Suchergebnisse

The Silk Road as an image is a relatively new one for Afghanistan. It appeals to both the pre-Islamic and the perceived Islamic past, thus offering an Islamic balance to previous identities linked to Bamiyan or to the Kushans. It also appeals to a broader and more international image, one that has been taken up by many other countries. This paper traces the rise of the image of the Silk Road and its use as a metaphor for ancient trade to encompass all contacts throughout Eurasia, prehistoric, ancient and modern, but also how the image has been adopted and expanded into many other areas: politics, tourism and academia. It is argued here that the origin and popularity of the term lies in late 20th century (and increasingly 21st century) politics rather than any reality of ancient trade. Its consequent validity as a metaphor in academic discussion is questioned

The majority (57%) of Polish press, radio and TV journalists participating in a survey conducted in 2019 considered the dissemination of fake news to be a common phenomenon. The mass scale of this process was also noted by the majority (88%) of communication experts participating in an international research project also carried out in 2019. The threat of misinformation has become one of the elements that shapes the perception of the profession's prestige by journalists, and also influences the selfesteem of professionalism. A comparison with surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016 showed that the percentage of journalists perceiving high (from 13% to 38%) rather than low (from 7% to 17%) social recognition for their profession increased significantly. However, their belief in a high level of professionalism decreased (from 60% to 49%), and the number of respondents reporting a noticeable lack of competence and substantive preparation among journalists (from 16% to 35%) increased.

AbstractCrown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is moving across the international stage as the future King of Saudi Arabia. He has the support of his father, Saudi royals, and the oil income of his country. He also has 10‐year plan he agreed upon with the King called Vision 2030. The three components of the Vision are to diversify the oil‐based economy to include technology and tourism, to make the country the heart of Islam and Arab culture and to become the economic and geographic hub of Asia/Europe and Africa. His rise in power will depend upon his skill in expanding the religious tolerance of Saudi people, the current economic structure of the country, and the education of the youth. He is simultaneously addressing all these challenges in order to cement the country's future sustainability. Suggestions for enhancing his multifaceted impact on his country are provided.

The importance of investing and promoting secondary education in any developing country cannot be overemphasised. Secondary education plays a crucial role in ensuring economic growth, creating a pool of people that promote national growth, thereby reducing poverty levels and, reinforcing gender development and equality. However, despite such positive outcomes, the importance of secondary education has been neglected in India. Available statistics on the growth of secondary education and the performance of states in terms of enrolment and educational attainment paint a dismal picture. Many key concerns in this area have not even received the attention of educational planners and policymakers. Against this background, the Council for Social Development organised an international seminar, 'Universalisation of Secondary Education' to discuss critical policy issues and the practical problems hindering the development of secondary education. This is a brief summary of the proceedings of the seminar.

Dans les années 1820 et 1830, la fièvre jaune et le cholera s'associent à la peste pour renouveler les risques épidémiques qui pèsent sur l'espace méditerranéen. En proposant une réflexion à partir du « choc de circulations » induit par la confrontation qui met aux prises la marine de guerre française et ces grandes épidémies en Méditerranée, il s'agit bien de voir comment la Marine s'adapte au défi épidémique et s'affirme comme un acteur important d'un proto-impérialisme sanitaire français en amont des grandes conférences sanitaires internationales du second xix e siècle. À la défense maritime passive héritée de pratiques multiséculaires de quarantaines, une approche plus dynamique aboutit à la formalisation d'un réseau hospitalier français (et au-delà européen) de points d'appuis sanitaires maritimes. Ce sont autant de positions géostratégiques essentielles alors que la France s'emploie à construire, exercer et soutenir ses ambitions méditerranéennes.

Estimates of the meridional mass transport of Antarctic Bottom Water, calculated using the coupled ocean- atmosphere model called "Earth System Model" in conjunction with the original data assimilation method are presented. We used the data of the latitudinal CTD sections of temperature and salinity of the WOCE international experiment in 1991-1995 for assimilation. Estimates of the current velocities of Antarctic Bottom Water with the assimilation of observational data are given. We used the author's data assimilation method, which was previously referred as the generalized Kalman Filter (GKF) method. In the particular case it coincides with the classical Kalman method (EnKF). We also analyze the estimates of the mass transport by the standard dynamic scheme. It is shown that model calculations with data assimilation are qualitatively the same and are quantitatively close to the estimates of geostrophic flow transport based on the dynamic method.

This article focuses on the role of nonprofit, nongovernmental, international development organizations (NGOs) in touristic securitization, the practice of securing tourists to sustain tourism. Especially in the Global South, NGOs are incorporating tourism into their operations/funding strategies and, thus, becoming touristic securitization stakeholders and actors. Through focusing on Western NGOs in and around Guatemala's main tourism destination, La Antigua Guatemala, this article investigates how NGOs rely on, contribute to, and/or engage in touristic securitization. While the article demonstrates that NGOs help make Western tourists feel safe enough to travel to Guatemala, as well as help to keep them from harm while visiting, it also shows how touristic securitization is informed by and informing of intersecting inequalities and (re)producing human insecurities, especially for poor, often indigenous, Guatemalans, the very people NGOs aim to help. The article argues that touristic securitization is securing different worlds of (in)security.

