Measuring Political Trust in a Modern Democracy

Systematic review of articles on the problem of measuring political trust published in such authoritative scientific journals as “European Political Science Review”, “British Journal of Politics and International Relations”, “Parliamentary Affairs”, “Journal of Public Policy”, “Political Science Quarterly”, “Perspectives on Politics” and “International Journal of Public Opinion Research”, demonstrates considerable attention of scientists to the problem of political trust in a modern democracy and pursues as its goal the development of a methodological basis for political trust research. The methodology of the review on the problem of measuring political trust involves a comparative analysis of the results of studies in the field of assessing political trust. Among the main tasks of the article are: generalization of scientific approaches to political trust, development of methods for political trust measurements and its result interpretation, characterization of the crisis of trust in a modern democracy. The objectives of the study include identifying conceptual scientific works of Western scientists for the period 2011–2021, which allow tracing the modernization of ideas about the object of political trust, characterize the methods of measuring the level of political trust used in modern socio-political science, and reveal differences in the formation of moral and strategic trust. The differences in moral political trust, where trusting relationships are formed on the basis of the experience and personal interaction of subjects, and strategic trust, where political culture is formed and certain expectations that political leaders will make correct, rational decisions are based on fundamental ideas about the political an order where constant change forms personal and institutional ties. Measuring political trust, which is the basis of interaction between citizens and the state, is an issue of fundamental importance for characterizing the quality of democracy, and the rule of law is impossible without a high level of political trust.

Job autonomy, unscripted agility and ambidextrous innovation: analysis of Brazilian startups in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the influence of job autonomy and unscripted agility on ambidextrous innovation in startups in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with founders and managers of Brazilian startups in the e-commerce segment, resulting in a sample of 84 startups. Symmetric (structural equation modeling) and asymmetric (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) analyses were performed. The variables' external financing and institutional ties were controlled.FindingsThe symmetric findings indicate that unscripted agility is a full mediator between job autonomy and ambidextrous innovation. The asymmetric findings offer two solutions for startups to achieve high ambidextrous innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications of the research for the literature are discussing elements associated with ambidextrous innovation, exploring the context of innovation in startups in times of crisis, specifically in the Covid-19 pandemic, and considering the role of resilience in startups.Practical implicationsThe study provides informational inputs to founders and managers of startups on how job autonomy and unscripted agility can propel incremental and radical innovations.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights and success factors into startups, based on the discussion of entrepreneurship in times of crisis, as in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Library’s Augmented Reality (AR) Projects: Foreign Experience

The article analyzes the positive foreign experience of implementing augmented reality (AR) library projects. It has been found out that the most common uses of augmented reality in libraries today are providing access to information products with augmented reality and their promotion, navigation of library space and resources, promoting user education through the creation of appropriate applications with learning materials and resources and simplification for the user assimilation of information due to the diversity and interactivity of its visual presentation, informing and providing access to cultural heritage sites, organizing tours and exhibitions. Given that the use of AR in libraries not only expands the range of services and resources but also positively affects its reputation as an interactive creative institution, open to users and innovation, AR technology is effective not only in the library service system but also in the marketing activities of the institution, helping to attract new users. Current approaches to the implementation of library projects using augmented reality technology are highlighted. Their assistance in strengthening corporate culture, inter-institutional ties, and civil society is substantiated. It has been proved that the AR applications created as a result of project implementation operate on the principle of integrated information products, which allow the user to access distributed information from one access point via mobile phone, integrating not only information of the virtual space of the Internet environment but also real, physical, space. The advantages of AR implementation in the library have been determined, among which: budget realization, easy integration with available technologies, and promotion of interactivity of library service. The need for professional development of librarians and the organization of training courses on the use of immersive technologies in library activities is emphasized.

Snowbirds Spotted in Cuba: Canadian Jewish Congress on The Global Stage in the 1960s

