How motivations work

So the government comes to academic institutions to be able to say, here we have an independent, reliable, objective organisation with scientific rigor, and some degree of depth of analysis but then as soon as they bully you into saying what they want, you dont get any more consultancies, you have been written off from that category...they want you to be independent, but they want you to say what they want (Lecturer, New Wire Univ, 1997)

Cited in: Academic Capitalism, 1997, John Hopkins Univ Press



The systematic recovery of the social contexts of urban education should begin to provide answers to: are there forms of human community, ways of producing, thinking, believing, doing and knowing which are revealed through the study of education and which might distinguishes cities from non cities and from each other? are there educational forms, arrangements, policies, practices which developed in cities and which distinguish urban educational forms from rural or agrarian ones? Are forms of educational authority different in urban areas?

The city should be explored as a specialist environment, for the cultivation of particular social, political and economic qualities in its inhabitats; nurturing national and global perspective and constituting unique environment for the cultivation of individuality and creativity.

Policy Making

How old Are You?

The innovative of last century highlighted the cognition and communication of meaning at the heart of what it means to be human. There is the view on humanness centered around people’s involvement with the world, which highlights meaningful quality of human life- a full sense of human action. However, there has been slow decay of people’s feel for the world and a consequent move toward words (Gosden, 1994). We seek most human interpretation of self in developing our intellectual capacity. As our wisdom bounds up with our meanings we are drawn toward profound understanding of the purpose of life with the thinking gift in overcoming our fears and vulnerabilities, toward position of control, toward increasing intellectual and learning. Certainly we have grown older in civilization, and in population.

İn today’s rapidly ageing population, attempts to prolonging mental and physical capacities in later years of life equates with our perception of our place in the world, and that we are the thinkers, and participants at all ages in what is happening around us, in its entirety.

The assumption is that we use small part of our mental capacity, and that mental and physical activities along with social engagements can delay decline in cognition. Regular mental exercises such as puzzles or simple problems have proved to keep ageing brains sharper. Recent findings prove that by inducing a rewiring of the brain and increasing connectivity, lost memories can be retrieved once again(Nature, 2007). Change of perception on ageing in learning, as a social construct is on the way. The reality was overlooked in the past that people discover their interest and passion in for research and further learning until more advanced stages in their field.

Further investigation also discovered that in learning specific tasks, we develop habitual actions that will not require further invovlment of brain in learning. Therefore, learning advanced techniques can become a habit with less efforts that is expected. Keeping physically fit or cognitively challenged proved to delay ageing and increases mental agility. The same is true with increased social activities and adding environmental dimension and awareness to the life of aged, which needs further studies to find scientific credibiility.

Environment enrichment, that is to say, making life more interesting has proved to improve learning and long term memory by the means of increasing brain’s cells making more connections with other neurons. Environment preferences influence our behaviour, governs our well being and health. They are learned through past experiences and are influenced by our social and economic level with age as an important catalyst. Older people need not be silent about impacts of environmental degradation, rather reliable and strong voice. Those who do not take initiative to enhance their knowledge and involvements face a sense of distance both from the society and their families and grow dependablity as technologies advance further. Substantial monitoring excercise is essential to determine the extent of environemental degration which vary greatly with location and season. Initiation in taking a monitoring role that needs experience and patience to provide reliable feedbacks can be a starting point for older people. The environmental debate need trustable knowledge and advocates for policy and planning, and we need higher awareness and wiser account of the way we go about our lives in different phases.

We are constantly bombarded by the fast pace of knowledge making and innovation that brings up a life long learning necessary. Competing forces of information combined with the experience of aged, that has proved to increase productivity, are embeded in policy making. Studies show that there are benefits from having an age integrated workforce, hence, eliminating the stereotyping belief that older workers are less productive than younger ones. The largest study of ageing and retirement ever undertaken, conducted for HSBC by the University’s Institute of Ageing, has found that far from being a drain on society, older people are huge contributors to their nation’s economies and families and have little interest in retiring early (Oxford Univ News, 2007.

New roles of socialy constructed are to change the stagnant disposition in older ages, for a balanced work force, paricularly rising expectation for active role in economy and stressing the significance of environment in health and in learning. Younger brain cells excitability attract more memory networks and out number older ones but there are mature brain cells that categorize input patterns (Nature, Mar 2007).

