Expectation versus provision in the management and use of urban open space

This paper discusses the implications of the shifting cultural significance of public open space in urban areas. In particular, it focuses on the increasing dysfunction between people's expectations of that space and its actual provision and management. In doing so, the paper applies Lefebvre's ideas of spatiality to the evident paradigm shift from 'public' to 'private' culture, with its associated commodification of previously public space. While developing the construct of paradigm shift, the paper recognises that the former political notions inherent in the provision of public space remain in evidence. So whereas public parks were formerly seen as spaces of confrontation between the 'rationality' of public order as the 'irrationality' of individual leisure pursuits, they are now increasingly seen, particularly 'out of hours', as the domain of the dispossessed, to be defined and policed as 'dangerous'. Where once people were welcomed into public open spaces as a means of 'educating' them in good, acceptable, leisure practices, therefore, they are now increasingly excluded, but for the same ostensible reasons. Building on survey work undertaken in Reading, Berkshire, the paper illustrates how communities can become separated from 'their' space, leaving them with the overriding impression that they have been 'short-changed' in terms of both the provision and the management of urban open space. Rather than the intimacy of local space for local people, therefore, the paper argues that parks have become externalised places, increasingly responding to commercial definitions of culture and what is 'public'. Central urban open spaces are therefore increasingly becoming sites of stratification, signification of a consumer-constructed citizenship and valorisation of public life as a legitimate element of the market surface of town and city centres.

Providing space for teacher renewal: the role of the facilitator in school-university partnerships

This article uses the process of a teacher renewal partnership programme to explore the role of the university academic as a facilitator of change. Responses to a series of interview questions relating to change were used to explore and examine the dimensions of the facilitator's role. Facilitators report that the role is complex, often uncertain and requires an understanding of the school and its culture and schools' and teachers' previous experiences in professional development programmes. The findings from this article suggest that an effective facilitator creates, for the teachers involved, a space for discussion, reflection and challenge and that this space provides for and legitimates teacher renewal.

Because it takes a village to fund the answers: Crowdfunding University Research

Whichever way you look at it, online crowdfunding is ramifying. From its foundations supporting creative industry initiatives, crowdfunding has branched into almost every aspect of public and private enterprise. Niche crowdfunding platforms and models are burgeoning across the globe faster than you can trill “kerching”. Early adopters have been quick to discover that in addition to money, they also get free market information and an opportunity to develop a relationship with their market base. Despite these evident benefits, universities have been cautious entrants in the crowdfunding space and more generally in the emerging ‘collaborative economy’ (Owyang, 2013). There are many cultural and institutional legacies that might explain this reluctance. For example, to date universities have achieved social (and economic) distinction through refining a set of exclusionary practices including, but not limited to, versions of gatekeeping, ranking and credentialing. These practices are reproduced in the expected behaviors of individual academics who garner social currency and status as experts, legislators and interpreters (Osborne, 20014: 435). Digitalization and the emergent knowledge and collaboration economies, have the potential to disrupt the academy’s traditional appeals to distinction and to re-engage universities and academics with their public stakeholders. This chapter will examine some of the challenges and benefits arising from public micro-funding of university-based research initiatives during a period of industrial transition in the university sector.Broadly then this chapter asks; what does scholarship mean in a digital ecosystem where sociality (rather than traditional systems for assessing academic merit) affords research opportunity and success? How might university research be rethought in a networked world where personal and professional identities are blurred? What happens when scholars adopt the same pathways as non-scholars for knowledge discovery, development and dissemination through use of emerging practices such as crowdfunding. These issues will be discussed through detailed exploration of a successful pilot project to crowdfund university research; Research My World. This project, a collaboration between Deakin University and the crowdfunding platform pozible.com, set out to secure new sources of funding for the ‘long-tail’ of academic research. More generally, it aimed to improve the digital capacity of the participating researchers and create new opportunities for public engagement for the researchers themselves as well as the university. We will examine how crowdfunding and social media platforms alter academic effort (the dis-intermediation or re-intermediation of research funding, reduction of the compliance burden, opportunities for market validation and so on), as well as the particular workflows of scholarly researchers themselves (improvements in “digital presence-building”, provision of cheap alternative funding, opportunities to crowdsource non-academic knowledge). In addressing these questions, this chapter will explore the influence that crowdfunding campaigns have for transforming contemporary academic practices across a range of disciplinary instances, providing the basis for a new form of engagement-led research. To support our analysis we will provide an overview of the initiative through quantitative analysis of a dataset generated by the first iteration of Research My World projects.

Public, Private and University Collaboration: Applying a Retrospective Study of the Central Massachusetts Bio-Medical Cluster, Cluster Project Summary for Mosakowski Institute

Three Clark faculty members are studying the development of the Worcester Biotechnology Cluster for any lessons it might hold for current efforts to catalyze the growth of a sustainable energy/green jobs cluster in Worcester or elsewhere. Mary Ellen Boyle (GSOM), Jennie Stephens (IDCE/ESP), and Jing Zhang (GSOM) have conducted extensive in-depth interviews and combed the literature of cluster development to produce several articles and working papers.

Prevalence of anaemia in inflammatory bowel disease in Switzerland: A cross-sectional study in patients from private practices and university hospitals

BACKGROUND: Anaemia represents a common complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Most studies on anaemia in IBD patients have been performed in tertiary referral centres (RC) and data from gastroenterologic practices (GP) are lacking. We investigated the frequency and severity of anaemia in IBD patients from tertiary referral centres and gastroenterologic practices compared to the general population. METHODS: Data were acquired from patients included in the Swiss IBD Cohort Study. IBD activity was evaluated by CDAI and modified Truelove and Witts severity index (MTWSI). Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin ≤120g/L in women and ≤130g/L in men. RESULTS: 125 patients from RC (66 with Crohn's disease (CD) and 59 with ulcerative colitis (UC)) and 116 patients from GP (71 CD and 45 UC) were included and compared to 6074 blood donors. Anaemia was found in 21.2% (51/241) of the IBD patients and more frequently in patients from RC as compared to GP and healthy controls (28.8% vs. 12.9% vs. 3.4%; P<0.01). IBD patients from RC suffered more frequently from active disease compared to IBD patients in GP (36% vs. 23%, P=0.032). Supplementation therapy (iron, vitamin B12, folic acid) was performed in 40% of anaemic IBD patients in GP as compared to 43% in RC. CONCLUSIONS: Anaemia is a common complication in patients with IBD and significantly more prevalent in patients from referral centres as compared to patients from gastroenterologic practices. Physicians treating IBD patients should pay attention to the presence of anaemia and ensure sufficient supplementation therapy.