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In this paper, the political dimensions of the social interactions of everyday life are investigated. The perspectives of Michel Foucault and Michel de Certeau, George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman, are applied. A close analysis of micro-politics in Israel–Palestine and the Sinai is used to reveal the independent significance of micro-politics, as it is shown that such politics constitute the prevailing order of things, but also present the possibility of escaping, subverting, criticizing and transforming that order.

The analysis of public works programmes using the theory of real options argues that the effectiveness of these programmes can be studied by examining the switches the workers make between public works and other labour market activities. The wage rate between these two options is the focus of the analysis under the theory of real options. This paper critically examines the applicability of the econometric methods of the theory of real options by studying the same public works programmes through a local management perspective using a case-study approach. Local elites enjoy ‘informal ownership’ of public works programmes, and the rights of the poor are therefore shrouded in micro-politics. Besides, for a large number of the poorest people who are trapped in a vicious cycle of debt and seasonal migration, rights and options are foregone. The power of the local elites is discounted heavily in the approach of theory of real options. Relying on such outcome variables—which are manufactured by the local...

It is said that all comparisons are odious and at some level they undoubtedly are. However, comparisons only become odious when the inherent differences and unique values of the items being compared remain unrecognized. Despite reservations, comparing and contrasting are inevitable; they are significant ways through which we make sense of the world about us. In our sense-making efforts, comparing similarity and contrasting difference contribute to our growing understanding and increasing discernment. For example, in trying to make sense of organizations and managerial behavior the use of comparison — in particular, provocative ways of comparing such as metaphor — has added appreciably to our collective understanding of these domains (Cornelissen 2005; Morgan 1996; Oswick, Keenoy, and Grant 2002).

Research has demonstrated that heterosexual men receive enhanced health benefits from their relationships with women. Explanations for this gendered pattern often focus on women’s role as the main caregivers and arrangers of health care. However, what remains unclear is how these benefits are mediated. In this article, we describe the micropolitics evident in negotiations between 12 heterosexual couples as they discuss the serious illness of one of the pair with an interviewer. The interviews were transcribed and subsequently analysed using a synthetic approach to discursive psychology. We argue that in these co-constructed stories, women potentially trouble men’s identity performances. For instance, by interjecting emotional assessments, women supporters allow men the opportunity to discuss aspects of the illness experience that might be otherwise viewed as at odds with hegemonic masculinity. We suggest that women’s positioning of men is a form of complicity with hegemonic masculinity and urge that further research should follow this line of enquiry.

How do political forces come together to influence merger forms and outcomes? This question is posed in a context of an analysis of the forms and outcomes of three “case studies” of mergers that took place in South Africa in the past decade. The theoretical stance, borne out by the data under review, places political actors at the centre of the explanation for change and continuity in the merger of institutions. While there are clearly broad lessons that could apply in other national contexts, the paper recognises that the fact that most published studies on mergers originate in established economies like those of Norway, Australia, England, the USA. The paper poses the question, therefore: do mergers follow different processes and deliver different outcomes in the social, economic and political contexts of third world institutions?

This paper while acknowledging the academic excitement caused by respective intellectual efforts of various scholars in their analytical discussions of the history of political science and, its growth, specifically focused on the behavioural approach. Our analysis shows that the behavioural approach has consistently sought to make political science very quantitative and scientific. And, that, it places emphasis on micro politics (i.e. the study of political actors and processes) - rather than the formal institutions of government. In the process, the paper highlights the history of the approach paying deserved attention to the debate that characterised its growth as well as its features. The paper contends that inspite of various criticisms against the approach, it has had and will continue to have an enduring impact on political science as a discipline that studies the wherewithal of our political existence as political animals.

This book explores the lending policies of Grameen Bank (GB) and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) by exploring how microcredit influences the lives of borrowers in rural Bangladesh...

