In this paper, I address Jacque Lacan's theory of the four discourses, namely, master/slave, university, hysteric and analyst. The four discourses are explored via interviews with five postgraduate business students from a leading Irish business school. Three of the students were prepared to abdicate responsibility for career decision-making to…

Following Ben-Porath [1967. "The Production of Human Capital and the Life-Cycle of Earnings." "Journal of Political Economy" 75 (3): 352-365], the influence of life expectancy on education and on human capital has attracted much attention among growth theorists. Whereas existing growth models rely on an education decision made…

A problem-based learning (PBL) assumption is that silence is incompatible with collaborative learning. Although sociocultural studies have reinterpreted silence as collaborative, we must understand how silence occurs in PBL groups. This essay presents students' explanations of dominance, leadership, and silence as PBL group roles. An ethnographic…

This article explores how power relations are constructed in the governance of higher education institutions. It examines and deconstructs, from a Foucauldian perspective, power relations and mechanisms in the relationship between the state and higher education institutions, and between academic and management staff. This research article…

A research program at Trinity College in Ireland is reported that focused on the decision-making process, particularly the committee structure. Described are the role of individuals within committees, centralized versus decentralized decision-making, costs, sources of rigidity, and problems of the concentration of power. (Author/LBH)