Search

The article argues whether particular types of legal scholarship are regarded as more attractive. Topics discussed include use of Social Science Research Network (SSRN) as a platform to test which research is more or less appealing; ways in which reception of works of scholarship can be conceptualized through bibliometrics and research assessments; and the British Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Presents several abstracts presented during the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Squint Club. 'Fourth Nerve Palsy,' by P. Fells; 'Abnormal Musculature in Strabismus Arising From Cavernous Sinus Pathology,' by I. Dunlop; 'A New Squint Hook for Tight Mmuscles,' by R. Friling and L. Kowal.

This paper is a case-study analysis of the geography of practice as it functions in American studies. Focusing on the Japanese Association for American Studies fortieth anniversary symposium, 'American Studies in Trans-Pacific Perspective,' it shows how the event affords two complementary ways of thinking about the geography of scholarly identity, topics, and practices in American studies, one emphasizing positionality and physical location, the other emphasizing interactions and relational contexts. The paper focuses on the second (and less common) spatialization of Americanist practice, arguing that comparative American studies cannot be adequately understood solely in terms of nationally or regionally defined perspectives. The paper draws attention to the significance of other kinds of scholarly interactions across distance by showing how the apparently specific and located perspective performed at the JAAS symposium depended upon, emerged out of, and is still unfolding within complex, long-term exchanges and networks that stretch far beyond the transpacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the changing informal views of Japan held in Britain in the decade after 1931. It investigates the relationship between understanding and policy, and how the needs of policy, most significantly the subordination of Asia to Europe, impinged on understanding. In looking in microcosm at where Japan Watchers, made up of newspapermen, missionaries and businessmen, interacted with formal diplomats and government officials, this paper focuses on the lectures and journals of learned societies in London, especially the Royal Central Asian Society, which served as one conduit through which knowledge of Japan passed to an audience with a regional interest. A wider audience was reached through newspapers. In trying to influence the reading public, the importance of ideas having to resonate with the concerns of the reader is stressed. It is emphasized that influence on perception is often dependent on a particular time. The views of Old China Hands came to supplant those of Japan Watchers in influencing the British image of Japan by the late 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-racist education within the Academy holds the potential to truly reflect the cultural hybridity of our diverse, multi-cultural society through the canons of knowledge that educators celebrate, proffer and embody. The centrality of Whiteness as an instrument of power and privilege ensures that particular types of knowledge continue to remain omitted from our curriculums. The monopoly and proliferation of dominant White European canons does comprise much of our existing curriculum; consequently, this does impact on aspects of engagement, inclusivity and belonging particularly for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) learners. This paper explores the impact of a dominant Eurocentric curriculum and the Decolonising the Curriculum agenda within higher education and its influence upon navigating factors such as BAME attainment, engagement and belonging within the Academy. This paper draws on a Critical Race Theory (CRT) theoretical framework to centralize the marginalized voices of fifteen BAME students and three academics of colour regarding this phenomena. Aspects examined consider the impact of a narrow and restrictive curriculum on BAME students and staff and how the omission of diverse histories and multi-cultural knowledge canons facilitates marginalization and discriminatory cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the history of the role of International Fellow within the Academy. Unfortunately, the available records are not up to date. However, the first Fellows were inducted in 1938, and since then we have inducted 74, at least. When polled, the International Fellows considered the role of International Fellow poorly defined, and gave suggestions as to how International Fellows may be better integrated into the Academy. The paper concluded with several suggestions as to how the Academy may integrate International Fellows into the Academy, and to consider means by which the Academy may enhance its international posture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to an understanding of learned societies is presented which includes The Royal Society of London, promoting, funding for higher education and academic projects.

This paper considers how the values of industrial relations scholars affect their academic identity. The specific values considered are collegiality, civility and collectivism. The meaning of these values in academia is reviewed, along with some of their inherent contradictions and the challenges posed by their implementation in contemporary academic working life. The paper concludes with suggestions about how a scholarly association can help support and strengthen academic values, and a call for scholars to reflect on what makes academic life rewarding and how to retain it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author reflects on his position as editor-in-chief of "The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care" as of August 2014. He discusses the reviewing process of papers submitted as well as the challenges of the editorial team with serving the authors, fulfilling the basic obligations towards the readers, and serving the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health and the member societies.