The last decade has witnessed a period of endemic reform within educational systems and schools. In particular, changes have been implemented that may entail different configurations of decision‐making at the site level with significant reverberations for the workplace environment of the school. This paper suggests that because of the ubiquity of reform, rich opportunities have been provided for researching educational change. Nevertheless, in order to develop a holistic understanding of the effect of change in schools a perspective is required that takes Into account the socio‐political and cultural context of an organisation. For this purpose, the micro‐political perspective may be able to convey a more realistic depiction organisational behaviour than conventional theory has been able to offer. Therefore, this paper elucidates the major ideas of some prominent micro‐political theorists and makes recommendations for future research into aspects of life in schools. It is hoped that the paper may...

This chapter examines a set of intellectual and ethical dilemmas that characterize the study of suffering. Drawing from two separate studies, one on the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and the other on middle-class parents whose children have an array of problems, we highlight the gap between sociological and self-referential claims to suffering. How do we conceptualize the experiences of people who appear to suffer but are reluctant to identify themselves as suffering? Should studies of suffering include the experiences of privileged people whose hardships seem comparatively trivial? By addressing these questions, we call attention to what we call “the micro-politics of suffering” and simultaneously address the interactional nature of suffering and scholars’ participation in the construction of what constitutes “legitimate” distress. We also consider what scholars might gain from comparing the lived experiences of seemingly disparate groups of sufferers.

Extreme forms of prison management including the use of force, restraints, and solitary confinement have become de facto behavior management strategies for prisoners struggling with mental health issues in Canada. This chapter focuses specifically on the use of solitary confinement (segregation) in Canadian female federal prisons to illustrate how extreme forms of penal control are becoming increasingly normalized in Canadian prisons (Zinger 2013), thus exacerbating the overall pains of imprisonment,2 According to the Office of the Correctional investigator of Canada’s 2013 report, approximately 24.3 percent of the federal prison population has spent some time in segregation. Much of the increase in the prison population being subjected to segregation is limited to certain classes of offenders, especially those with mental health issues.

This article discusses implications and potentialities of anthropologically thinking and researching with documents, arguing that they consist of ethnographic artifacts, which can be particularly fruitful in certain research contexts. In order to do that, it resumes some movements of distancing and rapprochement between anthropology and documents and places two recent ethnographic experiences in dialogue. One a research through police inquiries of Brazilian Federal Police concerning "human trafficking for sexual exploitation" crimes, and the other focused on administrative procedures related to "missing persons" cases investigated by Rio de Janeiro Civil Police. In addition to revealing the heuristic potential of "following the paper" and calling attention to the micro politics of the interactions among those that document and those who are documented, the paper aims to contribute to larger discussions about the challenges that dealing with documents in field work situations poses to anthropology and its self-representations. O artigo discute implicações e potencialidades analíticas de se pensar e pesquisar antropologicamente com documentos, argumentando que estes constituem artefatos etnográficos especialmente rentáveis em certos contextos de pesquisa. Para tanto, recupera alguns movimentos de distanciamento e aproximação entre a antropologia e os documentos e coloca em diálogo duas experiências etnográficas recentes: uma pesquisa em meio a inquéritos da Polícia Federal brasileira relativos a crimes de "tráfico de pessoas para fim de exploração sexual", e outra voltada para procedimentos administrativos em torno de casos de "desaparecimento de pessoa" investigados pela Polícia Civil do Rio de Janeiro. Além de revelar o potencial heurístico da escolha por "seguir o papel" e chamar atenção para a micropolítica das interações entre documentadores e documentados, o texto busca contribuir para reflexões mais amplas acerca dos desafios que a lida com documentos em situações de trabalho de campo aporta à antropologia e às suas autorrepresentações.

This article uses Bourdieu's concept of habitus, to explore how external discourses relating to young people and television, enter into the micro-politics of family viewing. It is based, primarily, on observation data collected by informants in the homes of young people. These data reveal the tactics and strategies that are used both by the young people and by their ‘parents’ to control the viewing process. It is possible to tentatively identify the projection of discourses of vulnerability onto young people who, in turn, attempt to position themselves as competent viewers evoking public discourses around youth and media savvy. Within the family setting these viewers develop a ‘sense for the game’ of viewing which informs the strategies they use to increase their control of the viewing experience.

