Managing state-owned enterprises in an age of crisis:An analysis of irish experience

As with all aspects of public management, the control, financing, and regulation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are matters subject to changing international trends and domestic political imperatives. The effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) on the ownership, financing, and role of SOEs are still unfolding, but undoubtedly will be heavily influenced by a new era of public sector reforms principally designed to reassert central political controls, as well as by fiscal pressures to balance state budgets. In this regard, the Irish experience is instructive, with the findings from two datasets being used here to examine various modes of state enterprise control and their corresponding autonomy. Significantly, there has been considerable variety within and across the SOE sector, demonstrating the need for more detailed understanding of how SOEs are managed. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Zeros and Os:Silence, Absence and Erasure in an Intercultural O-thello

The performative function of sound and music has received little attention in performance theory and criticism and certainly much less so in studies of intercultural theatre. Such an absence is noteworthy particularly since interculturalism is an appropriative Western theatrical form that absorbs Eastern sources to re-create the targeted Western mise en scene. Consequently, a careful consideration of the employment of sound and music are imperative for sound and music form the vertebrae of Asian traditional performance practices. In acoustemological and ethnomusicological studies, sound and music demarcate cultural boundaries and locate cultures by an auditory (dis)recognition. In the light of this need for a more considered understanding of the performative function of sound and music in intercultural performance, this paper seeks to examine the soundscapes of an intercultural production of Shakespeare’s Othello – Desdemona. Directed by Singaporean Ong Keng Sen, Desdemona was a re-scripting of Shakespeare’s text and a self-conscious performance an identity politics. Staged with a multi-ethnic, multi-national cast, Desdemona employed various Asian performance traditions such as Sanskrit Kutiyattam, Myanmarese puppetry, and Korean p’ansori to create the intercultural spectacle. The spectacle was not only a visual aesthetic but an aural one as well. By examining the soundscapes of fractured silences and eruptive cultural sounds the paper hopes to establish the ways in which Desdemona performs absences and erasures of ‘Asia’ in a simultaneous act of performing an Asian Shakespeare.

Thou art a strange fellow:Dissonance and Discordance in Intercultural Shakespeares

Any performance of the intercultural necessarily, and always, advances the question of the cultural since it involves the inter-action and interplay of unique and particular cultural performance styles and modes. Intercultural theatre, according to Pavis, is a hybrid theatrical form “drawing upon performance traditions traceable to distinct cultural areas. The hybridization is very often such that the original forms can no longer be distinguished.” The result of this collaboration of forms is, however, often not a ‘hybrid’ where cultural texts work cohesively and in unison to produce a harmonious mise en scene. Instead, intercultural performances are performances at the interstices and at the intersections of cultures. They raise problems of authorship, authority and performance unities and expose a sense of cultural foreignness. Consequently, intercultural performance can be said to be meta-theatre that queries the construction of culture since it places alongside performance traditions that confront.

Music, as performative unit, is a significant line of action by which the intercultural spectacle is constructed. Integral to Western theatre, and certainly more so in traditional Asian performance forms, the deliberate ‘fusion’ and ‘blending’ of musical styles in intercultural performances underscore not a harmony of diverse sounds but the possible dissonance and discordance already performed by the visual and verbal texts. The paper thus seeks to examine, in particular, the musical elements in intercultural performances such as Ong Keng Sen’s Lear (Theatreworks, 1999) and explore the ways in which music could possibly intensify the confrontation of performative texts resulting in a disruption of performance unities. When watching and listening to Lear, the question of the ‘local’ thus arises not merely with identification and alienation from what is seen but also what is familiar and foreign to one’s ears.

Economic boom and social mobility:The Irish experience

In this paper we examine the consequences for social mobility of the recent unprecedented period of economic growth experienced in Ireland and the implications of such developments for current theories of social fluidity. Contrary to suggestions that the "Celtic Tiger" experience has been associated with deepening problem marginalization, we found evidence for a substantial upgrading of the class structure, increased levels of social mobility and increased social fluidity in relation to long-range hierarchical mobility. Such increased openness could not be explained by changes in the mediating role of education. The pattern of change suggests that both the upgrading of the class structure and the recent unprecedented tightness of the labour market have led employers to increasingly apply criteria other than education in a manner that has facilitated increased social fluidity. The Irish case provides further support for the argument for reconsidering the balance that mobility research has struck between social fluidity and absolute mobility and encouraging increased attention to the evolution of firms and jobs. It also suggests that, in circumstances where policies in advanced industrial societies have shown an increasing tendency to diverge, increased social fluidity may come about as a consequence of very different economic and social policies. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Researcher identity: exploring the transformatory power of the research experience.

In consumer research, we frequently focus on the phenomenon of transformation, whether the transformatory effects of a particular consumption community or the great body of work being carried out under the banner of transformative consumer research. However, there is a particular transformation which occurs in the field of interpretivist consumer research that, we would argue, is overlooked—that of researcher transformation. We present as data our reflexive considerations on the ways in which our own research with vulnerable consumers has affected and changed us. We consider short-term transformations in the field, reflecting on the various ways that researcher identity is carefully managed and negotiated to fit with the social–cultural setting. We also consider longer term transformations and discuss the enduring impact of the research process—the people we have met, the homes we have visited, and the stories we have heard. By reflecting on the shaping of identities ‘in the field’, we aim to deepen our appreciation of the interpretive consumer research process and contribute to theoretical understanding of transformative identity research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Early pain experience, child and family factors, as precursors of somatization:a prospective study of extremely premature and fullterm children

In a prospective study of 36 children who were extremely low birthweight (ELBW: <1000 g) preterm infants and 36 matched full-term controls, differences were found in somatization at age 4 1/2 years. Only children who had been extremely premature, and thereby experienced prolonged hospitalization and repeated medical intervention in infancy, had clinically high somatization scores on the Personality Inventory for Children. The combination of family relations at age 4 1/2 years, neonatal intensive care experience, poor maternal sensitivity to child cues in mother-child interaction observed at age 3 years, and child avoidance of touch or holding at age 3, predicted somatization scores, prior to school entry. Due to the known higher incidence of actual medical problems among children with a history of extreme prematurity, the high somatization ELBW children were compared with the normal somatization ELBW children. There were no differences in prevalence of actual medical problems between the 2 ELBW groups, and the importance of maternal factors in relation to somatization was confirmed. Child temperament at age 3, but not personality at 4 1/2, was related to somatization. The etiology of recurrent physical complaints of no known medical cause appears to be a multi-dimensional problem. Non-optimal parenting may contribute to the development of inappropriate strategies for coping with common pains of childhood, or of chronic pain patterns, in some children who have experienced prolonged or repeated pain as neonates.

Understanding the collaborative experience between researchers and health care practitioners:Implications for gerontological nursing practice

The health care field is a new arena for collaborative research carried out by practitioner-researcher teams. Although the current literature discusses factors supportive of such teams, most evidence is anecdotal or descriptive of pilot projects. In this article, the authors use survey and interview data to document health care practitioners' views on collaborative research with an experienced researcher/ mentor. Topics covered include a description of the research project and process, positive and negative aspects of doing research, expectations, recommendations to colleagues starting research, and desirable characteristics in practitioners and researchers on collaborative research teams. Of all attributes mentioned, personal traits and skills were among the most frequently mentioned for both practitioners and researchers, followed by research knowledge and attitudes for practitioners, and teaching skills for researchers. The article also addresses factors important to the success of collaborative research: how to develop a project, characteristics of collaborative team members, team functioning, and institutional support. Copyright © 2000 Taylor & Francis.