Academics across borders: narratives of linguistic capital, language competence, and communication strategies

This article reports on a study that examined the personal employment paths of six international academics at a British university. To complement previous accounts of difficult migration, it focuses on the successful experiences of such academics, in particular how proficiency in English facilitated their move into employment in higher education (HE), and the linguistic competences and communication strategies they deploy in their daily activities. The article identifies key factors that have facilitated to their academic achievements and contributes to the understanding of the benefits and consequences of skilled migration. In conclusion, it suggests workplace pedagogy and policy responses that could facilitate other international academics' successful experiences in the UK HE sector.

From engagement to outcomes: measuring the impact of researcher training using the rugby team impact framework

This study addresses our approach to the difficult task of measuring the impact of an eLearning service, the Graduate Virtual Research Environment (GVRE), provided to doctoral students at a UK University since October 2009. The GVRE provides research students with access to a training needs analysis tool which is linked to a repository of video learning resources created by academics and experienced research students. This paper explores the use of the Rugby Team Impact Framework as a guide to measuring impact and our use of a number of techniques to gather evidence about the changes resulting from use of the GVRE. The framework gives four levels of evidence, starting with simple measures of provision, through attendance, interest and to outcomes. As with other research, we found the former easy to assess but the outcomes harder to define. We conclude with a critical evaluation of our research process and outcomes.

On the conservatism of post-Jungian criticism: competing concepts of the symbol in Freud, Jung and Walter Benjamin

The renewed interest in analytical psychology by academics working in the humanities has led to the emergence of a post-Jungian field of cultural criticism, at the theoretical core of which stands Jung's theory of symbolism. This article examines the centrality of symbolism to both Freud and Jung's psychology and explains how the differing concepts of the symbol lead to their divergent theories of interpretation in psychology and art criticism. Acknowledging the advantages of Jung's more expansive account of the symbol, it argues that Walter Benjamin's critical engagement with Jung nonetheless provides a useful correction to the problematic conservatism inherent to his concept of the symbol and its contemporary application.

Towards a Systematic Framework for the Modelling of the Allocation of Carbon Dioxide Emission Quotas in China

The needs for effectively controlling carbon dioxide emissions and properly allocating carbon dioxide emission permits or allowances in China have never been so great. In this paper, a systematic multi-agent-based framework for the modelling and analysis of the allocation of carbon dioxide emission quotas in China is proposed. A carbon trading market model as the core of the activities of allocation management is constructed and discussed. In addition, examples of the modelling and simulation work are presented.

From the high ground to the swamp: A model for immersive journalism research

This article examines a reflexive, praxis-based methodology for conducting journalism research from a practitioner-academic perspective. Journalism research methods that are interactive, iterative and which rest on a dynamic communicative partnership between academics and practitioners, offer the best way for understanding change in our dynamic field. This permits the researcher to coalesce and strengthen their identity as a practitioner-academic and develop research projects that are mutually beneficial for advancing scholarship and practice. Drawing on reflexive methodologies in the human sciences, such as hermeneutics, cybernetics and constructivism, this article envisions an immersive approach embracing phenomenology and Gestalt as a fully reflexive method of data collection.

Practicing convict criminology: lessons learned from British academic activism

Joanne Belknap’s recent ASC presidential address included a critique of Convict Criminology’s activism. A number of concerns were provided, although of particular importance here are, first, Belknap’s concerns regarding the absence of ‘marginalized voices’ in the Convict Criminology network. Second, the issue of defining how non-con academics function as Convict Criminology group members. This paper responds to these criticisms. Specifically, we discuss the question of ‘representation’ in BCC and our attempts to remedy this issue. We also draw attention to the academic activism that British Convict Criminology is conducting in Europe. This includes a detailed discussion of the collaborative research-activist activities that involve non-con as well as ex-con academic network members. We demonstrate how these collaborations explain the vital group membership role that non-con academics assume in the activism of Convict Criminology.

Student Satisfaction Negates Pedagogic Rights, Theirs and Ours!

This article outlines how the potential for students to be co-participants, via a critical education, risks being further co-opted through the marketization of higher education by constructing students as consumers with power over academics to make judgments on pedagogic quality through student satisfaction ratings. We start by outlining the relevant components of marketization processes, and their associated practices of financialization and managerialism that have developed in response to the “legitimation crisis” in HE and argue that these have profoundly altered the university landscape with a significant impact on our working practices. Student engagement is increasingly being appropriated as a quantifiable measurement of “student satisfaction”, which then profoundly alters the teaching and learning experience with different understandings of what acquiring knowledge requires and what it feels like. We draw on our experience of working in the post 1992 sector to describe how we are increasingly working under conditions of “reified exchange” and how this affects our relationships with students, other academics and management, eroding our pedagogic rights and theirs in the process. Specifically, we conclude that marketization is likely to further reduce the institutional space and opportunities for both lecturers and students to exercise their “pedagogic rights” to personal enhancement, social inclusion and civic participation through education.