scholarly journals The Role of New Digital Technologies in a Time of Crisis

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 95-106
Author(s):  
T. Rovinskaya
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
World Order ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Current Crisis

Received 26.01.2021. The article investigates the role of new digital technologies during a crisis period on the example of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the methods used by different states to prevent the spread of the virus and its consequences, the author analyzes the advantages of the impelled rapid digitalization, scrutinizes its negative aspects, and discusses perspectives. Although the digital transformation had already been taking place before the pandemic actually started (2019), the current crisis facilitates the unprecedented digitalization breakthrough in all life spheres, which will have delayed consequences. The short-run effects are already obvious: deepening of virtual communication; advancement of electronic document flow systems and online-services (including E-Government, public health service, etc.); virtualization of education, culture, sports, leisure activities; transformation of labour market towards distance employment, an outburst of electronic commerce and services, robot automation in economy; virtualization of political life (online-meetings, online-debates, online-summits, etc.), and, moreover, a transfer of power struggle and geopolitical struggle itself to digital platforms. Greater convenience and effectiveness are the most vivid advantages of digital technologies development, which plays the key role in crisis periods. Better access of disabled persons and people living in geographically remote places to medical aid, education, cultural objects, etc. also belongs to important achievements of the rapid digitalization. At the same time, there are significant negative aspects of this process, both general and specific. The violation of democratic rights and freedoms (primarily, of personal data security and individual privacy) is unavoidable in the light of the necessary “digital control” from the state to contain the spread of infection. Private IT companies participating in the process of the virus spread control due to their products (mobile applications, Internet platforms, etc.) also benefit from access to personal data. Whereas this issue is not central in authoritarian regimes like China, it becomes very challenging for democratic societies of the West. The digitalization of services gives wide room for irregularities and fraud in general. A growing “digital exclusion” is another concern: the greater dependency on technical means excludes certain parts of the population unable to use them for different reasons. An increasing individualization and solitude amid the lacking real-life communication gives rise to complicated psychological issues and mental disorders. Among specific negative side-effects of digitalization there are obstacles in personal electronic verification, worsening in the quality of remote medical assistance and online-education, unemployment growth and smashup of offline-businesses in economy, and some other. The most complicated question of the current crisis and the next “post-COVID” period is how serious the above-mentioned negative consequences of the rapid digitalization will be, to what extent they may devaluate its advantages, what sacrifice will be made by humanity to pay for comfort and effectiveness. Acknowledgements. The article was prepared within the project “Post-Crisis World Order: Challenges and Technologies, Competition and Cooperation” supported by the grant from Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation program for research projects in priority areas of scientific and technological development (Agreement № 075-15-2020-783).

scholarly journals Role of Legal Principles in Eliminating and Minimizing the Risks of Genomic Technologies

Lex Russica ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Maleina
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Information ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Genetic Characteristics ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Genomic Technologies ◽  
Preventive Actions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Modern Genomic

The use of modern genomic technologies, along with the benefits to the man and society, can lead to negative consequences. Such risks exist both in the process and after the production, isolation, modification, storage of DNA. Prior to detailed legislative regulation of relations regarding the use of genomic technologies for medicinal purposes and not for medical reasons, legal principles become vital.The paper formulates the following basic legal principles of genomic technologies application: the principle of preventive actions of the state to protect citizens from the risks of using genomic technologies; the principle of preserving the human genome as a special species; the principle of guaranteeing the inviolability of the individual of every citizen when using genomic technologies; the principle of priority of life and health of citizens over the interests of science and society; the principle of equality of citizens regardless of genetic characteristics; the principle of protection of genetic information of every citizen as part of personal data; the principle of guaranteeing access to the citizen’s own genetic information. Legal principles can be used to resolve a dispute by analogy of law.

scholarly journals The use of digital technology in the public administration

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-428
Author(s):  
Sergey E. Channov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Russian Federation

