Coletivo de trabalho e atividade dos motoboys: gênero profissional, saberes operatórios e riscos da atividade de trabalho

Há cerca de 20 anos, inicia-se no Brasil uma atividade de trabalho nas áreas urbanas: o serviço de motoboys, que vem se tornando comum na distribuição de produtos aos clientes. Em paralelo ao crescimento dessa atividade ocupacional, a quantidade de motociclistas que se acidentam grave ou fatalmente nas vias brasileiras está em pleno crescimento, razão pela qual os motoboys vêm chamando atenção das autoridades de Saúde Pública. Tentando compreender as questões que estão na base e em torno desse fenômeno, inicia-se no país um pequeno, mas consistente, conjunto de produções acadêmicas sobre a profissão. Porém, ainda são poucos os estudos que procuram compreender a atividade de trabalho dos motoboys. Menos ainda, são os que investigam dimensões do coletivo produzidas pelos profissionais (tais como o coletivo de trabalho ou o gênero profissional), bem como seus efeitos na constituição de saberes, discursos, valores e estratégias de enfrentamentos aos diversos contraintes da atividade, em particular as dimensões do risco de acidentes de trabalho. Visando responder especificamente a essa questão, é que se propõe esse trabalho. Para tanto, desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa exploratória em duas perspectivas metodológicas: por um lado um levantamento quantitativo sobre diversos aspectos do trabalho dos motoboys, tais como o perfil do trabalhador, a organização do trabalho e alguns efeitos no trabalhador; essa etapa se deu por meio da aplicação de 189 questionários aplicados em uma amostra proporcional à população identificada de trabalhadores nos principais corredores viários do município de Vitória. Por outro lado, se empreendeu um estudo, baseado nos princípios da Ergologia e em diferentes abordagens clínicas do trabalho, especialmente a Clínica da Atividade e a Psicodinâmica do Trabalho, por meio do qual se pretendeu realizar uma análise da atividade de trabalho em parceria com os trabalhadores, procurando identificar as dimensões do coletivo que são produzidas por meio do trabalho, bem como os saberes e estratégias individuais e coletivas para lidar com as exigências, as pressões, as contradições e as eventualidades do cotidiano. Destaca-se, nessa etapa qualitativa, a realização de uma aproximação etnográfica dos trabalhadores e a utilização das técnicas da autoconfrontação e das instruções ao sósia, essas duas obtidas via Clínica da Atividade. Como resultado, observou-se a existência de inúmeros saberes produzidos e/ou partilhados pelo coletivo, tais como a avaliação dos serviços, a gestão do tempo, o planejamento da rota, a mobilização da rede solidária, a gestão das transgressões, os modos de conduzir, bem como as estratégias coletivas para lidar com o risco, dentre os quais se destacam a exploração positiva do risco e as estratégias baseadas na potência da virilidade, a capacidade de antecipação, ou o cuidado na proteção de si por meio da sinalização da presença do trabalhador em trânsito nas vias. Conclui-se, dessa análise, a existência de um coletivo de trabalho e, mais particularmente, de um gênero profissional em franca constituição. Este, em contrapartida, está eivado de inúmeras contradições e embates que, potencialmente, podem estar atuando para o impedimento da manifestação desse coletivo de trabalho em toda a sua potência

A Pesquisa acadêmica sobre Ação afirmativa no Brasil: um estudo conceitual das teses e dissertações no período entre 1.987 e 2.010