The American Jewish community has historically overshadowed Canadian Jewry. In population size, political prestige, and global influence, the power imbalance between American- and Canadian-Jewish organizations throughout the twentieth century has anchored popular understandings of North American Jewish affairs as one dominated by the U.S. Whereas the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) shepherded international Jewish causes throughout this period, its Canadian analogue, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), never achieved such stature. However, on an island ninety miles from the U.S. coast, the fragile geopolitics of the Cold War conspired to recast this relationship. The Castro Revolution initiated a process which culminated in the severing of U.S.-Cuban ties in 1961, leaving a precarious Cuban Jewish community vulnerable. Canada’s geographic proximity and close institutional ties with American Jewry transformed the CJC’s role as the primary caregivers of Cuban Jewry. Consequently, the sundering of American-Cuban relations elevated the CJC to a position of strategic prominence on the international stage ultimately overshadowing its larger, and more illustrious, cousin to the south in Cuba. La communauté juive américaine a historiquement éclipsé la communauté juive canadienne. En termes de population, de prestige politique et d’influence mondiale, le déséquilibre de pouvoir entre les organisations juives américaines et canadiennes tout au long du XXe siècle a ancré la compréhension populaire que les affaires juives nord-américaines étaient dominées par les États-Unis. Alors que le American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) a dirigé des causes juives internationales tout au long de cette période, son analogue canadien, le Congrès juif canadien (CJC), n’a jamais atteint une telle stature. Cependant, sur une île située à quatre-vingt-dix milles des côtes américaines, la fragile géopolitique de la guerre froide a contribué à modifier cette relation. La révolution de Castro a lancé un processus qui a abouti à la rupture des liens américano-cubains en 1961, laissant une communauté juive cubaine précaire vulnérable. La proximité géographique du Canada et les liens institutionnels étroits avec la communauté juive américaine ont transformé le rôle du CJC en tant que principal allié de la communauté juive cubaine. Par conséquent, la rupture des relations américano-cubaines a élevé le CJC à une position d’importance stratégique sur la scène internationale, éclipsant finalement à Cuba son plus grand et plus illustre cousin du sud.

Sino-Russian rapprochement and Greater Eurasia: From geopolitical pole to international society?

Can international anarchy be stabilized, if not globally, then at least regionally? Those scholars who give a positive answer usually refer to the North Atlantic community which can be categorized as an international society from the viewpoint of the English school. The emergence of such a community outside the West is traditionally considered hardly possible. However, this article argues that it may already be emerging in Eurasia, with Russia and China being the key drivers of this trend. In the past few years, these two powers have put forward a number of major initiatives aimed at developing transport networks and logistics, and deepening economic and institutional ties between different parts of the continent. These include but are not limited to Eurasian Economic Union, supported by Russia, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Together, Moscow and Beijing began to form a new platform for security and economic cooperation “from Kaliningrad to Shanghai”—the community of Greater Eurasia. Based on the analysis of the geopolitical logic of these initiatives, this article suggests that a new, non-Western international society may be forming in Eurasia among the states with different political systems and cultures, but common geopolitical aims and fears.

Fragmented governance architectures underlying residential property production in Amsterdam

While the entrepreneurialisation of local administrations is widely acknowledged, the extent and format of institutional and organisational structures that accompany market-oriented ideological shifts and transitions in urban governance often remain unnoticed. This article provides an original theoretical argument and frame of analysis to forensically study the underlying infrastructures of entrepreneurial governance systems. We argue that complex institutional and organisational arrangements in market-oriented urban development can be comprehended through fragmented governance architectures, a conceptual perspective that we borrowed from governance studies and operationalised in relation to property development. We illustrate the application of the framework by examining entrepreneurial transformations in Amsterdam’s residential property production. Based on rich empirical evidence, including discourse analysis, policy analysis and in-depth interviews with key policy and property industry actors, we illuminate divergent public-sector regulation of market activities, intra-organisational discrepancies, and fuzzy narratives in policy interventions which are tied to specific spatial interventions mushrooming in the city. Uncoordinated and sometimes contradictory institutional ties link public and private actors in these property production processes, forming a complex and chaotic landscape of regulations, actors, and relations. This fragmentation, we posit, warrants recognition as it lies at the heart of scattered investments in the urban built environment.

A network perspective on foreign entry modes of small knowledge-intensive services firms

