Towards defining and advancing ‘Made in Africa Evaluation’

Background: Most evaluation in Africa is rooted in dominant neoliberal Western approaches. Imported Western evaluation frames may lack multicultural validity and can lead to wrong conclusions and poor development outcomes. They may also reinforce subjugation and cultural hegemony through neo-imperialism and colonisation of the imaginations of those concerned. The Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) concept has received attention in recent years as a way to address this challenge. As a relatively nascent construct, however, interested scholars and professionals continue to seek to define and operationalise MAE more effectively.Objective: The objective of this study is to provide a working definition of MAE.Methods: We used the Delphi technique to solicit informed views from expert evaluators working in Africa. We interviewed two additional experts to triangulate and test the validity of those findings. We also tested the Delphi derived definition of MAE through the analysis of six illustrative evaluation reports. Finally, we asked the same panel of experts to complete a survey aimed at clarifying next key steps to advance the construct.Results: The results of our efforts to elucidate a concise definition of MAE yielded the following definition: Evaluation that is conducted based on African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) standards, using localised methods or approaches with the aim of aligning all evaluations to the lifestyles and needs of affected African peoples whilst also promoting African values.Conclusion: We posit that this working definition, however tentative, has the potential to influence the practice, study, and teaching of evaluation in Africa.

Enhancing the Quality of Learning through Changes in Students’ Approach to Learning

Learning causes relatively a permanent change in one's behavior. There are multiple paradigms in the theories of learning, the latest theory in this group being Constructivism. This particular theory postulates that a learner himself/herself constructs his/her learning through an active and consistent engagement. This theory also brings the learning process to the center, where the concerned learner's prior experience is used as the base for future learning. Although quality learning is the global agenda in the 21st century, there is still no clear and concise definition. Quality of learning has diverse connotations. Researchers in this area search for it in its process as well as in its product. However, one may say the quality learning process motivates a student to have a deep engagement with the learning task possible through some suitable strategies. Kevin Warburton (2009) identified three main factors that greatly impact a student's motivation, leading to high or low engagement in the learning activity. A conducive learning environment, sophisticated course content, and favorable individual factors could enhance the student's motivation and make him/her have a deep engagement in the learning activity. The product of quality learning is measured by the nature and versatility of the learning outcome. The learning, which is extensive, integrative, and generative, may fulfill the rising demand for quality of learning.

Consumption narratives: contributions, methods, findings and agenda for future research

Purpose Considering the central role of narratives in the articulation of the self, processing experiences and conveying meaning, many scholars in marketing and consumer behaviours have tried to study the subject. This pool of multi-disciplinary studies has yielded fragmented literature resulting in ambiguity. Therefore there is a need for an article, which studies the extant literature comprehensively. Hence, this paper aims to pursue two objectives, to summarize prominent research studies in consumption narratives and to suggest directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews 25 key studies on consumption narratives and highlights their most important contributions, methods and findings. Findings As in consumer narrative research, the concept almost always has been borrowed from different domains, the findings suggest a concise definition to fill this gap. Also, to enrich the findings, three-level of consumption narratives are discussed. Originality/value This paper serves as a basis to comprehend the essence of consumption narratives in the consumption context, to understand the research gaps and provides directions for future research.

Holophyly and associated concepts if the unknown is unclassifiable

In natural sciences, the key criterion for proving the existence of an object (like a physical particle of a previously unknown kind, an atom of a previously unknown element or an organism of a previously unknown species) is its observation and/or observation of traces of the existence of this object (radiation, remains of vital activity etc.). Only objects that meet this criterion can be classified (e.g. introduced in the periodic table of elements or described as a species). Single unknown organisms or species can not enter the classification. Despite this, the current system of phylogenetic terms (holo-/monophyly, paraphyly, and polyphyly as they are currently defined) is not adapted to the separation of known and unknown organisms (as well as populations, species, etc.) including ancestral ones. There are longstanding confusion and controversy regarding these “phyletic states”. There seem only two ways in such a situation. The first way is to directly include unknown ancestors in taxa somehow, describe species for them and unavoidably to introduce at least one paraphyletic subtaxon during dividing each taxon. The second way is do not include unknown ancestors in taxa directly and amend the system of concepts and terms. Here the second way was followed and the possible definitions of the main phylogenetic concepts for the views of dealing only with known group members were proposed. Inability to provide a concise definition of holophyly using the existing terms indicates the lack of more basic concepts. These concepts were also proposed here and holophyly was defined using them near the end of the paper. The intersection of four basic “phyly” (enophyly, merophyly, kollitophyly, and schizophyly) results in the unambiguous triad of holophyly, paraphyly, and schizophyly. The definitions of the terms in this triad are believed to be unambiguous unlike the widespread definitions of holo-(mono-), para- and “polyphyly”. Here, many terms were defined using others in order not to make the definitions too cumbersome. Nevertheless, the “primary phyly” seem not less useful in phylogenetic discussions than the phyly of the triad. The same is true for the terms inprestor, rendestor, ancessure, drade and skade as well as for the more precisely defined term clade. The first two terms seem to be necessary and important regardless of the views on the classification of unknown organisms.

The stakeholder model: its relevance, concept, and application in the Indonesian banking sector

This article examines the current Indonesian Financial Service Authority (IFSA) regulations on corporate governance that deal with the relevance, concept, and application of the stakeholder model in the Indonesian banking sector. This study shows that the current IFSA regulations on corporate governance in the Indonesian banking sector encourage the application of the stakeholder model. However, they contain a vague definition of a stakeholder, fail to properly identify the legitimate stakeholders of the Indonesian banking sector, and provide no principles that can be used to align bank stakeholders’ interests. IFSA should revise these regulations so that they are more compatible with the theoretical basis and international best practices. This can be done through providing a concise definition of the concept of a stakeholder and offering normative and practical principles to be used when identifying the Indonesian banking sector legitimate stakeholders and aligning stakeholders’ interests.

