scholarly journals The politics of scaling

2021 ◽  
pp. 030631272110489
Author(s):  
Sebastian Pfotenhauer ◽  
Brice Laurent ◽  
Kyriaki Papageorgiou ◽  
and Jack Stilgoe
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Experimental Development ◽  
New Era ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Change Function ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Key Sites ◽  
To Come

A fixation on ‘scaling up’ has captured current innovation discourses and, with it, political and economic life at large. Perhaps most visible in the rise of platform technologies, big data and concerns about a new era of monopolies, scalability thinking has also permeated public policy in the search for solutions to ‘grand societal challenges’, ‘mission-oriented innovation’ or transformations through experimental ‘living labs’. In this paper, we explore this scalability zeitgeist as a key ordering logic of current initiatives in innovation and public policy. We are interested in how the explicit preoccupation with scalability reconfigures political and economic power by invading problem diagnoses and normative understandings of how society and social change function. The paper explores three empirical sites – platform technologies, living labs and experimental development economics – to analyze how scalability thinking is rationalized and operationalized. We suggest that social analysis of science and technology needs to come to terms with the ‘politics of scaling’ as a powerful corollary of the ‘politics of technology’, lest we accept the permanent absence from key sites where decisions about the future are made. We focus in on three constitutive elements of the politics of scaling: solutionism, experimentalism and future-oriented valuation. Our analysis seeks to expand our vocabulary for understanding and questioning current modes of innovation that increasingly value scaling as an end in itself, and to open up new spaces for alternative trajectories of social transformation.

Cinematic Search for Identity in the Shade of Turkey’s 1960 Coup: The Social Realism Debate and The Hope

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-168
Author(s):  
Celal Hayir ◽  
Ayman Kole
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Social Realism ◽  
New Era ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Turkish Cinema ◽  
To Come ◽  
First Time ◽  
Democratic Constitution ◽  
Realism Debate

When the Turkish army seized power on May 27th, 1960, a new democratic constitution was carried into effect. The positive atmosphere created by the 1961 constitution quickly showed its effects on political balances in the parliament and it became difficult for one single party to come into power, which strengthened the multi-party-system. The freedom initiative created by 1961’s constitution had a direct effect on the rise of public opposition. Filmmakers, who generally steered clear from the discussion of social problems and conflicts until 1960, started to produce movies questioning conflicts in political, social and cultural life for the first time and discussions about the “Social Realism” movement in the ensuing films arose in cinematic circles in Turkey. At the same time, the “regional managers” emerged, and movies in line with demands of this system started to be produced. The Hope (Umut), produced by Yılmaz Güney in 1970, rang in a new era in Turkish cinema, because it differed from other movies previously made in its cinematic language, expression, and use of actors and settings. The aim of this study is to mention the reality discussions in Turkish cinema and outline the political facts which initiated this expression leading up to the film Umut (The Hope, directed by Yılmaz Güney), which has been accepted as the most distinctive social realist movie in Turkey. 

The Blue-Green Urban Living Labs of Kuala Lumpur

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (13) ◽  
pp. 359-367
Author(s):  
Jamalunlaili Abdullah ◽  
Raziah Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Hafiz Zainal
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Urban Living ◽  
The Public ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Private Citizen ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
International Publishing ◽  
Open Access Article

The extraordinary societal challenges demand cities to be innovative and adaptable to the needs of urban citizens. In the Malaysian context, the Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) has not been well incorporated into the ULLs. This paper seeks to address this gap by exploring the potential of the Blue-Green Urban Living Labs (BGULLs) at the Sungai Bunus catchment area. Using Google Form, survey questionnaire is conducted among professionals and the public. Findings of this unprecedented study suggest the BGULLs offer beyond beautification works, and it is voicing the virtual idea of the BGULLs into a real setting that reflects the public-private-citizen partnerships.Keywords: Urban living labs; Blue-Green Infrastructure; Innovation; societal challengeseISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v5i13.2072

Demographic echoes of the maternity data in the Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Marasovic Šušnjara
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Live Birth Rate ◽  
Natural Increase ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Birth Rates ◽  
Live Births ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Adoption And Implementation ◽  
Policy Measures

Abstract Background The demographic situation in the Split-Dalmatia County (SDC) is characterized by negative trends in the new millennium. Such a demographic picture entails many societal challenges. Considering the far-reaching consequences of population decline, the goal is to show what maternity data have been like in the SDC in the last decade. Methods Individual birth reports from health institutions in the SDC were used in the presentation of the maternity data. Demographic indicators were calculated based on data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. Results In 2018, in the SDC were reported 4,438 deliveries (13% less vs 2009; 5,103 deliveries) with a total of 4,577 children delivered, whereof 4,561 were live births and 16 were stillbirths. From a total of 4,516 live births, 13 live-born neonates died during the first week of their life. Most of women in labor (89%) were residents of the SDC. The average age of the new mothers was 28.9 years (in 2009; 26.9 years). Childbirth was most frequently recorded in the maternal age group 30 -34 (1,556 deliveries, i.e. 110,9/1,000 women of said age group; 92/1,000 in 2009). Among childbearing women with known data on earlier deliveries (4,431), 2,029 or 45.8% had their first deliveries, 1,549 or 35% had their second deliveries, 808 or 18% had their third or higher birth order deliveries. According to an estimate in 2018, 448,071 people lived in the SDC, less 1.5% from the last census (2011). The live birth rate was 9.5 /1,000 in 2018 (2009; 10.9/1,000). The total fertility rate was 1.53 in 2018 (2009; 1.6). The natural increase rate in 2018 was negative at -1.8 (-830 persons) (2009; 0.5 (250 persons)). Conclusions Depopulation, low birth rates and fertility, are the demographic reality of Split-Dalmatia County as well as Croatia, which requires adoption and implementation of various public policy measures that positively affect fertility to improve the demographic picture. Key messages Depopulation, low birth rates and fertility, are the demographic reality of Split-Dalmatia County as well as Croatia. Adoption and implementation of various public policy measures that positively affect fertility to improve the demographic picture are needed.