Research and technology organizations (RTOs) have been the subject of recent interest because of the benefits they can bring to regional innovation systems. RTO functions must be tailored to their environments, but there has been little research into how these functions can be systematically deduced using the regional innovation system model as a normative reference. This paper examines the optimal functions of a new RTO in Scotland. An ex ante analysis based on three thematic areas (linkages, themes and services, and strategic capability) is used to consider how this RTO can optimally function in an innovation system with recognized structural weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the evolution of an academic community of practice and identifies the individual and collective outcomes of participation for the members. The impetus for the community was the joint development of a learning and teaching project grant application that aimed to improve teacher education in music curriculum, and the subsequent implementation of that project. The paper draws on a range of data sources including individual reflective journals, audio-records and transcriptions of meetings, email archives and discussion board posts of the project team members. The purpose of the paper is to illuminate and interrogate the processes and enabling conditions that supported the development of this academic community of practice, and consider the implications for academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers news briefs related to the mathematics world. Professor Derek Thomas Whiteside died on April 22, 2008. The Council of the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) has agreed to establish a Neumann prize in honour of Peter Neumann, a longstanding supporter of and contributor to the BSHM. Professor John Barrow was appointed new professor of geometry at Gresham College.

While there has been a good deal of discussion about the scholarship of teaching and learning, and models have been developed to understand its scope, the effects on students' learning of academics engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning are unclear. In the context of initiatives to develop the scholarship of teaching and learning in a large research-intensive university in Australia, this paper discusses the relationship between faculty performance on a set of scholarly accomplishments in relation to teaching and learning from 2002 to 2004, and changes in students' course experiences from 2001 to 2005. The paper provides evidence of the relationship between the scholarship of teaching and learning and students' course experiences and demonstrates the effectiveness of institutional strategies to encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scholarship of teaching and learning project explored how student engagement in an authentic project and collaboration between partners can aid the progress of a project in tourism planning. Qualitative analyses of student reflections on the project are provided and suggestions for collaboration on authentic projects are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the award and conference of the International Society for Intellectual History (ISIH) to be held at the University of Verona in Italy on May 25-27, 2009.

The critical features of a strategy to promote improved teaching and learning are explored in this article from a socio-cultural perspective in a research-intensive institution. The paper presents theoretical underpinnings and implications as well as an empirical case study of such a strategy and its seemingly successful results. The strategy builds on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning beyond individual development and aims at cultivating a culture of continuous improvement of teaching and student learning. The case study describes a number of co-ordinated and interrelated activities at various institutional levels to support the strategy. The results are discussed in terms of academic engagement. Important aspects such as academic freedom, professional identity and leadership are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 20 years there have been growing and widely expressed concerns that teaching is not sufficiently rewarded and recognized in universities, particularly in comparison to research. Individuals, institutions and governments have each responded in different ways to promote changes in institutional systems and practices. Two of the major initiatives to raise the status of teaching have been the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Teaching Quality movements. These share similar goals and many concepts, but began with a different impetus. This paper reviews initiatives to increase the status of teaching through better recognition and reward of teaching in universities. Current practices and evidence of change are reviewed. The paper concludes that while there has been significant progress made to date, the ultimate symbols of recognition and reward - promotion and tenure - are proving to be elusive but not unattainable for those who focus on the Scholarship of Teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author describes recent developments in the assessment of research activity and publication in Australia. Of particular interest to readers will be the move to rank academic journals. EPAT received the highest possible ranking, however the process is far from complete. Some implications for the field, for this journal and particularly, for the educational foundations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning can take place in a variety of different contexts. Two important categories of learning event are those which are contrived and those which are serendipitous. If they are to be optimally successful, the first of these types of event requires a level of planning that is commensurate with the outcomes that are to be achieved. Planning involves deciding upon what resources are to be used and how to embed 'hallmarks of quality' within the learning product that is finally created. Invariably, a number of models and/or methodologies are used to guide the creative processes that are involved in producing a learning event or product. This paper provides a historical perspective and reflection on a model of learning design that we have developed and which we have used successfully for creating interactive learning products for use in a variety of different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education policy is seeking, in the interest of 'quality assurance', to reward teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Academic language and learning (ALL) advisers, who work closely with students to improve their performance in their courses of study, have much to contribute to SoTL. ALL advisers who adopt an 'academic literacies' approach share with lecturers in the disciplines an engagement with issues of '-ography' (i.e. writing in and for a discourse community) - including the relationships between epistemology, form, and language - yet, misconceptions about ALL advisers' work can prevent discipline lecturers from consulting them when thinking about questions of teaching and learning in their own field. This paper discusses ALL advisers' access to insights into students' experiences of learning and of being taught, with relevance both for particular disciplines and for academic culture across the disciplines; their contributions to SoTL; the difficulties they encounter in trying to communicate across the borders of the disciplines; and ways of improving this situation in the context of the new emphasis on encouraging improvement in the quality of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on both methodological and substantive issues in educational studies. Determination of the place of systematic reviews in educational research; Implications on the massive increase in the use of such approaches in recent years; Expansion in the use of systematic review and the way that it has become institutionalized in government policy and in academic structures.

