The program aims to build a theoretical framework and generate policy directions from the standpoint of marginalized women in the region; to broaden the conceptual horizon about gender and ICTs; and towards a politicization and radicalization of the 'access-centred' discourse. Core feminist questions about power, justice and equity will be addressed. An important part of the program is the generation of a network of learning among the researchers and research teams through exchange of resources. The report provides updates in research outputs and activities.
Meeting: Court of Women, 27-29 July, 2009, Bangalore, IN ; By placing the individual at the centre, new media promotes a version of participation that is commodified and conformist, where content democratization or plurality also means a coopted or controlled 'public'. Under the mask of multiplicity, there is a persistence of gender stereotypes and misogyny. The presentation deconstructs virtual reality and digital presence in terms of gender, and asks: What institutional frameworks are necessary to address the transnational corporate control of the media and public sphere?
Tracking Change… is a new research initiative funded by the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada and led by the University of Alberta, the Traditional Knowledge Steering Committee of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, the Government of the Northwest Territories and many other valued partner organizations. Over six years (2015-2022), the project will fund local and traditional knowledge research activities in the Mackenzie River basin and sister projects in the Lower Amazon and Lower Mekong River Basins, with the long term goal of strengthening the voices of subsistence fishers and Indigenous communities in the governance of major fresh water ecosystems. The project developed in recognition that river systems are important social, economic, cultural and ecological places that contribute to the well-being of communities in diverse ways. River peoples, particularly Indigenous peoples who have well developed fishing livelihoods can offer extremely valuable insights about long term (historic and current) patterns of social and ecological change and the interconnections between the health and dynamics of these river systems and that of river communities. Although based on oral traditions, this system of observation or "tracking change" is much like monitoring. Like those who live on Canada's east and west coasts, the ability of Indigenous communities in the Mackenzie River Basin to maintain fishing as a livelihood practice is of social, economic and cultural importance to all of Canada; if this river system is not healthy, how can we be?
Climate Change and Adaptation transcends many policy areas and is an evolving discipline. The Report presented by the Climate Change Committee on Adaptation (CCCA) must be seen as an initial step that complements the work of the Department of Physics within the University of Malta (UoM) with regards to the Second National Communication of Malta to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Report presented by the Committee should serve as the basis of a mature, apolitical, national discussion on the potential impact of climate change adaptation on Malta. The arising discussion should be supported by an ongoing communication process that is directed to inform, educate, and instill awareness amongst the population at large on this important policy domain. The Report is not exhaustive. The breadth and depth of climate change and adaptation limits the extent to which all arising issues are explored and studied, and for which solutions are presented. The Government, knowledge institutions, non government organisations, and think thanks should use the Report as a spring board from which they extend further knowledge of the impact of climate change adaptation on Malta by expanding on policy matters presented in the Report as well as to fill in lacunae on policy matters not addressed by the Report. The Committee has neither prioritized nor costed the recommendations it puts forward. This is a conscious decision taken by the Committee. The Committee is aware that there will be those who will criticise it on this matter. Be that as it may, the Committee is of the considered opinion that a prioritisation and costing exercise should only be carried out following a comprehensive public discussion were the policy proposals presented are debated, new policy proposals put forward by the public, non governmental organisations, et al, and specific, as well as generic, reactions to the Report listened to, examined, and reviewed. The Committee has also not presented recommendations with regards to where the loci of responsibility for climate change and adaptation should rest and the resource capacity required should rest to take forward and implement the final recommendations following the discussion process. This is again a conscious decision taken by the Committee. Once again, the Committee is aware that there will be those who will criticise it on this matter. Be that as it may, this Report must not be seen in isolation from the National Strategy for Policy and Abatement Measures Relating to the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions approved by the House of Representatives in September 2009. The Committee underlines that the National Strategy for Policy and Abatement Measures Relating to the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions had proposed the setting up of a Climate Change Division within the Malta Resources Authority which will 'own and co-ordinate Climate Change adaptation and mitigation policy at both a national and international level'. ; peer-reviewed
