Suchergebnisse

This paper provides an overview of research evaluation practices across countries. The main aim is to investigate whether research assessment is implemented and to see to what extent its results are used to revise policy strategies, identify new research priorities, allocate financial resources or enhance public understanding of R&D. The paper addresses a set of cases studies, four within Europe (UK, Finland, Italy, and Spain) and two outside (US and Japan). Each case study provides an outline of the strategies devised to improve the domestic science system; offers a map of the main actors of science policy and introduces the main performers of research assessment. A short overview of how evaluation is approached at European level is also given. The study shows that approaches vary significantly from case to case and that it is not always possible to identify a clear research evaluation framework. In some cases, new strategies have been devised to improve the research system and the process of renovation has affected the structure and the role of research assessment. Overall, official documents across countries emphasise that research evaluation is not a means in itself, and call on its use as a policy design tool. However, very few cases of "management by results" can be identified. The success of research evaluation practice is always tied to strong cultural support and it is where research assessment meets with reluctance and mistrust that it yields no fruit. The absence of an "evaluative culture" is the main obstacle to an efficient research evaluation system.

National audience ; In Vietnam, the marketing of fruits and vegetables is characterized by a diversity of distribution chains that includes formal markets, street vendors, shops and supermarkets. Presently, the government is promoting the expansion of supermarket distribution and eliminating all informal trade. The study investigates the hypothesis that due to the use of labor-saving and capital intensive technologies employed by supermarkets, poorer segments of the population may be excluded from potential benefits. Surveys of poor consumers. access to different retailing points were made in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Case studies built around vegetable, lychee and flavored rice chains based on in-depth interviews with representative samples of stakeholders along the chains investigated poor farmers. and traders. participation in distribution value chains. Markets and street vendors are still the dominant forces in food distribution when measured by absolute quantities sold and number of people employed. Street vending and markets generate substantially more employment by volume of business than supermarkets, especially for the poor. They are also the main points of sale for the poor consumers, who rarely purchase in supermarkets, because of price and distance constraints. Poor farmers have no direct access to supermarkets because of the requirements in terms of safety (for vegetables), quantities and conditions of delivery (for all products). Yet they can be indirect suppliers of supermarkets through belonging to (or contracting with) farmers. associations that are involved in quality development and control through training and credit programs. Policy recommendations aimed at maintaining the diversity of retail trade are finally made.

In Vietnam, the marketing of fruits and vegetables is characterized by a diversity of distribution chains that includes formal markets, street vendors, shops and supermarkets. Presently, the government is promoting the expansion of supermarket distribution and eliminating all informal trade. The study investigates the hypothesis that due to the use of labor-saving and capital intensive technologies employed by supermarkets, poorer segments of the population may be excluded from potential benefits. Surveys of poor consumers' access to different retailing points were made in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Case studies built around vegetable, lychee and flavored rice chains based on in-depth interviews with representative samples of stakeholders along the chains investigated poor farmers' and traders' participation in distribution value chains. Markets and street vendors are still the dominant forces in food distribution when measured by absolute quantities sold and number of people employed. Street vending and markets generate substantially more employment by volume of business than supermarkets, especially for the poor. They are also the main points of sale for the poor consumers, who rarely purchase in supermarkets, because of price and distance constraints. Poor farmers have no direct access to supermarkets because of the requirements in terms of safety (for vegetables), quantities and conditions of delivery (for all products). Yet they can be indirect suppliers of supermarkets through belonging to (or contracting with) farmers' associations that are involved in quality development and control through training and credit programs. Policy recommendations aimed at maintaining the diversity of retail trade are finally made.

