Inhaltsangabe: To introduce this work the author refers to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011, which took place in Davos from the 26th - 30th of January 2011, its agendas and reports (The World Economic Forum, 2011). At first view this meeting looks like a get-together of several leaders from different backgrounds, meaning leaders from different industries as well as political and religious leaders. But the huge amount of attendees and their position in the world turns this get-together into a platform to discuss strategies and solutions for the world's future economy and how to overcome the latest issues regarding the financial crisis. The theme of this year's meeting was 'Shared norms for a new reality', indicating, that the world has reached a turning point where change is important to assure a sustainable future. Abhisit Vejjajiva, Prime Minister of Thailand, for example states 'Governments and businesses should start revising their social contracts with their stakeholders in the light of the new realities of the post-crisis world". Furthermore his concern is that today's leaders are mostly just focused on the short-term success, due to the high pressure from their shareholders and thus work in their own borders without caring about the common good outside the borders in order to generate sustainable success. This concern gets a higher emphasis by Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, who actually attacks today's businesspeople and want to send them back to university because they just aim for short-term profits, rather than worrying about a sustainable future. In addition it is about the future leadership role of China considering multi stakeholders to achieve win-win solutions (Victor Chu, First Eastern Investment Group), leadership for people (Christine Lagarde, French Minister of Finance) and finally an optimistic outlook for the future, especially Europe, and the request of change and more transparency by David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. At the end buzzwords like stakeholders, sustainability, partnership, social responsibility, growth, balance and responsible leadership, just to name a few, can be found throughout all statements. As a matter of course all these statements are in a broader context meaning global issues, but can easily transferred to normal businesses. Reason for this project: Sustainability has become, as seen above, a huge topic paired with a more social behaviour for the common good and let the feeling arise that a new era has begun, that some of the main leaders have started to develop a new 'Zeitgeist". The question now is how this dissertation can contribute to the on-going change in order to achieve sustainable success. Sustainable success is depended on the competitive advantages, which is often tried to gain through reengineering, process improvement, etc. According to Huber, Scharioth, Pallas (2004) this is initially a good idea, but even if there are differences putting these into practice, the performance standard is often quite similar and the competitive advantage, which is won by these initiatives, is not as significant as desired. That is why they are putting the emphasis on stakeholder management with the purpose to not left the relationships with stakeholders on its own. Stakeholder management is actually an idea developed within the 80's by Freeman (1984) in order to strategically align the stakeholder's interest, using a rough framework, finally resulting in improved success (Stoney Winstanley, 2001). Success is nowadays often seen in form of financial benefits and at least in this point Berman, Wicks, Kotha, Jones (1999) see a positive impact on the part of stakeholder management. Nonetheless sustainable success is not just about finances and thus it is interesting to investigate what sustainable success is and how stakeholder management nurtures all its components. But why is each stakeholder so important? Giving some examples according to Huber, Scharioth, Pallas (2004), it points out that no matter if employees or suppliers they all have an essential impact on the business. Employees for instance have a high impact on the customer retention and company's profitability (improvement of 20% - 50%) and therefore put before customer by Nayar (2010). On the other hand suppliers need a lot of attention, due to 'Outsourcing', 'Lean' and scarcity of raw materials, to get required quality, quantity and delivery time. But also other external stakeholders are from high importance to avoid higher financial risks, as already pointed out in the 1990s by McGuire in Savage, Nix, Whitehead, Blair (1991), and thus must be managed well in order to not loose the support of a specific group and thus getting hindered on the journey to sustainable success (Reynolds, Schultz, Hekman, 2006). This is where 'managing", also understood as 'balancing" (Avery, 2005), the different interests comes into play, whereas it can become difficult, if the company is highly depending on one specific stakeholder. This could be an investor, who is holding a lot of shares, or a supplier, who is having a monopole, leading to generated bias and an exposure of sustainability (Savage, Nix, Whitehead, Blair, 1991). Furthermore a company or a company network respectively, is seen as an alliance of stakeholders (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, 2007), and their sustainable success is ensured by sticking together and behaving like a moving target (De Wit Meyer, 2005), in order to withstand evolutions in the industry and the corresponding challenges. It also could be refereed to a company as organisation, an amalgamation of people or groups of people with the aim of accomplishing productive activities, which is seen as difficult on an individual basis (Chemers, 1997). However there are also arguments against stakeholder management as enabler for sustainable success (Stoney Winstanley, 2001), at which the only purpose of a company is seen by Friedman (1962) in Stoney Winstanley (2001) in making profit and thus stakeholder management is an attack on the individual wealth of shareholders (Sternberg, 1997). In addition stakeholder management has found one of its biggest critics in Stoney Winstanley (2001) who complain about the complexity of this approach and finally its misuse as just a new tool to control the participants. Nonetheless these concerns are generally based on traditional and old-fashioned views and the question arises if the time is ripe for change, meaning the move away from just sustainable shareholder success. Considering the criticism above it seems that one of the biggest drawbacks of stakeholder management is the actual realisation, meaning the consideration of everyone's interest. This is why De Wit Meyer (2005) see good leadership skills as crucial to balance the discrepancies mostly between shareholders and other stakeholders, and lead through an alliance with different partners, affected by mistrust, due to fear that others always want a bigger part of the cake. So one major pitfall of leaders regarding stakeholder management is that of avoiding bias. There are differences between the stakeholders, for instance regarding the flexibility. Employees are mostly depending on their workplace, whereas shareholders can always choose from a wide range or portfolio of possible investments and therefore the risk of favouring shareholders is quite high (De Wit Meyer, 2005), caused in their higher direct influence (Savage, Nix, Whitehead, Blair, 1991). Additionally it should be born in mind that CEO's and the board often hold a share of the own company or are even obligated to, according to several financial reports (e.g. Finsbury, Reckitt Benckiser). Thus the own opulence is affected by the profitability of the company. In this case a bias is self-evident. On the other hand advocates of stakeholder management see the necessity for shareholder value (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, 2007), but state that it can be just sustainably realised if it is not seen as the main purpose, according to William George, chairman of Medtronic, in De Wit Meyer (2005). Instead of focusing on shareholder value, the actual focus should be concentrated on 'customer satisfaction" and 'integrity" as stated by Porras Collins (2005). In addition a motivated workforce can be seen as a crucial aspect of sustainable success, due to difficulties of competitors to copy it (De Wit Meyer, 2005). Buying in the workforce, but also other stakeholders, by creating a vision, maintaining it and finally make it live through the whole company is seen as one of the major and most difficult tasks of a leader (Ware, Michaels, Primer, 2004) and thus leaders often lacking clear direction during this task and therefore fail (Wheeler, Fabig, Boele, 2002). In order to make the organisation in a highly competitive market successful it is important to have a stable financial support, but also a highly trained and motivated workforce (Post, Preston, Sachs, 2002), often requiring a crucial change in the fundamental structure, like financial and/or ownership model (Avery, 2005). These changes are hindered by insufficient human resource models and techniques, the question how to get the employees aboard and finally the persuasion of the upper management, shareholders, etc. (Simmons, 2003). This can be eased the more the leader is convinced of the performance improvement using stakeholder management (Stoney Winstanley, 2001). The fact that people already having assets and power are not willed to share this (Gamble Kelly, 1996) and thus will defend it with all legal means or maybe also illegal, does not make it easier for the leader to put stakeholder management through. The globalisation and the expansion of companies throughout the world held another challenge for the leaders. Business policies must be kept flexible, as basis to deal with different countries, cultures and thus unusual competitive and social conditions and at the same time stick to the fundamental values and principles of the organisation (Post, Preston, Sachs, 2002). Talking about flexibility, it is important to see the flexibility of stakeholders in terms of changing from a supporting to a hampering position (Savage, Nix, Whitehead, Blair, 1991) and therefore the necessity to always reassess the importance and influence of stakeholders (Reynolds, Schultz, Hekman, 2006). In addition leaders need to focus on the right stakeholders in the right situations, different from the CEO of Eastern Airlines who was focusing during a strike just on the stakeholders with the loudest voice, and thus ran into serious trouble regarding the other parties of the strike (Savage, Nix, Whitehead, Blair, 1991). Additionally an issue arises that stakeholder may get the feeling that the decision-making regarding stakeholders is negatively influenced by divisibility of resources, saliency, incentives and sanctions (Ogden Watson, 1999) and let fade away the initial willingness to find a fair balance (Reynolds, Schultz, Hekman, 2006). This is why leaders must be prepared for the future challenges, which are a lot more complex, due to a wider range of expectations by the stakeholders, globalisation and more common pressing problems. So finally wrap the power of all stakeholders to a 'value network", considering the creation of social capital and a benefit for every participant (Maak, 2007) is the responsibility of the leader. Stakeholder Management provides a framework, a concept, which can be used by leaders, who are at the end the persons decide how stakeholder management is understood and what is the driving motivation behind its implementation (Stoney Winstanley, 2001). It was even thought about legislating SM and thus make it compulsory for companies, what is seen critical by Stoney Winstanley (2001), because in their opinion company's leaders should practice stakeholder management voluntary and chose their driver for motivation themselves. Today's environment and the resulting circumstances are continuously changing and require a leader who is always questioning the current status of a company and its direction in a constructive and meaningful way (Ware, Michaels, Primer, 2004). Therefore the leader is seen as a key catalyst in defining success of a company (Shinkle, Gooding, Smith, 2006) and also in order to make change happen to the benefit of sustainable success. Seeing sustainable success as a long-term goal leaders are confronted and hindered by external requirements, like the publication of financial reports (Avery, 2005) and thus it becomes a challenge for them to remain committed and thus have the required authentic 'tone at the top" (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, 2007). They will decide about success or failure of changes while acting as a role model and therefore have the requirement of caring about ethics and social responsibility, rather than just on making quick money. Finally it is about the ensemble of stakeholders and leaders who need a practical guideline to make their contribution for the organisation's and common good, leading to the following research question and its supporting objectives. Research content: Research question: 'What elements and characteristics of leadership would help organisations to achieve missing sustainable success through effective stakeholder management?' Supporting objectives: - Investigate and define sustainable success, stakeholder management and