Suchergebnisse

Includes bibliographical references. ; Presented at the Building resilience of Mongolian rangelands: a trans-disciplinary research conference held on June 9-10, 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ; Mongolia's socio-ecological rangeland systems face a number of critical, contemporary challenges. Climatic change, persistent poverty and growing land use conflicts, especially around mining, pose complex problems both for herders and policy-makers. Furthermore, there is renewed emphasis on meeting Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Aichi targets, following the publication of Mongolia's 5th National CBD report in March 2014, and the development of a new National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan. (E)valuation of the contributions of rangeland ecosystem services (ES) to biodiversity and livelihoods/wellbeing are highlighted as priorities for future planning therein. ES thinking, valuation and commodification are becoming increasingly influential in other contemporary policy initiatives, not least through the development of the national REDD+ roadmap, Business and Biodiversity offset programmes and Government commitments to the 'Green Economy'. Nonetheless critical questions remain about the ES paradigm itself, values/ valuation of ES and how these may be enacted and supported through policy. Here we report on a three year Darwin-Initiative funded project, which aimed to 'generate policy and practice relevant knowledge of values of ecosystem services (ES) in Mongolia, and test the efficacy of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, in order to enhance biodiversity and livelihoods'. Aims were realised through i) participatory mapping and analysis of ES, including cultural ES, with 300 herder households across four case study sites, and the development of innovative methods for non-economic valuation; ii) co-development and implementation of a novel rangeland payment for ES (PES) scheme at the four sites, through the Plan Vivo standard; iii) analysis of the impacts ES and of the PES scheme on biodiversity and livelihoods. Methods used included deliberative valuation approaches, mapping, ranking and choice modelling to examine group and individual values and trade-offs between ES across ecologically contrasting areas. We also applied the SOLVES (Social Values of ES) GIS model to highlight spatial, place-specific dimensions of ES values, as part of a series of wider biodiversity, livelihoods and ES assessments. Results highlight spatial and temporal diversities in ES values, importance of cultural ES for wellbeing, and the potential of carefully designed PES schemes to contribute to more resilient socio-ecological rangeland systems in the future.

Includes bibliographical references. ; Presented at the Building resilience of Mongolian rangelands: a trans-disciplinary research conference held on June 9-10, 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ; Socio-ecological boundaries delineate landscapes containing natural resources that are differentially accessed and managed by stakeholders. These boundaries may be human-demarcated and biophysical serving as tangible and intangible features delineating landscapes. Our purpose is to explore Mongolian herders' perceptions of their pasture and boundaries through participatory mapping processes. Our research questions include: 1) what boundaries are depicted on herders' participatory maps? and 2) how are boundaries discussed through herders' participatory mapping narratives? We conducted participatory mapping and informal interviews (n= 35) with herder groups and district officials in Arkhangai, Tuv, Dornod, and Dornogovi. We qualitatively coded participatory mapping narratives and applied visual grounded theory. Tangible features on participatory maps included economic, hydroclimatic, geomorphological, and ecological boundaries portrayed as springs, landforms, vegetation types, seasonal camps, wells, and roads. Non-physical intangible boundaries such as governance arrangements were evident in participatory mapping narratives and served as human demarcated boundaries for accessing seasonal camps, markets, government assistance, and resources for herder migration. The relationships among herder mobility, governance boundaries, and biophysical pasture boundaries are coupled and dynamic, resulting in multi-dimensional outcomes of herder livelihoods.

The corporate governance as a regulatory system has started a journey towards independence for a while, and sooner or later it will turn into a self-standing field of science. This process is facilitated not only by its transdisciplinary nature, which combines legal science with economic science, within the civil law, the corporate law, business economics, management and organizational science, but also, in the case of state-owned companies, with public administration and proceedings law. The timeliness of the topic is illustrated by the prolonged transition to market economy following the 1989 regime change, the controversial application of company law, the scandals around certain privatization processes, the bankruptcy of many important state-owned enterprises, all of these bringing about a willingness to establish a regulatory framework. Taking into consideration the above short presentation, the subject of our analysis is very complex; this article intends to limit the examination to the Bucharest Stock Exchange Corporate Governance Code, investigating it in comparison to the provisions of the Romanian legal system. At the same time, it sets as an objective to make use of a concrete example (the most important Romanian state-owned joint stock company listed at the Bucharest Stock Exchange), Romgaz, in order to present the reader the ways and circumstances of the implementation of the general principles and provisions to comply with , as included in the Code.

