an article by Heather Rolfe (National Institute of Economic and Social Research) published in National Institute Economic Review Volume 219 Number 1 (January 2012)
Abstract
Conditionality has increasingly been part of benefit entitlement and its effects have been examined in a number of ways. While the focus of previous research has been on general conditions such as job search and acceptance of job offers, this paper examines conditionality specifically in relation to participation in training.
Using data from a qualitative evaluation of a government programme, the Skills Conditionality pilot, the paper uses two hypotheses to critically assess the effectiveness of conditionality as a benefits policy: that it is successful in increasing participation in training; and that it is harmful by reducing time for job search.
Monday, 12 March 2012
Applied taxonomy frameworks
an article by Alan Flett (Smartlogic) and Judi Vernau (Metataxis) published in Business Information Review Volume 28 Number 4 (December 2011)
Abstract
Taxonomy is one of the most used and abused frameworks in all of Knowledge and Information Management. The attraction of taxonomies is obvious: ostensibly they have an everyday simplicity that is familiar to all – they help organize similar things into simple and accessible structures. However, their actual application often leaves a lot to be desired.
There are two main issues that crop up again and again in the application of Taxonomy frameworks.
First, Taxonomy often gets confused with arrangement; that is, classification and interpretation get confused with placement and presentation.
Second, there is often no practicable and principled mechanism for applying the taxonomy to the content.
This article addresses both these issues and maintains that, to be successful, Taxonomy should be held in clear distinction to arrangement and that it needs to be sustainably, consistently, and coherently applied to content.
Abstract
Taxonomy is one of the most used and abused frameworks in all of Knowledge and Information Management. The attraction of taxonomies is obvious: ostensibly they have an everyday simplicity that is familiar to all – they help organize similar things into simple and accessible structures. However, their actual application often leaves a lot to be desired.
There are two main issues that crop up again and again in the application of Taxonomy frameworks.
First, Taxonomy often gets confused with arrangement; that is, classification and interpretation get confused with placement and presentation.
Second, there is often no practicable and principled mechanism for applying the taxonomy to the content.
This article addresses both these issues and maintains that, to be successful, Taxonomy should be held in clear distinction to arrangement and that it needs to be sustainably, consistently, and coherently applied to content.
Big ideas: wellbeing and public policy
a paper CEPCP355 from CentrePiece – The Magazine for Economic Performance February 2012
Richard Layard outlines the development of CEP research on what makes people happy and how society might best be organised to promote happiness.
Full article (PDF 4pp)
Richard Layard outlines the development of CEP research on what makes people happy and how society might best be organised to promote happiness.
Full article (PDF 4pp)
The relationship between networking behaviors and the Big Five personality dimensions
an article by Hans-Georg Wolff, (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany) and Sowon Kim, (University of Geneva) published in Career Development International Volume 17 Issue 1 (2012)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a comprehensive framework to elucidate the relationship between personality and networking. Using the Five Factor Model as a framework, the paper aims to argue that traits tapping into social (i.e. extraversion, agreeableness) and informational (i.e. openness to experience) features are relevant in explaining how individual dispositions facilitate networking behaviours. Moreover, it aims to delineate structural and functional differences in networking (i.e. building, maintaining, and using contacts within and outside the organisation) and to theorise how these differences yield differential relationships of personality traits with networking dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
Online surveys were administered to two samples, from Germany and the UK, respectively (n=351). Structural equation modelling is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Personality traits reflecting social (extraversion) and informational aspects (openness to experience) are broadly related to networking in general. The paper also finds support for differential relationships, for example, agreeableness is related to internal, but not external networking. Both conscientiousness and emotional stability are not related to networking behaviours.
Practical implications
The findings help explain why some individuals experience more barriers to networking than others and can be used in networking trainings. Practitioners should also note that there is more than extraversion to accurately predict networking skills in selection assessments.
