Bernard Kahane

“Tikkun Olam”: how a Jewish ethos drives innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that the Jewish religious concept “Tikkun Olam” is a source of practical management wisdom. “Tikkun Olam” combines with the diaspora and the state of Israels specific political and economic contexts to provide Jewish people with an important driver and legitimization tool to change the world for the better. Since science and technology innovation has become a powerful tool to impact on todays world, “Tikkun Olam” builds on this profane channel for its present expression and supports the involvement of Jewish people in this matter.Design/methodology/approach – To substantiate this view, the author analyzes the historical trajectories of the state of Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Some evidence is provided to highlight their specific dynamics and assets for knowledge creation, accumulation and transfer. Drawing on the academic literature, the author discusses what could be Jewish specificities on that matter compared with other nations and diasporas.Finding...

A network approach to studying research propammes: mobilizing and coordinating public responses to hiv/aids

Based on the anahsis ofthe Medical and Public Health Research programme (Commis- sion of the European Communities), the paper shows how new scientific communities are created in response to the HIV/AIDS problem. W e anahze how actors are mobilized (three mobilization modes: public impetus, scientists ‘initiative, scientists’ initiative with public networking) and how their work is coordinated. We defend the hypothesis that these new scientific communities are flexible cooperation networks. In the case of AIDS research, there are onb a limited number o f network types (the data collection structure, the forum, the thematic partition with harmonization o f research practices, the starred around a central facilip). The coordination of these scientific cooperative networks passes through fixed and circulating intermediaries. The management of these intermediaries is a major activity for involved actors. Thus, our aim is not to study the wider social context, but to analyze networking in response to policy, in...