Drawing on case study material from four London comprehensive schools, this article examines the micro‐politics of secondary schooling in the mid‐1990s. The extent to which new social relationships governed by expendiency and pragmatism are developing in schools is explored. Often a pseudo‐democracy appears to mask directive, controlling forms of leadership. The paper argues that the new managerialism has brought with it a shift in values which permeates all aspects of staff relationships. The paper explores the extent to which the headteachers can be seen to be conscripted by external forces seeking to change the culture of comprehensive schooling, despite the four schools’ expressed commitment to comprehensivization. The contemporary language of efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and responsibility has produced a climate in which teachers are increasingly seen in terms of their use value and as means to improved school performance rather than as ends in themselves.

This article is based on research carried out for a postgraduate degree at the University of Birmingham. The work focuses on the individual experiences of participants elicited through interviews conducted in 1995. The term ‘Incorporation’ is used throughout the article as a shorthand description of the impact of the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 which separated further education, tertiary and sixth form colleges from the local education authorities (LEAs), creating a new sector with independent incorporated institutions. Detailed exploration of the reactions of 13 principals to the experience are reported in this article; a further report on interviews with some 30 staff from three colleges will follow. The research uses insights from studies in innovation, organisation culture, micro politics and relevant literature from the field of further education to illuminate its analysis. The picture of Incorporation which emerges is a complex one which is analysed in terms of the direct resul...

Nowhere are the micropolitics within schools more evident than in staff appraisal. Currently, the New Zealand government is attempting to shift the evaluation of teachers from a predominantly professional form of accountability to a more democratic form in which teachers are held accountable for their performance to both central government and local communities. A survey of New Zealand secondary school principals indicates that preferred models of appraisal are primarily developmental and involve teachers being accountable only to their peers because they fear the loss of autonomy implied by being accountable to external stakeholders. In this chapter, we argue that it is possible to reconcile democratic accountability requirements and the developmental purpose of appraisal preferred by teachers. We illustrate this argument with an examination of the micropolitics of a New Zealand secondary school as it attempted to make the shift from an optional peer-focussed appraisal system to a more democratic form which served the needs of both teachers and external stakeholders.

Although discussion of the politics of immigration has generally been at a macro-level, the politics of immigration also occurs at the micro-level, in particular in electorates with a high proportion of immigrant citizens. The nature of constituency work in such 'ethnic electorates' has, however, been ignored by political scientists in Australia. This article presents findings from the first in-depth study of an MP's case-work in one 'ethnic electorate'. They suggest that the majority of the MP's clients were constituents from non-English speaking backgrounds [NESB] who visit their MP with regards to immigration issues. The article also examines how constituents from NESB were aware of their MP's role and service and the MP's response to his constituents. Overall, the findings suggest that analyses of the politics of immigration must also examine the micro-levels of politics and society.

This thesis is concerned with the extent to which new teacher evaluation policies and practices in Japan are about controlling teachers or represent opportunities for authentic professional development. It seeks to examine how the new teacher evaluation policies are embedded within the wider policy formation, what perspectives teachers have on the new policies and what their experiences are, and how the new teacher evaluation policies are actually being enacted in schools. The thesis uses a range of methods to explore these concerns. For the purpose of macro analysis of the new teacher evaluation policies, it examines both primary and secondary documentation around policy development. For studying the impact of the policy in schools, it draws on data from a national survey and in-depth interviews with a sample of teachers and head teachers. In this way, it employs a mixed methods approach in which quantitative data is used to provide a general picture of how teachers experience and perceive the new teacher evaluation policies and practices and qualitative data is used to provide the depth of analysis required to look at the nature of performativity in schools. The concept of performativity has been central to the overall investigation. The study argues for a particular reading of performativity—a work through, as opposed to work upon, perspective. This analytical lens illustrates how the new teacher evaluation policies have played a role in producing or reinforcing the mutually policing relations that lead to destabilisation of teacher’s identities. This thesis concludes that the enactment of new teacher evaluation policies has had significant indirect impacts on teachers and teachers’ work by affecting modes of school management and teachers’ relationships. By illustrating the usefulness of the work through perspective of performativity, it has enabled theorizing of performativity to advance. It also illuminates both congruence and variance between teacher evaluation policies as enacted in Japan and other countries. Japan’s teacher evaluation is no less effective as a measure of political control than its counterparts in other countries, but it can work in a more subtle way: teacher evaluation affects, repositions, and reconstructs t eachers’ work and identities through affected relationships as mentioned above. This implies that teachers as well as policymakers should develop a more broad, macro- political and critical perspective on teacher evaluation.