leadership with the purpose to identify what is understood by it and what are their characteristics. - Investigate the correlations and dependencies between sustainable success and stakeholder management to approve their complementarity. - Identify how leadership can overcome possible barriers of balancing stakeholders and creating sustainable success. - Investigate existing guidance and frameworks for the creation of sustainable success, in order to underpin their validity or propose modifications. Scope: The scope of this work is chosen very broadly, due to the nature of the project and its research areas. It is about management in general and is not aiming to be specialised on a specific industry or region. Reason therefore is the involvement of several parties, eventually coming from different industries and indeed the globalisation that does not allow investigating management tools with a narrowed regional view. However the scope is laid on business organisations. Therefore the outcome is neither focused on politics, an area worth investigating in the context of stakeholder management, nor religion. Purpose and contribution: The purpose of this work is to show companies and their leaders a way to manage their stakeholders in form of a proposed framework, to achieve sustainable success. As already mentioned in the introduction, an atmosphere of departure has arisen, due to the last happenings within the economy as well as in the politics. The outcome of this work will be an initiation to change by showing leaders how their characteristics can help to establish a win-win situation between stakeholders. Furthermore it shows the need for today's leaders to care about all stakeholders and that this is not just a matter of instruments, concepts and tools to achieve a balanced stakeholder environment, it is more about the mind-set, behaviour and confidence of the leader itself. It requires a lot of energy and stamina to achieve sustainable success and leaders will face a lot of problems and confrontations. Presenting these issues and discuss them in depth will hopefully support them to defend their view of organisational success.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: LIST OF FIGURESVI LIST OF TABLESVII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSVIII 1INTRODUCTION1 1.1BACKGROUND OF THE TOPIC AN REASON FOR ITS CHOICE1 1.1.1INITIATION FOR THE PROJECT1 1.1.2REASON FOR THIS PROJECT2 1.2RESEARCH CONTENT8 1.2.1RESEARCH QUESTION8 1.2.2SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES8 1.2.3SCOPE8 1.2.4PURPOSE AND CONTRIBUTION9 1.2.5CHAPTER OVERVIEW10 2THE MANUAL - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY12 2.1FOREWORD12 2.2RESEARCH THEORY12 2.2.1RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY12 2.2.2RESEARCH APPROACH14 2.2.3RESEARCH STRATEGY14 2.2.4THE TIME HORIZON15 2.2.5THE ENQUIRY16 2.3RESEARCH IN PRACTICE17 2.3.1RESEARCH AREA17 2.3.2RESEARCH GUIDELINE18 2.3.3RESEARCH INFORMATION RESOURCES21 2.3.4RESEARCH KEYWORDS24 2.3.5USABILITY OF DATA27 2.3.6HANDLING OF FINDINGS30 2.4CONCLUDING REMARKS31 3THE AIM - SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS32 3.1SUBSTANCE32 3.1.1THE COMPONENT SUCCESS32 3.1.2THE COMPONENT SUSTAINABILITY34 3.1.3THE OUTCOME SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS40 3.2THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS42 3.2.1GENERAL42 3.2.2AFFECTING PEOPLE42 3.2.3AFFECTING FINANCES43 3.2.4AFFECTING REPUTATION44 3.2.5AFFECTING ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY45 3.2.6AFFECTING RESPONSE TO REGULATIONS AND LEGISLATIONS46 3.4BARRIERS OF ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS48 3.5CONCLUDING REMARKS51 4THE TOOL - STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT52 4.1THE BASICS52 4.1.1DEFINITION52 4.1.2DISTINCTION OF STAKEHOLDERS54 4.1.3PRINCIPLES OF STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT58 4.1.4STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT THEORIES60 4.1.5PUTTING STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT INTO PRACTICE64 4.2LINK TO SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS65 4.3CONCLUDING REMARKS71 5THE ENABLER – LEADERSHIP72 5.1DEFINING LEADERSHIP72 5.2THE LINK OF LEADERSHIP TO STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT73 5.3REQUIRED LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS76 5.3.1REALISTIC76 5.3.2INTELLECTUAL / NOUS77 5.3.3DISCLOSING78 5.3.4GENEROUS78 5.3.5GOOD FAITH79 5.3.6SOLID80 5.3.7VISIONARY82 5.3.8RIGHTEOUS83 5.5CONCLUDING REMARKS85 6THE PROPOSAL - TOTAL STAKEHOLDING86 6.1CRITERIA FOR USEABLE FRAMEWORKS86 6.2EXISTING MODELS87 6.2.1FREEMAN'S MODEL REDEFINED87 6.2.2THE EFQM-MODEL90 6.3THE DEVELOPED FRAMEWORK95 6.3.1GENERAL DESCRIPTION95 6.3.2USER'S MANUAL97 6.3.3STAKEHOLDER98 6.3.4LEADERSHIP101 6.3.5SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS101 6.3.6PLAN-DO-STUDY-ACT (PDSA)104 6.4DISCUSSION OF FRAMEWORKS AND VALIDITY OF THE PROPOSED108 6.5CONCLUDING REMARKS113 7DISCUSSION114 7.1SCOPE114 7.2SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS115 7.3STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT116 7.4LEADERSHIP118 7.5SPECIFIC LITERATURE119 7.6METHODOLOGY DATA COLLECTION120 8CONCLUSION122 9LIMITATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER WORK124 9.1RESILIENCE124 9.2QUADRUPLE BOTTOM LINE124 9.3GROWTH125 9.4CONTRACT THEORY125 9.5ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE126 9.6SCORING SYSTEM126 10REFERENCES127 11BIBLIOGRAPHY157 12APPENDICES157 12.1WAYS OF DATA COLLECTION157 12.1.1SURVEYS157 12.1.2CASE STUDIES158 12.1.3SECONDARY DATA158 12.2SEARCH STRING TABLE160 12.3DETAILED STAKEHOLDER LIST161 12.4STAKEHOLDER ALLOCATION TO SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS169 12.5IDENTIFIED STAKEHOLDER BY FASSIN (2009)170 12.6RADAR ASSESSMENT FOR RESULTS171 12.7RADAR ASSESSMENT FOR ENABLER172Textprobe:Text Sample: Chapter 5.3.6, Solid: The personality of a leader decides whether the leader is anxious of loosing control and power, so that especially wrong strategic decisions are made due to prescient from involving others in the decision-making process (Delbecq, 2008) and not considering their opinion (Avery, 2005:216). Furthermore a strong leader's personality may benefit from a good sense of humour, suggested by (Kets de Vries, Doyle, Loper, 1994) as well as hope, that does not let him give up (Thomas Thomas, 2011). Hope is a crucial point in stakeholder management, with the aim to motivate and therefore overcome the difficulties of making it successful. But finally bravery is a personal characteristic that let the leader stand up fight for the right thing, an important step on the way to stakeholder management (Avery, 2005:79). Collins (2001:21) has done comprehensive research on great leaders and even though he just find a few of them he points out one important characteristic of great leaders: putting the greatness of the company above all. This also means to put it above the own interests, obviously a giant task and thus often doomed to failure. But this does not undermines the importance of this characteristic with regard to stakeholder management. To make this clockwork of stakeholders work the leader must put back the own interest for the benefit of the whole system. Even though it was stated in 4.2 that people are always selfish Mitchell, Agle, Wood (1997) bring forward enough opponents regarding this view, so that it finally depends on the values of the leader (Greer Downey, 1982). Solid in this case indicates that a leader is strong and self-confident in way that he can cope with the previous mentioned. All this results in a characteristic indicated as solid whereas the personality is strong enough to resist external influences. In addition it is pointed to the phrase 'solid as a rock". The leader must be the one standing out of the crowd at least for the followers and keep them grounded. In this position he act as a role model (Oakland, Tanner, Gadd, 2005) an attribute that plays a major role within stakeholder management and sustainable success. The tone at the top is crucial to buy in stakeholders, whereas they must believe in what they are doing to fulfil these expectations (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, 2007). Being solid in this context also means, as a leader, to recognise that the values are not supported and thus a further collaboration is not efficient. Nonetheless being solid also refers to the time span a leader is staying in its position. In Germany the period in higher management change after 6.1 years whereas it was 8 years in 2003 (Handelsblatt, 2011). Against the trend it is more desirable that leaders stay longer because the biggest problem with changing executives is to find a new one, an undertaking that can become very expensive as well as bear risks (Kennedy, 2000). Research in the 90s showed that the experience of managers has a great impact on their belief and their values, so that the experience of a manager in a company will have a positive impact on his decisions (Höpner, 2003:205) in this context with view to sustainable success. Additionally there is always the risk that new leaders turning the whole company upside-down and even if this is often wanted it is not if the new leader does not support the idea of stakeholder management and sustainable success. So all the hard work could turn out to be useless. Deming, 1986:121) sees an obstacle of long-term success in job-hopping due to the fact that leaders do not develop a sense of commitment and that new leaders unsettle the stakeholders. But long-term commitment also must be understood in the commitment to the approach of stakeholder management. So patience is necessary due to the fact that sustainable success and the necessary organisational behaviour is not achieved overnight (Potter, 1994). This requires an aim in the future that can be established as the one of the main motivator 5.3.7, Visionary: To avoid confusion and to respond to critics on stakeholder management a clear direction is vital for the success as discussed in 3.4. So it is about the leader to establish this direction by introducing a vision (Kets de Vries, Doyle, Loper, 1994), that helps to unify the stakeholders behind it, whilst providing clarity about what the vision is not about (Dubrin, 2007). In order to stimulate high performance and motivate followers a leader must lead passionately (Collins, 2001:20) and pragmatic (Frydman, Wilson, Wyer, Senge, 2000) towards a vision giving him/her the opportunity to have a major influence on the stakeholders. This refers back to the characteristic 'solid" (5.3.6) where a leader act as a role model towards the vision, so that stakeholder can follow (Cyert, 2005). It must be assured that the vision meets the requirements of stakeholder management, in particular balance and ethically correct, referred to as righteous. 5.3.8, Righteous: Righteous refers mainly to ethical and moral, including several 'components'. Morality is a key aspect of stakeholder management, resulting in trust and cooperation of the stakeholders. Indeed leaders should be compensated as every other stakeholder but it must be appropriate and not too high, like the stated 326:1 ratio between average CEOs and workers pay (Tang, Kim, Tang, 2000) in order to sustain trust and goodwill of stakeholders. Against the traditional way of high pay equals high performance (Jones, 1995) the survey of (Kennedy, 2000) reveals that challenging work and open communication are far more important than the pay, supported by Freeman (1984) the father of strategic stakeholder management seeing open communication as one enabler of stakeholder management. So this mind-set actually supports to lead stakeholder management, but nonetheless the salary of managers has increased dramatically. This is mainly caused in more freedom and missing internal monitoring of salary (Höpner, 2003:207), leading to a necessary moral respect of this freedom and do not exploit it. But it is not just about the monetary frugality it is also about recognition and awards, where heroism is not appropriate, acting in silence is what turned out to characterise great leaders (Collins J. , 2001:28). This includes the dispense of awards if things go good and blaming oneself if they go bad, this helps to not become arrogant (Kets de Vries, Doyle, Loper, 1994). This is also true for stakeholder management where the collaboration of the whole clockwork should be recognised and the leader act just as the element holding everything together and is not the centre of everything. Ethics is a fundamental characteristics for stakeholder management leaders, whereas Freeman, Harrison, Wicks (2007) see ethical leadership as the one most suitable, backed by McManus (2006:137) advocating ethical behaviour in order to decide to do the right thing, or ethical judgement respectively (Clarkson, 1995). This is why it is also about humanity (Kets de Vries, Doyle, Loper, 1994) and not seeing the environmental and societal responsibility as nonessential (Avery, 2005:216). Leaders also should be aware that they have fiduciary to all stakeholders and thus this fact should become the basis of the ethical mind-set (Kaufman, 2002). This fiduciary towards all stakeholders lead then towards the need of leaders to use this tool in an appropriate manner and to not justify bad decision with this model (Collins, Kearins, Roper, 2005). In addition this brings with it the desired balance of wealth distribution required by Sachs Maurer(2009).
