scholarly journals The Symbolic Power of the Research Excellence Framework. Evidence from a case study on the individual and collective adaptation of British Sociologists.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Wieczorek ◽  
Daniel Schubert

According to the Academic Capitalism-approach, research assessments have a negative impact on research autonomy and research diversity. They urge scholars to tailor their research in order to obtain funding and positive evaluations, which are indispensable for career advancement based on a limited set of quality-criteria. This is supposed to reduce the potential to understand phenomena and to diminish research diversity by nudging scholars to tailor their research towards short-termed, applied research. Our paper seeks to analyse the impact of research assessments on research autonomy, research diversity and the adaptation of scholars to quality criteria imposed by assessments. To do so, we focus on the impact of the British Research Excellence Framework (REF) on British sociology. In line with the Academic Capitalism-approach and Habitus-Fieldtheory, we suggest that the Research Excellence Framework exerts symbolic power and symbolic dominance on scholars. This affects both habitus and working conditions of scholars. To analyse the impact of the REF, a convergent parallel mixed methods-design is applied. On the individual level, we analysed interview data of six British sociologists. On the collective level, we analysed abstracts of 2546 REF submissions using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and the Jensen-Shannon divergence. Our qualitative findings show that sociologists adapt by “focusing on mainstream topics” and apply strategies of “publication management”. Furthermore, “research profile development” and “recruitment of REFable” scholars is forced by the university management. The LDA uncovers a collective focus on a limited number of research foci including youth sociology, medical sociology, gender studies, or political sociology. The Jensen-Shannon divergence indicates research specialisation within universities, but low research diversity between universities. Taken together, the symbolic power and symbolic dominance of the REF urge scholars to use gaming the system strategies mirrored by low research diversity and high research specialisation on the collective level.

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Wayne Mitchell ◽  
William S Harvey

Despite some research-led teaching relying heavily on an individual’s research, we find very few impact cases studies from the United Kingdom’s research excellence framework 2014 which use this mechanism for impact. This article questions this absence, identifies problems and challenges of ignoring it and suggests recognising students as research translators to create change. Using research excellence framework 2014 as a case, we define research-led teaching and use Boyer’s scholarship of application as our pedagogical base arguing that ignoring this impact pathway is unjustifiable, demotivating and a missed opportunity which underrepresents the impact of management research. The article provokes new thinking on research-led teaching impact for faculty, research managers, universities and international impact assessment organisations.


Energies ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 580
Author(s):  
Michał Gołębiewski ◽  
Marta Galant-Gołębiewska ◽  
Remigiusz Jasiński

Protection of the natural environment is a key activity driving development in the transport discipline today. The use of simulators to train civil aviation pilots provides an excellent opportunity to maintain the balance between efficiency and limit the negative impact of transport on the environment. Therefore, we decided to determine the impact of selected simulations of air operations on energy consumption. The aim of the research was to determine the energy consumption of the flight simulator depending on the type of flight operation and configuration used. We also decided to compare the obtained result with the energy consumption of an aircraft of a similar class, performing a similar aviation operation and other means of transport. In order to obtain the results, a research plan was proposed consisting of 12 scenarios differing in the simulated aircraft model, weather conditions and the use of the simulator motion platform. In each of the scenarios, energy consumption was measured, taking into account the individual components of the simulator. The research showed that the use of a flight simulator has a much smaller negative impact on the natural environment than flying in a traditional plane. Use of a motion platform indicated a change in energy consumption of approximately 40% (in general, flight simulator configuration can change energy consumption by up to 50%). The deterioration of weather conditions during the simulation caused an increase in energy consumption of 14% when motion was disabled and 18% when motion was enabled. Energy consumption in the initial stages of pilot training can be reduced by 97% by using flight simulators compared to aircraft training.


Author(s):  
Diona Wahyuni ◽  

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are severe body image disorders that severely interfere with the daily functioning of the individual. They are separate but overlapping nosologically entities. There is a study on the tendency of wrong eating behaviour in adolescents with specifications for anorexia nervosa in Jakarta 11.6% and there is also a study at High School in Jakarta 88.5% of adolescents experience wrong eating behaviour with the specifications of anorexia nervosa. And the two largest epidemiological surveys regarding BDD, there were 2.5% women and 2.2% men. With a fairly high number of these two events, this has the potential to have a negative impact on someone’s health. This study aims to discuss the impact of anorexia nervosa. Methods: The researcher used several literature and scientific journals, which was based on 15 journals and literature, discussing a tendency to anorexia nervosa with the incidence of Body Dysmorphic Disorder and its medical emergencies. Conclusion: There is a correlation of anorexia nervosa among teenager especially girl teenage


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Richardson

PurposeWithin the expatriation subset of the wider IB literature, the focus of research has been on contemporary contextual factors. The purpose of this paper is to link the present to the past by investigating how the individual expatriate experience may be affected by a colonial legacy between host and home countries.Design/methodology/approachGiven the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative interview-based approach eliciting thick, detailed descriptions of the practical experiences of seven Japanese expatriate managers working in Malaysia was adopted. These were supplemented by additional interviews with three host-country nationals who work alongside some of the expatriates. The data were analysed through a two-stage coding process.FindingsThe expatriate respondents were largely unanimous in their view that the colonial past between the two countries had no negative impact on their experiences in Malaysia, and the Malaysian interviewees corroborated this. On the contrary, the majority of the expatriates actually spoke positively about their experiences. This was especially true for expatriates in both the tourism and education/research field whose work was linked in some way to the period of Japanese occupation.Research limitations/implicationsThe small, single-context nature of the investigation limits generalisation. There are also many particularities in this study (the nature of Japanese-Malaysian postcolonial relations, cultural values of the Malaysians and Japanese, and so on) that are perhaps not easily relatable to other contexts. Having said this, qualitative research is not always geared towards generalisability but rather towards contextual intricacies and nuances.Originality/valueWhile most of the extant literature on expatriation has examined largely contemporary factors, this paper explores the impact of more historical events on the expatriate experience. Although such events may seem distant from an expatriate's current activities, this study suggests that in certain circumstances, they may have a lingering effect.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Burbidge ◽  
Nic Cheeseman

