Radishes and pumpkin soup

One of the areas of academic work that many forget to acknowledge is downtime and the benefits of learning through downtime. I have enthusiastically attempted to cultivate african vegetables over the years and my success is nowhere near celebrity gardens but I daresay somewhat good considering one cannot plant and walk away. My poly tunnel is my quiet space and all too often I find myself in the back yard fiddling with the plants trying to keep things in tip top shape and sometimes mourning the death of something that was looking quite sprightly until unfriendly friendly bugs thought they would have a go first. But back to the radishes,.... well I planted them, and as sprouted I forgot to check the guide and I gave them the best love till they went to flower, so now I have radish seed pods but no radishes. Well that is not the goal of this post, the key goal was to highlight my...
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Ethnographies and Soft System Methodologies

Ethnographies and Soft System Methodologies

Work environments are characterised by people doing purposeful activity in  a structured yet dynamic, orderly yet disorderly  environment where there are legislative, procedural, political and social factors that are widely known to influence the design of information systems (IS) and knowledge management (KM) systems for policing work(Stainer, 2013, Hughes and Jackson, 2004). Most workplaces generate significant amounts of data, often collated/acquired from multiple human sources and information systems (IS). Managing the business is as a result, characterised by matching and  aggregating all this information and data to facilitate and make informed best practice decisions (Babuta, 2017). Business leaders will depend on timeliness and robustness of this information to develop efficient and effective strategies. There is a however a complicatedness that arises due to the use of  varied and non-proprietary information systems for managing data and information (De Hert and Gutwirth, 2006).   The ethnographic research methodology is known for 'messiness' (Lanclos, 2016) and characterised by lengthy contact through immersion in the field (workplace) and...
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My pretty summer dress

The summer has taken its time this year, and it’s natural as a Brit to start off any musing with a moan. The forecast of better weather motivated me to pull out my fabric stash and tackle some DIY sewing. I had high hopes, the plan was to make a shift dress, skort and wrap skirt i ended up only making the dress for now it fits well and babushka my tailors dummy helped with fitting ...
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Diversifying the narrative…. Communications in the face of risks, threats and decision making in policing.

Policing in the face of funding cuts, scrutiny and structural changes with limited availability and access to technologies and manpower has evolved. The demand on policing services has become higher and more diverse with police forces increasingly shouldering the responsibility for health and social demands. Although governed by robust and lengthy frameworks and seemingly supported by ‘adequate’ technologies, the job of assessing risk and making decisions in policing is highly communication and information dependent, complex, multifaceted and challenging. The scope and range of crimes and treatment of crime have changed in the wake of increased levels of police proactivity and awareness. As my doctoral fieldwork has progressed, I have found that the way information is supplied, acquired, shared and used in policing influences and impacts on risk assessment and decision making The use of communication tools and technologies feature heavily in the task of response policing and there is an impact on demands on resources when these tools prove to be...
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Pan-African migration into treacherous territories – The Arabian Drift

Pan-African migration into treacherous territories – The Arabian Drift

Over the last 15 years there has been an increased interest and increased concern about economic migration from African counties largely eastern, Western and Southern Africa into the northern belt of Africa and often onwards to Emirati countries. People haven’t been silent, but awareness continues to be difficult to evaluate and for the best part the drift of people continues.  In this last decade I have keenly followed a variety of accounts from people, particularly young women who have left their families and in some cases children and I guess there are there are probably thousands of stories from people who have travelled to the middle east assisted by “agents”. There’s a fair bit of education about this out there but the allure of big payouts and lack of conscience never fails to convince fellow countrymen and women into becoming “agents” who specialise in going to or targetting villages and other deprived or semi deprived communities to groom young people into believing...
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