Employee engagement continues to pose a challenge to parastatals. Consequently, governments have adopted the transformational leadership style as an effective method of enhancing employee engagement. Nevertheless, it is still unknown whether the establishment of transformational leadership dimensions has boosted employee engagement in the Kenyan energy sector parastatals. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of intellectual stimulation on employee engagement in parastatals in the energy sector in Kenya. Also, the study sought to determine the moderating influence of employee motivation on the relationship between intellectual stimulation and employee engagement. This study targeted the 10 parastatals within the energy sector in Kenya with a population of 315 middle-level managers. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy to examine the influence on intellectual stimulation on employee engagement and data was collected using structured questionnaires. A correlational research design was conducted with the purpose of determining the strength of the relationship between parameters of intellectual stimulation and employee engagement.The findings showed that employee engagement has a statistical significant relationship with creativity and innovation, r(166) = 0.540, p < 0.01; job design, r(166) = 0.452, p < 0.01 and employee involvement, r(166) = 0.512, p < 0.01. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that employee motivation positively and significantly moderates the relationship between intellectual stimulation and employee engagement, R2= .409, F(2, 159) = 55.115, p <.05; β = 0.259, p <.01. The study concluded that creativity and innovation, job design, employee involvement, and employee motivation positively enhance employee engagement.
This is an excerpt of a report series produced by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) aimed at providing current assessments of climate change science to inform public debate, policy, and operational decisions. The document contains a list of team members and authors, a memo to Congress, a table of contents, acknowledgements, recommended citations, a synopsis of the full report, and a preface.
Using listed companies in China's A-share market from 1997 to 2009, this paper investigates the relationship between controller changes (including changes in controlling shareholders, directors and CEOs) and auditor changes. The empirical evidence indicates that controller changes are positively related to auditor changes and that auditor changes are more likely if there are extensive controller changes. For companies in which both the controlling shareholder and the auditor change, if the successor controlling shareholder is controlled by an other-province government, the auditor is more likely to be replaced and the successor auditor is more likely to be a smaller auditor from the same province as the new controlling shareholder.
SUMMARY This is the Climate Change Authority's second review of the Renewable Energy Target (RET). The RET targets reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector and thereby contributes significantly to reducing Australia's overall emissions. In its 2012 review of the RET, the Authority found that the RET was stimulating considerable investment in renewable energy and argued that a stable and predictable policy was essential to sustain this investment. It concluded that no major changes were warranted to the overall RET design, but suggested some minor operational changes. The uncertain future of the Authority until recently has limited the time available to conduct this review. Largely for that reason, the Authority has focused on what, it its view, are the most important issues. The Authority has also drawn on both its 2012 Authority review, and on the review conducted this year by a panel headed by Mr Dick Warburton AO LVO. The RET and Australia's emissions reduction goals In 2010, when the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) was set at 41,000 GWh, it was estimated that this contribution, with contributions from the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and other pre-existing renewables (notably hydro), would together represent at least 20 per cent of Australia's (then) projected total electricity demand in 2020. Given that electricity accounts for approximately one-third of Australia's emissions of greenhouse gases, renewable sources were seen as making a significant contribution to Australia's broader emissions reduction goals. Reducing emissions in the electricity sector plays a pivotal role in climate change policies around the world. Unchecked climate change is widely seen as posing serious risks for the Australian community and its economy. Together with the broader international community, Australia has agreed to a goal of limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. This requires ...
