Affect, Embodiment and Place in Critical Literacy: Assembling Theory and Practice is a notable contribution to bringing theory and practice together in literacy education by offering a posthuman ap...

Quality assurance in higher education is a hot topic with theincreased number of students graduating from postgraduate programmesoffered by the higher education institutions. This qualitative study aimed tolook at the history and the current status of the quality assurance mechanismsin the Maldives; identify its strengths and weaknesses; and make informedrecommendations. Critical event narrative inquiry was used and data werecollected through interviews and analysis of documents. Content analysis ofdata collected revealed that Maldives was one of the very first countries inthe region (...) to establish such a mechanism and it was very similar to that ofAustralia. The most significant finding was that the body mandated to assurehigher education quality and did not have any power or regulatory authority.Therefore, it is important that the authority be an independent body establishedby an act of parliament with the regulatory power. (shrink)

AbstractCritics charge that agriculture has reached an unsustainable level of consolidation and expropriation, as exemplified by the supply-chain breakdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, advocates suggest the current system serves consumers well by keeping prices low and access to choices high. At the center of this debate rests a disagreement over how to compute market power to identify monopolies and oligopolies. We propose a method to study power across different sectors by using Social Network Analysis to analyze key players, the (...) presence of core-periphery structures, and agricultural consolidation. We test our market network approach to power through an analysis of the top ten pork powerhouses. We find that Big Finance is closely tied to Big Ag, and that key players limit the capacity for more peripheral actors, like growers, equipment producers, and regional banks, to engage in the network. We identify system level risk of collapse and suggest pathways for reform. (shrink)