This chapter explores the implementation of electronic HRM systems (e-HRM) in multinational corporations (MNCs) from a vendor consultant’s point of view. By presenting the issues surrounding implementation in MNCs and extending e-HRM definition to the MNC setting, this chapter combines the micro-political and institutional views and aims, firstly, to shed light on the micro-political issues and conflicts areas in e-HRM implementation and, secondly, to investigate how the institutional environment affects the e-HRM system implementation. The chapter contributes to our knowledge of e-HRM by exploring the previously largely unrecognized role of e-HRM vendor consultants and contributes to the theoretical discussion by extending and empirically testing a framework from the field of HRM to the field of e-HRM in MNCs.

Dans quel sens la politique africaine courante est-elle explicable en tant qu'effort de domestiquer la modernite ? En Tanzanie, la liberalisation post-socialiste a ouvert un espace pour de nouveaux objets et formes de competition. La bousculade pour le controle et les ressources au Kilimanjaro-Meru en 1993 est decrite ici. La variete d'activites competitives qui se produisent est encapsulee dans des evenements dans quatre arenes organisationnelles radicalement differentes : au sein de Chadema, un nouveau parti politique national ; dans l'eglise Lutherienne ; dans un village du sud sur le Kilimanjaro ; et dans un patrilignage local. Ces structures organisationnelles sont considerees comme etant des lieux d'activites politiques partiellement autonomes et specifiques a leurs localites. Chacune de ces structures est visiblement marquee par un passe historique tout en etant aussi poussee a repondre rapidement aux changements de circonstances immediates dans un environnement plus general. Les details suggerent que les definitions theoriques classiques de la modernite ne se pretent pas toujours a des formules analytiques utiles

In their introduction to A Postcapitalist Politics, J.K. Gibson-Graham quotes artist-activist John Jordan stating, ‘When we are asked how we are going to build a new world, our answer is, “We don't...

Sob o perspectivismo de que "qualquer vida vale a pena", o texto produzido a partir de uma conferência explora certos campos de tensões que operam no campo da saúde sob o olhar da relação saúde e direito. Apesar de reconhecer os elementos constitutivos molares desse campo, advoga a noção de que os enfrentamentos vitais do modelo atual, no qual há vidas que valem mais a pena que outras, deve se dar ali na molecularidade do agir em saúde, na gestão e no cuidado, trazendo o lugar da prática como chave para a produção efetiva de novos modos de se produzir as vidas, nos quais as diferenças são riquezas, e a vizinhança entre os distintos saberes é nuclear para a construção de apostas. Nestas, a riqueza de conexões existenciais é o melhor modo de se apostar que a produção de vida expressa o mais fundamental da construção do campo da saúde. Lançando mão de autores da micropolítica e da esquizoanálise, procura conduzir uma reflexão sobre as implicações desse "olhar construtivo. According to the point of view that "every life is worth it", this text, based on a conference made by the author at the XII Congress of Public Health of São Paulo, discusses certain areas of tension that are operative in the field of health regarding the relationship between health and rights. In spite of recognizing the molar constitutive elements of this field, it defends the idea that the vital fights inside the current model, in which there are lives that are more worth it than others, must happen inside the molecularity of the work in health, inside the management and inside the care. It has to put the locus of practice as a key to the effective production of new modes of producing lives, where the differences are wealth and the vicinity between distinct forms of knowledge is nuclear to the making of bets. In these bets the richness of existential connections is the best way of betting that life production expresses the most fundamental aspect when building the field of health. Taking support from authors that discuss micro politics and schizoanalysis, the author tries and conducts a reflection about the implications of this "constructive regard".

