University of Bath

About: University of Bath is a education organization based out in Bath, Bath and North East Somerset, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Photonic-crystal fiber. The organization has 15830 authors who have published 39608 publications receiving 1358769 citations. The organization is also known as: Bath University.

The Grätzel Cell: Where Next?

Abstract: Twenty years after O’Regan and Gratzel’s seminal Nature paper entitled “A Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Solar-Cell Based on Dye-Sensitized Colloidal TiO2 Films”, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) and analogous devices have become a major topic of research, with over 1000 papers published in 2010. Although much more is now known about the physical and chemical processes taking place during operation of the DSC, the exponential increase in research effort during this period has not been matched by large increases in efficiency. This raises questions regarding the nature of the barriers that are holding back progress and whether current research is adequately addressing the key issues that are currently limiting device performance. This Perspective attempts to identify some of the factors that determine DSC performance and, as part of a selective survey of recent research highlights, presents a personal view of new approaches and research strategies that could offer ways to overcome the current efficiency stalemate.

Higher education and the achievement (and/or prevention) of equity and social justice

Abstract: The article examines the theoretical and empirical literature on higher education’s role in relation to social equity and related notions of citizenship, social justice, social cohesion and meritocracy. It considers both the education and the research functions of higher education and how these impact upon different sections of society, on who benefits and who loses from them. Questions for future research on the wider impact of higher education are posed as well as some research questions on the narrower issue of widening participation.

Placing Strategy Discourse in Context: Sociomateriality, Sensemaking and Power

Abstract: There has been increasing interest in the discursive aspects of strategy over the last two decades. In this paper we review the existing literature, focusing on six major bodies of discursive scholarship: post-structural, critical discourse analysis, narrative, rhetoric, conversation analysis, and metaphor. Our review reveals the significant contributions of research on strategy and discourse, but also the potential to advance research in this area by bringing together research on discursive practices and research on other practices we know to be important in strategy work. We explore the potential of discursive scholarship in integrating between significant theoretical domains (sensemaking, power, and sociomateriality), and realms of analysis (institutional, organizational, and the episodic), relevant to strategy scholarship. This allows us to place the papers published in this special issue on Strategy as Discourse: Its Significance, Challenges, and Future Directions among the body of knowledge accumulated thus far, and to suggest a way forward for future scholarship.