AbstractBeck and Sznaider call on 'methodological cosmopolitanism' to transcend methodological nationalism and account for an increasingly cosmopolitanized reality. We take up their challenge by drawing on our experiences of conducting a collaborative ethnography of methodological changes in the production of population statistics within and between European national and international statistical institutes. Drawing on debates in science and technology studies, we depart from some conceptual presuppositions of methodological cosmopolitanism to define a 'transversal method'. Referring to this method as performative and ontopolitical, we reflect on how it requires collaboration and, in our ethnography, gave rise to three practical challenges – (1) going beyond the individual project; (2) using each other's field notes; (3) and working against the national order of things. To meet these challenges, we reflect on how this method required us to practise three modes of care – thinking with others, tinkering with field notes, and dissenting within.

In kwalitatief onderzoek speelt de onderzoeker een centrale rol binnen het onderzoek. Immers, de onderzoeker is tegelijkertijd het waarnemings- én het analyse-instrument. Dat is een groot verschil met kwantitatief onderzoek, waar de rol van de onderzoeker zo veel mogelijk geminimaliseerd wordt. Toch blijkt het in de praktijk vaak lastig te zijn om goed onder woorden te brengen wat iemands rol daadwerkelijk is geweest. Het gaat hier om reflexiviteit – het onderkennen en beschrijven van de invloed van de onderzoeker op het onderzoek. Ook is mijn ervaring dat er in internationale wetenschappelijke publicaties niet altijd ruimte is om hier diep op in te gaan. Veel tijdschriften hanteren een woordenlimiet en het is vaak al een uitdaging om daar met kwalitatief onderzoek binnen te blijven. Ook zijn reviewers doorgaans meer geïnteresseerd in de resultaten van een onderzoek en de relevantie van deze resultaten voor de praktijk.

In this article, we examine the role of fringe new-Fascist movements within broader right-integralist politics in today's Europe. Our focus lies with CasaPound, one of the most active movements in the Italian far-right galaxy, and highly visible in both the Italian as well as international mass media. We argue that while the strength of the movement itself should not be exaggerated, CasaPound has played a crucial role in the wider realm of integralist politics in Italy. Examining the movement's discursive as well as material interventions in both urban and rural spaces, we suggest that CasaPound's extreme rhetoric and highly spectacularized performances deserve attention for they serve to focalize in distinct ways migration and precarization, and in so doing help sustain calls by more "respectable" political forces to reclaim the national community from the assault of globalizing and neo-liberalizing forces and increasingly racialized migrant others.

The goals of this research were two-fold. First, this research set out to investigate possible institutional characteristics that may or may not have an influence on online attention or, in other words, the number of altmetric events surrounding the scientific articles from that institution. The results suggest that international connections are important in the accumulation of altmetric events, possibly due to the creation of weak ties between researchers and their institutions. Second, it was studied whether the institutional research profile, i.e. in what fields the institution published, matched with the distribution of altmetric events across the same fields of science. Our analysis shows that the universities' research profiles are not always reflected in the online events. Overall, the results of both goals of this research reflect a complex system where the received online attention can be attributed to many different factors.

AbstractThe Cyprus problem is one of the most protracted and complex conflicts in the world. This article uses poliheuristic (PH) theory to analyze Turkey's decision-making during the Cyprus crises of 1964, 1967, and 1974. We utilize the PH model (Mintz 1993, 2004) and its method to systematically examine the decision-making process and outcomes during the three crises. We present primary evidence from governmental archives and secondary from media sources. The two hypotheses derived from the PH literature are supported by evidence. Results confirm Turkish decision-makers employed two-stage decision-making during each crisis. In the first stage, Turkish leaders followed the noncompensatory rule and eliminated options that could incur losses. In the second stage, their calculations were more in line with expected utility maximization. Implications of the case study in terms of PH model, foreign policy analysis, and international relations theory are discussed in the conclusion.

AbstractSocial responsibility and environmental sustainability issues began to be paid attention in Vietnam due to the impressive economic development in recent years. However, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is still quite a new management concept, especially for small and medium enterprises. Managers are facing multiple obstacles in executing CSR programs in accordance with international standards. Regarding corporate environmental sustainability (CES), the idea of sustainable development is a rising trend in today's business reality. Essentially, CSR is regarded as a part of the overall sustainability issues. For the purpose of studying the impact of CSR and CES on corporate financial performance (CFP), quantitative method has been used to examine the relation between CSR and CFP. Qualitative method has been applied to verify the relation between CSR, CES, and CFP. On the basis of findings, several useful suggestions are made for managers to improve business performance and sustainable development in Vietnam.

AbstractRising middle powers play increasingly active international roles, yet so far we lack systematic analyses of their aspirations and impact on global economic governance. This paper addresses this gap. I argue that the role that rising middle powers assume in global economic governance depends on the degree of alignment of their regulatory preferences with those of established powers, and on the strength of their regulatory institutions. If their preferences are aligned and they develop high regulatory capacity in an issue area, they will aspire to promote existing global rules in their own region. They will engage in regional rule‐promotion because of growing economic ties to their region, and also because their regulatory agencies are socialized into these rules within transgovernmental networks. I explore these arguments empirically through case studies of two rising middle powers, Turkey and Mexico, in the global governance of competition law and policy.

Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how a firm may innovate its business model to internationalize.


Design/methodology/approach
Owing to its novelty and to the depth of the investigation required to grasp the mechanisms and logics of business model innovation aiming at internationalization, a single case study has been performed related to a company located in North-Western Colombia.


Findings
The study provides detailed empirical evidences over the mutual connection and complementarities among value mechanisms of business models. Moreover, this study suggests that BMI fosters internationalization to scale, which, in turn, will require additional changes to match new customer needs as they emerge. Also, the study shows an extension of the action–space of lean startup approaches, intended as scientific approaches to international entrepreneurship.


Originality/value
This study connects business model innovation and internationalization as few studies have done before.