Purpose – In this chapter, we examine an extended gossip dispute event, in which a peer group of 11-year-old girls take action against a girl who has reported about school bullying to the teacher b ...

For over five hundred years, the Catholic Church has had a unique relationship with the various states that make up Latin America. Catholics and Pentecostals have now been living in close proximity throughout Latin America for roughly a century. One very significant point of contact between Catholics and Pentecostals that has not received much notice in Latin America, or for that matter, many places within the Pentecostal world, is the International Roman Catholic–Pentecostal Dialogue. There are two main reasons that this Dialogue is not widely known in Latin America. Many Pentecostals speak about the Catholic Church as an idolatrous, apostate Church. The Bishops of the Catholic Church recognize that their members do not always follow their lead. Their people do not always live according to their official teachings. Keywords:Bishops; Catholic Church; Latin America; Pentecostals; Roman Catholic–Pentecostal Dialogue

Over the last decade, Muslim women have been the focus of public attention in Western media and in political debates on women's bodies, their freedom and forms of religiosity. In this article, I explore the notion of ‘modernity’ as a lived and embodied experience, by analyzing the different religious performances and subject-positions that young Muslim women born or brought up in Milan from childhood articulate in their daily lives. The different self-narratives and forms of spirituality they perform ask for a rethinking of the dominant Western notions of citizenship, body and freedom.

This paper explores the changing contexts for micro‐political activities in schools which have followed the implementation of LMS. The extent of such negotiations and the new contexts are examined using the accounts of a small group of headteachers from two Midlands education authorities, interviewed in respect of their career histories. Their early experiences of LMS indicated an increase both in the extent of and the contexts for micro‐political activity. The paper argues that such changes have altered the orientation of the headteacher's role thereby affecting the culture of headteaching as work.

This article outlines what political scientists have, and have not, learned about the use of vetoes, the effects of vetoes, and the significance of the veto power. It starts by summarizing the micro-politics of the veto. It then turns to the macro-politics of the veto. It specifically points out the knotty problems that plague macro-political studies: the ‘wheat from the chaff’ problem, the ‘small-n’ problem and the ‘no institutional variation’ problem. Some new points of departure are provided. The article points to the possibility of theoretically modeling, and empirically studying, integrated presidential strategy, including the veto. The themes in Cameron 2006 are elaborated. Models of integrated presidential strategy knitting together veto power, proposal power, and strategic pre-action would establish a new vision of presidential governance, a vision reflecting the rise of the modern administrative state, polarized politics, the plebiscitary presidency, and the continuing reality of interbranch bargaining.

Some people have wondered why the dominated have not revolted more often. You only have to bear in mind the social conditions of the production of the agents and the durable effects that they exercise by inscribing themselves in dispositions, to understand that people who are the product of revolting social conditions are not necessarily as revolted as they would be if they were the product of less revolting conditions (like most intellectuals) and were then placed in those conditions. (Bourdieu, 1995, p. 47)

Although virtual organizations and networks have been studied for quite some time, there is still need for research regarding their inner dynamics and the mechanisms of leadership and governance. In this paper we investigate micro-political processes - i.e. informal actions of individual actors to gain power and exert influence, which is a well-researched concept in traditional organizations - with respect to interorganizational networks. By means of a qualitative interview study we investigated structures and strategies of power within virtual networks. Results show that micro-political tactics known from research in traditional organizations are also used in interorganizational settings. Furthermore, we identified additional micro-political tactics specific to virtual networks. The latter are especially related to the use of ICT. Based on our results, we discuss possible implications for the structure and governance of virtual networks as well as the design of the technology that is used to support virtual cooperation.