Este trabalho tem como objeto a análise conceitual da produção acadêmica de teses e dissertações sobre o tema Ações Afirmativas (AAs) no Brasil, no período compreendido entre 1987 e 2010. A abordagem metodológica utilizada foi pautada na pesquisa qualitativa de natureza bibliográfica. A principal fonte de dados foi o Banco de Teses e Dissertações da Capes/MEC. A escolha da amostra, composta de 206 textos acadêmicos, se deu com base na utilização do termo ação afirmativa como categoria de busca. Dessas amostras, foram analisados, por meio de mapas conceituais, 35 trabalhos completos, de modo a atender ao critério de proporcionalidade entre o tema AAs e as demais categorias que emergiram da análise do corpo de dados com utilização software Atlas.ti. Incialmente foi realizada a leitura crítica e a seleção de categorias pertinentes ao tema, posteriormente utilizou-se o software para confirmar e/ou desconfirmar essas categorias. Com esse procedimento foi possível não somente extrair o foco dado por cada trabalho acadêmico, como a abordagem teórica, a metodológica, a posição dos autores em relação ao tema AAs, a população alvo eleita por cada autor, como também identificar os autores/teóricos recorrentes ao tema AAs utilizados para fundamentar esses trabalhos. Para demonstrar os resultados optou-se pela análise dos mapas conceituais de modo descritivo e ainda por apresentá-los no apêndice II de modo ilustrativo. Como resultado identificou-se que a grande maioria dos trabalhos refere-se as AAs a partir da aplicação de políticas públicas de redução das desigualdades, como o sistema de cotas relacionado ao acesso da população negra no sistema de ensino superior. Quanto ao posicionamento dos autores em relação a essas ações, foram raros os trabalhos que se posicionaram contra as AAs. De modo geral, os autores estudados entendem que esta é uma forma de justiça distributiva e de reparação social das desigualdades entre diferentes segmentos e grupos sociais. Considera-se que este estudo se faz importante na medida em que é crescente no ensino superior no Brasil, nos últimos anos, a utilização deste recurso político de equalização das desigualdades sociais. Este estudo mostra um diagnóstico do perfil da produção acadêmica e permite identificar as áreas de estudo e os temas mais frequentemente associados às AAs. Pretende-se com ele, contribuir com um marco teórico-conceitual para que novas pesquisas possam ser realizadas de modo a enriquecer o campo de estudos das ciências sociais, em especial sobre o tema AAs

Circulação de ideias em pesquisas com os cotidianos: os necessários contatos entre os praticantespensantes de currículos

O trabalho que desenvolvemos busca alargar os espaçostempos para narrativase análises de textos, a partir de imagens e textos produzidos com vista à circulação científica produzidos para congressos pela área de currículo e, mais especificamente, pela corrente denominada de pesquisas nos/dos/com os cotidianos. Entendemos que são nesses múltiplos e complexos encontros, nos quais são desenvolvidas formas diversas de conversas, entre pesquisadores e outros praticantespensantes dos cotidianos das redes educativas, que são reproduzidos, transmitidos e criados artefatos materiais (artigos) e imateriais (crenças pedagógicas, pensamentos pedagógicos e curriculares) e relações culturais e educativas, propiciando o encontro de múltiplos mundos culturais, fazendo circular ideias produzidas dentrofora das escolas, bem como dentrofora dos espaçostempos acadêmicos. Incorporando essas ideias, nesta pesquisa, entendemos que pelas necessidades de colocar em diálogo o que vai sendo descoberto em ciência no campo da educação se faz indispensável formas de contato ágeis entre a Universidade e aqueles que se encontram nas diversas redes cotidianas e, em especial, os praticantespensantes docentes nas múltiplas redes educativas em que atuam, já que sem isso não conseguiremos entender quais são os conhecimentos e as significações criados, cotidianamente, pelos mesmos nos contatos com as ideias criadas pelas pesquisas acadêmicas. Mais que isto, estas só podem se considerar completadas quando contarem com as respostas e ideias que são criadas nesses espaçostempos de contato. Com essa atitude que venho desenvolvendo desde o mestrado - continuo no doutorado, investigando o uso da troca científica como potência para pensar e praticar a circulação de conhecimentos e significações, compreendendo a descentralização necessária, na área da Educação, dos pólos de produção e emissão, e considerando a conversação científica, da qual todos podem/devem participar, como parte integrante e fundamental da produção de ciência, nesta área. Tudo isto vem permitindo transformações que se articulam com nossas múltiplas e diversificadas possibilidades de expressão, sensação, entendimento, pelas tantas redes que todos e todas formamos e nas quais aprendemosensinamos. Nesta tese, continuando o trabalho iniciado no mestrado, quando buscamos percorrer na internet os caminhos feitos por artigos de duas conhecidas pesquisadoras da primeira geração de pesquisadores com os cotidianos, em textos produzidos para o ENDIPE de 2010, no doutorado, buscamos acompanhar o trabalho de dois pesquisadores na segunda geração desta mesma corrente de pesquisa, nesta mesma rede, com textos produzidos para reuniões anuais da ANPEd, no Trabalho Encomendado do GT-12/Currículo. Traçamos algumas aproximamos quanto às possibilidades de trocas neste material produzido por dois encontros científicos com características bem diversas