Purpose Integrating network attributes from studies of social networks, business relationships and small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization, this study adopts a perceptual view of a firm’s focal “net” of relationships to examine foreign market entry mode choice. This study aims to examine how the interaction between knowledge-intensive service (KIS) firm’s network ties, embeddedness and position is related to choice of mode and subsequently the firm’s perceived insidership status within its focal net. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on qualitative interviews with 25 small- to medium-sized KIS firms engaged in direct exporting or foreign direct investment (FDI). This study derives an empirically grounded framework of four distinct network patterns of these KIS firms through an iterative process of triangulation between cases and theory. Findings The four network patterns illustrate the complex interaction between network attributes and entry mode choice by KIS firms. The findings suggest formal ties and centrality in closed network relationships provide the “central controller” firm discretion over their entry mode choice. Resource-intensive FDI by “opportunistic investors” proved essential to securing centrality through formal, institutional ties. Less optimal patterns lacking institutional ties and centrality, however, precluded choice of FDI by “specialized exporters” and “client followers.” The study finds that entry modes are less likely to be influenced by the firm’s embeddedness in open or closed network relationships, but rather by the desire to achieve a more central network position and legitimacy through more formal, less imitable ties. Research limitations/implications The findings demonstrate the importance of network structure, a position of centrality, and strength of professional and institutional ties to small KIS firm internationalization. By adopting a more finely grained examination of the interaction between key attributes of the firm’s focal net, this study provides a valuable first step in conceptualizing the complexities associated with networking and adoption of export/investment internationalization modes. Practical implications There are a number of implications for the strategic and operational facets of smaller KIS firm internationalization. To avoid excessive network liability for resource-deficient SMEs, practitioners should consider network positioning as a strategic activity, with the costs associated with building and maintaining networks offset against economic- and resource-related returns. Originality/value The authors contribute to a better understanding of entry mode choices of KIS by taking a network perspective that accounts for the combined effects of different network attributes. The four network patterns identified extend current theoretical knowledge on the role of networks for entry mode choices of small KIS by highlighting that entry mode choices reflect the particular firm’s focal net and its attempt to achieve insidership status through high centrality and formal ties.

Inter-Community Cooperation at a Regional Level: Methods of Assessing Migration and Institutional Ties

The article reveals the assessing methods of inter-community cooperation at the regional level regarding its migration and institutional ties. The recommendations on the assessment of inter-municipal relations are focused on the development of appropriate strategies for cooperation between local communities. The article defines the algorithm of analysis and evaluation of inter-municipal relations. The essence and peculiarities of the relevant stages of cooperation are examined and revealed. The components of the assessment of inter-municipal relations and methods of their definition are offered. The matrix and the corresponding coefficients of inter-municipal ties are examined.

THE CONCEPT OF ORGANIZATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEN ECONOMY

The European green course has influenced the introduction of a "green" economy, the implementation of which requires the application of processes and procedures that will ensure the activities of the enterprise in agriculture in accordance with the developed national strategy and goals. Such a system, expressed through the organizational and institutional support of the green economy, will achieve the set economic, social and environmental goals and adhere to measures to meet the needs of future generations. Accordingly, the aim of the article was to reveal the peculiarities of the conceptualization of organizational and institutional support for the development of a "green" economy in agriculture. During the writing of the article in the process of research dialectical methods of scientific knowledge of the process of ensuring the development of green economy in agriculture, first of all analysis and synthesis, were used. Induction and deduction methods were also used to characterize the organizational and institutional parts of the provision. The study found that the system of organizational and institutional support of the "green" economy combines various interdisciplinary aspects of economic, social, environmental and institutional components for the organization of activities under the European Green Course, the National Concept of Green Transition, National Environmental Policy Strategy and others regulations. Institutional support for the development of the green economy is responsible for the formation of appropriate formal and informal institutions that will create conditions for further activities to achieve the goals. In general, institutional ties are just forming. Accordingly, the system of organizational and institutional support of the "green" economy, which combines various interdisciplinary aspects of economic, social, environmental and institutional components for organizing activities on the main objectives of the "European Green Course" and the national concept of "green" transition and "green" energy will not be formed. Also, the institutional component of the green economy is not yet fully formed and is in the process of formation, and the development of components of both organizational and institutional direction depend on each other. These systems highlighted the main points of organizational and institutional support of the green economy in agriculture and helped to reveal the main components of this process.

THE HISTORY OF THE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART ON YAKIMANKA. ARCHIVE OPTICS

The history of the Center for Contemporary Art on Yakimanka is analyzed through the prism of archival documents that are stored in the Media Library of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. The investigation of the all types of the archival documents allows us to consider the Centre for contemporary art not as an art institution but as the embodiment of the “artistic tusovka”. This term was suggested by Victor Misiano. The magnitude of the exhibition and other art projects that were created in the Center (the newspaper of contemporary art “Vernisage”, the magazine “Artograph”, the Curators’ workshop, Visual Anthropology workshop, etc.) confirms this hypothesis. Despite the weak institutional ties that characterize artistic tusovka, the Centre became one of the important milestones in the development of contemporary Russian art.