The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

Series Editor's Preface. Introduction by John Breuilly. Acknowledgements. 1. Definitions. State and nation. The nation. 2. Culture in Agrarian Society. Power and culture in the agro-literature society. The varieties of agrarian rulers. 3. Industrial Society. The society of perpetual growth. Social genetics. The age of universal high culture. 4. The Transition to an Age of Nationalism. A note on the weakness of nationalism. Wild and garden culture. 5. What is a Nation. The course of true nationalism never did run smooth. 6. Social Entropy and Equality in Industrial Society. Obstacles to entropy. Fissures and barriers. A diversity of focus. 7. A Typology of Nationalisms. The varieties of nationalist experience. Diaspora nationalism. 8. The Future of Nationalism. Industrial culture - one or many?. 9. Nationalism and Ideology. Who is for Nuremberg?. One nation, one state. 10. Conclusion. What is not being said. Summary. Select bibliography. Bilbliography of Ernest Gellner's writing: Ian Jarvie. Index

Nations and Nationalism

This article presents a theoretical examination of the digital divide, tracing its origins in the centre–Left social inclusion policy agenda of the 1980s and 1990s to its current status of political ‘hot topic’. It then moves on to outline four conceptual limitations to conventional dichotomous notions of the digital divide and individuals’ ‘access’ to information and communications technology (ICT): what is meant by ICT; what is meant by ‘access’; the relationship between ‘access to ICT’ and ‘use of ICT’; and a lack of consideration of the consequences of engagement with ICT. The article outlines a more sophisticated, hierarchical model of the digital divide based around these conceptual ‘stages’ while recognizing the mediating role of economic, cultural and social forms of capital in shaping individuals’ engagements with ICT. It concludes by developing a set of research themes and questions for future examination of inequalities in individuals’ use of ICT.

Reconsidering Political and Popular Understandings of the Digital Divide

Over the past 20 years, there has been a considerable expansion in theory and research about human resource management and performance. This paper reviews progress by identifying a series of phases in the development of relevant theory and research. It then sets out a number of challenges for the future on issues of theory, management processes and research methodology. The main conclusion from the review is that after over two decades of extensive research, we are still unable to answer core questions about the relationship between human resource management and performance. This is largely attributed to the limited amount of research that is longitudinal and has been able to address the linkages between HRM and performance and to study the management of HR implementation.

Human resource management and performance: still searching for some answers

he revised English edition of this book tlie T original Swcdisli cdition. without tlie subtitle. is froni 1997 should be considered :is i111 important contribution to sociology and social science in general to tlie extent tliat it is a clear and wcll-structured introduction to critical i-disrri, one of the most rccent and vigorous theoretical streams in the field of thc social scicnces. if we take into coiisidcration tlic influential work of hlargaret t\\rclier (1995: Realist Socinl Tlicory: Tlic I\\loriJlio!gciicti(’

Explaining Society, Critical Realism in the Social Sciences:

What Knowledge Economy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the shared services or outsourcing decision.Design/methodology/approach – Data are drawn from interviews with over 70 executives in leading organizations in relation to their strategic objectives in advocating the adoption of their chosen service delivery model.Findings – The paper notes that decision making by the numbers alone (satellite strategy) may ensure reaching the strategic destination eventually, but perhaps too belatedly. One has to consider the different stages of the “in”, “out” or “shake it all about” debate relating to sourcing strategy and the costs thereof.Originality/value – The paper is of value in enabling organizations to recognize the distinction between strategic enablement and their competitive intangibles.

Should it stay or should it go? Examining the shared services or outsourcing decision

This paper examines the processes through which the obligation of continued individual development-captured by the notion of 'employability'-is being increasingly rearticulated and transmogrified by policy makers, managers and organizations in both the UK and US as a means through which individual and social (economic) fulfilment can be obtained. It suggests that, for all the celebratory discourse which surrounds the notion of employability, the concept itself represents little more than a policy chimera: a thinly veiled attempt to relocate the responsibility for lifelong and economically relevant learning at the door of the workforce itself, whilst at the same time naturalizing the social, cultural and economic factors which either facilitate or preclude differential access to and the management of learning inside organizations. The paper concludes with the suggestion that employability is better understood in terms of its capacity for offering an individual with a self-defence mechanism within a volatile labour market as opposed to a new mantra for how we should work and live.

/pdf/employability-in-the-knowledge-economy-living-the-fulfilled-b6spbn1kva.pdf

Anthony Hesketh

Papers

What Knowledge Economy

Should it stay or should it go? Examining the shared services or outsourcing decision

Employability in the knowledge economy: living the fulfilled life or policy chimera?

Outsourcing the HR function : possibilities and pitfalls.

The War for Talent