Formação de Formadores e Educação Superior na cibercultura: itinerâncias de Grupos de Pesquisa no Facebook

Esta tese origina-se da pesquisa de doutoramento na Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro UERJ - Proped e tem como objetivo compreender a formação do formador no contexto da cibercultura e como este vem estruturando sua atuação na docência universitária. Este trabalho faz parte do eixo 2 da Pesquisa Institucional A cibercultura na era das redes sociais e da mobilidade: novas potencialidades para a formação de professores. O campo da pesquisa foi a rede social Facebook. Constituíram-se praticantes da pesquisa seis professores-formadores do ProPEd e seus orientandos. A pertinência desta pesquisa inscreveu-se num amplo movimento da perspectiva epistemológica da multirreferencialidade com os cotidianos e pelo método atualizado da pesquisa-formação. A intenção primeira deste trabalho consistiu em mapear as experiências e itinerâncias do formador em suas práticas cotidianas nos espaçostempos da cibercultura. Tencionamos que a sistematização de ambiências formativas articulando o espaço da universidade e das redes sociais criou redes de docência e aprendizagem. Como dispositivos de pesquisa, lançamos mão de oficinas, interações nas redes sociais, conversas, participação nos grupos de pesquisa. A tese revela que a formação do formador na cibercultura forja outros espaçostempos de pesquisa acadêmica e de criação de dispositivos online. Revela também que os usos do digital em rede pelos praticantes da pesquisa fizeram emergir processos de orientação coletiva, de experiências formadoras e de articulação da interface cidadeuniversidade, estabelecendo outros sentidos para a prática pedagógica e para a pesquisa acadêmica

How to avoid the problems of target-setting

Purpose: Advocates and critics of target-setting in the workplace seem unable to reach beyond their own well-entrenched battle lines. While the advocates of goal-directed behaviour point to what they see as demonstrable advantages, the critics of target-setting highlight equally demonstrable disadvantages. Indeed, the academic literature on this topic is currently mired in controversy, with neither side seemingly capable of envisaging a better way forward. This paper seeks to break the current deadlock and move thinking forward in this important aspect of performance measurement and management by outlining a new, more fruitful approach, based on both theory and practical experience. Design/methodology/approach: The topic was approached in three phases: assembling and reading key academic and other literature on the subject of target-setting and goal-directed behaviour, with a view to understanding, in depth, the arguments advanced by the advocates and critics of target-setting; comparing these published arguments with one's own experiential findings, in order to bring the essence of disagreement into much sharper focus; and then bringing to bear the academic and practical experience to identify the essential elements of a new, more fruitful approach offering all the benefits of goal-directed behaviour with none of the typical disadvantages of target-setting. Findings: The research led to three key findings: the advocates of goal-directed behaviour and critics of target-setting each make valid points, as seen from their own current perspectives; the likelihood of these two communities, left to themselves, ever reaching a new synthesis, seems vanishingly small (with leading thinkers in the goal-directed behaviour community already acknowledging this); and, between the three authors, it was discovered that their unusual combination of academic study and practical experience enabled them to see things differently. Hence, they would like to share their new thinking more widely. Research limitations/implications: The authors fully accept that their paper is informed by extensive practical experience and, as yet, there have been no opportunities to test their findings, conclusions and recommendations through rigorous academic research. However, they hope that the paper will move thinking forward in this arena, thereby informing future academic research. Practical implications: The authors hope that the practical implications of the paper will be significant, as it outlines a novel way for organisations to capture the benefits of goal-directed behaviour with none of the disadvantages typically associated with target-setting. Social implications: Given that increased efficiency and effectiveness in the management of organisations would be good for society, the authors think the paper has interesting social implications. Originality/value: Leading thinkers in the field of goal-directed behaviour, such as Locke and Latham, and leading critics of target-setting, such as Ordóñez et al. continue to argue with one another - much like, at the turn of the nineteenth century, proponents of the "wave theory of light" and proponents of the "particle theory of light" were similarly at loggerheads. Just as this furious scientific debate was ultimately resolved by Taylor's experiment, showing that light could behave both as a particle and wave at the same time, the authors believe that the paper demonstrates that goal-directed behaviour and target-setting can successfully co-exist. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Numerical analysis of thermally actuated magnets for magnetization of superconductors