This paper investigates the role of university-based industrial extension services in the business performance of small manufacturing firms in an economically declining region of the United States (Western New York). The outreach initiatives of a specific University at Buffalo (UB) programme are described. Particular attention is given to the activities of UB's Centre for Industrial Effectiveness (CIE), an outreach unit with a mandate to improve the product and/or process development efforts of local manufacturing firms. Our data suggest positive returns on investment for firms that have sought technical support under CIE programmes. A key finding is that CIE's services typically entail the transmission of well-established procedures rather than radically new ways of doing things. A further finding is that firms that have used CIE to develop improved products have experienced stronger investment returns than their counterparts that have focused upon process development (although the returns are positive in both instances). More broadly, our data suggest positive correlations between levels of project investment and a variety of commercial outcomes, including sales growth, job-retention, and unit-cost reduction. The implications of these results for regional economic development policy are discussed. The paper also reviews some of the weaknesses that curtail the effectiveness of university-based centres such as CIE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some examples of emerging opportunities at the interface of photonics, nanotechnology and biotechnology. The examples provided here are in the areas of bioimaging for optical diagnostics and nanomedicine, and they are taken from the work conducted under a multidisciplinary program at our Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore an approach to academic development that focuses on developing and using research as a means of understanding the complexity of teaching and learning within specific discipline environments. This approach shifts the attention of the academic developer from the enhancement of teaching using traditional methods such as workshops, formal courses, or in-faculty curriculum and assessment advice, to encouraging and supporting participant research on learning and teaching, and disciplinary-based research. Focusing on research development gives academics the opportunity to develop their teaching scholarship, prepare publishable work, and cultivate teaching and learning practices that are aligned with their specific discipline environments. We discuss the philosophy of this approach to the enhancement of academic work through the synergy between teaching and research. We illustrate our discussion with some recent examples in which we have used this approach successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on professional news related to work and organizational psychology. Business development of the team climate inventory; Evaluation of research in work and organizational psychology; Announcements of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology congresses and other activities; Calls for papers.

The author discusses the digitization of the archival collection of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA), the long-term planning of this project, financial support, collaboration with Polish institutions, and several selected collections. Digitized archival documents are available on the PIASA website and are included in the database of the National Archives of Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the paper of Edward U. Condon, director of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, on the criticisms against the government. Condon urges people not to believe to those who make negative statements against the government. He suggests that instead of turning their ears to foolishly exaggerated statements, all people should work together to study and solve the administrative and political problems of government's scientific laboratories, to the end that they can work toward their steady improvement and increased efficiency.

