We draw upon Appadurai's 'scapes' and Latour's Actor Network Theory (ANT) to interrogate historical and spatial flows in relation to specific testing technologies. We reveal how testing systems, conceptualised as actor-networks, rearticulate colonial legacies of inequality which are intensified by new and emerging technologies. ANT helps trace…

In the business environment, the goal of data analytics can be characterized as improving decision making and its links to big data and other data-driven technologies. In UK higher education, degree apprenticeships are business-led and government-supported nationally recognized qualifications, where delivery is tailored to partner employer…

This paper analyses how three European countries produce and use data within a specific educational policy field, that of school leaving and graduation. It compares how stakeholders in England, Finland and the Netherlands know what happens to the leavers from schools and universities. Through gathering evidence about the methodological…

Purpose: We investigate how the structural conditions of eight different European agricultural innovation systems can facilitate or hinder collaboration and social learning in multidisciplinary innovation networks. Methodology: We have adapted the Innovation System Failure Matrix to investigate the main barriers and enablers eight countries…

The article studies the replacement of bureacratic systems of command and control by networks based on technologies, where co-operation and co-ordination are constantly negotiated and regulated in different ways, and where policy-makers negotiate new power relations with new actors. The comparison between England and Scotland highlights the fact…

Objectives: To map food access in the city of Preston in the north-west of England in order to determine access, availability and affordability of healthy food options. Design and methodology: The research design employed a number of distinct methods including: surveys of shops; interviews with local people and shopkeepers; a cost and availability…

In contrast to the prevailing image of monitoring systems as technical systems, it is proposed that they should rather be conceived of as social endeavors at exchanging information. Drawing on the monitoring and evaluation framework of Cornford, Doukidis, and Forster, the concept of information agreement is suggested as a way of assessing the…

The purposes for which business management requires information, the sources of that information and the ideal characteristics in its form, presentation and availability are reviewed. In addition to the provision of technical information this paper deals generally with the problem of information needed to control the business as an entity.…

This paper describes the rationale for, and the design, implementation and preliminary evaluation of a taxonomy to guide the grading and feedback of ePortfolio assessment of personal development planning (PDP) in a module where PDP is integrated into the curriculum. Conventional higher education assessment methods do not adequately address the…

Nearly all organizations are faced with problems of classifying and coding financial data, management and technical information, components, stores, etc. and need to apply some logical and meaningful system of identification. This report examines the objectives and applications of classification and coding systems and reviews eight systems…

A discussion of one of the main activities of the DISISS (Design of Information Systems in the Social Sciences) project is presented in this working paper. A comprehensive Check List of Social Science Serials (CLOSSS) is being prepared as a basis for bibliometric studies of the primary and secondary literature of the social sciences. The CLOSSS…

Outlines the British teletext information dissemination system and some of its practical uses. Discusses innovations being developed and considers the system's application in the United States. (JMF)

A Study of the relationship between the primary and secondary journal literature of a social science discipline is described in this working paper. Criminology was chosen as the subject area for study, because it forms a fairly clearly identifiable area of the social sciences, is fairly self-contained, and because it has some distinctive…

DISISS (Design of Information Systems in the Social Sciences) is a research project based at the University of Bath. The objective of the project is to carry out research necessary for the effective design of information systems in the social sciences, whether by the creation of new systems or the modification of existing systems. Analysis of…

Broad coverage is essential to the effectiveness of information services. This paper criticizes the misleading claims made regarding computer-based systems in this context. It describes the Scientific Documentation Centre's services, the basis on which its resources are allocated, and the criteria for selection of operating techniques and…