Superconductors, such as YBCO bulks, have extremely high potential magnetic flux densities, comparing to rare earth magnets. Therefore, the magnetization of superconductors has attracted broad attention and contribution from both academic research and industry. In this paper, a novel technique is proposed to magnetize superconductors. Unusually, instead of using high magnetic fields and pulses, repeatedly magnetic waves with strength of as low as rare earth magnets are applied. These magnetic waves, generated by thermally controlling a Gadolinium (Gd) bulk with a rare earth magnet underneath, travel over the flat surface of a YBCO bulk and get trapped little by little. Thus, a very small magnetic field can be used to build up a very large magnetic field. In this paper, the modelling results of thermally actuated magnetic waves are presented showing how to transfer sequentially applied thermal pulses into magnetic waves. The experiment results of the magnetization of YBCO bulk are also presented to demonstrate how superconductors are progressively magnetized by small magnetic field © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Classifying data quality problems in asset management

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Making sound asset management decisions, such as whether to replace or maintain an ageing underground water pipe, are critical to ensure that organisations maximise the performance of their assets. These decisions are only as good as the data that supports them, and hence many asset management organisations are in desperate need to improve the quality of their data. This chapter reviews the key academic research on data quality (DQ) and Information Quality (IQ) (used interchangeably in this chapter) in asset management, combines this with the current DQ problems faced by asset management organisations in various business sectors, and presents a classification of the most important DQ problems that need to be tackled by asset management organisations. In this research, eleven semi structured interviews were carried out with asset management professionals in a range of business sectors in the UK. The problems described in the academic literature were cross checked against the problems found in industry. In order to support asset management professionals in solving these problems, we categorised them into seven different DQ dimensions, used in the academic literature, so that it is clear how these problems fit within the standard frameworks for assessing and improving data quality. Asset management professionals can therefore now use these frameworks to underpin their DQ improvement initiatives while focussing on the most critical DQ problems.

工作投入的影响因素及其作用机制研究

Work engagement (WE) has recently become a fashionable term among Human Resource practitioners and Organizational Behavior researchers. However, academic research that has theoretically examined WE at the psychological level is limited, as is research on its place among other job attitude constructs that are used to describe employees at work, and its antecedents and consequences. This dissertation addresses a number of issues with regard to the discriminant validity of WE, the influences of WE and the mediating role of affective commitment, and the interaction effects of different job demands, job resources and personal resources on WE. The major findings are listed as follows: Firstly, the concept of WE is different from JB and job involvement (JI), and is more positively related to quality of employees’ work and life than the other two concepts. Specifically, WE is more related to employees’ creative performance than JB does; compared with JI, WE can better predict task performance, creative performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and life satisfaction; although both WE and JB cause work to family conflict, WE improves employees’ life satisfaction, while JB is deleterious to life satisfaction. Secondly, WE influences employees’ work and life directly or through the mediation effect of affective commitment. Specifically, WE reduces employees’ turnover intention and increase their OCBs by the the mediation effect of effective commitment. Furthermore, WE is positively related to task performance, creative performance, and life satisfaction directly. Thirdly, challenge job demands influence WE by the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation, and the impact of challenge job demands on WE is moderated by perceived supervisor support and growth needs. Specifically speaking, challenge job demands enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation, therefore boost WE. Employees with higher growth needs are more likely to be motivated by challenge job demands. In other words, the moderation effect of growth need is mediated by intrinsic motivation. In addition, those who perceive more supervisor support have higher level of WE when challenge job demands are high.