The attachment that we feel to Madagascar compels us to talk about it – its richness, its values, its people and about life lessons learned and taught. As these experiences may differ in many aspects, a journal is the ideal place for sharing our common ideas, as well as expressing our divergent thoughts and theories. It is also a conduit for the exchange and transmission of our ideas and perspectives to the world. Thus, it is the ambition of this journal to talk about Madagascar – it's natural richness and its conservation, about development and challenges in the country, and more generally about components and facets of conservation and development. In this volume, the Journal launches two new rubrics, which emerged from the energetic enthusiasm of the authors, editors and our friends. Words are not the only way to formulate and share stories, pictures can carry messages as well; and they can speak without using words while still diligently evoking emotions and reactions in all of us. Now, we want to hear what your reactions are; we need to hear and to read how images from Madagascar capture and affect you. The Journal is doing this for the very first time and no matter who, whether men, women, or children, all of them have voiced their feelings about the photo of the little girl on the front cover of this volume. We want you to participate in Voicing Over Pictures, to share your ideas, for those of you not having a scientific based project ready yet, or simply to tell your experience in a different way. For example, those who have the courage to circulate photos and stories about the dead stranded dolphins of the port of Antsohihy. They suspected a link between the sonar systems of Exxon Mobil and the dolphins' navigation off the coasts of Analalava and Antsohihy (and they may be right, as such correlations are scientifically proven in peer - reviewed publications) even though they did not want to believe that such a tragedy could happen in their Madagascar. These people felt motivated to reach out into the world and show us what is happening. Madagascar can sometimes seem too far away from the rest of the world but this story brings us back to our sense of place in the country. Some pictures have been circulated but lately there has been only a dull silence, as scientists take time to research the issue and publish the evidence that they find. We have received a broad variety of contributions to this volume such as "Bats as bushmeat in Madagascar". This is not only the first MCD review focussing on Madagascar's bats, but it also shows some impressive pictures including a rather unusual and unfortunate shot of bats in a context that is more common than you think: the bat on the dinner plate. Another contribution addresses one of the top 25 most endangered primates in the world. Instead of resigning and continuing what others of their ilk have done for generations (and seriously risking a listing in the history books under the chapter 'Extinct') the White - collared brown lemur has adapted to new and changing situations and has even been flexible enough to tackle the aftermath of cyclones and start feeding on mushrooms and spicy invasive plants. Is this a recipe for survival? We shall see. In another story, the authors of the Manambolomaty Lake Project draw on local taboos and beliefs to establish a conservation framework for the protection of natural resources – a success story showing how important the traditional knowledge and culture of the local people is to achieving conservation that really matters. Sharing information is important, that is nothing new. Before you can share, however, you need the ability to access it. In a piece about the power of radio, the authors show that radio broadcasting can be utilized beyond the daily spread of news and entertainment: it can also be an effective tool for community outreach. This has so far been 'off the radar' for most international aid agencies. Broadcasting information and knowledge over the radio can be an effective tool in the fight to alleviate poverty; which is so far still the biggest challenge in Madagascar. As our words mark the passage of time into history, then you will be part of Madagascar's history of tomorrow. MCD is presenting another new rubric; Travelling Through Time will be talking about people who have written Madagascar's history in the past century, about people who were building on Madagascar's milestones for present and future conservation and development endeavours. There are people who have been participating in Madagascar's history. Some of them are almost living legends; they have made their imprints on this island; and whether they are appreciated or not, people talk about these personalities. At the beginning of the 19 th century oil mining industries (often with governments in the background) were endorsing renowned geologists for their endeavours such as Raymond Decary (1891 - 1973) who over the years became an accomplished humanist and naturalist. There is also the story of Charles A. Domergue, a hydro - geologist who also ended up dedicating his life to development in southern Madagascar where he pursued scientific studies and the conservation of the biological riches of Madagascar that mesmerized him. We invite you to talk in Travelling Through Time about your own heroes, men and women who have been the pioneers and advocates for Madagascar's Conservation and Development. Returning to the picture as a medium of information, some of these are also meant to satisfy the classic clichés, the ones that reinforce stereotypes that the rest of the world has about Madagascar. Madagascar is a country of the South, and the world expects to see pictures mirroring these characteristics. In the South, mining is often married with the traditional picture of gold miners: deep pits bored by using the angady (the Malagasy spade), causing sweaty and muddy foreheads on the miners' emotionless faces while the mining dumps grow bigger and taller. One might think of a new Germinal or Assommoir - like novel of Emily RaZola's, with the toka Gasy replacing the absinthe, with the North pointing fingers and watching the South. However, the question remains, what is the real picture? Modern mines are equipped with sophisticated exploitation tools, and the companies have the backing of conduits of social and environmental impact studies, employing an international guild of workers, efficient and trained in using the latest technology, rearing to go. The Journal would like to call upon people who know about these mining activities and who are studying specific social, economic and environmental impacts; people who also are aware that these activities are unavoidable, and people who know that tropical forests are disappearing quickly from the maps of Madagascar, and with them the Indris that sing no longer, crying if they only could. We need these people to tell their stories and share their expertise and experience, since we all want to know and would like to understand what the benefits and negative impacts of large - scale mining or farming are for Madagascar. The Journal would like to emphasize one more time that sharing information between agencies (governmental and non), universities and private persons is crucial. Whether you are in the field, in a forest, a community or a laboratory; sharing and informing is the most important step to moving Madagascar further ahead! You can simply share your impressions of the breath - taking photo on this volume's cover (which has been kindly contributed by Peter Oxford and Reneé Bish); as college students, children and older people have done, or you can go further and contribute more to the information sharing in the pages of this Journal. Submit us your stories and impressions as photo essays, or bring your experiences and findings to paper and send us articles, reviews or essays. We are sure you will enjoy the articles in this issue and we hope to see more in the near future.Image en Action Comme tous ceux qui sont affectivement attachés à Madagascar, nous aimons parler de cette grande île, de ses richesses, de ses valeurs profondes, de ses gens, des leçons de vie qu'ils nous ont inculquées, mais si nos expériences aux uns et aux autres ont Madagascar en commun, elles diffèrent certainement en tous points et un journal est ainsi le lieu idéal pour échanger nos points de vue. Ici nous voulons parler des richesses naturelles de Madagascar et de leur protection, de développement et des défis à relever, ou un seul aspect lié à la protection de la nature ou au développement mais surtout et avant tout, nous invitons des hommes et des femmes à prendre la parole. Le journal lance ainsi deux nouvelles rubriques qui sont nées de l'enthousiasme des auteurs, des éditeurs et de nos amis qui partagent tous cette même volonté de communiquer ; les mots sont loin d'être les seuls outils de communication et si nous ne pouvons employer tous les moyens ici, nous savons cependant que les images véhiculent bien des messages, ont cet incroyable pouvoir de nous émouvoir et nous parlent. Et nous avons besoin de vous, de vous entendre, de vous lire, comme nous l'avons fait ici lorsque nous avons donné la parole à des femmes, des hommes et des enfants pour qu'ils nous disent avec leurs mots, leur sensibilité, ce qu'ils ont entendu dans les yeux de cette enfant. Et nous vous attendons pour participer à cette rubrique 'Voicing Over Pictures' ou 'Paroles d'Images' pour partager vos idées, pour communiquer en attendant d'avoir matière à produire un article scientifique, ou pour le dire autrement. Nous pensons par exemple à ceux d'entre vous qui ont eu le courage de faire circuler ces photos de dauphins échoués dans le port d'Antsohihy. Certains ont soupçonné un rapport entre les sonars à balayage latéral d'Exxon Mobil et l'échouage des dauphins sur les côtes proches d'Analalava et d'Antsohihy, ils ne peuvent pas avoir tort car tout cela est connu depuis bien longtemps ; de tels faits sont scientifiquement prouvés et publiés dans des revues à comité de lecture, mais ceux qui constataient les faits sur les côtes malgaches ne voulaient tout simplement pas croire que cela se passait aussi chez eux, en étaient émus, voulaient le hurler, et très fort car Madagascar est parfois tellement loin du reste du monde ! Quelques photographies circulèrent mais furent rapidement remplacées par un silence pesant car la science a besoin de bien plus d'éléments et qu'il lui faut du temps pour procéder aux recherches et mettre ses résultats sous presse. Nous avons reçu des contributions variées pour ce volume et pour n'en citer que quelques unes, l'article « Bats as bushmeat in Madagascar » est une première sur les chauves-souris pour le journal mais qui nous montre des images impressionnantes de ces animaux dans un contexte qui n'est pourtant pas inhabituel, celui où ils se retrouvent accommodés dans une assiette. Un autre article concerne l'un des 25 primates les plus menacés du Monde. Et plutôt que de démissionner et de poursuivre comme d'autres de la lignée l'avaient fait pendant des générations (pour prendre inéluctablement le risque d'aller rejoindre les livres d'Histoire sous la rubrique 'Éteints'), le Lémurien à collier blanc montre qu'il s'adapte à une situation changeante en étant capable de composer dans une forêt ravagée par un cyclone et de s'alimenter de champignons et de fruits épicés d'espèces allogènes ; recette pour survivre ou non, il s'agit pour le moment d'une affaire à suivre. Les auteurs de l'article sur le projet du lac Manambolomaty s'inspirent des croyances et des tabous locaux pour mettre en place un réseau destiné à la protection des ressources naturelles – l'histoire d'une réussite qui relate une fois de plus à quel point les gens sont importants pour protéger une nature qui compte. Partager l'information est primordial et ceci n'est pas un scoop ! Mais avant de pouvoir partager il vous faut les moyens de le faire comme il est montré ici dans l'article sur la radiodiffusion qui peut aller au - delà de la transmission de nouvelles et de divertissement en constituant un outil capable de s'adresser aux communautés les plus isolées et qui étaient loin de toutes les priorités des agences d'aide internationales. La radio peut constituer un outil de choix pour lutter contre la pauvreté qui reste encore et par - dessus tout le plus grand défi à relever à Madagascar. Ainsi, les mots marqueraient - ils le passage du temps dans l'Histoire, de sorte que vous êtes alors tous la future Histoire de Madagascar. Dans ce contexte, le journal présente donc une autre rubrique pour parler des gens qui ont écrit l'histoire du siècle dernier de Madagascar, de ceux qui ont posé des jalons sur la route de la conservation et du développement présents et futurs de l'île. Car il y a des gens qui ont participé à cette Histoire, parfois des légendes vivantes qui ont marqué l'île de leur empreinte, on les aime ou non mais on parle d'eux. Au début du XIXe siècle, les explorations pétrolières firent appel à d'éminents géologues et nous nous rappelons de Raymond Decary (1891 - 1973) qui est, par la suite, devenu un humaniste et un naturaliste chevronné. Plus jeune, un autre géologue a partagé un destin semblable en consacrant sa vie au développement du Sud de Madagascar ainsi qu'à la science et la protection de ses richesses naturelles, ce naturaliste est Charles A. Domergue. Dans Travelling Through Time ou Voyage dans le Temps, nous donnons la parole à ceux qui veulent nous parler de leurs héros, de ces hommes et ces femmes qui ont marqué l'histoire de la protection de la nature et du développement de Madagascar. Pour revenir aux paroles émanant des images, il nous faut admettre que certaines d'entres elles sont aussi destinées à contenter les clichés, ces caricatures qui rassurent et qui doivent traduire la bonne marche du monde. Madagascar est un pays du Sud et le monde veut y voir des images du Sud. Dans le Sud, l'exploitation minière se marie avec l'orpaillage traditionnel, des puits profonds creusés à la sueur du front, des terrils érigés à la force des angady (les pelles locales) dans une ambiance où on frôle un nouveau 'Germinal' ou 'Assommoir' d'un Émile RaZola où le toka gasy (rhum local) remplacerait l'absinthe dans le Sud qui sera pointé du doigt par le Nord. Mais savons - nous seulement à quoi ressemble la réalité ? L'exploitation minière moderne met en place des chantiers élaborés, des moyens d'extraction sophistiqués, se contraint à réaliser les études sociales et d'impact environnemental conformément à des normes internationales, fait appel à des travailleurs et experts de toutes nationalités, efficaces et rompus à utiliser les dernières technologies en la matière. Le Journal voudrait donc inviter ceux qui connaissent ces activités minières, qui étudient spécifiquement les impacts sociaux, économiques et environnementaux mais aussi tous ceux qui admettent qu'il n'y a généralement pas le choix, qui savent que des forêts tropicales disparaissent rapidement de la carte de Madagascar, et avec elles des Indris qui ne chantent plus mais pleureraient s'ils le pouvaient ou si nous pouvions les entendre. Nous avons besoin de vous entendre avec des mots, des paroles d'images et vous invitons à partager vos expertises et expériences car nous voulons tous savoir et nous voudrions comprendre ce que sont les avantages et les inconvénients des exploitations minières ou agricoles à grande échelle à Madagascar. Madagascar Conservation & Development voudrait insister une fois de plus sur le besoin de partager les informations, aussi bien celles des agences gouvernementales que non gouvernementales, des universités ou des particuliers, que des gens de terrain, qu'ils soient en forêt, dans un village ou dans un laboratoire ; le partage et l'information sont des éléments déterminants pour faire avancer Madagascar ! Vous pouvez simplement partager votre sensibilité en nous disant ce que vous voyez dans des images comme l'ont fait des collégiens, des enfants et des moins jeunes pour la superbe photo de couverture aimablement mise à disposition par Peter Oxford et Reneé Bish. Mais avant tout, le journal voudrait inviter des gens qui travaillent dans la Conservation et le Développement à participer à l'échange de l'information ! Soumettez nous vos histoires et vos impressions, sous la forme d'images accompagnées d'une courte légende, ou partagez vos expériences et vos découvertes dans des articles, des revues ou des essais. Nous sommes certains que vous apprécierez la lecture de ce numéro et espérons vous y voir davantage dans un proche avenir.
