Entangled (In)Securities: Sketching the Scope of Geosocial Approaches for Understanding “Webs of (In)Security”1

This paper makes the case for a broadening of conceptual vocabularies in security studies by extending the sub-discipline’s predominantly geopolitical focus to the ‘geosocial’. Based on a review of work on human security and of feminist and anthropological research on (in)security and violence, we argue that there remains a need for further conceptual development to which geosocial approaches can make a significant contribution. They move us beyond compartmentalisation towards understanding social relations as a key medium through which connections between different forms of (in)security are forged. This prompts the mapping of a wider kaleidoscope of intersecting security issues, experiences, practices, subjects and topographies that include, but are not exhaustively explained by, geopolitical and geoeconomic processes. Drawing on findings from a participatory research project conducted with marginalised young people in Leipzig (Germany) between 2014 and 2015, we argue for greater attention to four issues that are rarely thematised in security studies and which geosocial approaches bring more squarely into focus: 1) social relations as a key connective tissue through which different dimensions of (in)security are entangled and through which these entanglements are given shape; 2) social relations as sources of security and insecurity; 3) security practices as including the emotional and practical labour invested in sustaining, moulding or dealing with the breakdown of social relations; and 4) the topographic stretching and hybridisation of social relations that furnishes not just cultures of fear but can also generate greater senses of security.     

A Feynman–Kac-type formula for Lévy processes with discontinuous killing rates

The challenge to fruitfully merge state-of-the-art techniques from mathematical finance and numerical analysis has inspired researchers to develop fast deterministic option pricing methods. As a result, highly efficient algorithms to compute option prices in Lévy models by solving partial integro-differential equations have been developed. In order to provide a solid mathematical foundation for these methods, we derive a Feynman–Kac representation of variational solutions to partial integro-differential equations that characterize conditional expectations of functionals of killed time-inhomogeneous Lévy processes. We allow a wide range of underlying stochastic processes, comprising processes with Brownian part as well as a broad class of pure jump processes such as generalized hyperbolic, multivariate normal inverse Gaussian, tempered stable, and \(\alpha\)-semistable Lévy processes. By virtue of our mild regularity assumptions as to the killing rate and the initial condition of the partial integro-differential equation, our results provide a rigorous basis for numerous applications in financial mathematics and in probability theory. We implement a Galerkin scheme to solve the corresponding pricing equation numerically and illustrate the effect of a killing rate.     

Enhancing teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge and practices: a professional development model for technology teachers in Malawi

This paper reports on a professional development that was designed and implemented in an attempt to broaden teachers’ knowledge of the nature of technology and also enhance their technological pedagogical practices. The professional development was organised in four phases with each phase providing themes for reflection and teacher learning in subsequent phases. On-going support, reflection and feedback underpinned the professional development processes to enhance teachers’ prospects of putting aside old traditions and culture to implement new practices in their classrooms. The teachers collaboratively explored new concepts through readings of selected scholarly papers, making presentations of their views generated from the readings and engaging with peers in discussing learning, curriculum issues and concepts related to the nature of technology and technology education. A qualitative analysis of the teachers’ journey through the phases of the professional development showed the teachers’ enhanced knowledge of technology and technology education. However, their classroom practices showed technological pedagogical techniques that reflected their traditional strategies for teaching technical subjects. It is argued that although the teachers’ conceptualisation of learning in technology was still fragile at this point, attempts to shift teachers’ beliefs and practices require deep theoretical grounding and transferring that into technological practices. A professional development built on existing ideas and context helps expand the teachers’ views about the nature of technology and technology education.     

Value Orientation in Process Management

There is no doubt that at least since the 1990s process orientation has evolved into one of the central paradigms of organizational design. Since then, all process management subtasks have matured. Process management decisions, however, lack economic foundation. They are usually based on qualitative or technical criteria or on plausibility considerations that do not necessarily comply with typical objectives in a market economy. Consequently, design alternatives are hardly comparable and an integrated valuation of a company’s assets is impossible. The status quo is astonishing for several reasons: First, process management decisions usually imply investment projects with different risk/return positions and capital tie-up. Second, the need for designing processes according to their contribution to corporate objectives has been explicated repeatedly. Third, the paradigm of value-based management is an accepted theoretical framework from economic research that enables to consistently valuate the risk/return effects of decisions across functional areas, hierarchy levels, and asset classes. This suggests the hypothesis that process management in general as well as the goal orientation of process management decisions in particular have evolved almost independently of value-based management. In the paper at hand, this hypothesis is confirmed based on a sample of process management publications. We therefore explicate the research gap as regards value orientation in process management. In order to bridge the gap between value-based management and process-oriented organizational design, we transfer economically well-founded objective functions to process management decisions.     

Economic Evaluation and Optimization of the Degree of Automation in Insurance Processes

In the context of value and customer orientation there are various requirements concerning the process – especially in insurance companies: processes are meant to be standardized, automated, and flexible. It is in question whether a fast and cheap automated processing is preferred to manual handling. For which claims and which process steps is it of economic value to have the flexibility and the competence and ability to solve problems of human operators at your disposal? Various combinations, representing different degrees of automation, are possible. The different degrees of automation for the processing of an insurance claims are compared and resulting cash flows are determined. It is essential to include all consequences that can be attributed to a single process and to consider customer reactions and restrictions to the capacity of processing. Instead of using heuristic rules to decide on automation in practice, here the decision is flexible and depends on the given situation. Viewing an aggregated number of insurance claims it is possible to deduce information about the performance of the process. The model is exemplarily illustrated with help of a part of the process for handling own damage glass claims.