Tim May

Beth Perry

Reflexivity – the critical examination of how we see the world – is integral to good research practice. From this state-of-the-art, accessible tour of its history and contemporary relevance, readers will learn of its importance to social research and to society generally. The text introduces a host of influential thinkers and their key ideas on reflexivity, and incorporates examples from a range of disciplines and research settings. Drawing on the authors’ extensive experience of real research settings, this book: Pinpoints the importance of reflexivity in social research Demonstrates its relevance to everyday life Firmly locates the concept in the history of ideas Explores key questions about the bases of knowledge and understanding Presents key thinkers, concepts and issues in easy-to-understand learning boxes The result is a book that provides students and researchers in the social sciences with the knowledge and understanding necessary not only to examine the role of reflexivity in contemporary life, but to apply it in their own research practice.

The Essential Guide

Reflexivity

Cities and the Knowledge Economy is an in-depth, interdisciplinary, international and comparative examination of the relationship between knowledge and urban development in the contemporary era. Through the lenses of promise, politics and possibility, it examines how the knowledge economy has arisen, how different cities have sought to realise its potential, how universities play a role in its realisation and, overall, what this reveals about the relationship between politics, capitalism, space, place and knowledge in cities. The book argues that the 21st century city has been predicated on particular circuits of knowledge that constitute expertise as residing in elite and professional epistemic communities. In contrast, alternative conceptions of the knowledge society are founded on assumptions which take analysis, deliberation, democracy and the role of the citizen and communities of practice seriously. Drawing on a range of examples from cities around the world, the book reflects on these possibilities and asks what roles the practice of ‘active intermediation’, the university and a critical and engaged social scientific practice can all play in this process. The book is aimed at researchers and students from different disciplines – geography, politics, sociology, business studies, economics and planning – with interests in contemporary urbanism and the role of knowledge in understanding development, as well as urban policymakers, politicians and practitioners who are concerned with the future of our cities and seek to create coalitions of different communities oriented towards more just and sustainable futures.

Promise, Politics and Possibilities

Cities and the Knowledge Economy

With coverage of both original ideas and the authors’ own practical experiences, this book helps readers to unlock the importance of reflexivity and understand its benefits.

Sherri Melrose

Caroline Park 

For healthcare professionals, clinical education is foundational to the learning process. However, balancing safe patient care with supportive learning opportunities for students can be challenging for instructors and the complex social context of clinical learning environments makes intentional teaching approaches essential. Clinical instructors require advanced teaching knowledge and skills as learners are often carrying out interventions on real people in unpredictable environments. Creative Clinical Teaching in the Health Professions is an indispensable guide for educators in the health professions. Interspersed with creative strategies and notes from the field by clinical teachers who offer practical suggestions, this volume equips healthcare educators with sound pedagogical theory. The authors focus on the importance of personal philosophies, resilience, and professional socialization while evaluating the current practices in clinical learning environments from technology to assessment and evaluation. This book provides instructors with the tools to influence both student success and the quality of care provided by future practitioners.

Creative Clinical Teaching in the Health Professions

Caroline Park

Many of today’s learning environments are dominated by technology or procedure-driven approaches that leave learners feeling alone and disconnected. The authors of Centring Human Connections in the Education of Health Professionals argue that educational processes in the health disciplines should model, integrate, and celebrate human connections because it is these connections that will foster the development of competent and caring health professionals. Centring Human Connections in the Education of Health Professionals equips educators working in clinical, classroom, and online settings with a variety of teaching strategies that facilitate essential human connections. Included is an overview of the educational theory that grounds the authors’ thinking, enabling the educators who employ the strategies included in the book to assess their fit within curriculum requirements and personal teaching philosophies and understand how and why they work.

Beth Perry

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