Intersecting work and learning: assembling advanced liberal regimes of governing workers in Australia

Much had been written over the past few years on the intersections of work and learning. This article suggests that the analysis of the intersections of work and learning can benefit greatly from understanding the ways in which governing workers as individuals and populations has changed in Western liberal democracies in the latter part of the twentieth century. Through the use of an analytics of government perspective based on the later governmentality work of Foucault and others, the article analyses the shifts in ways of governing paid workers through the programmes of reforms in industry, industrial relations and vocational education and training in Australia. These shifts can be understood, it is suggested, as shifts in the mentalities of governing – from social liberal regimes to advanced liberal regimes of government. The article foregrounds the assembling of a new subjectivity and character of the post-industrial paid worker – the ‘worker as learner’ as the lifelong learner who is continually required to reskill to maintain paid work in economic life in order to sustain desirable and normal lifestyles. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for researching work and learning.     

Benchmarking as a Meaning Approach to Learning in Online Settings

Reforms currently taking place in organisations and their implications for education, training and learning in these organisations requires new and different ways of understanding. The recent focus on workplace learning and notions of "the learning organisation" raise challenges to understanding their significance as "technologies of training" applied within organisations. In social services organisations struggling with decades of reforms pushing them to be more "competitive and business-like", these reforms are even more complex. This paper, based on a study of child protection agencies in the state of New South Wales, Australia, indicates the ways in which the notion of the "learning organisation" is used to "govern" child protection services and workers. Rather than being a technique for encouraging team-work and increased participation by workers as part of post-Fordist forms of work organisation, as described by many commentators, this research indicates the ways in which it has been adopted as a technique in making neoliberal reforms practicable in organisations. It opens new questions in how we understand new "technologies of training", the way they are made practicable in work organisations and the changes demanded in the identity and character of the worker.     

Fluid and electrolyte balance in elite male football (soccer) players training in a cool environment

There are few data in the published literature on sweat loss and drinking behaviour in athletes training in a cool environment. Sweat loss and fluid intake were measured in 17 first-team members of an elite soccer team training for 90 min in a cool (5°C, 81% relative humidity) environment. Sweat loss was assessed from the change in body mass after correction for the volume of fluid consumed. Sweat electrolyte content was measured from absorbent patches applied at four skin sites. Mean (?± s) sweat loss during training was 1.69?±?0.45 l (range 1.06?-?2.65 l). Mean fluid intake during training was 423?±?215 ml (44?-?951 ml). There was no apparent relationship between the amount of sweat lost and the volume of fluid consumed during training (r ² = 0.013, P = 0.665). Mean sweat sodium concentration was 42.5?±?13.0 mmol?·?l^?1 and mean sweat potassium concentration was 4.2?±?1.0 mmol?·?l^?1. Total salt (NaCl) loss during training was 4.3?±?1.8 g. The sweat loss data are similar to those recorded in elite players undergoing a similar training session in warm environments, but the volume of fluid ingested is less.     

Curative role of pantothenic acid in brain damage of gamma irradiated rats

Radiation induced brain damage is associated with impairment of mitochondrial functions, variations in the level of neurotransmitters, and oxidative stress. Mitochondrial function is closely linked to the level of neurotransmitters since the precursors are supplied by the Kreb’s cycle intermediates. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of pantothenic acid, an essential component in the synthesis of Coenzyme A (CoA), on the activity of the Krebs cycle enzymes, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (α-KGDH), and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH); the level of aspartic, glutamic and GABA; the activity of transaminases, and oxidative stress, in the cerebrum of γ-irradiated rats. Pantothenic acid (26 mg/Kg) was orally administered to the rats, 2 h after irradiation and during the following 5 days. Animals were sacrificed the 7th day post-irradiation. The exposure of male albino rats to γ-rays (5 Gy) has triggered oxidative stress notified by a significant elevation in the level of malondialdehyde (MDA), an end product of lipid peroxidation, associated to a significant decrease in the content of phospholipids, and the antioxidant compound glutathione (GSH). The activity of IDH, α-KGDH, and SDH, has significantly decreased, while the level of aspartic, glutamic and GABA has significantly increased. In parallel to these changes, the activity of alanine and aspartate transaminase has significantly increased, compared to their values in the control rats. Pantothenic acid treatment, has significantly attenuated oxidative stress; enhanced the activity of IDH, α-KGDH, and SDH; minimized the increase in the level of amino acids and the activity of transaminases, compared to their values in the cerebrum of irradiated rats. In conclusion, pantothenic acid could improve the level of neurotransmitters amino acids, which depends on the enzymatic activities of Krebs cycle and linked to oxidative stress.     

Engineers' professional learning: a practice-theory perspective

With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices – site walks and design review meetings – in which learning takes place.     

The Attractiveness of the Academic Workplace in Germany1

This paper discusses a special agreement for scientific professions that is expected to reform structures and working conditions of staff in higher education and research institutions in Germany. While differentiating their professional levels and careers, such an agreement should also deal with issues of income, promotion of women, brain drain – brain gain, and the Europeanisation of higher education in Germany, with the aim of increasing the attractiveness of the academic profession.     

DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY IN THE CLASSROOM: A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW

A bstract .  Contemporary philosophical and political theories place high hopes on the concept of deliberative democracy. Within educational research, there seems to be widespread agreement that if students are to be educated for deliberative democracy, actual classroom deliberation constitutes an indispensable educational tool. From the standpoint of sociology and social psychology, this assumption seems plausible but unnecessarily vague. In this essay, Wendelin Reich suggests a comprehensive list of educational aims that may be associated with deliberation before reviewing research on the concept of communicative interaction in order to evaluate how deliberation, seen as a specific form of communicative interaction, could live up to its educational aims. From this evaluation Reich deduces that the aims stand in complex and sometimes even contradictory relation to the means for achieving them and to each other. Reich concludes that more empirical research is needed to determine in which forms and contexts deliberation can best contribute to fulfilling the goal of educating democratic citizens.