Suchergebnisse

Sikring af en fremtid med minimal udledning af CO2 vil kræve en lang række transformationer. Hvordan sådanne transformationer forestilles, indrammes og styres herunder det meget grundlæggende spørgsmål om, hvad beslutningsgrundlaget er for at imødegå de nuværende klimaforandringer. Denne afhandling fokuserer på institutionernes rolle i multi-level, multi-actor og multi-factor –"governance" af klimakompatibel udvikling. Den sigter mod at forbedre vores forståelse af potentielle transformationskilder ved at spørge, hvordan bæredygtighedens ideer styrer imod et samfund med minimal udledning af CO2. Afhandlingen undersøger af politiske problemer, indholdet af politiske forslag og den politiske dagsorden for de nuværende politikker og reformkravene omkring begrænsning af klimaforandringer. Spørgsmålet er rettet ud fra en kombination af perspektiver fra styringsteori og konstruktivistisk institutionel tilgang. Empirisk er denne afhandling baseret på fire separate casestudier præsenteret i individuelle artikler. En kortlægning af frivillige CO2-offset projekter i regionen syd for Sahara og deres konceptualiseringer af bæredygtighed for at fremhæve ideerne bag de kommercielle løsninger til begrænsning af klimaændringerne er undersøgt. Ved at undersøge grønne vækststrategier i Vietnam blev det påvist, hvordan den nuværende institutionelle kontekst er linket til programmatiske ideer om, hvordan man opnår langsigtet transformation. I tilfælde af etableringen af baseline til udvikling af nationale klima projekter (NAMA'er) i byggesektoren i Vietnam blev spørgsmålet om international videnspraksis rolle i udvikling af nationale love undersøgt. Endelig præsenteres udviklingen af elektricitetsinfrastruktur, hvordan CO2 venlige energisystemsreformer viser sig at være berettiget inden for to forskellige socio-teknologiske rammer: Mexico og Vietnam. På den ene side konstaterede resultaterne, at de over tid ved at påberåbe og appellerer til argumenter i forbindelse med neoliberalismens ideer og principper - såsom liberalisering af elektricitetssektoren, modernisering og grøn miljømæssig udvikling - begrænsning af klimaforandringer og CO2 venlig udvikling mere acceptabelt inden for sektorpolitikker. På den anden side viste analysen, hvordan politikeksperter og teknokrater bruger deres epistemiske magt og evner til at begrænse debattens omfang, hvilket begrænser omfanget af politiske reaktioner. Når der ikke er nogen grundlæggende transformationsskift i baggrunden og programmatiske ideer om udvikling, legitimerer aktører, der rammer den institutionelle kontekst inden for en rådende ramme, de konservative ideer i klimaforvaltningen yderligere. For eksempel bliver løsninger, der normaliserer nødvendigheden af fossile brændstoffer i el-produktion, samtidig med at den grønne vækst motiverer økonomisk vækst, dybere indlejret i udviklingssporerne. Konceptualisering af politiske problemer og løsninger i de fremlagte sager har resulteret i, at de etablerede aktører anvender ganske konventionelle instrumenter i den teknologiske markedsbaserede løsning i mangel af alternative og/eller mere transformative visioner om udvikling. Samlet set bidrager denne afhandling til igangværende debatter om indenrigspolitik og politikformulering af "grønne transformationer" og tilføjer udviklingslandenes kontekst. Dette arbejde hævder, at der er behov for at stimulere en kritisk refleksion overfor eksisterende klimavenlige løsninger. Den hævder ydermere, at styringsvalg, f.eks. ved udvikling af el-infrastruktur eller energieffektivitet i bygninger eller af en bredere vifte af CO2 reducerende tiltag, ikke kun skal defineres ved teknologiske løsninger. Lige så vigtigt er vedholdenheden af ideer, der bruges til at retfærdiggøre og legitimere reformer ved at mobilisere diskurser om energiforsyning og sikkerhed som en del af bredere mål for at opretholde socioøkonomisk stabilitet og forfølge strategier for udvikling af grøn vækst. Denne afhandling illustrerer, at klimavenlig udvikling ikke kun skal være teknisk, institutionelt eller økonomisk gennemførlig, men også muligt politisk at omsætte til handling. Foranstaltninger til institutionalisering af langsigtet transformation vil næppe være effektive, hvis ideerne om transformation mangler evnen til at udfolde sig inden for de parametre, som styringsregimer fastsætter. ; Securing a low-carbon future will require a multitude of 'low-carbon transformations'. The issues are how such transformations are imagined and framed, along which pathways and who steers them, including the very basic question of what decisions are made to transform the present challenges to climate change governance. Understanding of the politics of these governance challenges is important in explaining which pathways are supported or delegitimised and which are ignored and fail to get off the ground. This dissertation focuses on the role of institutions and ideas in the multilevel, multi-actor and multi-factor governance of climate-compatible development. It aims to improve our understanding of potential endogenous sources of transformation by asking how ideas of sustainability influence the governance of a low-carbon society. It investigates the construction of policy problems, the content of policy proposals and the political agenda of present policies and reform imperatives around climate change mitigation and lowcarbon development. The question is addressed using a combination of perspectives, including governance theory and the constructivist institutional approach. Empirically, this dissertation is based on four separate case studies presented in individual articles. The study of voluntary carbon market mitigation projects in the Sub-Saharan region maps out the market actors and their conceptualisations of sustainability to highlight the ideas behind marketbased solutions to climate change mitigation. In examining national climate change mitigation and green growth strategies in Vietnam, it was demonstrated how the current institutional context relates to the background to long-term transformation and programmatic ideas about how to achieve it. In the study of baseline setting in developing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in the building sector in Vietnam, the role of international knowledge practices in national policy-making was questioned. Finally, the examination of electricity infrastructure development showed how reforms to low-carbon energy systems are justified in two different sociotechnological settings: Mexico and Vietnam. On the one hand, the findings indicated that over time, by invoking and appealing to arguments associated with the ideas and principles of ix neoliberalism climate change mitigation and low-carbon development, agendas have become more acceptable in the formation of sectoral policies. On the other hand, the analysis shows how policy experts and technocrats use their epistemic power and ideational abilities to limit the scope of debate, thus constraining the range of policy responses. When there are no fundamental transformational shifts in the background and in programmatic ideas about development, the actors that frame the institutional context within a prevailing framework further legitimise conservative ideas about climate governance. For instance, solutions normalising the temporal necessity of fossil fuels in electricity generation while justifying economic growth by means of green growth arguments become more deeply embedded in development trajectories. Narrow conceptualisations of policy problems and solutions in the cases presented here have resulted in incumbent actors resorting to quite conventional instruments of technological market-based fixes in the absence of alternative and/or more transformational visions of development. Overall, this dissertation contributes to on-going debates over domestic politics and policy-making regarding 'green transformations' and adds to the emerging policy field in developing countries contexts. It argues that there is a need to stimulate critical reflection on the existing assumptions regarding mitigation actions. It argues that governance choices, for example, in electricity infrastructure development or energy efficiency in buildings, or a broader range of mitigation actions, are not only defined by technological lockins. Equally important is the persistence of ideas that are used to justify and legitimise reforms by mobilising discourses on energy supply and security and framing energy transitions as part of wider goals to maintain socio-economic stability and pursue green growth development strategies. This dissertation shows that low-carbon development should not only be technically, institutionally and economically feasible, but also politically and ideationally feasible, to translate into action. Measures for institutionalising long-term transformation are unlikely to be effective if ideas about transformation cannot be developed within the parameters set by governance regimes. The key argument of this dissertation is that, for the governance of low-carbon societies, it is crucial to recognise that climate change mitigation actions are more than economic or technological challenges – they are politically charged. Paying attention to problem framings and to the diversity of multi-actor perspectives could facilitate novel responses to climate change and enable more inclusive forms of governance, as well as throwing light on the x fundamental incompatibility between and limited reach of generalised policy solutions and technological fixes.

The North Anatolian fault (NAF), a 1000 km-long dextral fault zone is known for its strong seismic hazard. It accommodates the westward motion of Anatolia, relative to Eurasia. In its western part, the NAF splits into three strands, one of which passing south of the Marmara sea and the Iznik lake. This NAF middle strand (MNAF) shows nowadays a very low seismic activity. However, this area has been characterized by a significant earthquake hazard over the last two millennia. Several ancient authors mention the occurrence of more than six destructive earthquakes that impacted Iznik (old Nicaea), which was an important political and religious centre during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Our study aims to constrain the recent seismic activity on the MNAF in the Iznik area at different time scales through a multidisciplinary approach coupling earth science and archeology.The first goal of this thesis is to develop the study of ancient buildings as archives of the historical seismicity by observing their successive damages and repairs. The city of Nicaea is appropriate for this kind of study as it presents several well preserved ancient buildings that bear traces of numerous repairs. I focus my study on the critical infrastructures for the city such as the 3 km-long protecting walls. This also includes the aqueduct that provided the city with water and is crossed by a segment of active fault, and a Roman basilica recently discovered underwater in the Iznik lake 20 m far from the shore. Applying different dating techniques (stratigraphy of the archaeological building, 14C) to the various materials of these buildings (terra cotta, mortar, concretions on the aqueduct), I was able to identify at least three damaging earthquakes since the 6th century AD. The amount of damage on these buildings allows to estimate local intensities at VIII on the European macroseismic scale (EMS98). Thanks to numerical simulations, I show that the current deformation visible on a Roman obelisk north of Iznik is compatible with magnitudes close to Mw 7 for epicentral distances smaller than 15 km.The second goal of this thesis is to constrain the Quaternary slip rate on the MNAF and better understand the formation of Iznik Lake, a 313 km²-large lake located just west of the city, which is the largest freshwater lake in the Marmara region. The main faults around the lake were mapped using a high-resolution DEM derived from Pleiades images. Geomorphic markers offset by the MNAF were systematically measured. The statistical analysis of the offsets revealed six major ruptures preserved in the landscape, with coseismic displacements between 2 and 6 m. The ages of three levels of lacustrine terraces north of the lake were quantified by radiocarbon and in-situ produced 10Be. A minimal horizontal slip rate of 2.9 mm/yr was estimated. The southward tilting of the lake paeloshorelines is compatible with a high vertical slip rate on the MNAF around 6 mm/yr.While working on the morphology and lithologies of the Iznik area, we have discovered significant evidence for LGM glacial events. The U-shaped morphology of several successive valleys east of Iznik Lake separated by topographic highs is interpreted as the print of past glaciers. This is confirmed by the presence of moraine deposits on the sides of the valleys, erratic blocks from various lithologies and glacio-lacustrine sediments. The geographical distribution of these morphological and lithological markers enabled us to reconstruct the former location and eastward retreat of this glacier. The absolute ages obtained from glacial deposits and alluvial sediments postponing the glaciation are compatible with paleoenvironmental proxies in Iznik Lake and previous studies of other Turkish LGM glaciers. This constitutes the first evidence of glaciation at low elevations in Turkey. ; La faille nord anatolienne (NAF), une zone de faille dextre longue de 1000 km est caractérisée par un fort aléa sismique. Elle accommode le mouvement vers l'ouest de l'Anatolie par rapport à l'Eurasie. Dans sa partie ouest, la NAF se divise en trois branches, dont une borde le sud de la mer de Marmara et du lac d'Iznik. Ce segment médian de la NAF (MNAF) présente aujourd'hui une très faible sismicité. Pourtant, cette zone se caractérise par un risque sismique élevé à l'échelle des deux derniers millénaires. Plus de six séismes sont décrits par les auteurs anciens et causèrent des destructions dans la ville d'Iznik (ancienne Nicée), un centre politique et religieux important aux époques hellénistique et romaine. Notre étude a pour but de contraindre l'activité sismique récente de la MNAF dans la région d'Iznik à plusieurs échelles de temps, par une approche pluridisciplinaire combinant géosciences et archéologie.Le premier objectif de cette thèse est de développer l'étude des bâtiments anciens comme archives de la sismicité historique en observant leurs endommagements et réparations successifs. La ville de Nicée est appropriée pour ce type d'étude puisqu'elle présente plusieurs bâtiments préservés portant les traces de nombreuses réparations. J'ai concentré mon travail sur des infrastructures critiques comme la muraille défensive longue de 3 km. Cela inclut aussi l'aqueduc de la ville, recoupé par une faille active, ainsi qu'une basilique romaine découverte récemment sous les eaux du lac d'Iznik à 20 m de la côte. En appliquant plusieurs techniques de datation (stratigraphie des édifices, 14C) sur les bâtiments, j'ai pu identifier au moins trois séismes sources d'endommagement depuis le 6e siècle. La répartition des dommages sur les bâtiments permet d'estimer des intensités locales de VIII sur l'échelle macrosismique européenne (EMS98). Grâce à des simulations numériques, je montre que les déformations visibles sur un obélisque romain au nord d'Iznik sont compatibles avec des magnitudes proches de Mw 7 pour des distances épicentrales inférieures à 15 km.Le deuxième objectif de cette thèse est de contraindre la vitesse de glissement quaternaire sur la MNAF et de mieux comprendre la formation du lac d'Iznik à l'ouest de la ville. Ce lac de 313 km² est le plus grand lac d'eau douce de la région de Marmara. Les principales failles autour du lac ont été cartées avec un MNT de haute résolution dérivé d'images Pléiades. Les marqueurs géomorphologiques décalés par la MNAF ont fait l'objet de mesures systématiques. L'analyse statistique de ces décalages a mis en évidence six ruptures majeures préservées dans le paysage, avec des déplacements cosismiques entre 2 et 6 m. Les âges de trois niveaux de terrasses lacustres au nord du lac ont été quantifiés par radiocarbone et 10Be produit in situ. J'ai pu déterminer un taux de glissement horizontal minimum de 2.9 mm/yr. Le basculement vers le sud des paléorivages est compatible avec un taux de glissement vertical élevé sur la MNAF autour de 6 mm/yr.En travaillant sur la morphologie et les lithologies de la région d'Iznik, nous avons découvert des preuves d'épisodes glaciaires LGM. La morphologie en U de plusieurs vallées à l'est du lac d'Iznik, séparées par des sauts topographiques correspond à l'empreinte d'anciens glaciers. Cette hypothèse est confirmée par la présence de moraines en bord de vallée, de blocs erratiques aux lithologies variées, et de sédiments glacio-lacustres. La distribution spatiale de ces marqueurs morphologiques et lithologiques nous permet de reconstruire l'emplacement et le retrait vers l'est de ce glacier. Les âges absolus des dépôts glaciaires et des alluvions postérieurs à la glaciation sont compatibles avec des proxies paléoenvironnementaux provenant du lac d'Iznik et les études réalisées sur d'autres glaciers turcs LGM. Il s'agit de la première découverte de glaciers à si basse altitude en Turquie.

