Directing democracy : competing interests and contested terrain in the John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership is one of Europe’s largest models of employee ownership and has been operating a form of employee involvement and participation since its formation in 1929. It is frequently held up as a model of best practice (Cathcart, 2013) and has been described as a ‘workers’ paradise’ (Stummer and Lacey, 2001). At the beginning of 2012, the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK unveiled plans to create a ‘John Lewis Economy’ (Wintour, 2012). As John Lewis is being positioned at the heart of political and media discussions in the UK about alternatives to the corporate capitalist model of enterprise, it is vital that more is known about the experience of employee involvement and participation within the organisation. This article explores the ways in which the practice of employee involvement and participation has changed in John Lewis as a result of competing employee and managerial interests. Its contribution is a contemporary exploration of participation in the John Lewis Partnership and an examination of the ways in which management and employees contested the meaning and practice of employee involvement and participation as part of a ‘democracy project’, which culminated in significant changes and degeneration of the democratic structures.

The John Lewis model reveals the tensions and paradoxes at the heart of workplace democracy

Politicians of all parties have been keen to promote the ‘John Lewis model’ of industrial organisation, emphasising its features of employee ownership and workplace democracy. Dr Abby Cathcart’s research into the company shows that management and workers have different visions of what ‘partnership’ means, with ongoing struggle taking place via the organisation’s democratic structures. This, she argues, has stark implications for other organisations with partnership models that are less robust.

Review : "Ghosts...of the Civil Dead" -- John Hillcoat

Synopsis and review of the Australian prison film Ghosts...of the Civil Dead (John Hillcoat, 1988). Drawing heavily from the book In the Belly of the Beast by American author and long-term prisoner Jack Henry Abbott, as well as from the historical and philosophical work of Michel Foucault (the credits include ‘Foucault Authority – Simon During’), Ghosts… Of the Civil Dead is a searing critique of the so-called ‘new generation’ prison system developed in the United States and recently introduced in Australia. Director John Hillcoat and producer Evan English conducted extensive research for the film, including spending time at the National Institute of Corrections, a think tank in Colorado, and visiting numerous institutions like the ‘new Alcatraz’ at Marion Illinois and other maximum security prisons across the United States. Using a mix of professionals and non-actors, including former prisoners and prison guards, the ‘story’ was workshopped during a lengthy rehearsal period with many actual events and experiences of participants incorporated into the film. The end result deliberately blurs the line between American and Australian prison experience to make the political point that what had happened in the US – from where many events and characters, and much of the architecture and design of the prison are drawn – was beginning to happen in Australia. The film emphasises the vicious cycle of institutionalisation, and highlights the role state authorities play in manufacturing, provoking and manipulating violence and fear both in prisons and in wider society as a means to augment policing and surveillance of the population, to oppress the working classes, and to maintain the political status quo...

Punk’s fairy godfather : Go-Between John Willsteed on Lou Reed

Obituary on the death of Lou Reed, member of The Velvet Underground and acclaimed solo artist.

Measuring global economic interdependence : a hierarchical network approach

This paper investigates the business cycle co-movement across countries and regions since 1950 as a measure for quantifying the economic interdependence in the ongoing globalisation process. Our methodological approach is based on analysis of a correlation matrix and the networks it contains. Such an approach summarises the interaction and interdependence of all elements, and it represents a more accurate measure of the global interdependence involved in an economic system. Our results show (1) the dynamics of interdependence has been driven more by synchronisation in regional growth patterns than by the synchronisation of the world economy, and (2) world crisis periods dramatically increase the global co-movement in the world economy.

Review Essay: John Pratt and Anna Eriksson (2013) 'Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism'

This review essay combines the comments made by David Brown, Russell Hogg and Mark Finanne at the Crime, Justice and Social Democracy: 2nd International Conference July 2013. It is followed by a rejoinder by the two authors John Pratt and Anna Eriksson.

An Interview with John Rajchman, Department of Art History, Columbia University, on Architecture, Deleuze and Foucault

An Interview with John Rajchman, Department of Art History, Columbia University, on Architecture, Deleuze and Foucault at his apartment, Riverside Drive, New York City, February 10, 2003.