AbstractPolitical economy comparisons of Kenya and Tanzania have often found the political salience of ethnicity to be far higher in the former than the latter, with a negative impact on intercommunal trust. This difference has tended to be explained on the basis of the different kinds of leadership that the two countries experienced after independence. However, these findings have typically been demonstrated using aggregate or survey data. This paper assesses the salience of ethnicity at the individual level for the first time, deploying monetized two-round trust games in urban Kenya and Tanzania. The experimental games isolate the comparative impact of common knowledge of ethnicity and integrity among a quasi-random selection of 486 citizens. Verifying previous findings, we observe higher levels of trust and trustworthiness in Tanzania as compared with Kenya. Further, in comparison with Kenya, any shared knowledge of ethnic identities in Tanzania leads players to transfer fewer resources, while common knowledge that both players are “honest” led to higher transfers there than in Kenya. These results provide robust evidence of higher levels of trust in Tanzania, and of the negative effect in that country of common knowledge of ethnicity on levels of cooperation. The findings demonstrate the way in which political context can shape the impact of ethnic diversity, and encourage further experimental research that looks at the intersubjective dynamics of social cooperation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (supp01) ◽  
pp. 117-138
Author(s):  
JINXIAN WANG ◽  
CHEN WANG ◽  
YAN ZHANG

Since 2010, China’s miraculous growth has come to a halt and has shown steady deceleration. To re-accelerate economic growth, stimulating domestic consumption is a crucial way with fighting poverty as the key step. This paper attempts to explore the impact of poverty on resident consumption in China over the last four decades. Based on provincial data, we first simulate income distribution at the individual level and provide moderate poverty profiles at the provincial level. The empirical analyses are then conducted to gauge the poverty impacts using the estimated poverty index. Results show that (1) moderate poverty has decreased sharply in China, with the best achievement in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong; (2) moderate poverty exerts a significantly negative impact on resident consumption; and (3) when poverty increases, resident consumption on household equipment decreases the most, while resident consumption on food, transportation, and telecommunication decreases the least.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vidhi Mehta

In India, the SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 pandemic has grown to 112,359 cases and 3,435 deaths as per 21st May, 2020. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) affected the world with 4,893,186 cases and 323,256 deaths as of 21st May, 2020. The WHO declared the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern on 30th January, 2020 and it was declared as a pandemic in March 2020. Clinical studies conducted on hospitalized cases show that the onset of COVID-19 is associated with symptoms commonly associated with viral pneumonia, most commonly fever, cough/sore throat and myalgia/fatigue. COVID-19 world pandemic imposed a new set of challenges for the individual to maintain a healthy diet. When compared to the USA, India is currently facing lesser cases of the pandemic because of early implementation of the preventive measures such as a lockdown. Because of the lockdown imposed, India has and is facing a downfall in every aspect, such as the economy, the agriculture, the health sector, the IT and management sectors and also tourism. This in turn, will have a negative impact on the quality of life and economy in India. The present paper aims to find out the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the health sector and is based on the results obtained from a survey about the eating patterns of participants from Mulund, Mumbai, India. It was seen that the mental stress caused due to the pandemic had an effect on the dietary behaviors of the participants.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Kizyma ◽  
Andrii Kizyma

Introduction. The article claims that due to the rapid growth of financial relations, advancement of globalization processes, the impact of IT and the Internet on financial performance, the number of economic crimes in Ukraine has increased recently, especially financial fraud offences. The authors provide evidence that fraudulent schemes have targeted not only public and private finance, but all social relations. Purpose. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to address financial fraud as a global threat and identify its causes and potential consequences. Methods. For addressing the causes and effects of financial fraud, the following general research methods are used: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, abstraction and grouping. Results. It should be noted that the problem of financial fraud has not received sufficient attention in domestic research literature and practice. The paper presents the leading causes of financial fraud, which include economic, moral and psychological causes as well as regulatory, infrastructural and organizational ones. Financial fraud has a negative impact on the national economy and the welfare of citizens, and therefore leads to the multimillion losses. In order to identify consequences of financial fraud, a combination two types of evaluating such consequences is suggested: quantitative (involves the calculation of pecuniary damage, economic losses and lost economic profit due to fraud offences, and qualitative (logically explains circumstances of financial fraud, risks of losing corporate reputation, image and investment attractiveness). There are three major reasons why financial fraud occurs, which constitute the so-called fraud triangle: the opportunity to commit fraud; the pressure on the individual or the motivation behind the crime; the ability to rationalize the fraud. Therefore, the most important tasks for state bodies, economic entities and individuals include neutralizing the factors which lead to financial fraud and exercising effective control over the prevention of fraud offences in social and economic areas in general, and in financial area in particular. Discussion. Further studies should focus on a comprehensive analysis of the most common types of financial fraud, which take place in Ukraine. The authors argue that this will lead to establishing a set of policies aimed at reducing this negative phenomenon.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-49
Author(s):  
Gabriele Butkute

In an age where huge amounts of data is collected on everything we do – from our Google searches to our GPS coordinates – we like to be able to count, measure and assess things. This includes measuring the impact and quality of research in the UK, through an assessment method known as the Research Excellence Framework (REF).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document