I remember collecting sign books for some years. One day I got hold of one of the Italian publishing house Adelphi. Pink color, with just one sentence on it by, Gayus Plinius Secundus also known as Plinius the “Old”, born in 24 B.C. in Como. The rough English translation of Plinius sentence could be: ‘there is not such thing as a bad book where you cannot learn at least one thing’. After that i bought […]
Here is my contribution on working remotely in the last issue of ODEye, the internal newsletter of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Far away, but still so close (with a little help from IT and PRINCE2) The Wim Wenders movie Der Himmel über Berlin is– the story of two angels who comfort mortals, but cannot be seen by them. Images from that movie came to mind when I was asked to contribute to ODEye and […]
‘Thus the seasons come and go, and the years pass by. I’ll age one more year, and probably finish another novel. One by one, I will face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the horizon as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long-distance runner’ ‘The end of the race is just […]
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. Its the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four […]
Conclusion Though this dissertation is not over yet, I must admit that from the day I wrote the last word and got the overall feedback on the manuscript I feel relieved. Overall, I can say that after some initial difficulties I found my own pace in the writing. This was helped by setting clear deadlines and the number of pages for each chapter. One important lesson from this experience has been about the importance of […]
30 – 42 km: legs feel the distance, but you can’t stop at this point The positive feedback on Chapter Five gave new energy to continue with Chapter Four, the research methodology section. The description of the personal context and research activities was relatively easy to write, what I found more difficult, as you already know from my previous presentations, has been the justification of the qualitative methodology and the link with the dual role […]
20 – 30 km: legs feel heavy and tired The time between mid-June and the end of August has been certainly the hardest. Maybe because of the summer, or because the World Cup kept me awake almost every night till late, or because in the desert landscape eat the University with just two or three people in the PC lab working on their dissertations, or maybe because this was also the part were I wondered […]
0 – 20 km: start slowly, find your pace. The first step of the writing process has been the preparation of the dissertation outline with number of chapters, an estimated number of pages, and the main references to be used in the different sections. I found this initial step easy since the articles and project reports I had already written helped to think the dissertation structure. I have to admit that I started with too […]
During ten months, from February to November 2006, I have been writing my doctoral dissertation at the University of Tampere. Simon Down, a lecturer from the University of Newcastle who gave a presentation in a two day seminar at the University of Vaasa in April 2006, described the PhD as the most intense period of the academic life of an individual. During those months I have been thinking about a metaphor that could describe this […]
I have attended an interesting seminar about the Chinese experience in the transition to market economy with socialist characteristics. The aim of the seminar was to help Vietnamese scholars and researchers, who usually claim to be 10 years behind China in terms of social and economic development, to reflect on the challenges that the transition poses to Vietnam today. One of the conclusions of the seminar is that Vietnam is committed to modernization and market […]