In economy, increasingly information rich society where individuals are no longer prepared to entrust their hard earned money, require adjustments of policies and practices. The retreat of the state and the employer from the role of sponsor of retirement provision is global phenomenon, the retirement planning is falling increasinly in the individual and this is ushering in a new thinking to provide stability over the long term. ‘While there are undoubted concerns over current pension shortfalls, it is also clear that working lives will themselves change over the next few decades, with the extension of working life to over the age of 70 (1).

İn health, with the advancement made in medicine people’s life expectancy has increased enourmously. People live longer even with degenerative diseases, hence, prolonged disability and morbidty is expected to rise, which needs directed efforts toward technology advancement and training programmes for more independence for vulnerable population. Self efficacy is important because successful task completion requires not only skills, but also self beliefs about personal ability associated with completing the task (Banura, 1986).

Disability is a social construct which projects functional capacity of individuals in the society, that is due to measures related to every country’s health status. Developing countries ‘are increasingly faced with the simultaneous burdens of infectious diseases plus the growing demands of ageing populations, increasing numbers of people with mental health problems and chronic conditions, but without sufficient resources to deal with them (World Bank, 2005). They highlight the different vulnerabilities, risks and coping strategies of poor women and men in the face of environmental degradation(Oxfam, 2002).

Quantifying issues related to ageing such as, health and cognitive fitness is challenging as is separating social factors from cognitive stimulation. 'The kind of evidence that is needed to support solid conclusion about the expansion or contraction of morbidity is not available for most countries. İn the absence of more detailed information about changes in physical and mental functioning, it would be premature to declare that we are at the beginning of an epidemic of disability or a significant expansion of the period of ill health and disability at the end of life (2)’.

However lack of data should not deter us to observe evidences that clearly indicate activity in all aspects of life improve our quality of life in older ages. Quantitative predictions fullfil important social, economic and political roles regardless of their quality, accuracy or appropriatness, against which the planning will be made and adjusted by decision makers. Yet we need to be more qualitative in how we combine various changes in the society. There is the task of enhancing cognitive, social and economic capabilities for running a productive life in old ages and then, comes the task of motivating to carry on the life style.





(1, 2) www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk- Ageing Society, Vol 16, No 2, 2

(3) The Oxford Times, May 25, www.theoxfordtimes.net/display.var.1424224.0.0.php


References:

Bandura, Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986

Colcombe. S.J. et al. Med. Sci. 61,1166 - 1170, 2006

Gosden, C., Social Being and Time, Blackwell Publishers, 1994

Nature nerroscience, Editorial, , Vol 10, No 3, Mar 2007

Nature, p. 19, Vol 447, 3 May 2007 (Dorothy Bishop, neuroscientist at Oxford Univ)
Timothy Salthouse, Univ of Virginia, Researcher of Cognitive ageing

Oxfam, Gender development and climate change, Edited by: Rachel Masika, 2002

Rolls, E., & Treves, A., Neural networks and brain function, Oxford Univ Press, 1998

Row, David, Stress Testing,
www.incisive-events.com/abs, 2007

David Snow, Cindy White, Colwin Morril; Together Alone, Personl Relationships in Public Places, Univ of California Press, 2005

World Bank – Health Systems Development, June 2005

Ageing population

People loose performance sharpness on tasks by aging, both at physical and mental level. Environmental factors also proved to affect cognitive function. However, how these effects take place is not clear yet. Quantifying cognitive fitness is also challenging, as is seperating social factors from cognitive stimulation.

Recently a six month randomized clinical trial on older groups compared impacts of different type of physical activities on cognition ageing, demonstrating that aerobic group showed increases in both grey and white matter volumes. (Nature, Mar 2007).

The largest study of ageing and retirement ever undertaken, conducted for HSBC by the University’s Institute of Ageing, has found that far from being a drain on society, older people are huge contributors to their nation’s economies and families and have little interest in retiring early. According to the researchers, people in their 60s and 70s also reported feeling in good health: 76 per cent in Canada, 73 per cent in the UK, and 72 per cent in the United States. The global picture was generally positive, with the exception of South Africa, Turkey, and most notably Russia where only 8 per cent of people in their 70s said they felt healthy. (Oxford Univ. news, May 24).

