Roger Benjamin

Undertaken for the Department of Defense1s Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development, this report addresses the need of organizations to exert influence in situations where they lack the hierarchical authority that would make such influence straightforward. It does so by presenting a three-stage framework that will help such organizations recognize and capitalize on the power-and-influence options available to them.

Undertaken for the Department of Defense1s Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development, this report outlines an approach for describing and evaluating external governance in a multi-organizational system of education, training, and professional development, which should be of interest to those charged with oversight of such systems. The approach consists of two main tasks: a structural analysis, which maps governance arrangements, and an implementation audit, which assesses effectiveness. (MF)

The consequences of changing comparative advantage are transforming the economic landscapes of nations and regions around the globe. This book deals with the most significant economic factors in the rapidly changing Pacific Basin area. Part 1 considers the area’s changing patterns of industrial development and trade and examines the general implications of such changes for national industrial development policies. Part 2 consists of a set of case studies of national industrial policies in the context of factors affecting industrial structures; how applicable these policies are to other countries in the region is a central theme. Part 3 addresses the specific issues of foreign investment and domestic labor in relation to economic growth and industrial development in the Pacific Basin. Finally, in Part 4 institutional arrangements are suggested that would facilitate economic growth while, at the same time, mitigating the serious negative consequences of changing economic advantage. Such negative consequences are to some extent pervasive and can destabilize social and political development and endanger formal and informal alliances; nevertheless, the segment of humanity that has adequate food, clothing, and shelter is being permanently widened in the Pacific Basin.

With this volume, the author demonstrates how a collective goods approach to higher education research can alleviate problems of rising costs, declining resources, and growing concerns about undergraduate learning. In taking this approach, the author presents new tools of analysis—borrowed from cognitive science, economics, data analytics, education technology and measurement science—to investigate higher education’s place in society as a public or private good. By showing how these tools can be utilized to re-orient current research, this volume offers scholars and policy makers an argument for the large-scale use of scientific and economic approaches to higher education’s most pressing issues.

The consequences of changing comparative advantage are transforming the economic landscapes of nations and regions around the globe. This book deals with the most significant economic factors in the rapidly changing Pacific Basin area. Part 1 considers the area’s changing patterns of industrial development and trade and examines the general implications of such changes for national industrial development policies. Part 2 consists of a set of case studies of national industrial policies in the context of factors affecting industrial structures; how applicable these policies are to other countries in the region is a central theme. Part 3 addresses the specific issues of foreign investment and domestic labor in relation to economic growth and industrial development in the Pacific Basin. Finally, in Part 4 institutional arrangements are suggested that would facilitate economic growth while, at the same time, mitigating the serious negative consequences of changing economic advantage. Such negative consequences are to some extent pervasive and can destabilize social and political development and endanger formal and informal alliances; nevertheless, the segment of humanity that has adequate food, clothing, and shelter is being permanently widened in the Pacific Basin.

With this volume, the author demonstrates how a collective goods approach to higher education research can alleviate problems of rising costs, declining resources, and growing concerns about undergraduate learning. In taking this approach, the author presents new tools of analysis—borrowed from cognitive science, economics, data analytics, education technology and measurement science—to investigate higher education’s place in society as a public or private good. By showing how these tools can be utilized to re-orient current research, this volume offers scholars and policy makers an argument for the large-scale use of scientific and economic approaches to higher education’s most pressing issues.

Paul Klee experienced his 1914 trip to Tunisia as a major breakthrough for his art: Color and I are one," he famously wrote. I am a painter." Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia sets the scene for Klee's breakthrough with a close study of the parallel voyage undertaken in 1904 5 by Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Munter, who would later become Klee's friends. This artist couple, then at an early stage in their celebrated careers, produced a rich body of painting and photography known only to specialists. Paul Klee's 1914 trip with August Macke and Louis Moilliet, in contrast, is a vaunted convergence of cubism and the exotic. Roger Benjamin refigures these two seminal voyages in terms of colonial culture and politics, the fabric of ancient Tunisian cities, visual ethnography, and the tourist photograph. The book looks closely at the cities of Tunis, Sousse, Hammamet, and Kairouan to flesh out a profound confrontation between European high modernism and the wealth of Islamic lifeways and architecture. Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia offers a new understanding of how the European avant-garde was formed in dialogue with cultural difference.

Using a political economy framework to analyze the current problems facing US post-secondary education, The New Limits of Education Policy tackles the questions surrounding the future of higher education. This study provides an explanation as to why improvement of teaching and learning is not a high priority for the stakeholders involved. Roger Benjamin explains why heightened recognition by the State of the importance of human capital in the knowledge economy will create the external conditions that will, in turn, create the need for an altered incentive system for these stakeholders. He goes on to make a case for additional positive incentives that would reward behavior that improves teaching and learning. The political economy framework used here suggests that post-secondary education is a common pool problem (CPP) that may soon become a permanent crisis - a tragedy of the commons. The popular consensus that the post-secondary education sector, the venue for enhancing human capital, is not doing a good enough job is now combined with the prospect of continued rising costs and declining resources for colleges and universities. Anticipating a national debate about the CPP, Roger Benjamin emphasizes the need for evidence-based decision making to assist leaders in improving quality and reducing costs. The New Limits of Education Policy is an eye-opening, critical read for anyone with a vested interest in the future of higher education, including policy makers, administrators, and students and scholars of economics and public policy.

Examines several approaches to establishing visions, strategic plans, and implementation plans for the Chancellor's office to develop a strategic and performance planning process. The DoD is one of the largest employers of civilians in the nation, and ensuring high-quality education, training, and development is an important part of maintaining the quality of that workforce. Thus, the Department of Defense Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development was established in 1998 as the principal advocate for the academic quality and cost-effectiveness of all DoD institutions, programs, and courses of instruction that provide education or professional development for DoD civilians. This study examines several approaches to establishing visions, strategic plans, and implementation plans for the Chancellor's office in its effort to develop a strategic and performance planning process. The authors conducted case studies of strategic planning in comparable institutions with reputations for high performance. The authors also reviewed the literature on strategic planning and conducted interviews to gather information from institutional leaders. The report describes a framework for analyzing strategic planning; key trends affecting DoD civilian education, training, and development; challenges facing the Chancellor's office; and lessons learned from the case studies. (PB)

One outcome of the declining economic growth and rising political conflict of the 1980s has been a renewed interest in political theory and increased questioning about the durability of the capitalist state. More and more political scientists are critically assessing the prevailing pluralist vision of the relationships between the state and the economy. Is the capitalist state able to adjust to crises and contradictions? What is the role of the state in changing--deteriorating--economic circumstances? How should we understand competing interpretations on the relative autonomy of the state, the nature of property rights, the legitimation crisis? This collection of five original essays by seven of the best-known political-economy theorists addresses the interconnections between the economy and the polity and embodies the leading theoretical approaches to the political economy of the state.