Executive summary The aim of this report was to investigate the factors which effect poverty in rural education. The research was commissioned by the regional educational consortia ERW and GwE in February 2016 and was an 18 month study which completed in October 2017. Data presented in this research report was collected during the 2016-2017 academic year and data from 32,831 pupils, teachers, school managers and local authority officers are presented in five separate phases of the mixed method research. Phase 1 was an explorative qualitative study to gather perceptions of school managers with particular regard to rurality, poverty and educational attainment. Phase 2 of the research was based on the Phase 1 findings, being comprised of a quantitative investigation which adopted a multi-level framework to examine predictors of educational attainment in Key Stages 2 and 4. Phase 3 of the research was a stakeholder consultation with children and young people, where the 'Plickers' rapid response classroom polling app was used to collect and collate data about perceptions of poverty; this involved a total sample of 140 children and young people at Key Stages 2 and 4 in mostly rural schools. Phase 4 of the research involved a stakeholder consultation with local authorities. Twelve local authorities servicing the counties and schools where ERW and GwE are responsible for School Effectiveness and Improvement Service, were invited to participate in the research to answer a focused questionnaire on a range of issues relating to anti-poverty themes, education planning and evaluations within their local authority. This penultimate phase informed us further, particularly on the research objectives of extending knowledge on needs emanating from poverty, and the aspirations and perceptions of children in education in Wales. Phase 5 was an extended consultation with school managers using Hwb Cymru to host an on-line survey as a method for gathering the views of 107 school managers from mixed primary and secondary schools across 12 Welsh counties. In Phase 1, 12 qualitative emergent themes stemmed from the face-to-face semi-structured interview data and these are discussed in the summary of Phase 1. In Phase 2, national and local government databases were analysed in a multi-level framework and emergent relationships between pupil level and school level predictors and their effect on primary educational outcomes at Key Stages 2 and 4 are described in two models. In Phase 3, children and young people were consulted about their views on poverty and educational attainment. There was also clear evidence of a need to ensure that children are nourished well enough to concentrate in school and beyond. It was found that poverty diminishes the enjoyment of school experiences, especially through participation with peers, and that there seems to be a need to provide support for mental well-being, enjoyment and more beneficial social environments, suggesting a need for anti-stigma initiatives and counselling options. Not only will this assist with tackling worries from home, and any low aspirations, it may assist with barriers commonly experienced by pupils, e.g. with the pressures of attainment targets. It is also clear that a blaming culture causes difficulties for those in poverty, throughout the education system, from the top down. In Phase 4, the evidence suggests that local authorities were unclear about their role in tackling poverty as anti-poverty leads/champions were hard to reach. The research suggests that there appears to be a lack of a single point of accountability for tackling poverty within local authorities. In Phase 5, more school managers were asked about their opinions in via a Hwb Cymru on-line survey with an opportunity to provide written comments at the end. Most of the comments presented by the school managers echoed what was found in Phase 1 of the research, but with hidden deprivation highlighted. A clear theme arising from these responses was the inadequacy of FSMs as a measure of poverty, for either the schools or the individuals involved. Although most proffered their desire to meet unmet pupil needs, it was perceived that the potential to find creative solutions to the difficulties created, such as anti-stigma initiatives, was restricted; difficulties identified, such as low aspirations, the engagement of both parents and children with children's learning, and wider issues of community pride and well-being, were severely compromised by a lack of resources and the exigencies of external judgments, regulations and processes. In conclusion, the research found that there are multiple factors which affect educational attainment and poverty is only one of these factors. In Phase 1, school managers discussed what schools are doing to tackle disadvantage and poverty within rural school settings in Wales to reduce the inequalities in education between those who are living in deprivation and those who have more means. One of the main findings for Phase 1 was that effort and pragmatic initiatives from teachers aid the engagement of disadvantaged pupils. However, school managers were concerned that teacher initiatives were being supressed by heavy workloads. Phase 2 showed that rurality does not confound the effects of poverty and issues such as additional learning needs, attendance and poverty are substantial predictors of educational attainment. Phase 3 findings added to the evidence that poverty impacts on children and young peoples' experience and enjoyment of education in school. Phase 4 provided evidence that there seems to be a disparity between national policy directive on tackling poverty and how this is facilitated locally through local authorities. Dialogue and synergy between research based policy and policy implementation should have a pragmatic application but limited evidence of this was found. Phase 5 provided further evidence to reinforce the themes found in Phase 1. School managers from across 12 local authorities in Wales provided comments illustrating tackling poverty is a complex issue, and should include engagement with: cultural issues, the aspirations of parents, the culture of benefits and the need to recognise and understand that many parents work long hours in low paid jobs in Wales and have limited time to spend with their children. In turn, this places considerable restrictions on their capacity to undertake educational type activities outside of the classroom setting. Summary of recommendations 1. It is recommended that tackling poverty is a partnership between the school and the home. School managers should continue to work closely with engaging with parents to encourage them to believe that education begins at home. Current government initiatives to promote this idea should continue. 2. It is recommended that further quantitative longitudinal analysis from the end of the foundation phase would be invaluable in disentangling effects of some of the key factors on attainment. Funding to conduct this type of longitudinal research is needed. 3. It is recommended that consideration should be given to how poverty diminishes the enjoyment of school experiences, especially through participation with peers, that more resources should be available to provide support for mental well-being, anti-stigma initiatives and counselling options. Not only will this assist in reducing worries from home, and any low aspirations, it may assist with barriers commonly experienced by students, e.g. pressures of attainment targets. 4. It is recommended that local authorities should employ poverty champions rather than many employees in different departments working on different aspects of anti-poverty as an 'add-on' to their existing posts with no real certainty regarding how to tackle the issue on a strategic level. 5. It is recommended that social services are still needed to cooperate with families in need of support. Funding to tackle poverty should focus on empowering children and young people to value the long-term benefit of education.

Small Changes, a community organization in Malaysia (www.smallchangesmy.org), was founded in 2011 to raise funds and provide support for underprivileged individuals in the community. With an interesting tagline of Cultivating Volunteerism, Empowering Generations this community organizations has raised hundreds of thousands and has attracted tens of Malaysian students from local and overseas universities. The team consists of an enthusiastic group of young Malaysians who believe that it is possible to create big differences in the community with small changes. I had the pleasure of meeting the team in one of their social event in Kuala Lumpur. What you are going to read is the responses provided by the Vice President of Strategic Planning Unit, Mr. Muhammad Affan Othman, who kindly consented to an E-mail interview.The interviewVN[1]: Perhaps we could start with a short introduction of Small Changes. Could you please tell our readers about your organization and its objective?MAO[2]: Small Changes started from an idea coined by our founders in which they aspire to create social awareness by making one small change at a time. For example, they started helping flood victims in flood prone locations in Malaysia such as in Kelantan and reaching out orphanage by offering them some help in terms of financial aid. As the organization grows, they started diving into more projects that have diverse aims such as tackling education inequality, which is translated into our Seeds of Deeds initiative, which has been done annually since 2014. However, since 2016, Small Changes has decided to shift gears and start to focus on becoming an organization that offers a platform for volunteering for youths and at the same time empowering both its volunteers and its beneficiaries. These will be made possible through our projects that allow Malaysian youths to participate and become empowered as they are actively participating in a nation building effort. Through these projects, volunteers could experience a change of perspective in their worldview since most of them tend to come from a pool of people that do have a well-off background. They can see the disparities that do exist within Malaysia's realities when they actively participate in our projects.VN: What made you think of establishing Small Changes? What makes it special?MAO: Small Changes is an organization that was established with the aim of spreading consciousness among youths and empowering them in Malaysia. We often hear complaints about structural problems that exist in our society. Problems such as why we fail to speak English properly, low self-esteem among teenagers, and how we are always backwards as compared to other individuals in the first world countries. Small Changes capitalizes in its pool of volunteers where we try to incorporate volunteers from different backgrounds such as some who are studying abroad and some who are studying in local institutions. The ones who obtain their education abroad help share their exposure; for example, utilizing strategic tools that they are exposed to abroad which could help solve certain social problems that exist in Malaysia. Our volunteers who are studying locally could share the current issues that are deeply rooted in Malaysia and they, too, help to engage in discussions with officers from governmental institutions as a way to have constructive dialogues.VN: Do you have any interesting stories from your experiences with training underprivileged (if we should call them so) children?MAO: The underprivileged students from schools that Small Changes have reached out to so far have a problem of low self-esteem and they have a tendency to internalize their problems on their own. Conflicts and dilemmas are natural aspects of living except for we deal with them with various methods. To some, they are easy to handle, but more often than not, people do not know how to deal with their conflicts. The students that we have met, I would argue, do not have the proper skill in handling their dilemma. They have to meet the expectations set by their caregivers but at the same time they do not have the resources to meet these expectations. Sometimes, just engaging a normal conversation with them is enough to know that they are struggling. What Small Changes is doing is to make our volunteers aware that everyone needs help and a person of privilege should always be mindful that the privilege that one has should be shared. On the other end of this spectrum, we are also helping the students see that they do have an important role in the society.VN: These days most academicians and researchers in the area of education are obsessed with gaps in research. Has your experience revealed any interesting areas for impactful research?MAO: I would suggest that researchers should study the effectiveness of non-governmental organization initiatives in aiding areas such as education, students' performance after joining such initiatives, and myth about the Y generation (since most of them are doing more good than bad i.e. becoming volunteers, etc.).VN: Apart from gaps in research, do you see any gaps in educational practice that call for action?MAO: We do feel that teachers in general should be more open to the help that Malaysian students may have to offer. We do understand that there will be skepticism, but as an organization that takes pride in creating social awareness, we aspire to be held accountable in the initiatives that we implement. For example, the seeds of deeds camps are led by facilitators who have prior experience in working with youngsters and have had extensive volunteering experience. From the pool of experienced facilitators that we have, we make sure that our volunteers are trained by them with useful tips especially when dealing with high school students.VN: How can our readers (mostly academicians) join Small Changes in case they have ideas or would like to volunteer to help?MAO: As a non-governmental organization, we welcome everyone, especially university students as we want them to be exposed to certain realities that are not obvious to them. Not only that, our organization encourages people to volunteer, which means that people are forgoing their own self-interest putting others first. This is an effective mechanism in creating better human capital, as they are equipped with positive values that could help make a greater change in Malaysia.As for academicians, we welcome any form of collaborations, particularly in the area of programme content development and impact measurements. We believe research-based inputs will further refine the impact desired to our beneficiaries, solidify the aims and purposes of foundation of the organization.VN: What are some of the future directions of Small Changes?MAO: Small Changes plans to diversify in its efforts of creating more volunteering opportunities so that more people can do good and create change for the better. There is also the opportunity for the volunteers to be part of Small Changes' committee. That is definitely what we hope to see where our volunteers would be interested in holding leadership roles within the organization and continue to spread our values.We also aim at planning more critical projects. Small Changes aspire to invest long term planning to advance community that acts as the beneficiaries. We aim to generate a sustainable model to empower community as a whole rather than children-focused motivational camp. Following long term planning of project, we do include impact measurement mechanism to obtain real quantifiable measures on the impact of our project, to refine the lacking and reiterate on the best steps to take.VN: Do you have any final words for IJELS readers?MAO: To make huge changes in a short time span may be exasperating. The reason may be we humans are inherently good and just; however, we are not taught the proper way to make effective changes. Since we uphold to the notion of "Small Changes, Big Differences", we understand that indeed making change bit by bit can really create an instantaneous effect. Teaching a 17-year-old to speak up in a three-day-camp is challenging but to see the results, only if we were to be patient enough, is indeed a fulfilling feeling that no one ever told us about.[1] Vahid Nimehchisalem[2] Muhammad Affan Othman

