9.9 Perspectives review

Just as you were completing your rich picture, I asked you to identify and record any stakeholdings, thinking, feelings, and views about what to do. In the next activity, I invite you to do a similar exercise based on where you are now. I then want you to re-examine the notes and compare the earlier perspective against your current perspective.

Expect to spend about half an hour on this activity.

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7.2.5 Trap 5: the final version trap

Ironically, the biggest mistake you can make, having got this far, is to assume your picture is finished. New realisations will crop up. Add these to your picture as you appreciate more and more of the complexity.

So, the check for avoiding this trap is to ask:

  • Have I had any new insights about the complex situation since I last added something to this picture?

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2.2 The nature of systems thinking and systems practice

There are no simple definitions for either systems thinking or systems practice. It's difficult to find definitions that capture all the perspectives that the ideas carry for people who think of themselves as systems thinkers and systems practitioners. Most systems practitioners seem to experience the same kind of difficulty in explaining what they do or what it means to be systemic in their thinking. Through experience I've developed some criteria by which I characterise systems thinking, bu
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18.2.1 Relative advantage

In order to succeed, an innovation has to be perceived as offering advantages relative to existing comparable products or services. For example, it has more chance of selling if it is cheaper to make and buy, does the job better or does something previously not possible, offers more features, is easier to use, or is reliable and safe. Relative advantage is sometimes called competitive advantage.

A good example is how the steady reduction in size and increase in efficiency of the electri
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12.4 Coupling model

There are examples where either technology or the market appears to be more significant in stimulating invention but the majority of innovations involve a creative coupling of technological and market factors. In some respects successful innovation is a case of the survival of the fittest. Failure can come both from not getting the technology right and from misjudging the market. Success is more likely if the focus is not too one-dimensional but rather a balance between technology and market
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1.2.9 Reading diagrams: questioning what they say

With each of these diagrams and others we are trying to read there is another set of more searching questions we can ask:

  • What is the purpose of the diagram, i.e. what is it aiming to tell us?

  • How is the information imparted?

  • What assumptions does it make about our ability to understand it?

  • What are we expected to remember from it?

  • How successful is
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5.9 Membrane filtration

Membrane filtration is a process whereby particles smaller than about 10−2 mm (which can pass through sand filters) are removed using synthetic polymeric membranes and a high pressure. The membrane effectively acts as a sieve.

It is increasingly becoming popular as an advanced treatment process for water (especially for removal of Cryptosporidium) and wastewater (where water reuse takes place), and various possibilities are:

  • <
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Module team

Andy Lane, author Mary Thorpe, author

John Martin, course chair, Amber Eves, course manager

Mandy Anton, graphic designer

Susan Carr, critical reader

Tony Duggan, project controller (Technology)

Eion Farmer, critical reader

Clive Fetter, editor

Jim Frederickson, critical reader

Pip Harris, compositor

Caryl Hunter-Brown, subject information specialist

John Naughton, critical reader

Pat Shah, course secretary

Ro
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3.2 The disaster

The 39-year-old Silver Bridge collapsed suddenly at about 5 p.m. on 15 December 1967 when the roadway was filled with rush-hour traffic – 37 vehicles were trapped on the roadway.

The first signs of collapse were later recounted by the survivors. Many occupants of the cars on the bridge had felt it ‘quivering’ before it fell. Most witnesses had then heard ‘cracking’ or ‘popping’ noises, some saying that it sounded like a ‘shotgun blast’. After this, the bridge started d
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5.1 ‘Religion’ and ‘the religions’: two new notions

I want to begin our closer discussion of the question ‘what is religion?’ by looking briefly at the history of the use and meaning of the term. You may be surprised to find how recently the word ‘religion’ has taken on the meanings attached to it today.

Contemporary scholars of religion emphasise not merely the cultural breadth but also the antiquity of religious activity. Yet, the term ‘religion’ as we understand it today is very much a Western concept.

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1.4.1 Sources

This programme was filmed in Liverpool at:

  • Shree Radha Krishna T
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Learning outcomes

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

  • have an understanding of how the Grand Louvre has come to be as it is;

  • critically discuss the claim that the collections in the Louvre constitute a significant part of the canon of Western European art;

  • ask questions of museums and collections that are appropriate to art history.


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2.1 Anti-Semitism and Hitler

Anti-Semitism was central to Hitler's world view and to that of most Nazi activists. Hitler considered Jews to have been foremost among profiteers and racketeers during World War I; they engineered the ‘stab in the back’ of November 1918; they were hand-in-glove with Bolshevism. In August 1919 Hitler was an instructor at a military camp at Lechfeld, near Augsburg. His task was to inject nationalist and anti-Bolshevik ideas into the men in the camp, many of whom were recently released pris
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Learning outcomes

By the end of this unit you should have:

  • a perception of the enormity of the events under discussion;

  • a recognition of the kinds of ideas and incidents which may have prompted them;

  • an awareness of the historical arguments surrounding the Holocaust;

  • an awareness of the relationship between the Holocaust and the war.


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Glossary

Alliteration repetition of sounds, usually the first letters of successive words, or words that are close together. Alliteration usually applies only to consonants.
Anapest see under foot.
Assonance repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.
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Introduction

This unit is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about rhythm, alliteration, rhyme, poetic inversion, voice and line lengths and endings. You will examine poems that do not rhyme and learn how to compare and contrast poetry.

This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Approaching Literature (A210) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us,
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1.1.2 Egyptian calculation

Box 1 A note on Egyptian scripts and numerals

The earliest Egyptian script was hieroglyphic, used from before 3000 BC until the early centuries AD. Initially an all-purpose script, it was eventually used only for monumental stone-carving and formal inscriptions. It had been superseded (by abou
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3.3 Deism

In the readings you will often come across allusions to the contrast between revealed religion and natural religion (or deism). The distinction turns on what the nature of the evidence is for a particular religious outlook. Deism is a form of natural religion that was prevalent in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe.

The evidence underpinning revealed religion typically consists of a god supposedly revealing himself (or herself or itself) to an individual or small nu
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Acknowledgements

This unit was written by Professor Tony Lentin

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Figures

Plate 1 Louis-Léopold B
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