This autoethnography concludes the author's trilogy on the history of the South African Communication Association (SACOMM) in this 40th anniversary issue of African Journalism Studies, previously titled as Ecquid Novi, a key player since 1981 within the Association. The author discusses paradigmatic contestations and associated administrative arrangements within SACOMM as indicators of post 2000 university managerialism and performance management, in the context of wider political processes. A discussion of naming of the Association reconsiders SACOMM's origins and history. The successes of the Association in terms of post-apartheid national policy are examined in terms of SACOMM's achievements and organisational assumptions. Lessons learned are related briefly to other African associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a need in the sociology of science to study relationships among sets of scientists, where each set consists of an entire organization of scientists, of an institute or department of scientists within such an organization. In this paper, colleaguechoices are aggregated between the institutes (departments) of a single large natural science facility and a multidimensional scaling technique is employed to produce a social map of the facility. Next, hypotheses about the positions of the department in that map are tested. Disciplinary similarity; scale of phenomena investigated (cellular, molecular, oratomic); availability of appropriate apparatus at the facility; and, for the applied and service institutes, the type of assistance they provide (general or more specific) all help explain the social locations of the institutes within the facility. Then, productivity scores for the institutes of the facility are determined the related to the social map and to likely patterns of communication employed by the institutes. The institutes vary in productivity, measured both with objective indicators and with more qualitative assessments. Centrally located institutes score higher in modes of communication that were most rapid. Institutes on the periphery, communicating more with external partners, rely more than the other institutes on published forms of communication. Finally, the results are summarized and briefly placed in the context of the sociology of science and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a history of the working practices of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Based on extensive interviews with former members and on research into a new archive of the Centre, housed in the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham, it argues that cultural studies as practised in the 1970s was always a heterogeneous subject. The CCCS was heavily influenced by the events of 1968 when it tried to develop a new type of radical and collaborative research and teaching agenda. Despite Stuart Hall's efforts to impose a focused link between politics and academic practice, the agenda soon gave way to a series of diverse and fruitful initiatives associated with the ‘sub-groups’ model of research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) tends to be conducted at local levels in the university by academics who evaluate and question their own teaching practices with a view to improvement. Institutional research, however, has tended towards the large scale use of statistics often generated through a university's own procedures, primarily to inform management and policy decisions. Although both forms of research can lead to change or improvement, an opportunity to maximise information available to the university is perhaps missed as these two forms of research tend to remain within different spheres of influence, local practice and management information. This paper draws on examples of different forms of scholarship and research in one of the UK's Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. It suggests that SoTL should be viewed as part of a wider approach to IR, though mediation may be required between different levels of university structures in order to maximise benefits to university improvement agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through the lens of transformative learning theory and critical theory. In doing so, I expand the notion of a Scholarship of Teaching so as to go beyond the solving of practical problems in teaching and the improvement of teaching effectiveness. I focus on an emancipatory Scholarship of Teaching that centres on critical reflection and action on the contexts of teaching: the discipline, the institution, the community and the state and society in which we practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The move toward recognizing teaching academics has resulted in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) gaining a greater prominence within the academy, particularly through the academic promotions system. With several Australian universities now providing opportunities for teaching staff who do not engage in research to be promoted, it is important that the teaching criteria for promotion are demonstrably of equal value to promotion based on research. However, examination of the definitions of SoTL reveals not only their variation, but also their limitations in terms of academic promotion. This paper examines the institutional concepts underlying promotion and compares these to definitions of SoTL. It argues for a broadening of the SoTL concept to meet the underlying institutional expectations of reward and recognition through promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, higher education policy documents propose technology and resource-based teaching and learning to prepare youth for the knowledge and information society, and for a socially transformed society. However, the extent to which these policies are being implemented is still uncertain. This article reports on a technology-based English course that incorporates face-to-face and online modes of delivery at a South African university. The aim of the paper is to examine how the only blind participant among a group of sighted participants positions herself and engages with the technological practices of the university, as well as the course, given the recommendations of the policies. Included is a discussion of how she constructs her identity and negotiates meaning in the course. The construction of identity is explored from a post-modern view that old identities, which stabilised the social world, are in decline, giving rise to new identities and fragmenting the modern individual as a unified subject. I explore views of identity as how people understand their relationship in the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future. I also draw on discussions of positioning and self. Finally, I suggest implications that such a study might have for pedagogy, practice and policy in higher education institutions in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the fast changing university, how are academics to grow the capacity to cope with continual change and what can academic/faculty developers do to assist them? The paper first establishes the context of higher education as a challenging environment. It then reviews ideas about scholarship and explores the application of these ideas to university study of students and academics. It examines the role of the scholarship of teaching and learning in developing the capacity for critical reflection and then applies these ideas to academic practice more generally. Finally, the implications for academic development are addressed. Dans un contexte de mutation rapide de l'universite, comment les universitaires parviennent-ils a developper la capacite a faire face au changement continuel et que peuvent faire les conseillers pedagogiques pour les aider? Cet article decrit d'abord le contexte de l'enseignement superieur comme un environnement rempli de defis. Il examine ensuite des idees liees a l'erudition (scholarship) et explore l'application de ces idees a l'etude universitaire des etudiants et des universitaires. L'article examine le role joue par