Keeping physically fit or cognitively challenged prove to delay aging. The same is true with increased social engagement and adding environmental dimension and awareness to the life of aged, which needs further studies to find scientific credibiility. İn a rapidly ageing population, attempts to captive the market based on prolonging active life of aged is gaining pace. There is the task of enhancing cognitive capabilities for running an independent and productive life and then, comes the task of motivation to carry on the life style.


Ref.:
Nature nerroscience, Editorial, , Vol 10, No 3, Mar 2007
Nature, p. 19, Vol 447, 3 May 2007 (Dorothy Bishop, neuroscientist at Oxford Univ)
Timothy Salthouse, Univ of Virginia, Researcher of Cognitive ageing
Colcombe. S.J. et al. Med. Sci. 61,1166 - 1170 (2006)



A 72-YEAR-OLD Oxford academic has broken a world long-distance running record after completing ten marathons in ten days.

It turns out that Sir Christopher, a grandfather, who, as head of Keble from 1980 to 1988, previously equalled the world record without anyone ever knowing.

He said that after following the achievement of explorer Sir Rannulph Fiennes, who ran seven marathons in seven days on different continents, he decided to set himself a similar target at the age of 69.

"I ran seven marathons in seven days in 2004, running the length of the Thames from the source in Gloucestershire to Tower Bridge in a week.

"At the end I thought that I could increase this."

He went on to organise the Ten in Ten challenge to raise thousands of pounds for the Brathay appeal, a charity which helps troubled youngsters. Sir Christopher told The Oxford Times that he had detested running throughout his life.

He took it up after he was advised to take more exercise by his doctor. But it turns out he also took up running to test out one of his theories about education, using himself as a guinea pig.

Sir Christopher said: "I became fascinated with the subject of human learning and why some people learn better than others. I have never bought the idea that it is all down to the fact that some people are clever and others stupid.

"For me the important thing is self-belief and motivation. People learn because they really want to.

"So I wanted to carry out an experiment with myself to see if it was possible to turn around a negative attitude that gets in the way of success.

"I chose running because it is something I had always hated."

Source: The Oxford Times, May 25
http://www.theoxfordtimes.net/display.var.1424224.0.0.php

Enhancing Expertise

We need to consider in more profound ways what we mean by expert practices which can ameliorate the social problems produced by the excessive individualism of late capitalism. This move involves bringing together three elements to form a more expanded notion of expertise. These are the individual agency evident when experts foreground what is important in a task when working with others; an ability to align one’s actions with other people’s strengths and needs; and a capacity to negotiate forward looking responses for unpredictable objects of activity. (Edwards, 2007)

Know-who which embraces withitness thinking demands more than boundary crossing and brokering to access resources; it involves on-going and unchoreographed movements of action and withdrawal based on constantly revised interpretations of a changing object and a respect for the expertise of the other actors. (Edwards, 2007)



(1) Anne Edwards, DRAFT Enhancing Expertise Through Interagency Working, The Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research (OSAT), Dept of Educational Studies, University of Oxford


A different world

The dominant human capital approach emphasizes on functional skills aiming at economic competitiveness where learners are merely economic entities. This view reduces important social dimensions of learning. Serving the human longing for a different kind of world, and development is essential role of higher education.

Wanrnings of Water Shortages in Turkey

Ankara, İstanbul and İzmir are hit by water shortages and warmer whether causing difficulties and made municipalities to announce a set of bans to manage water using forceful rhetoric in punishing those who do not abide by the rules. Ankara's Mayor warned that only six months of reserves were left due to th e lack of precipitation, informing that water at the Cabuk Dam near Ankara stands at half of last year's level (Turkis Daily News, May 17). Mayor of İstanbul in similar warning talked about 6 months supply as level of water decreased 47% compared to last year (Anatolya news agency), informing his attempts on addditional supply and emphasising on people's cooperation to conserve water instead of cutting supply.