Valamennyi tagállamra azonos szabályok vonatkoztak az európai integráció Maastricht előtti unitárius szerkezetében. Többsebességű integráció lehetséges a Gazdasági és Monetáris Unió rendszerében: különféle kormányzási modellek, bonyolult intézményi feltételek állnak fenn. Milyen változásokat hozhatna az "európai gazdasági kormányzás", illetve a "teljes" gazdasági unió kiépítése az EU intézményi szerkezetében? Hogyan alakulna e körülmények között az euróövezetbe tartozó, illetve az abból kimaradó tagállamok helyzete? Milyen eltérések lehetnek az egyes tagállamok között az uniós szabályok alkalmazásában? Milyen szerepet tölthet be a megerősített együttműködés a tagállamok szűkebb csoportjának mélyebb integrációjában? Hogyan alakulhat a mediterrán periféria, illetve a közép- és kelet-európai "új tagállamok" pozíciója? Többek között a fenti kérdésekre is választ kapunk a kötetben. = All member states were subject to the same rules in the pre-Maastricht unitary structure of European integration. Multi-speed integration is possible in the Economic and Monetary Union system: different governance models, complex institutional conditions. What changes could the construction of a "European economic governance" or a " full" economic union bring to the institutional structure of the EU? How would the situation of Member States in and out of the euro area evolve under these circumstances? What differences might there be between Member States in the application of EU rules? What role could enhanced cooperation play in the deeper integration of a narrower group of Member States? How might the position of the Mediterranean periphery and the "new Member States" of Central and Eastern Europe evolve? Among other things, these questions are answered in this volume.

This article considers the relationship between centralised, exogenous institutions and the embedded, endogenous institutions of rural governance in Europe through an examination of the evaluation procedures of the European LEADER programme. LEADER is presented in the literature as progressive in terms of innovation and stakeholder engagement. Yet, while the planning and management of LEADER embraces heterogeneity and participation, programmatic evaluation is centralised and is held at arms length from the delivery organisations. The article reviews previous efforts to improve evaluation in LEADER and considers alternative strategies for evaluation, contrasting LEADER practice with participatory evaluation methodologies in the wider international context. Can evaluation in itself be valuable as a mode of social learn-ing and hence a driver for endogenous development in rural communities in Europe? The article concludes by examining the challenges in producing a hybrid form of evaluation that accommodates both endogenous and exogenous values.

In a series of studies I analyze the past and present of Chinese higher education. The topic may be justified by the fact that up to now no comprehensive study has been published in Hungary about the long way China went along from the darkest years of communism to nowadays' education. In this second paper I summarize the four main phenomena of the reforms after the Mao-era: decentralization, marketization, privatization and internationalization. In the frame of decentralization, the external and internal governance of the universities changed resulting in a power shift from the central level to regional and institutional level. Marketization brought about significant change in the funding of higher education: instead of the state private actors pay for education. Privatization let private actors in the higher education arena, while internationalization means opening up China for foreign institutions and students and letting Chinese students to study abroad. I build my analysis on international literature and statistical data.

This research is concerning about the viability of independence and autonomy within the European Union. The most recent Scottish and Catalan pursuits for referendum and the reality of such endeavours will be the main focuses of the following study. Firstly, the definition of autonomy and the attitude of the European community toward the notion will be discussed and evaluated, while later the Scottish and Catalan autonomy movements and campaigns will also be analyzed. This research, relates autonomy to self-governance instead of self-determination and the economic environment appears to be an important determining factor for the appearance and viability of pursuits for autonomy. Based on economic indicators, the emergence of autonomous endeavors has a positive correlation with economic growth. Therefore, individual European states" improving economic indicators might change the relationship between minorities and majorities which tendency can lead toward absolute separation as the furthest outcome. ; A cikkben megvizsgálom, hogy mit is jelent az autonómia, miért vált ki az európai államokban erős érzelmeket, milyen kisebbségi jogi tartalommal tudjuk kitölteni. Az autonómiát az önigazgatás és nem az önrendelkezés fogalmával kívánom összeegyeztetni. Vizsgálni kívánom, hogy ezek a mozgalmak, milyen gazdasági környezetben jelennek meg, illetve erősödnek fel. A vizsgált gazdasági mutatók alapján kijelenthetjük, hogy az autonómia törekvések felerősödése a gazdaság növekedésének következménye. Az adott államban a többség kisebbség viszonya a javuló gazdasági mutatók alapján változhat, ez akár a teljes elszakadás gondolatához is elvezethet.

