Suchergebnisse

This paper discusses the development of central banking in the circumstances of the European Common Market, globalised banking industry and financial market complexity. Central banks make up an essential part of the financial sector. The establishment of the European Central Bank (ECB), the formation of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) in 1998 and the enlargement of the European Union (EU) on 1 May 2004 as well as on 1 January 2007 was a turning point for the EU national central banks (NCBs). The process of the EU enlargement was accompanied by the formation of some groups of the NCBs: the NCBs of the old EU countries (EU15) and the NCBs of the new EU Member States (EU12). The analysis of the performance indicators of a number of the NCBs points to substantial differences between the given groups of the NCBs and there are good opportunities for promoting the integrity of the ESCB. Following the centralisation of a part of the decision-making process, the effectiveness and efficiency of the NCBs were questioned.Specific development circumstances in each country have determined the mode of operation and the place of the central bank in the financial environment. At the same time in the context of financial market globalisation and turbulences, the central banks are subject to financial risks. The paper pursues the aim to propose solutions for further improvements in the ESCB's operation and policy. In the pursuit of the objectives set, the authors have made use of such methods as the statistical analysis of indicators, and the graphic and monographic approach. The authors build their research on the analysis of operational results of the NCBs and views of a number of researchers on various aspects of modern central banking. Some differences have been detected for several indicators of central banks of the EU15 and EU12 countries; they prove that there is still room for improving the integration, effectiveness and efficiency of the ESCB. The findings of the research suggest that there exists a closer relationship ...

Fast expansion of European Union (hereafter – EU), which occurs in a quite short time just confirms, that EU as a formation of the member states helps them to reach additional positive economic effect. The EU always meets new challenges for economic evolution as it is expanded both in geographical and integration point of view, and as it has uneven economic and social level of development, different demographic situation. One of the above-mentioned challenge - how to reach closer cohesion of economic development. It is not easy to seek this, especially if you know how very different economies of EU member states are. For instance, the size of production of Germany which generates the largest part of EU economy is the same as twenty smallest member states all together. Obviously, the EU economic development mostly depends and will depend on the biggest countries' economic growth and that is because they will have influence on development of smaller member states. In order to seek a closer cohesion between members states in the EU one of the measures are creation of structural funds. The question: do these instruments allow to reach the said aims?According to the financial perspective for 2000-2006 approximately 90 pc of the whole EU support was accorded to EU-15; approximately 60 pc provided in financial perspective for 2007-2013. In this case emerge ambiguous situation: on the one part, insufficient concentration of EU financial support for less developed regions impede sustainable development, in the other part, citizens of the new member states get more financial support from EU budget than they pay for it. It is important to underline, that EU financial support and participating in the common market has changed two main economic rates: GDP growth and inflation. The new member countries also should not forget abilities to absorb this structural support. In this regard the old member states dominate over the new ones. For that reason one of the future challenges for the new member states - to reach the same level. ...

The article analyses the political-administrative dichotomy and the relationshipsbetween administrative and political actors.Based on the Peters and the Aberbach, Putnam, and Rockman models of interactionbetween political and administrative actors, some representative cases were selectedand studied in order to identify the specificities of senior civil servant selection,recruitment and employment regimes.The main objective was to verify if there is some space for hybrid managementmodels, combining both the political and meritocratic requisites, in the context of thecontemporary democracies.The paper also presents some proposals for a more integrated strategic selectionand management policy for senior civil servants, aiming at the improvement oftransparency, legitimacy and merit in the selection processes.

The second part of the article (for the first section see the 26th issue of this journal) examines issuesconcerning the formation of Lithuanian labour policy in the period from 2001 to 2008. The study revealsthat during that period Lithuanian labour market policy was modelled in view of preparing for the EuropeanUnion (EU) accession stage, harmonising Lithuanian labour market policy with EU normative actsand implementing the common European Employment Strategy (EES). The national labour market policywas also drawn up in line with 'homework' assigned by the European Commission (EC) and the aim tocreate an active, flexible and stable labour market, also one that reflects national interests. The articlepresents practical and theoretical assessment of the separate stages of Lithuania's labour market policydevelopment. This article is a continuation of the first attempt to draw up an analytic assessment ofchanges and management characteristics to labour market development in the re-established Republic ofLithuania.

In recent years a gap between the competence and qualification of the university graduates and the labour market demand is continuously growing. That is the main reason of the overall, government supported university study curricula review and upgrade in the country, as well as motivation for introduction of new pedagogical approaches to enhance active learning. This paper deals with first activities of implementation of the contemporary study methodology into Electronics Study program at the Riga Technical University. The new curricula will introduce innovation in the study process: the change of the learning paradigm – enhancement of active learning. Besides that, the innovative aspects of the new methodological approaches lie in the meeting of the market driven requirements and development of competitive new specialists. Additionally to the individual benefits of new specialists and their future employers, the new study curricula will bring remarkable impact to the competitiveness of the university and will raise the image of the whole country. Innovative approach is used in the curricula development based on application of the Enterprise Knowledge Development method.