This master degree dissertation on nursery aimed to understand how the work is organized, in particular, the relations and the interaction in the Committee of Mental Health in Santa Maria, searching for evidences in acting as an intersection space in the consolidation of the psychiatric reform in Santa Maria. Such option occurred because the researcher took part actively in the process of implementation of the Mental Health Committee, representing the managers in the city, from the reality of services on mental health and from the need of (re)view the organization of the assistance in the city net. Thus, it is necessary to look over the micro politics in the process of the psychiatric reform I nth context of the Unique Health System (SUS, in Portuguese), in Santa Maria, aiming to perceive what happens over there, in the perspective of making this a space of the Committee of Mental Health, an intersection space, indicating a instituting relation. The theoretical fundaments are based on Merhy s reference, among other authors. The study approach was qualitative, like a case study, using the techniques of document analysis, systematic observation and focus group, adding up to 11 (eleven) people composing the Committee of Mental Health. The collected material was analyzed in accordance with, with the construction of four theme axis. Along with the results, it was identified that, since its creation, the Committee of Mental Health has become an important space of constant discussion among the services of mental health and, mainly, of the health units. It is pointed out that, from the Committee of Mental Health, the actions on the articulation between mental health and basic assistance actually started, by means of Mental Health in discussion , which originated the Assistance on Mental Health for the Basic Health Assistance . Therefore, collective spaces are chosen, like the Committee of Mental Health, because are concrete spaces, in time and space, directed for communication, for listening and for the circulation of information about desire, interest and aspects of reality as well as for the decision making, trying to make possible new instituting ways. Esta dissertação de mestrado em enfermagem teve como objetivo compreender como se organiza o trabalho, em particular as relações e interações na Comissão de Saúde Mental de Santa Maria, buscando evidências de atuação como espaço intersseçor na consolidação da Reforma Psiquiátrica, no município. Tal escolha deveu-se ao fato de a pesquisadora ter participado ativamente do processo de implantação da Comissão de Saúde Mental, representando a gestão na esfera municipal, partindo da realidade dos serviços de saúde mental e da necessidade de (re)visitar a organização da rede municipal de atenção à saúde. Assim, se fez necessário olhar a micropolítica do processo da Reforma Psiquiátrica no contexto do Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS, no município, procurando perceber o que ali acontece, na perspectiva de ser este o espaço da Comissão de Saúde Mental, um espaço intersseçor, indicador de uma relação instituinte. A fundamentação teórica está alicerçada no referencial de Merhy, dentre outros autores. A abordagem do estudo foi qualitativa, do tipo Estudo de Caso, utilizando-se as técnicas de análise documental, observação sistemática e grupo focal, com a totalidade dos sujeitos que compõem a Comissão de Saúde Mental, ou seja, 11 participantes. O material coletado foi analisado com base em Bardin, com a construção de quatro eixos temáticos. Como resultados, identificou-se que, desde a sua criação, a CSM configura-se como um importante espaço de interlocução constante entre os serviços de saúde mental e, principalmente, as unidades de saúde. Ressalta-se que foi a partir da CSM que se iniciaram as ações de articulação entre a Saúde Mental e a Atenção Básica, por meio da Saúde Mental na Roda , que deu origem às Assessorias em Saúde Mental para Rede de Atenção Básica . Logo, aposta-se em espaços coletivos, como os da CSM, por configurarem-se como espaços concretos, de lugar e tempo, destinados à comunicação, à escuta, à circulação de informações sobre desejos, interesses e aspectos da realidade, assim como de elaboração e tomada de decisão, buscando e possibilitando novos caminhos instituintes.