le scholarship of teaching and learning dans le developpement de la capacite de reflexion critique et applique ensuite ces idees a la pratique academique de facon plus generale. Finalement, les implications pour le developpement pedagogique sont presentees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reviews the establishment of the Academy of the Learned Societies for the Social Sciences, from the personal perspective of one who was involved in the Academy and its precursor, the Association of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. The reflections prompt consideration of the goal of establishing the Academy, and what distinctive features it should have. The paper concludes by reflecting on the distinctive nature of the social sciences, and the implications that this has for the task that confronts the new Academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how visual art can help to explore representations and meanings of violence, conflict and aggression in the context of an inter-professional Master of Science module, which focuses on the historical, cultural and social perspectives of violence, in collaboration with Tate Modern, London. The participants, mostly nurses and police officers, work in settings that involve contact with people who have suffered intentional and unintentional violence. It is argued that complex and difficult issues that surround violence, and seeking to understand the violence so palpable in everyday life, can be explored not only in the conventional academic context, but also by experiencing the 'live' visual impact of works of art. The comprehension and interpretation of the phenomena presented in the medium of art, bring a multitude of aspects and possibilities to the fore, thus mirroring the complexity of violence in real life. In such a context, art may be effective not only politically and historically, but it could also be a tool in learning about the wider societal issues relevant to professional knowledge. Additionally the impact of the gallery learning is explored with reference to practice. Discussions with the students following the tour of the gallery and students' feedback a year after the visit give insight into the influence on their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the journey of one pre-1992 UK university towards the creation of an environment that supports teaching and learning effectively. This includes both a culture that values the scholarship of teaching and learning and pedagogic research and that provides a supportive environment for its students' development. It investigates the key internal events along this journey, demonstrating which of these have facilitated institutional-wide development. In order to do this, use is made of Cowan and Heywood's model of the curriculum development and renewal process. Conclusions are drawn on the characteristics of the events that have been most effective and on the general lessons learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the validity of categories like ‘First’ and ‘Third’ World or ‘North’ and ‘South’ has been increasingly questioned, there have been few attempts to consider how learning between North and South might be conceived. Drawing on a range of perspectives from development and postcolonial scholarship, this paper argues for the creative possibility of learning between different contexts. This involves a conceptualisation of learning that is at once ethical and indirect: ethical because it transcends a liberal integration of subaltern knowledge, and indirect because it transcends a rationalist tendency to limit learning to direct knowledge transfer between places perceived as ‘similar’. This challenge requires a consistent interrogation of the epistemic and institutional basis and implications of the North – South divide, and an insistence on developing progressive conceptions of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role and performance of the engineering and scientific institutions in the UK have been undergoing gradual change in response to external, State and global influences. Consequently, the institutions are having to adapt and in the process of doing so the traditional balance between learned society and qualifying association activities is now in a state of flux. The relevance of professional registration is being questioned by employers and practitioners alike and the institutions are now having to operate in a greater collaborative context than hitherto. This paper reviews developments which have been taking place since the early 1970’s and, by using responses from a survey of engineering and scientific institutions, identifies significant current problems and some challenges which lie ahead and which have yet to be confronted if the institutions are to continue to make a constructive contribution to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the assumption that there is a close interrelatedness between sustainability research and transdisciplinarity, the authors have explored the experiences of researchers in the sustainability area with this mode of knowledge generation. The paper refers to two standardised surveys carried out in extra-university research institutes in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Explored were the actual research practice and the structural, cultural and personal factors which play a role regarding the feasibility of transdisciplinarity. In the everyday practice of researchers, it was found that it is extraordinarily complicated to overcome disciplinary limitations and to abandon the epistemological security of one's own discipline. This is a duplicate form of insecurity: insecurity concerning the research object and insecurity concerning one's own identity and professional future as a scientist. Thus, cultural (scientific) and structural factors prove to be inhibitory to transdisciplinarity. In the future, this situation may change, especially in extra-university research institutes, if it is possible to let both forms of knowledge generation flow in a project-dependent parallel way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the ways in which subject review can contribute to the scholarship of teaching. Subject review was a quality assessment process conducted under the auspices of the UK's Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. A preliminary discussion considers the potential and pitfalls of using subject review as a basis for learning about current academic practice. The analysis draws on 162 institutional reports, covering business and management provision and produced during the period 2000-1. The pedagogic principles that underpinned subject review judgements, such as flexibility, transparency and pedagogic pluralism, are identified. These suggest that, while 'fitness for purpose' was the explicit criterion for judging institutional standards, in practice, reviewers were guided by a series of implicit evaluative principles. To some extent, these principles may be linked to learning theory and the ongoing debate concerning the scholarship of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper justifies the current revival of interest in the College by examining the relevance of its 'sacred sociology' to post-war anti-utilitarianism. The link between the two periods and set of issues is provided by the review M.A.U.S.S., inspired by Marcel Mauss's seminal essay on the gift. Mauss was the great and indirect ethnographic mentor for the College's main figures - Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois and Michel Leiris. How they effected the ethnographic detour to devise their respective assessments of the place of 'myth, power and the sacred' in modern society is the central focus of this presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Discusses issues concerned with the assessment of education in academic institutions. Role of assessment activity in shaping the goals, organization and the delivery of education; Activities involved in the assessment of education; Influence of assessment activities on education.

