scholarly journals ACCELERATED AUTOMATION AND THE ECOSYSTEM OF ADAPTATION TO THE CHANGES

2020 ◽  
pp. 233-242
Author(s):  
QUJI BICHIA
Keyword(s):  
Professional Education ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Online Sales ◽  
The Government

The spread of the pandemic has further accelerated the already accelerated process of automation, as it reduces all interactions and helps social distancing, as it was advised to combat the virus. Automation is proceeding at a very fast pace in many sectors of the economy and creating the need for countries to respond to these new challenges at the level of national economic strategy. The new challenge has changed the attitudes of not only manufacturers but also consumers and given them additional impetus to the using robots and artificial intelligence. During this period, those, who are the first to be able to switch to online sales, reduce the need for communication with employees and increase the level of automation, will be able to gain an advantage. Because of this, there is a danger that after the pandemic ends, some of those currently temporarily unemployed will not be able to return to work and will need to adapt to the new reality. In the light of such changes, it is important to identify areas of declining and growing sectors of labor demand and to prepare the population for change to prevent technological unemployment. As it turns out, technological skills and social skills are becoming increasingly demanded, while physical and basic cognitive skills are on the decline. In order to adapt to a new reality, firms have a choice of retraining old employees, redeploying them to different sets of tasks, hiring individuals with skills that are increasingly needed, contracting specialists outside the company (freelancers) and releasing employees that do not fit the new paradigm of business models. Automation involves the disappearance of a large proportion of low-skilled occupations, leading to a critical role for education in employment. It is therefore important for the government to establish a strategic position on higher and professional education, which will be based on a long-term plan for the structural transformation of the workforce. Automation may be used as an opportunity if a productive ecosystem is established and all stakeholders get actively involved in the process of adjusting to the new reality. For that it is necessary to form an overall ecosystem of stakeholders, which should contain employers at the center and different supporting institutions around them. The ecosystem should consist of labor agencies that help individuals find new jobs, retrain and get some benefits. Educational institutions play a crucial role in devising courses and specializations that fit an exact position that is in demand in some companies. Industry associations and non-profit organizations also need to be coordinated with companies to expand this ecosystem. Combined effort of all these five groups of stakeholders can manage to overcome the looming challenge of rapid unemployment growth and wide skill mismatch. If a society fail to coordinate in the ecosystem, the aftermath will be devastating and income inequality will be amplified. One solution to that is thought to be universal basic income (UBI) but so far it doesn’t seem feasible and cannot be relied on. Adapting society to a change instead of giving out basic income seems to address the problem better and not just on a surface.

scholarly journals The National Front Against Poverty: The Struggle for Income Redistribution

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Ernesto Campos
Keyword(s):  
Professional Education ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Macroeconomic Policies ◽  
National Front ◽  
Extreme Poverty ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Government

<p>This article describes the campaign developed by unions, human rights organisations and other social movements in Argentina at the end of the 1990s in order to push the government to implement measures to eliminate poverty and extreme poverty. It also refers to the results of this campaign in the following years, highlighting not only its direct impact but also its indirect consequences in the medium term, in particular on the public debates related to the social policies implemented by the new centre–left government since 2003. This campaign, popularly known as FRENAPO (National Front Against Poverty), was organised in the context of the implementation of neo-liberal macroeconomic policies in Argentina, which led the country to the biggest crisis in its history at the end of 2001. The members of the campaign proposed a package of economic and social measures oriented to unemployed workers (a basic income grant plus a professional education scheme), to the children and to the elderly (a basic income grant for both). The proposal was supported in a referendum by more than three million people all over the country during December 2001, but it was not considered by the Parliament. Although the alliance that supported FRENAPO eventually crumbled, the campaign was successful in its objective of influencing the public debates on how to respond to poverty and extreme poverty. Several measures implemented by the new centre–left government since 2003 were inspired by those debates, particularly those aimed at guaranteeing an income for children and the elderly. This article analyses the context of the campaign, identifies its concrete goals, origins and members, and explains how FRENAPO built power in order to achieve those objectives. Finally, it addresses the main consequences of FRENAPO, both in the short and long term, and highlights its lessons for future campaigns.</p>