Introduction. The article is devoted to the use of digital technologies in the field of public administration using the example of state and municipal information systems. Currently, two types of such systems can be distinguished in the Russian Federation: 1) allowing direct enforcement activities; 2) used to capture certain information. Theoretical analysis. Information systems of the first type acquire the properties of an object of complex legal relations, in which suppliers and consumers of information, government bodies, as well as other persons become participants. This entails the fact that in the implementation of public administration, the source of regulation of public relations to a certain extent becomes the program code of these information systems. Accordingly, any failures and errors in the public information system become facts of legal importance. Empirical analysis. The main risks of using information systems of the second type in public administration relate to the illegal access (or use) of information stored in their databases. The consolidation of databases containing different types of information is a serious threat. In this regard, the creation of the Unified Federal Information Register containing information about the population of the Russian Federation, provided for by the Federal Law No. 168-FZ of 08.06.2020, may lead to a large number of socially negative consequences and comes into obvious conflict with the legislation on personal data. Results. State and municipal information systems themselves can improve public administration, including reducing corruption in the country. At the same time, their reduced discretion in management decisions is not always appropriate. Accordingly, their implementation should be preceded by the analysis of the characteristics of a specific area of management, as well as the proposed use of digital technologies.

Indian Labour and the Geographies of the Great War

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-42
Author(s):  
Radhika Singha
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
World Order ◽  
International Order ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Global War ◽  
The Great War

This chapter assesses the key role of the non-combatant or follower ranks in the history of sub-imperial drives exerted across the land and sea frontiers of India. The reliance of the War Office upon combatant and non-combatant detachments from the Indian Army, used in combination with units of the British Army, left an imprint upon the first consolidated Indian Army Act of 1911. From 1914 the inter-regional contests of the Government of India for territory and influence, such as those running along the Arabian frontiers of the Ottoman empire, folded into global war. Nevertheless the despatch of an Indian Expeditionary Force to Europe in August 1914 disrupted raced imaginaries of the world order. The second less publicized exercise was the sending of Indian Labor Corps and of humble horse and mule drivers to France in 1917-18. The colour bar imposed by the Dominions on Indian settlers had begun to complicate the utilisation of Indian labor and Indian troops on behalf of empire. Over 1919-21, as global conflict segued back into imperial militarism, a strong critique emerged in India against the unilateral deployment of Indian troops and military labor, on fiscal grounds, in protest against their use to suppress political life in India and to condemn the international order which their use sustained.

scholarly journals Ethnic dissimilarity predicts belonging motive frustration and reduced organizational attachment

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-138
Author(s):  
Kawon Kim ◽  
Margaret E. Ormiston ◽  
Matthew J. Easterbrook ◽  
Vivian L. Vignoles
Keyword(s):  
Group Membership ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Naturalistic Study ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Organizational Attachment ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Group Members

Some empirical studies show negative consequences of being demographically different from one’s group, but the underlying psychological mechanisms are not well understood. To address this gap, we investigated the role of the belonging and distinctiveness motives in individuals’ experiences of being ethnically dissimilar from their group. We propose that ethnic dissimilarity satisfies group members’ need for distinctiveness whereas it frustrates members’ need for belonging, and this frustration reduces their organizational attachment. An experimental study showed that ethnic dissimilarity led to heightened arousal of the belonging motive, indicating that this motive was frustrated. In a naturalistic study of real-life student groups, ethnic dissimilarity was associated with frustrated belonging, which in turn was associated with reduced organizational attachment. This paper contributes to the literature on demographic dissimilarity in groups by closely examining the effect of demographic dissimilarity on group members’ fundamental motives and reactions to group membership.

scholarly journals ‘Why didn’t they see my scars?’ Critical thematic analysis of simulated participants’ perceived tensions surrounding objective structured clinical examinations

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairead Corrigan ◽  
Helen J. Reid ◽  
Pascal P. McKeown
Keyword(s):  
Patient Safety ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Clinical Encounters ◽  
Objective Structured Clinical Examinations ◽  
Power And Agency