El presente arti?culo se propone a realizar una revisio?n bibliogra? ca con el objetivo de presentar la mediacio?n como un medio de resolucio?n de conflictos, hoy pre- conizado en el nuevo Co?digo de Proceso Civil Brasilen?o –que entro? en vigor el 18.03.16– y tambie?n como instrumento de democratizacio?n del procedimiento judicial. Durante mucho tiempo la mediacio?n fue conocida solamente como medio alternativo de resolucio?n de con ictos y hoy gana status de norma judicial, consolida?ndose como un proceso justo a trave?s del cual se preconizan principios democra?ticos y ciudadanos. Una de las grandes propuestas de la mediacio?n es la de ofrecer a las partes la posibilidad de resini car sus papeles en el con icto, ejercitando una parte importante de la autonomi?a de los involucrados en el proceso. El presente estudio utilizara? como metodologi?a la revisio?n bibliogra? ca en las a?reas de las ciencias humanas, sociales y juri?dicas. En primer lugar, presenta un breve historial sobre la tema?tica de la mediacio?n y co?mo llego? a Brasil, siendo insertada en nuestro ordenamiento juri?dico. Posteriormente, describe los principios orientadores de la mediacio?n y sus proce- dimientos. Como resultado del trabajo realizado se concluyo? que el abordaje interdisciplinario es la mejor forma de lidiar con la complejidad de las cuestiones humanas que aparecen en los conflictos judiciales. Palabras clave:Ciudadania, Mediacio?n, Democratizacio?n del proceso. Abstract The present article proposes to carry out a bibliographical review with the objective of presenting mediation as a means of resolving conflicts, now presents at the new Code of Brazilian Civil Procedure - which came into force on March 18th 2016 - and also as a tool for democratizing the proceedings. For a long time, the mediation has been known only as an alternative means of conflict resolution and today it gains status as a norm in the judiciary, consolidating itself as a fair process through which democratic principles and citizens are praised. One of the great proposals of mediation is to offer to the parties the possibility of re-signifying their roles in the conflict, exercising a significant part of the autonomy of those involved in the process. Keywords:Citizenship, Mediation, Process democratization. Resumo O presente artigo se propo?e a realizar uma revisa?o bibliogra? ca com o objetivo apresentar a mediac?a?o como um meio de resoluc?a?o de con itos, hoje preconizado no novo Co?digo de Processo Civil Brasileiro - que entrou em vigor em 18.03.16 - e tambe?m como instrumento de democratizac?a?o do processo judicia?rio. Durante muito tempo a mediac?a?o foi conhecida somente como meio alternativo de resoluc?a?o de con itos e hoje ganha status de norma no judicia?rio, se consolidando como um processo justo atrave?s do qual se preconizam princi?pios democra?ticos e cidada?os. Uma das grandes propostas da mediac?a?o e? a de oferecer a?s partes a possibilidade de ressigni car os seus pape?is no con ito, exercitando uma parcela importante de autonomia dos envolvidos no processo. O presente estudo utilizara? como metodologia a revisa?o bibliogra? ca nas a?reas das cie?ncias humanas, sociais e juri?dicas. Primeiramente, apresenta um breve histo?rico sobre a tema?tica da mediac?a?o e como ela chegou ao Brasil, sendo inserida em nosso ordenamento juri?dico. Posteriormente, descreve os princi?pios norteadores da mediac?a?o e os seus procedimentos. Como resultado do tra- balho realizado concluiu-se que a abordagem interdisciplinar e? a melhor forma de lidar com a complexidade das questo?es humanas que aparecem nos con itos judiciais. Palavras-chave:Cidadania, Mediac?a?o, Democratizac?a?o do processo. ; El presente arti?culo se propone a realizar una revisio?n bibliogra? ca con el objetivo de presentar la mediacio?n como un medio de resolucio?n de conflictos, hoy pre- conizado en el nuevo Co?digo de Proceso Civil Brasilen?o –que entro? en vigor el 18.03.16– y tambie?n como instrumento de democratizacio?n del procedimiento judicial. Durante mucho tiempo la mediacio?n fue conocida solamente como medio alternativo de resolucio?n de con ictos y hoy gana status de norma judicial, consolida?ndose como un proceso justo a trave?s del cual se preconizan principios democra?ticos y ciudadanos. Una de las grandes propuestas de la mediacio?n es la de ofrecer a las partes la posibilidad de resini car sus papeles en el con icto, ejercitando una parte importante de la autonomi?a de los involucrados en el proceso. El presente estudio utilizara? como metodologi?a la revisio?n bibliogra? ca en las a?reas de las ciencias humanas, sociales y juri?dicas. En primer lugar, presenta un breve historial sobre la tema?tica de la mediacio?n y co?mo llego? a Brasil, siendo insertada en nuestro ordenamiento juri?dico. Posteriormente, describe los principios orientadores de la mediacio?n y sus proce- dimientos. Como resultado del trabajo realizado se concluyo? que el abordaje interdisciplinario es la mejor forma de lidiar con la complejidad de las cuestiones humanas que aparecen en los conflictos judiciales. Palabras clave:Ciudadania, Mediacio?n, Democratizacio?n del proceso. Abstract The present article proposes to carry out a bibliographical review with the objective of presenting mediation as a means of resolving conflicts, now presents at the new Code of Brazilian Civil Procedure - which came into force on March 18th 2016 - and also as a tool for democratizing the proceedings. For a long time, the mediation has been known only as an alternative means of conflict resolution and today it gains status as a norm in the judiciary, consolidating itself as a fair process through which democratic principles and citizens are praised. One of the great proposals of mediation is to offer to the parties the possibility of re-signifying their roles in the conflict, exercising a significant part of the autonomy of those involved in the process. Keywords:Citizenship, Mediation, Process democratization. Resumo O presente artigo se propo?e a realizar uma revisa?o bibliogra? ca com o objetivo apresentar a mediac?a?o como um meio de resoluc?a?o de con itos, hoje preconizado no novo Co?digo de Processo Civil Brasileiro - que entrou em vigor em 18.03.16 - e tambe?m como instrumento de democratizac?a?o do processo judicia?rio. Durante muito tempo a mediac?a?o foi conhecida somente como meio alternativo de resoluc?a?o de con itos e hoje ganha status de norma no judicia?rio, se consolidando como um processo justo atrave?s do qual se preconizam princi?pios democra?ticos e cidada?os. Uma das grandes propostas da mediac?a?o e? a de oferecer a?s partes a possibilidade de ressigni car os seus pape?is no con ito, exercitando uma parcela importante de autonomia dos envolvidos no processo. O presente estudo utilizara? como metodologia a revisa?o bibliogra? ca nas a?reas das cie?ncias humanas, sociais e juri?dicas. Primeiramente, apresenta um breve histo?rico sobre a tema?tica da mediac?a?o e como ela chegou ao Brasil, sendo inserida em nosso ordenamento juri?dico. Posteriormente, descreve os princi?pios norteadores da mediac?a?o e os seus procedimentos. Como resultado do tra- balho realizado concluiu-se que a abordagem interdisciplinar e? a melhor forma de lidar com a complexidade das questo?es humanas que aparecem nos con itos judiciais. Palavras-chave:Cidadania, Mediac?a?o, Democratizac?a?o do processo.

Migration of population is an integral part of demographic processes. For their comprehensive study of great importance to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of migrants and medium and long-term forecasting of trends and intensity of migration. This approach is extremely important because, according to UN projections, world population already in 2025 will be 8 billion people, and in 2045 it may reach 9 billion. Under the current population policy should be a decisive influence on the development of family birth children, career choices, employment, population dynamics, structure and population settlement. Around this important issue today should unite national, regional and worldwide policy in the regulation of population. Under the above conditions is extremely dangerous over-current mass migration from Asia and Africa to the European continent. This realization only now, after a series of terrorist attacks in the developed countries of the European Union comes to the minds of European leaders. Earlier in their approaches to migration policy dominated economic thinking, which prevented them and listen to the opinions of scientists, historians, sociologists, political scientists, demographers. At first glance, the logic in their actions was quite motivated, since about 90% of all international migrants is labor migration, which largely contributes to the prosperity of the host country. And this has prompted Western countries to open borders for migrants. But the problems caused by excessive migration incommensurable with economic success. Excessive flow of migrants has led to the growth of ethnic tensions in Europe. First and foremost, on the formation of the territory of the European powers closed areas inhabited by certain ethnic groups. The economic effect of the influx of immigrants already in the medium term appears illusory disappear as incentives for innovation. Cheap labor needs conservation cheap, simplified means of production of certain products, slow process of internal integration of the population. Under pressure from excessive migration eroded European idea of open borders. Establishment of an international migration regime impede intense competition of international migration policy, protection of national labor markets, inequality of opportunities of European states, upholding the priority rights of its citizens on universal human rights. Cigarette migrants as second class people in their environment generates aggression, which is successfully used by representatives of the so- called Islamic State and other terrorist groups. On the other hand directed against migrants growing sentiment and xenophobia among the local population. This leads to confrontation and even open conflict. The most acute problems of migration policy of the EU is the failure of certain positions of the individual Member States. This applies in particular to refugee admission procedures. Among the reasons for the spread of illegal migration is flawed system deportation of refugees in the EU. According to the experts, only a third actually executed decisions to refuse asylum. In terms of migration invasion offset joint agreement on the protection of external borders, as some countries (especially the Balkans, through which there is transit migration flows - Greece, Hungary, Serbia) begin to violate regulations and Brussels to protect its borders all available national means.Global scale migration challenges requires the development of coordinated global strategies of the European Union and individual states, particularly those with limited tools of influence on international migration. This is especially true in Central and Eastern Europe, which is still quite time to prepare their own migration program until the main migration pressure falls on the west European countries with high social standards. Ukraine under these conditions should make greater use of opportunities for cooperation with the EU in the field of migration. In particular, it is necessary to violate European partners question development and implementation of EU support joint projects to facilitate the return of Ukrainian labor migrants and education at home; take into account developments in the development of EU legal instruments in the field of migration, to assess the submitted draft laws for compliance with the basic principles of the EU migration policy; initiate the development of circular migration patterns between Ukraine and the EU jointly develop mechanisms for its implementation. ; Migration of population is an integral part of demographic processes. For their comprehensive study of great importance to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of migrants and medium and long-term forecasting of trends and intensity of migration. This approach is extremely important because, according to UN projections, world population already in 2025 will be 8 billion people, and in 2045 it may reach 9 billion. Under the current population policy should be a decisive influence on the development of family birth children, career choices, employment, population dynamics, structure and population settlement. Around this important issue today should unite national, regional and worldwide policy in the regulation of population.Under the above conditions is extremely dangerous over-current mass migration from Asia and Africa to the European continent. This realization only now, after a series of terrorist attacks in the developed countries of the European Union comes to the minds of European leaders. Earlier in their approaches to migration policy dominated economic thinking, which prevented them and listen to the opinions of scientists, historians, sociologists, political scientists, demographers. At first glance, the logic in their actions was quite motivated, since about 90% of all international migrants is labor migration, which largely contributes to the prosperity of the host country. And this has prompted Western countries to open borders for migrants. But the problems caused by excessive migration incommensurable with economic success.Excessive flow of migrants has led to the growth of ethnic tensions in Europe. First and foremost, on the formation of the territory of the European powers closed areas inhabited by certain ethnic groups. The economic effect of the influx of immigrants already in the medium term appears illusory disappear as incentives for innovation. Cheap labor needs conservation cheap, simplified means of production of certain products, slow process of internal integration of the population. Under pressure from excessive migration eroded European idea of open borders. Establishment of an international migration regime impede intense competition of international migration policy, protection of national labor markets, inequality of opportunities of European states, upholding the priority rights of its citizens on universal human rights. Cigarette migrants as second class people in their environment generates aggression, which is successfully used by representatives of the so- called Islamic State and other terrorist groups. On the other hand directed against migrants growing sentiment and xenophobia among the local population. This leads to confrontation and even open conflict.The most acute problems of migration policy of the EU is the failure of certain positions of the individual Member States. This applies in particular to refugee admission procedures. Among the reasons for the spread of illegal migration is flawed system deportation of refugees in the EU. According to the experts, only a third actually executed decisions to refuse asylum. In terms of migration invasion offset joint agreement on the protection of external borders, as some countries (especially the Balkans, through which there is transit migration flows - Greece, Hungary, Serbia) begin to violate regulations and Brussels to protect its borders all available national means.Global scale migration challenges requires the development of coordinated global strategies of the European Union and individual states, particularly those with limited tools of influence on international migration. This is especially true in Central and Eastern Europe, which is still quite time to prepare their own migration program until the main migration pressure falls on the west European countries with high social standards. Ukraine under these conditions should make greater use of opportunities for cooperation with the EU in the field of migration. In particular, it is necessary to violate European partners question development and implementation of EU support joint projects to facilitate the return of Ukrainian labor migrants and education at home; take into account developments in the development of EU legal instruments in the field of migration, to assess the submitted draft laws for compliance with the basic principles of the EU migration policy; initiate the development of circular migration patterns between Ukraine and the EU jointly develop mechanisms for its implementation.