Changes in contexts and networks

At present the study of interaction in communities is on the agenda for its broad impacts, as people join and separate from groups, migrate or displace from neighborhood, community and countries. We belong to many groups with contradictory objectives.

The task that how social meanings are constructed is a difficult one. The growth and changes of the community and other political task oriented groups have been highlighted to further investigate changes in network structure, patterns of social interaction in contexts, and social relationships as well as the nature of cooperation and competiton and problems of idealogy and membership.

Human behaviour affects social structure in terms of relational, involving networks of ties between individuals and groups, and in terms of the contexts that include these relations such as public institutions. Networks structors are found to have effects of changes in contexts in meaningful ways. The variation of social networks and human interactions are numerous inducing changes in contexts. Their measurement and the way social networks affects local contexts are yet to be investigated and explored. However, how local contexts change human behaviour were studied and classified as in forms of social ties and interactions, norms and trust, institutional resources and activity patterns (Sampson et al, 2002).

Different ways were identified that relate local contexts to patterns of social interactions including nature of social cohesion; social capitals including the impact of social capital at the neighborhood or community level which needs to be well researched; and the concept of collective capacity to produce desired effects, meaning the linkage of mutual trust and the willingness to intervene for the common good within a given neighborhood.

This is operationalized as a combination of two scales – one measuring neighborhood residents’ willingness to intervene in a number of instances (social control), the other meansuring resident’s perceptions of the closeness, trust worthiness of neighbors (social cohesion).

The interest in how sweeping economic and social changes affect social relationships proved that in western settings education, and high social and economic structures increase the size and range of personal networks, diminishing their local quality. There were linkages to broader country culture such as media, cars, TV, etc., where less network cohesion is seen. Empirical examination of network data across different types of social ties and different cities is needed to explore variability of network structures. The conclusion take us to highlight that changes in contexts and networks feedback upon each other in an ongoing manner.




References:
- Sampson, Robert et al, (2002) Assessing "Neighborhood Effects": Social Process and New Directions in Research, Annual Review of Sociology
- Felman, Tine Rossing, and Susan Assaf, (1999), Social Capital:Conceptual Frameworks and Empirical Evidence, an Annotated Bibliography, Washinton DC, World Bank
-Smith, K., Operationalizing Weber's Concept of Class Situation; Buckinghamshire Chiltans Univ College, ken.smith@bcuc.ac.uk
-"The promising future of class analysis" (in David Lee and Turner 1996) Conflict About Class, Essex, Pearson Education
-Goldthorp and Marshal, (1992), Essay, Social mobility and class structure in Modern Britain, Oxford, Clarendon Press
-Atkins, P., 2003, Galileo's finger: The ten great ideas of science, Oxford Univ Press
- Julie Diamond, Status & Power in Verbal interaction, 1996

Environmental Thinking in Translation

There are resrouces and connectivities in translational and environmental issues that are ignored or taken for granted. Translational and environmental thinking carry important meanings of identity issues whether in class, social, gender, age, national, colonial, and hegemonic.

Translators as environmentalists proclaime identites that have evident elements of ethnicity and differentiation in them as they are always struggling to defend the local against the global. Translational contexts and environents are employed to foreground identities in both source and target systems. They both shed light on thoughts and contexts, hence, translator reveals all that escapes and hides in environment, of meaning and power.

Transaltion can be used in both the development and the decay of identities beyond the dominant concepts. Far from beng merely language mediators, translator can become forceful culture broker, while all prejudices and competitions are at work.


Ref.:
Beer, Gillian, 1996, Open Fields, Science in cultural encounters, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Macpherson, C., 1966, The real world of Democracy: Oxford: Oxford Univ Press
Macpherson, Crawford Brough 1977, The life and times of liberal democracy, Oxford, Oxford Univ Press
Jowett, Benjamin, 1881, Thucydides translated into english with introduction, Marginal analysis, Notes and İndices, Vol 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press



Translator hides behind other identities to use translation as a way to get around the confines of one's identity. With the richness of differences translator remains critical in disturbing the boundaries, not a silent mediator, rather a participant, in joining the cultures, and groups, where they trespass one another.


The Conditional Assertion Account is Heading Toward The Right Direction.