Horizontal inequalities (HIs) within a country, or inequalities among groups, have been shown to be an important source of violent conflict. Relevant group categorizations include religion, ethnicity, and region. HIs can also be measured in different ways. Ethnicity, language, religion, race, and region are examples of potentially relevant and salient group categorizations. In this paper the authors will review the prevailing HIs and their management in four West African countries - Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria. The report provides some basic facts about these four countries, which vary greatly in area, per capita income, poverty, child mortality rates, and other features. In terms of ethnoreligious demography, it is important to note that all four countries have a highly diverse ethnic population, and three of the four (Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire) have substantial Christian and Muslim populations. Each of the case study countries has had a relatively turbulent and complex political history in recent decades. The four case study countries present instructive examples of the possible (mis)management of HIs. In this paper the authors analyze the evolution and management of the prevailing HIs in each of the four cases. Section one gives introduction. Section two presents evidence on the evolution and current state of HIs in each country. Section three analyzes the main causes of the prevailing HIs, while section four focuses on the governments' attitudes, policies, and measures toward HIs. Section five discusses the links between the HIs observed and the political outcomes. Section six draws some conclusions and makes policy recommendations for improved management of HIs in multiethnic developing countries generally, and specifically in four case study countries.
The problem of economic development has been the subject of discussion in economic theory for hundreds of years. It is one of the most important issues in economics. To this day, it is crucial to specify the factors and conditions of this phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to identify the direction and strength of the relationship between the quality of the institutional environment and the level of economic development. The soft modelling method and analysis of the literature were applied to identify this relationship. Selected research methods allowed for the positive verification of the adopted hypothesis- institutional environment has a significant, positive impact on shaping economic development dynamics. ; University of Bialystok, Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, Poland ; MA, PhD Student, Doctoral School in the Social Sciences, University of Bialystok (Poland) ; m.borkowski@uwb.edu.pl ; 27 ; 48 ; 2 ; Barro, R.J. (1996). Democracy and growth. 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The Chameleon Literary Journal has served as Norwich University's arts and creative writing magazine since 1961. Under the mentorship of its advisor Professor Sean Prentiss, third-year student Lydia Brown analyzed all past publishings in order to understand the extent to which Norwich University students represented LGBTQ+ members, people of color, and women throughout the years. This internship also allowed her to explore the overall history of The Chameleon Literary Journal, including its distinct differences from era to era. As the final product, such findings were accumulated over the course of a single semester and comprised into the following written report. ; Winner of the 2022 Friends of the Kreitzberg Library Award for Outstanding Research in the University Archives category. ; Brown 1 Looking Back on the Representation of LGBTQ+ Members, People of Color, & Women An Analysis of The Chameleon Literary Journal, 1961 — Present Lydia Brown Department of English & Communications, Norwich University EN 415: English Internship Professor Sean Prentiss Fall 2021 Brown 2 Abstract The Chameleon Literary Journal has served as Norwich University's arts and creative writing magazine since 1961. Under the mentorship of its advisor Professor Sean Prentiss, third-year student Lydia Brown analyzed all past publishings in order to understand the extent to which Norwich University students represented LGBTQ+ members, people of color, and women throughout the years. This internship also allowed her to explore the overall history of The Chameleon Literary Journal, including its distinct differences from era to era. As the final product, such findings were accumulated over the course of a single semester and comprised into the following written report. Brown 3 The Chameleon | 1961 - Present Brief Historical Background Founded in 1961, The Chameleon Literary Journal continues to serve as Norwich University's arts and creative writing magazine under a team of student editors. Norwich University undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to submit various pieces for review, such as visual arts, drama, poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Sean Prentiss, a published author and professor of creative writing, was selected to be the advisor of the journal when he arrived on campus in 2012. Since his arrival, he has assisted the journal in becoming multilingual by translating students' creative writing pieces into multiple languages. In addition, three-four creative writing awards are issued annually to writers who distinguish themselves amongst the rest of the student body. Brown 4 Introduction Significance of Representation Representation is a system for unambiguously organizing values, ideas, and conduct — all of which enable communication and social exchange amongst members of a particular group or community. From birth onward, an individual's self-c 1 oncept and values are affected by the surrounding environment. Adolescence is an especially critical period for identity development as the classroom serves as the primary site of socialization, although the American K-12 and college school systems have previously marginalized students who were perceived as different. Women are also encouraged from an early age to adhere to the traditional role of a homemaker, rather than pursue vocational training, higher education, and careers in STEM. As the reader will observe in the following excerpts from The Chameleon Literary Journal, Norwich University is no stranger to marginalization as women were not officially admitted for enrollment prior to the mid-1970s. Telltale signs found in the language used by Norwich student contributors indicate that slurs, stereotypes, and insults used against minorities and women were normalized for much of the Chameleon's history. It was not until the early 2000s that there appears to be a significant social shift within the student body due to the increasing presence of minorities and women on campus. Based on these findings, American society seemed to finally be becoming more inclusive, allowing minority Norwich students to express themselves freely, develop social stability, and gain a sense of acknowledgment through positive identity formation as well as representation. 1 "APA Dictionary of Psychology." American Psychological Association, https://dictionary.apa.org/social-representation. Brown 5 Baby Boomers | 1946 - 1964 Brief Historical Background Following World War II and the Great Depression, a significant spike in birth rates occurred throughout the United States. Approximately 76.4 million babies were born over the course of these nineteen years. Most historians claim that this phenomenon stems from the general population's desire to establish their own families — an undertaking that was previously postponed due to World War II. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act also gave soldiers an additional reason to have larger families as the G.I. Bill granted stipends for college tuition, job-finding assistance, and housing expenses. During this time period, economic growth began to increase and the majority of Americans had an optimistic outlook for the future. This encouraged families to relocate from the sparse countryside to the bustling atmospheres of nearby cities. Once these cities were overcrowded by newcomers, plans for large residential communities were undertaken by housing pioneer William Levitt who created the suburbs as a result.2 However, those with xenophobic tendencies followed quickly relocated to the suburbs as cities became miniature melting pots of integrated immigrants with various political, social, and economic backgrounds. This sparked disputes among the American people as legalized statutes remained persistent in enforcing segregation at both the state and local capacity.3 2 Nohria, Nitin, Anthony Mayo, and Mark Benson. "William Levitt, Levittown and the Creation of American Suburbia." Harvard Business School Case 406-062, December 2005. (Revised March 2010.) 3 The first three years of the Chameleon were released during the Baby Boomers generation but were mostly written by students who were born during the Silent Generation (1928-1945). Brown 6 Baby Boomers Overview of Significant Events • Brown v. Board of Education becomes a landmark Supreme Court case (1954). • Civil Rights Movement begins (1954). • Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus (1955). • Montgomery Bus Boycott tackles segregation on the public transit system (1955). • Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American, is lynched in Mississippi (1955). • 1956 Sugar Bowl becomes the first integrated college football game in the South (1956). • Civil Rights Act becomes the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875 (1957). • Little Rock Crisis prevents students from enrolling in a racially segregated school (1957). • Greensboro sit-ins initiate protests regarding the South's policy of segregation (1960). • Nashville sit-ins initiate protests regarding the South's policy of segregation (1960). • Gay Liberation Movement begins (1960). • Alliance for Progress initiates improved economic cooperation with Latin America (1961). • Katherine Johnson assists NASA's 1962 Friendship 7 Mission (1962). • Civil Rights Act establishes federal inspection of voter registration polls (1960). • Children's Crusade addresses segregation within the school system (1963). • Martin Luther King Jr. leads the March on Washington (1963). • Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique (1963). • President Johnson proposes the Great Society to combat poverty and racial injustice (1963). • Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination based on race, religion, and sex (1964). Brown 7 Baby Boomers The Chameleon Highlights "A young woman driving a truck!? That was unusual, no doubt about it…Stupid woman, all guts, and no brains! … Maybe you can imagine what went on inside the young man when an officer stopped him and hurriedly said; Never mind, mister, there's nothin' you can do, she's dead, just some dirty n***** woman truck driver" (1963). 4 —- An excerpt from "The Wanderers" by R. Reid The use of profanities towards both people of color and women appears to be a commonality amongst Norwich student contributors from the Chameleon's founding in 1961 through much of the decade. In this short story, "The Wanderers," terms such as stupid and dirty are used to target a woman of color for being a trucker. The author continues to expand the character's description by using calling the woman the N-word. Deriving from the Spanish word negro, the N-word is now considered taboo as its connotation has been predominantly used by white people to demean those of color. Black social identity has been especially damaged by the usage of this word as it severs their overall sense of national belonging. 5 4 Complete usage of the word is censored in respect of the black community. 5 Pryor, Elizabeth Stordeur. "The Etymology of N*****: Resistance, Politics, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North." Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War, 2016, https:// doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628578.003.0002. Brown 8 "…I saw everything. The city has been purified, swept clean, and now fosters only the black scars and in glorious moments of the past…You liar! You had to see the city die! You had to see it spill its false entrails out in the rotten streets to be devoured by the cleansing fires. This place is no longer dirty…" (1961). —- An excerpt from "The Dream Monger" by Anonymous In this short story, "The Dream Monger," the phrase cleansing fires reveals itself to be the cause of death and destruction. Like the Holocaust, mass genocides often surround ideologies associated with ethnic cleansing. This allows for a geographical area to become ethnically homogeneous under an establishment of power. In 20th-century America, for example, Anglo- American colonialism constituted the genocide of countless Natives in America and around the world. Such events will never be widely coined as genocide, however, due to the number of those who survived exploitation, disease, malnutrition, and neglect. 6 The term black scars also leads to further speculation that this short story may involve post-slavery events of America's racial segregation system. One of which included the Tulsa race massacre, decimating the Black business ecosystem and killing 6,000 community members. 7 Many other excerpts were found focusing on a more negative portrayal of the BIPOC community and women, although there was no mention of LGBTQ+ members.8 6 Anderson, Gary C. Ethnic Cleansing & the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt America. University Of Oklahoma Press, 2015. 7 Kapadia, Reshma. "The Tulsa Massacre Left a Lasting Impact on Wealth." Trade Journal, vol. 101, no. 22, 31 May 2021. 