On the Making of U.S. China Policy, 1961–9: A Study in Bureaucratic Politics

1972 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 220-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Korean War ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Bureaucratic Politics ◽  
China Policy ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
History Of ◽  
John Foster Dulles ◽  
To Come

When the history of Sino-American relations since 1949 is written in years to come, it will very likely lump together much of the two decades from the Korean War to the Kissinger-Chou meeting as a period of drearily sustained deadlock. Korean hostilities will be blended rather easily into Indochina hostilities, John Foster Dulles into Dean Rusk. The words and deeds of American East Asian intervention, of the containment and isolation of China, will seem an unbroken continuity. And at the end, under most improbable auspices but for commonsense balance-of-power reasons, will come the Zen-like Nixon stroke that cut the Gordian knot and opened a new era.

Early Novels and Stories (1915–1923)

2021 ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Rodal
Keyword(s):  
Virginia Woolf ◽  
New Era ◽  
Modern Novel ◽  
Modern Novels ◽  
To Come ◽  
Night And Day ◽  
Jacob's Room

Between 1915 and 1923, Virginia Woolf published her first three novels (The Voyage Out, Night and Day, and Jacob’s Room) as well as some of her most iconic essays and stories. This chapter examines that work with particular attention to how Woolf’s early fiction describes modern novels, placing it in conversation with her essays on the modern novel. Woolf turned repeatedly to the problem of how to achieve the freedoms of a new modernity, and her early work struggles to imagine a new kind of novel while acknowledging that this new kind of novel does not exist: not quite yet. This chapter examines Woolf’s deliberately undetermined vision of modernity, tracing how her early work persistently ponders and imagines what a new era of writing will offer even as she refuses to specify and delimit what has yet to come to pass.

scholarly journals The practicality of curricula towards improved employability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercedes Aznar
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
Education System ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
Drastic Change ◽  
Autonomous Learning ◽  
New Era ◽  
Fresh Perspective ◽  
To Come

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a plunge of worldwide economies and consequently, new economic models must be evolved in order to come out of such an unfavourable situation. Innovation and creativity will be a must to reach success and it is here where young graduates can provide a fresh perspective. Certainly, the education system must also adapt to a new era that will result from this situation and although present curricula can become a constraint to achieve this goal in some cases, a drastic change in classroom methodology is a must. The objective of this paper is to describe that a learning process based on hand-on practice and autonomous learning can result in an upgrade of competences and skills. Therefore, a project carried out by Tourism undergraduates will be introduced in which students become the main characters of their own learning process. As a result, an increase in motivation has been revealed and also, in students’ maturity towards the learning experience.

Barbarism or Socialism: 1917–2017–2050 (?)

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minqi Li
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
First Century ◽  
New Era ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
To Come

Two decades after the end of the Soviet Union, the global capitalist economy narrowly escaped total collapse in the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008–2009. The world in the twenty-first century has entered into a new era of crisis, which is economic, political and environmental. What will happen between now and the mid-twenty-first century that may shape and largely determine the future of humanity for centuries to come. On the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the October Revolution, this article re-evaluates the trajectory of the twentieth century socialism and identifies its legacies. It also considers the unique character of contemporary contradictions and argues that the formation of new industrial working classes may fatally undermine the system’s political legitimacy and raise again the ‘spectre of communism’ that Marx and Engels predicted, this time not only in Europe but also in the entire globe.

Conclusion

Never Trump ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 240-248
Author(s):  
Robert P. Saldin ◽  
Steven M. Teles
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Western World ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
New Era ◽  
Professional Interest ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Right

This concluding chapter highlights how the Republican Party has been substantially transformed by the experience of having Donald Trump at its head. The president's reelection in 2020 would only deepen that transformation. Deep sociological forces—in particular, a Republican Party base that is increasingly white, working class, Christian, less formally educated, and older—will lead the party to go where its voters are. What Trump started, his Republican successors will finish. Just as parties of the right across the Western world have become more populist and nationalist, so will the Republicans. That, of course, bodes poorly for most of the Never Trumpers, who combined a deep distaste for Trump personally with a professional interest in a less populist governing style and a disinclination to see their party go ideologically where he wanted to take it. Ultimately, the future is unwritten because it will be shaped by the choices of individuals. Never Trump will have failed comprehensively in its founding mission, which was to prevent the poison of Donald Trump from entering the nation's political bloodstream. However, it is likely to be seen, in decades to come, as the first foray into a new era of American politics.

Gandhi’s Marvellous Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-119
Author(s):  
Imraan Coovadia
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Control

The chapter examines Gandhi’s mature conceptions of decolonization and social change, which he developed alongside his interpretation of Tolstoy and Tolstoy’s understanding of colonialism. Gandhi seems to have expected social transformation to come immediately, as a kind of miracle of consciousness, yet he also imagined change as an indefinitely protracted process, dominated by delay and reversion, as a counter to the clarity and swiftness of revolutionary upheaval. He was particularly concerned with conversion of the adversary and control of the self as the motors of social change. The chapter considers the arguments of Hind Swaraj and the ways in which Gandhi referred to the example of South Africa even when in India, as well as the extent to which questions posed by Tolstoy in the ‘Letter to a Hindoo’ shaped Gandhi’s thinking.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document