The article deals with the problem of representation in the area of local public policy. Representation is acrucial element of any democratic society. The democratic society should be reflected as sharp as possible in therepresentative institutions. Otherwise, if the reflection of society's structure is distorted, there will be a great dangerto fall into the asymmetry of democracy. Contemporary public administration extended the traditionally politicalnotion of representation into the area of bureaucracy. The distinction between the passive and the active representationwas developed. Despite that there is no consensuses of whether the passive representation always leads to the active one, the authors of the article keep a premise that most often the passive representation leads to the activeone, but it may become a negative point if the passive representation is not the sharp one. While the local councilis considered as a subject of public administration in Lithuania, the authors of the article choose to research howsharp the local council of Klaipëda represents the community of the city. The problem is relevant because thecontemporary public policy is increasingly oriented towards the notion of public governance. Applying the casestudymethod and analytical statistics, article analyzes the last four elections to the local council of Klaipëda. Dueto the wide scope of the topic, the object of the research is divided into the four main structural components:representation of gender, nationality, age-group, and occupation. Additionally, the diversity effect is calculatedapplying the Blau index. The research proved that the passive representation in the local council is not the sharpone. Among all, the distinct domination of only two - business and education - occupational groups revealed thatthere are negative tendencies in the development of local democracy. Two of them are of the greatest menace: 1)prevailing of business leaders might lead to the market relationships in the processes of solving social problems, ...

Further development of state adminstration and local government reforms is connected with the use ofsuch issues and principles as decentralisation and deconcentration of public administration, separation ofstrategy from the provision of services, diminishing the gap between democracy and efficiency, enhancingthe citizens participation and mutual trust of citizens in government and vice versa, creation of "entrepreneural"governments, principle of evaluation, reducing bureaucracy and increasing the openness,principle of diversity and possibility of choice, principle of simplifications, improving the quality of publicservice improving the political and administrative culture and integration of various institutions, reformsand activities in the context of the EU.The model of integration has been worked out by the Department of Public Administration of the Universityof Latvia and the Latvian Statistical Institute. The novelty of the model is that it proposes both verticaland horizontal communications of different institutions and people in the process of implementationof public administration reforms, local governance, national development planning and regional policy,beginning from the European Commission and ending with the citizens.

The methods and tools, essence and nature of external information-psychological influence on individualsand their groups are analyzed and presented in this article, associating the possibilities of their applicationwith the manifestation of peculiarities of human psychology and psyche, analyzing possible subsequencesof this influence both on the individuals, their groups, and political processes running in the society. Thepaper seeks to reduce some uncertainty coming both from many political processes, methods and tools ofinformation – psychological influence and their possible impact on the society development. The articletends to highlight potential threats and subsequences, which can be provoked by uncontrolled andirresponsible use of information – psychological influence methods, affecting human psyche in subconsciousnessstate, thus not giving any real possibilities to protect from that kind of influence.

All the sciences and even philosophical, ethic thinking and also practice are grounded by so called "line -thinking", which is efective in only limited sphere and time as synergetic paradigmus born in the 20 century. Unfortunatelypropositions under "line thinking" influence gave miserable results as much in politics as in government.The article shortly deals with some paradoxical synergetic confirmities (regularities) and the first observed resultsand chances of their using in the prevention of crimes, goverment in connection with the problem of theory andpractice. It is suggested to change "strategic planing" conception into "strategic thinking" concept which joins theoryand practice most effectively. In conclusion, connect of theory and practice are visible in teleonomy of emergeticevolution of social processes which are expressed namely by "strategic thinking" as intentionality obeyed to thesame synergetic laws.

This paper addresses concerns with authenticity claims that surround mental illness and author identity in fanfiction. I will apply the critiques surrounding representation in media (see Mitchell and Snyder, 2001; Couser 2003, 2009) found in disability studies and fandom studies (see Jenkins 2012) to fanfiction. In this paper, I analyze two pieces of fanfiction which focus on Thorin II also known as Thorin Oakenshield, a character from J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit novel and Peter Jackson's film adaptations. I explore how in these texts the authors portray mental illness through their characterization of Thorin II. How the author's actual or perceived personal mental health status may impact their writing, and readers' responses to their writing, is explored through the lenses of identity politics (see Calhoun, 1994) and authenticity (Couser, 2009; van Dijk, 1989). In the context of disability and fandom studies, these fanfictions act as examples of a) combination fictional/ autobiographical writings which work to provide what the authors' perceive as accurate portrayals of mental illness, and b) how the author's mental health status impacts the perceived credibility of their work.