Gender and health: a social movement’s agenda for Big Pharma.

Social movements have an important new campaigning and organizing competence in new information communication technologies. These technologies also enable the members of social movements to readily research the accuracy of information: knowledge becomes globalized and readily accessible. In relation to Big Pharma, women’s social movements and social movements of the medicated intersect, and there is now a substantial challenge to Big Pharma both within developed and developing countries from the terrain of gender and health. This paper documents those challenges and looks towards their consequences in the future both in respect of Big Pharma but also in terms of 'academic' research

L'azione economica tra etica e neurobiologia

The heated debate over the conflict between ethics and economics is often described as an epochal issue, an expression of present-day fragility, resulting from the implosion of the development model, which has characterised western society. The debate, however, exposes a paradox. Whilst, on the one hand, the neoclassical economic theory is radically criticized, on the other such criticism does not appear to delineate any solid, practicable alternative. Thus, the mainstream economic theory is still taught, practised by individuals as well as institutions, and further developed by the prevailing academic research. For this reason, a viable alternative needs to be sought, along with a new research methodology, which would allow to apply novel and more coherent theoretical assumptions into effective research and real cases. The theoretical instruments by which to create the models for human behaviour need to take into account the biological foundation of behaviour, expressed in evolutionary genetics terms. The aim of this paper is to establish whether our moral knowledge of economics may claim any scientific objectivity in light of advances in subject areas that differ in their scope and methods: moral philosophy, economics, cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence, each of which makes a specific contribution to understanding the operation of the human mind and towards forming the moral values onto which economic choice and action are founded. Given that the object of the study of economic science is the analysis of complex systems, nowadays the most efficient method seems to be artificial life simulation.

Homosexuality and the United Methodist Church: An Ecclesiological Dilemma

Since 1968 The United Methodist Church has publicly debated the status and roles of homosexual persons in the life of the Church, creating considerable conflict within the Denomination. Academic research on the question of homosexuality and the Church has often focused on theological understandings of homosexuality and on the ways the conflict reflects broader "culture wars" in society. Yet little attention has been given to how the Church's concrete practices and polity toward homosexual persons reflect underlying tensions within the ecclesiological identity of the Denomination. This dissertation proposes that the issue of homosexuality is a critically important case study for exploring the practical ecclesiology of The United Methodist Church. In an effort to identify tensions within contemporary United Methodism's practical ecclesiology, it traces in detail the history of the denominational debate over homosexuality since 1968 and articulates the diverse and often conflicting ecclesiological commitments embedded within that debate. Focusing on the debate itself as a practice of the Church, this dissertation illustrates the ways in which the controversy over sexuality reflects the Denomination's conflicted practical ecclesiology. By examining the rhetoric of the sexuality debates in The United Methodist Church from 1968 to 2008, and by articulating the ecclesiological commitments embedded in those debates, the dissertation reveals a fundamental conflict over interpretations of ecclesial unity. Moreover, the dissertation explores the extent to which the conflict over unity reflects ecclesiological tensions present in John Wesley's own practical ecclesiology; and it asks whether or not contemporary interpretations of United Methodist ecclesiology might provide a normative framework for assessing and resolving the underlying ecclesial conflict at work in sexuality debates. The dissertation concludes by exploring the practice of public narrative as a concrete strategy that might be employed by the Denomination to reconcile the diverging ecclesiological visions within the contemporary church so that a clear and consensual ecclesiology might emerge.

