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An argument for reimagining skill in a way that can extend economic opportunity to workers at the bottom of the labor market. America has a jobs problem--not enough well-paying jobs to go around and not enough clear pathways leading to them. Skill development is critical for addressing this employment crisis, but there are many unresolved questions about who has skill, how it is attained, and whose responsibility it is to build skills over time. In this book, Nichola Lowe tells the stories of pioneering workforce intermediaries--nonprofits, unions, community colleges--that harness this ambiguity around skill to extend economic opportunity to workers at the bottom of the labor market.
An interconnection of computer networks, telecommunications services, and applications, the National Information Infrastructure (NII) can open up new vistas and profoundly change much of American life. This report explores some of the opportunities and obstacles to the use of the NII by people and organizations. The goal is to express how improvements in the technical foundation upon which all modern communications rests can benefit all Americans by focusing on the uses of the NII and the benefits to be derived by applications of advanced computing and communications technologies. This document describes how the evolving NII can: enhance the competitiveness of our manufacturing base; increase speed and efficiency of electronic commerce; improve health care delivery and control costs; promote development and accessibility of quality education and lifelong learning; improve effectiveness of environmental monitoring and assessing human impacts upon the earth; sustain the role of libraries as agents of democratic and equal access to information; and provide government services to the public faster, more responsively, and more efficiently. In addition to articulating a national vision that can serve as a framework for discussion and dialogue, a second goal is to improve public policy-making, to identify critical barriers, enablers, and the tools of government action most effective in each of these areas. In this way, the benefits of government activities in support of the NII can be maximized, while minimizing unintended or undesirable consequences. Several themes emerge: equity of access; pursuit of demonstrations and pilot projects; standards setting process; privacy and communications security; training and support; identification of long-term research and development priorities; and performance measurements to assess both public and private investments and experiments. It is hoped that careful consideration of the policy questions raised here will both facilitate the development of the NII and guide its evolution so that it best meets public purposes. (MAS)
Cultural-historical activity theory is a powerful toolkit for social sciences. This book demonstrates how the Finnish school of developmental work research uses activity theory in the analysis and practical transformation of work, technology and organizations. Developmental work research is a longitudinal and interventionist approach. Researchers aim at generating, supporting and following cycles of expansive learning in the activity systems they study. The process opens up qualitatively new possibilities for creating use values and for developing the capabilities and agency of the practitioners and their clients. Critical dialogue and partnerships are built between the researchers and the organizations they study. In their 18 chapters, the 23 authors of the book give a broad sample of work done over a period of ten years in the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at University of Helsinki. The theoretical and methodological themes range from the polyphony of activity to relationships between history, ethnography and interventions. The empirical chapters range from the work of teachers and judges to collaboration between industrial enterprises. Yrjö Engeström is Professor of Adult Education and Director of the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at University of Helsinki. Joachim Lompscher (1932-2005) was Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at University of Potsdam. Georg Rückriem is Professor Emeritus of Education at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Cover photo: Faces of the authors in the order of their chapters.
An argument for reimagining skill in a way that can extend economic opportunity to workers at the bottom of the labor market. The United States has a jobs problem—not enough well-paying jobs to go around and not enough clear pathways leading to them. Skill development is critical for addressing this employment crisis, but there are many unresolved questions about who has skill, how it is attained, and whose responsibility it is to build skills over time. In this book, Nichola Lowe tells the stories of pioneering workforce intermediaries—nonprofits, unions, community colleges—that harness this ambiguity around skill to extend economic opportunity to workers at the bottom of the labor market. Skill development confers shared value to both workers and employers because it lies at the intersection of their respective interests. Connecting skill to economic inequality, Lowe calls for solutions that push employers to accept greater responsibility for skill development. She examines real-world examples of workplace intermediaries throughout the United States, exploring in detail the work of manufacturing-focused organizations in Chicago and Milwaukee, and a network of community colleges in North Carolina that coordinates training for biopharmaceutical manufacturers. As workforce intermediaries help employers reinterpret skill, they also convince them to implement inclusive work-based systems that extend family-sustaining wages and better working conditions across the entire workforce. With renewed policy emphasis on skill development, these opportunity-rich solutions can be further expanded—ensuring workers across the entire educational spectrum contribute skills that drive innovation forward and share the gains they generate for the twenty-first century workplace.
The first and only guide to diagnosing and dealing with the hidden or covert factors that can ruin even the most meticulously planned change processes. Organizational change initiatives often fail because they focus exclusively on the rational, overt aspects of change, overlooking the powerful role played by concealed or irrational factors. It’s well known that these covert processes—such as hidden agendas, blind spots, office politics, tacit assumptions, secret hopes, wishes and fears—frequently sabotage change efforts, but up until now nobody has offered a rigorous, consistent way of identifying and dealing with them. Drawing on over thirty years of experience as an organizational change consultant to global corporations and government agencies, Robert J. Marshak shows precisely how to bring these hidden processes to light and deal with their negative impact. Marshak identifies five different dimensions of covert processes, presents an integrated model to explain the ultimate source of all of them, and shows how to diagnose whether any covert processes might be at work in your organization. He then offers specific tools and techniques for engaging and managing these “under-the-table” processes and for creating the kind of organizational environment in which such hidden dynamics are unable to flourish. Covert Processes at Work is a comprehensive and practical guide that managers, leaders, and consultants can use to deal with the hidden dynamics that are often at the root of many organizational problems. “Adding these tools…will take both your practice and your clients to a whole new level of capability and impact.” —Karen Boylston, PhD, Managing Director, Duke Corporate Education
A guide to introducing service learning in the economics classroom
Making conscientious choices about technology in our families is more than just using internet filters and determining screen time limits for our children. It's about developing wisdom, character, and courage in the way we use digital media rather than accepting technology's promises of ease, instant gratification, and the world's knowledge at our fingertips. And it's definitely not just about the kids. Drawing on in-depth original research from the Barna Group, Andy Crouch shows readers that the choices we make about technology have consequences we may never have considered. He takes readers beyond the typical questions of what, where, and when and instead challenges them to answer provocative questions like, Who do we want to be as a family? and How does our use of a particular technology move us closer or farther away from that goal? Anyone who has felt their family relationships suffer or their time slip away amid technology's distractions will find in this book a path forward to reclaiming their real life in a world of devices.
The New Apollo Energy Project, by coordinating public and private policies and investments, provides the vision for a cleaner, domestically-based, and more secure 21st century energy system. This report provides an invaluable comparison of the many recent studies that show how a shift towards clean energy technologies will result in significant job creation. These studies confirm that supporting renewable and efficient energy systems will create more American jobs than would a comparable investment in traditional fossil fuel based systems. Moreover, an investment agenda in emerging clean energy technologies would also reduce our foreign trade deficit and reestablish the U.S. as a leader in this growing international market. Illustrations.
Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.