In der Vergangenheit waren Verbraucher wiederholt mit Lebensmittelskandalen wie beispielsweise den Ereignissen um BSE (Bovine spongiforme Enzephalopathie) oder EHEC (Enterohämorrhagische Escherichia coli) konfrontiert. Lebensmittelskandale können neben gesundheitlichen Risiken auch zu enormen wirtschaftlichen Verlusten führen, insbesondere durch Nachfragerückgänge für die betroffenen Produkte. Die Erforschung der teilweise stark heterogenen Verbraucherreaktionen ermöglicht eine gezieltere Kommunikation von gesundheitlichen Risiken. Insbesondere die Tatsache, dass sich das primär über die Medien kommunizierte Risiko sehr unterschiedlich auf das individuelle Nachfrageverhalten der Verbraucher auswirken kann, wurde in der bisherigen Literatur jedoch sowohl inhaltlich als auch methodisch unzureichend berücksichtigt. Die zentralen Forschungsfragen dieser Dissertation sind einerseits die Bedeutung der Verbraucherheterogenität bei der Analyse des Nachfrageverhaltens im Falle eines Lebensmittelskandals. Andererseits sollen die zentralen Determinanten für die heterogenen Nachfragereaktionen, einschließlich ihrer möglichen Interdependenzen, identifiziert werden. Als Fallbeispiel dient der deutsche Dioxinskandal, der aus der Feststellung erhöhter Dioxinwerte bei Schweine- und Geflügelfleisch im Januar 2011 resultierte. Als Datengrundlage wurde ein Teil des GfK-Frischepanels genutzt, welches Informationen über das Einkaufsverhalten von 16 023 registrierten Haushalten für die Jahre 2010 und 2011 beinhaltet. Zusätzlich sind Informationen über soziodemographische Merkmale sowie Befragungsdaten, die Rückschlüsse auf Verbrauchereinstellungen geben sollen, im Datensatz enthalten. Im ersten Artikel dieser Dissertation wurde zunächst ein Überblick über die vielfältigen wirtschaftlichen Folgen des Dioxinskandals gegeben. Hierfür wurden Auswirkungen des Dioxinskandals auf die Erzeugerpreise, die Exporte sowie Nachfragerückgänge der deutschen Verbraucher für die betroffenen Fleischprodukte untersucht. Der zweite Artikel fokussiert sich auf methodische Weiterentwicklungen der in der Literatur verwendeten Nachfragemodelle bei Lebensmittelskandalen, um die Verbraucherheterogenität explizit zu berücksichtigen. Ökonometrische Nachfrageanalysen für die am häufigsten konsumierten Schweine- und Geflügelfleischprodukte (Kotelett, Hähnchenfilet) zeigten, dass die Berücksichtigung der Verbraucherheterogenität essentiell ist. Zudem wurden die Medienberichterstattung über den Dioxinskandal und langfristige Konsumgewohnheiten für die betroffenen Produkte als zentrale Determinanten für die Nachfragereaktionen identifiziert. Die Medienberichterstattung hatte dabei einen negativen Einfluss auf das Nachfrageverhalten nach den betroffenen Produkten, wurde jedoch durch den starken positiven Effekt der Konsumgewohnheiten teilweise kompensiert. Im dritten Artikel wurden die Nachfragereaktionen und insbesondere die Konsumgewohnheiten für Schweine- und Geflügelfleisch insgesamt näher untersucht. Hierfür wurden die Einzelprodukte aggregiert und Nachfrageanalysen jeweils für Schweine- und Geflügelfleisch durchgeführt, um die durchschnittliche Wirkung von Konsumgewohnheiten während des Dioxinskandals adäquat zu berücksichtigen. Auch hier wurde deutlich, dass im Verlauf des Dioxinskandals langfristige Konsumgewohnheiten einen positiven Einfluss auf das Nachfrageverhalten hatten. Im Gegensatz zum vorherigen Artikel zeigten die Ergebnisse, dass die Medienberichterstattung lediglich auf die Geflügelfleischnachfrage negative Auswirkungen hatte. Folglich wurden die im zweiten Artikel identifizierten negativen Auswirkungen der Medienberichterstattung auf die Nachfrage nach dem bedeutendsten Schweinefleischprodukt (Kotelett) durch den positiven Effekt der Konsumgewohnheiten der anderen Schweinefleischprodukte kompensiert. Dies verdeutlicht die zentrale Rolle von Konsumgewohnheiten und die stark produktabhängigen Verbraucherreaktionen bei Lebensmittelskandalen. Schließlich wurden im vierten Artikel die Befragungsdaten der GfK genutzt, um über eine Faktoranalyse grundlegende Einstellungen der Haushalte zu ermitteln. Diese wurden zusammen mit dem Mediennutzungsverhalten durch eine Clusteranalyse zur Segmentierung der Haushalte genutzt. Ziel dieses Artikels war es, noch fundiertere Aussagen über die wesentlichen Hintergründe der häufig sehr unterschiedlichen Nachfragereaktionen von Verbrauchern bei Lebensmittelskandalen zu treffen. Es wurde deutlich, dass während des Dioxinskandals insbesondere Unterschiede in der Risikowahrnehmung, dem Risikoverhalten, den Vertrauenseigenschaften und der Medienaffinität eine wichtige Rolle gespielt haben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Stärke des Medieneffekts und die Nachfragereaktionen für die identifizierten Verbrauchergruppen in Abhängigkeit der erwähnten Einstellungen sehr unterschiedlich ausgeprägt waren. Bei allen Verbrauchergruppen hatten langfristige Konsumgewohnheiten für die betroffenen Produkte einen starken positiven Einfluss auf das Nachfrageverhalten und kompensierten den negativen Einfluss der Skandalberichterstattung. Zudem wurde deutlich, dass sehr starre Konsumgewohnheiten den Einfluss der zwischen den Verbrauchergruppen unterschiedlich ausgeprägten Einstellungen auf die Nachfragereaktionen ausgeglichen haben. Die veröffentlichten Artikel liefern somit wichtige Erkenntnisse zur Beantwortung der aufgeführten Forschungsfragen. Das aus der vorliegenden Dissertation resultierende bessere Verständnis der wesentlichen Ursachen für die unterschiedlichen Nachfragereaktionen und deren Wechselwirkungen ermöglicht die Ausgestaltung von Risikokommunikationsinstrumenten, entlang der individuellen Einstellungen und des individuellen Informationsverhaltens der Verbraucher bei Lebensmittelskandalen. Diese Erkenntnisse ermöglichen es politischen Entscheidungsträgern, die tatsächlichen Gesundheitsrisiken der betroffenen Produkte transparenter und gezielter zu kommunizieren, um damit bei zukünftigen Lebensmittelskandalen die gesundheitlichen und wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen zu reduzieren. ; Over the last decade, consumers have experienced a multitude of food scandals such as the BSE scandal or the EHEC scandal. In addition to adverse health effects, food scandals can lead to severe economic losses in the marketplace, particularly resulting from reduced consumer demand for the affected products. In order to avoid potential adverse health and economic effects of food scandals a better understanding for the underlying determinants behind heterogeneous behavioural responses is necessary to facilitate the implementation of adequate risk communication strategies. It seems reasonable to postulate that consumers may vary in their response to a food scandal depending on the individual's perceived risk determined by information gathered through the media; an issue that remains understudied in the literature. Hence, one main research question of this dissertation is to investigate the importance and the impact of consumer heterogeneity on demand behaviour in the aftermath of food scandals. The second central objective is the identification and detailed analysis of relevant determinants behind differences in realized risk-mitigating outcomes. To answer these research questions, the German dioxin scandal is used as a case study. The dioxin scandal marks a failure in the meat supply chain that resulted in critical concentrations of the toxic chemical dioxin in poultry and pork meat in January 2011. The analyses employ detailed household-level retail scanner data collected by the GfK Consumer Scan panel for 16 023 households spanning pre- and post-scandal periods for the 2011 dioxin scandal. For all participating households' socio-demographic information and supplementary survey data that elicits household respondent's attitudes and information behaviour are available. The first article of this dissertation provides an overview of the manifold economic shocks and losses along food supply chains in the wake of the dioxin scandal. For this purpose the impact of the German dioxin scandal on producer prices, exports as well as the shifts in consumption patterns for the affected products were examined. The second article focuses on methodical improvements of existing demand models in the literature to demonstrate the importance of accounting for household heterogeneity when analysing behavioural responses in the course of food scandals. The empirical results support our hypothesis that the panel structure, i.e. household heterogeneity, does play an important role in explaining patterns of consumption for the most frequently consumed fresh meat products (pork chops, chicken filet) affected by the Dioxin scandal. The media coverage of the health safety risks associated with this food scandal as well as consumption habits were identified as essential and interdependent factors to explain household's mitigating behaviours to minimise risk exposure. The results show that media coverage about the dioxin scandal exerted a negative influence on the purchase behaviour for the affected products. The long-term consumptions habits had a strong positive influence for both products and compensated the influence of media coverage resulting in the minor adjustments in the demand for both products. The third article investigated the demand reactions for pork and poultry altogether, particularly focusing on the role of consumption habits for the aggregated product categories. The results suggest that long-term consumption habits exerted a strong positive influence for pork and poultry. However, in contrast to the previous article (Article (2)) the media coverage had no significant effect on pork demand. This indicates that the demand of most of the other pork products were not affected by the scandal and that the corresponding habit persistence compensated the negative media's effect on pork chops demand. These findings further illustrate the importance of consumption habits for the demand reactions in the course of food scandals. In the fourth article, the supplementary survey data is used to perform a factor analysis in order to identify and consolidate underlying structures in response patterns into fewer factors. The cluster analysis employed combinations of extracted factors and respondent's stated media usage pattern to generate different groups of households. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of heterogeneity in relevant psychological and behavioural characteristics on purchase behaviour to provide a deeper and more detailed understanding of the relevant determinants behind heterogeneous demand reactions in the aftermath of food scandals. The results indicate significant variations in household's media induced risk mitigation behaviour subject to differences in consumer risk perceptions, risk and trust attitudes and media usage behaviour. We found strong evidence of habit persistence across all household clusters that may have acted as a risk-reliever able to at last partly compensated negative media effects on choice and consumption decisions for affected products. Further the results of the fourth article of this dissertation show that the stronger the habits for the affected products the more muted and similar households reacted to media coverage independent of cluster membership. This clearly emphasise the important role consumption habits play in explaining household risk mitigation responses during periods of food scandals. Overall, the published articles and their empirical results provide important answers to the central research questions of this dissertation. A better understanding of the relevant behavioural and attitudinal determinants behind differences in individuals' realized risk-mitigating outcomes hold important implications for policy makers. The results in this dissertation suggest that policy makers should consider more carefully household heterogeneity as an important driver of consumption choices as to increase the efficacy of public communication during periods of food safety scares. This may enable decision-makers to develop more targeted risk communication strategies, which that account of the heterogeneous information needs and resulting risk mitigation behaviours of different consumer segments in order to reduce the adverse health effects and economic outcomes of food scandals in the future.

