Agents

Author(s):  
Dan Honig

This chapter discusses agent judgment and when relying on agents will be a more or less reliable strategy. The chapter explores agent motivation and why it is critical to successful Navigation by Judgment. Agent motivation is a function of both treatment and selection effects. Job design can play an important role in changing agent motivation for better or for worse (treatment); job design can also prompt differential exit and entry of motivated agents into international development organizations (IDOs) (selection). It argues that there may be different equilibria IDOs can meet, with a Theory Y equilibrium of agent initiative and intrinsically motivated agents on the one hand and a Theory X equilibrium of tight principal control and extrinsically motivated agents on the other.

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-74
Author(s):  
Ilan Kapoor

This chapter focuses on two recent controversies in which Slavoj Žižek has been embroiled — the European refugee crisis and the issue of Eurocentrism — to illustrate the two universalist dimensions of antagonism. The two controversies are, of course, directly pertinent to international development, since the one (the refugee crisis) is closely entwined with North–South relations and the global politics of inequality, while the other (Eurocentrism) is a key cause of concern for those (postcolonial, decolonial) development theorists and practitioners focusing on continuing patterns of Western domination. Žižek's stand on both issues has been the subject of notable disapproval, if not denunciation. Critics reproach him for being Eurocentric and even racist, charges which he has repeatedly countered. The chapter examines the differing theoretical and political positions in these debates, underlining what Žižek's critics miss or misunderstand about the key notion of antagonism.


Author(s):  
A. Shakirov

The article considers the aims and practices of the United States’ foreign assistance provided to other, especially developing, states. The aims include the promotion of the international development, on the one hand, and the achievement of US own national interests in security, economic and political spheres, on the other hand. Official foreign assistance (OFA) of the United States is divided into two types: economic assistance and military-technical one. Currently, the USA is the world's largest donor of both types of the official foreign assistance. This author discusses structure and factors influencing the OFA provided to the developing countries, as well as the experience of cooperation in this sphere between Russia and the United States.


2009 ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Ruth Lister

- This focus of this article is the inter-relationship between structure and agency in understanding the dynamics of poverty. The article begins with some general reflections on the nature of agency, its relationship to structure, and models of agency in the context of poverty. It then outlines a resources or assets-based model, drawing in particular on the international development literature on livelihoods. This is followed by a typology of agency, which situates poverty dynamics in relation to a number of different kinds of agency exercised by people living in poverty: ‘getting by' or everyday coping; ‘getting (back) at' through ‘everyday resistance'; ‘getting out' of poverty; and getting organized' to effect change. The article then focuses on "getting by" as well as ‘getting out' since the one is likely to be a prerequisite for the other. It concludes by re-affirming the need for interventions to embrace both agency and structure.


2021 ◽  

Great importance is attached to cooperation with the private sector at many levels of international development policy. In terms of official development cooperation in Germany too, companies are considered important partners for achieving global development goals. Civil society activists evaluate cooperation with private companies differently: on the one hand, they see the opportunity to mobilise additional potential; on the other hand, it is feared that companies may only use their involvement as a marketing tool to improve their image. German companies are also required to act responsibly along the entire value chain all over the world. With contributions by Jette Altmann (GIZ), Lucia De Carlo (BMZ), Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Hemel (Bund Katholischer Unternehmer), Annette Jensen (Journalistin), Oliver Krafka (Martin Bauer Group), Tanja Reith (SAP), Prof. Dr. Hartmut Sangmeister (Universität Heidelberg), Dr. Christian Scheper (Institut für Entwicklung und Frieden/INEF), Martin Schüller (Fairtrade Deutschland), Dr. Bernd Villhauer (Weltethos-Institut an der Universität Tübingen) and Dr. Heike Wagner (Akademie der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart).


InterNaciones ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 135-153
Author(s):  
Merle Heyken

In the past years, the private sector has been incorporated into international development policy, a policy field traditionally dominated by the states. Due to shrinking budgets and insufficient results, the objective is to fill the gap with private contributions. However, the private sector is very heterogeneous: incentives, objectives, financial volumes and methods can differ considerably. Therefore, the results and the effectiveness of the private sector’s contribution might differ as well. In addition, the incorporation of the private sector is a controversially discussed topic as it is associated with various challenges. On the one hand the private sector can act more flexible and less bureaucratic, also it can better encourage innovation and know-how. On the other hand, problems arise related to an insufficient regulation system, mainly commercial or image interest and democratic control. More research is necessary.


