Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice

Abstract Information is a source of power in the planning process. This article begins by assessing five perspectives of the planner's use of information: those of the technician, the incremental pragmatist, the liberal advocate, the structuralist, and the “progressive.” Then several types of misinformation (inevitable or unnecessary, ad hoc or systematic) are distinguished in a reformulation of bounded rationality in planning, and practical responses by planning staff are identified. The role and ethics of planners acting as sources of misinformation are considered. In practice planners work in the face of power manifest as the social and political (mis)-man-agement of citizens' knowledge, consent, trust, and attention. Seeking to enable planners to anticipate and counteract sources of misinformation threatening public serving, democratic planning processes, the article clarifies a practical and politically sensitive form of “progressive” planning practice.

Planning in the Face of Power.

Peter Berger (1929) is an American sociologist best known for his collaboration with Thomas Luckman in writing The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. That book argues that human reality, and knowledge of it, is a social construct, emerging from the individual or group’s interaction with larger social structures (institutions). Social structures, once widely adopted, lose their history as social constructions (objectivation), and come over time, by the people who live within them, to be deemed natural realities independent of human construction (reification). Berger predicted, in his later book, The Sacred Canopy, near-term all-encompassing secularization of religion, which prediction has proved false, especially in the third world (as Berger himself has acknowledged in his later work, Desecularization).

神圣的帷幕 : 宗教社会学理论之要素 = The sacred canopy elements of a sociological theory of religion

Symposium Review: 25th Anniversary of Moral Boundaries by Joan Tronto

Based on a case study of a participatory photography project with a Salvadoran adult literacy program, this article explores some of the challenges and risks that arise when people use cameras to d...

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Participatory photography: A tool for empowerment or surveillance?

Since its inception in 2003, the popularity of Second Life (SL), an online 3-D virtual environment, has increased exponentially. The global reach of SL and the opportunities it provides for cross-cultural exchange using multiple modes of communication in real and virtual worlds make it an ideal venue to examine cross-cultural engagement. Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Heyward's model of intercultural literacy, this article analyses findings from an exploratory study examining the construction of cultural identity and development of intercultural literacy among 29 SL participants. The authors argue that SL Residents participate in an Activity System, engaging in myriad activities (e.g. language classes) which provide structured environments that generate both intended and unintended outcomes. The findings reveal that in many ways participation in SL enhanced participants’ intercultural literacy – for example, by fostering use of multiple languages, cross-cultural encounters and...

Unintended Outcomes in Second Life: Intercultural Literacy and Cultural Identity in a Virtual World

Supportive social relationships are an important dimension of marginalized women's participation in community-based adult education programs. However, policy makers and researchers often consider t...

“It Feels Like a Little Family to Me” Social Interaction and Support Among Women in Adult Education and Family Literacy

Tension and conflict are inherent in community-university partnerships, yet they can also lead to learning and growth. This article shows how four members of a partnership framed a dispute in rural California and examines how they resolved tacit, divergent expectations about communication, decision making, and authority. The dispute prompted a transition from informal to intentional decision making and helped members clarify their expectations of each other. Unclear purposes and practices lead to confusion, but deliberation and a willingness to learn enable partners to gain understanding and work together more effectively. The article concludes with implications for improving working relationships in community-university partnerships and collaborative planning.

Framing a Conflict in a Community-University Partnership:

The Parent Education Profile (PEP) is an instrument used by family literacy programs to rate parents’ support for children’s literacy development. This article uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how the PEP constructs the ideal parent, the text’s underlying assumptions about parenting and education, and its ideological effects. The analysis shows how many features of the PEP evaluate parents according to a middle-class, predominantly White model of parenting and family-school interaction. Furthermore, the PEP tends to assume a universal, normative model of parental support for literacy, parental (mothers’) responsibility for educational outcomes, equal access to resources required to meet the PEP standards, and a limited parental role in assessment. In so doing, the PEP lends support to several dominant discourses regarding poor and minority families, such as the discourse of parent involvement and the “mothering discourse,” which encourages mothers’ supplementary educational work. Implications f...

Esther Prins

Papers

Participatory photography: A tool for empowerment or surveillance?

Unintended Outcomes in Second Life: Intercultural Literacy and Cultural Identity in a Virtual World

“It Feels Like a Little Family to Me” Social Interaction and Support Among Women in Adult Education and Family Literacy

Framing a Conflict in a Community-University Partnership:

Defining and Measuring Parenting for Educational Success: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Parent Education Profile