Originality/value
The paper provides further insights into determinants of networking, which is an important career self-management strategy. It also offers an integrative framework on the personality-networking relationship as prior research has been fragmentary. Establishing differential relations also furthers understanding on core differences between networking dimensions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a comprehensive framework to elucidate the relationship between personality and networking. Using the Five Factor Model as a framework, the paper aims to argue that traits tapping into social (i.e. extraversion, agreeableness) and informational (i.e. openness to experience) features are relevant in explaining how individual dispositions facilitate networking behaviours. Moreover, it aims to delineate structural and functional differences in networking (i.e. building, maintaining, and using contacts within and outside the organisation) and to theorise how these differences yield differential relationships of personality traits with networking dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
Online surveys were administered to two samples, from Germany and the UK, respectively (n=351). Structural equation modelling is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Personality traits reflecting social (extraversion) and informational aspects (openness to experience) are broadly related to networking in general. The paper also finds support for differential relationships, for example, agreeableness is related to internal, but not external networking. Both conscientiousness and emotional stability are not related to networking behaviours.
Practical implications
The findings help explain why some individuals experience more barriers to networking than others and can be used in networking trainings. Practitioners should also note that there is more than extraversion to accurately predict networking skills in selection assessments.
Originality/value
The paper provides further insights into determinants of networking, which is an important career self-management strategy. It also offers an integrative framework on the personality-networking relationship as prior research has been fragmentary. Establishing differential relations also furthers understanding on core differences between networking dimensions.
Commission on adult vocational education and training
Skills Minister John Hayes has announced that the Principal of City and Islington College Frank McLoughlin CBE will chair the independent commission on adult education and vocation pedagogy.
Mr Hayes said: “It is great news that Frank McLoughlin has agreed to chair this Commission. His wealth of experience in delivering further education and skills in a challenging inner-city environment gives him the right credentials to lead work which will shape the future of teaching and learning for adults in England.”
Read the press notice. (via FE & Skills Newsletter 44th edition)
Mr Hayes said: “It is great news that Frank McLoughlin has agreed to chair this Commission. His wealth of experience in delivering further education and skills in a challenging inner-city environment gives him the right credentials to lead work which will shape the future of teaching and learning for adults in England.”
Read the press notice. (via FE & Skills Newsletter 44th edition)
The letters page
a paper (CEPCP363) by Alan Manning published in CentrePiece – The Magazine for Economic Performance produced by the CEP February 2012
Abstract
Alan Manning questions the value of researchers conducting debates about economic policy through the pages of newspapers.
Full article (PDF 2pp)
Hazel’s comment:
I’d question the wisdom of conducting any debate through the pages of newspapers or on Twitter or, indeed, in any written medium. It is far too easy for words to take on a different meaning in the mind of the reader from that which was in the mind of the writer. Face-to-face debate can be questioned with “Did you really mean what I understood you to be saying?” Much harder to do on paper/screen.
Abstract
Alan Manning questions the value of researchers conducting debates about economic policy through the pages of newspapers.
Full article (PDF 2pp)
Hazel’s comment:
I’d question the wisdom of conducting any debate through the pages of newspapers or on Twitter or, indeed, in any written medium. It is far too easy for words to take on a different meaning in the mind of the reader from that which was in the mind of the writer. Face-to-face debate can be questioned with “Did you really mean what I understood you to be saying?” Much harder to do on paper/screen.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
10 stories and links I think are educative, informative, entertaining, or weird
Wellcome Library: Here Comes Good Health! via Peter Scott's Library Blog
Here Comes Good Health! is a new exhibit in the Lightbox (Wellcome Collection, Euston Road until 3 June) which showcases some of the health propaganda films and other health promotional activities devised by Bermondsey Borough Council during its hey-day of civic activity between 1920-1939. Originally, the films were taken out into the streets of Bermondsey and back projected from a specially customised “cinemotor” van. The films were also shown repeatedly in schools, clubs and other institutions so they became familiar fixtures. However, after the Second World War, the films became relatively obscure. The display includes the rear of a recreated cinemotor together with seating so that the films can be viewed in a sympathetic environment. The films are also available to view online via Wellcome Film and YouTube. The four digitised films in the exhibition have been acquired with permission from the Southwark Local History Library and Archive and the British Film Institute where the film masters are held.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
There is no God and no free will. Right and wrong don’t exist. Nor does love. There is, in fact, nothing Alex Rosenberg is unsure about... more... more
Who’s More Creative? Introverts or Extroverts? via Big Think by Orion Jones
Extroverts and introverts are not different in the ways we usually consider them to be. Introverts want lower-stimulation environments – less noise, less action – while extroverts crave stimulation to feel their best. Introverts may be very outgoing people, just as an extrovert may be shy.