The concern about food insecurity in rural populations needs to be rethought and adapted to the overall living conditions of households by shifting to a concentrated spatial scale and a long-term analysis. This change will allow identifying territories on a finer scale than the national level in order to allocate development objectives and to link them to areas with high development potential. The finer level of analysis will also allow regrouping the actions carried out on a smaller scale in order to structure all the activities carried out on the targeted area and population. The general comment that the development and emergency aid has been focused in circumscribed areas and that the level of analysis is based on two scales, one "macro" (national, regional, departmental) and the other "micro" (village, community, household, individual and community) reinforces the need to create an intermediate level of analysis. The latter will serve to improve the structure other actions carried out at different levels and the articulation of the activities to be carried out and the targeted population. From a state of the art analysis of subject such as development, targeting, territory, food security, resilience, etc; different finding have led to the definition of a major question and an objective which form the core structure of the present dissertation. The research question is defined as "how to structure the targeting and identification of areas with high potential to articulate all the emergency and development actions carried out on several scales of analysis?". At the end of these observations, the objective of this research is "the establishment of a tool to support spatial and temporal decision making in structuring the emergency and development actions and targeting of populations subjected to food insecurity ". Three considerations emerge from this objective and research question: spatiotemporal analysis and targeting, development potentials, rural production systems. The various productions are also studied over a long series in order to consider the yield variations over time. Finally, these two analyzes, spatial (systems) and temporal (yields) are crossed in order to demonstrate the contribution of this decision-supporting tool in the articulation and structuring of the other two levels of targeting populations to food insecurity. The decision-supporting tool has been tested on the case study of the Nigerian population. The main outcomes are: the characterization of the opportunities and constraints of the Nigerian rural production systems; the identification of the products to be developed by production system; the identification of the most promising pathways by means of the distribution of the yields by systems. Finally, an essential point must be made about the increase of conservation methods and transformations for increasing the added value obtained by Nigerian households. At the end of this dissertation, the tool demonstrated its importance in structuring and articulating the targeting of food insecurity in the field of emergency aid and development: The territorial zones in the production systems identify the problems to which one or several solutions must be found. Production systems allow a concentration of actions according to the definition of the general and specific objectives of the agricultural development assistance programs. Potential outputs to be developed in production systems allow diversification of agriculture and structuring of development from a national point of view. The actions defined by the Technical and Financial Partners at the level of a village, a community and / or a commune can be more easily integrated into this scale of analysis and can be structured later in national development policies Agricultural policy. The increase in productivity in Niger depends on the development of products within the most favorable zones and not on the whole territory. However, this tool is complementary to the other targeting tools already in place. It should also be complemented by the same type of analysis at the level of West Africa and an analysis of the flows and prices condition to favor the flow of production. ; Le ciblage des potentialités de développement agricole en milieu rural doit être repensé et adapté à l'ensemble des conditions de vie des ménages d'un point de vue d'une échelle spatiale concentrée et d'une analyse sur une longue période. Ce ciblage identifie des territoires sur une échelle plus fine que le niveau national afin de répartir les objectifs de développement agricole et de les articuler sur des zones ayant un haut potentiel. Ce niveau d'analyse permettra aussi de regrouper les actions menées à une échelle plus « micro » afin de structurer l'ensemble des activités menées sur la zone. En effet, le constat que l'aide au développement et d'urgence se concentre dans des zones circonscrites et que le niveau d'analyse repose sur deux échelles, l'une « macro » (national, régional, départemental) et l'autre « micro » (village, collectivité, ménage, individu et communauté) renforce le besoin de créer un niveau d'analyse intermédiaire afin d'assurer une meilleure structuration des actions menées à différents niveaux et une meilleure articulation entre un territoire considéré (zone d'actions), les activités à mener et la population cible. A partir d'un état de l'art sur les sujets connexes à notre réflexion (développement, ciblage, territoire, sécurité alimentaire, résilience), différents constats ont permis d'aboutir à la définition d'une question majeure et d'un objectif structurant la présente dissertation. La question de recherche est définie comme suit : « comment structurer le ciblage et l'identification des zones à fortes potentialités permettant d'articuler l'ensemble des actions d'urgence et de développement menées sur plusieurs échelles d'analyse ? ». A l'issue de ces constats et réflexions, l'objectif de la présente recherche est « la mise en place d'un outil d'aide à la décision spatiotemporelle articulant et structurant le ciblage des potentialités de développement agricole en matière d'aide d'urgence et de développement ». Trois considérations ressortent de cet objectif et question de recherche : l'analyse et le ciblage spatiotemporels, les potentialités de développement, les systèmes de production ruraux. L'analyse spatiale est caractérisée par l'étude des systèmes de production ruraux. Ceux-ci sont définis selon des paramètres biophysiques et socioéconomiques. Ils reflètent une vision systémique identifiant des systèmes agraires. Les différentes productions sont aussi étudiées sur une série longue afin de montrer la tendance des produits à considérer (analyse temporelle). Enfin, ces deux analyses, spatiales (systèmes) et temporelles (produits) sont croisées afin de démontrer l'apport de ce type d'outil en matière d'articulation et de structuration des deux autres niveaux de ciblage (« macro et micro »). Les principaux résultats reposent sur l'identification des produits à développer par système de production, la caractérisation des opportunités et contraintes des systèmes de production ruraux nigériens. De plus, cette analyse spatiotemporelle permet une meilleure identification des potentialités grâce à la distribution des rendements par système et leur comparaison. A l'issue de cette dissertation, l'outil a démontré son importance en matière de structuration et d'articulation du ciblage structurant à l'insécurité alimentaire dans le domaine de l'aide d'urgence et du développement agricole. Les zones territoriales définies en systèmes de production permettent une concentration des actions en fonction de la définition des objectifs généraux et spécifiques des programmes d'aide de développement agricole. Les potentiels produits ont été répartis dans les systèmes de production et permettent de diversifier l'agriculture tout en structurant le développement d'un point de vue national. A l'inverse, les zones à faible potentiel de développement agricole ont été analysées. Elles représentent les zones les plus vulnérables en matière de développement agricole. En outre, les actions définies par les Partenaires Techniques et Financiers (PTF) à l'échelle d'un village, d'une communauté et/ou d'une commune peuvent s'insérer plus facilement dans cette échelle d'analyse et se structurer par après dans les politiques nationales de développement agricole. Il est à noter que l'accroissement de la productivité au Niger passe par le développement de produits au sein des zones les plus propices et non sur l'ensemble du territoire. Le présent outil permet d'acquérir une vision en réseau voire maillage de l'ensemble des potentialités agricoles et d'élevage en fonction des systèmes de production. Toutefois, il serait souhaitable d'insérer le présent outil et de le transposer à une échelle sous-régionale afin de caractériser les échanges au sein de la sous-région et d'orienter les excédents vers des zones consommatrices.

This dissertation argues that the psychic force that Freud named "the death drive" would more precisely be termed "the disability drive." Freud's concept of the death drive emerged from his efforts to account for feelings, desires, and actions that seemed not to accord with rational self-interest or the desire for pleasure. Positing that human subjectivity was intrinsically divided against itself, Freud suggested that the ego's instincts for pleasure and survival were undermined by a competing component of mental life, which he called the death drive. But the death drive does not primarily refer to biological death, and the term has consequently provoked confusion. By distancing Freud's theory from physical death and highlighting its imbrication with disability, I revise this important psychoanalytic concept and reveal its utility to disability studies. While Freud envisaged a human subject that is drawn, despite itself, toward something like death, I propose that this "something" can productively be understood as disability. In addition, I contend that our culture's repression of the disability drive, and its resultant projection of the drive onto stigmatized minorities, is a root cause of multiple forms of oppression."The Disability Drive" opens with a question: "What makes disability so sexy?" This is a counterintuitive query; after all, the dominant culture usually depicts disability as decidedly unsexy. But by performing a critical disability studies analysis of Freud's writings about sexuality and the death drive, I theorize sex as an intrinsically disabling experience and suggest that fantasies of disability may have an unrecognized sexual appeal. These possibilities lead me to introduce a new interpretive framework, "the sexual model of disability," which I posit as an alternative to disability studies' prevailing analytic paradigm, the social model of disability. While the social model defines disability as a system of oppression that isolates and excludes disabled people, the sexual model of disability goes deeper than this, locating the impetus for these exclusions in our culture's repression of the disability drive. Because disability may provoke an erotic excitement that the ego cannot bear to acknowledge, ableist culture is often torn between an urge to witness disability (e.g., by staring at disabled people) and an impulse to hide disability from view (e.g., by confining disabled people to institutions). The sexual model of disability has the potential to make interventions not only in disability studies but also in a range of other disciplines. In Chapter 1, I bring my account of the disability drive to bear on signal texts in queer theory. In doing so, I proffer an answer to a question that has long troubled disability scholars: given the many similarities between ableism and homophobia, why have queer theorists often been reluctant to engage with disability studies? Observing that founding texts in queer theory repudiate "feminist identity politics" and liken this discourse to madness and to figurative states of blindness and paralysis, I argue that these texts project the disability drive onto feminism, thus allowing queer theory to portray its own erotics as mobile, playful, and physically and mentally able. In Chapter 2, I show that the sexual model of disability can subvert a foundational concept in psychoanalysis: the disease category "hysteria." Analyzing Freud's case history Dora, which was published in 1905, in conjunction with Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which was published in 1920, I argue that Freud's notion of hysteria adumbrates his later theorization of the drive. The diagnostic category of hysteria, I contend, constitutes a projection of the disability drive onto people with what I call "undocumented disabilities," that is, nonapparent impairments for which mainstream western medicine cannot identify biological causes. One effect of this projection is that people with undocumented disabilities are figured as epistemologically disabled; that is, we are seen as distinctively lacking in the capacity to know ourselves.The social position of people with undocumented disabilities differs from that of the paradigmatic subject of disability studies: while people with undocumented impairments are often denied recognition of the disabling suffering that shapes our lives, people with disabilities that are visible and/or documented are frequently subjected to unwanted displays of pity. For this reason, "no pity" has long been a rallying cry of the disability rights movement. But is it possible to proscribe pity? In Chapter 3, I argue that instead of seeking to banish the affect of pity, disability scholars might do better to attend to the complex ways in which this affect can be incited and expressed. Toward this end, I propose a distinction between what I call "primary pity" and "secondary pity." The term "secondary pity" accords with the everyday understanding of pity, in which a person who feels pity is assumed to occupy a position of superiority in relation to a person who is pitied. Primary pity refers to a very different affective process, which is profoundly destabilizing to the ego of the person who feels pity. Derived in part from Freud's notion of "primary narcissism," my concept of primary pity occupies a liminal position between the erasure of the ego that primary narcissism entails and the buttressing of the ego involved in secondary narcissism. Because primary pity involves a complex process of identification, in which the subject and the object of pity risk becoming fantasmatically indistinguishable, this emotion threatens the ego's belief in its self-sufficiency and autonomy. I argue that primary pity's threat to the ego can be understood as a manifestation of the disability drive, and I suggest that the "no pity" position taken up by disability activists and scholars may be invested in a fantasy of overcoming the disability drive.This dissertation argues that rather than seeking to overcome the disability drive, cultural critics and activists should work to acknowledge the myriad ways in which the drive determines us. It is important to recognize and acknowledge one's determination by the disability drive because denying or repressing the ways in which this psychic force governs us will inevitably lead to the drive's being abjected onto groups of stigmatized others. In Chapter 4, I argue that in contemporary US American culture fat people constitute one such group. This chapter focuses on the drive to eat, a compulsion that I define as inseparable from the disability drive. Dependence, (on food), loss of mastery (over the intensities of the pleasures of eating), and failures of control (over what, and how much, one eats) combine to make hunger a fundamentally disabling drive. But instead of acknowledging that we are all disabled by the drive to eat, our culture abjects this drive onto fat people, whom it depicts as being driven, in ways that thin people are assumed not to be, by an out-of-control compulsion to eat. US American culture's projection of the disability drive onto fat people is intensified by racially inflected assumptions about "primitive" versus "civilized" forms of embodiment and by heteronormative constructions of "perversion." Resisting fatphobia therefore necessitates an intersectional analysis of the disability drive, an approach that takes measure of the ways in which repressing the drive reinforces multiple forms of prejudice.The central aim of this thesis is to show that the disability drive is a force that we must understand if we are to effectively challenge the many intersecting and overlapping modalities of oppression that define present-day cultural and social relations. "The Disability Drive" offers an invitation, to scholars and activists in a variety of cultural locations, to consider the ways in which our own beliefs and practices may be implicated in a hegemonic cultural endeavor whose goal is to overcome the disability drive. Because denying the drive results in the reentrenchment of oppressive social structures, I maintain that it is imperative to develop political strategies that resist the impulse to overcome the disability drive.

