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This book explores the remarkable sociocultural convergence in multiplayer online games and other virtual worlds, through the unification of computer science, social science, and the humanities. The emergence of online media provides not only new methods for collecting social science data, but also contexts for developing theory and conducting education in the arts as well as technology. Notably, role-playing games and virtual worlds naturally demonstrate many classical concepts about human behaviour, in ways that encourage innovative thinking. The inspiration derives from the internationally shared values developed in a fifteen-year series of conferences on science and technology convergence. The primary methodology is focused on sending avatars, representing classical social theorists or schools of thought, into online gameworlds that harmonize with, or challenge, their fundamental ideas, including technological determinism, urban sociology, group formation, freedom versus control, class stratification, linguistic variation, functional equivalence across cultures, behavioural psychology, civilization collapse, and ethnic pluralism. Researchers and students in the social and behavioural sciences will benefit from the many diverse examples of how both qualitative and quantitative science of culture and society can be performed in online communities of many kinds, even as artists and gamers learn styles and skills they may apply in their own work and play.

Many academics have questioned the thesis (most prominently associated with Osborne & Gaebler's Re-Inventing Government [1992]) that there is an inevitable & global convergence towards a particular, new style of public management. Yet, despite the ongoing production of scholarly evidence of global diversity, pronouncements of convergence continue to be made by politicians, civil servants, & some academics. In this paper it is suggested that, better to understand this apparent controversy, a subtler conceptualization of convergence is needed. First, convergence can take place at different stages or levels -- ie, there can be convergence in debate, convergence in reform decisions, convergence in actual practices, or, ultimately, convergence in results. There is no automatic succession from one stage to the next: the momentum of convergence can (& frequently does) stall or dwindle at any point. Furthermore, it should be recognized that convergence claims may have a value of their own, whether or not they lead to actual convergence of practice or improvements in outcomes. Convergence, in short, may be a useful myth. 52 References. Adapted from the source document.

The internet's influence on the production and consumption of news has brought about revolutionary changes in the field of journalism. The people previously known as the "audiences" are now actively involved in creating and disseminating news via online news sites and websites. This increase in players has both positive and negative consequences for democracy. This paper provides an overview of the positive and negative changes that have come about due to convergence. Through an observation of what is happening on various online sites and journalists' everyday experiences, the paper offers an analysis of the impact globally. On a positive side, for example, citizens are engaging in conversations online with journalists and also with each other on various social platforms on issues that matter to them. The internet is applauded for promoting the number of voices online and freedom of expression. On a negative side, citizens bemoan the rise in fake news and disinformation which is harmful for democracy and is discrediting journalism. Journalism is fundamental as it influences society's worldview. It thus becomes paramount for media houses and society to be more digital literate so as to distinguish between "real" and "fake" news in order to make more informed decisions.