8 Many other excerpts were found focusing on a more negative portrayal of the BIPOC community and women during this time. However, there was no mention of LGBTQ+ members. Brown 9 Generation X | 1965 - 1980 Brief Historical Background Those who grew up during this time were accustomed to having a sense of independence from an early age. This was caused by the increased divorce rates throughout the United States, the unique dynamics of single-parent households, and dual-income parents who were not able to spend as much time at home. Most parents found a life-long career in computers, business management, construction, or transportation. Although routinely working long hours, they still managed to find a healthy balance between exhibiting their creative freedoms within the workplace and maintaining personal relationships with their children. Also referred to as latchkey kids, Gen Xers often spent their downtime conversing with friends via email, channel surfing on the television, or playing video games. They also seemed to have a deep interest in musical genres associated with social-tribal identities, including punk rock and heavy metal. This meant that music became an important self-identifying factor, even influencing the type of attire an individual wore on a daily basis. In the 1960s and 1970s, a countercultural movement known as the hippie era catalyzed other self-identifying factors — especially for those who identified as members of the LGBTQ+ community. American writer Allen Ginsberg formed the core of the movement as he openly opposed all military efforts, sexual repression, and capitalism.9 Ginsburg also identified as gay, serving as positive a role model for members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies alike. 10 9 Silos, Jill Katherine. "Everybody Get Together: The Sixties Counterculture & Public Space, 1964-1967." University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository, 2003. 10 Eleven years of Chameleon issues were released during Generation X but were mostly written by students who were born during the Baby Boomers generation (1946-1964). Brown 10 Generation X Overview of Significant Events • Selma to Montgomery marches promote voting rights for African Americans (1965). • Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American Supreme Court Justice (1965). • Immigration & Nationality Act outlaws de facto discrimination against immigrants (1965). • Voting Act outlaws racial discrimination in voting (1965). • Malcolm X is assassinated (1965). • Watts Riots occur in light of Marquette Frye's arrest (1965). • Nation Organization for Women is established (1966). • American Indian Movement is founded (1967). • Detroit Riot sheds blood between black residents and the Detroit Police Department (1967). • Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated (1968). • Fair Housing Act outlaws discrimination regarding housing (1968). • Shirley Chisholm becomes the first black woman elected to Congress (1968). • East Los Angeles Walkouts are organized by Mexican American students (1968). • Stonewall Riots call for LGBTQ+ members to respond to police raids (1969). • Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg becomes a landmark Supreme Court case (1971). • AIM protests against injustice under law enforcement towards Native Americans (1972). • Roe v. Wade becomes a landmark Supreme Court case (1973). • Billie Jean King wins the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match (1973). • Beverly Johnson becomes the first black model on the cover of Vogue (1974). Brown 11 Generation X Relevance to The Chameleon "The pedestrian Walks, talks, and discriminates On such vital and valid criteria as Color, breeding and religion. Sees sex, and is offended. Grows indignant. Has a firm conviction that freedom of speech sometimes goes too far When it lets Martin Luther King "cause trouble" and "incite" riots" (1965). —- An excerpt from "The Pedestrian" by Jacob Sartz Unlike most pieces of writing from the 1960s publishings, this free verse poem seems to call out the discriminatory tendencies of others. The author especially targets any person whose ideologies are rooted in racism, sexism, and other gateways leading to unequal treatment. By labeling them as the pedestrian, such subtlety creates an effect where anyone can be the principal character and thus the reader may begin to question their own actions. As the author begins to shift towards a more political ambiance, African American activist Martin Luther King Jr. is mentioned. From the pedestrian's perspective, however, King is known to overstep the principle of free speech with the exception of cases where it benefits the white majority. Brown 12 "He had gone through a variety of different girls in the next six years, and he had accumulated an assortment of different names in his address book, including a few of the local sweethearts that he'd called up in dire sexual emergencies… When he had heard that his little "streetlight girl" had been married, he put a check next to her name in the book as he had done for several other old flames that had been put out of commission for one reason or another. He thought of her a little while after that, but closed the book as he had always done" (1970). —- An excerpt from "The Street Light" by Paul LeSage Unlike our example directly above, there are several alarming factors sprinkled throughout this short story, revealing how a man uses the sexual objectification of women to his advantage. The man's use of an address book further proves this implication as the women he has been sexually involved with are jotted down in writing. Visually speaking, the reader may think of a grocery list or an inventory of stock goods when it comes to the address book's description. The man proceeds to check off the women who no longer sexually benefit him all while refusing to use their real names, ultimately dehumanizing them in the process. This allows the reader to further explore the harmful effects of sexual objectification, pushing them to decipher the differences between sex and sexualizing.11 11 Many other excerpts were found focusing on a more negative portrayal of the BIPOC community and women during this time. However, there was no mention of LGBTQ+ members. Brown 13 Generation Y | 1981 - 1996 Brief Historical Background Many of those who were either born into this generation or lived through it prioritized their careers and personal interests above marriage. This means that they were having fewer children than their predecessors. Like Gen Xers, Millenials were known to be tech-savvy with a specific preference to communicate through email or text. MTV brought them further reason to enjoy screen time when the cable channel was launched in 1981. Originally created to showcase music videos, MTV quickly moved to television personalities. Michael Jackson, for example, served as the precedent for television personalities and leading artists, topping the charts throughout the duration of the 1980s. He eventually became one of the most well-loved television personalities who dedicated much of his offscreen time to charitable efforts. Prince, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, and many others followed closely behind. Based on the increased media representation of minority artists, it's safe to say that this particular time frame allowed for people of color to debut their own music videos for the first time. This urged the public to gravitate towards soul music and R&B, marking the start of this generation's willingness to embrace black creators. Alongside music, technological advances in STEM were budding with breakthroughs. Women paved the way towards many of these breakthroughs under large startups and federal organizations, inspiring younger girls to do the same through higher education. 12 12 Eighteen years of Chameleon issues were released during Generation Y but mostly written by students who were born during Generation X (1965-1976). Brown 14 Generation Y Overview of Significant Events • Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Week is implemented in May (1979). • Boston African American National Historic Site is established (1980). • AIDS Epidemic begins, causing numerous deaths in the LGBTQ+ community (1981). • Sandra Day O'Connor is nominated as the first female Supreme Court Justice (1981). • Federation of Survival Schools leads legal education seminars for Native students (1984). • Ellison Onizuka, the first Asian-American in space, dies in the Challenger disaster (1986). • Minneapolis AIM Patrol refocuses on protecting native women in Minneapolis (1987). • Sally K. Ride becomes the first American woman in space (1983). • Susan Kare made typeface contributions to the first Apple Macintosh (1983). • Michael Jordan is named the NBA's "Rookie of the Year " (1985). • Nadia Perlman invents the spanning-tree protocol (1985). • Carole Ann-Marie Gist becomes the first African American to win Miss USA (1990). • Freddie Mercury dies from AIDS (1991). • Rodney King is brutally beaten by LAPD officers (1991). • AIM revives the Sun Dance ceremony in Pipestone, Minnesota (1991). • Los Angeles Riots result in numerous deaths and $1 billion in damage (1992). • Mae Jemison becomes the first African American woman in space (1992). • National Coalition in Sports & Media Forms is established by native leaders (1992). • "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" bars the LGBTQ+ community from military service (1993). Brown 15 Generation Y Relevance to The Chameleon "I slowly adapt myself to another man's world, But I soon realize that my character is a reflection Of a foreign spectrum I see myself through another man's eyes, My words come from another man's mouth, And my ideals are relocated from another man's mind" (1980). —- An excerpt from "A Nostalgic Experience" by Noble Francis Allen America's social construction has continued to uphold whiteness throughout the duration of its history, while people of color must condition themselves to that of the norm. In this case, the author speaks in the first person, signifying their position as the principal character who is faced with having to mirror the way others perceive the world. This implies that the narrator may have had a weakened sense of self-identity at the time this poem was written. Self-identity is an especially important feature as it consists of the traits, characteristics, social relations, and roles that define who one is. An individual's racial and ethnic 13 background is also included within the same realm due to the distinguishment of their given group's cultural values, kinship, and beliefs.14 13 Oyserman, Daphna, and George Smith. "Self, Self-Concept, and Identity." Handbook of Self and Identity, edited by Kristen Elmore, 2nd ed., The Guilford Press, New York, NY, 2012, pp. 69–104. 14 Woo, Bongki, et al. "The Role of Racial/Ethnic Identity in the Association Between Racial Discrimination & Psychiatric Disorders: A Buffer or Exacerbator?" SSM - Population Health, vol. 7, 7 Apr. 2019, p. 100378., https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100378. Brown 16 "Across his back is a deerskin quiver, and in the quiver, there are seven feathered arrows. Gripped in his sweaty palm is an oak bow. A golden-handled sword, whose blade is as long as a man's leg, hangs from his waist. Its once binding shine has been replaced by a thick coat of blood. His skin is the color of golden honey, and his hair is the reflection of yellow sunshine… A woman emerges from the foliage of the wildwood. Warm sunshine gleams off of browned skin. Raven-black hair drops over a slender neck, and ends upon soft shoulders. Unsuspecting almond-eyes gaze wildly at the sky. She is nude. Her breasts are round, full, and tipped with chocolate nipples. A thin waist gives way to broad hips, and eventually slender legs" (1980). —- An excerpt from "A Blind Odin" by Mitchell T. Kubiak This short story, "A Blind Odin," depicts a deep contrast between the description of a man and the description of a woman. The man embodies characteristics associated with a skilled hunter, such as strength and courage. The woman, however, is only described based on her physical features, all of which seem to align with the male gaze. For those who are not familiar with feminist theory, the male gaze is perceived from a masculine heterosexual perspective with aspects of voyeurism, objectification, fetishism, and scopophilia attached.15 Further descriptions of the woman's bodily proportions also suggest clues about the author, although it is crucial for the reader to understand that Norwich University had very few female candidates at the time this short story was written. 16 15 Snow, Edward. "Theorizing the Male Gaze: Some Problems." Representations, vol. 25, 1989, pp. 30–41., https:// doi.org/10.2307/2928465. 16 Many other excerpts were found focusing on both positive and negative portrayals of the BIPOC community and women during this time. However, there was no mention of LGBTQ+ members. Brown 17 Generation Z | 1997 - 2009 Brief Historical Background Gen Zers are the first to experience technological advances from birth onward. Once the majority reached adolescence, it became evident that there was a growing demand for portable devices. Although the first smartphone was released by IBM during the early 1990s, its overall bulkiness and poor battery life were not ideal for communication lines. Apple has since become the most popular phone brand in the United States. It also helped that the company released the iPod, a portable music device with, at the time, the ability to store over 200 songs. The same year also marked the events of several terrorist attacks on September 11th. Two jet airliners shattered the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in a series of terrorist attacks, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring twice as many. Those responsible were later identified as members of al-Quaeda, a militant Islamist organization led by Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama bin Laden. Life became all the more difficult for Muslim Americans as they continuously experienced the dangers of Islamophobia on a daily basis. Such dangers surrounded an ongoing spike in hate crimes, ranging from cold-blooded murder to vandalism of places of worship. Even when there was a slight decline in hate crimes years later, Muslim Americans continued to struggle with employment discrimination. Many of those who practiced Islam were either laid off or turned away during the hiring process for reasons directly relating to their religion. By the end of Generation Z, religion no longer served as a determining factor during the hiring process and diversity became a primary focus in the workplace. 