“A special kind of city knowledge” : innovative clusters, tacit knowledge and the ‘Creative City’

That the cultural industries are highly networked and operate in clusters is now well established. The notion of cluster is linked to the idea of place-based advantage with cultural industries gaining competitive advantage from mobilising the resources of places to compete in global markets. ‘Place’ in the cultural industries is frequently taken to be the city where city is seen as the key resource for cultural industry clusters and a primary point of intervention for cultural industry policy in creative city policy making. In this article I want to look at some of the implications of these moves for both academic research and policy discussion. The reasons for this emphasis on policy relates to some large questions of urban governance and cultural politics surrounding the proactive government of clusters which are raised by recent work on the cultural industries, notably by Alan Scott.

The HRM practices of innovative knowledge-intensive firms

There is little research on HRM practices in knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), especially in comparison to that conducted in traditional production environments. Whether such HRM practices are appropriate for KIFs, particularly ones that differentiate themselves on their ability to innovate, is the basis of this research. The study investigates the HRM practices being used by four innovative firms: two KIFs and two traditional production companies. The findings suggest that there are some similarities between the HRM practices of the case firms, but there are also important differences. Specifically, the KIFs emphasise use of selection criteria and processes that secure a workforce with a desire for challenging work and the ability to work collaboratively. The KIFs are also more likely to provide a breadth of training and development opportunities for teams and individuals, to make extensive use of performance management systems, and to utilise a range of strategies to encourage and reward innovation.

Towards a controlled growth of self-assembled nanostructures: shaping, ordering and localization in Ge/Si heteroepitaxy.

The strain-induced self-assembly of suitable semiconductor pairs is an attractive natural route to nanofabrication. To bring to fruition their full potential for actual applications, individual nanostructures need to be combined into ordered patterns in which the location of each single unit is coupled with others and the surrounding environment. Within the Ge/Si model system, we analyze a number of examples of bottom-up strategies in which the shape, positioning, and actual growth mode of epitaxial nanostructures are tailored by manipulating the intrinsic physical processes of heteroepitaxy. The possibility of controlling elastic interactions and, hence, the configuration of self-assembled quantum dots by modulating surface orientation with the miscut angle is discussed. We focus on the use of atomic steps and step bunching as natural templates for nanodot clustering. Then, we consider several different patterning techniques which allow one to harness the natural self-organization dynamics of the system, such as: scanning tunneling nanolithography, focused ion beam and nanoindentation patterning. By analyzing the evolution of the dot assembly by scanning probe microscopy, we follow the pathway which leads to lateral ordering, discussing the thermodynamic and kinetic effects involved in selective nucleation on patterned substrates.

Sociobiological Aspects of Resilience

The chapter approaches resilience from an evolutionary psychology perspective. In recent years scientific studies have revealed many of the biological processes associated with resilient behaviour. The authors argue that the internal constitution and mental toughness of the individual will provide a core protection for life's inevitable tests. A nurtured developing brain 'in-utero' and a physically close dyadic relationship in the early years of life, are crucial to the provision of a resilient personality. Many descriptors of the construct of resilience presented in various studies are explored in this chapter.

Internet/computer addiction among juveniles in Turkey

Internet and computer addiction has been a popular research area since the 90s. Studies on Internet and computer addiction have usually been conducted in the US, and the investigation of computer and Internet addiction at different countries is an interesting area of research. This study investigates computer and Internet addiction among teenagers and Internet cafe visitors in Turkey. We applied a survey to 983 visitors in the Internet cafes. The results show that the Internet cafe visitors are usually teenagers, mostly middle and high-school students and usually are busy with computer and Internet applications like chat, e-mail, browsing and games. The teenagers come to the Internet cafe to spend time with friends and the computers. In addition, about 30% of cafe visitors admit to having an Internet addiction, and about 20% specifically mention the problems that they are having with the Internet. It is rather alarming to consider the types of activities that the teenagers are performing in an Internet cafe, their reasons for being there, the percentage of self-awareness about Internet addiction, and the lack of control of applications in the cafe.

From barrier elimination to barrier negotiation : a qualitative study of parents' attitudes about active travel for elementary school trips

This paper examines parents' responses to key factors associated with mode choices for school trips. The research was conducted with parents of elementary school students in Denver Colorado as part of a larger investigation of school travel. School-based active travel programs aim to encourage students to walk or bike to school more frequently. To that end, planning research has identified an array of factors associated with parents' decisions to drive children to school. Many findings are interpreted as ‘barriers’ to active travel, implying that parents have similar objectives with respect to travel mode choices and that parents respond similarly and consistently to external conditions. While the conclusions are appropriate in forecasting demand and mode share with large populations, they are generally too coarse for programs that aim to influence travel behavior with individuals and small groups. This research uses content analysis of interview transcripts to examine the contexts of factors associated with parents' mode choices for trips to and from elementary school. Short, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 parents from 12 Denver Public Elementary Schools that had been selected to receive 2007–08 Safe Routes to School non-infrastructure grants. Transcripts were analyzed using Nvivo 8.0 to find out how parents respond to selected factors that are often described in planning literature as ‘barriers’ to active travel. Two contrasting themes emerged from the analysis: barrier elimination and barrier negotiation. Regular active travel appears to diminish parents' perceptions of barriers so that negotiation becomes second nature. Findings from this study suggest that intervention should build capacity and inclination in order to increase rates of active travel.

The internetalisation of information, knowledge and interaction components of the firm’s internationalisation process

Transcending traditional national borders, the Internet is an evolving technology that has opened up many new international market opportunities. However, ambiguity remains, with limited research and understanding of how the Internet influences the firm’s internationalisation process components. As a consequence, there has been a call for further investigation of the phenomenon. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the Internet’s impact on the internationalisation process components, specifically, information availability, information usage, interactive communication and international market growth. Analysis was undertaken using structural equation modelling. Findings highlight the mediating impact of the Internet on information and knowledge transference in the internationalisation process. Contributions of the study test conceptualisations and give statistical validation of interrelationships, while illuminating the Internet’s impact on firm internationalisation.

New modes of governance and the commodification of criminological knowledge

This article explores the influence of new modes of governance on the production of criminological knowledge. In doing so, it examines the rise of discourses on risk and critiques the ways in which academic environments are changing under new managerialist philosophies. The article further explores the increasing 'commodification of criminological knowledge' and analyses its effect on contemporary criminological scholarship. Finally, this article examines the contours of critical criminological scholarship and advocates for a criminology of resistance.

Design of a knowledge base to teach programming

Programming is a subject that many beginning students find difficult. This paper describes a knowledge base designed for the purpose of analyzing programs written in the PHP web development language. The aim is to use this knowledge base in an Intelligent Tutoring System that will provide effective feedback to students. The main focus of this research is that a programming exercise can have many correct solutions. This paper presents an overview of how the proposed knowledge base can be utilized to accept different solutions to a given exercise