This working paper investigates public policies that precede the rise of populism. A mixedmethod research design is applied: on the one hand, we use data from international surveys and databanks to explore the policy–populism nexus from a comparative European perspective. On the other hand, country case studies have been prepared to understand the country-specific historical and socio-economic features of populism and its potential policy roots. Four countries were selected as national case studies: two EU member states (Greece and Hungary) because of a strong, long-term support of populist parties; one EU member state (Lithuania), where support of populist parties remain moderate, although historical and socio-economic features suggest a likely rise of populism; and one country (Turkey) that exhibits the potential hybridization tendencies of populism and the role of policies in the shift from democratic towards authoritarian regimes. We found that the content of policies were weak predictors of the rise of populism. Country-specific measures were more important predictors than policy ideas. At the same time, our results demonstrate that the lack of activation policies may be a strong predictor of welfare populist attitudes of citizens, and the exclusion of a significant proportion of young people from the labour market clearly feeds populist attitudes. Another important finding is that crisis management policies matter, but not the socio-economic crisis in itself: the management of crisis by non-elected policy experts, through technocratic governance methods, will likely trigger populism. This is particularly true in societies where political polarization is high

Nem kérdés, hogy Európa egy radikális átalakuláson megy keresztül. Egyszerre figyelhetjük meg Európában a kistérségi egységek és regionális mozgalmak reneszánszát. Az államok szubnacionális egységeiről való politikai, gazdasági és kulturális gondolkodás, valamint cselekvés túlnyomórészt Európában tört utat magának. A regionális mozgalmak nagyobb autonómiát követeltek hatalmi szférájuk és befolyási területük számára, részint erőszakkal, egészen egyes területek különválásáig. Földrajzi, etikai, nyelvi, vallási, kulturális, történelmi vagy gazdasági dimenziók különböző vonatkozási pontjait választották ki, hogy egy ily módon elhatárolt területet régióként jelöljenek. Azok a közös jellemzők, melyeknek egy régió lakói birtokában vannak, megteremtik a speciális egység érzését és a regionális identitást. Nagy jelentőséggel bír az Európai Unión belüli régiók rendkívül széles palettája a szubnacionális egységek jogi státuszát, kompetenciáit, valamint pénzügyi forrásait és ezáltal politikai minőségét illetően. Subnational mobilisation was one of the most outstanding features of the European internal policy of the 1990s. The phenomenon is reflected by two, mutually reinforcing factors. On the one hand, the 1988 reform of the Structural Funds and several provisions and principles of TEU created new opportunities for regions to become involved in the European politics; on the other hand, processes and theoretical debates towards the territorial decentralisation of power within Member States, as well as the openness and activism of regions in the area of structural and cohesion policy expressed more and more pronounced needs of enforcement of their rights. The opportunities and demands, the "Europe of the regions", the concept of a "Three-tier Europe" together with the EU becoming a multi-level governance system collectively constitute the conditionality of subnational mobilisation. The phenomenon can be summarised as follows: the regions within the state and at Community level, by the concurrent use of institutional and informal tools, are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly shaping the EU institutions and their decision-making processes.

The education has been exceedingly affected by the economic recession, the transformed state governance and the demographic waves, so the educational system of each country underwent some changes. The aim of my research is the comparative study of the educational systems in the East-Central European region. I examined the relationships between the different qualities, historical backgrounds, reforms and I explored the relationship between the current states of the systems (Karsten & Majoor, 1994; Lannert, 1998; Knell & Srholec, 2007; Horn & Sinka, 2007; Báthory, 2008; Dienes, 2007; Kelemen, 2010; Dakowska & Harmsenbert, 2015). My research questions are the following: What were the main reforms in the transformation of education systems? What similarities can be observed in the school systems of the countries? The region I studied is a specific East-Central European region, so the countries I have chosen are Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland. In my study, I have created three groups and I present the changes in the education systems of these countries, taking into consideration economic, social and political issues (Lannert, 2004; Kozma, 2006; Barber & Moirshed, 2007; Valuch, 2009; Kelemen, 2010; Jakubowski, 2015). Analyzing the results, it can be concluded that the regime change has enabled the countries to redefine themselves and find their new status in domestic and international politics, and also in world economy. The world economy situation created same problems for the states of the region, but their resources were different, so the public spending on education, the characteristics of education management and the infrastructure characteristics of the institutions were different. Among the main results, I have identified two groups during compulsory schooling, the first group being countries that introduce compulsory schooling up to the age of 6-15 years, and the other group consists of countries introducing compulsory schooling up to the age of 16. I have examined the curriculum regulation and the textbook market, it can be stated that, as a result of the reforms, new curricula were prepared, the textbooks were adapted according to these. Examining curriculum regulation is the result of countries striving for central regulation, but it has to be emphasized that there are countries that have integrated framework curricula and / or local curricula into a single national core curriculum, thus giving the opportunity to more autonomous management. In summary it can be concluded that the history of the countries studied and the development of their educational systems evolved similarly, however, differences can be observed by examining the different educational characteristics. My theoretical research can contribute to the discovery of the situation in Hungary and to the development tendencies and trends in the region.