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Many life course hypotheses can only be addressed using observational studies which follow the same individuals through time, and a birth cohort is perhaps the ideal study in which to investigate life course influences on ageing. Careful consideration of study design is vital to the delivery of good quality research on healthy ageing. The design of a study not only determines the research questions that can be addressed, but also various sources of error and bias. This chapter reviews approaches to data collection, highlighting the importance of mode and frequency of data collection and discusses the future opportunities afforded by innovations in data collection technology and record linkage. It argues that strong study management, a consideration of ethical concerns, and engagement of study participants are vital to the delivery of high quality data and maintenance of response rates. With increasing cross-cohort collaboration, the current resource of studies provides exciting opportunities.

This chapter discusses nostalgia as the theoretical concept central to understanding the cultural transformations of this period. It teases out the meaning and nuances of the concept by referring to the scholarship on nostalgia itself and on its political implications in Iran. This concept, in its various forms, has prompted three other discourses pertinent to cultural production, namely, authenticity, civilization, and tradition. While addressing the Iranian context, the chapter notes that all these concepts were informed by and conveyed a global currency. It elaborates the meaning and formations of these concepts while referring to historical contexts that sustained them. Thus, while elaborating on manifestations of nostalgic authenticity, it also engages with notions of civilizational discourse and anti-Westernism that were on the rise in the 1970s. It also critically engages with ideas of tradition, which range from Traditionalism, expounded by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, to critiques of the invention of the traditions thesis. These are significant for developing a critical understanding of the nexus between development, design, and heritage in Iran. In the end, the chapter illustrates the concepts at work by referring to an example from the architect Nader Ardalan in the design of the Iran Centre for Management Studies (ICMS).

This chapter examines the notion of technê-Zen: a discourse premised on the supposed commensurability and mutual determination of Zen Buddhism (including all of its related Taoist notions and techniques of spiritual and aestheticized practice—in short, its technê) and the possibilities of an organic and holistic form of rationalist technocracy. In analyzing the discourse of technê-Zen in Robert Pirsig's novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, its historical origins, and its ongoing role in the networked global capitalist systems we live with today, this chapter advances two main arguments: first, whereas Pirsig posits technê-Zen as a discursive rupture from the dissident “spirit of the sixties,” his book can be more correctly understood as both a continuation and an acceleration of a discourse of “cybernetic Zen” already well under way in the 1950s and 1960s; second, the forms of technê-Zen developed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance have come to occupy an especially privileged space in the technologically saturated realms of network capitalism and particularly the corporate management theories that currently dominate international business practice

This chapter focuses on international organizations and bureaucracies in international relations research. In particular, it examines the relative neglect of international bureaucracies in international relations theory and discusses theoretical approaches from international relations research as well as from management studies. The chapter also discusses important differences between commercial organizations and public non-profit bureaucracies, along with the use of principal-agent theory to study international bureaucracies.

Chapter Four presents an overview of critical writing on work and employment, drawing a distinction between critical labour studies and critical management studies. The chapter examines how the employment relationship is conceived in the critical tradition and outlines the critical research agenda, conceptions of worker subjectivity, explanatory theories, and forms of engagement. A central activity in the critical tradition is critique and the chapter identifies the main ‘critical tropes’ that are relied upon by critical scholars both when they engage with the real world of work and with the work of their unitary and pluralist counterparts. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the critical tradition, endorsing its focus on critique and identification with those who have less power but arguing that the tradition persistently exaggerates the degraded character of capitalist work relations and underestimates the scope for meaningful reform within capitalist economies.

I understand The New Spirit of Capitalism to be explaining the present by recourse to existing mechanisms of power, including resistance to that power. There appears to be nothing external to the explanation which could cause it to fail because everything is included. This appears to mean that the future must be more of the same, and that all the vibrant forms of intellectual and practical resistance to contemporary capitalist forms are doomed to be incorporated too. This chapter explores the problems with this argument and suggests that there are actually many alternatives to the new spirit of capitalism, should we care to look for them. In part this is an attempt to counter Boltanski and Chiapellos sociologic with empirical evidence, but it is also to insist that there are already existing forms of action and justification that cannot be explained (away) by their argument.

This chapter addresses one of the most pervasive symptoms of the metaphysical stance: the continuous reference to ‘change’ as an indisputable ontological premise. On the one hand, change is represented as an organizational imperative that increasingly appears to trump all other concerns. On the other, change is addressed as an abstracted fashion that can be theorized, categorized, evaluated, and acted upon without further specification. The chapter investigates the way ‘change’ is addressed and evaluated in the organizational development (OD) tradition, the emergent change tradition, the strategic change tradition, and the critical management studies tradition. It posits that none of the four schools of thought take measures to empirically specify the notion of change, but rather advance their arguments from the terrain of a metaphysical stance. It indicates that the stance they adopt has some unfortunate consequences for the precise assessment and practical management of particular organizational changes.

This chapter talks about the coincidence theory and how it comes into contact with other disciplines—historical analysis, psychological analysis, management studies, and future studies, among others—and uses their syntheses. Comparative economics is a vital component in the coincidence theory of development. Comparison is a valuable research instrument because it allows for the selection of critical elements, the presence of which can determine the existence of a phenomenon or process from among the range of conditions for growth and development. The coincidence theory of development, together with the approach to specific kinds of development challenges, will create a leverage point for pragmatic action to solve various problems. The new pragmatism is the discourse that accompanies the theory; it is the essence of a method of development strategy and economic policy.

Drawing on the linkages between regional/local industry agglomeration and export activities, this chapter begins conceptualizing trade shows as temporary markets in which vertical flows (along the value chain) dominate, and horizontal flows (between competitors) occur as a by-product. This leads to market and non-market relations. These are structured by trade show organizers aiming to facilitate the exhibitors' promotional endeavours. While direct contracts and sales during trade shows have declined, knowledge flows have become more important in the interactions between trade show participants over time. This leads to a knowledge-based conceptualization of trade shows as temporary clusters that are characterized by specific vertical, horizontal, and institutional dimensions. The nature of temporary clusters gives rise to a specific, often self-sustaining, information and communication ecology, referred to as global buzz, which enables processes of learning by interaction and learning by observation. The interdisciplinary conceptualization developed in this chapter integrates perspectives from economic geography and management studies.