Sense Making

Purpose – This research aims to examine the relationship between information security strategy and organization performance, with organizational capabilities as important factors influencing successful implementation of information security strategy and organization performance. Design/methodology/approach – Based on existing literature in strategic management and information security, a theoretical model was proposed and validated. A self-administered survey instrument was developed to collect empirical

During the last two decades teachers in many countries have found themselves facing new demands and changes. In his “intensification thesis” Apple, MW [(1986). Teachers and Texts. A political economy of class and gender relations in educations. London: Routledge] made a ...

An environmental scan project is outlined and discussed using the viable systems model (VSM). A participant/observer perspective applied futures thinking, systems practice, scenario orientated narratives and risk assessment frameworks to an annual corporate planning process involving engagement and communication with senior public sector executives. Focus was given to improving foresight techniques through the innovative use of existing resources and skills. Results included additional work on scenario development, designing a decentralised “Development Directorate” network and evaluating complexity science sense-making techniques to enhance foresight capacity.

A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya. Anna Politkovskaya. Alexander Burry and Tatiana Tulchinsky, trans., with an introduction by Georgi Derluguian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. 232 pp.Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus:. World-System Biography. Georgi M. Derluguian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 416 pp.Chechnya: Life in. War-Torn Society. Valery Tishkov. Tatiana Sokolova, trans., with. foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 284 pp.

The present theoretical paper explores the narrative storytelling dimension of conspiracy theorizing. After a careful review of recent scholarly literature on conspiracy theories (section 1), it is argued that two mutually reinforcing aspects of the notion might have remained to some extent undertheorized: (1) whether "conspiracy theory," following conspiracy proper, also retains the collaborative quality of the latter (the Latin etymology of "to breathe together"); (2) consequently, whether such "theorizing" can be claimed as being the 'second-order' explicitly narrative manifestation of the plotting in conspiracy proper (to plot as in plotting a story). Toward these aims, and in consulting conspiracy theory research and narrative studies, tentative terminology is proposed and some empirical observations are undertaken based on the Estonian-English conspiracy forum Para-Web (section 2).

Key-words: conspiracy theory, (alt-)narrative, sense-making, (contra-)plotting, co-elaboration.

In this paper, we discuss key issues in harnessing horizon scanning to shape systemic policies, particularly in the light of the foresight exercise 'Facing the future: Time for the EU to meet global challenges' which was carried out for the Bureau of European Policy Advisors. This exercise illustrates how horizon scanning can enable collective sense-making processes which assist in the