Charles Neame

Democracy or intervention? Adapting orientations to development

Many institutional cultures resist change, and within universities academic developers vary their response to such resistance, depending on the type of change, the institution and their own characteristic styles, working preferences and strategic judgements. Variables influencing the successful introduction of innovation in academic practice include the inherent susceptibility of the institution to innovation, the nature of the innovation and the approaches of the change agents involved. This paper explores responses to resistant institutional culture; it presents a dichotomous model of educational development orientations which emerged from an action research project within a research-intensive university and suggests that by adapting developmental orientations according to context, developers can explicitly influence the responsiveness of members of the institution to innovation in academic practice.

Service orientated product innovation for improved environmental performance: an exploratory case study of the air conditioning and cooling sector

Abstract The need to improve the environmental performance of production and consumption practices within advanced industrialised nations is widely accepted. Finding ways to satisfy demand using far fewer resources is central to research in this field. For many, the trajectories of service orientated products are thought to provide an opportunity to address this need and anticipate futures in which economic growth is de-coupled from resource use. This paper presents the findings of exploratory research in the air-conditioning and cooling sector, which sought to understand how these benefits might be realised. It suggests that these benefits will not arise as a result of economic restructuring but rather that a deeper understanding of the process of service innovation, which underpins trajectories of service orientated products, is required to develop effective policy.

Pain, gain – mission

Abstract We present a short conceptual framework as an opinion piece for considering learning gain based on Biesta’s three domains of educational purpose: qualification, socialisation and subjectification. We invite readers to reflect on the perspectives given in relation to different institutions mission statements around teaching and learning, and consider if the focus on developing methods for measuring learning gain is premature, given the lack of consensus regarding the nature of the learning to be measured.

From Professional Educational Values to the Satisfaction of Psychological Needs – A Sequence of Ideas

The origins of this paper lie in my observations of a set of departmental reviews presented by heads of department in one particular institution in the UK, and in subsequent discussions with some of those colleagues. Listening to them set out their passionate visions of curriculum prompted something akin to Baxter-Magolda’s (2004) idea of ‘moments of epistemological transformation’ (p. 31). What was particularly striking was hearing some of these department heads use a humanist language of care, in a very practical context, to describe and evaluate the instrumental notion of curriculum (which was the brief given to them for the review).

Venture capital needs for sustainable development of clean technologies

Challenges of evaluating new evolving technologies are particularly pronounced for clean technology firms (CTFs) in need of venture capital (VC). This study investigates how Technology Approval Group (TAG) may bridge an identified funding gap. TAG is a communication tool enabling investors that traditionally would not invest that early in an innovation to feel confident in injecting VC into developing CTFs. In the study, challenges facing the investors include high levels of risk and small investment sums required. Additional characteristics that affect the funding process are the market size, the communication platforms and the political climate. A successful implementation of TAG in the water sector, in the UK, provided inspiration for expanding the use to other sectors and geographical markets where new challenges were identified. The identified risks with using a tool like TAG are associated with ethical questions, handling dependencies and the challenge of forecasting sustainable technological development.