In Lithuania like in the majority of other countries around the globe the need of investments and their improvement regarding public infrastructure and public services is growing at a fast pace. Limitations of the public sector concerning the possibilities to fund these objectives promote the search for new tools and opportunities to achieve these purposes. The co-operation of the public and private sectors is defined as any kind of agreement that involves both sectors, which allows private organizations to function within the field that previously was only governed by the public sector. In the international practice one of the co-operation types is the partnership of private and public sector (PPS) that creates opportunities to attract private funds in order to meet the needs of the public sector. Broadly this partnership can be defined as a co-operation of both public and private sectors in order to accomplish various projects involving infrastructure or public services. Thus, the co-operation between these two sectors is inevitable. As an alternative to traditional ways of supplementing public services, the partnership of public and private sector encompasses a wide spectrum of various forms and mechanisms. It could vary from agreements made by county with a private communal office in order to create a system for trash extermination to an establishment of a joint company, which would govern the building and exploitation of a new atomic power plant. These contracts are usually distinguished by establishing a clear partnership type regarding PPS terms; thus, it could be an agreement implemented on a contractual basis or an agreement based on an institutional basis. The European Commission distinguish two types of co-operation of the public and private sector: (1) institutional – when a company of mixed funds is required to be established in order to accomplish a goal; (2) contractual – when a certain goal is achieved by constructing agreements (consensuses, contracts based on a public purchases, joint practises, and other various agreements that are determined by the law). It has to be noted that certain concepts such as consensus, PPS projects, long-term lease, public purchases and others because they denote different ways of partnership of government and public sectors; in other words these concepts could be ineligible. Even though the contracts of purchases and consensuses are regulated by different laws, they in their essence involve similar legal correlations, which have similar aims of regulation. Consensus a try way agreement between the granting instruction, the provider of the service, and the customer. A public purchase is a two way agreement between a service provider and the organization that buys the service, which in consequence pays for the bought service and takes the economic risk of the purchase. The correlation of a consensus and a public purchase are different in the way and process of creating a contract. In case of a consensus provider of the service receives a right to use the service it provides as part of the payment. The concessionaire recognizes the risks of the purchase while the pay is usually arranged by the services user. Although, there is no singular definition of consensus there are certain attributes that allows to distinguish it from other partnerships or public and private sectors; these attributes involves such signs as a long time-span of arranging the contract, a clear allocation of possible liabilities to all the parties, a clear allocation of possible risk, while the majority of these risks are moved upon the private buyer, financial commitments. A major matter for the public sector regarding the co-operation of private and public sector is a selection of private party in a fair competition manner. Before making any kind of partnership contract it is essential to establish an effective and clear competition within the contestant participants within the market. This kind of competition allows the public sector to choose the most effective private partner. The competition allows the governmental institutions to select a partner in a most rational way; due to this information, it is possible to choose such a partner that would meet all the requirements and would fulfil the goal in question. In order to ensure the best selection of the partner it is important to oblige the principles of transparency and non-discrimination. It is important to act according to these principles in order to avoid violating the public and private interests, which are quintessentially different. The public sector seeks to receive the best possible service, while the private sector seeks profit. The equality of rights is important to every legal form that involves the co-operation of public and private sector. According to this principle the procedures of selection of a private party must be determined in an objective and clear way as well as they have to oblige to the rules and requirements. If certain predetermined rules do not exist the participating private parties must be selected according to objective criteria. The principal of non-discrimination defined the object of purchase; the technical specifications cannot defy the concrete process of making, the trade mark, patent, country of origin or production because these specifications might provide extra help for the participating parties or could even rule out some of the participants. The transparency principal is a principal that requires for the conditions of the contest to be clear and understandable; also, it requires that all the conditions that were set could not be changed. By obliging to the transparency principal allows to foresee the decision that should be made during the contest. It is quite natural to agree that the principal of partnership between the public and private sector is the essential part of the partnership concept because without clearly stating them it would be impossible to accomplish any kind of goal regarding such co-operation. The implementation of projects regarding co-operation between the public and private sector is a difficult and lengthily process, which is formed not only by the configuration of partnership but by the selection of partners, negotiations regarding the requirements of the contract, risk management, project management, and the surveillance of the project management. Taking into account the difficult specifics of the co-operation between public and private sector, often there is no singular way to formulate the technical requirements of an object, which would fulfil the public subject's needs and aims, or would defy the objects legal status or its financial consent. Whatever the form of co-operation regarding the partnership of private and public sector is employed, for the successful contest, some sort of negotiations will be required. Each form of such co-operation has a different kind of way to regulate the negotiation. For instance, according to the Public procurement law the negotiations are not mandatory during the public purchase. However, in the contest regarding the grant of the consensus once of the mandatory stages is the negotiation, which's aim is to come to a compromise between the participant of the contest and the institution that grants the consensus. It needs to be noted that the negotiation cannot be used as a tool to distort the technical, financial, or commercial criteria. While appointing the contractual conditions of the consensus, the conditions of the agreement and its main requirements cannot be an object of the negotiation. However this means that the initial agreement will be changed in a slight way. If negotiation takes place it is quite natural that the primary draft of the project changes. A change is fundamental if its implementation within the agreement would quintessentially change the outcomes that the participants would provide. It such change takes place a new contest must be organized. The legal provisions concerning public purchases and consensuses foresees such changes only if the principals of equal right, non-discrimination and transparency are taken into account.

Cтаття присвячена вивченню ролі ціннісно-смислових комплексів у процесі геостратегічних взаємодій культурно-цивілізаційних світів. Проаналізовано формування та дію ціннісно-смислових комплексів, характерних для людини і культурно-цивілізаційного світу. Ціннісно-смислові комплекси розглядаються в контексті соціокультурного розвитку суспільства. Для цього вони вивчаються як важливий фактор інтерпретації дійсності людиною, спонукання людини до дії, формування суспільного середовища в конкретному культурно-цивілізаційному світі, конкуренції та діалогу між різними культурно-цивілізаційними світами. Особливу увагу приділено шляхам ефективного застосування ціннісно-смислових комплексів у створенні і реалізації стратегії розвитку ; Статья посвящена изучению роли ценностно-смысловых комплексов в процессе геостратегических взаимодействий культурно-цивилизационных миров. Проанализированы формирования и действие ценностно-смысловых комплексов, характерных для человека и культурно-цивилизационного мира. Ценностно-смысловые комплексы рассматриваются в контексте социокультурного развития общества. Для этого они изучаются как важный фактор интерпретации действительности человеком, побуждения человека к действию, формирования общественной среды в конкретном культурно-цивилизационном мире, конкуренции и диалога между различными культурно-цивилизационными мирами. Особое внимание уделено путям эффективного применения ценностно-смысловых комплексов в создании и реализации стратегии развития ; Until now, the geopolitical analysis was primarily an instrument of justifiation geopolitical objectives related to ensuring the hegemony: the struggle for the preservation of domination or claim to this status. However, it has always been, and in conditions of postmodernity growing trend of overcoming approach inherent to «zero-sum game.» Increase in the quality and quantity of arms, proportionality outcome of human intervention results of natural elements required to achieve the goals of preserving life and culture, as well as the development of mankind to change the ideology of desire to dominate the philosophy and mechanisms of compromise and consensus. Attempts to forcibly impose their aspirations not only degrade their subjects, but also cause a variety of counter (including, for example, is a global phenomenon of terrorism).The subject of research is especially the formation geopolitics pressure conditions and trends of modernity. Now the whole philosophy of social responsibility social behavior and decisions based on the position need careful consideration of the interests of all stakeholders and co-evolution strategy – the model of social partnership game with a non-zero result where everyone wins and increases the total social capital of society (win-win strategy, green-green strategy). This should be the foundation of both internal and external socio-cultural political engagement (partnership and competition) cultural and civilizational worlds.The article is devoted to learning of the role of value-semantic complexes in the process of geo-strategic interactions of cultural and civilization worlds. The formation and operation of the value-semantic complexes characteristic of human culture and civilization of the world are analysed. The value-semantic complexes are discussed in the context of socio-cultural development of society. To do this, they are studied as an important factor an interpretation of reality by man, encouraging people to action, the formation of the social environment in a particular cultural and civilization world, competition and dialogue between different cultural and civilization worlds.Special attention is given to ways of effective application of value and meaning systems in the creation and implementation of the strategy of development.Analysis of publications. The exercise geostrategic analysis, forecasting and transformations affecting 1) the development of professionals in the development of conceptual and categorical apparatus strategies, tactics and operatics (operational art); 2) analysts transformation processes globally historic dimensions; 3) interaction of individual researchers civilizations. Also, because postmodernity helps in the development of methodology, forms and methods of inter – transition to the level of interest, meanings and values constitute the basis of the study and the authors of content detection and comparison of values and hierarchies, and regulatory factors motivating their use in society and consideration of the scope of social integration, as well as to study the role of the ideal in public life, the importance of cultural representations and their interresonance speaker.The purpose of the article – the author's position statement on the analysis of the nature and direction of the leading social and political transformations, as well as the necessary changes in the implementation of adequate political thinking and strategic management.Social relations, Sociality - that is directly focused on playing the human person in the unity of the three principles: biological (individual), socioeconomic (actual person), spiritual and psychological (personality). Their use is often based on intuitive understanding and game (his and / or alien game) interactions. Meanwhile, different from each other socialites are integrated cultural and civilizational worlds. Their fates are often determined by the power of the original pulse, geopolitical circumstances and elite quality management. This strong sociocultural reasons of providing conservation and development in one country and the world at large cultural differences and norms recognized fair in the circumstances, that is based on the value and meaning of its complex cultural and civilizational world. A collapse of personality and individuality to the level of the individual, social dominance over biological - this is the degradation of man and ethnicity. In social terms generation - a unit change traditions. That is, if people talk differently about different - it means that generational change has occurred.From this point of view the value of communication for strategic competition cultural and civilizational worlds is considered. The level of Social psychological support of information impact is characterized. The dependence between the stability of the social order and the results of interregional competition on the quality of polylogue inside and outside the state, the ability to convey their beliefs, values make attractive and desirable to investigate the opinion is elaborated. In providing innovative strategic management it is allocated place of value and meaning complexes.Conclusions. Identifying patterns of strategic management level, the ratio of universal, general and individual can successfully use a variety of processes modernity, enhance the effect of the advantages and localize the effect of negative factors and distribution of problem areas. The broadest term open transit areas with signifiant potential for socio-cultural and multi-level diffusion contacts – but failed social and political control can turn them into areas of vulnerability.And especially important for very diverse, flxible and changing conditions of modernity is the problem of perception and interpretation of action / inaction another. Invocation in creating compositions typical of modernity management methodologies and resource bases aggressively requires emphasis in strategic interaction level between cultural and civilizational worlds of their basic values and semantic systems. Thus, the development polystructure and networking organizations cannot rely on long term performance only brutal force both the macro and micro levels.However, the art geo-strategy can not only be productive model of reality and provide quality future diagnostics but also optimize decision in circumstances where the general prescriptions are ineffective: spirituality (with components of morality, freedom, spirit, etc.) and the standard reverse flw of the events, and helps make changes to the transformation process (when the appearance of historical analogies and very small correction at the bifurcation point cause dramatic differences in the fiish).Strategic planning in this sector include: reconciling the interests of different units structure, the input of which reflct different points of view; inventory of resources (existing and potential), constraints and factors; identify short-term and long-term goals, which is responsible and provide motivation. Accordingly, the circuit design social strategy includes: 1) a vision mission, setting strategic goals; 2) provide strategic analysis of detection parameters of the environment (primarily – opportunities and threats) and internal resources (consideration of competitive advantages and conditions of use); 3) providing strategic choice (based on review of strategic alternatives, evaluation of possible strategies, creating optimal strategy); 4) implementation strategy (in the ratio budgets and plans), 5) monitoring, assessment, monitoring and correction.Increasing further work in this direction, in our view, can involve the use of tools for analysis, forecasting and implementation of social and political projects geostrategic level, and the application for this purpose nomenclature and terminology traditions simulation of social processes