Chaos and Order: Contemporary Cosmology and Myth

The paper offers a definition of cosmology and its connections with mythology, and presents contemporary theories as a secular mythical narrative suitable for anthropological analysis. The paper is dedicated to emphasizing the folklore characteristics of modern cosmology and points to the importance of popular cosmological narratives as reading that contains culturally, philosophically and even religiously relevant elements. Special attention is paid to cosmogonic myths that describe the state of the universe before the creation of space and time. A parallel has been drawn between modern cosmology and conventional cosmogonic myths. In the end, the paper offers a concise definition of popular cosmology and recalls the most important authors and popularizers of modern theories. The main task of the paper is to present the basic concepts that can contribute to a complete understanding of the anthropological character of the presentation of contemporary cosmology that we encounter in popular narratives. The aim of such an analysis is to observe the depth of the significance of modern science for creating a philosophical picture of the world that inherits secular worldviews. By treating popular cosmology as a modern myth, the paper presents a new dimension of the significance of scientific theories for today's civilization. Such an approach unravels the strictly positivist halo of cosmology and points to its anthropological character. The concepts highlighted in the paper serve as an illustration of the significance that the image of the universe and the position of the Earth has for the history of civilization. By presenting the cultural dimension of cosmology, it opens a space for dialogue between different branches of scientific research, i.e. it contributes to the communication of philosophy and science. Equally important, by illuminating the folklore character of the narrative of the origin and history of the universe, a training ground is created for philosophers and theologians who, in their own ways, interpret the creation of everything around us. By drawing attention to authors such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Kraus, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku and others, as contemporary bards and narrators, the paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of popular cosmology as an expression of modern man's need for great stories, for narratives that transcend the spatial and temporal frames of one generation, and that is exactly what myths do.

Consumer Behaviour of Purchasing Biofortified Food Products

In light of increasing attention on biofortified products from the institutional, scientific and industrial worlds, we investigate consumer knowledge, consumer choice, the relationship between consumer choice and lifestyles, willingness to pay, and factors influencing consumer groups regarding biofortified foods. Complicating the matter is the lack of a clear definition of biofortified foods in the last proposal of the Codex Alimentarius Commission dated 26 November 2018. Research has shown the importance of market information and variables related to lifestyle, socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of nutritional principles, and diet, to understanding consumers’ purchase and consumption choices regarding biofortified products. Our research shows that at present the potential consumer of biofortified food products is generally confused and uninformed, conditions that, even when there is a high willingness to pay, limit purchases of biofortified products. Even in the absence of a concise definition and clear labelling at a globally recognized level, in Italy biofortified products are increasingly widespread (products biofortified with selenium, iodine, etc.), confirming consumer demand for this category of product.

Theorizing News Literacy Behaviors

Despite renewed interest in news literacy (NL) as a way to combat mis- and dis-information, existing scholarship is plagued by insufficient theory building and inadequate conceptualization of both “NL” and its application. We address this concern by offering a concise definition of NL and suggest five key knowledge and skill domains that comprise this literacy. We distinguish NL from its application to behaviors that communication scholars have been interested in, including news exposure, verification, and identifying misinformation. We propose an adapted Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to include NL in addition to the existing components (attitudes towards the behavior, social norms, perceived behavioral control) when modeling NL Behaviors. We discuss how this model can unite scholars across subfields and propose a research agenda for moving scholarship forward.

Ain’t No Way Around It: Why We Need to Be Clear About What We Mean by “Digital Humanities”

Digital humanities (DH) has gained the dubious reputation of struggling to define itself. Articles trying to define DH have become something of a genre—however, more often than not the conclusions boil down to “DH is undefinable” or even “DH must not be defined.” A question that is rarely addressed, though, is *why* DH is supposedly undefinable. In this paper we argue that this is not because it would be, for example, particularly difficult to come up with a definition or because unlike most other fields, DH would not benefit from delimiting its domain, but rather because the majority of researchers that self-identify as “DH scholars” are actively opposing a definition. This is due to the fact that they understand DH as “contemporary humanities,” i.e., humanities using contemporary tools, not a new discipline. While legitimate, this view is irreconcilable with the understanding of DH as the development and application of a new—computational—methodology in the humanities. We therefore come to the conclusion that there is ultimately no way around clearly delimiting these two opposing views; we propose to use the term “computational humanities” to refer to the latter field, and we present a concise definition.

Concise Definition of Aviation PNT User Requirements Based on OFD

Definition of aviation is the core of PNT system requirements analysis and research, The quality of PNT user requirements definition will directly affect the scientificity and effectiveness of other research work of the system, QFD(Quality Function Deployment) is a systematic technical method and management method. In the process of product development, all activities are driven by users’ needs. QFD has been widely used in manufacturing, industrial and commercial military fields, and achieved great results. House of quality(HOQ) is the basic tool for establishing QFD system and essence of OFD method. The typical house of quality framework and analytical solution method can be used not only in the development process of new products, but also in the whole process of analysis in other fields. In this paper, aiming at the concise definition of PNT user requirements, QFD technology is used to build QFD model of PNT user requirements and PNT system technology based on the analysis of existing PNT information requirements and future aviation navigation development trend. In order to facilitate the analysis and simplify the approach of aviation navigation as the user requirements, and GNSS, SBAS, DEM, VOR, NDB, ILS and GBAS as the main system technologies. Finally, the technical quality house model of PNT system of aviation navigation task is given, so as to complete the concise definition of PNT user requirements of aviation users.