Suchergebnisse

Samfélagið er helsti hagsmunaaðili háskóla sem hefur það meginhlutverk að sinna kennslu og rannsóknum. Akademískt frelsi (e. academic freedom) er lykilatriði í starfi háskóla en í því felst frelsi háskólakennara til að kenna og rannsaka. Á liðnum áratugum hefur hinu akademíska frelsi hins vegar verið ögrað af hálfu hagkerfisins og atvinnulífsins og í uppgjöri eftir efnahagshrunið 2008 þóttu háskólarnir hafa verið of handgengnir atvinnulífi og stjórnvöldum. Í þessari rannsókn er kastljósinu beint að samfélagslegu hlutverki háskóla (e. public role of universities), einkum afstöðu akademískra starfsmanna og sérfræðinga í háskólum til akademísks frelsis og kostunar (e. sponsorship) kennslu og rannsókna. Leitað var viðhorfa akademískra starfsmanna og sérfræðinga íslenskra háskóla til mismunandi fjármögnunar á kennslu og rannsóknum. Meðal niðurstaðna er að tæpur þriðjungur starfsmanna höfðu unnið að rannsóknum kostuðum af fyrirtækjum eða einkaaðilum á 3ja ára tímabili. Meirihluti svarenda var mótfallinn því að rannsóknir háskólamanna væru fjármagnaðar með styrkjum frá fyrirtækjum og tæpur helmingur að fjármögnun kæmi frá samkeppnissjóðum. Svarendur á sviði félags-, mennta-, hugvísinda og lista reynast mun líklegri en svarendur af öðrum vísindasviðum til að hafa áhyggjur af því að kostun af einkaaðilum ógni hlutlægni rannsókna. Svarendur sem tilheyra einkareknum háskóla eða stofnun með sjálfstæðan fjárhag reynast líklegri til að hafa unnið að rannsóknum sem kostaðar eru af fyrirtækjum eða einkaaðilum en svarendur sem tilheyra ríkisreknum háskóla eða rannsóknastofnun á fjárlögum. Reynast þeir fyrrnefndu mun hallari undir samkeppnissjóðina en þeir síðarnefndu og marktækt opnari fyrir fjármögnun frá fyrirtækjum.

Presently, discussions are taking place in Iceland on the development and maintenance of tourist sites and various services needed in order for tourism to develop in line with the great increase in the number of foreign tourists. Municipalities are one of the interested parties and they are responsible for many services: sewage, maintenance of parks and streets, to name a few. There are doubts that municipal income increases according to the increase in tourists, because it is most likely this will take place through municipal income tax, but much of the work related to tourism is carried out by migrant workers. This research attempts to assess if municipal income changes with increased number of tourists. It will also be attempted to estimate if costs of municipalities increase with increased number of tourists, and also which types of costs. Available data on financial affairs of municipalities from the Association of municipalities, real estate prices from the National registry and statistics on number of tourists, from diverse sources, are used to assess changes in costs and incomes and if this will have the impacts described above. Quantitative methods are applied in the analysis. Regression analysis for panel data (fixed and random effect models) was applied along with descriptive analysis.

This paper explores the relationship between Icelandic regional policy and tourism development. It is inspired by the efforts of the Icelandic government to introduce industry clusters in tourism development over the last few years. With tourism gaining increasing recognition as a central pillar of the national economy and clustering being seen as central means to success, the paper presents a critical evaluation of the cluster concept. The introduction of industry clusters in Icelandic regional policy is illustrated through a short case study from North Iceland, where industry clusters have been promoted in general regional development and tourism for the longest and gone through two successive stages. This case underpins the central argument of the paper that industry clusters as promoted by the Icelandic government do not reflect an engagement with regional socio-spatial specificities and the nature of the tourism product. These specificities need to be recognised and worked with in order to establish the necessary foundations for any successful cluster initiative. Thus the paper concludes with questioning the efficiency of top-down governance approach in enhancing tourism.

This paper explores the relationship between Icelandic regional policy and tourism development. It is inspired by the efforts of the Icelandic government to introduce industry clusters in tourism development over the last few years. With tourism gaining increasing recognition as a central pillar of the national economy and clustering being seen as central means to success, the paper presents a critical evaluation of the cluster concept. The introduction of industry clusters in Icelandic regional policy is illustrated through a short case study from North Iceland, where industry clusters have been promoted in general regional development and tourism for the longest and gone through two successive stages. This case underpins the central argument of the paper that industry clusters as promoted by the Icelandic government do not reflect an engagement with regional socio-spatial specificities and the nature of the tourism product. These specificities need to be recognised and worked with in order to establish the necessary foundations for any successful cluster initiative. Thus the paper concludes with questioning the efficiency of top-down governance approach in enhancing tourism.

The ESPONontheRoad project was a Transnational Networking Activity (TNA) of nineteen ESPON Contact Points (ECPs) with the aim to bring ESPON results closer for decision-making and thus increase the capitalisation of the ESPON Programme. During a year, participating ECPs brought ESPON closer to the local and regional level, and to citizens in physical and virtual forms. The project built a bridge between the issues on a local level and scientific evidence on EU territorial development policy themes. After taking stock of the most recent policy issues in each national context, ECPs formed transnational working groups to have a common understanding of the messages coming from ESPON results. These working groups designed the most appropriate and efficient form of communication for their target groups. In this way ESPON results were put into the macroregional context of West, South, North and Central-Eastern areas, and both the content-related and the organisational tasks were organised in a balanced way. The activity report summaries the goals of the project, presents how they were implemented and what are the lessons learnt. It concludes with recommendations for the future.