'Most of us have inconsistent beliefs. İt is quite possible to be committed to an assertive conceptö but to have other belief, that rejects our assertion. Thus, becoming commited to an exclusion sate but at the same tme be committed to it . There should be nothing puzzling about the fact that what happens in such cases is that we are set to gain information from two distinct sources, one part committing to perform and the other part to the contrary. Overall, one is commited to neiteher . İt cannot be the case that commitment to an exclusion state prevents sincere assertion. İt is therefore, not ruled out that one can assert a truth but express commitment to an exclusion state excluding that assertionç There is no contradiction in supposing this.'

'İ am not alone in contending that truth can be made sense of, only if it is posterior to assertion (see, Dummett, 1959)'

Stephan Barker, 2002, Renewing Meaning, Oxford Univ Press






Socially constructed truthfulness of interpretive meaning made possible by powerful lies, problmatize traditional conceptions of transparency and scientific neutrality of cultural representations by justifying political and cultural notion of interpretation.

Power is not just the ability to coerce some one or to get them to do something against their will, but rather, it is the ability to interpret events and reality and have this interpretation accepted by others. Power, hence, is not only a commodity which can be taken by force, but also a role which needs ratification.

Source: Julie Diamond, Status & Power in Verbal interaction, 1996




Changes in networks and contexts

At present the study of interaction in communities is on the agenda for its broad impacts, as people join and separate from groups, migrate or displace from neighborhood, community and countries. We belong to many groups with contradictory objectives.

The task that how social meanings are constructed is a difficult one. The growth and changes of the community and other political task oriented groups have been highlighted to further investigate changes in network structure, patterns of social interaction in contexts, and social relationships as well as the nature of cooperation and competiton and problems of idealogy and membership.

Human behaviour affects social structure in terms of relational, involving networks of ties between individuals and groups, and in terms of the contexts that include these relations such as public institutions. Networks structors are found to have effects of changes in contexts in meaningful ways. The variation of social networks and human interactions are numerous inducing changes in contexts. Their measurement and the way social networks affects local contexts are yet to be investigated and explored. However, how local contexts change human behaviour were studied and classified as in forms of social ties and interactions, norms and trust, institutional resources and activity patterns (Sampson et al, 2002).

Different ways were identified that relate local contexts to patterns of social interactions including nature of social cohesion; social capitals including the impact of social capital at the neighborhood or community level which needs to be well researched; and the concept of collective capacity to produce desired effects, meaning the linkage of mutual trust and the willingness to intervene for the common good within a given neighborhood.

This is operationalized as a combination of two scales – one measuring neighborhood residents’ willingness to intervene in a number of instances (social control), the other meansuring resident’s perceptions of the closeness, trust worthiness of neighbors (social cohesion).

The interest in how sweeping economic and social changes affect social relationships proved that in western settings education, and high social and economic structures increase the size and range of personal networks, diminishing their local quality. There were linkages to broader country culture such as media, cars, TV, etc., where less network cohesion is seen. Empirical examination of network data across different types of social ties and different cities is needed to explore variability of network structures. The conclusion take us to highlight that changes in contexts and networks feedback upon each other in an ongoing manner.




References:
- Felman, Tine Rossing, and Susan Assaf, (1999), Social Capital:Conceptual Frameworks and Empirical Evidence, an Annotated Bibliography, Washinton DC, World Bank
-Smith, K., Operationalizing Weber's Concept of Class Situation; Buckinghamshire Chiltans Univ College, ken.smith@bcuc.ac.uk
-"The promising future of class analysis" (in David Lee and Turner 1996) Conflict About Class, Essex, Pearson Education
-Goldthorp and Marshal, (1992), Essay, Social mobility and class structure in Modern Britain, Oxford, Clarendon Press
-Atkins, P., 2003, Galileo's finger: The ten great ideas of science, Oxford Univ Press
- Julie Diamond, Status & Power in Verbal interaction, 1996

Missing Data

It is important to consider the issues raised by missing data at the research design stage. As unplanned missing data inevitably introduce ambiguity into the inferences that can be drawn from a study, the design should be carefully scrutinised to minimise the scope for missing data to arise. Considerable care over this aspect of design will pay a substantial dividend when the study is analysed.