17 17 Thirteen years of Chameleon issues were released during Generation Z but were mostly written by students who were born during Generation Y (1977-1995). Brown 18 Generation Z Overview of Significant Events • Gary Locke becomes the first Asian American governor of a mainland state (1996). • Kalpana Chawla boards Columbia as the first woman in space of Indian origin (1997). • Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open Women's Singles Tennis Championship (1999). • Maurice Ashley becomes the world's first black Grandmaster in chess (2000). • Permanent Partners Immigration Act is introduced to Congress (2000). • Equality Mississippi is founded as an LGBT civil rights organization (2000). • Millennium March on Washington raises awareness of LGBT issues (2000). • Elaine Chao is selected as the first Asian American to be Secretary of Labor (2001). • Patriot Act allows the indefinite detention of immigrants and warrantless searches (2001). • Cincinnati-based riots spark unrest following Timothy Thomas' death (2001). • Balbir Singh Sodhi's death is deemed the first fatal act of violence as a result of 9/11 (2001). • Dennis Archer becomes the first African American to be President of the ABA (2002). • Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health becomes a landmark Supreme Court case (2003). • Grutter v. Bollinger becomes a landmark Supreme Court Case (2003). • Same-sex marriage is first legalized in the state of Massachusetts (2004). • Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon are wed, becoming the first legal same-sex marriage (2004). • Condoleezza Rice is named the first black woman to be Secretary of State (2005). • Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (2007). • Barack Obama is elected as the first African American to hold office (2009). Brown 19 Generation Z Relevance to The Chameleon "You called me a fa***t and said no one would love me But I am here to say what goes around comes around And now it's your turn to get knocked down" (2004). —- An excerpt from "The Bastard Son" by James A. Hoffman Now used as a slur in reference to homosexual men and boys, the term fa***t has its own unique origin. The term's former use in the Norwegian dialect was originally emplaced to describe a bundle of firewood. Because these bundles were large in size, the term eventually moved towards describing heavyset women who were often seen as slovenly and thus placing them near the bottom of all social classes. When British English ha 18 d made a far greater influence on the Scandinavian languages, the term was combined with bugger, also known as a person who engages in anal or oral sex. Premodern Europe was known to persecute heretics during this time, including homosexuals, as they did not conform to the belief systems of the Church. 19 This short story, "The Bastard Son," is one of the first positive representations of LGBTQ+ members found in the Chameleon as the narrator gains the courage to speak against negative attitudes and feelings surrounding the LGBTQ+ community. 18 Johansson, Warren. "The Etymology of the Word 'Fa***t'." William Percy. 19 Karras, Ruth Mazo. "The Regulation of 'Sodomy' in the Latin East & West." Speculum, vol. 95, no. 4, 2020, pp. 969–986., https://doi.org/10.1086/710639. Brown 20 Generation Z Relevance to The Chameleon "Mother, you are the greatest woman I know. I have based my life upon yours, all the great things you have done and all the obstacles that you were able to overcome; the thing that I admire most about you is the fact that you were a single mother of four and didn't need a man's help, but I always knew that was a great challenge for me, in this world that is much too different from the one that you grew up. To me, that was the greatest obstacle that you conquered" (2004). —- An excerpt from "Mother's Love" by A.M.T Lebron In this dedication, "Mother's Love," the author retrieves past memories in writing to celebrate their mother. It is not often that Norwich student contributors write about the entailments of motherhood. Although it remains unclear whether the author's mother was divorced, widowed, or remained unmarried, the family has a relentless source of love for one another and proceeds to use their shared affection to overcome challenges. Such challenges include economic hardships and increased states of stress as a single mother often relies on one source of income. There is also reason to believe that those raised in similar households develop a sense of independence resembling that of their mother. Some may even develop additional 20 internal resources that will allow them to construct their own identity far from the gender roles typically seen within the American household. 21 20 Kinser, Amber E. Motherhood & Feminism. Seal Press, 2010. 21 Many other excerpts were found focusing on both positive and negative portrayals of minority communities and women. Brown 21 Generation Alpha | 2010 - Present Brief Historical Background Many of those who are either born into this generation or currently living through it witness technological advances at an accelerating rate to the extent of replacing the previously known means of childhood entertainment with mobile devices and streaming services. The dawning of this generation also brought Instagram, the most frequently preferred social media platform to date. The thought of having children was generally delayed across the United States following the economic crisis of 2008, while young adults reportedly dealt with increasing stress from education debt. Following the economic crisis of 2008, it is not uncommon for young adults to deal with increasing stress from education debt. Many Gen Zers who previously planned on extending their families during this time were also affected as financial worries prevented them from having children. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused further economic turmoil when small businesses had to close down to prevent the spread of the virus. Those who were employed under larger corporations, however, moved their offices to home. Between dual-career families and remote work, the boundaries separating professional and personal life became blurred. 22 Such challenges have proved that the young faces of Generation Alpha are capable of resilience, utilizing their own diverse backgrounds to tackle the more difficult questions. This includes advocating for fairness in all aspects of society and questioning the validity of gender. 22 Jha, Amrit Kumar. "Understanding Generation Alpha ." OSF Preprints, 20 June 2020. Brown 22 Generation Alpha Overview of Significant Events • Apple's iPad is released, also known as the first touchscreen tablet PC (2010). • President Barack Obama begins his second term (2013). • Defense Against Marriage Act is struck down by the Supreme Court (2013). • Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement (2013). • Michael Brown is fatally shot by a Ferguson police officer (2014). • Nine African Americans churchgoers are killed during a Bible study in Charleston (2015). • Same-sex marriage is legalized in all 50 states (2015). • Pulse Nightclub shooting causes the deaths of 49 LGBTQ+ members (2016). • Unite the Right, a white supremacist rally, leads to three deaths in Charlottesville (2017). • Me Too movement is relaunched following the Harvey Weinstein accusations (2017). • Director Jon M. Chu breaks box office records with his film Crazy Rich Asians (2018). • California Synagogue shooting causes the injuries of three and the death of one (2019). • President Trump's wall receives $2.5 billion in funds under the Supreme Court (2019). • Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter, dies in a helicopter crash (2020). • Geroge Floyd is murdered by a Minneapolis police officer during an arrest (2020). • Kamala Harris becomes the 49th vice president (2021). • Spa shooting in Atlanta leaves eight dead, with six being of Asian descent (2021). Brown 23 Generation Alpha Relevance to The Chameleon "It had only been four days since I was bought from the Greens. The Green House was known for cutting off the body parts of slaves and letting them bleed out slowly or waiting for them to die of infection. They used to take other slaves to the field and pick different parts to cut off. If they cut off too much and you couldn't work anymore, they'd leave the bodies in the field as an example of what happens when you make mistakes. " (2019). —- An excerpt from "Mixed Voices" by Alain Cropper-Makidi The author moves to educate the reader on a particular building utilized during America's slavery period. Also known as the Green House, the building lay separate from the main house and lodged slaves who were being punished for fieldwork mistakes. Whipping, burning, branding, raping, and imprisoning were some of the most common punishments for slaves. However, the Green House resorted to dismembering the slaves' limbs and allowing them to bleed out. This short story, "Mixed Voices," also addresses that some slaves received educational instruction from the main house's mistress. This was most likely executed in secret as slaves were generally prohibited from reading and writing out of fear that they would forge travel passes and escape. 23 23 "Literacy as Freedom - American Experience." SAAM, Smithsonian American Art Museum, https:// americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Literacy-as-Freedom.pdf. Brown 24 "One day You tell me that let's be Together I shake my head Say I'm tired of your lies Rather to get myself alone" (2020). 有⼀天 你对我说我们在⼀起吧 我摇摇头 说我厌倦了你的虚伪 宁愿孤独 —- An excerpt from "Untitled" by Zenghui Zhang Like several others, this poem was both written and translated by a student under Professor Lenny Hu. Since his arrival at Norwich, Professor Hu has assigned his Chinese students the task of writing and translating poetry. This allows them to expand their Chinese literacy and gain a sense of passion for the language itself. As the Norwich language department continues to grow, translations will continue to be included in future Chameleon issues for the benefit of promoting diverse students and staff who already understand or aim to learn beyond that of the English language. Brown 25 Conclusion Sustains & Improves After reviewing all past issues of the Chameleon, it is clear that Norwich's literary journal previously published pieces of writing representing LGBTQ+ members, the BIPOC community, and women in a negative light. This was especially true from 1961 through the late 1990s. Gradually, the Chameleon has begun to positively represent our communities. During our current time period, for example, positive representations have become the primary focus under Professor Sean Prentiss and his team of student editors who have made a conscious effort in improving the Chameleon as a whole. Student writers who distinguish themselves amongst the rest of the student body are oftentimes selected for awards. One of which is the "Be You, Be True Prize" for the best writing by or about the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, many Norwich University professors currently include culturally sustaining pedagogies within their curricula. Such pedagogies include seeking nontraditional texts, merging language varieties, and encouraging students to explore cultural spaces. To maintain as well as improve such efforts, Norwich University affiliates must remain aware that America's long history of combating minorities often resulted in bloodshed. Although not to the extent of our previous generations, similar events still continue to occur today. Therefore, as one of the most renowned military colleges in the United States, it is our responsibility to protect minority students and ensure that they perceive themselves as valuable members of the community. Without them, the future stands for nothing. Brown 26 References Anderson, Gary C. Ethnic Cleansing & the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt America. University Of Oklahoma Press, 2015. "APA Dictionary of Psychology." American Psychological Association, https:// dictionary.apa.org/social-representation. Jha, Amrit Kumar. "Understanding Generation Alpha ." OSF Preprints, 20 June 2020. Johanssen, Warren. "The Etymology of the Word F*****." William Percy, pp. 356–359. Kapadia, Reshma. "The Tulsa Massacre Left a Lasting Impact on Wealth." Trade Journal, vol. 101, no. 22, 31 May 2021. Karras, Ruth Mazo. "The Regulation of 'Sodomy' in the Latin East & West." Speculum, vol. 95, no. 4, 2020, pp. 969–986., https://doi.org/10.1086/710639. Kinser, Amber E. Motherhood & Feminism. Seal Press, 2010. "Literacy as Freedom - American Experience." SAAM, Smithsonian American Art Museum, https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Literacy-as-Freedom.pdf. Nohria, Nitin, Anthony Mayo, and Mark Benson. "William Levitt, Levittown and the Creation of American Suburbia." Harvard Business School Case 406-062, December 2005. (Revised March 2010.) Oyserman, Daphna, and George Smith. "Self, Self-Concept, and Identity." Handbook of Self and Identity, edited by Kristen Elmore, 2nd ed., The Guilford Press, New York, NY, 2012, pp. 69–104. Brown 27 Pryor, Elizabeth Stordeur. "The Etymology of N*****: Resistance, Politics, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North." Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War, 2016, https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/ 9781469628578.003.0002. Silos, Jill Katherine. "Everybody Get Together: The Sixties Counterculture & Public Space, 1964-1967." University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository, 2003. Snow, Edward. "Theorizing the Male Gaze: Some Problems." Representations, vol. 25, 1989, pp. 30–41., https://doi.org/10.2307/2928465. Tenaglia, Sean. '"Seeing Yourself in the Story:' The Influence of Multicultural Education on Adolescent Identity Formation." The Virginia English Journal, vol. 68, 2018. Woo, Bongki, et al. "The Role of Racial/Ethnic Identity in the Association Between Racial Discrimination & Psychiatric Disorders: A Buffer or Exacerbator?" SSM - Population Health, vol. 7, 7 Apr. 2019, p. 100378., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100378.
Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are a popular methodology for eliciting human preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) measures. However, there are a number of methodological challenges, such as choice task complexity, hypothetical bias and non-attendance to the choice attributes, which have been examined in the two surveys included in this dissertation. One survey was conducted at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, to estimate patients' WTP for dental care delivery at the school clinic and investigate the validity of derived estimates. Among the attributes included in a DCE, treatment explanation was on average the most valued attribute, followed by dental staff behavior, dental care provider and waiting time in the office. As patients often have diverse expectations and preferences for health care interventions, it is important to consider heterogeneity in their preferences when estimating WTP for health care. Mixed logit and latent class analyses detected a large heterogeneity in patients' preferences. Four classes of patients with distinct preferences for dental care were identified. Older and/or more educated patients tended to give relatively less importance to treatment explanation, but were more attentive to interpersonal characteristics. Higher education was also associated with a higher propensity to substitute faculty dental care with private care providers. Different survey design features, such as the opt-out option and the selection of attributes and their levels, may affect the choice behavior of respondents and estimated utility weights. However, not giving an opt-out option to respondents did not affect the preferences for dental care delivery and response error variance. Furthermore, adding the cost attribute to a DCE task did not change the rank order of other attributes and their utility weights did not differ significantly, indicating that respondents were willing to trade off cost with other dental care attributes. However, adding the cost attribute increased the response error variance, which could be best explained by a higher cognitive burden from adding an extra attribute to the choice task. We did not find any strong evidence that the effect of including an extra cost attribute is any different from the expected effect of including any other choice attribute ; therefore, its influence may not be as relevant as some of the previous studies may have suggested. Choice studies have shown that respondents often ignore one or more attributes when making choices and may ignore the cost attribute itself, thus precluding the calculation of marginal WTP values. The contingent valuation (CV) method directly estimates respondents' WTP, thereby avoiding this issue. The DCE method yielded significantly higher welfare estimate for dental care than the CV method. While strategic behavior in direct WTP estimates was not evident, almost every second DCE respondent appears to have ignored the cost attribute, which may explain the discrepancy in welfare estimates between the two methods. The findings suggest that direct elicitation of WTP through the CV method produced more realistic estimates, and raise concerns about the derived WTP measures in DCE studies that did not consider non-attendance to the cost attribute during the estimation process. However, a typical CV study values a good as a whole and offers no information about the value of the individual attributes that comprise a good. To deal with this limitation, the CV task was accompanied by the best-worst choice (BWC) task which provided information used to derive the attribute-specific WTP values from the holistic WTP values estimated through the CV method. The proposed methodology could be a valuable alternative to traditional DCEs when the choice behavior of respondents raises concerns over the validity of estimated welfare measures. Choice contexts often cannot be easily described with a restricted number of attributes, which may lead to the omitted variable bias. On the other hand, asking respondents to evaluate large number of attributes imposes high cognitive burden and stimulates them to simplify the choice task, which may contribute to an increased error variance and affect the validity of utility estimates. Environmental valuation generally involves trade-offs between complex goods and services. How to describe a complex valuation context is an important consideration, and was investigated in a second survey that evaluated the preferences of trail users for different resource, social and managerial conditions in the Medvednica Nature Park. Two different choice experiments that differed in the provision of information about the recreational setting were designed. One DCE used multidimensional attributes to keep the number of choice attributes manageable for respondents, while considering all relevant aspects of visitors' experience. The other DCE used a greater number of more specific, unidimensional, attributes to describe the same recreational setting, but implemented a partial profile design in which only a subset of attributes appeared in each choice set. Perceived difficulty of the choice task, self-reported choice certainty and choice consistency were similar across the two experiments. Heterogeneity in preferences and scale was detected in both experiments. Indications of non-compensatory behavior, and greater error variance among less experienced trail users were found in the partial profile experiment with more specific trail attributes, but not in the experiment with multidimensional attributes. Environmental conditions are often inter-related and as such cannot be simultaneously included in a DCE. A linked structural choice model was designed to deal with the correlated or causally-related DCE attributes as well as with the ambiguity when using multidimensional choice attributes, since respondents might be focused on different aspects of those attributes when making choices. A structural choice model was used to link the two choice experiments and investigate the amount of variability in multidimensional attributes (crowding on trail and intensity of road traffic, evaluated within the DCE) explained by each of its sub-dimensions (i.e. specific crowding-related conditions, evaluated within object case best-worst scaling (BWS) experiment). The findings indicate that visitors' preferences for crowding were mostly influenced by perceptions of 'trail use level' and 'noise from road traffic'. Our approach offers richer information to policy makers than other solutions to the attribute correlation/causality issues in complex choice studies, namely the exclusion of some relevant attributes or simply their aggregation into a single composite attribute. ; Poskusi diskretne izbire so priljubljena metodologija za pridobivanje preferenc ljudi in mer pripravljenost na plačilo. Vendar pa obstajajo številni metodološki izzivi, kot so kompleksnost naloge izbire, hipotetična pristranskost in nepoznavanje izbirnih atributov, ki so bili preučeni v dveh raziskavah, vključenih v to disertacijo. Na Stomatološki fakulteti Univerze v Zagrebu je bila opravljena raziskava, da bi ocenili pacientovo pripravljenost na plačilo za bolnišnično zobozdravstveno oskrbo v šolski kliniki in raziskali veljavnost izpeljanih ocen. Med atributi, vključenimi v poskus diskretne izbire, je bila razlaga zdravljenja v povprečju najbolj cenjen atribut, sledil je odnos zobozdravstvenega osebja, ponudnik zobozdravstva in čakalni čas. Ker imajo pacienti pogosto različna pričakovanja in preference za intervencije zdravstvenega varstva, je pomembno, da pri ocenjevanju PZP za zdravstveno varstvo upoštevamo heterogenost v njihovih preferencah. Mešani logistični model in model latentnih razredov sta zaznala veliko heterogenost pri željah pacientov. Model latentnih razredov je opazil štiri skupine bolnikov z različnimi preferencami za zobozdravstveno nego. Starejši in/ali bolj izobraženi pacienti so dajali sorazmerno manjši pomen razlagi zdravljenja, vendar so bili bolj pozorni na medosebne značilnosti. Visokošolska izobrazba je bila povezana tudi z večjo nagnjenostjo k nadomestitvi fakultetne zobozdravstvene oskrbe z zasebnimi ponudniki. Različne značilnosti zasnove raziskave, kot so možnost izključitve in izbira atributov ter njihovih ravni, lahko vplivajo na način izbire anketirancev in ocene parametrov koristnosti. Vendar pa pri anketirancih, ki opcije možnosti izključitve niso imeli, to ni vplivalo na preference v ponudbi zobozdravstvene oskrbe in na nepojasnjeno varianco modela. Poleg tega dodajanje stroškovnega atributa v poskusu diskretne izbire ni spremenilo vrstnega reda drugih atributov in njihove uteži koristnosti se niso bistveno razlikovale, kar pomeni, da so bili anketiranci pripravljeni zamenjati stroške z drugimi atributi zobozdravstvene oskrbe. Vendar pa je dodajanje stroškovnega atributa povečalo nepojasnjeno varianco modela, kar bi lahko najbolje pojasnili z višjo kognitivno obremenitvijo zaradi prisotnosti dodatnega atributa k izbirni nalogi. Nismo našli trdnega dokaza, da je učinek vključitve dodatnega stroškovnega atributa drugačen od pričakovanega učinka pri vključitvi kateregakoli atributa izbire, zato ta vpliv morda ni tako pomemben, kot so predlagale nekatere prejšnje študije. Študije s poskusi diskretne izbire so pokazale, da anketiranci pogosto ignorirajo enega ali več atributov, ko se odločajo in lahko zanemarijo sam stroškovni atribut, s čimer otežijo izračun mejnih vrednosti pripravljenosti na plačilo. Metoda kontingenčnega vrednotenja neposredno ocenjuje pripravljenost na plačilo, s čimer se izogne tej težavi. Metoda diskretne izbire je prinesla bistveno višjo oceno blaginje za zobozdravstveno oskrbo kot metoda kontingenčnega vrednotenja. Medtem ko ni bilo dokaza o strateškem vedenju pri neposrednih ocenah pripravljenosti na plačilo, je skoraj vsak drugi anketiranec v poskusu diskretne izbire zanemaril atribut stroškov, kar lahko razloži neskladnost v ocenah plačila med obema metodama. Ugotovitve kažejo, da je neposredna ocena pripravljenosti na plačilo prek kontingenčne metode pripeljala do bolj realnih ocen, kar pripelje do dvomov o izpeljanih ocenah pri študijah diskretne izbire, ki niso upoštevali nepoznavanja stroškovnega atributa med ocenjevalnim postopkom. Vendar tipična študija kontingenčnega vrednotenja vrednoti storitev kot celoto in ne ponuja nobenih informacij o vrednosti posameznih atributov, ki sestavljajo storitev. Za obravnavo te omejitve je kontingenčno nalogo spremljala naloga tipa najboljša-najslabša izbira, ki je zagotovila informacije, ki so bile uporabljene za pridobivanje vrednosti pripravljenosti na plačilo specifičnih atributov zobozdravstvene oskrbe iz celovitih vrednosti za zobozdravstveno oskrbo, ocenjenih s pomočjo kontingenčne metode. Predlagana metodologija bi lahko bila dragocena alternativa tradicionalnim poskusom diskretne izbire, ko bi obnašanje anketirancev pri izbiri povzročalo dvome glede veljavnosti mer pripravljenosti na plačilo. Konteksta izbire pogosto ni mogoče enostavno opisati z omejenim številom atributov, kar lahko privede do pristranskosti zaradi izpuščenih spremenljivk. Po drugi strani pa spraševanje anketirancev, da ocenijo veliko