SUMMARY The Authority is required by legislation to review the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) every three years; this is its first review. The review has benefited from consultations with stakeholders from a range of sectors and the Authority thanks those who contributed. When introduced in 2011, the CFI was designed to complement the carbon pricing mechanism. Accordingly, it focused on sectors not covered by the carbon price, namely: agriculture, waste (in part), and land use, land use change and forestry. CFI projects earned credits that could be sold to entities with liabilities under the carbon pricing mechanism. The carbon price has since been repealed, and the CFI has been expanded to form the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) and now covers all sectors of the economy. The ERF is the central plank of the government's Direct Action Plan to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. It has been introduced through amendments to the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Cth), which brings it within the scope of this review. For simplicity's sake, this report refers to the CFI as the scheme as originally configured, and the ERF as the scheme as approved by the parliament in November 2014. Under the ERF, the government will purchase emissions reductions through auctions (and possibly other means). Fixed-price contracts, typically for seven years, will be offered to those who are successful at auction. Other changes to streamline the scheme are also being introduced, and a safeguard mechanism (that will discourage large emitters from increasing their emissions above historical levels) is to commence in July 2016. While these changes are substantial, the ERF retains an essential characteristic of the CFI in that it credits projects for reducing emissions below a defined baseline, and the baseline reflects what would have been expected to occur in the absence of the scheme. The changes to the CFI are important for this review in two ways. First, as the scheme is being expanded to become the central ...
Global Warming ("GW") is easily one of the most pressing concerns of our time,and its solution will come about only through a change in human behavior.Compared to the residents of most other nations worldwide, Americans reportlower acceptance of the realities of GW. In order to address this concern in afree society, U.S. residents must be convinced or coerced to take the necessaryactions. In spite of the democratic appeal of education, however, many climatecommunicators appear to be settling on the notion that emotional persuasion issuperior to education.We'll set an empirical foundation in Chapter2, reviewing an experiment inthe Numerically Driven Inferencing (NDI) paradigm that sheds some light on thecognitive processes involved in learning and attitude shifts in response tosurprising policy-relevant information. Chapters 3–6 contain results froma comprehensive program of research specifically targeting climate-relatedattitudes and beliefs in the United States. As alluded to above, there have beenmany surveys of American attitudes. Chapter3 provides an overview of ourapproach to assessing climate-related beliefs and attitudes. In particular, wenote relationships observed in one survey between scientific literacy regardingthe GW mechanism on one hand and attitudes, including "willingness tosacrifice" on the other. As with some other empirical approaches, ourresults suggest that U.S. residents generally accept anthropogenic (i.e.,"human caused") climate change, and support action on this issue.But even if this is the case, Chapter 4 describes an experiment demonstratingthat these beliefs and attitudes are disturbingly fragile in the face ofcherry-picked, misleading numerical facts. Chapter5 then describes a pairof experiments evaluating the effects of representative numerical facts.Chapter5's Study1 (Section5.1) demonstrates that even whenstudents report strong psychological effects after receiving a set of surprisingnumbers, their beliefs and attitudes will not necessarily be affected.Chapter5's Study2 (Section5.2) improves upon the clarity ofmaterials used in Study1 and demonstrates that such materials can effectively increase climate change acceptance and concern.In both of these studies, as with the study presented in Chapter4, thisrelatively uncontextualized, surprising numerical information underminesstudents' confidence in their own knowledge. Chapter6 reports on threesuccessful experiments (spanning four samples) that provide a coherentexplanation of the mechanism of climate change that includes relevant numericalfacts. As with Study2 in Chapter5, this intervention shiftsparticipant attitudes towards the scientific consensus. Unlike uncontextualizednumerical information, however, this mechanism intervention additionally leavesparticipants feeling that they know more than they did prior to instruction.Chapter6's Study1 (Section6.1) establishes this effect inclassroom-based settings at two culturally distinct universities.Chapter6's Study2 (Section6.2) provides an initial evaluationof the time-course of retention for the cognitive shifts that followed ourmechanism intervention, and Chapter6's Study3 (Section6.3)provides a successful demonstration of durable shifts with the generalpopulation online.Taken together, these experiments point the way towards effective curricula andon-line materials that can help bolster support to combat climate change. Whilewe must certainly be sensitive to the needs, values, and interests of our targetaudiences, we should not reflexively steer away from science education. Indeed,the experiments in this dissertation provide empirical support for the notionthat science education materials can have a meaningful and lasting impact on GWattitudes and beliefs. While this may not provide the complete behavioralsolution we need for the United States (and the world), it seems likely thatsuch shifts will make behavioral and policy changes far more tractable in thecoming years.
