David Calvey

Creating new learning communities: towards effective e‐learning production

This paper examines how small firms that produce “e‐learning” materials collaborate and communicate with their clients, external agencies and end users. Our premise is this: given increased demands for more sophisticated and “learning‐led” products, it is becoming increasingly crucial for e‐learning firms to source and exploit content, education, knowledge and expertise that is extrinsic to the traditional boundaries of the “firm”. These shifts raise a set of problems related to how firms can effectively interact and collaborate with others in order to create, distribute and evolve effective e‐learning tools and products. Based on our own case study research and building on the existing literature on “communities of practice”, we argue that the formation of new “learning communities” is a strategy now being undertaken by leading firms in order to meet demands for “learning‐led” products.

Covert Research: The Art, Politics and Ethics of Undercover Fieldwork

Undercover research is an emotive and controversial field often equated with deception and transgression. Using classic examples and contemporary case studies this book challenges covert research’s dispersed place within the social sciences and rehabilitates its reputation as a powerful research method. Drawing in part on his own undercover research into the night-time economy of bouncers, the author explores the roots and evolution of covert research; his deft treatment of the fear and fascination within furtive fieldwork is grounded in the practicality of the methods and tools needed to conduct quality research in the field. Packed with learning-by-example tips, this insightful book shows that with critical imagination and proper ethical foundations, covert research could be a great addition to your methodological toolkit.

How E-Learning Businesses Meet Client and End User Needs: Analysing the Collaborative Contexts

This paper reports on research undertaken into the emerging e-learning industry in the North West of England. It is based on findings from SMILE (Skills for the Missing Industry’s Leaders and Enterprises), a research project part sponsored by the ESF/Adapt-University for Industry. The research has assessed and evaluated management skills within small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), specifically those producing digital media based educational and training materials, hereafter known as e-learning products, a fast growing and economically important sub-sector which has emerged to meet increased demand for multimedia based learning and training materials in educational and workplace environments. Previous research has argued that creative management skills may be lacking in the UK industry context — potentially leading to job losses and thus a “missing industry” (Speake & Powell, 1997). Our research has aimed to identify just how, and how far, managers in such firms can ensure that the creators of education and training materials are able to meet demands for new and innovative products, that not only utilize the best of convergent technologies, but can respond to consumer demands for both bespoke and generic learning products. The chapter examines the ways in which SMEs that provide e-learning products collaborate and communicate with their clients, customers and/or end users.

Longitudinal Qualitative Research: Analyzing Change Through Time

The heart and soul of Longitudinal Qualitative Research, as outlined by Saldaña in the opening chapter, is to produce a text that is “a supplement to introductory texts in qualitative inquiry or as a handbook for researchers conducting long term research.” Ultimately, he succeeds. One of the interesting issues is that Saldaña’s disciplinary background is theater studies. He states that his aim in qualitative research is a similar one to playwrights who aim to “create a unique, insightful, and engaging text about the human condition.” In my view, we can certainly be more creative in our writings, particularly methodology texts, but whether we do the same sort of writing is debatable. The book is organized into six chapters. After an Introduction in which the author outlines his personal motivation for Longitudinal Qualitative Research (LQR), Chapter 1 outlines his paradigm and methods by discussing three foundational principles for LQR: length of study, time, and change. Chapter 2 deals with the research design implications and Chapter 3 the data analysis models employed in LQR. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 explore framing questions, descriptive questions, and analytic and interpretive questions; although it is sensible to distinguish between different types of questions in research, the differences between them become more blurred in situated fieldwork practice. The chapters are well organized with diagrams and key phrases in italics adding explanatory power. The stylistic mix between discursive analysis and recipe guide, essential to methodology texts, is handled reasonably well. The concluding chapter, “Looking Back at the Journey,” concisely summarizes and concludes the arguments in the book. Running throughout the book, I find a recourse to grounded theory, with references to the later models. The evolutionary aspects of this popular research orientation can clearly be seen to be employed. What is also kept intact is the recourse to good scientific practice. Saldana ends the book stating:

The everyday world of bouncers: a rehabilitated role for covert ethnography:

The focus of this article is on the everyday world of bouncers in the night-time economy of Manchester, England. The structure of the article is to contextualise my covert passing in this demonized subculture followed by explorations of the everyday world of bouncers through the related concepts of door order and the bouncer self. A part of the article is an examination of the management of situated ‘ethical moments’ during the fieldwork and, more generally, critical reflections on emotionality, embodiment and risk-taking in ethnography. I also reflect on the retrospective and longitudinal nature of my fieldwork immersion, and both the data management challenges and possibilities this brings. Covert ethnography can be a creative part of the ethnographer’s tool kit and can provide an alternative perspective on subcultures, settings and organisations. By overly frowning upon the apparent ethical transgressions of covert research, we can stifle and censor the sociological imagination rather than enhance it. My call is for a rehabilitation of covert research.

Book Review: David Oswell Culture and Society: An Introduction to Cultural Studies London: SAGE, 2006, £20.99 pbk (ISBN: 9780761942696), 246 pp

completely from the Frankfurt School (whose members are dismissed in the process; pp. 207–14), and that Shmuel Eisenstadt is described as ‘the only contemporary figure who could seriously claim the status of successor to Max Weber’ (p. 329). The main drawback is that towards the end the sociology of modernity agenda defeats the concern with the logic of theorizing, so that Beck, Bauman, and Bellah are discussed, while less popular but more robustly theoretical statements – like Runciman’s Treatise of Social Theory or Unger’s Politics – are not mentioned. In this, Joas and Knöbl are not entirely loyal to their own strictures: ‘we wish to warn against writing intellectual history very generally from the perspective of the victors, that is the victorious theoretical constructions’ (pp. 41). They are not loyal to them when they neglect Runciman or Unger; they are loyal to them when they devote only one page to the work of Bruno Latour but 16 to that of Hans Joas.

Book Review: Pamela Odih Advertising in Modern and Postmodern Times London: Sage, 2007, £60 hbk (ISBN: 9780761941903), xii+231 pp

(such as CDs) for their own use and identity creation. The strength of this book lies in its suitability as a primer for undergraduate students interested in the sociology of popular music. However, the book’s general focus on British music and popular culture might make the text less useful to scholars and students outside of Britain. For example, speaking as a British instructor who works in American higher education I know many of my students would be unfamiliar with some of the pop culture references and material mentioned. However, of course this is only a minor criticism. A more pressing issue is the book’s relative lack of discussion on the impact of new technologies on music in society. Arguably the recent popularity of personal Mp3 players and websites such as Myspace.com and LastFM.com has fundamentally changed every aspect of how music is consumed, listened to and produced. This technological sea-change has affected the entire music industry and has made the status of record companies as ‘gatekeepers’ of music more contestable. Although Longhurst does discuss these issues to some extent, the discussion is brief, with explanation given that there has been very little substantive research done in this area. This of course may be true. Nevertheless, with this second edition of the book perhaps more could have been made of these issues in order to accurately reflect contemporary trends. Having said this I would unhesitatingly recommend this book to both students and scholars interested in the sociology of music. This is a great text if you are looking for a clear and lucid introduction to the subject, and the book provides a good summary of the major theorists and debates in the field.