large site, attractive new design as of 11/06. essays, links, delving into popular culture and playing with it, theoretical explorations and savvy; highly recommended
"The Teaching Excellence Framework is best understood then as an effort to create a proxy signal to indicate quality to potential students and rival institutions through its gold, silver and bronze badges."
‘Private equity’s undisclosed business model is value capture through financial engineering focused on the enrichment of a managerial elite, with mass investors mainly involved in providing the cheap debt which makes the whole thing possible.’ Julie Froud and Karel Williams, Private Equity and the Culture of Value Extraction, New Political Economy, 2007
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) could become the first mainstream higher education institute to become a private company.
UCLAN announced to staff last week that it is seeking to dissolve its corporate form to become a private company, raising fears among staff that the institution could become a for-profit enterprise
take a look at some of the most compelling new sites that have launched in just the few short months since President Obama took office: * Data.gov, providing open access to feeds of valuable facts and figures generated by the executive branch. * USAspending.gov, allowing any of us to drill down into the details of spending from various federal agencies. * Recovery.gov, perhaps one of the best-known of the new sites, offering up details of how resources from the Recovery Act are being allocated. * And of course, there's WhiteHouse.gov. You know about that one. What's remarkable about these sites is not merely that they exist
The Achilles Effect explores gender bias in the entertainment aimed at primary school boys, focusing on the dominant themes in children’s TV shows, toy advertising, movies, and books: gender stereotypes of both sexes, male dominance, negative portrayals of fathers, breaking of the mother/son bond, and the devaluing of femininity. It examines the gender messages sent by pop culture, provides strategies for countering these messages, and encourages discussion of a vitally important issue that is rarely talked about—the impact of gender stereotypes on boys.
Political economy is all about the study of the relationships of power that determine the distribution of resources in the economy. What does today’s Queen’s Speech say in this context? Most of all it says that this is a government without power.