Este artigo trata de refletir sobre modos de comunicabilidade empreendidos no universo das Novas Tecnologias, procurando ultrapassar os efeitos de uma discursividade já instalada, de que nesta esfera, vida e criação nutrem-se uma a outra. Problematizamos tal concepção pensando a respeito de uma micropolítica na rede tecnológica que se faça por heterogeneidade expressiva, fundamentando-nos no pensamento de Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari. Trata-se de uma política operada entre guerreiros e soldados high-tech, capaz de introduzir uma espécie de (in) disciplina nas cadeias discursivas que se estabelecem nos ambientes computadorizados, na tentativa de efetivamente constituí-los como locus de produção da diferença. This text relates to communication and ways of communicability involved/ in the NTCIs world. It tries to surpass the effects of an alreday installed/ discursivity which states that in this environment life and creation nurture one another. We discuss the concept of micro politics in a technological net which can be done through expressive hetorogenicity, all this text uses a reference of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari ./ It relates to a politics operated between warriors and high-tech soldiers who are able to introduce a type of (in) discipline in the discursive chains established in computer based environments, in an attempt to effectively turn them into a locus of production of difference.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the implementation of health policy and the micro politics of the NHS. The chapter begins with a description of the management of the NHS and the role of regional offices, health authorities, and trusts. This leads into a discussion of the relationship between the Department of Health and NHS bodies and of policy-making within the NHS. The influence of the medical profession is reviewed and the chapter concludes by summarising the various factors relevant to an understanding of health policy implementation.

Networking processes contribute to the perpetuation of gender inequalities in everyday practices in organizations. This article examines the implications of the conceptualization of gender as practice for social network theory. The three central elements of this critical feminist approach to networking are the study of agency, identity construction and the micro-political processes of networking and gendering. To illustrate that networking practices are gendering practices, that there are various manifestations of those practices, and the way in which networking and gendering are intertwined, the networking practices of four white, Dutch female and male account managers are discussed. This micro-political analysis suggests that networking does not necessarily reinforce gender inequality, which opens up the possibility of examining which combinations of networking and gendering contribute to changing the gender order.

Interest in the micro-politics of institutional action focuses on the use of rhetoric yet is still to explicitly consider how rhetoric works under institutional complexity. In conditions of ‘reflex...

CSR research has tended to overlook the complexity of different managers’ values, interests, ideologies and identities within organisations, which compete for the organisation’s stance on CSR. In t...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the different ways in which micro-political dynamics affect macro-curricular policies. The first section critically explores several traditional perspectives on the relation between macroand micro-policies. The second section introduces the notion of curricular regulation and we distinguish two types of instruments that influence the configuration of policies. The third section analyzes, through a specific case, how a micro-political regulation device—the school notebook—brought about changes at the macro-political level. This educational instrument is of considerable interest given that it was employed not only in Argentina, but also in France and Spain, and very likely in other countries. Thus, the school notebook represents an educational device with clear local relevance, which can certainly be used as a valuable source for a comparative study of education. For this purpose, the chapter (a) analyzes its structure in Argentina, (b) discusses the way it was used to dilute the Peronist doctrine; and (c) observes the way it has been used in other parts of the world. Two sorts of conclusions are put forward in the final section of the chapter. The first concerns the use of the school notebook as a primary source in curricular studies, and the second discusses how this type of instrument can influence the development and design of curricular policies.

One of the tasks that all researchers have to undertake, whether for postgraduate study or for funded research, is a literature review. Such reviews are particularly significant in the light of current policy and professional concern for ‘evidence based practice’ (Muir Gray 2001). At the same time, we have seen an explosion of academic and research publications in recent decades, making it an increasingly daunting task to develop and maintain a knowledge base in our areas of interest, so that we become reliant on other people’s summaries. What is entailed in a literature review, however, may be quite variable, and has been the subject of considerable discussion, and a focus for increasingly ‘sophisticated’ guidance and instruction (e.g. see Hart 1998, 2001; Rowley and Farrow 2000). And, as with any piece of academic writing, the reviewer may feel able to take varying levels of control and authority in the process, in terms of what to select, how to critique it, and how to shape it into an argument.