Room for manoeuvre: User participation in water resources management in Burkina Faso

Participation in natural resources management is widely promoted in sub‐Saharan Africa, but faces mounting criticism from social science scholars who rarely engage with it in practice. We use the notion of room for manoeuvre to reflect on a multi‐level participatory approach designed to support the Burkinabè Integrated Water Resources Management policy and propose ways of engaging constructively with local users and policy‐makers. Within an “invited space” of participation, water users’ room for manoeuvre was enhanced through the acquisition of new knowledge on the legal Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) framework. This allowed them to interact with decision‐makers and to extend their networks. Power imbalances were discussed, but this did not lead to modifying existing power structures that hinge on broader societal dynamics.     

Critical discourse analysis of perspectives on knowledge and the knowledge society within the Sustainable Development Goals

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed to analyze discourses of knowledge and the knowledge society in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Discourse analysis is a collective name for a number of scientific methodologies for analyzing semiosis, namely how meaning is created and communicated though written, vocal or sign language. Employing a genealogical approach which locates discourses in the field of prior discourses, two prior discourses of the knowledge society are identified in the key document of the SDGs. The concepts knowledge and knowledge society are found to have a marginal position within the main policy document “Transforming our world,” adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. The techno‐scientific‐economic discourse is found to be dominant at the level of implementation and of goals, while there is some evidence of the pluralist‐participatory discourse at the level of vision and strategy. Analysis of some of the policy advice provided by international organizations and civil society indicates that more pluralist‐participatory discourses on knowledge were represented when the SDGs were being formulated. Developed countries and the corporate sector were very influential in determining the final text and were probably instrumental in excluding more transformational discourses and maintaining the status quo.     

后发企业如何构建创新网络—基于知识架构的视角

构建创新网络是后发企业快速进行技术追赶的重要路径。那么,针对不同的企业,构筑什么样的创新网络是有效的? 为了深化以往的创新网络研究,从知识架构的视角出发,聚焦于网络层次的合作伙伴配置,构建了以产业特征为情境条件,知识基宽度/深度为焦点企业特征,知识异质性/质量为创新网络节点组成特征,高创新追赶绩效为结果变量的逻辑模型。结论显示,有三种相应的架构类型能够获取高创新追赶绩效。此外,在不同的产业特征情境下,不同的企业分别可以采用相应的架构类型取得更好的绩效。以此,为后发企业构建有效创新网络提供了理论和实践的借鉴。     

绿色增长下的导向性技术创新选择研究

针对如何正确引导 GHG 排放的气候反馈经济损失下导向性技术创新,以实现长期的绿色增长这一问题,基于 DICE 模型,重构导向性技术创新不同的动力要素及其与气候变化之间的内生关系,建立了可体现绿色增长“均衡性”、“包容性”和“可持续性”的非线性最优控制模型。数值仿真结果显示: 气候反馈经济损失不容小觑; 偏于生产的绿色技术创新导向下社会生产力强劲但存在气候环境恶化风险,偏于减排的绿色技术创新导向下气候反馈经济损失小但存在增长动力匮乏风险,二者虽均可实现长期的绿色增长,但中性的绿色技术创新导向会更稳妥; 偏于生产的绿色技术创新导向下人均消费变化率在短期内会显著提升。     

企业短视行为对知识失业的影响——基于北京市用人市场的调查分析

本文从市场经济的角度探求知识失业的深层次原因,通过对北京市用人市场进行问卷调查分析,发现市场经济条件下企业的短视行为是导致知识失业的重要原因之一,并提出意见和建议。     

Raymond Williams and sociology

The purpose of this article is to recover Williams as a major theoretical inspiration for the social sciences, specifically, as the inaugurator of what might be regarded as a research paradigm, cultural materialism. In the first section, Williams's encounter with the discipline of sociology is traced and distinguished as a critical alternative to the presently ascendant – at least in the USA – neo‐Durkeimian school of ‘cultural sociology’. In the second section, his cultural‐materialist programme is proposed as a powerful analytical framework for the study of culture and society today. In the final section, a key concept of Williams's cultural materialism, mobile privatization, is selected illustratively and proposed as a powerful analytical tool for studying the production and technological mediation of typical modes of communicative sociality in the early twenty‐first century.     

The effects of information form and domain-specific knowledge on choice deferral

Three studies examined the effect of information form on choice deferral in consumer choice and explored the moderating role of knowledge about the product domain. Two theoretical approaches were contrasted: (1) The process approach predicting that choice deferral varies as a function of information form, and (2) the communication approach predicting an interaction of information form and domain-specific knowledge. Participants were presented with different laptops described in an absolute (e.g. ‘300 GB hard disc’), evaluative-numerical (e.g. ‘hard disc with 30 out of 100 points in an expert rating’) or evaluative-verbal (e.g. ‘bad hard disc’) information form, and they could choose to buy one of the laptops or defer. Domain-specific knowledge was also assessed. In Study 1, evaluative-numerical and evaluative-verbal values led to more deferral in people with high domain-specific knowledge. The pattern for evaluative-numerical and evaluative-verbal values was replicated for a different information organization in Study 2. Study 3 showed that absolute values led to more deferral the less knowledgeable participants were and demonstrated that domain-specific knowledge and deferral were unrelated when absolute and evaluative-verbal values were presented in combination. In sum, the results support the communication approach and have methodological implications for decision research and theoretical implications for understanding choice deferral in real-life decisions.     

论道德之“见”的认识困境——也谈《孟子》“见牛未见羊”

近年来,学界对《孟子》齐宣王"见牛未见羊"现象多有阐发,由此引发了人们对儒家道德之"见"的广泛关注。其实,《孟子》论"见牛未见羊",阐述了因"见牛觳觫"而产生"德性之知"的德性主义认识路线。在这条认识路线中,"见"不仅可以使见者体认本心良知,也使某些无良被见者有了欺骗君子"以方"的可乘之机。"见"在促成德性之知的过程中积极有为,但也隐藏着诚与欺的认识困境。无疑,摆脱这种道德认识困境对当前中国道德文明建设是具有一定积极意义的。     

人才聚集过程中知识粘性消减策略研究

人才聚集的关键是知识转移,在人才聚集过程中,知识粘性是影响知识转移绩效的重要变量。从人才聚集和知识转移的联系出发,人才聚集主体、知识特性和聚集环境是知识粘性形成的主要因素。为此,组织可以通过建立有效的激励机制,建立促进知识转移的信息体系,运用知识挖掘和反求工程及技术共享平台降低知识粘度,营造便捷的人才流动机制和组织学习环境,促进知识流动,实现知识有效管理。     

The logic of strategic ignorance

Ignorance and knowledge are often thought of as opposite phenomena. Knowledge is seen as a source of power, and ignorance as a barrier to consolidating authority in political and corporate arenas. This article disputes this, exploring the ways that ignorance serves as a productive asset, helping individuals and institutions to command resources, deny liability in the aftermath of crises, and to assert expertise in the face of unpredictable outcomes. Through a focus on the Food and Drug Administration's licensing of Ketek, an antibiotic drug manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis and linked to liver failure, I suggest that in drug regulation, different actors, from physicians to regulators to manufacturers, often battle over who can attest to the least knowledge of the efficacy and safety of different drugs - a finding that raises new insights about the value of ignorance as an organizational resource.