Read More
25 Things Learned From Opening a Bookstore via Reading Copy Book Blog by elizabethc
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
When the Berlin Wall fell, a myth arose: Humanity - or at least Europe - had converged on a shared set of institutions and values. Well, every utopian project comes to grief in the end... more
Psychedelic drugs: more a case of 'turn off, tune in, drop out' | Johnjoe McFadden via SocietyGuardian
Magic mushrooms work by shutting down parts of the brain, not expanding the mind, according to new research
Six thousand years ago palaeolithic hunters painted images on the walls of the Selva Pascuala caves in Spain that look remarkably similar to locally abundant Psilocybe hispanica, one of the many “magic mushrooms” that contains the hallucinogen psilocybin. The same or similar mushrooms have been used throughout the ages to induce states of religious ecstasy, spiritual enlightenment, mystical meanderings or simply to have a great time. But how do they work?
Timothy Leary, who famously told a generation of Americans to “turn on, tune in, drop out”, claimed these “mind-expanding chemicals … acts as a chemical key – it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures”.
But a few weeks ago an Imperial College-based research group headed by Professor David Nutt (who was sacked as the government’s chief drug adviser in 2009 after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol) reported a study that appears to show that, far from expanding the mind, psilocybin shuts it down.
Read more
Tallest mountains in the solar system via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Mount Everest’s got nothing on Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in our solar system. At 15.5 miles high, it’s also the largest volcano on Mars, covering the size of Arizona. Smithsonian listed the the top ten tallest mountains in the solar system. Earth barely made the list with Mauna Loa. And you thought Everest was our tallest? It’s the highest peak, but mountain height is actually measured from base to peak and Everest's base is way above sea level. “The Tallest Mountains in the Solar System”
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The multiverse idea. Let's face it, says Alan Lightman, physics has hit a dead end. We are living in a universe incalculable by science... more
Social graph analysis reveals criminal conspiracy of slumlords via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
OrgNet, a data-mining consultancy, describes how it mined the social graph of the interlocking, every changing owners of several slum-buildings to show that they were all in a criminal conspiracy to avoid having to do the legally required maintenance necessary to keeping their buildings habitable and safe.
Uncloaking a Slumlord Conspiracy with Social Network Analysis (via Kottke)
Electronic pioneer Daphne Oram recordings now available via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Daphne Oram (1925-2003) was a pioneering electronic musician and sound engineer at the famed BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I've posted previously (link, link) about her amazing creativity and invention of Oramics, an electronic musical instrument based on converting drawings on 35mm film into sound textures. The Young Americans label has just issued a luxurious 4 LP vinyl collection drawn from Oram's massive sound archives. "The Daphne Oram Tapes" includes 46 tracks, a total of 2.5 hours of previously unreleased material. And this is just volume one!
Continue reading this post here
You can purchase it from Amazon in the US and Boomkat in the UK
Here Comes Good Health! is a new exhibit in the Lightbox (Wellcome Collection, Euston Road until 3 June) which showcases some of the health propaganda films and other health promotional activities devised by Bermondsey Borough Council during its hey-day of civic activity between 1920-1939. Originally, the films were taken out into the streets of Bermondsey and back projected from a specially customised “cinemotor” van. The films were also shown repeatedly in schools, clubs and other institutions so they became familiar fixtures. However, after the Second World War, the films became relatively obscure. The display includes the rear of a recreated cinemotor together with seating so that the films can be viewed in a sympathetic environment. The films are also available to view online via Wellcome Film and YouTube. The four digitised films in the exhibition have been acquired with permission from the Southwark Local History Library and Archive and the British Film Institute where the film masters are held.
