Critical Security Studies and World Politics

Booth, Ken, Critical Security Studies and World Politics (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005), pp.ix+321 RAE2008

Securing the human in critical security studies: the insecurity of a secure ethics

This article argues that Critical Security Studies (CSS), exemplified by Ken Booth’s Theory of World Security, has outlined an ethics of security as emancipation of the ‘human’, but also a highly problematic security of ethics. After drawing out how the ethics of CSS operates, we examine the security of this ethics by examining it against a hard case, that of the 199899 Kosovo crisis. Confronting this concrete situation, we draw out three possibilities for action used at the time to secure the human: ‘humanitarian containment’, military intervention and hospitality. Assessing each against Booth’s requirements for ethical security action, we counter that, in fact, no option was without risks, pitfalls and ambiguities. Ultimately, if any action to promote the security and the emancipation of the human is possible, it must embrace and prioritise the fundamental insecurity of ethics, or else find itself paralysed through a fear of making situations worse.

Revisiting intersectionality for EU Anti-Discrimination Law in an economic crisis –a critical legal studies perspective

This article discusses the role of EU anti-discrimination law in challenging EU anti-crisis measures from a critical legal studies perspective. Critical legal scholarship is defined through its challenge of ‘lex’ through the vision of ‘ius’ and its critical links with social movements. EU anti-discrimination law attracts critique for constituting a compartmentalised socio-legal field, which prevents justice for those at intersections of inequalities. By defining as the aim of anti-discrimination law the combat of disadvantage resulting from ascribed otherness around the nodes sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and disability, the article suggests a convincing normative vision suitable to de-compartmentalise the field and adequately address intersectionality. This critical legal perspective on intersectionality differs from its sociological counterparts by omitting class as a category. The article demonstrates that this distinction is necessary for EU anti-discrimination law to maintain its critical edge.

Leading as designing: how educational developers in leadership and management studies can use architectural design to facilitate student learning about delivering innovation

This paper describes a qualitative observational study of how a work based learning masters leadership development programme for middle managers in health and social care in the UK introduced students to key aspects of delivering innovation, through a formative assignment on contemporary architectural design. Action learning and activity theoretical approaches were used to enable students to explore common principles of leading the delivery of innovation. Between 2001 and 2013 a total of 89 students in 7 cohorts completed the assignment. Evaluation lent support for the view that the assignment provided a powerful learning experience for many. Several students found the creativity, determination and dedication of architects, designers and structural engineers inspirational in their ability to translate a creative idea into a completed artefact, deploy resources and negotiate complex demands of stakeholders. Others expressed varying levels of self-empowerment as regards their capacity for fostering an equivalent creativity in self and others. Theoretical approaches in addition to activity theory, including Engeström’s concepts of stabilisation knowledge and possibility knowledge, are discussed to explain these differing outcomes and to clarify the challenges and opportunities for educational developers seeking to utilise cross-disciplinary, creative approaches in curriculum design.

Management social del no equilibrio. Complejidad y ciencias del comportamiento: aportes teóricos y metodológicos a las ciencias de la dirección

El presente texto busca exponer algunos de los aportes que la disciplina del Management puede tomar para su desarrollo en cuanto a teoría, metodología, concepto y práctica administrativa a partir del estudio de las Ciencias de la Complejidad. Para esto se centrará en las Ciencias del Comportamiento, principalmente en las Ciencias Sociales del No Equilibrio. Ellas establecerán el puente entre el Management y las Ciencias de la Complejidad. El resultado de esta unión será la aparición de una nueva disciplina de estudio y un nuevo campo de acción para el management, a saber: El Management Social del No Equilibrio. El texto es, en sí mismo, solo una introducción al tema y se plantea como objeto de estudio para una nueva disciplina de investigación. Para comenzar se hará una introducción al problema de las Ciencias de la Complejidad. Seguidamente, se definirán las Ciencias de la Dirección y los aprovechamientos que han tenido con respecto a las Ciencias de la Complejidad y las Ciencias Sociales Aplicadas. A continuación, se hará una aproximación a lo que este texto entiende por Ciencias del Comportamiento y su relación con las Ciencias de la Complejidad, dando a luz a las Ciencias Sociales del No-Equilibrio. Para concluir se hará una intersección entre las tres (3) disciplinas usando las Ciencias del Comportamiento como puente para la aparición del Management Social del No Equilibrio. Finalmente, se termina con una conclusión con la invitación de generar nuevas discusiones e investigaciones con respecto al tema.

Buzz-words in business and management studies

The paper presents a theory of the use of buzz-words in academic discourse. It uses economic principles to analyse the incentives to innovate new buzz words and to use existing buzz-words promoted by other people. It argues that the lack of a credible dominant intellectual elite in business studies, combined with the rapid growth of academic employment in business schools, has stimulated an inefficient proliferation of buzz-words in management studies. It argues that this proliferatilon of buzz-words is in danger of bringing the field of study into disrepute.

Why Critical Whiteness Studies needs to think about warfare

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Whither management studies in Australian engineering undergraduate courses

In response to a perceived need for management studies in engineering
undergraduate courses, the Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust)
mandated a requirement for 10% of course content to be management
studies in Australia in 1991. In 1996 a major review of engineering
education in Australia recommended that the IEAust move from a course
accreditation regime based on prescribed inputs to one based on
demonstrated graduate attributes. In the move to the new accreditation
system the policy on management studies in engineering undergraduate
courses has become less definitive and more open to interpretation by
individual educational institutions. A survey of recent engineering
graduates suggests that those management skills most highly valued by
graduates were generic professional practice skills, and that more
opportunities to develop these skills in undergraduate studies would be
beneficial. Survey respondents suggested the inclusion in the course of
more real world examples of engineering management, including case
studies, hands-on activities, industry visits, more in-depth coverage of
topics, and presentations from practicing professionals.

An evaluation of undergraduate engineering management studies

In 1996, a major review of engineering education in Australia recommended a move from a course accreditation regime based on prescribed inputs to demonstrated graduate attributes. In the move, the policy on management studies in engineering undergraduate courses has become less definitive and more open to interpretation. A survey of recent engineering graduates suggests that those management skills most highly valued by graduates were generic professional practice skills, and that more opportunities to develop these skills in undergraduate studies would be beneficial. Survey respondents suggested the inclusion in the course of more `real world ' examples of engineering management.

Framework for undergraduate engineering management studies

The importance of management to the long-term careers of practicing professional engineers has long been recognized. Undergraduate engineering education should therefore provide an exposure to the management skills required by engineers in professional practice. For the rational and effective design of undergraduate engineering management studies, it is essential to understand the nature of engineering management and to identify those management skills identified as important by practicing professional engineers. Through an investigation of the recent literature, the management skills considered important by engineering stakeholder groups are identified and ranked. This information is supplemented by recent surveys conducted by the author of stakeholders in Australia, including academic staff, mature age undergraduate students, and recent graduates of the engineering programs at Deakin University in Australia. Based on an examination of the literature and original research, a framework of ranked classified management skills is proposed. Broadly, the ranking framework is generic professional skills first, followed by general management skills and technical discipline specific management skills, followed by other professional discipline skills and theoretical skills.

Graduate evaluation of engineering management studies at Deakin University

Australia has long recognised the importance of the inclusion of management studies in undergraduate engineering courses. A survey of recent graduates of the engineering programs at Deakin University was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of the management studies in those programs. The survey respondents suggest that those management skills most highly valued by graduates were generic professional practice skills, and that more opportunities to develop these skills in undergraduate studies would be beneficial. Survey respondents suggested the inclusion in the course of more ‘real world’ examples of engineering management.