scholarly journals Debating the Digital Curriculum: intersections of the public and the private in educational and cultural policy

Author(s):  
Margaret Scanlon ◽  
David L Buckingham

In January 2003, the British government approved the BBC's Digital Curriculum, a new £150 million initiative to provide educational software to schools and homes. The decision was widely criticised by representatives of the UK software publishing industry, and by defenders of public service broadcasting. This article traces the debates that led to the decision, and the broader issues that it raises. It suggests that the initiative can be seen as symptomatic of the interpenetration of public and private imperatives that is characteristic of New Labour policy-making; but it also suggests that, when educational and cultural policy come together, there may be unresolved tensions between them.

2016 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. R30-R37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Cribb ◽  
Carl Emmerson

We estimate the changing value of workplace pensions in the UK and incorporate their value into an estimate of the public sector pay differential. Falling pension membership in the private sector and growing value of public service pensions led to a significant increase in the estimated public sector pay differential from 1997 to 2009, even though headline pay grew faster in the private sector. From 2009 to 2012, although pay grew faster in the public sector, reforms to public service defined benefit pensions, particularly indexation to the CPI rather than RPI, significantly reduced the public pay differential.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Warnaby ◽  
David Bennison ◽  
Barry J. Davies

The role of town centre management (TCM) schemes in the UK has expanded to incorporate a more overt and explicit focus on marketing and promotion. This paper considers the marketing/promotional activities of TCM schemes in the UK. TCM schemes operate at the interface of the public and private sectors. The implications of this are discussed, including the need for a consensual approach by a wide range of urban stakeholders, and the actual activities undertaken, influenced by the funding imperative under which such schemes operate (which impacts on the feasibility of certain activities and the efforts made to evaluate them). Comparisons are drawn between specific place marketing practice by TCM schemes and wider place marketing strategies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Salome Sakvarelidze

Abstract The motivated employee represents the essential condition of any organization’s success. Public and private sector managers should constantly work toward coordinating and increasing employee motivation in order to ensure the timely and effective implementation of the plans set by the organization. Accordingly, proper assessment of processes and prompt determination of individuals’ driving motives are needed. Studies have shown that public service employees from all around the world face challenges, such as: incompatibility of knowledge, experience and position, as well as hard and lightweight work. Consequently, public managers should be aware of modern human resource management methods that can be used in effective and efficient ways to increase employee work quality. The main purpose of the paper is to determine the current situation of the public sector in Georgia. In addition, the research seeks to identify and examine the factors that influence employee demotivation and to determine under what conditions motivation can be a worthwhile investment in a public organizations. Methodologically, the work is based on analysis of the available literature and the results of the research statistically processed based on the survey example of 449 respondents from different Georgian ministries selected by a random simple.


Author(s):  
Patrick Barwise

This chapter explores the assumption that public service television (PST), i.e. BBC TV, commercial public service broadcasters (PSBs), and non-PSBs, offers less consumer value for money than the rest of the market in the UK; that the only continuing rationale for PST rests on citizen concerns. It shows that PST does give citizens public service benefits over and above those provided by the non-PSBs and online-only TV players, and these ‘citizenship’ benefits are highly valued by the public. PST also offers consumers better value for money because the non-PSBs' significantly higher cost per viewer-hour seems unlikely to be compensated for by commensurately higher audience appreciation. The main policy implication is simple: there is no necessary trade-off between citizen and consumer benefits: pound for pound, PST appears to deliver both sets of benefits better than the rest of the market.


This chapter presents the recommendations of the Puttnam Report. It covers recommendations for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, and Channel 5. It proposes the establishment of a new fund for public service content. It also discusses the dissatisfaction with the performance of public service television from ethnic, regional, national and faith-based minorities; the failure of the public service television system to reflect the changing constitutional shape of the UK such that audiences in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the English regions; the decline in investment in some of the genres traditionally associated with public service television: arts, current affairs and children's programming; and the need for a more consolidated approach to maximising entry-level opportunities and increasing investment in training and professional development at all levels of the industry.