Annual student essay contest endowed by Philip L. Carret aimed at having Elon College students reflect on the ideals and principles embodied in Thomas Jefferson's life and career. Top three prize-winning student essays from the competition based on the following topic: The 1803 Louisiana Purchase gave the United States a vast interior empire and raised significant social, economic and constitutional issues. Analyze and evaluate the decision-making process which led to the Purchase. Also, explore the implications of the Louisiana Purchase.
The Covid-19 pandemic has sped up our migration from the physical to the digital domain. With social distancing, our jobs and social interactions have increasingly played out online. This process, which was already in motion before the pandemic, has been turbo-charged as remote work has become the norm for millions of European professionals. At the same time, the digital domain has also been under-regulated, with governments taking a laissez-faire approach in terms of the rights and responsibilities of the largest technology companies. This seems to be coming to an end, as governments are increasingly signaling willingness to regulate this space to address privacy, competition or public debate issues. To tackle the great technological transformation of our time, public and private actors need to understand what is legitimate in the eyes of the citizens and what sort of technological future they may be ready to embrace. Failing to do so could result in resistance to technological change and even greater political polarization. Our annual survey, European Tech Insights, investigates attitudes towards technological change with the aim of understanding how technology is transforming our lives and how it should be governed. It seeks to shed light on the hopes and concerns of our technological future. In this edition, we focus on how the pandemic has altered our habits and perceptions with regards to healthcare, work, social networks and the urban space. More than a year after the outbreak of Covid-19, Europeans are still struggling to return to any form of pre-pandemic normality. While the long-lasting effects of the pandemic in our lives are yet to determined, our report unveils public opinion shifts that reveal the profound impact of this crisis. The findings of the study suggest a sense of growing public responsibility to address societal issues that have been exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic. At the onset of the pandemic, European solidarity deteriorated with closed borders, a lack of coordination and even ...
Beliefs have long been posited to be a predictor of behavior. However, empirical investigations into the relationship between beliefs (e.g., "vaccines cause autism") and behaviors (e.g., vaccinating one's child), mostly correlational in nature, have provided conflicting findings. To explore the causal impact of beliefs on behaviors, participants first rated the accuracy of a set of statements (health-related in Study 1, politically-charged in Studies 2 and 3) and chose corresponding campaigns to donate available funds. They were then provided with relevant evidence in favor of the correct statements and against the incorrect statements. Finally, participants rated the accuracy of the initial set of statements again and were given a chance to change their donation choices. The results of all three studies show that belief change predicts behavioral change, finding of particular relevance for interventions aimed at promoting constructive behaviors such as recycling, donating to charity, or employing preventative health measures.
International audience ; Cette nouvelle livraison du Recueil ouvert est le fruit de la collaboration entre des chercheurs en littérature comparée et des anthropologues du Centre d'études mongoles et sibériennes (EPHE) autour de la notion de travail épique, cette dynamique de l'épopée qui permet à une société de trouver des solutions radicalement nouvelles à une crise politique majeure. Après une première publication commune qui montrait que l'épopée est bien un outil de transformation de la société (https://journals.openedition.org/emscat/2265), ce volume est centré sur la question de la co-construction entre public et récitant, dans l'épopée traditionnelle mais aussi dans l'épique moderne.
International audience ; Cette nouvelle livraison du Recueil ouvert est le fruit de la collaboration entre des chercheurs en littérature comparée et des anthropologues du Centre d'études mongoles et sibériennes (EPHE) autour de la notion de travail épique, cette dynamique de l'épopée qui permet à une société de trouver des solutions radicalement nouvelles à une crise politique majeure. Après une première publication commune qui montrait que l'épopée est bien un outil de transformation de la société (https://journals.openedition.org/emscat/2265), ce volume est centré sur la question de la co-construction entre public et récitant, dans l'épopée traditionnelle mais aussi dans l'épique moderne.