Integrated Architecture Framework for E-Government

2013 ◽  
pp. 74-96
Author(s):  
Ephias Ruhode
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Architecture Framework ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Technical Theory ◽  
The Government

Emerging trends in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in governments around the globe suggest that developing countries should embrace e-government as an enabler of efficient and effective service delivery. The Government of Zimbabwe, which is a case study in this chapter, is acutely aware of the critical role that ICTs play in socio-economic development. This chapter discusses Zimbabwe's e-government policies and programmes and maps them against the e-government architecture framework by Ebrahim and Irani (2005). The e-government architecture framework defines the standards, infrastructure components, applications, technologies, business models, and guidelines for electronic commerce among and between organisations that facilitate the interaction of the government and promote group productivity. The study is theoretically based upon the socio-technical theory, whose view suggests the existence of a technical sub-system and a social sub-system in an organisation. This theory has been adopted in this study to explain the complex relation between the government as an institution and e-government as an artifact. Drawing from the e-government architecture framework and the social-technical theory, an integrated e-government assessment framework is developed to explain the nature of relationships among government, citizens, and technology.

scholarly journals Extended parenting and the evolution of cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20190495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Uomini ◽  
Joanna Fairlie ◽  
Russell D. Gray ◽  
Michael Griesser
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cultural Learning

Traditional attempts to understand the evolution of human cognition compare humans with other primates. This research showed that relative brain size covaries with cognitive skills, while adaptations that buffer the developmental and energetic costs of large brains (e.g. allomaternal care), and ecological or social benefits of cognitive abilities, are critical for their evolution. To understand the drivers of cognitive adaptations, it is profitable to consider distant lineages with convergently evolved cognitions. Here, we examine the facilitators of cognitive evolution in corvid birds, where some species display cultural learning, with an emphasis on family life. We propose that extended parenting (protracted parent–offspring association) is pivotal in the evolution of cognition: it combines critical life-history, social and ecological conditions allowing for the development and maintenance of cognitive skillsets that confer fitness benefits to individuals. This novel hypothesis complements the extended childhood idea by considering the parents' role in juvenile development. Using phylogenetic comparative analyses, we show that corvids have larger body sizes, longer development times, extended parenting and larger relative brain sizes than other passerines. Case studies from two corvid species with different ecologies and social systems highlight the critical role of life-history features on juveniles’ cognitive development: extended parenting provides a safe haven, access to tolerant role models, reliable learning opportunities and food, resulting in higher survival. The benefits of extended juvenile learning periods, over evolutionary time, lead to selection for expanded cognitive skillsets. Similarly, in our ancestors, cooperative breeding and increased group sizes facilitated learning and teaching. Our analyses highlight the critical role of life-history, ecological and social factors that underlie both extended parenting and expanded cognitive skillsets. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals’.

scholarly journals Public Personnel Management Process Capability Assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebru Gökalp ◽  
Onur Demirörs ◽  
P. Erhan Eren
Keyword(s):  
Personnel Management ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Process Capability ◽  
Software Process Improvement ◽  
Management Process ◽  
Process Definition ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Generate Process ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of

Personnel management plays a critical role in the success of public organizations. Our literature review shows that there is a lack of systematic guidance on how to improve Public Personnel Management Process (PPMP) quality. Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE) is a process assessment framework that is successfully used by software organizations during the past two decades. The framework can also be used as a baseline to generate process capability models for different specific domains/sectors. We have utilized this approach for the government domain and we developed the process definition of PPMP. To observe the benefits and usability of the model, we have performed a multiple case study, including the assessments of three organizations’ PPMP capability levels and the development of action plans for PPMP improvement. The findings show that the proposed approach is applicable for identifying the PPMP capability levels and is capable of providing a roadmap for moving to the next level.

scholarly journals IN SEARCH OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS FOR COGNITIVE RADIO EVOLUTION

