Smart Cities Learning

Author(s):  
Carlo Giovannella ◽  
Vincenzo Baraniello

The cities, despite the huge size reached by some and the problems by which they are sometimes afflicted, continue to attract people and pose epochal sustainability challenges to which policy makers and planners have decided to respond with a top-down functionalist approach aiming at transforming the cities in “smart cities”. The purpose of this paper is to present a critical analysis of such approach highlighting its limitations as far as education systems are concerned. The hope is to contribute to arise awareness and foster a timely and necessary redefinition of the functionalist approach to appropriately face an unavoidable transformation of the education system (space, strategies, processes and methods) that in turn will require the future learners to widen their skills to become smart enough to lifelong learn within and from smart territories.

Author(s):  
Alan Cribb

This concluding chapter asks how health policy needs to change character in the light of the transitions and tensions reviewed in the book. The emphasis in health policy has to move more decisively from a delivery model to a deliberative model of healthcare; or, in other words, from an assumed model of ‘top-down’ service provision towards a more diffused and democratic model. Moreover, the philosophical transition explored in the book should, in part, be seen as a transition towards philosophy, because philosophical questions are now manifestly at the centre of healthcare debate and activity. The chapter then presents some substantive conclusions about the key balancing acts that need to be struck in shaping the future of healthcare, including the balance between the responsibilities of policy makers and professionals, on the one hand, and the collective responsibility of patients and publics, on the other.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Zulkarnain

This paper wishes to conduct a critical analysis of Citizenship Education in Singapore. Citizenship education as one of the national agenda in Singapore has an important position in providing citizenship understanding in order to prepare young citizens for the future of Singapore. Singapore's centralized education system and strict controls lead to highly vulnerable citizenship education politicization and ideologization of citizens through education. In fact, many studies show that the government under the People's Action party (PAP) is using authoritarian ways to defend and perpetuate its power through education. The attempts by the Singapore government with the soft authoritarian government or some experts say authoritarian with the usual Gramscian meaning "hegemony". Hegemony is the effort of a person or group of people (state) in maintaining or dominating his power in a peaceful way not by violence. With literature research and critical analytical descriptive methods in the form of relevant books and research, this paper wants to show how the PAP seeks to interpret its ideology with the hegemony done to teachers of citizenship education. The study concludes that not all teachers are hegemonized by Singapore's strict citizenship education policy.      


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
Aina Tarabini ◽  
Judith Jacovkis

Transitions to upper secondary education are crucial to explain different degrees of social selectivity in diverse education systems. In Catalonia these transitions are especially relevant as the education system is formally comprehensive until the end of compulsory secondary schooling, and only at this point the system is divided in two different tracks: the academic and the vocational. The aim of the paper is to analyse the structural, institutional and discursive articulation of this transition point from the perspective of the sociology of the education policy. Specifically, the paper explores three dimensions of analysis: the structure of the education system, the planning of the supply, and the guidance models. The analysis is based on 28 in-depth interviews with policy makers and stakeholders in the field of upper secondary education in Barcelona. The results point out to the relevance of the political-institutional articulation, contradictions, tensions and omissions of different education systems in setting unequal opportunities of educational transition.


Author(s):  
G.W. Sheath

This paper is not a formal review of hill farming literature. Rather, it is my view on the critical challenges and changes that we need to deal with if mixed livestock farming on hill lands is to be successful over the next 20 years. It is my hope that industry leaders, policy makers and agribusiness managers will give consideration to these views. Some people say that it is not smart to look into the rear-vision mirror, but I do not agree. Having a better understanding of the consequences of past events can help guide future decisions and changes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 489-500
Author(s):  
Andrea Valente ◽  
◽  
David Atkinson ◽  

This study aimed to investigate the conditions in which Bitcoin has developed as a leading cryptocurrency and, according to Nakamoto (2008), could become an instrument for everyday payments around the world. In comparison to other digital payment solutions, Bitcoin is based on a peer-to-peer electronic cash system using “the blockchain”. This innovative technology allows for decentralised storage and movement of currency in a fully anonymous way, introducing advantageous methods for encrypted security and faster transactions (Hagiu & Beach, 2014). Scepticism regards Bitcoin’s foundation, energy consumption and price volatility, however, did not take long to arise (Holthaus, 2017). Ten years from its white paper release, Bitcoin is further supported by the same drivers which could sustain its growth as the future of digital payments (Russo, 2018). In order to investigate the key drivers and feasibility of acceptance, a London based survey was used to understand the desirability of Bitcoin as a day-to-day tool for digital payments. Additionally, this research analysed Bitcoin’s stakeholders and forecast drivers of sustainability for its application to become the future of the payment industry. A space which relies on policies that involve multiple layers of society, governments, regulators and tech-firms, all on a global scale. The findings confirmed how the increasing lack of trust of political and financial institutions, coupled with the increasing cases of data-breaches by tech-firms, encouraged over 70% of respondents to consider more decentralised and anonymous methods for their day-to-day actions; like payments. Policy makers need to cope with societies increasingly separating politically but gathering together digitally (LBS, 2017). For Bitcoin to truly establish itself as a global digital payment solution, key stakeholder acceptance must converge alongside the introduction of more robust regulation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Park ◽  
Mitchell Chang

This article examines the development of legislation to create a federal designation for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) serving institutions. Specifically, the article draws from interviews with nineteen policy makers, congressional staffers, and community advocates in order to address their motivations for establishing this designation and the related challenges that they encountered. Besides the complexities of ushering legislation through Congress, one of the major challenges highlighted includes the lack of political infrastructure for advocating Asian American issues related to education. Recommendations for the future sustainability of federal support for AAPI serving institutions are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (03) ◽  
pp. 617-625
Author(s):  
Irdayanti Mat Nashir ◽  
Dwi Esti ◽  
Nurul Nazirah Mohd Imam Ma’arof ◽  
Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman ◽  
Moh Khairudin

Author(s):  
Ralph Henham

This chapter sets out the case for adopting a normative approach to conceptualizing the social reality of sentencing. It argues that policy-makers need to comprehend how sentencing is implicated in realizing state values and take greater account of the social forces that diminish the moral credibility of state sponsored punishment. The chapter reflects on the problems of relating social values to legal processes such as sentencing and argues that crude notions of ‘top down’ or ‘bottom up’ approaches to policy-making should be replaced by a process of contextualized policy-making. Finally, the chapter stresses the need for sentencing policy to reflect those moral attachments that bind citizens together in a relational or communitarian sense. It concludes by exploring these assertions in the light of the sentencing approach taken by the courts following the English riots of 2011.


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