Abstract Background Simulated participants (SPs) play an important role in simulated assessments of clinical encounters between medical students and patients, most notably in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs). SP contributions to OSCEs are invaluable, taking the role of a patient or carer. While SPs in some settings/contexts may rate students, their role has been problematized in the literature for their lack of agency within a standardised format of OSCEs that promotes reliability, objectivity and accountability. In this study, we explored SP experiences for tensions that result from simulated assessments and their potential implications for education. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven SPs who were also tasked with providing a global mark for students. They were purposively selected to include women and men of different ages, occupation, education and experience as an SP. The interviews were analysed using a critical thematic analysis using a phenomenological approach. Results SP experiences directly addressed tensions and contradictions around OSCEs. SP participants described their experiences under four themes: industrialising, reducing, performativity and patient safety. OSCEs were compared to an industrial process that promoted efficiency but which bore no resemblance to real-life doctor-patient encounters. They were perceived to have a power and agency that reduced SPs to verbalising scripts to ensure that students were exposed to a standardised simulated experience that also underlined the performative role of SPs as props. These performative and reductionist experiences extended to students, for whom the mark sheet acted as a checklist, promoting standardised responses that lacked genuineness. All of this created a tension for SPs in promoting patient safety by ensuring that those medical students who passed were clinically competent. Conclusions OSCEs often form part of high-stakes exams. As such, they are governed by processes of industrialisation, accountability and standardisation. OSCEs possess a power and agency that can have unintended negative consequences. These include ‘conditioning’ students to adopt behaviours that are not suited to real-life clinical encounters and are not person-centred.

World after COVID-19: democracy VS authoritarianism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Krasivskyi ◽  
P. Petrovskyi
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
World Order ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Information Support ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The World

Problem setting. The coronavirus pandemic has spread across the planet, not only affecting the health of the population and the world’s medical system but also disrupting the global information space, economy and all other spheres of human life. Both domestic and foreign policies of states are changing. Success in overcoming the pandemic and its economic consequences is affecting security and polarization within societies. The pandemic leads to enhancing public power and strengthening nationalism, the intensification of rivalry between great powers, and strategic disunity. In this context, the paper objective is to consider authoritarian and democratic approaches to solving the problems of the current crisis. Recent research and publications analysis. The general scientific and scientific-journalistic literature has not yet created a generalized work on the socio-economic and political consequences caused by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some views caused by global crises are noted in the studies of J. Vynokurov, L. Kolinets, O. Nevmerzhytska, A. Petryk, and others. Ukrainian and foreign philosophers, political scientists, publicists A. Baumaster, O. Koval, R. Sushchenko, S. Walt, V. Katasonov, K. Mahbubani, J. Nai, Y. N. Harari expressed their reflections on the future development of the world after the pandemic. The famous American thinker F. Fukuyama notes that after a long crisis, the world will eventually be renewed and democracy will be strengthened.Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. The history of mankind is inseparable from the accompanying constant crises that have shaken societies and states. The peculiarity of modern crises is their unpredictability and globality. Due to the lack of effective crisis prevention mechanisms, inefficient functioning of international financial institutions, the presence of mass financial speculation and the virtualization of the world economy, favourable conditions are created for the spread and generation of crisis phenomena in the world. So far, there is no generally accepted view of the likely consequences of crises for the world’s economies, and thus unpredictable socio-political changes. Paper main body. The Covid-19 pandemic has become the world’s largest global crisis since the Great Depression. Its depth and scale are enormous. As a result, it is capable of surpassing the Great Recession of 2008 – 2009. Thus, only in the second quarter of 2020, the economy of the Eurozone countries fell by more than 12%. There is a record drop in GDP, world trade is declining. The pandemic is projected to increase poverty, with more than half of those in Africa. The peculiarity of the new crisis is not only that it creates unprecedented uncertainty, but also that it destroys entire sectors of the economy, including tourism, transport and even energy.The Coronavirus pandemic can cause significant changes not only in the economic but also in the political, social and cultural spheres. A protracted epidemic, combined with huge job losses, a protracted recession and a debt burden, could create tensions that will escalate into a political reaction. Nationalism, isolationism, xenophobia and attacks on the liberal world order may intensify. As the COVID-19 crisis spreads, it discredits traditional politics and public institutions, which are perceived by the general public as a systemic failure, and democracy is replaced by populism and the rhetoric of radicalism.Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. The crisis of the coronavirus has a significant impact on all spheres of society, causing negative consequences in the economy, health care and socio-political relations. There are growing populism, nationalism and authoritarianism, which increases the likelihood of social and international conflicts. That is why it became topical to defend the opposite concepts of further development of political systems of societies - to join forces to overcome the common threat, international cooperation, exchange of information, support for democratic values.