John Andrews : Architecture a Performing Art

The distinguished Australian architect surveys his career and examines how his architectural theories are expressed in his designs.

SIR Analysis and Interference Cancellation in Uplink OFDMA with Large Carrier Frequency/Timing Offsets

In uplink orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), large timing offsets (TO) and/or carrier frequency offsets (CFO) of other users with respect to a desired user can cause significant multiuser interference (MUI). In this letter, we analytically characterize the degradation in the average output signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) due to the combined effect of both TOs as well as CFOs in uplink OFDMA. Specifically, we derive closed-form expressions for the average SIR at the DFT output in the presence of large CFOs and TOs. The analyticalexpressions derived for the signal and various interference terms at the DFT output are used to devise an interference cancelling receiver to mitigate the effect of CFO/TO-induced interferences.

Konstruktiivisen linjakkuuden perusteita etsimässä : Systemaattinen analyysi John Biggsin esittämistä yliopisto-opetuksen lähtökohdista

The aim of this study is to explore by systematic textual analysis the crucial conceptions of constructive alignment and to reconstruct the concept of constructive alignment and examine the relation between conceptual relationships in John Biggs’s texts. In this study, I have also analyzed the presuppositions of the concept of constructive alignment and its possible implications. The research material includes Biggs’s (1996b; 2003) article entitled Enhancing Teaching through Constructive Alignment and book entitled Teaching for Quality Learning at University. The primary purpose of the systematic textual analysis is to reconstruct concepts and gain access to a new or more profound understanding of the concepts. The main purpose of the constructive alignment is to design a teaching system that supports and encourages students to adopt a deep approach learning. At the center of the constructive alignment are two concepts: constructivism in learning and alignment in teaching. A tension was detected between these concepts. Biggs assumes that students’ learning activities are primed by the teaching. Because of this it is not important what the teacher does. At the same time he emphasizes that teaching interacts with learning. The teacher’s task is to support student’s appropriate learning activities. On the basis of the analysis, I conclude these conceptions are not mutually exclusive. Interaction between teaching and learning has an effect on student’s learning activities. The most essential benefit of the model of constructive alignment is that Biggs brings together and considers teaching at the same level with learning. A weakness of Biggs’s model relates to the theoretical basis and positions of the concept of constructive alignment. There are some conflicts between conceptions of epistemology in Biggs’s texts. In addition, Biggs writes about constructivism also as conceptions of epistemology, but doesn’t consider implications of that position or what follows or doesn’t follow from that commitment. On the basis of the analysis, I suggest that constructivism refers in Biggs’s texts rather to constructivism in learning than philosophical constructivism. In light of this study, constructive alignment doesn´t lead to philosophical constructivism. That’s why constructive alignment stays out of idealism. Biggs’s way of thinking about teachers possibility to confronting students’ misconceptions and evaluate and assess students’ constructions support a realist purpose in terms of philosophical stance. Realism does not drift toward general problems of relativism, like lack of criteria for assessing or evaluate these constructions.

Stenotaphrum secundatum, Buffalo Grass 'Sir James'

Spontaneous mutation: discovered in February 2001 as a superior plant growing among “Common” buffalo grass growing on the breeder’s property at Saltash in the Hunter Valley (NSW). The selected material has smaller (finer) leaves and showed better growth and colour than the parent variety with minimal inputs (water, fertiliser) under stressful climatic conditions. Subsequently, it also showed better leaf colour retention than the parent variety during winter. A vegetative plug taken from the original plant has now undergone four subsequent vegetative divisions to expand the original material for performance trials in NSW and Queensland without showing any discernible off types. Main selection criteria: winter colour retention, small leaves, low fertiliser requirement. Propagation: vegetative. Breeder: Brent Redman, Maitland North, NSW. PBR Certificate Number 2715, Application Number 2002/283, granted 18 March 2005.

John and Ursula Schlosstein nee Gottschalk with their infant son Ralph. portraits family

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