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Critical Systems Analysis and Design: A Personal Framework Approach
by Nandish PatelTaking a unique approach to systems analysis and design, this insightful book provides learners with a critical personal framework for considering and developing knowledge and practice of systems analysis and design. Each chapter begins by highlighting what can be learned on its completion and ends with a critical skills development section contain
Critical Systems Thinking: A Practitioner's Guide
by Michael C. JacksonCRITICAL SYSTEMSTHINKING Understand the full range of systems approaches and how to use them with this innovative overview. Leaders and managers face increasing complexity and uncertainty because technical, organizational, socio-cultural, political, and environmental issues have become intensely interconnected. Systems thinking is recognized as the essential competence for managing complexity. As the demand for systems thinking grows, however, the fragmentation of the field into different methodologies has become a potential liability. Critical systems thinking (CST) shows how this diversity can be a strength rather than a weakness by revealing how different systems methodologies address various aspects of complexity and how they can be used in combination to resolve the messiest of wicked problems. Critical Systems Thinking offers, in a single volume, an account of the value of systems thinking and CST in the modern world, an explanation of the pragmatic philosophy and expansion in mindset necessary to embrace CST, and detailed instructions on how to undertake critical systems practice (CSP) using the variety of systems approaches to navigate multi-dimensional complexity. Readers will find: An accessible introduction to systems thinking and CST. A description and critique of the best-known systems methodologies. A guide to the mindset changes, the steps required, and the toolkit necessary to undertake successful CSP. Case studies and examples of CSP. A discussion of the nature of systemic leadership. Critical Systems Thinking is ideal for leaders and managers in government, business, the public sector, the professions, and beyond who want to understand the potential of systems thinking and use it in their work. It is essential for systems researchers and practitioners who want a deeper understanding of the field.
Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity: Responsible Leadership For A Complex World
by Michael C. JacksonThe world has become increasingly networked and unpredictable. Decision makers at all levels are required to manage the consequences of complexity every day. They must deal with problems that arise unexpectedly, generate uncertainty, are characterised by interconnectivity, and spread across traditional boundaries. Simple solutions to complex problems are usually inadequate and risk exacerbating the original issues. Leaders of international bodies such as the UN, OECD, UNESCO and WHO — and of major business, public sector, charitable, and professional organizations — have all declared that systems thinking is an essential leadership skill for managing the complexity of the economic, social and environmental issues that confront decision makers. Systems thinking must be implemented more generally, and on a wider scale, to address these issues. An evaluation of different systems methodologies suggests that they concentrate on different aspects of complexity. To be in the best position to deal with complexity, decision makers must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches and learn how to employ them in combination. This is called critical systems thinking. Making use of over 25 case studies, the book offers an account of the development of systems thinking and of major efforts to apply the approach in real-world interventions. Further, it encourages the widespread use of critical systems practice as a means of ensuring responsible leadership in a complex world. Comments on a previous version of the book: Russ Ackoff: ‘the book is the best overview of the field I have seen’ JP van Gigch: ‘Jackson does a masterful job. The book is lucid ...well written and eminently readable’ Professional Manager (Journal of the Chartered Management Institute): ‘Provides an excellent guide and introduction to systems thinking for students of management’
Critical Theory and Economics: Philosophical Notes on Contemporary Inequality (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
by Robin MaialehThis book expands upon a range of economic insights within the overall context of critical theory, particularly with respect to the question of socioeconomic inequalities, and presents an explanation of how critical theory provides a number of interesting perspectives for economists. Economic agents, deliberately imprisoned in their instrumental rationality as a means to survive under competitive relationships, are microscopic constituents of systemic forces which exist beyond their will. Despite the subjective rationality of such agents in terms of formally logical transitivity and consistency, aggregate market distributional mechanisms also display non-rational patterns. The crucial aspect of the dynamics of this system consists of the paralysing effect of the high level of socioeconomic inequality, which is driven by a permanent struggle for self-preservation under competitive rules; it is a reminiscence of natural, uncivilised relationships that constituted the reproduction process of the whole. These reified agents thus become instruments of their socially constructed powers on the one hand, and objects of their existential conditionality on the other. Hence, the dialectical approach adopted by the author aims to uncover the way in which structurally genetic market forces govern individual behaviour, as well as how individual behaviour shapes these structurally genetic forces, which, together, form the transcending principles of unequal distribution. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of the political economy, philosophy and the methodology of the social sciences, especially those concerned with inequality issues. This book includes a preface written by Professor Martin Jay.
