Embracing Complexity

Embracing Complexity
Author: Jean G. Boulton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2015
Genre: Complexity
ISBN: 0199565252

The book describes what it means to say the world is complex and explores what that means for managers, policy makers and individuals. The first part of the book is about the theory and ideas of complexity. This is explained in a way that is thorough but not mathematical. It compares differing approaches, and also provides a historical perspective, showing how such thinking has been around since the beginning of civilisation. It emphasises the difference between a complexity worldview and the dominant mechanical worldview that underpins much of current management practice. It defines the complexity worldview as recognising the world is interconnected, shaped by history and the particularities of context. The comparison of the differing approaches to modelling complexity is unique in its depth and accessibility. The second part of the book uses this lens of complexity to explore issues in the fields of management, strategy, economics, and international development. It also explores how to facilitate others to recognise the implications of adopting a complex rather than a mechanical worldview and suggests methods of research to explore systemic, path-dependent emergent aspects of situations. The authors of this book span both science and management, academia and practice, thus the explanations of science are authoritative and yet the examples of changing how you live and work in the world are real and accessible. The aim of the book is to bring alive what complexity is all about and to illustrate the importance of loosening the grip of a modernist worldview with its hope for prediction, certainty and control.

Partnership for International Development

Partnership for International Development
Author: Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2002
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781588260697

Partnership, says Brinkerhoff (public administration, George Washington U.) is the polite term for minimizing the responsibility of government in development projects. She seeks to clarify the concepts and its practice, to critique the understanding and practice of it in international development to date, and to specify its defining dimensions. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Structuring Public–Private Research Partnerships for Success

Structuring Public–Private Research Partnerships for Success
Author: Gordon Rausser
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2016-09-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 184980575X

As funding for universities and governmental research units has declined, these institutions have turned to the private sector to augment their research and development budgets. This book presents a framework for structuring public-private research partnerships that protect both these institutions’ academic freedom and the private firm’s corporate interests. This formulation is developed using insights originating from the incomplete contracting and collective decision making literatures. The book presents a number of template designs for a variety of research partnerships.

Partnership and Recognition in Action Research

Partnership and Recognition in Action Research
Author: Christine Edwards-Groves
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0429815549

Critical participatory action research creates opportunities for people to work together to solve problems and address issues about the conditions under which they work, through mutually agreed on actions in practice. Partnership and recognition hold together the practices of critical participatory action research, and as mutually entwined ideals are fundamental for site-based education development. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures, this book interrogates and extends the concepts and practices of partnership and recognition in action research as they are explored in different educational settings, and as these are played out in the day-to-day experiences and practices of people participating and collaborating in educational change. Partnership and recognition are considered in terms of the agency and actions of both individuals and collectives as they encounter one another in educational change, and in terms of the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political conditions that enable and constrain possibilities for partnerships and recognition. Of central importance is the concept of practice theory, and the authors illuminate how recognition, change, learning and development practices are experienced and recognised by people in a range of partnerships. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Action Research.

Government-Industry Partnerships for the Development of New Technologies

Government-Industry Partnerships for the Development of New Technologies
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 030916866X

This report reviews a variety of partnership programs in the United States, and finds that partnerships constitute a vital positive element of public policy, helping to address major challenges and opportunities at the nexus of science, technology, and economic growth.

Social Partnerships and Responsible Business

Social Partnerships and Responsible Business
Author: M. May Seitanidi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2013-12-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317962923

Cross-sector partnerships are widely hailed as a critical means for addressing a wide array of social challenges such as climate change, poverty, education, corruption, and health. Amid all the positive rhetoric of cross-sector partnerships though, critical voices point to the limited success of various initiatives in delivering genuine social change and in providing for real citizen participation. This collection critically examines the motivations for, processes within, and expected and actual outcomes of cross-sector partnerships. In opening up new theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives on cross-sector social interactions, this book reimagines partnerships in order to explore the potential to contribute to the social good. A multi-disciplinary perspective on partnerships adds serious value to the debate in a range of fields including management, politics, public management, sociology, development studies, and international relations. Contributors to the volume reflect many of these diverse perspectives, enabling the book to provide an account of partnerships that is theoretically rich and methodologically varied. With critical contributions from leading academics such as Barbara Gray, Ans Kolk, John Selsky, and Sandra Waddock, this book is a comprehensive resource which will increase understanding of this vital issue.