CBNRM depends upon the real empowerment of local resource users and attention to legitimacy in local institutions. Two key factors , obstructive environmental ideologies (,received wisdoms') and the complex political and social arena of ,community' governance , challenge empowerment and legitimacy and can transform outcomes. In Madagascar, persistent hesitancy among leaders over the legitimate role of fire has sidetracked a new CBNRM policy called GELOSE away from one of its original purposes , community fire management , towards other applications, such as community management of forest exploitation. In addition, complications with local governance frustrate implementation efforts. As a result, a century-long political stalemate over fire continues. [source]