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
There is no God and no free will. Right and wrong don’t exist. Nor does love. There is, in fact, nothing Alex Rosenberg is unsure about... more... more
Who’s More Creative? Introverts or Extroverts? via Big Think by Orion Jones
Extroverts and introverts are not different in the ways we usually consider them to be. Introverts want lower-stimulation environments – less noise, less action – while extroverts crave stimulation to feel their best. Introverts may be very outgoing people, just as an extrovert may be shy.
Read More
25 Things Learned From Opening a Bookstore via Reading Copy Book Blog by elizabethc
As someone who has often wistfully dreamed of opening my own bookstore (with a lovely soft couch-and-cushion section with story hour for kids, free coffee for grown-ups, and a leave-a-book-take-a-book section for swaps..), I enoyed reading this blog post called “25 Things I Learned From Opening a Bookstore”. It further confirmed my suspicion that not only have I been wistfully dreaming of opening a bookstore, I've also been unrealistically romanticising the hell out of the idea. Still, for all the pitfalls and drawbacks and foibles and pain, it sounds like something I'd like to do.
Here is the list, funny and insightful:
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
When the Berlin Wall fell, a myth arose: Humanity - or at least Europe - had converged on a shared set of institutions and values. Well, every utopian project comes to grief in the end... more
Psychedelic drugs: more a case of 'turn off, tune in, drop out' | Johnjoe McFadden via SocietyGuardian
Magic mushrooms work by shutting down parts of the brain, not expanding the mind, according to new research
Six thousand years ago palaeolithic hunters painted images on the walls of the Selva Pascuala caves in Spain that look remarkably similar to locally abundant Psilocybe hispanica, one of the many “magic mushrooms” that contains the hallucinogen psilocybin. The same or similar mushrooms have been used throughout the ages to induce states of religious ecstasy, spiritual enlightenment, mystical meanderings or simply to have a great time. But how do they work?
Timothy Leary, who famously told a generation of Americans to “turn on, tune in, drop out”, claimed these “mind-expanding chemicals … acts as a chemical key – it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures”.
But a few weeks ago an Imperial College-based research group headed by Professor David Nutt (who was sacked as the government’s chief drug adviser in 2009 after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol) reported a study that appears to show that, far from expanding the mind, psilocybin shuts it down.
Read more
Tallest mountains in the solar system via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Mount Everest’s got nothing on Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in our solar system. At 15.5 miles high, it’s also the largest volcano on Mars, covering the size of Arizona. Smithsonian listed the the top ten tallest mountains in the solar system. Earth barely made the list with Mauna Loa. And you thought Everest was our tallest? It’s the highest peak, but mountain height is actually measured from base to peak and Everest's base is way above sea level. “The Tallest Mountains in the Solar System”
Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
The multiverse idea. Let's face it, says Alan Lightman, physics has hit a dead end. We are living in a universe incalculable by science... more
Social graph analysis reveals criminal conspiracy of slumlords via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
OrgNet, a data-mining consultancy, describes how it mined the social graph of the interlocking, every changing owners of several slum-buildings to show that they were all in a criminal conspiracy to avoid having to do the legally required maintenance necessary to keeping their buildings habitable and safe.
Uncloaking a Slumlord Conspiracy with Social Network Analysis (via Kottke)
Electronic pioneer Daphne Oram recordings now available via Boing Boing by David Pescovitz
Daphne Oram (1925-2003) was a pioneering electronic musician and sound engineer at the famed BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I've posted previously (link, link) about her amazing creativity and invention of Oramics, an electronic musical instrument based on converting drawings on 35mm film into sound textures. The Young Americans label has just issued a luxurious 4 LP vinyl collection drawn from Oram's massive sound archives. "The Daphne Oram Tapes" includes 46 tracks, a total of 2.5 hours of previously unreleased material. And this is just volume one!
Continue reading this post here
You can purchase it from Amazon in the US and Boomkat in the UK
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