National audience ; In Vietnam, the marketing of fruits and vegetables is characterized by a diversity of distribution chains that includes formal markets, street vendors, shops and supermarkets. Presently, the government is promoting the expansion of supermarket distribution and eliminating all informal trade. The study investigates the hypothesis that due to the use of labor-saving and capital intensive technologies employed by supermarkets, poorer segments of the population may be excluded from potential benefits. Surveys of poor consumers. access to different retailing points were made in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Case studies built around vegetable, lychee and flavored rice chains based on in-depth interviews with representative samples of stakeholders along the chains investigated poor farmers. and traders. participation in distribution value chains. Markets and street vendors are still the dominant forces in food distribution when measured by absolute quantities sold and number of people employed. Street vending and markets generate substantially more employment by volume of business than supermarkets, especially for the poor. They are also the main points of sale for the poor consumers, who rarely purchase in supermarkets, because of price and distance constraints. Poor farmers have no direct access to supermarkets because of the requirements in terms of safety (for vegetables), quantities and conditions of delivery (for all products). Yet they can be indirect suppliers of supermarkets through belonging to (or contracting with) farmers. associations that are involved in quality development and control through training and credit programs. Policy recommendations aimed at maintaining the diversity of retail trade are finally made.

Diet and nutrition, particularly among low‐income groups, is a key public health concern in the UK. Low levels of fruit and vegetable consumption, and obesity, especially among children, have potentially severe consequences for the future health of the nation. From a public health perspective, the UK government's role is to help poorer families make informed choices within healthy frameworks for living. However, the question is – to what extent are such policies in accordance with lay experiences of managing diet and nutrition on a low‐income? This paper critically examines contemporary public health policies aimed at improving diet and nutrition, identifying the underlying theories about the influences on healthy eating in poor families, and exploring the extent to which these assumptions are based on experiential accounts. It draws on two qualitative systematic reviews – one prioritizing low‐income mothers' accounts of 'managing' in poverty; and the other focusing on children's perspectives. The paper finds some common ground between policies and lay experiences, but also key divergencies. Arguably, the emphasis of public health policy on individual behaviour, coupled with an ethos of empowered consumerism, underplays material limitations on 'healthy eating' for low‐income mothers and children. Health policies fail to take into account the full impact of structural influences on food choices, or recognize the social and emotional factors that influence diet and nutrition. In conclusion, it is argued that while health promotion campaigns to improve low‐income families' diets do have advantages, these are insufficient to outweigh the negative effects of poverty on nutrition.

In this article I propose an investigation into the value of humanism in his work, through a journey along certain intellectual routes that lead us to situate it at the antipodes of post-modernism. To this end, I would like to show how in his work we find an intellectual and political paradox that could bear unsuspected fruit in the design of academic and political agendas in countries subjected to colonial experiences, as is the case with Latin Americans. The paradox to which I refer is the coexistence in Said's work of theoretical and political elements that are the foundations of post-modernism together with humanism. Humanism, we know, is the main target of postmodern criticism and the theoretical and political object that postmodernists have set out to destroy. ; En este artículo propongo una indagación en torno al valor del humanismo en su obra, mediante el recorrido por ciertas rutas intelectuales que nos llevan a situarlo en las antípodas del posmodernismo. Para esto quisiera mostrar cómo en su obra se encuentra una paradoja intelectual y política que podría arrojar frutos insospechados en el diseño de agendas académicas y políticas en países sometidos a experiencias coloniales, como sucede con los latinoamericanos. La paradoja a la que me refiero es a la coexistencia en la obra de Said de elementos teóricos y políticos fundacionales del posmodernismo junto al humanismo. El humanismo, sabemos, es el principal blanco de las críticas posmodernas y el objeto teórico y político que los posmodernos se han propuesto destruir.