Critical Theory and Political Modernity
by José Maurício DominguesThis book draws together philosophy, jurisprudence, political science, and international relations to study the main categories of political modernity and its development trends. Grounded in critical theory—from Marx to later currents such as the Frankfurt School—Critical Theory and Political Modernity circulates around state power and oligarchy as well as emancipatory possibilities from their foundations to the present, such as radical democracy. Domingues analyzes the main categories of political modernity, including the juridical dimension, to conceptually articulate its long-term processes of development. In so doing, he examines rights, law and citizenship, state and domination abstract and concrete, the political system, state power, freedom and autonomy, scalar configurations, political regimes, oligarchy and democracy.
A Critical Theory of Counterterrorism: Ontology, Epistemology and Normativity (Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies)
by Sondre LindahlThis book offers a theory and model of counterterrorism based on emancipation and non-violence. Critical Terrorism Studies (CTS) scholars have produced wide-ranging and rich critiques of terrorism-related research, as well as state counterterrorism policies and practices. This work aims to fill in a gap in the current literature by constructing an original and specifically CTS model of counterterrorism. The model outlines the basic assumptions, priorities, principles, strategies and tactics, measures and evaluation of counterterrorism. It challenges prevalent models of counterterrorism through a radical rethinking of the ontology, epistemology and the agenda of counterterrorism. The model aims to prevent future acts of terrorism by (1) re-conceptualising how we study and understand terrorism, and; (2) suggesting that our efforts to counter and prevent terrorism must commensurate with the goals we want to achieve. Essentially, this involves a commitment to emancipation, and a rejection of violence as a tool. The second part of the book is a case study of Norwegian counterterrorism which shows how the theory and model developed in the book can be used. This is the first substantial analysis of Norwegian counterterrorism in almost ten years, and produces encouraging findings which support the potential for non-violent solutions to terrorism. This book will be of particular interest to students of terrorism and counterterrorism, critical security studies, and international relations in general.
A Critical Theory of Police Power: The Fabrication of the Social Order
by Mark NeocleousPutting police power into the centre of the picture of capitalismThe ubiquitous nature and political attraction of the concept of order has to be understood in conjunction with the idea of police. Since its first publication, this book has been one of the most powerful and wide-ranging critiques of the police power. Neocleous argues for an expanded concept of police, able to account for the range of institutions through which policing takes place. These institutions are concerned not just with the maintenance and reproduction of order, but with its very fabrication, especially the fabrication of a social order founded on wage labour. By situating the police power in relation to both capital and the state and at the heart of the politics of security, the book opens up into an understanding of the ways in which the state administers civil society and fabricates order through law and the ideology of crime. The discretionary violence of the police on the street is thereby connected to the wider administrative powers of the state, and the thud of the truncheon to the dull compulsion of economic relations.
Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study
by Tom ChatfieldWhat is critical thinking? How do you apply it in your assessments? How do you build a good argument or find evidence? Critical thinking is a set of techniques. You just need to learn them. This is your personal toolkit for demystifying critical thinking. Clear and focused, it shows you how to sharpen your ability to think critically by developing and honing your skills. You’ll learn how to: Build a solid argument and express your ideas clearly Evaluate evidence and identify errors Understand and account for biased or flawed thinking Become a savvy user of technology Sift through the deluge of digital information Develop confident critical writing. Designed to work with a power pack of digital resources and exercises, you′ll find practical and effective tools to think and write critically in an information-saturated age. Whether you′re starting your first degree or arriving as an international or mature student, this book equips you with the skills, insights and confidence to succeed. This second edition has been redesigned and fine-tuned with a focus on accessibility: with a new and improved layout to improve the eBook experience, and updated language, examples and further reading recommendations throughout.
Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study
by Tom ChatfieldWhat is critical thinking? How do you apply it in your assessments? How do you build a good argument or find evidence? Critical thinking is a set of techniques. You just need to learn them. This is your personal toolkit for demystifying critical thinking. Clear and focused, it shows you how to sharpen your ability to think critically by developing and honing your skills. You’ll learn how to: Build a solid argument and express your ideas clearly Evaluate evidence and identify errors Understand and account for biased or flawed thinking Become a savvy user of technology Sift through the deluge of digital information Develop confident critical writing. Designed to work with a power pack of digital resources and exercises, you′ll find practical and effective tools to think and write critically in an information-saturated age. Whether you′re starting your first degree or arriving as an international or mature student, this book equips you with the skills, insights and confidence to succeed. This second edition has been redesigned and fine-tuned with a focus on accessibility: with a new and improved layout to improve the eBook experience, and updated language, examples and further reading recommendations throughout.
Critical Thinking: Conceptual Perspectives and Practical Guidelines
by Christopher P. DwyerOrganizational Behavior provides insight into OB concepts and processes through a first-of-its-kind active learning experience. Thinking Critically challenge questions tied to Bloom's taxonomy appear throughout each chapter, challenging you to apply, analyze, and create. Unique, engaging case narratives that span several chapters along with experiential exercises, self-assessments, and interviews with business professionals foster your abilities to think critically and creatively, highlight real-world applications, and bring OB concepts to life. The authors provide a "big picture" framework that illustrates how individual processes, team processes, influence processes, and organizational processes impact important organization outcomes such as individual performance, job satisfaction, team performance, and organizational performance. Rich with thought-provoking content and practical applications, you will walk away with critical thinking skills that help you make effective and thoughtful decisions. Key Features: Critical-thinking approach equips you with the mindset and skills needed to thrive in today's complex organizations Rich, extended case study narratives inspired by real people and real events illustrate OB concepts and critical thinking in action A robust chapter on leadership examines classic leadership theories and timely approaches such as empowering leadership and servant leadership A unique chapter on creativity and innovation explores how managers can use creativity to solve problems, motivate employees, and inspire teams. Get the SAGE edge! SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning. Learn more at edge. sagepub. com/neckob
Critical Thinking for Managers: Structured Decision-Making and Persuasion in Business (Management for Professionals)
by Radu AtanasiuThis book discusses critical thinking as a tool for more compassionate leadership, presenting tried and tested methods for managing disagreement, for anticipating and solving problems, and for enhancing empathy. Employing a lighter tone of voice than most management books, it also shows how and when less-than-rational mechanisms such as intuition and heuristics may be efficient decision-making tools in any manager’s toolbox. Critical thinking is useful for analyzing incoming information in the context of decision-making and is crucial for structuring outgoing information in the context of persuasion. When trying to convince a client to buy a service, an executive board to fund a project, or a colleague to change a procedure, managers can use the simple step-by-step guides provided here to prepare for successful meetings and effective pitches.Managerial thinking can be steadily improved, using a structured process, especially if we learn to think about our thinking. This book guides current and would-be managers through this process of improving and metathinking, in connection with decision-making and persuasion. Using examples from business, together with research insights from Behavioral Economics and from Management and Organizational Cognition, the author illustrates common pitfalls like hidden assumptions and cognitive biases, and provides easy-to-use solutions for testing hypotheses and resolving dilemmas.
Critical Thinking in Human Resource Development (Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development #Vol. 12)
by Carole Elliott Sharon TurnbullThis book provides a reflexive critique of the assumptions of orthodox HRD research and practice and questions the conception of humans as resources, as well as the conventional performative focus of HRD. Examining the broader social, political and economic contexts, the book offers alternative perspectives for considering both the needs of individuals and the sustainable development of organizations in post-industrial economies.
Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies
by Martin CohenLearn how to argue points effectively, analyze information, and make sound judgments The ability to think clearly and critically is a lifelong benefit that you can apply in any situation that calls for reflection, analysis, and planning. Being able to think systematically and solve problems is also a great career asset. Critical Thinking Skills For Dummies helps you hone your thinking abilities and become a better communicator. You’ll find hands-on, active instruction and exercises that you can put to work today as you navigate social media and news websites, chat with AI, fact-check your own and others’ views, and more. Become a thinking machine, with this Dummies guide. Identify other people’s arguments and conclusions—and spot holes in them Evaluate evidence and produce more effective arguments in any situation Read between the lines of what people say and form your own judgments Apply critical thinking to school or college assignments to improve your academic performance This is the perfect Dummies title for students, researchers, and everyone who seeks to improve their reasoning and analysis ability.
Critical Thinking Skills for your Policing Degree (Critical Study Skills)
by Jane Bottomley Martin Wright Steven PryjmachukIf you are embarking on a university criminology, policing or other law enforcement professional degree, the books in this series will help you acquire and develop the knowledge, skills and strategies you need to achieve your goals. They provide support in all areas important for university study, including institutional and disciplinary policy and practice, self-management, and research and communication. Tasks and activities are designed to foster aspects of learning which are valued in higher education, including learner autonomy and critical thinking, and to guide you towards reflective practice in your study and work life.Critical Thinking Skills for your Policing Degree provides you with a sound knowledge and understanding of: the nature of critical thinking, and of its relevance and importance in HE how to adopt a critical approach to all aspects of your policing studies the importance of active, critical reading, and how it allows you an efficient, principled, effective assessment of the literature in your field the need to adopt a critical approach to writing, characterised by analytical and evaluative use of sources and the development of your own ‘voice’.
The Critical Thinking Tool Kit: Spark Your Team's Creativity with 35 Problem Solving Activities
by Marlene CaroselliCaroselli, an author and former workforce trainer, offers 35 problem-solving activities to help managers and trainers improve the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of their teams. Organized by quick, creative, and analytical thinking activities, they include individual, partner, and small and large group exercises, with objectives, supplies lists, time lengths, number of participants, preparation tips, procedures, questions, and extensions. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
The Critical Turn in Tourism Studies: Creating An Academy Of Hope (Advances In Tourism Ser.)
by Annette Pritchard Nigel Morgan Irena AteljevicNew approaches to tourism study demonstrate a notable ‘critical turn’ – a shift in thought that emphasises interpretative and critical modes of tourism inquiry. The chapters in this volume reflect this emerging critical school of tourism studies and represent a coordinated effort of tourism scholars whose work engages innovative research methodologies. Since such work has been dispersed across a variety of tourism-related and other research fields, this book responds to a pressing need to consolidate recent advances in a single text. Adopting a broad definition of ‘criticality’, the contributors seek to find ‘fresh’ ways of theorising tourism by locating the phenomenon in its wider political, economic, cultural and social contexts. The collection addresses the power relations underpinning the production of academic knowledge; presents a range of qualitative data collection methods which confront the field’s dominant (post)positivist approaches; foregrounds the emotional dynamics of research relations and explores the personal, the political and the situated nature of research journeys.The book has been divided into two parts, with the essays in the first part establishing a context-specific framework for engaging philosophical and theoretical debates in contemporary tourism enquiry. The second set of essays then present, discuss and critique specific methodologies, research techniques, methods of interpretation and writing strategies, all of which are in some sense illustrative of ‘critical’ tourism research. Contributors range from postgraduate students to established academics and are drawn from both the geopolitical margins and the ‘powerbases’ of the tourism academy. Their various relationships with the English-speaking academy thus range from relative ‘outsider’ to well-positioned ‘insider’ and as a result, their essays are reflective of a range of locations within the complexly spun web of academic power relations and social divisions.