Trust, leadership and economic necessity in post-compulsory education

Trust is a complex concept that has increasingly been debated in academic research (Kramer and Tyler, 1996). Research on 'trust and leadership' (Caldwell and Hayes, 2007) has suggested, unsurprisingly, that leadership behaviours influence 'follower' perceptions of leaders' trustworthiness. The development of 'ethical stewardship' amongst leaders may foster high trust situations (Caldwell, Hayes, Karri and Bernal, 2008), yet studies on the erosion of teacher professionalism in UK post-compulsory education have highlighted the distrust that arguably accompanies 'new managerialism', performativity and surveillance within a climate of economic rationalisation established by recent deterministic skills-focused government agendas for education (Avis, 2003; Codd, 1999, Deem, 2004, DFES, 2006). Given the shift from community to commercialism identified by Collinson and Collinson (2005) in a global economic environment characterised by uncertainty and rapid change, trust is, simultaneously, increasingly important and progressively both more fragile and limited in a post compulsory education sector dominated by skills-based targets and inspection demands. Building on such prior studies, this conference paper reports on the analysis of findings from a 2007-8 funded research study on 'trust and leadership' carried out in post-compulsory education. The research project collected and analysed case study interview and survey data from the lifelong learning sector, including selected tertiary, further and higher education (FE and HE) institutions. We interviewed 18 UK respondents from HE and FE, including principals, middle managers, first line managers, lecturers and researchers, supplementing and cross-checking this with a small number of survey responses (11) on 'trust and leadership' and a larger number (241) of survey responses on more generalised leadership issues in post-compulsory education. A range of facilitators and enablers of trust and their relationship to leadership were identified and investigated. The research analysed the ways in which interviewees defined the concept of 'trust' and the extent to which they identified that trust was a mediating factor affecting leadership and organisational performance. Prior literature indicates that trust involves a psychological state in which, despite dependency, risk and vulnerability, trustors have some degree of confident expectation that trustees will behave in benevolent rather than detrimental ways. The project confirmed the views of prior researchers (Mayer, Davis and Schoorman, 1995) that, since trust inevitably involves potential betrayal, estimations of leadership 'trustworthiness' are based on followers' cognitive and affective perceptions of the reliability, competence, benevolence and reputation of leaders. During the course of the interviews it also became clear that some interviewees were being managed in more or less transaction-focused, performative, audit-dominated cultures in which trust was not regarded as particularly important: while 'cautious trust' existed, collegiality flourished only marginally in small teams. Economic necessity and survival were key factors influencing leadership and employee behaviours, while an increasing distance was reported between senior managers and their staff. The paper reflects on the nature of the public sector leadership and management environment in post-compulsory education reported by interviewees and survey respondents. Leadership behaviours to build trust are recommended, including effective communication, honesty, integrity, authenticity, reliability and openness. It was generally felt that building trust was difficult in an educational environment largely determined by economic necessity and performativity. Yet, despite this, the researchers did identify a number of examples of high trust leadership situations that are worthy of emulation.

Individual crisis episodes and cultural transition: finding the macrocosm in the microcosm

According to dialogical self theory (Hermans, 2001), individual identities reflect cultural and subcultural values, and appropriate voices and discourses from the social environment. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) systemic theory of human development similarly postulates that individual and social development occur in a symbiotic and interdependent fashion. It would therefore be predicted that individual changes in identity reflect macrocosmic changes in cultural values and social structures. The current study investigated narratives of crisis transitions within adults aged 25-40, by way of interviews with 22 participants. An intensive qualitative analysis showed that the narratives of crisis could indeed be viewed as individual manifestations of contemporary cultural changes. National statistics and academic research have documented in the UK substantial cultural shifts over the last twenty years including the lessening popularity of marriage, the rise of freelance and portfolio careers and the growth of accepted alternative gender roles. In individual crises, changes made over the course of the episode were invariably in the same direction as these social changes; towards flexible work patterns, non-marital relationships and redefined gender identities. Before the crisis, participants described their identity as bound into an established discourse of conventionality, a traditional sense of masculinity or feminitity and a singular career role, while after the crisis alternative and fluid identities are explored, and identity is less defined by role and institution. These findings show that changes in the social macrocosm can be found in the individual microcosm, and therefore support dialogical self theory.

