The Restless Love of Thinking : The Concept Liebe in Hegel's Philosophy

The German philosopher G.W.F.Hegel (1770–1831) is best known for his idealistic system philosophy, his concept of spirit [Geist] and for his dictum that the existing and the rational overlap. This thesis offers a new perspective: it examines the working of the concept ‘love’ in Hegel’s philosophy by looking at the contexts and function he puts it to, from his earliest writings to the very last lectures he gave. The starting point of the inquiry is that he applied the concept Liebe to different contexts for different purposes, but each time to provide an answer to a specific philosophical problem. His formulation, reformulation and use of ‘love’ give possible solutions to problems the solving of which was crucial to the development of his thought as a whole. The study is divided into three parts, each analysing the different problems and solutions to which Hegel applied the concept of love. The first part, "Love, morality and ethical life", examines these interconnected themes in Hegel’s early work. The main questions he addressed during this period concerned how to unite Kant’s philosophy and the Greek ideal of the good life. In this context, the concept ‘love’ did three things. First, it served to formulate his grounding idea of the relation between unity and difference, or the manifold. Secondly, it was the key to his attempt to base an ideal folk religion on Christianity interpreted as a religion of love. Finally, it provided the means to criticise Kant’s moral philosophy. The question of the moral value of love helped Hegel to break away from Kant’s thought and develop his own theory about love and ethical life. The second part of the study, "Love and the political realm", considers the way 'Liebe' functions in connection with questions concerning the community and political life in Hegel’s work. In addition to questioning the universal applicability of the concept of recognition as a key to his theory of social relations, the chapters focus on gender politics and the way he conceptualised the gender category ‘woman’ through the concept ‘love’. Another line of inquiry is the way the figure of Antigone was used to conceptualise the differentiated spheres of action for men and women, and the part ‘love’ played in Hegel’s description of Antigone’s motives. Thirdly, Hegel’s analogy of the family and the state and the way ‘love’ functions in an attempt to promote understanding of the relation between citizens and the state are examined. The third and final part of the study, "Love as absolute spirit", focuses on ‘love’ within Hegel’s systemic thought and the way he continued to characterise Geist through the language of Liebe up until and including his very last works. It is shown how Liebe functions in his hierarchical organisation of the domains of art, religion and philosophy, and how both art and religion end up in similar structural positions with regard to philosophy. One recurrent theme in the third part is Hegel’s complex relation to Romantic thought. Another line of investigation is how he reconstructed Christianity as a religion of love in his mature work. In striking contrast to his early thought, in his last works Hegel introduced a new concept of love that incorporated negativity, and that could also function as the root of political action.

Re-thinking discourses of teacher professionalism in early childhood education: An Australian perspective

The professionalism of early childhood teachers has been the subject of increasing attention globally for over a decade (Moss, 2006; Osgood, 2012; Urban, 2010. In order to understand ways pre-service early childhood teachers make sense of professionalism, this chapter examines some of the discourses of early childhood teacher professionalism, and focuses on qualifications as one way in which being professional is discursively produced. In particular, the chapter makes visible some of the discursive tensions involved in student intentions to pursue careers in primary school teaching/specialist early childhood teacher in primary school, rather than in the child care sector. In doing so, it makes visible some of the effects of particular discourses of professionalism and the ways they may be taken up by students as they make important career decisions.

The logic of data-sense: Thinking through Learning Personalisation

Big Data and Learning Analytics’ promise to revolutionise educational institutions, endeavours, and actions through more and better data is now compelling. Multiple, and continually updating, data sets produce a new sense of ‘personalised learning’. A crucial attribute of the datafication, and subsequent profiling, of learner behaviour and engagement is the continual modification of the learning environment to induce greater levels of investment on the parts of each learner. The assumption is that more and better data, gathered faster and fed into ever-updating algorithms, provide more complete tools to understand, and therefore improve, learning experiences through adaptive personalisation. The argument in this paper is that Learning Personalisation names a new logistics of investment as the common ‘sense’ of the school, in which disciplinary education is ‘both disappearing and giving way to frightful continual training, to continual monitoring'.

Exploring the role of lean thinking in sustainable business practice

A large and growing body of literature has explored corporate environmental sustainability initiatives and their impacts locally, regionally and internationally. While the initiatives provide examples of environmental stewardship and cleaner production, a large proportion of the organisations considered in this literature have ‘sustainable practice’, ‘environmental stewardship’ or similar goals as add-ons to their core business strategy. Furthermore, there is limited evidence of organizations embracing and internalising sustainability principles throughout their activities, products or services. Many challenges and barriers impede outcomes as whole system design or holistic approach to address environmental issues, with some evidence to suggest that targeted initiatives could be useful in making progress. ‘Lean management’ and other lean thinking strategies are often put forward as part of such targeted approaches. Within this context, the authors have drawn on current literature to undertake a review of lean thinking practices and how these influence sustainable business practice, considering the balance of environmental and economic aspects of triple bottom line in sustainability. The review methodology comprised firstly identifying theoretical constructs to be studied, developing criteria for categorising the literature, evaluating the findings within each category and considering the implications of the findings for areas for future research. The evaluation revealed two main areas of consideration: - a) lean manufacturing tools and environmental performance, and; - b) integrated lean and green models and approaches. However the review highlighted the ad hoc use of lean thinking within corporate sustainability initiatives, and established a knowledge gap in the form of a system for being able to consider different categories of environmental impacts in different industries and choose best lean tools or models for a particular problem in a way to ensure holistic exploration. The findings included a specific typology of lean tools for different environmental impacts, drawing from multiple case studies. Within this research context, this paper presents the findings of the review; namely the emerging consensus on the relationships between lean thinking and sustainable business practice. The paper begins with an overview of the current literature regarding lean thinking and its documented role in sustainable business practice. The paper then includes an analysis of lean and green paradigms in different industries; and describes the typology of lean tools used to reduce specific environmental impacts and, integrated lean and green models and approaches. The paper intends to encourage industrial practitioners to consider the merits and potential risks with using specific lean tools to reduce context-specific environmental impacts. It also aims to highlight the potential for further investigation with regard to comparing different industries and conceptualising a generalizable system for ensuring lean thinking initiatives build towards sustainable business practice.