The Critical Turn in Tourism Studies: Creating an Academy of Hope (Advances in Tourism)
by Annette Pritchard Nigel Morgan Irena AteljevicIn today’s increasingly complex tourism environment, decision-making requires a rounded, well-informed view of the whole. Critical distance should be encouraged, consultation and intellectual rigour should be the norm amongst managers and there needs to be a radical shift in our approach to educating future tourism and hospitality managers and researchers. This second edition intends to move the debate forward by exploring how critical tourism inquiry can make a difference in the world, linking tourism education driven by the values of empowerment, partnership and ethics to policy and practice. This volume is designed to enable its reader to think through vital concepts and theories relating to tourism and hospitality management, stimulate critical thinking and use multidisciplinary perspectives. The book is organized around three key ways of producing social change in and through tourism: critical thinking, critical education and critical action. Part one focuses on the importance of critical thinking in tourism research and deals with two key topics of our academic endeavours (i) tourism epistemology and theoretical and conceptual developments; (ii) research entanglements, knowledge production and reflexivity. Part two considers ‘the university as a site for activism’ by mapping out the moral, academic and practical role of educators in developing ethical and responsible graduates and explores the student experience. The final part attempts to provide new understandings of the ways in which social justice and social transformation can be achieved in and through tourism. This timely and thought provoking book which collectively questions tourism’s current and future role in societal development is essential reading for students, researchers and academics interested in Tourism & Hospitality.
Critical Wage Theory: Why Wage Justice Is Racial Justice
by Ruben J. GarciaIn this highly original and personal book, Ruben J. Garcia argues forcefully that we must center the minimum wage as a tool for fighting structural racism. Employing the lessons of critical race theory to show how low minimum wages and underenforcement of workplace laws have always been features of our racially stratified society, Garcia explains why we must follow the leadership of social movements by treating increases in minimum wage levels and enforcement as matters of racial justice. Offering solutions that would benefit all workers, especially the immigrants and people of color most often made victims of wage theft, Critical Wage Theory is essential reading for anyone who seeks a more just future for the working class.
Criticism, Art and Theory in 1970s Britain: The Critical War (ISSN)
by JJ CharlesworthA critical study of the life of art criticism in the 1970s, this volume traces the evolution of art and art criticism in a pivotal period in post-war British history.JJ Charlesworth explores how art critics and the art press attempted to negotiate new developments in art, faced with the challenges of conceptualism, alternative media, new social movements and radical innovations in philosophy and theory. This is the first comprehensive study of the art press and art criticism in Britain during this pivotal period, seen through the lens of its art press, charting the arguments and ideas that would come to shape contemporary art as we know it today.This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, British cultural history and history of journalism.
Criticisms of Classical Political Economy: Menger, Austrian Economics and the German Historical School (Routledge Studies In The History Of Economics Ser.)
by Gilles CampagnoloThe role of the German Historical School and of Carl Menger (founder of the Austrian School) is appraised in this new book. This important period of the history of economics is vital to understand how the discipline developed over the next half-century. Gilles Campagnolo has produced an impressive original work which makes use of rarely seen research by Carl Menger and as such this book will be of interest across several discplines, including history of economic thought, economic methodology, philosophy of science and the history of ideas.
Critics and Crusaders: Political Economy and the American Quest for Freedom
by Wilton S. DillonThe quest for freedom has always been a defining characteristic of the American people. That neither constitutionalism nor capitalism has secured complete freedom for every person is demonstrated by media announcements of slavery, oppression, exploitation, and a variety of shortcomings in the economic system. That said, and as this volume seeks to demonstrate through a history of radical commentaries, there have always been bold spirits who fight for such ambitious heights.With changing times, freedom meant different things to those who worked for it. This book in its broadest sense is a history of libertarianism. Each of the libertarians in this full study, extending from William Lloyd Garrison to Eugene V. Debs, fought for the ideal of political economy as a practical ideal. In so doing these major figures at the margins of power expanded the entire field of human rights. Charles A. Madison concludes that radicalism became an ideology in the search for freedom.The zeal and activity of these figures did much to attain the political freedom and economic well- being that Americans are inclined to take for granted. These individual chapters are set in frames supplied by background sketches of the movements each group led, and the whole is an attempt to depict and re-evaluate America's social progress without the rigor or formality of impersonalized history.