BACKGROUND Tobacco smoking is the cause of many preventable diseases and premature deaths in the UK and around the world. It poses enormous health- and non-health-related costs to the affected individuals, employers, and the society at large. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, globally, smoking causes over US$500 billion in economic damage each year. OBJECTIVES This paper examines global and UK evidence on the economic impact of smoking prevalence and evaluates the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of smoking cessation measures. STUDY SELECTION Search methods We used two major health care/economic research databases, namely PubMed and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) database that contains the British National Health Service (NHS) Economic Evaluation Database; Cochrane Library of systematic reviews in health care and health policy; and other health-care-related bibliographic sources. We also performed hand searching of relevant articles, health reports, and white papers issued by government bodies, international health organizations, and health intervention campaign agencies. Selection criteria The paper includes cost-effectiveness studies from medical journals, health reports, and white papers published between 1992 and July 2014, but included only eight relevant studies before 1992. Most of the papers reviewed reported outcomes on smoking prevalence, as well as the direct and indirect costs of smoking and the costs and benefits of smoking cessation interventions. We excluded papers that merely described the effectiveness of an intervention without including economic or cost considerations. We also excluded papers that combine smoking cessation with the reduction in the risk of other diseases. Data collection and analysis The included studies were assessed against criteria indicated in the Cochrane Reviewers Handbook version 5.0.0. Outcomes assessed in the review Primary outcomes of the selected studies are smoking prevalence, direct and indirect costs of smoking, and the costs and benefits of smoking cessation interventions (eg, "cost per quitter", "cost per life year saved", "cost per quality-adjusted life year gained," "present value" or "net benefits" from smoking cessation, and "cost savings" from personal health care expenditure). MAIN RESULTS The main findings of this study are as follows: The costs of smoking can be classified into direct, indirect, and intangible costs. About 15% of the aggregate health care expenditure in high-income countries can be attributed to smoking. In the US, the proportion of health care expenditure attributable to smoking ranges between 6% and 18% across different states. In the UK, the direct costs of smoking to the NHS have been estimated at between £2.7 billion and £5.2 billion, which is equivalent to around 5% of the total NHS budget each year. The economic burden of smoking estimated in terms of GDP reveals that smoking accounts for approximately 0.7% of China's GDP and approximately 1% of US GDP. As part of the indirect (non-health-related) costs of smoking, the total productivity losses caused by smoking each year in the US have been estimated at US$151 billion. The costs of smoking notwithstanding, it produces some potential economic benefits. The economic activities generated from the production and consumption of tobacco provides economic stimulus. It also produces huge tax revenues for most governments, especially in high-income countries, as well as employment in the tobacco industry. Income from the tobacco industry accounts for up to 7.4% of centrally collected government revenue in China. Smoking also yields cost savings in pension payments from the premature death of smokers. Smoking cessation measures could range from pharmacological treatment interventions to policy-based measures, community-based interventions, telecoms, media, and technology (TMT)-based interventions, school-based interventions, and workplace interventions. The cost per life year saved from the use of pharmacological treatment interventions ranged between US$128 and US$1,450 and up to US$4,400 per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) saved. The use of pharmacotherapies such as varenicline, NRT, and Bupropion, when combined with GP counseling or other behavioral treatment interventions (such as proactive telephone counseling and Web-based delivery), is both clinically effective and cost effective to primary health care providers. Price-based policy measures such as increase in tobacco taxes are unarguably the most effective means of reducing the consumption of tobacco. A 10% tax-induced cigarette price increase anywhere in the world reduces smoking prevalence by between 4% and 8%. Net public benefits from tobacco tax, however, remain positive only when tax rates are between 42.9% and 91.1%. The cost effectiveness ratio of implementing non-price-based smoking cessation legislations (such as smoking restrictions in work places, public places, bans on tobacco advertisement, and raising the legal age of smokers) range from US$2 to US$112 per life year gained (LYG) while reducing smoking prevalence by up to 30%–82% in the long term (over a 50-year period). Smoking cessation classes are known to be most effective among community-based measures, as they could lead to a quit rate of up to 35%, but they usually incur higher costs than other measures such as self-help quit-smoking kits. On average, community pharmacist-based smoking cessation programs yield cost savings to the health system of between US$500 and US$614 per LYG. Advertising media, telecommunications, and other technology-based interventions (such as TV, radio, print, telephone, the Internet, PC, and other electronic media) usually have positive synergistic effects in reducing smoking prevalence especially when combined to deliver smoking cessation messages and counseling support. However, the outcomes on the cost effectiveness of TMT-based measures have been inconsistent, and this made it difficult to attribute results to specific media. The differences in reported cost effectiveness may be partly attributed to varying methodological approaches including varying parametric inputs, differences in national contexts, differences in advertising campaigns tested on different media, and disparate levels of resourcing between campaigns. Due to its universal reach and low implementation costs, online campaign appears to be substantially more cost effective than other media, though it may not be as effective in reducing smoking prevalence. School-based smoking prevalence programs tend to reduce short-term smoking prevalence by between 30% and 70%. Total intervention costs could range from US$16,400 to US$580,000 depending on the scale and scope of intervention. The cost effectiveness of school-based programs show that one could expect a saving of approximately between US$2,000 and US$20,000 per QALY saved due to averted smoking after 2–4 years of follow-up. Workplace-based interventions could represent a sound economic investment to both employers and the society at large, achieving a benefit–cost ratio of up to 8.75 and generating 12-month employer cost savings of between $150 and $540 per nonsmoking employee. Implementing smoke-free workplaces would also produce myriads of new quitters and reduce the amount of cigarette consumption, leading to cost savings in direct medical costs to primary health care providers. Workplace interventions are, however, likely to yield far greater economic benefits over the long term, as reduced prevalence will lead to a healthier and more productive workforce. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that the direct costs and externalities to society of smoking far outweigh any benefits that might be accruable at least when considered from the perspective of socially desirable outcomes (ie, in terms of a healthy population and a productive workforce). There are enormous differences in the application and economic measurement of smoking cessation measures across various types of interventions, methodologies, countries, economic settings, and health care systems, and these may have affected the comparability of the results of the studies reviewed. However, on the balance of probabilities, most of the cessation measures reviewed have not only proved effective but also cost effective in delivering the much desired cost savings and net gains to individuals and primary health care providers.

In Lithuania like in the majority of other countries around the globe the need of investments and their improvement regarding public infrastructure and public services is growing at a fast pace. Limitations of the public sector concerning the possibilities to fund these objectives promote the search for new tools and opportunities to achieve these purposes. The co-operation of the public and private sectors is defined as any kind of agreement that involves both sectors, which allows private organizations to function within the field that previously was only governed by the public sector. In the international practice one of the co-operation types is the partnership of private and public sector (PPS) that creates opportunities to attract private funds in order to meet the needs of the public sector. Broadly this partnership can be defined as a co-operation of both public and private sectors in order to accomplish various projects involving infrastructure or public services. Thus, the co-operation between these two sectors is inevitable. As an alternative to traditional ways of supplementing public services, the partnership of public and private sector encompasses a wide spectrum of various forms and mechanisms. It could vary from agreements made by county with a private communal office in order to create a system for trash extermination to an establishment of a joint company, which would govern the building and exploitation of a new atomic power plant. These contracts are usually distinguished by establishing a clear partnership type regarding PPS terms; thus, it could be an agreement implemented on a contractual basis or an agreement based on an institutional basis. The European Commission distinguish two types of co-operation of the public and private sector: (1) institutional – when a company of mixed funds is required to be established in order to accomplish a goal; (2) contractual – when a certain goal is achieved by constructing agreements (consensuses, contracts based on a public purchases, joint practises, and other various agreements that are determined by the law). It has to be noted that certain concepts such as consensus, PPS projects, long-term lease, public purchases and others because they denote different ways of partnership of government and public sectors; in other words these concepts could be ineligible. Even though the contracts of purchases and consensuses are regulated by different laws, they in their essence involve similar legal correlations, which have similar aims of regulation. Consensus a try way agreement between the granting instruction, the provider of the service, and the customer. A public purchase is a two way agreement between a service provider and the organization that buys the service, which in consequence pays for the bought service and takes the economic risk of the purchase. The correlation of a consensus and a public purchase are different in the way and process of creating a contract. In case of a consensus provider of the service receives a right to use the service it provides as part of the payment. The concessionaire recognizes the risks of the purchase while the pay is usually arranged by the services user. Although, there is no singular definition of consensus there are certain attributes that allows to distinguish it from other partnerships or public and private sectors; these attributes involves such signs as a long time-span of arranging the contract, a clear allocation of possible liabilities to all the parties, a clear allocation of possible risk, while the majority of these risks are moved upon the private buyer, financial commitments. A major matter for the public sector regarding the co-operation of private and public sector is a selection of private party in a fair competition manner. Before making any kind of partnership contract it is essential to establish an effective and clear competition within the contestant participants within the market. This kind of competition allows the public sector to choose the most effective private partner. The competition allows the governmental institutions to select a partner in a most rational way; due to this information, it is possible to choose such a partner that would meet all the requirements and would fulfil the goal in question. In order to ensure the best selection of the partner it is important to oblige the principles of transparency and non-discrimination. It is important to act according to these principles in order to avoid violating the public and private interests, which are quintessentially different. The public sector seeks to receive the best possible service, while the private sector seeks profit. The equality of rights is important to every legal form that involves the co-operation of public and private sector. According to this principle the procedures of selection of a private party must be determined in an objective and clear way as well as they have to oblige to the rules and requirements. If certain predetermined rules do not exist the participating private parties must be selected according to objective criteria. The principal of non-discrimination defined the object of purchase; the technical specifications cannot defy the concrete process of making, the trade mark, patent, country of origin or production because these specifications might provide extra help for the participating parties or could even rule out some of the participants. The transparency principal is a principal that requires for the conditions of the contest to be clear and understandable; also, it requires that all the conditions that were set could not be changed. By obliging to the transparency principal allows to foresee the decision that should be made during the contest. It is quite natural to agree that the principal of partnership between the public and private sector is the essential part of the partnership concept because without clearly stating them it would be impossible to accomplish any kind of goal regarding such co-operation. The implementation of projects regarding co-operation between the public and private sector is a difficult and lengthily process, which is formed not only by the configuration of partnership but by the selection of partners, negotiations regarding the requirements of the contract, risk management, project management, and the surveillance of the project management. Taking into account the difficult specifics of the co-operation between public and private sector, often there is no singular way to formulate the technical requirements of an object, which would fulfil the public subject's needs and aims, or would defy the objects legal status or its financial consent. Whatever the form of co-operation regarding the partnership of private and public sector is employed, for the successful contest, some sort of negotiations will be required. Each form of such co-operation has a different kind of way to regulate the negotiation. For instance, according to the Public procurement law the negotiations are not mandatory during the public purchase. However, in the contest regarding the grant of the consensus once of the mandatory stages is the negotiation, which's aim is to come to a compromise between the participant of the contest and the institution that grants the consensus. It needs to be noted that the negotiation cannot be used as a tool to distort the technical, financial, or commercial criteria. While appointing the contractual conditions of the consensus, the conditions of the agreement and its main requirements cannot be an object of the negotiation. However this means that the initial agreement will be changed in a slight way. If negotiation takes place it is quite natural that the primary draft of the project changes. A change is fundamental if its implementation within the agreement would quintessentially change the outcomes that the participants would provide. It such change takes place a new contest must be organized. The legal provisions concerning public purchases and consensuses foresees such changes only if the principals of equal right, non-discrimination and transparency are taken into account.