število atributov, nalaga visoko kognitivno breme in jih spodbuja k poenostavitvi izbirne naloge, kar lahko prispeva k večji nepojasnjeni varianci in vpliva na veljavnost ocen koristnosti. Okoljsko vrednotenje običajno vključuje kompromise med kompleksnimi dobrinami. Kako opisati zapleten kontekst vrednotenja je pomembno vprašanje, ki je bilo raziskano v drugi raziskavi, ki je ocenila preference uporabnikov poti za različne naravne, socialne in vodstvene pogoje v Naravnem parku Medvednica. Zasnovani sta bili dve različni izbirni nalogi, ki sta se razlikovali v zagotavljanju informacij o rekreativnem okolju. En poskus diskretne izbire je uporabil večrazsežne atribute, da bi število atributov za anketirance ostalo obvladljivo, ob upoštevanju vseh pomembnih vidikov izkušenj obiskovalcev. Drugi poskus diskretne izbire je uporabil več specifičnih, enorazsežnih atributov, ki opisujejo enako rekreativno okolje, vendar je vključil delno profilno zasnovo, v kateri se v vsakem izbirnem setu pojavlja le podskupina atributov. Opažena težavnost naloge izbire, samo-poročana gotovost izbire in doslednost izbire so bili podobni v obeh poskusih. Heterogenost v preferencah in obsegu je bila ugotovljena v obeh poskusih. Indikacije nekompenzacijskega vedenja in večja nepojasnjena varianca med manj izkušenimi uporabniki poti so bili najdeni v poskusu delnega profila z bolj specifičnimi atributi, ne pa v poskusu z večrazsežnimi atributi. Okoljski pogoji so pogosto medsebojno povezani in kot taki ne morejo biti istočasno vključeni v poskus diskretne izbire. Povezani model strukturne izbire je bil zasnovan tako, da se ukvarja s (vzročno) povezanimi atributi, kot tudi z večpomenskostjo pri uporabi večrazsežnih atributov izbire, saj se lahko anketiranci med izbiranjem osredotočajo na različne vidike teh atributov. Za povezavo dveh izbirnih poskusov smo uporabili model strukturne izbire in raziskali obseg spremenljivosti v večrazsežnih atributih (gneča na poti in intenzivnost cestnega prometa, ocenjeno v poskusu diskretne izbire), ki ga razlaga vsaka od njegovih razsežnosti (to so specifične razmere, povezane z gnečo, ocenjevane v poskusu najboljšega-najslabšega lestvičenja). Ugotovitve kažejo, da so bile preference obiskovalcev glede gneče pod vplivom percepcije "ravni uporabe poti" in "hrupa od prometne ceste". Naš pristop ponuja bolj bogate informacije oblikovalcem politike od drugih rešitev glede problematike korelacije/vzročnosti med atributi pri kompleksnih poskusih izbire, in sicer izključitev nekaterih relevantnih atributov ali preprosto njihovo združevanje v en večrazsežni atribut.
In recent years, the Government of Georgia and the National Bank of Georgia have taken significant steps in order to regulate non-banking lending institutions (MFIs and loan-issuing entities). MFIs are now required to provide additional information (such as information on shareholders, governance, and business plans), while a minimum initial capital requirement for MFIs of 1 mln GEL and ongoing minimum capital requirements of either 18% or 24%1 were also introduced, as well as minimum ongoing liquidity requirements for MFIs of either 18% or 25%2. It is worth noting that a maximum interest rate cap of 50% has been set and the individual loan limit has been increased to 100 000 GEL (instead of 50 000). Moreover, limits on investments and other regulations have also been imposed3. In this bulletin, the MFI sector in Georgia during the period of 2017-2020 will be reviewed.
The current pension contribution system in the People's Republic of China faces two main challenges: determining the pension contribution base and setting the pension contribution rates. Although the government has adopted important reforms, including lowering the employer pension contribution in March 2019, further actions are needed. This policy note suggests the following measures: (i) consolidate the contribution base while stabilizing the level of government subsidies to the basic pension; (ii) reform the method for determining the contribution base and achieve national pooling; and (iii) establish an interagency information exchange network.
Uzbekistan has achieved sustained growth through its gradual transition to a market based economy through cautious economic policy reforms. Despite its gradual approach to development challenges, the country experienced the smallest output decline among former Soviet economies and enjoyed high rates of economic growth from 2004 to 2015, largely driven by the high prices of its major export commodities. However, the drop in the global prices of many key commodities in recent years have severely impacted Uzbekistan's economy. Under these circumstances, the new government introduced major reforms. The pace of reform is unprecedented. The government has formulated its long-term economic strategy in its Vision 2030, which aims to double the country's gross domestic product by 2030 through a program of economic diversification. This book analyzes how Uzbekistan can boost sustainable economic growth to create more and better jobs. It considers how the country can consolidate achievements from recent policy reforms and maintain reform efforts to accelerate sustainable growth. Policy recommendations cover fostering macroeconomic stability, increasing investment in physical infrastructure, enhancing human capital, improving firms' access to finance, and lowering barriers to international trade and foreign investment inflows.
The growth of Chinese investments into India since 2014 has changed the nature of what has been a largely transactional trade relationship. Chinese companies are emerging as prominent players and investors, in areas ranging from infrastructure and energy to newer sectors of interest such as technology startups and real estate. Drawing on a range of sources, this paper aims to provide a more complete picture of Chinese investment in India today. The total current and planned Chinese investment in India has crossed US$26 billion at present. This growth in investment has several implications for the India-China relationship. For the first time, Chinese companies are seeking to establish a long-term presence in India, and their acquisitions in Indian companies give them an enduring stake in the Indian market. The changing nature of India's trade and investment relations with China will necessitate a new method and pattern of engagement from New Delhi, especially with the private sector in China and provincial governments that have emerged as important interest groups in shaping China's diplomacy with India. The influx of Chinese investment also poses particular challenges for India's regulation of foreign investment, underlining the need for a transparent, credible and predictable regulatory framework that strikes a better balance between creating a friendly, open and predictable investment environment on the one hand, and safeguarding longer-term considerations of security and privacy on the other.
The country operations business plan (COBP), 2021–2023 for Kazakhstan of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is aligned with ADB's country partnership strategy (CPS), 2017–2021 for Kazakhstan.1 The CPS aims to support the country's economically diversified, socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable growth. The CPS is demand-driven and selective, but adaptive to evolving circumstances. It focuses on infrastructure development and institutional reforms. The CPS is consistent also with the operational priorities set out in ADB's Strategy 20302 and is aligned with the Government of Kazakhstan's Nurly Zhol program,3 Kazakhstan's National Strategic Development Plan 2025, and the updated State Program on Agriculture Development. ADB's COBP, 2021–2023 includes operational support for agriculture, transport, municipal services, and access to finance, and provides direct lending and knowledge support for reforms in critical policy areas, such as economic diversification, public finance management, and environmental sustainability. Support for Strategy 2030's priorities—addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities, accelerating progress in gender equality, tackling climate change, fostering regional cooperation and integration, strengthening governance, and making cities more livable—is integrated into the operational assistance.
In this paper we explore the effects of alternative combinations of fiscal and monetary policies under different income distribution regimes. In particular, we aim at evaluating fiscal rules in economies subject to banking crises and deep recessions. We do so using an agent-based model populated by heterogeneous capital- and consumption-good forms, heterogeneous banks, workers/consumers, a Central Bank and a Government. We show that the model is able to reproduce a wide array of macro and micro empirical regularities, including stylised facts concerning financial dynamics and banking crises. Simulation results suggest that the most appropriate policy mix to stabilise the economy requires unconstrained counter-cyclical fiscal policies, where automatic stabilisers are free to dampen business cycles fluctuations, and a monetary policy targeting also employment. Instead, discipline-guided" fiscal rules such as the Stability and Growth Pact or the Fiscal Compact in the Eurozone always depress the economy, without improving public finances, even when escape clauses in case of recessions are considered. Consequently, austerity policies appear to be in general self-defeating. Furthermore, we show that the negative effects of austere fiscal rules are magnified by conservative monetary policies focused on ination stabilisation only. Finally, the effects of monetary and fiscal policies become sharper as the level of income inequality increases.
In this paper we explore the effects of alternative combinations of fiscal and monetary policies under different income distribution regimes. In particular, we aim at evaluating fiscal rules in economies subject to banking crises and deep recessions. We do so using an agent-based model populated by heterogeneous capital- and consumption-good forms, heterogeneous banks, workers/consumers, a Central Bank and a Government. We show that the model is able to reproduce a wide array of macro and micro empirical regularities, including stylised facts concerning financial dynamics and banking crises. Simulation results suggest that the most appropriate policy mix to stabilise the economy requires unconstrained counter-cyclical fiscal policies, where automatic stabilisers are free to dampen business cycles fluctuations, and a monetary policy targeting also employment. Instead, discipline-guided" fiscal rules such as the Stability and Growth Pact or the Fiscal Compact in the Eurozone always depress the economy, without improving public finances, even when escape clauses in case of recessions are considered. Consequently, austerity policies appear to be in general self-defeating. Furthermore, we show that the negative effects of austere fiscal rules are magnified by conservative monetary policies focused on ination stabilisation only. Finally, the effects of monetary and fiscal policies become sharper as the level of income inequality increases.