The Serbian Orthodox Church as a Political Actor in the Aftermath of October 5, 2000

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Vukomanović
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The People ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis study tackles the place and role of the Orthodox Church in Serbian society, state, and political life after October 5, 2000. Owing to its present “symphony” with the state, the church now offers a new ideological framework and value-system for state institutions such as the armed forces and public education. This new role of the church is particularly emphasized in the current legislation. One could probably refer to the “etatization” of the Serbian Church, with some negative consequences for non-traditional religious communities. The relations with the Macedonian and Montenegrin Orthodox churches have also been discussed in this context. In post-Milošević Serbia, religious rights and freedoms have been considerably extended, but there is still a great deal of arbitrariness, even completely partial interpretations of the church-state relations. In the concluding section, this article deals with the church's traditionalist perception of society as narod (the people), with some recommendations as for the possible cooperation between the church and civil society in Serbia.

scholarly journals Digital technology in the humanities and public life in the context of justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 04003
Author(s):  
Nurmagomed Ismailov ◽  
Eleonora Barkova ◽  
Olga Buzskaya
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Intellectual Activity

The article explores some methodological issues and the role of digital technologies in the humanities, education system, and public life. The relevance of the research topic is confirmed by the rapid development of digital resources and technologies in public life, including humanities and education. The positive role of digital technologies for the development of humanities and education is emphasized; they are characterized by interdisciplinarity and open up new possibilities for research. It is argued that the process of digitalization is a reflection of the new historical realities of social life, including science and education, a reflection of the new needs of society in the research environment. And materialistic understanding of the phenomena of social life as the most important method of research, comprehension, and evaluation of social processes is used as the main method of research. It is argued that digital technologies in the humanities and education have serious negative consequences. This manifests itself in a potential decrease in intellectual activity, analytical abilities, and physical development of a person. Digital technologies are capable of taking a person into another reality, disrupting the process of traditional socialization, live communication. Such processes have a negative impact on his personal development, which contradicts the criterion of justice and social progress, which are expressed in the comprehensive development of the individual. It is argued that even the most advanced digital technology cannot replace the moral and psychological moments of live teacher-student communication.

Implementation of Digital Education: Problems and Solutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 1021-1025
Author(s):  
V. Ya. Dmitriev ◽  
T. A. Ignat’eva ◽  
A. O. Ivanova ◽  
V. P. Pilyavskiy
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Technical Equipment ◽  
Digital Education ◽  
Development Paths

Aim. The presented study aims to identify the key problems for the participants of the educational process caused by the introduction of digital education into the educational environment of an educational institution and to formulate possible solutions to these problems.Tasks. The authors analyze the mechanism of implementation of digital technologies in the educational process; identify weak points in the active introduction of distance learning; outline opportunities for the development of digital education.Methods. This study uses the methods of the systems approach, comparative and structural analysis, analytical and theoretical generalization.Results. The major problems of digital education implementation are identified; two principal development paths are proposed with an aim to improve the efficiency and quality of educational services based on digital technologies.Conclusions. The main problems of digital education implementation are the lack of face-to-face communication and real-life interaction between the teacher and students; insufficient technical equipment (the need for computers, laptops, tablets); poor performance of the equipment that hosts information resources combined with large amounts of transmitted data. As possible solutions to these problems, the authors outline two major development paths: improving the quality of educational content and developing efficient tools, i.e. a modern online education platform.

scholarly journals ROLE OF CHINA IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHERN AFRICA: EXAMPLE OF ZIMBABWE

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Кирилл Андреевич Алешин
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Bilateral Cooperation ◽  
Restrictive Measures ◽  
The Eu

Purpose: the role of China in Zimbabwe, that has been under long-term sanctions implemented by EU and US, and also experiencing serious economic difficulties. Discussion: the author analyzed the development of relations between Zimbabwe and China. The priorities of Beijing, the main trends and key areas of bilateral cooperation are shown. Results: while in isolation and in terms of Western sanctions, the leadership of Zimbabwe found a reliable ally – China, which became its one of the leading trade and economic partners and political allies, helped to overcome the negative consequences of a large-scale economic crisis. The author predicts that in the medium term, it is possible to expect a decrease in the role Beijing is playing in the economic and political life of Zimbabwe, which is due to a number of circumstances, including the removal of most of the EU sanctions, the possible abolition of US restrictive measures, the activation of Russia, India, as well as other developing countries in the Zimbabwe. However, the link between Zimbabwe and China, which emerged in the last century, the achieved level of influence on the Zimbabwean elites will allow Beijing in the foreseeable future to remain a key player in this country.

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