1,720,956 research outputs found
Reconceptualising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at African Mines: The case of Ghana
Full text linkHow are decisions in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arrived at in the mining sector, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest area of the globe and where corruption is rampant? To date, the literature on mining and development in sub-Saharan Africa has mostly analysed individual interventions made in the name of CSR and critiqued the case for embracing it. These assessments, however, very crucially overlook exploration, an essential phase of the mine lifecycle, during which inaugural dialogues are initiated with local communities that ultimately have a bearing on CSR strategy over the long term. The mining sector is a mergers and acquisitions industry, and in the developing world, the initial exploration phase typically sees numerous companies arrive to work a concession over a specified – and at times, lengthy – a period of time in locations that are often impoverished and ruled by unaccountable and corrupt governments. Each of these companies has its own management philosophy and strategy which ultimately shape dialogues and engagement with communities long before a mining commits to production. It is how the actions that occur during the exploration phase affect CSR outcomes which have gone virtually unexamined in the literature, a gap which this thesis seeks to bridge using a case study of Ghana, the location one of the largest and most dynamic mining economies in sub-Saharan Africa.
Through an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis examines the dynamics of community development and engagement at the initial exploration phase of mining projects, surveys local communities’ perspectives on the subject, and assesses how the actions of international mineral exploration companies influence CSR outcomes at the production phase. It does so using a series of qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with policymakers, NGO officers, mining and exploration company officials, and inhabitants of and leaders in mining communities, supplemented with field observations and content analysis of policy briefs, industry reports and company sustainability reports.
The findings suggest that mining and mineral exploration companies do not communicate their CSR strategies to their host communities very effectively. While mineral exploration and mining companies use CSR as a platform to showcase their commitments to social and environmental standards, they have made little efforts to understand the socio-cultural, economic and political dynamics of their host communities. This, coupled with their over-dependence on CSR frameworks and standards designed mostly around Western cognitions, have limited the impact of mineral exploration and mining companies’ social and environmental programmes. A critical examination of the exploration phase of mineral development projects in Ghana also reveals that host communities are not afforded the opportunity to provide inputs into decisions on how CSR should be operationalised. Further analysis revealed that host governments in mineral-rich sections of sub-Saharan Africa are more fixated on securing mineral rents than with getting companies to honour their commitments. This has allowed companies, particularly those exploring for minerals, to decide on the type of projects implemented in the name of CSR, without truly engaging with communities.
The thesis makes significant contributions to knowledge in a number of ways. First, it introduces the lifecycle (temporal) dimension into the mining-CSR research and demonstrates in detail how the factors highlighted in the literature as underpinning CSR, apply in different settings. It also nuances further the mining-CSR discourse by demonstrating very clearly how events at one phase of the lifecycle (e.g. exploration) can influence developments at another phase (e.g. production). The research seeks to facilitate a ‘rethinking’ of how social and environmental programmes implemented in mineral-rich sub-Saharan Africa are assessed. It specifically calls for a shift in analysis from critiques which focus on the actions being taken at individual mine sites towards more comprehensive examinations of the different phases of mineral development projects, the actors involved and detailed histories of companies’ engagements in communities, and reflects critically on how these factors shape contemporary CSR strategy. Finally, the thesis offers a blueprint for stakeholders in the mining industry, especially companies operating in Ghana and the wider sub-Saharan African region, on how to design and implement more grounded CSR strategies capable of bringing about meaningful change in local communities
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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