Malgré toute la modernité qui caractérise nos sociétés, nombre de phénomènes paraissent encore et toujours en attente de politiques et d'actions adéquates et concertées. La santé n'échappe évidemment pas à cette situation, et ce malgré, les préoccupations croissantes en la matière. La difficulté est d'autant plus insurmontable que la santé représente un domaine d'investigation gigantesque où se croisent, si l'on adopte la définition de l'OMS1, une myriade d'acteurs de terrain en prise avec une quantité potentiellement illimitée de dimensions influençant la santé. Si les conditions de vie semblent s'améliorer dans un certain nombre de pays, on peut regretter que ce constat ne puisse être étendu à l'ensemble de la planète. L'objectif poursuivi par les pays fondateurs de l'OMS en 1946 d'atteindre le plus haut niveau de santé pour l'ensemble des individus, reste donc encore et toujours devant nous.Si tout le monde sait que la santé ne se décrète pas, personne ne niera que la santé est le fruit de la rencontre de « circonstances » qui sont par contre produites par nos sociétés. Les pouvoirs publics ont, dans ce contexte, une part de responsabilité indéniable. Plus précisément, les mandataires publics ont pour mission, à tout le moins dans les systèmes politiques démocratiques, d'assurer à l'ensemble de la population, des conditions de vie acceptables. Si l'on concentre son attention sur les pays les plus favorisés, on se rend compte de l'existence d'un certain nombre de difficultés pour une gestion cohérente et efficace de la santé.

Across the European Community the demand for organically produced agricultural produce of all kinds (corn, fruit, vegetables etc) continues to rise at an exponential rate and the supply of locally produced organic products, although increasing slowly, is considerably less. Consequently organic produce is imported from around the world in order to satisfy demand; the average journey from farm to consumer of organic produce is 4,000 kilometres, with associated pollution effects of transportation. At the same time the European Commission openly espouses the free market philosophy which supposedly matches supply with demand while continuing to maintain its controversial Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which is supposedly designed to support local farmers in producing the products demanded by local consumers, with the cost being incurred by those consumers in the form of higher prices. EC policy would therefore seem designed to promote locally grown organic produce but this is not happening; instead chemically based agriculture continues to predominate. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for this through a review and critique of the European regulations concerning the support of farming. In doing so we argue that there are both intended and unintended consequences of the application of CAP throughout the EC and that one of the unintended consequences is that Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is increasingly becoming the norm across Europe. In considering the causes of this we argue that one major cause is predicated in accounting and its persistent failure to adequately account for externalities.

The Senegal case study looks at one example of how adaptation and mitigation can be usefully combined in a way which enhances incomes and diversifies livelihoods of the poor, while also securing benefits for biodiversity, gender equality and carbon sequestration. The case study describes how a pilot farm in Niayes, Senegal, launched in the 1970s, has evolved over time to address significant variations in climate change. The Sébikotane programme has had to adapt to successive droughts, a drying climate and a growing population increasingly gravitating to urban centres. Planting dense perennial hedges that act as windbreakers helps to generate an agriculturally conducive microclimate. Traditional predominantly rain-fed forms of agriculture have been replaced by irrigation-based commercial crops. The windbreakers fight wind-related soil erosion and desiccation of crops, which had not previously been addressed. They also provide valuable fuelwood for cooking, lessening the burden on girls and women to collect wood. The use of windbreaks to "produce the environment" has led to increased production of fruit and vegetables for commercial sale in domestic and high-value export markets as well as demonstrated carbon sequestration benefits. It also provides employment for young people and has helped train a new generation of farmers. The innovations and adaptation practises used in Sébikotane have been taken up nationally and supported internationally as being relevant to other sub-Saharan countries, as they illustrate an innovative, integrated way of managing the environment to provide adaptation and mitigation benefits locally as well as globally. (IDS Bull/GIGA)