Road surface monitoring is a key factor to providing smooth and safe road infrastructure to road users. The key to road surface condition monitoring is to detect road surface anomalies, such as potholes, cracks, and bumps, which affect driving comfort and on-road safety. Road surface anomaly detection is a widely studied problem. Recently, smartphone-based sensing has become increasingly popular with the increased amount of available embedded smartphone sensors. Using smartphones to detect road surface anomalies could change the way government agencies monitor and plan for road maintenance. However, current smartphone sensors operate at a low frequency, and undersampled sensor signals cause low detection accuracy. In this study, current approaches for using smartphones for road surface anomaly detection are reviewed and compared. In addition, further opportunities for research using smartphones in road surface anomaly detection are highlighted. ; Sattar, S., Li, S., & Chapman, M. (2018). Road surface monitoring using smartphone sensors: A review. Sensors, 18(11), 3845 ; (This article belongs to the Section Intelligent Sensors)

This paper is part of a larger project investigating the relative roles of ideology and gender composition in determining organizational structure and behavior. The project's genesis arose from a study by Meinhard and Foster (2003) that found that Canadian women's voluntary organizations (WVOs) differed from gender-neutral and men's organizations on many different measures. Women's organizations were less likely to adopt a business orientation or pursue new revenue strategies, but were more likely to collaborate with other organizations and more likely to downsize. They also tended to be more pessimistic in their outlook and engaged in more advocacy and political action. Meinhard and Foster (2003) also found that among women's organizations, those that were members of the Canadian National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), an umbrella organization for feminist groups, were more extreme in their differences. In other words, although both NAC and non-NAC organizations differed significantly from gender-neutral organizations, NAC organizations differed the most. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: ; Meinhard, A., Schwartz, S. & Handy, F. (2009). Mission (Im)possible? Determining Organizational Ideology by Examining Mission Statements (Working Paper Series Volume 2009 (1)). Toronto: Ted Rogers School of Management, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Ryerson University.

The voluntary sector has long been seen as the foundation of a healthy civil society (DeTocqueville, 1961; Leonard & Onyx, 2003). Yet, substantial growth in the last two decades in demand for voluntary sector services in Canada has been accompanied by a significant reduction in government resources supporting the sector's activities (Browne, 1996). This confluence of demand growth and decreased governmental support has resulted in increased competition among voluntary organizations for both capital and human resources (Meinhard & Foster, 2000). Furthermore, the ethnic transformation of Canadian society has raised knowledge, policy and practical issues across all sectors, including the voluntary sector. These conditions have pushed many in the voluntary sector to reach beyond their traditional bases of support to consider hitherto untapped segments of society, and have pushed governments to rely more and more on the voluntary sector for the development of social integration. However, research on the Canadian voluntary sector, particularly with a cross-cultural lens, is a relatively new research domain, with many gaps in the knowledge base. As a starting point, Berger (2004) and Berger & Azaria (2004) have proposed, tested and supported a framework that traces the relationship between sub-group identity and volunteering, as mediated by attitudes, norms and social barriers. In this paper we extend this framework and consider the role of civic engagement in processes of social cohesion and social integration. We use the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) to investigate how engagement in the voluntary sector contributes to the development of both bonding and bridging social cohesion, and thereby, social integration. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: ; Berger, I., Foster, M. & Meinhard, A. (2005). Civic engagement, social cohesion and social integration in Toronto, Canada (Working Paper Series Volume 2005 (4)). Toronto: Ted Rogers School of Management, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Ryerson University.

This paper brings together findings from three separate investigations to provide a deeper understanding of the changing roles of the government, for-profit and nonprofit sectors in ensuring civil society. The first study, based on a survey of 645 nonprofit organizations from across Canada, revealed a nonprofit sector changing to meet the challenges of the times, despite a general pessimism among leaders of nonprofit organizations as to their future (Meinhard & Foster, 2003a & b). The second, based on interviews with 20 Government of Ontario officials with links to the nonprofit sector, demonstrated how civil servants struggled to help nonprofit organizations adjust to the new policies and also encouraged them to form partnerships with the for-profit sector (Meinhard & Foster, 2003c). The research reported in this paper, based on interviews with 17 senior officers of Ontario-based corporations active in philanthropy, focuses on the corporations and probes more deeply in to the myriad of ways they are getting involved in their communities as socially responsible corporate citizens.The findings from the corporate interviews are compared and melded with those from previous interviews with government officials and nonprofit organizations to provide a three-dimensional perspective of the direction in which Canadian civil society may be moving. Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: ; Meinhard, A., Foster, M. & Berger, I. (2005). Closing the loop: corporate links to the voluntary sector (Working Paper Series Volume 2005 (3)). Toronto: Ted Rogers School of Management, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Ryerson University.