Inevitably, however, missing data will arise. Ambiguity in the analysis can be reduced if the chance of the data being missing depends only on observed data; the so-called ‘missing at random’ scenario (see the ‘Getting Started’ section of www.missingdata.org.uk). In other words, investigators should consider
which variables are likely to prove difficult to collect. Then they should see whether there are variables they could reliably collect which are likely to predict the chance of observing the difficult to collect variables.
To illustrate, people may be reluctant to divulge their income, but it may be easy to obtain their property band. If property band is a good predictor of the chance of people divulging their income (technically, if within each property band we observe a random sample of incomes) then collecting property band, and making appropriate adjustments in the analysis, will allow valid inferences to be drawn.

Longitudinal studies should consider which subgroups of individuals are likely to be lost to follow-up, and consider strategies for keeping in touch with representative samples of these groups.

Ensuring there is sufficient funding, and a careful strategy, for following up initial non-responders greatly increases the credibility of the conclusions.
Finally, if you suspect missing data is likely to be a substantial issue in the analysis, budget for statistical advice on handling it.
Strategy for analysis of partially observed data set Make sure you are familiar with the issues raised by missing data; see for instance the documents in the ‘Getting Started’ section of www.missingdata.org.uk

The next stage is to familiarise yourself with the data. A natural starting point is an analysis of the fully observed data; note that with missing data this is only the starting point! At this stage you should clearly identify (if you have not done so already) (i) the hypotheses of interest (ii) the models that you are going to use to explore them and (iii) the variables that you are going to use, including any that are partially observed. Note that variables that are apparently unrelated in the subset of observed data may become important later on!

Source:
ESRC: National Center for Research Method,
www.ncrm.ac.uk,
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/msu/missingdata/guidelines.pdf

Urban Environment

One of the major themes that is dominant in academic literature and policy publications is the need for a more holistic, overall approach to the urban environment, in order to provide a framework for appropriate decision making. Two such approaches that are repeatedly discussion in literature, but which still remain uncertain, are those of sustainable development and the participation of communities. Other approaches that are present in literature, but are not afforded as much attention, are those of self-sufficiency, urban metabolism, and the ecological footprint.

Studies show that whilst community involvement is vital to successful regeneration, improvements are needed as to how this is done. Communities need help and training to understand processes and contribute effectively to developments. Additionally, as the term community is often used in public policy as it conveys connotations of empathy and localness and harnesses a new relationship between state and society; one of partnership and shared responsibility, but there in fact exist many complications with term.

Communities are no longer simply territorially based and it is possible to belong to more than one community. Additionally, communities exclude those who are not classed as a member of the community, and the involvement of communities is based on the premise that there is internal cohesion within the community, which is not always the case.

In fact, communities that are at war with themselves, and are therefore unlikely to partake in community projects, are usually communities that are deprived materially and socially. A US report found that 75% home ownership in an area is required to create cohesive communities as a sense of investment in a neighbourhood is needed for community spirit. There are therefore also issues of equity caught up with the use of community involvement as a means by which to drive the decision making process.

Source: Oxford Univ Environment Change Institute, Research project, www.eci.ox.ac.uk
http://www.rcep.org.uk/urban/literaturereview.pdf

On the dignity of man

"We have given to thee, Adam, no fixed seat, no form of thy very own, no gift peculiarly thine, that thou mayest feel as thine own, have as thine own, possess as thine own the seat, the form, the gifts which thou thyself shalt desire. A limited nature in other creatures is confined within the laws written down by Us. In conformity with thy free judgement, in whose hands I have placed thee, thou art confined by no bounds; and though wilt fix limits of nature by thyself."

Pico Della Mirandola, On the Dignity of Man, trans. Charles Glenn Wallis, Indianopolis: Library of Liberal America, 1965) 4-5.

The politics of interpretation

Part of our mind is capable of processing information enabling us to communicate our thoughts in many different ways and contents. İnterpretation and translation of all thoughts which are too wide for any one discipline, requires specialized knowledge of that specific field, literature and its context both in source and target languages.

Nonetheless, translation always contains nuances and subjective interpretations while transferring aspects of the other to the receptor and receiving cultures. Hence, translators, are positioned on the edges of divided cultures, communities and groups. Translators find themselves representing both sides, acting as cultural/political/societal negotiators.

