New technology-based firms in the European union: an introduction

This paper introduces the Special Issue on New Technology-Based Firms in Europe. It provides an overview of the issues. The role of smaller firms in the development of Europe's high technology sectors is summarized, as are the policy issues, but the paper mainly discusses the characteristics of European NTBFs and their founders. This includes a review of the evidence with regard to the survival, growth and geographical clustering of NTBFs in Europe, as well as the factors facilitating and inhibiting their creation and development.     

后现代主义与大众文化

无论是对后现代主义本身,还是对后现代主义的特征,人们都有着不尽相同的看法或者主张:苏珊.桑塔格等人认为后现代主义是一种新感性,安吉拉.默克罗比等人认为后现代主义是一种新的历史时刻,弗里德里克.杰姆逊等人认为后现代主义是一种新的文化样式。尽管如此,被后现代主义耦合在一起的人,仍不失共通之处,即他们的认同于后现代主义与大众文化之间的交织与纠缠。为此,本文拟借助一系列大众文化文本,探讨后现代主义与大众文化的关系,力图证明后现代主义已然改变了人们赖以思考大众文化的理论与文化根基,旨在指出后现代时代的大众文化仅仅表示受众人青睐的文化。     

The problem of distributed leadership in schools

There is a vast and mainly enthusiastic literature on leadership. It has permeated virtually all sectors and the education sector has been particularly affected. The argument of this paper is that most of the literature and discussion about this issue is couched in terms of some fairly simple polarities: managers versus leaders, transactional versus transformational leaders, task‐focused versus people‐focused and so on. Moreover, recent analysis in education has begun to question the predominant focus on the head teacher as the leader but, so far, there has been little empirical work carried out on the meanings and implications of distributed leadership. The research reported here suggests that one crucial issue to be addressed is the dynamic of competition between leaders. Using a new conceptual framework, this article reports on a case study that reveals different interpretations of what leadership should entail and constitute at different levels of the organization. The paper shows that it is by no means enough to proselytize ‘leadership’ as if this will produce a set of approaches and behaviours that will unproblematically transform. On the contrary, different versions of what the transformed situation should look like can cause deep divisions.     

Editorial

In a series of policy documents over the past decade, the idea of a ‘New Professionalism’ for teachers has been constructed. It encompasses three core components: a national framework of professional standards; performance management; and continuing professional development (CPD). The planned interplay of these components into a coherent whole has been at the heart of a reframing of the teacher's role. While much has been said about the vision in both positive and negative terms, few studies have provided empirical insight into the implementation and experience of this policy. Drawing upon the findings of a TDA-funded nationwide (England) research project, the extent to which these ideas and policies have been adopted in practice, and what implications these actual behaviours carry for the debate about ‘New Professionalism’, are assessed.

A key finding was that while the framework of professional standards and the structures of performance management processes were essentially in place, the third plinth of the New Professionalism, CPD, remains mainly as a bolt-on, pragmatically allocated and inconsistently accessed in schools. As such, it is unable to bear the weight of what is required of it, and claimed for it. The widespread failure to tackle the strategic dimension that links performance management to CPD, to engage in criterion-based evaluation of training or to identify appropriate development opportunities in schools, have all tended to obstruct the road to ‘New Professionalism’.     

Public policy measures to support new technology-based firms in the European Union

This paper provides a review of public policy measures implemented in EU countries to support New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) during the 1980s and early 1990s. It identifies five policy areas and provides a synthesis of the policy developments during this period and an assessment of their effectiveness. The policy areas examined are: Science Parks; the Supply of PhDs in Science and Technology, the relationships between NTBFs and Universities/Research Institutions; Direct Financial Support to NTBFs from National Governments; and the Impact of Technological Advisory Services on NTBFs. Although considered independently, these issues are clearly part of an interdependent `system' of policies and we conclude with an overview of the whole policy area, together with our personal recommendations for its improvement.