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislav V. Fomin ◽  
Artūras Medeišis ◽  
Daiva Vitkutė-Adžgauskienė
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Radio ◽  
Mobile Communications ◽  
Software Defined Radio ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Spectrum Access ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Sustainable Business ◽  
Radio Communications ◽  
Telecommunications Infrastructure ◽  
Radio Frequency Spectrum

In this paper we examine the emerging industry of Cognitive Radio/Software Defined Radio (CR/SDR), a sector which in some ways seconds the industry structure of the cellular mobile communications, while bearing distinctive characteristics. Any radio telecommunications infrastructure depends on scarce resources – radio frequency spectrum – that require policy decisions for allocation to specific countries and services. CR/SDR may constitute a new paradigm in radio communications as it may completely or partially eliminate the role of the regulator in minutiae of spectrum access authorization. In this paper, we review scarce literature on CR/SDR to analyze the relationships between political, technological and economic factors in order to identify drivers and barriers to the emergence of new techno-economic paradigm of CR/SDR. Our discussion of business opportunities for CR/SDR includes analysis of applicable spectrum access policies and identification of those of them, which would be most fertile for the development of future CR/SDR business.

Costa Rica in 1948: Cold War or Local War?

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Olander
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Panama Canal Zone ◽  
First Case ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The years following World War Two produced a strong resurgence of U.S. intervention in Central America and the Caribbean couched in Cold War terms. Although the U.S. intervention in Guatemala to overthrow the government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 has generally been seen as the first case of Cold War covert anti-Communist intervention in Latin America, several scholars have raised questions about U.S. involvement in a 1948 Costa Rican civil war in which Communism played a critical role. In a 1993 article in The Americas, Kyle Longley argued that “the U.S. response to the Costa Rican Revolution of 1948, not the Guatemalan affair, marked the origins of the Cold War in Latin America.” The U.S. “actively interfered,” and achieved “comparable results in Costa Rica as in Guatemala: the removal of a perceived Communist threat.” Other authors have argued, even, that the U.S. had prepared an invasion force in the Panama Canal Zone to pacify the country. The fifty years of Cold War anti-Communism entitles one to be skeptical of U.S. non-intervention in a Central American conflict involving Communism. Costa Ricans, aware of a long tradition of U.S. intervention in the region, also assumed that the U.S. would intervene. Most, if not all, were expecting intervention and one key government figure described U.S. pressure as like “the air, which is felt, even if it cannot be seen.” Yet, historians must do more than just “feel” intervention. Subsequent Cold War intervention may make it difficult to appraise the 1948 events in Costa Rica objectively. Statements like Longley's that “it is hard to believe that in early 1948 … Washington would not favor policies that ensured the removal of the [Communist Party] Vanguard,” although logical, do not coincide with the facts of the U.S. role in the conflict.

scholarly journals How Do Political Features Influence the Co-Production of Government Projects? A Case Study of a Medium-Sized Chinese City

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7600
Author(s):  
Wenting Ma ◽  
Rui Mu ◽  
Martin de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Chinese City ◽  
Production Stages ◽  
Political Background ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Western Experience ◽  
The Impact

Co-production is a solution by which the government provides public services. Co-production theory is built upon Western experience and currently focuses on the types of co-production in different policy stages, the barriers and governance strategies for co-production. However, little attention is paid to how political background will influence the co-production process. To fill the gap, we analyzed a case of co-production that occurred in China, and we characterized the political background as consisting of three main political features: political mobility, central–local relations, and performance measurement. Based on an in-depth case study of a government project in a medium-sized Chinese city, the impact and the changes of political features affecting governmental projects in different co-production stages are analyzed and assessed. We find that political features play a critical role in the co-production of China’s large government projects and may separately and jointly affect co-production. Government performance measurement affects the co-design and co-implementation of projects. Political mobility and changes in local government and performance measurement also affect the co-implementation continuity of the project. Political focus affects the co-design of projects. Central-local relations influence the support from higher government and the actual practices of lower government in the co-implementation stage.