Compares identity vs economic bases of public support for European integration, seen as an expansive form of authority migration. An economic explanation of citizen support for European integration comprises six lines of theorizing. It is argued that economic theories of preference formation bear the most fruit when economic consequences are perceived with some accuracy, are large enough to matter, & when individual choices actually affect the outcome. Discussion turns to the idea of preferences driven by national identity, distinguishing between exclusive & inclusive national identity. To measure support for integration, three complementary components of support are combined: the principle of membership, the desired speed of integration, & the desired direction of future integration. While economic interest does account for about 15% of variance in public opinion, such influences are trumped by identity. National identity can contribute to or undermine support for integration. This is seen as a function of the degree to which national identity is exclusive or inclusive. An exclusive national identity usually results in more Euroskepticism, but there is variation across countries. This might be explained by the extent of elite polarization on the subject of integration; the wider the disagreement the more exclusive identity is mobilized against European integration. It is concluded that it is more useful to explore relative causal power of economic vs identity theories of preference; with identity emerging as the more powerful influence, its theoretical complexity & political implications are touched on in closing. 1 Table, 2 Figures, 1 Appendix, 46 References. J. Zendejas

This article focuses on the formal similarities between Christianity and the Islam resent during the later middle ages — a period in which both legacies subscribed to a relatively totalitarian societal condition manifested in the existence of their respective empires. The ideal of the Corpus Christi as the societas perfecta of medieval Christianity is explained in the light of the contest between church and state during the later middle ages. This legacy was eventually challenged by an intellectual movement initiated by John the Scott and William of Ockham that caused the breaking apart of the former ecclesiastically unified culture. The alternative development within the Islam world is sketched before the spirit of modernity is explained as a secularization of biblical Christianity. Humanism initially inspired explicitly totalitarian theories of the state. It was only within the Protestant countries of Europe that the modern constitutional state under the rule of law emerged, accompanied by a process of societal differentiation unparalleled in world history. Although the more recent attempts of Islamic countries to benefit from the fruits of the modern natural sciences inspired them to introduce the teaching of the natural sciences within the Muslim world, these countries did not succeed in benefiting from the significant transformation of the medieval empires into modern democratic states. Since the Muslim world is still embedded in the relatively undifferentiated embrace of a societal setting guided and integrated by the Muslim faith it did not succeed as yet to transcend the inherent limitations entailed in a typical empire in the classical sense of the word.

Vyatcheslav Dachitchev's Moskaus Griff nach der Weltmacht. Die bitteren Fruchte hegemonialer Politik ([Moscow's Reach for World Power. The Bitter Fruits of Hegemonist Policy] Hamburg: Verlag E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 2002) is reviewed. Dachitchev's curriculum vitae is outlined, & his function as a foreign policy adviser to the Soviet government when leading the foreign policy section of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in the years 1972-1985 is mentioned. Dachitchev's position papers & memoranda to Leonid Brezhnev, Yuriy Andropov, & Mikhail Gorbachev warning of the pitfalls of Soviet hegemonist confrontation with the West & advocating the need for economic reforms in internal policy are discussed. Dachitchev is credited with the "new thinking" of the Gorbachev government & its favorable position vis-a-vis the reunification of Germany. Dachitchev is quoted calling the Berlin Wall a "relic of the cold war" & dismissing the Brezhnev doctrine of the limited sovereignty of socialist states as historically settled. Dachitchev's warning against the dangers of the Soviet expansionist policy driven by communist messanism is found to be applicable to the American arrogance in its present-day foreign policy; the Russian historian argues that the US is not immune to the fate that met all superpowers when they fell into the trap of imperial overreach. It is concluded that the special value of Dachitchev's book is in its offering an insight into the critique of a hegemonist stance carried out from an Eastern perspective & thus complementing similar warnings voiced by commentators & scholars in the West, eg, Brzezinski, Zbigniew,1997. Z. Dubiel