In Lithuania like in the majority of other countries around the globe the need of investments and their improvement regarding public infrastructure and public services is growing at a fast pace. Limitations of the public sector concerning the possibilities to fund these objectives promote the search for new tools and opportunities to achieve these purposes. The co-operation of the public and private sectors is defined as any kind of agreement that involves both sectors, which allows private organizations to function within the field that previously was only governed by the public sector. In the international practice one of the co-operation types is the partnership of private and public sector (PPS) that creates opportunities to attract private funds in order to meet the needs of the public sector. Broadly this partnership can be defined as a co-operation of both public and private sectors in order to accomplish various projects involving infrastructure or public services. Thus, the co-operation between these two sectors is inevitable. As an alternative to traditional ways of supplementing public services, the partnership of public and private sector encompasses a wide spectrum of various forms and mechanisms. It could vary from agreements made by county with a private communal office in order to create a system for trash extermination to an establishment of a joint company, which would govern the building and exploitation of a new atomic power plant. These contracts are usually distinguished by establishing a clear partnership type regarding PPS terms; thus, it could be an agreement implemented on a contractual basis or an agreement based on an institutional basis. The European Commission distinguish two types of co-operation of the public and private sector: (1) institutional – when a company of mixed funds is required to be established in order to accomplish a goal; (2) contractual – when a certain goal is achieved by constructing agreements (consensuses, contracts based on a public purchases, joint practises, and other various agreements that are determined by the law). It has to be noted that certain concepts such as consensus, PPS projects, long-term lease, public purchases and others because they denote different ways of partnership of government and public sectors; in other words these concepts could be ineligible. Even though the contracts of purchases and consensuses are regulated by different laws, they in their essence involve similar legal correlations, which have similar aims of regulation. Consensus a try way agreement between the granting instruction, the provider of the service, and the customer. A public purchase is a two way agreement between a service provider and the organization that buys the service, which in consequence pays for the bought service and takes the economic risk of the purchase. The correlation of a consensus and a public purchase are different in the way and process of creating a contract. In case of a consensus provider of the service receives a right to use the service it provides as part of the payment. The concessionaire recognizes the risks of the purchase while the pay is usually arranged by the services user. Although, there is no singular definition of consensus there are certain attributes that allows to distinguish it from other partnerships or public and private sectors; these attributes involves such signs as a long time-span of arranging the contract, a clear allocation of possible liabilities to all the parties, a clear allocation of possible risk, while the majority of these risks are moved upon the private buyer, financial commitments. A major matter for the public sector regarding the co-operation of private and public sector is a selection of private party in a fair competition manner. Before making any kind of partnership contract it is essential to establish an effective and clear competition within the contestant participants within the market. This kind of competition allows the public sector to choose the most effective private partner. The competition allows the governmental institutions to select a partner in a most rational way; due to this information, it is possible to choose such a partner that would meet all the requirements and would fulfil the goal in question. In order to ensure the best selection of the partner it is important to oblige the principles of transparency and non-discrimination. It is important to act according to these principles in order to avoid violating the public and private interests, which are quintessentially different. The public sector seeks to receive the best possible service, while the private sector seeks profit. The equality of rights is important to every legal form that involves the co-operation of public and private sector. According to this principle the procedures of selection of a private party must be determined in an objective and clear way as well as they have to oblige to the rules and requirements. If certain predetermined rules do not exist the participating private parties must be selected according to objective criteria. The principal of non-discrimination defined the object of purchase; the technical specifications cannot defy the concrete process of making, the trade mark, patent, country of origin or production because these specifications might provide extra help for the participating parties or could even rule out some of the participants. The transparency principal is a principal that requires for the conditions of the contest to be clear and understandable; also, it requires that all the conditions that were set could not be changed. By obliging to the transparency principal allows to foresee the decision that should be made during the contest. It is quite natural to agree that the principal of partnership between the public and private sector is the essential part of the partnership concept because without clearly stating them it would be impossible to accomplish any kind of goal regarding such co-operation. The implementation of projects regarding co-operation between the public and private sector is a difficult and lengthily process, which is formed not only by the configuration of partnership but by the selection of partners, negotiations regarding the requirements of the contract, risk management, project management, and the surveillance of the project management. Taking into account the difficult specifics of the co-operation between public and private sector, often there is no singular way to formulate the technical requirements of an object, which would fulfil the public subject's needs and aims, or would defy the objects legal status or its financial consent. Whatever the form of co-operation regarding the partnership of private and public sector is employed, for the successful contest, some sort of negotiations will be required. Each form of such co-operation has a different kind of way to regulate the negotiation. For instance, according to the Public procurement law the negotiations are not mandatory during the public purchase. However, in the contest regarding the grant of the consensus once of the mandatory stages is the negotiation, which's aim is to come to a compromise between the participant of the contest and the institution that grants the consensus. It needs to be noted that the negotiation cannot be used as a tool to distort the technical, financial, or commercial criteria. While appointing the contractual conditions of the consensus, the conditions of the agreement and its main requirements cannot be an object of the negotiation. However this means that the initial agreement will be changed in a slight way. If negotiation takes place it is quite natural that the primary draft of the project changes. A change is fundamental if its implementation within the agreement would quintessentially change the outcomes that the participants would provide. It such change takes place a new contest must be organized. The legal provisions concerning public purchases and consensuses foresees such changes only if the principals of equal right, non-discrimination and transparency are taken into account.

From 18 February to 28 March 2015 Real Estates was a project coordinated by art collective Fugitive Images opening at PEER as a social, discursive and imaginative space around issues of housing and spatial justice in East London through a constantly changing series of exhibitions, screenings, discussions, readings and workshops. 'This project arrives at the end of a seven-year series of collaborative works with our neighbours of the Haggerston Estate. Our work came from within the community, with whom we cultivated other spaces to gather, share and campaign before the estate was demolished. Our neighbourhoods and communities are facing even greater threats from new developments and policies that separate and stratify us. But there are also many that have resisted these forces. In these six-weeks we invite in other communities, speakers and artists related to the housing crisis in London. The project will act as a platform for campaign groups and engaged makers to bring their important work into a different space, to share with us a glimpse of their own long-term projects on key sites. The gallery will host works that connect us, that illuminate, that bring pain to the surface, that inspire tenderness, that reject terrifying social injustices and restore ethical imperatives. The events programme brings together discussions around eviction, displacement and homelessness and their expression through an art that is committed to being made public and shared. This is not for profit, there nothing for sale and all events will be free.' Fugitive Images Fugitive Images are Andrea Luka Zimmerman and David Roberts, a collaborative cultural activist producing agency, with a particular interest in, and commitment to, the social organisation of urban space. The exhibition was an opportunity to extend this collaboration to other communities, campaigners and artists who have made it their life's work to make visible the impacts of eviction, displacement and homelessness on everyday lives. These rooms hosted works and events that connect us, that illuminate, that bring pain to the surface, that inspire tenderness, that voice solidarity. Together we hope to develop a deeper understanding and find strategies to resist terrifying social injustices and restore ethical imperatives. Exhibiting work from: Fugitive Images (Andrea Luka Zimmerman and David Roberts), Tom Hunter, James Mackinnon, Bekki Perriman, Moyra Peralta, Cardboard Citizens, DIG Collective (William Bock, Alberto Duman, Sophie Mason and Mark Morgan), Focus E15 Campaign, Smart Urhoife, UEL Unit 10. Contributions from: Owen Jones, Hackney Digs, Pau Faus, Pau Faus, Silvia Gonzáles-Laá, Xavi Andreu, Aysen Denis, John Smith, Jane Rendell, Beverley Robinson, Aysen Dennis, Richard Baxter, Caterina Sartori, Brandon LaBelle, John Rogers, Jeremy Till, Barry Watts, Ken Loach, Kerry Simmons, Dave Sinclair, Lesley Woodburn, Sarah Kwei, Dave Smith, Paul Heron, Felicity Downing, Adrian Jackson, Marcia Farquhar, David Madden, Lisa McKenzie, Tom Gann, Alberto Duman, Louise Sayarer, Eva Vikstrom, Tom Cordell, Kate Macintosh, Paul Watt, Melissa Butcher, Jon Fitzmaurice, Fuel Poverty Action, Tawanda Nyabango, Jasmin Parsons, Geraldine Dening, Alison Balance, Patrick Langley, Morgan Quaintance, Rab Harling, Sue Lukes, Advisory Service for Squatters, Green and Black Cross, Legal Defence and Monitoring Group, Sweets Way Estate, HASL, Unite Communities, Our West Hendon, Guinness, Skills Network, Radial Housing Network, Dorothy Allan-Pickard, Rastko Novakovic, Steven Ball, Kate Belgrave, Jason Parkinson, Julian Samboma, LCAP, Sibyl Trigg, John Murray, Elisabeth Blanchet, Jane Hearn, Andre Anderson, Raze, Predz UK, Kayden Bell, Jade Snyper, Nathaniel Telemaque, Municipal Dreams, Guillaume Meigneux, Stephen Watts, Lorna Forrester, Elam Forrester, Alison Marchant, Gillian McIver, Emer Mary Morris, Cathy Ward, Nela Milic. --- Programme overview Each week PEER will host a rolling exhibition programme, events and screenings featuring a number of strands. from 7pm – Openings and socials 2-5pm – Class Room, workshops and lectures for students and the public from 6.30pm – Focus, film screenings, talks, readings and actions from 6.30pm – Film screenings 2-5pm – Homeworks – Public talks from key figures/campaigns on housing All of the events are FREE, but it is strongly advised to arrive at least 10 minutes prior to the start time as space is limited and seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Weekly Programme: 18 February 7pm, Owen Jones, author, campaigner and Guardian columnist will launch the Real Estates project. Week One 18 to 21 February This week expands on the Estate project by Fugitive Images, featuring material generated from their long-term engage- ment on the Haggerston Estate in collaboration with residents and local practitioners. Key events include an evening with filmmaker John Smith including screenings of Hackney Marshes and Blight, UEL Unit 10 students will hold a seminar on their design and engagement with the Nightingale Estate and talks from the information, support and campaign group Hackney Digs. Week Two 25 to 28 February This week features a large-scale model of the Holly Street Estate (demolished in 2001), a photographic sculpture concieved and designed by artists James Mackinnon and Tom Hunter. Hunter will also exhibiting photographs of Holly Street residents (1997) and his film A Palace for Us (2010). Events include workshops with sound artist Brandon LaBelle and architectural theoretician Jane Rendell, and a talk by architect and Head of Central Saint Martins, Jeremy Till. Film- maker and writer John Rogers (Trews Reports/Drift Report) surveys his ongoing series of videos highlighting housing cam- paigns around London including the New Era Estate, West Hendon, and Save Soho. Week Three 4 to 7 March This week is themed around homelessness. Bekki Perriman's The Doorways Project explores homeless culture through photography and sound, inviting visitors to pay attention to the intimate, sometimes humorous, often disturbing and mostly ignored stories of homeless people. This will be accompanied by photographs by Moyra Peralta and work from Cardboard Citizens which has been making theatre with homeless people for over 20 years, for homeless and non-home- less audiences. Cardboard Citizens is informed and inspired by Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, using the arts to provoke debate and rehearse actions. Events include a screening of Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home and talks by performance artist Marcia Farquhar and campaigners Lesley Woodburn and Barry Watt. Week Four 11 to 14 March This week is curated by DIG Collective, formed of William Bock, Alberto Duman, Sophie Mason and Mark Morgan, who came together to interrogate demolition and redevelopment, ritual and nature in Hackney Central. Week Five 18 to 21 March This week is run by Focus E15 Campaign, continuing to build their movement that demands SOCIAL HOUSING, NOT SOCIAL CLEANSING. The week will be a melting pot of ideas and events, exhibiting visual materials and films about their campaign, hosting an eviction resistance workshop, open mic night, discussions and socials. Week Six 25 to 28 March The final week will feature an expanded enquiry from Fugitive Images, including politics and high fashion expressed in the Ghana Must Go bags made by Estate fashion designer Smart Urhiofe. Events include a panel discussion by and on Women, Home and Activism with Lorna & Elam Forrester, Gillian McIver, Lesley Woodburn, Emer Mary Morris, Alison Marchant, Cathy Ward,Aysen Dennis, Nela Milic, and Andrea Luka Zimmerman; a screening of Guillaume Meigneux's HLM – (Slightly Modfied Housing); readings from poet Stephen Watts; and an evening with the Authors of the Estate project contributors – Andre Anderson, Raze, Predz UK, Kayden Bell, Jade Snyper, Nathaniel Telemaque. PEER, LUX, Restless Futures, CSM. Fugitive Images are Andrea Luka Zimmerman and David Roberts, a collaborative cultural activist producing agency, with a particular interest in, and commitment to, the social organisation of urban space.