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No distinction is made between the marginal social cost of public funds (MCF) and the shadow value of government revenue in the public finance literature. Their separate roles are demonstrated in this paper, where the MCF is used as a scaling coefficient to account for changes in tax inefficiency on revenue transfers made to balance the government budget, while the shadow value of government revenue is used as a scaling coefficient to convert efficiency effects into actual changes in utility. We find a revenue effect identified by Atkinson and Stern (1974) and Dahlby (1998) in the shadow value of government revenue which is not present in the MCF. It is the reason why, in the presence of distorting taxes, the shadow value of government revenue can differ from unity, whereas the MCF is always unity, for a lump-sum tax.

This paper proves the Hatta (1977) coefficient is the shadow value of government revenue - it is a scaling coefficient that converts efficiency effects from marginal policy changes into dollar changes in utility. The decomposition is generalised to economies with heterogenous consumers and variable producer prices to show (a) the Foster and Sonnenschein (1970) effect, where extra income reduces consumer utility, makes the shadow value of government revenue negative; and (b) when Bruce and Harris (1982) and Diewert (1983) isolate Pareto improvements they choose patterns of revenue transfers to make the shadow value of government revenue positive for every consumer. We use the decomposition to extend the welfare test in Bruce-Harris by allowing revenue transfers with distorting taxes, and generalise the welfare decomposition of tax inefficiency in Diamond and Mirrlees (1971) by allowing variable producer prices.

When projects are evaluated using a conventional Harberger (1971) cost-benefit analysis the welfare effects are separated with lump-sum transfers. But this does not appear possible when governments raise revenue with distorting taxes. Evidence to support this view can be found in Mayshar (1990) and Wildasin (1984) who derive a marginal social cost of public funds (MCF) that depends on how the government spends the extra revenue raised. Ballard and Fullerton (1992) use this MCF in place of the conventional Harberger (1964) measure to amend the revised Samuelson condition obtained by Pigou (1947). We show that a conventional cost-benefit analysis is possible in this setting by decomposing their revised condition into conventional Harberger terms. The welfare effects of marginally increasing the public good are isolated by hypothetical lump-sum transfers that are offset separately with a distorting tax. We also demonstrate that when the marginal costs and benefits of providing the public good are measured by changes in utility (denominated in units of a chosen numeraire), the income effects are irrelevant because they impact equally on each dollar of cost and benefit. Consequently, projects can be evaluated correctly using uncompensated welfare changes.

http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/index.htm ; Networked learning is part of an emergent networked society. As such networked learning forms part of a wider debate concerning the nature of social processes, power and culture and their relationships with technology. The literature surrounding networked learning still reflects a technological determinist view. This paper takes issue with this view of the relationship between technology and social forms. The context of higher education has been changing alongside the introduction of new technologies in education. The paper looks at the United Kingdom as an example of the way in which political issues impact on networked learning. The paper tries to establish what choices are being made at the level of national governments by examining two large policy initiatives as examples of current policy. (http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/index.htm)

This paper makes a correction to the way the marginal social cost of public funds (MCF) is used in Sieper (1981) to obtain uncompensated shadow prices when transfers are made with distorting taxes. We derive a shadow value of government revenue to measure the change in utility from endowing an extra dollar of revenue on the government who transfers it to consumers. This, rather than the "conventional" Harberger" measure of the MCF, converts the compensated shadow price of any good into its uncompensated shadow price. We use it to prove that Ramsey optimal taxes, which minimize the compensated tax inefficiency for a given revenue requirement, have equal uncompensated marginal excess burdens per dollar change in government revenue.

http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/index.htm ; Networked learning is part of an emergent networked society. As such networked learning forms part of a wider debate concerning the nature of social processes, power and culture and their relationships with technology. The literature surrounding networked learning still reflects a technological determinist view. This paper takes issue with this view of the relationship between technology and social forms. The context of higher education has been changing alongside the introduction of new technologies in education. The paper looks at the United Kingdom as an example of the way in which political issues impact on networked learning. The paper tries to establish what choices are being made at the level of national governments by examining two large policy initiatives as examples of current policy. (http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/index.htm)

Seeking to address the general question, 'Where is Digital Asia?', this paper explores the various ways in which the digital and virtual realm interacts with the problematic and contested category of Asia. Beginning with a discussion of the relationship between Asia and Digital Asia, as both cartographic and ideological sites, it moves on to connect Digital Asia with the discourse of techno-Orientalism. Using the example of the videogame as an instance of a digital location that can be visited and explored, this article suggests that the gamic quality of interactivity adds a new, experiential dimension to the ideological structure of (techno-)Orientalism, hence positing the utility of a new form of 'Gamic Orientalism'. Focussing on the 'digitaldōjō' as the site of Gamic Orientalism and Digital Asiapar excellence, this paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which gamers represent their engagement with this site in a manner that echoes the way martial artists talk about the significance of their art as self-cultivation. Illustrated with texts from thebushidōcanon and interviews with gamers, this playful and experimental piece posits the possibility of 'virtualbushidō' as the ultimate expression of Gamic Orientalism, suggesting that Digital Asia is finally located in an ideologically conditioned mode of engagement with the digital medium rather than in any cartographically defined space.

AbstractThis paper experiments with the idea that travel writing could be a valid and useful mode through which to study certain videogames. By embracing the notions that space is a social construction and that the virtual worlds of some videogames constitute architectural spaces in a manner that is more than analogous to an urban space, it maintains that these constructed worlds are real places to visit, and hence that exploration within them is also real. Furthermore, the paper considers the ways in which travel in general, and travel in(to) videogames in particular, contributes to the experience of emancipation in technology-rich societies. Using the example of Japan (as one of the global powerhouses of videogame creation and consumption), the paper considers the interaction and intersection of the virtual and the actual, in mutually enriching and liberating ways, which are viewed in terms of their social and political function. It also cautions about the ethics and politics of knowledge involved in the deployment of travel writing as a method in the interrogation of videogames, concluding with a methodological sketch for a way ahead. It illustrates and demonstrates its argument with three original travelogues.

An icon of horror, the zombie blunders with apparent mindlessness, bringing only contagion and chaos. It has lost its ego, its individuality, its reasoning self. It is a repellent vision of posthumanity. Mindfulness is a therapeutic practice rooted in the meditative traditions of Buddhism. Liberated from the stresses and anxieties of capitalist society, practitioners escape the demands of an ego driven to exhaustion by instrumental rationality. This essay explores the growing interest in mindfulness meditation and flourishing portrayals of the zombie apocalypse in contemporary societies to suggest a connection between these models of (post)selfhood.