Critique Is Creative: The Critical Response Process® in Theory and Action
by Liz Lerman John BorstelWinner of Silver Nautilus for Creativity & Innovation, given by Nautilus Book Award, 2023Devised by choreographer Liz Lerman in 1990, Critical Response Process® (CRP) is an internationally recognized method for giving and getting feedback on creative works in progress. In this first in-depth study of CRP, Lerman and her long-term collaborator John Borstel describe in detail the four-step process, its origins and principles. The book also includes essays on CRP from a wide range of contributors. With insight, ingenuity, and the occasional challenge, these practitioners shed light on the applications and variations of CRP in the contexts of art, education, and community life. Critique Is Creative examines the challenges we face in an era of reckoning and how CRP can aid in change-making of various kinds.With contributions from:Bimbola Akinbola, Mark Callahan, Lawrence Edelson, Isaac Gómez, Rachel Miller Jacobs, Lekelia Jenkins, Elizabeth Johnson Levine, Carlos Lopez-Real, Cristóbal Martínez, Gesel Mason, Cassie Meador, Kevin Ormsby, CJay Philip, Kathryn Prince, Sean Riley, Charles C. Smith, Shula Strassfeld, Phil Stoesz, Gerda van Zelm, Jill Waterhouse, Rebekah West
The Critique of Archaeological Economy (Frontiers in Economic History)
by Stefanos Gimatzidis Reinhard JungThis book studies past economics from anthropological, archaeological, historical and sociological perspectives. By analyzing archeological and other evidence, it examines economic behavior and institutions in ancient societies. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, it critically discusses dominant economic models that have influenced the study of past economic relations in various disciplines, while at the same time highlighting alternative theoretical trajectories. In this regard, the book’s goal is not only to test theoretical models under scrutiny, but also to present evidence against the rationalization of past economic behavior according to the rules of modern markets. The contributing authors cover various topics, such as trade in the classical Greek world, concepts of commodity and value, and management of economic affluence.
The Critique of Management: Towards a Philosophy and Ethics of Business Management
by Vincent BlokThis book reflects on the nature of business management to contribute to the development of a philosophy and ethics of management. It engages in conceptual engineering of management to delineate the phenomenon of management and, as a result, to open a new perspective on management beyond its self-evident conceptualization. After questioning the self-evident concept of management, the author develops a philosophy of management with six dimensions of the nature of management: management as participation; management as resistance and responsive action; management as constitution of meaning; management as politico-economic governance; management as non-reductive stakeholder engagement; and management as epistemic insufficient entrepreneurship. These six dimensions of management are taken as points of departure to develop an integrated concept of business ethics, an individual competence for ethical business management, and a concept of ethical codes for corporate social responsible behavior. This new conception of philosophy of management and business ethics can guide future philosophical and empirical work on the nature of management. The Critique of Management is an excellent resource for researchers, students, and professionals interested in philosophy of management, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility.
A Critique of the Gold Standard (Routledge Library Editions: The Gold Standard #5)
by H. L. PuxleyOriginally published in 1933 this book discusses the inadequacy of ‘orthodox Gold Standard theory’ in the light of post-war monetary phenomena. In demonstrating that the Gold Standard had broken down the book explains that the Quantity Theory of Money is an inaccurate explanation of what happens over short periods and that the determining factor in the rise or fall of prices is the Velocity of Circulation. The book makes a plea for a workable Gold Standard operated by an international consortium of Central Banks.