İn democracies communication and knowledge is configurated as a central aspect of power. Since power can be assumed as the ability to act upon power holders, hence, translators find themselves representing the institutions in power and those seeking empowerment both within and across borders, hence, subject to the scrutiny for personal and politicolinguistic fidelity to interpret the true account of what people are saying. Fidelity to power holder becomes infidelity to the other, while, of course, the power holder's relationship is often purely instrumental.

'Translation thus is not simply an act of faithful reprodection but, rather a deliberate and conscious act of selection, assemblage, stucturation, and fabrication and even of falification, refusal of information counterfeiting, and the creation of codes.' (1)

This is most sensitive in legal matters when statements can change life and fortune. The purpose of giving legal aid is for some one who is in advererial side, hence, one of defining feature of interpretation and translation is for the interpreter to remain impartial giving unbiased wording and not to take sides.

When translating for a legal advisor it is important not to take control of the situation for the impression that the translator knows all the facts and is aware of the truth. While the translator find herself/himself interpreting cultural issues, impartiality need to be kept in check. İt is crucial not to add your opinion or leading and directing for or against the client when interpreting statements.

Here, four kinds of interpretations are configurated:
- Consecutive which comes when interpretation involves equipments
- Summary where important facts need only to be said without adding any personal judgement. The specialized field has sensitive facts that might not be apparent to the translator which might result in omitting important aspects of the statements.
- Verbalim is to take caution to say just as much as the client has said and not trying to represent the client or give additional explanation
- Simultaneous which is leteraly doing the translation at the same time when client is giving her/his words




(1) Translation and power, Univ of Massachussetts Press, 2002





İf the construction of the unconditionally perfect burrow is intimately related to the discovery of definite truths and forms, it also involves the pursuit of absolute silence because it is only in eternal stillness that the constructor could be completely assured of his total control over it.


Kafka, 1971, 'The Burrow'

Funding the winds blow

The wind turbines installed in Chinese villages promises clean electricity, but they are also part of a growing dispute involving UNs program aiming to raise funds to help developing countries. Those countries that particularly growing fast, ought to economise their use of energy to fullfil their share of fight against global warming and avoid future disasters. UN’s progam, The Clean Development Mechanism has been successful in raising billions of dollars from rich countries to invest in renewable energies or efficient energy-use projects in poor countries. While scientists became extremely worried about emissions from emerging economies, China with 1.2 trillion in foreign exchange rserves, was successful to get hold of 3/5 of the money raised last year ( up from 100 M in 2002 - 4.8 billion in 2006, Dlrs).

And that is why the program is becoming a battle ground, pitting an unlikely coalition of bankers, traders, industrialists and environmentalists, who defend it against economic development advocates, who warn of distortions. (Herald Tribune, knowing which way wind blows, May 9)

Economic Vote

As policy-making responsibility is shared more equally among parties,
economic evaluations will be more important in the vote decision.

Source: remiss.politics.ox.ac.uk

Renewable Energy

UK has access to extensive wave power resource, particularly in the areas of the north, north west and south west with high energy wave environment. Wave energy availablity is highly seasonal, exposed to seven times more energy in winter times compared to summer, when electricity demand is high. At national level the areas that need transmission, developing combination of wave and tidal resources smoothes variablity and supply. Almost half of the wave power available annually around the UK occurs during December, January and February.

The UK tidal stream resource is site-specific and dominated by two superimposed cycles. The semi-diurnal cycle (two high tides and two low tides per day) is unique to particular sites, and sites may be out of phase with each other. The spring/neap cycle on the other hand, (which repeats every 14 days, and has the effect of increasing peak velocities in both ebb or flow), occurs at all sites simultaneously.

Tides are driven by gravitational and rotational forces between earth, moon and the sun causing water on the surface to move. These movements are predictable. The timing of high and low tides is affected by location. The output of tidal power systems can be predicted many years in advance, allowing future electricity output to be accurately known.

A long term energy security requirement needed investigation of characteristics of the overall marine energy system to determine the future of marine renewables in the UK. Waves can be genreated in different ways but waves generated by the action of the wind on the surface of water is important for electricity generation. By examining the hour to hour fluctuations of the wave power, the variability can be assessed.