Relational dimensions of corporate governance in translation: networked governance in China and India

The effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms has been a subject of academic research for many decades. Although the large majority of corporate governance studies prior to mid 1990s were based on data from developed market economies such as the U.S., U.K. and Japan, in recent years researchers have begun examining corporate governance in transition economies. A comparison of China and India offers a unique environment for analyzing the effectiveness of corporate governance. First, both countries state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform strategies hinges on the Modern Enterprise System characterized by the separation of ownership and control. Ownership of an SOE’s assets is distributed among the government, institutional investors, managers, employees, and private investors. Effective control rights are assigned to management, which generally has a very small, or even nonexistent ownership stake. This distinctive shareholding structure creates conflict of interest not only between management (insiders) and outside investors but also between large shareholders and minority investors. Moreover, because both governments desire to retain some control—in part through partial retained ownership of commercialized SOEs, further conflicts arise between politicians and firms. Second, directors in publicly listed firms in both countries are predominantly drawn from institutions with significant non-market objectives: the government and other state enterprises, particularly in China, and extended families, particularly in India. As a result, the effectiveness of internal governance mechanisms, such as the number of independent directors on the board and the number of independent supervisors on the supervisory committee, are likely to be quiet limited, although this has yet to be fully evaluated. Third, because of the political nature of the privatization process itself, typical external governance mechanisms, such as debt (in conjunction with appropriate bankruptcy procedures), takeover threats, legal protection of investors, product market competition, etc., have not been effective. Bank loans have traditionally been viewed as grants from the state designed to bail out failing firms. State-owned banks retain monopoly or quasi-monopoly positions in the banking sector and profit is not their overriding objective. If political favor is deemed appropriate, subsidized loans, rescheduling of overdue debt or even outright transfer of funds can be arranged with SOEs (soft budget constraints). In addition, a market for private, non-bank debt is limited in India and has yet to be established China. There is no active merger or takeover activity in Chinese stock markets to discipline management. Information available in the capital markets is insufficient to keep at arm’s length of the corporate decisions. In light of the above peculiarities, China and India share many of the typical institutional characteristics as a transition economy, including poor legal protection of creditors and investors, the absence of an effective takeover market, an underdeveloped capital market, a relative inefficient banking system and significant interference of politicians in firm management. Su (2005) finds that the extent of political interference, managerial entrenchment and institutional control can help explain corporate dividend policies and post-IPO financing choices in this situation. Allen et al. (2005) demonstrate that standard corporate governance mechanisms are weak and ineffective for publicly listed firms while alternative governance mechanisms based on reputation and relationship have been remarkably effective in the private sector. Because the peculiarities are significant in this context, the differences in the political-economies of the two countries are likely to be evident in such relational terms. In this paper we explore the peculiarities of corporate governance in this transitional environment through a systematic examination of certain aspects of these reputational and relationship dimensions. Utilising the methods of social network analysis we identify the inter-organisational relationships at board level formed by equity holdings and by shared directors. Using data drawn from the Orbis database we map these relations among the 3700 largest firms in India and China respectively and identify the roles played in these relational networks by the particularly characteristic institutions in each case. We find greatly different social network structures in each case with some support in these relational dimensions for their distinctive features of governance. Further, the social network metrics allow us to considerably refine proxies for political interference, managerial entrenchment and institutional control used in earlier econometric analysis.

Addressing diversity and inclusion in the early years in conflict-affected societies: A case study of the Media Initiative for Children – Northern Ireland

This article reports on the development and systematic evaluation of an innovative early years programme aimed at encouraging young children to respect differences within a deeply-divided society that is emerging out of a prolonged period of violent conflict. The programme, the Media Initiative for Children – Northern Ireland, has been the product of a partnership between an US-based organisation (the Peace Initiatives Institute) and NIPPA – The Early Years Organisation and has been supported by academic research and the efforts of a range of voluntary and statutory organisations. It has attempted to encourage young children to value diversity and be more inclusive of those who are different to themselves through the use of short cartoons designed for and broadcast on television as well as specially-prepared curricular materials for use in pre-school settings. To date the programme has been delivered through 200 settings to approximately 3,500 pre-school children across Northern Ireland. This article describes how the programme was developed and implemented as well as the rigorous approach taken to evaluating its effects on young children’s attitudes and awareness. Key lessons from this are identified and discussed in relation to future work in this area.