Beyond the Grey Zone: Organization Research Publishing and Bibliodiversity in the Research Communication System

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Academic Publishing ◽  
Grey Zone ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Communication ◽  
Industry Sectors

Research publishing involves the production, use and management of research in a variety of genres and formats by commercial and non-profit academic publishers, and by organizations in government, civil society, university and industry sectors. However discussion of research publishing mainly tends to focus on the production and circulation of peer-reviewed academic journals and to a lesser extent books produced by commercial academic publishers. Research reports and papers produced by organizations outside the formal publishing system play a critical role in the research and development (R&D) system, yet they are often overlooked in studies on open scholarship and research communication. This is partly due to a lack of terminology to adequately describe the diverse publishing practices of organizations which operate across a spectrum from formal to informal economic activity. In this article I define and contextualise research publishing by organizations in relation to other forms of academic publishing and recent calls for greater bibliodiversity in scholarly communication. Commonly used terms such as ‘grey literature’ or ‘unpublished literature’ are inadequate to describe and account for the proliferation and importance of diverse research genres and formats able to be produced, published and disseminated in print and online by think tanks, government agencies, industry bodies and research centres. By taking a more holistic, systems-oriented approach to research publishing we can begin to understand the diverse actors, institutions and practices involved in knowledge production and develop appropriate policies, infrastructure and management practices to support an effective, efficient, equitable, credible and sustainable research knowledge commons in the public interest.

Successful collaboration between smart city consortium and Hong Kong Government in Covid-19 dashboard: the case of leadership in practice

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Jung Yue Chun ◽  
Wahid Abdul Nabsiah ◽  
Cheng Ling Tan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Third Party ◽  
City Development ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Mass Collaboration ◽  
The Government

Purpose This paper aims to discover why such a public partnership project had been successful with a non-profit third-party alliance such as a smart city consortium (SCC) promoting smart city development. Design/methodology/approach This descriptive case study is primarily based on analysing data collected from various texts, public statements, media interviews and three semi-structured interviews with key members involved in the Covid-19 dashboard project. Findings The data and analysis reviews that both interpersonal and interorganisational trust, dedication and proactiveness of the leaders at SCC were major contributing factors to why SCC was able to partner with the Hong Kong Government in the Covid-19 dashboard in the first place and that the success was also a direct outcome of effective mass collaborative knowledge management activities. Research limitations/implications The research in leadership attributes and activities in the non-profit alliance has been few and this collaborative partnership between the alliance and the government is an example of the importance of further research in smart city leadership. Practical implications In deploying projects for mass collaboration and knowledge sharing in smart city development (which is multi-disciplinary in nature). there are still many new and evolving organisational practices and leadership matters that many business leaders and city managers can learn from. Social implications Smart city development projects involve the notion of sharing data in an open environment enabled by software and mediating tools. Successful projects such as this Hong Kong Covid-19 dashboard which serves a diverse audience can further promote the importance of an open data policy regime for the benefit of the public. Originality/value This case study covers a highly original and unique case study with the leaders at the SCC and representatives from the Hong Kong Government.

scholarly journals Creating Ecotourism in Costa Rica, 1970–2000

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEOFFREY JONES ◽  
ANDREW SPADAFORA
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Knowledge Spillovers ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
National Image ◽  
Positive Externalities ◽  
Resource Endowment ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Industry

Between the 1970s and the 2000s, Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This article argues that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a natural resource endowment explanation. While previous literature has emphasized the efforts of the government and nongovernment organizations, this article demonstrates the critical role of small entrepreneurs in the co-creation of the industry. Making extensive use of oral history, the article explores the role of tour companies in drawing affluent Western ecotourists to the country, and of the creators of ecolodges and other forms of accommodation in providing them with somewhere to stay. Clustering created positive externalities, drawing new entrepreneurs into the industry who could also learn from knowledge spillovers. There were downsides to the new industry. The creation of the national image of a natural paradise enabled many businesses which were not environmentally sustainable to free ride on the green image.

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