Graham Sinden of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University said the results showed wind patterns in Britain were not randomly distributed but were clearly concentrated at certain times of the day and year.

These findings undermined one of the main arguments against wind turbines - that the power generated from them is intermittent and unreliable.




Source: Oxford Univ. Environment Change Institute, www.eci.ox.ac.uk
http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/EC293061-611D-4BC8-A75C-9F84138184D3/0/variability_uk_marine_energy_resources.pdf


Measuring Consumption

Informative billing initiatives in Norway showed how customers appreciated improved accuracy and extra information (historic and comparative feedback, a guide to which end-uses were the highest consuming), began to read their bills more frequently and with more understanding, and began to alter their behaviour (Wilhite 1997; Wilhite et al, 1999). Various qualitative studies (eg Egan 1999, Roberts et al 2004) give more detail on how customers respond to different billing designs. The latter deals with UK billing and shows some distrust of comparative feedback: customers were suspicious about the validity of their comparison group but appreciated feedback that compared their recent consumption with that in previous billing periods.

As the literature on feedback expanded, so did that on energy use and on measures to reduce consumption and promote efficiency.

Feedback with various degrees of immediacy and control by the user:

Direct feedback: available on demand. Learning by looking or paying
• Self-meter-reading
• Direct displays
• Interactive feedback via a PC
• Pay-as-you-go/keypad meters
• ‘Ambient’ devices
• Meter reading with an adviser, as part of energy advice
• Cost plugs or similar devices on appliances
Indirect feedback – raw data processed by the utility and sent out to customers.
Learning by reading and reflecting
• More frequent bills
• Frequent bills based on readings plus historical feedback
• Frequent bills based on readings plus comparative/normative feedback
• Frequent bills plus disaggregated feedback.
• Frequent bills plus detailed annual or quarterly energy reports.
Inadvertent feedback – learning by association
• With the advent of microgeneration, the home becomes a site for generation as well as consumption of power.
• Community energy conservation projects such as the Dutch ‘Eco-teams’.
Utility-controlled feedback – learning about the customer
• Utility-controlled feedback via smart meters, with a view to better load management.
Energy audits – learning about the ‘energy capital’ of a building
Audits may be
• undertaken by a surveyor on the client’s initiative
• undertaken as part of a survey for the Home Information Pack
• carried out on an informal basis by the consumer using freely available software, eg carbon calculators.

Source: www.eci.ox.ac.uk

Risk, Trust and Control

The trust of either the dominent coalition, or the management team, is critical to understanding organizational trust, since it is this level of trust that will govern the strategic actions of the organization (Simon, 1957).

As with individuals, some organizations develope greater propensities to trust as dispositional quality, than do others. For organisations, these propensities develope from geographic, industry, and economic histories.

Judgements of ability and integrity would form relatively quick in the course of the relationship while benevolence judgements will take more time. Time will play an important role in the meaningfulness of the variables in risk taking. The effect of perceived benevolence on trust will ıncrease over time as the relationship between parties develps.

As the perception of these factors increases, it is expected that willingness to take a risk in the relationship to increase. Hence, trust increases prospect of risk taking. Measures of risks moderate the relationship between trust and risk taking in this assumption. Trust is the willingness to take risk, hence, the level of trust is an indication of the amount of risk that one is willing to take.

Agency theory and stewardship theory illustrate two different views in using trust and control systems in managing risk. Agency theory proposes using control system in risk management. Consequently, control systems are an alternate mechanism for dealing with risk in relationships. When the risk in a situation is greater than the trust a control system works to lower the perceived risk to a level that can be managed by trust.

However, where there is a very strong system of controls in an organisation it will inhibit the development of trust. Here trustworthy action will be attributed to the existence of control system rather than to the trustee (Stricland, 1958).

Perception of others and of risk inherent in their benevolence is processed for evaluating trustee's ability and integrity, while thinking about them. But trust also involves emotion which influence how people evaluate their level of trust. Therefore, there are new dimensions in the study of trust that has been opened by inclusion of the role of affect, emotion, trust violations, and repair.