Author(s):  
Cecilia Osorio-Gonnet ◽  
Maria Clara Oliveira ◽  
José Miguel Vergara

On the one hand, transfer is a process by which governments intentionally use ideas about how policies in other countries work to design or redesign their own public policies (Dussauge, 2012). On the other hand, cooperation is a process that recognizes the existence of an interdependence between states and the international arena. This article aims to discuss and clarify the relation between international cooperation and policy transfer. Drawing on the analysis of development cooperation in Brazil and Chile, we discuss how technical cooperation agreements between these countries and third parties, encourage the transfer of public policies, in particular of those considered as models in the area of social policy, namely Bolsa Família and Chile Solidario. This article demonstrates that international development cooperation facilitates the existence of processes that allow for the transfer of specific components of social policies to other context. The analysis is based on a literature review and on information gathered through interviews conducted with relevant actors.


1975 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 395-407
Author(s):  
S. Henriksen

The first question to be answered, in seeking coordinate systems for geodynamics, is: what is geodynamics? The answer is, of course, that geodynamics is that part of geophysics which is concerned with movements of the Earth, as opposed to geostatics which is the physics of the stationary Earth. But as far as we know, there is no stationary Earth – epur sic monere. So geodynamics is actually coextensive with geophysics, and coordinate systems suitable for the one should be suitable for the other. At the present time, there are not many coordinate systems, if any, that can be identified with a static Earth. Certainly the only coordinate of aeronomic (atmospheric) interest is the height, and this is usually either as geodynamic height or as pressure. In oceanology, the most important coordinate is depth, and this, like heights in the atmosphere, is expressed as metric depth from mean sea level, as geodynamic depth, or as pressure. Only for the earth do we find “static” systems in use, ana even here there is real question as to whether the systems are dynamic or static. So it would seem that our answer to the question, of what kind, of coordinate systems are we seeking, must be that we are looking for the same systems as are used in geophysics, and these systems are dynamic in nature already – that is, their definition involvestime.


Author(s):  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Markus Appel

Abstract. Two experiments examined the influence of stories on recipients’ self-perceptions. Extending prior theory and research, our focus was on assimilation effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in line with a protagonist’s traits) as well as on contrast effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in contrast to a protagonist’s traits). In Experiment 1 ( N = 113), implicit and explicit conscientiousness were assessed after participants read a story about either a diligent or a negligent student. Moderation analyses showed that highly transported participants and participants with lower counterarguing scores assimilate the depicted traits of a story protagonist, as indicated by explicit, self-reported conscientiousness ratings. Participants, who were more critical toward a story (i.e., higher counterarguing) and with a lower degree of transportation, showed contrast effects. In Experiment 2 ( N = 103), we manipulated transportation and counterarguing, but we could not identify an effect on participants’ self-ascribed level of conscientiousness. A mini meta-analysis across both experiments revealed significant positive overall associations between transportation and counterarguing on the one hand and story-consistent self-reported conscientiousness on the other hand.


2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (03) ◽  
pp. 107-117
Author(s):  
R. G. Meyer ◽  
W. Herr ◽  
A. Helisch ◽  
P. Bartenstein ◽  
I. Buchmann

SummaryThe prognosis of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) has improved considerably by introduction of aggressive consolidation chemotherapy and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Nevertheless, only 20-30% of patients with AML achieve long-term diseasefree survival after SCT. The most common cause of treatment failure is relapse. Additionally, mortality rates are significantly increased by therapy-related causes such as toxicity of chemotherapy and complications of SCT. Including radioimmunotherapies in the treatment of AML and myelodyplastic syndrome (MDS) allows for the achievement of a pronounced antileukaemic effect for the reduction of relapse rates on the one hand. On the other hand, no increase of acute toxicity and later complications should be induced. These effects are important for the primary reduction of tumour cells as well as for the myeloablative conditioning before SCT.This paper provides a systematic and critical review of the currently used radionuclides and immunoconjugates for the treatment of AML and MDS and summarizes the literature on primary tumour cell reductive radioimmunotherapies on the one hand and conditioning radioimmunotherapies before SCT on the other hand.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (188) ◽  
pp. 487-494
Author(s):  
Daniel Mullis

In recent years, political and social conditions have changed dramatically. Many analyses help to capture these dynamics. However, they produce political pessimism: on the one hand there is the image of regression and on the other, a direct link is made between socio-economic decline and the rise of the far-right. To counter these aspects, this article argues that current political events are to be understood less as ‘regression’ but rather as a moment of movement and the return of deep political struggles. Referring to Jacques Ranciere’s political thought, the current conditions can be captured as the ‘end of post-democracy’. This approach changes the perspective on current social dynamics in a productive way. It allows for an emphasis on movement and the recognition of the windows of opportunity for emancipatory struggles.


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