Describes the archives of learned societies. Characteristics of learned societies; Distinctive practices; Retention of archives practiced by some societies; Policy followed by some societies in preserving their archives.

Examines the marketplace approach to broadcast regulation in the U.S. proposed by chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Mark Fowler as of 1982. Specifications of possible limiting factors to the marketplace approach; Reasons for a minimal response to the proposal from academic institutions; Nature of possible responses from mass media to the acknowledgement of limitations of marketplace approach.

The paper presents the address given by the author during the general session of the Midwest Sociological Society's 25th anniversary meeting on April 13, 1962, in Des Moines, Iowa. It discusses the author's experience with the society and his participation in its previous annual conferences. During his term as secretary of the society he has observed the changes in the structure and the functions of the society since its reorganization in 1937. The most important phenomenon having implications for a regional society is the decline in regionalism of American sociology. Regionalism, in the sense that it existed in 1937 has disappeared. The birth of the society have a significant impact on the origins of modern American sociology. The educational institutions established by notable members of the society have contributed to the production of doctor of philosophy degree in sociology.

The authors probe whether or not the ecosystem of organised academia in Germany provides sufficient academic autonomy for scholars to conduct their research without fear or favour. Despite constitutional guarantees of academic freedom, academics face multiple threats from populist politicians, dubious third party funding, uncivil society, and misguided developments within German academia itself. These domestic threats are exacerbated on the international stage by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) globalised censorship regime, dubious party-state funding from China, the weaponisation of informal Chinese social networks, and an unhealthy dependency among Western China scholars on 'official China'. The authors reveal that the German state, universities, and learned societies have so far failed to properly identify – let alone mitigate – threats to academic freedom emanating from state and non-state agents under control of the CCP. They argue that while German parties have largely abdicated political leadership, German universities exhibit shortcomings in terms of their ethical leadership. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of a controversial statement by the Board of the German Association for Asian Studies (DGA) the authors argue that leading China scholars also seem unwilling or unable to exercise intellectual leadership. The article concludes with policy recommendations to remedy this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about scholarly societies. Eleven countries have become eligible for support from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, and Estonia. Web sites with articles about Fidel Castro and his legacy are mentioned. The Central Eurasian Studies Society will hold a regional conference in Kyrgyzstan.

The article comments on the paper "Old Guard Versus New Partisans: Think Tanks in Transition," by Diane Stone, about the Sydney Institute in New South Wales (NSW). According to the author, the article contains several errors concerning both the Sydney Institute and the author himself. The author claims that the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) (NSW) was never the Sydney branch of IPA. The author adds that he was never an advisor to Malcolm Fraser.