Bombs away: Visual thinking and students’ engagement in design studios contexts

In design studio, sketching or visual thinking is part of processes that assist students to achieve final design solutions. At QUT’s First and Third Year industrial design studio classes we engage in a variety of teaching pedagogies from which we identify ‘Concept Bombs’ as instrumental in the development of students’ visual thinking and reflective design process, and also as a vehicle to foster positive student engagement. In First year studios our Concept Bombs’ consist of 20 minute individual design tasks focusing on rapid development of initial concept designs and free-hand sketching. In Third Year studios we adopt a variety of formats and different timing, combining individual and team based tasks. Our experience and surveys tell us that students value intensive studio activities especially when combined with timely assessment and feedback. While conventional longer-duration design projects are essential for allowing students to engage with the full depth and complexity of the design process, short and intensive design activities introduce variety to the learning experience and enhance student engagement. This paper presents a comparative analysis of First and Third Year students’ Concept Bomb sketches to describe the types of design knowledge embedded in them, a discussion of limitations and opportunities of this pedagogical technique, as well as considerations for future development of studio based tasks of this kind as design pedagogies in the midst of current university education trends.

How can evaluative thinking and practice inform performance models for organizations and personnel

In the world today there are many ways in which we measure, count and determine whether something is worth the effort or not. In Australia and many other countries, new government legislation is requiring government-funded entities to become more transparent in their practice and to develop a more cohesive narrative about the worth, or impact, for the betterment of society. This places the executives of such entities in a position of needing evaluative thinking and practice to guide how they may build the narrative that documents and demonstrates this type of impact. In thinking about where to start, executives, project and program managers may consider this workshop as a professional development opportunity to explore both the intended and unintended consequences of performance models as tools of evaluation. This workshop will offer participants an opportunity to unpack the place of performance models as an evaluative tool through the following: · What shape does an ethical, sound and valid performance measure for an organization or personnel take? · What role does cultural specificity play in the design and development of a performance model for an organization or for personnel? · How are stakeholders able to identify risk during the design and development of such models? · When and where will dissemination strategies be required? · And so what? How can you determine that your performance model implementation has made a difference now or in the future?

The potential benefits of divergent thinking and metacognitive skills in STEAM learning: A discussion paper

In the wake of an almost decade long economic downturn and increasing competition from developing economies, a new agenda in the Australian Government for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and research has emerged as a national priority. However, to art and design educators, the pervasiveness and apparent exclusivity of STEM can be viewed as another instance of art and design education being relegated to the margins of curriculum (Greene, 1995). In the spirit of interdisciplinarity, there have been some recent calls to expand STEM education to include the arts and design, transforming STEM into STEAM in education (Maeda, 2013). As with STEM, STEAM education emphasises the connections between previously disparate disciplines, meaning that education has been conceptualised in different ways, such as focusing on the creative design thinking process that is fundamental to engineering and art (Bequette & Bequette, 2012). In this article, we discuss divergent creative design thinking process and metacognitive skills, how, and why they may enhance learning in STEM and STEAM.

Lean Thinking in Software Development : Impacts of Kanban on Projects

The history of software development in a somewhat systematical way has been performed for half a century. Despite this time period, serious failures in software development projects still occur. The pertinent mission of software project management is to continuously achieve more and more successful projects. The application of agile software methods and more recently the integration of Lean practices contribute to this trend of continuous improvement in the software industry. One such area warranting proper empirical evidence is the operational efficiency of projects. In the field of software development, Kanban as a process management method has gained momentum recently, mostly due to its linkages to Lean thinking. However, only a few empirical studies investigate the impacts of Kanban on projects in that particular area. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to improve the understanding of how Kanban impacts on software projects. The research is carried out in the area of Lean thinking, which contains a variety of concepts including Kanban. This article-type thesis conducts a set of case studies expanded with the research strategy of quasi-controlled experiment. The data-gathering techniques of interviews, questionnaires, and different types of observations are used to study the case projects, and thereby to understand the impacts of Kanban on software development projects. The research papers of the thesis are refereed, international journal and conference publications. The results highlight new findings regarding the application of Kanban in the software context. The key findings of the thesis suggest that Kanban is applicable to software development. Despite its several benefits reported in this thesis, the empirical evidence implies that Kanban is not all-encompassing but requires additional practices to keep development projects performing appropriately. Implications for research are given, as well. In addition to these findings, the thesis contributes in the area of plan-driven software development by suggesting implications both for research and practitioners. As a conclusion, Kanban can benefit software development projects but additional practices would increase its potential for the projects.