Author(s):  
Deniz Özalpman ◽  
Sibel Kaba

The chapter deals with the topical issue of cultural policies through digitalization in cinema in Turkey, discussing the appropriate frameworks that need to be put in force. In a rapidly developing society like Turkey, the problems of digitalization in cinema vis-à-vis neoliberal regulation are being debated. Three crucial areas for a digital cultural policy in cinema are identified, namely expanding public service mindset on new services and national digital platforms, creating a communications policy framework of the different parties involved as government, parliament, regulatory authorities, the public service media, and the designated third parties as civil society and market representatives, and stimulating debate to follow an anti-monopolistic progression in (digitalized) cinema.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-573
Author(s):  
Honor Brabazon

While the privatisation of public space has been the subject of considerable research, literature exploring the shifting boundaries between public and private law, and the role of those shifts in the expansion of neo-liberal social relations, has been slower to develop. This article explores the use of fire safety regulations to evict political occupations in the context of these shifts. Two examples from the UK student occupation movement and two from the US Occupy movement demonstrate how discourses and logics of both private and public law are mobilised through fire hazard claims to create the potent image of a neutral containment of dissent on technical grounds in the public interest – an image that proves difficult to contest. However, the recourse to the public interest and to expert opinion that underpins fire hazard claims is inconsistent with principles governing the limited neo-liberal political sphere, which underscores the pragmatic and continually negotiated implementation of neo-liberal ideas. The article sheds light on the complexity of the extending reach of private law, on the resilience of the public sphere and on the significance of occupations as a battleground on which struggles over neo-liberal social relations and subjectivities play out.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dermot McCarthy ◽  
Ping Wei ◽  
Fabian Homberg ◽  
Vurain Tabvuma

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to statistically test if the public service motivation (PSM) measure operates in the same way across the public and private sectors of a municipal district in China. It also contrasts the relationship between PSM and workplace outcomes across sectors and employee age groups. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from independent samples of public (n=220) and private (n=230) sector employees in the Changsha Municipal District of China is used. The analysis tests for invariance across groups, before comparing mean values and regression weights. Findings Only in respect of one PSM dimension do findings show a significant higher mean in the public sector. No significant difference is found on the impact of PSM on employee performance across sectors, while it is in the private sector that PSM has the greater impact on intention to leave. Findings also show no marked impact of age upon outcomes. Research limitations/implications This study provides an initial set of results and further research will need to be undertaken to verify them. The limited sample size and narrow geographical focus, although in line with similar studies on China, means the ability to draw generalisations is limited. The reliance on self-reported measures means issues with common method bias cannot be ignored. Measures were taken during data collection to minimise issues of bias and a set of post-hoc test results are provided. Practical implications The recruitment of employees with higher levels of PSM can be expected to play a role in achieving better outcomes, regardless of sector and age profile. Originality/value The PSM measure has been applied by researchers across various economic sectors. This paper is one of the first to statistically test if the concept and its measure operates in the same way across sectors. The paper contributes to the on-going debate on PSM in the context of China and its relationship with a number of key output variables. Finally, the paper contributes to the emerging debate on changing workforce demographics and their role in shaping outcomes.


1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 160-173
Author(s):  
Helen Lawton Smith ◽  
Michael Atkinson

In an increasingly complex competitive situation, firms look to outside technological resources to supplement and substitute for expensive in-house effort. The use by industry of national laboratories and universities (the ‘science base’) is usually seen in terms of the transfer of technology out of universities. In reality, what is increasingly happening is that the ideas and problems of industry are first transferred into the science base. This has implications for the control and direction of scientific research. The authors illustrate the implications of this current trend for the control and direction of scientific research by discussing the findings of a recent study. This compared industry and academic links in two industries in three countries: the flow measuring and electronic component industries in the UK, France and Belgium.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen ◽  
Maria Isaksson

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether organisations in the public domain have embraced a corporate type of discourse, mirroring the private sector’s preferred orientation towards expertise, or whether they maintain their traditional discourse of goodwill towards the publics they serve. At a critical time for the public sector with inadequate funding and dominance of New Public Management approaches, will it be more motivated to portray itself as expert and efficient rather than altruistic? Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a rhetorical framework to provide a detailed analysis of organisational value statements posted on the web sites of public and private organisations. The research considers the value priorities of 50 organisations in the UK and Scandinavia in order to gauge the extent of convergence between the two sectors’ preferred discourses. Findings – The research shows that the public sector sticks to its guns in maintaining a web-transmitted values discourse which forefronts goodwill towards its clients. It also shows that the public and private sectors take different approaches to goodwill. Originality/value – Strategists and communication specialists are encouraged to contemplate the extent to which their organisation’s projected web image equates their desired image to avoid alienating important public audiences and reinforce levels of trust. The current framework brings attention to the complex nature of goodwill and may be employed to better balance a discourse of organisational expertise against a discourse of goodwill in planning authentic value statements.


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