Le cd-rom contient le mémoire hdr soutenu en 2003 à l'Université Montpellier 1, Faculté de sciences économiques, intitulé : "Synthèse des travaux et d'animation de recherches" ainsi qu'une présentation powerpoint en anglais et une synthèse du dossier hdr. Le parcours scientifique peut être résumé en une introduction progressive des aspects environnementaux et de gestion des ressources naturelles, particulièrement l'eau, dans l'analyse économique des filières agroalimentaires, avec la filière viticole comme porte d'entrée. La synthèse des travaux de recherche porte sur : - 1.L'économie agricole et agroalimentaire (études sur les filières viticole, oléicole, de fruits et légumes et sur les produits forestiers secondaires ; dynamique des modèles de consommation alimentaire en Europe centrale ; approvisionnement alimentaire urbain et sur la libéralisation des filières d'exportation en Afrique), - 2. L'économie de l'environnement (externalités du secteur viticole ; externalités des autres secteurs de l'agro-industrie ; gestion d'effluents d'élevage à l'Ile de la Réunion ; gestion de la ressource en eau au niveau du bassin en Afrique du Sud), - 3. Les recherches en cours et perspectives (instruments et méthodologies pour la mise en place durable d'institutions décentralisées pour la gestion de l'eau en Afrique du Sud ; utilisation de modèles de simulation pour la gestion individuelle et collective des effluents d'élevage porcin - Application au cas de Grand-Ilet-Ile de la Réunion). La synthèse de l'animation, la coordination de projets, le transfert, l'expertise et l'enseignement porte sur : - 1. L'administration et coordination de projets de recherche et développement, - 2. L'animation scientifique, enseignement, encadrement de jeunes chercheurs et de stagiaires, - 3. Les fonctions de transfert et divulgation des connaissances, insertion internationale

Not Available ; Agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries provide maximum employment in the primary sector and form the major source of income and livelihood security of about 70 percent of the population in India. After the introduction of the liberalisation policy and giving thrust for the adoption of improved technologies, there has been a spectacular increase in production in all these segments and the country has witnessed a rapid structural change. Massive adoption of scientific inventions and technological interventions witnessed revolutionary changes in all sectors of development and quality of life of people. Achieving self-sufficiency on food front has been one of the finest Indian successes of the post independence era. The food grain production increased four times (from 50.8 million tonnes during 1950-51 to 198.7 million tonnes during 2000-01) since independence as compared to the three-fold increase in population. Further significant advances have also been made in the production of milk, fish, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables. In fisheries, the country has ushered in the blue revolution with gross production reaching 5.6 million metric tonnes offish and edible invertebrates during 2000- 2001. India is the second largest Asian country in terms of culture fisheries and the third largest in terms of capture fisheries (NAAS, 2001). Due to concerted efforts on strategic research and production technology in oilseeds sector, the country witnessed yellow revolution with the production reaching 25 million tonnes per annum. This was possible as a result of strong agricultural research support provided by the National Agricultural Research System (NARS). ; Not Available

The smoky mouse, Pseudomys fumeus, is an endangered rodent for which ecological information is lacking across much of its range. This paper provides the first detailed study of the local diet and habitat preference of P. fumeus since 1980, conducted on the recently discovered Nullica population in New South Wales. Diet and trap-revealed movements were examined in conjunction with 18 characteristics of habitat to determine the factors influencing habitat choice. Multiple logistic regression of habitat variables and capture locations revealed a floristically determined preference for heath habitat characterised by Epacris impressa, Monotoca scoparia, Leptospermum trinervium, Xanthorrhoea spp. and a variety of legumes. Hypogeal fungi and seeds were the most common food items in the diet of P. fumeus. Fungi were most abundant in winter diet, while seeds and fruit became dominant in late spring and summer. The spring and summer preference for ridge-top heath habitats observed in this study is probably the result of this dietary preference. Resident females constituted 71% of the population in early spring. However, there was a severe decline in numbers of female mice during early spring, and resident males also disappeared from the population. Causes of the decline were unclear. Five of eleven males captured during this study were transient, while no transient females were caught. The sudden decline in the study population, combined with the patchy distribution of suitable habitat and high level of male transience, suggests that P. fumeus form a metapopulation in the Nullica region.