ÖZET1992 yılındaki Maastricht Antlaşması, üye ülkelerin tek parayı kabul etmeden önce yerine getirmeleri gereken 4 Uyum Kriteri öngörmüştür. Bu kriterlere göre, ülkelerin iktisadi göstergeleri, Avrupa Birliği (AB) içerisinde en iyi performansa sahip olan ülkelerin göstergelerine nicelik olarak yakınlaşmalıdır. Ancak, para birliği içerisinde istikrara ulaşmak ve bu istikrarı sürdürebilmek için böyle bir niceliksel yakınsama yeterli koşul değildir. Bunun için, serilerin uzun dönemde birlikte hareket etmeleri de gerekir. Bu tezde, AB'ne üye ve aday olan her bir ülke ile AB ortalaması arasındaki enflasyon yakınsaması, ortak-bütünleme metodu yardımıyla incelenmektedir. Enflasyon, Döviz Kuru Mekanizmasındaki olası bir devalüasyon için temel değişkendir. Rekabet gücünde değişme olmaması için döviz kuru rejiminde, ortak bir enflasyon oranı gerekir. Bu analizde, Almanya'nın enflasyon oranı, AB ortalamasının proxy değişkeni olarak kullanılmıştır. Tezin konusunun, Maastricht Antlaşması'ndan ileri gelmesi ve 1992 yılında Avrupa ülkelerinin ekonomik kriz yaşaması nedeniyle, başlangıç tarihi Mart 1993 olarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışmadan elde edilen sonuçlar, Avrupa Para Birliği'nin gelecekteki performansı ve ülkelerin ortak politikaları takip edebilme kabiliyetleri hakkında yorum yapmaya yardımcı olabilir. Bu çalışma, ortak-bütünleme analizi ile tüm AB üyesi ve aday ülkelerin enflasyon uyumlarının beraber incelendiği tek çalışma olması nedeniyle önemlidir. Analizden elde edilen sonuçlar, çoğu üye ülkenin uyum kriterlerini yerine getirmesine rağmen, Birliğin halen uyum süreci içerisinde olduğunu göstermektedir. Bu sonuçlara göre, üye ülkeler arasında, mali ve parasal politikaların kısmi uyumu söz konusudur. Herhangi bir olası ekonomik krizde, şokların etkisi daha büyük ve sürekli olacaktır. Bu negatif etkilerin, ortak politikalarla ortadan kaldırılması, çok daha uzun zaman alacaktır. Diğer yandan, Lituanya dışındaki aday ülkelerin enflasyon oranları, AB ortalamasına uyum sağlamamaktadır. Dolayısıyla, AB ortalamasına ulaşabilmeleri için daha fazla ekonomik gelişmeye ihtiyaçları vardır.Anahtar Kelimeler: Euro, Uyum Kriterleri, Avrupa Para Birliği (APB), Maastricht Anlaşması, enflasyon uyumu, ortak-bütünleme metodu, hata düzeltme mekanizması.ABSTRACT The Maastricht Treaty in 1992 established four "convergence criteria", which must be satisfied by the member states before they adopt the single currency. According to the Treaty, the economic indicators of countries must converge to those of best performing countries quantitatively. But, this is not a sufficient condition to achieve and keep stability in a monetary union. The co-movement of the series in the long-run is also necessary. This dissertation examines inflation convergence between each member and candidate countries of the EU and European average by a cointegration analysis. Because, inflation is a key variable or any eventual devaluation and Exchange Rate Mechanism and the fixed exchange rate regime requires common inflation rates to prevent wide shifts in competitiveness. German inflation rate is used as a proxy variable for European average in the analysis. The sample period begins from March 1993 because the topic of this dissertation is derived from Maastricht Treaty and there is a crisis in 1992. The results may be useful to provide some insights for the future performance of the EMU and for countries' ability to follow its policies. This empirical study is important, because it is the first study that examines inflation convergence for all member and candidate countries of the EU by using cointegration framework.The empirical results show that the European countries are still in process of convergence in spite of the most have satisfied the convergence criteria. There is a partial convergence of fiscal and monetary policies among the member states. In the case of any possible economic crisis, the negative effects of the crisis will be bigger and continues, and the elimination of them by using common policies will take much more time. On the other hand, the candidate countries do not converge with the EU, except Lithuania, and need more economic progress to catch up the European average. Key Words: Euro, Convergence Criteria, European Monetary Union (EMU), Maastricht Treaty, inflation convergence, cointegration framework, error correction mechanism.

The goal of the present article is to investigate the degree of convergence in public expenditures for a panel of 17 European Union member countries spanning the period 1990 to 2012. We apply the methodology of Phillips and Sul (2007) various categories of public expenditures to assess the existence of convergence clubs. Overall, the results do not support the hypothesis that all countries converge to a single equilibrium state in various public expenditures.

The term 'convergence' has often been used over the last decade to describe the processes through which technologies, such as computers, telephony and broadcasting, have come together to spark the so-called 'communication revolution'. This revolution has been greatly hyperbolised by a number of influential commentators in industry, government and academia. It is the aim of this paper to bring a more grounded approach to the study of convergence, in respect to consumption studies. Convergence has more noticeably been associated with the production side of technology studies, particularly in the development and emergence of new technological systems, such as ICTs. Whilst most of the interest in this concept lies in this domain, I wish to extend the current conceptualisation of the notion to the often neglected field of technology consumption. With the convergence of media technologies, early research in the field suggests that the use and consumption of media technologies, both old and new, is being irrevocably transformed. New media networks need to be subjected to a reformulation, which involves a rethinking of the notion of the audience, and how the audience is to be studied and conceptualised in the new media environment. This paper reports on doctoral research which uses the notion of 'consumption convergence' to explain how media networks have come together, and how the consumption of media texts is taking place simultaneously and in close proximity to one another. It is concerned with how this transformation will influence current and future notions of the audience and uses empirical research into the domestication and use of internet technologies.