Scientific and Technological Progress and Economy of the USSR: Theory, Practice, Lessons for the Present

The article is devoted to the main approaches of Soviet economists to the issue of introducing the achievements of scientific and technological progress into production related to the experience of economic development of the USSR. Among the research provisions, general economic planning stands out as a key tool for the balanced dissemination of the elements of scientific and technological revolution in the interests of the entire population. Practice showed the validity of the advantages of socialism noted by researchers in a number of spheres. However, there were also significant imbalances in economic development, which were insufficiently worked out theoretically. The successes were concentrated mainly in the important strategic industries, while the production of consumer goods faced systemic difficulties. Ultimately, these imbalances started growing, and the intensive component of economic growth began declining. This tendency is substantiated by a system of motivations at different management levels, among employees. Public enthusiasm and intangible motives were substantial but limited, while economic incentives were insufficient. Nevertheless, despite the current dominance of an economic system being fundamentally different from the Soviet model, there are prerequisites of the growing relevance of turning to Soviet theories and practices in economic development based on advanced technologies. This is due to a significant degree of similar content of technologies attributed to the fourth industrial revolution, compared with the post-war stage of scientific and technological revolution. The new nature of technologies presupposes greater calculation possibilities in planning, the prospects for widespread automation of production, coupled with the need to form new, non-economic motives of work. Similar problems were widely discussed in the Soviet academic sources.

New villagers: motives and factors for moving from urban to rural areas

In developed countries, along with urbanization, the opposite process - ruralization or deurbanization - is becoming increasingly noticeable. Ruralization is not only the movement of townspeople to the countryside, but also the development of villages and the increasing importance of rural areas as a place to live and work. Townspeople make the decision to move by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of living in urban and rural areas, and non-economic motives (the desire to get closer to nature, to find ones roots, to live in silence, without haste, to eat natural products, etc.) play an important role in this decision. Among economic motives, the difference in the cost of urban and rural real estate and of life in general is the most important motive, i.e., families, especially young and large, can improve their living conditions by moving to the countryside. The study, the results of which are presented in the article, aimed at identifying those groups of townspeople that tend to resettlement, their motives, and factors pushing people to leave cities and facilitating/hindering resettlement to rural areas. The research is based on the study of special literature on the topic and on the data of the survey of resettled townspeople and experts in ruralization. Unlike most publications on ruralization, the author focuses on the positive aspects of the resettlement of townspeople to the countryside and insists on the removal of administrative barriers that prevent ruralization, because the resettlement of townspeople to the countryside does not have a negative impact on the city and is compensated by the influx of people from the countryside, who want to get education or a new profession.

Uncovering motives and rivalry of China-Australia amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific region

The rivalry between China and Australia in the Pacific region shows high tension. This rivalry has increasingly intense in the form of providing assistance to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, where both countries have various motives of interest by providing the assistance. This article aims to describe the economic and political motives of China and Australia in order to provide assistance in handling COVID-19 to countries in the Pacific region. This article used a descriptive method by collecting several sources from books, journals, official documents, and scientific articles on the internet. It finds that China and Australia have economic and political-security motives from the assistance provided to countries in the Pacific region. The large natural resources in the Pacific region and its transformation into a world maritime trade route become the economic motives. The political motives for China are the principle of “One China” and a “Good Image/Perception” for China, while the political motive for Australia is strengthening Australia’s solidarity in the Pacific region. This article concludes that China’s presence in the Pacific region, which includes assistance in combatting COVID-19 and other concerns, puts China a threat to Australia, making the rivalry between the two countries is no longer inevitable.

Economic Motives and Barriers to Internal Migration1

A literature review and fresh evidence are presented on economic motives for migration and barriers to moving. Given urban income opportunities, higher rural incomes are shown to deter decisions to move from countryside to town. Rural-urban migrants enjoy substantial gains on average, though selection into migration is estimated to be negative on unobserved traits and skills. Those who do not move forego substantial, potential gains. Ethnolinguistic minorities, those living at greater distances from cities, and the socially disadvantaged with lower levels of schooling forego the most. Thus, very real barriers to migrating arise for these populations, though it remains unclear to what extent the constraints are financial, discomfort with the prospects of urban life, or concern to be near kith and kin. However, the amount of potential gain to nonmigrants does not decline at higher income levels of countries, suggesting financial barriers may not be paramount.

Generating Profits out of Passion: A Study of New Zealand Wineries

<p>Lifestyle entrepreneurship is associated with entrepreneurs who operate businesses primarily for reasons associated with non-economic motives such as pursuit of passion, work-life balance, quality of life, and/or achieving other personal goals and objectives. Although non-economic motives are usually assumed to take precedence in such businesses, economic objectives are also important to lifestyle entrepreneurs, as they provide the means to sustain the business and support the lifestyle sought by the entrepreneur. This study aims to examine two key aspects of lifestyle entrepreneurship. Firstly, it investigates the challenges encountered by lifestyle entrepreneurs in their pursuit of economic and non-economic motivations simultaneously. And secondly, it looks at the strategies employed by lifestyle entrepreneurs to cope with those challenges. Data for this study were collected qualitatively, through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. A set of open ended questions were used to explore the perceptions and experiences of entrepreneurs. All interviews were conducted face-to-face and were averaged 60 minutes in duration. The sample comprised of 14 lifestyle entrepreneurs from the wine industry of New Zealand, a sector which has been associated with lifestyle entrepreneurship in previous literature. The participants were purposefully selected from three wine regions, namely Nelson, Martinborough and Waiheke Island, to add to the generalizability of the findings depending on whether regional differences were apparent. This study indicates that the main challenges encountered by the selected sample were issues pertaining to simultaneously growing the business, as well as their ability to achieve or maintain desired work-life balance. The strategies adopted by the respondents to cope with these challenges included maintaining their business small-scale, diversification of the business operations, addressing seasonality in business operations, personal engagement with the customers, delegating responsibility and re-prioritizing economic over non-economic objectives. More specifically, the respondents’ activities covered a range of business operations including grape growing, winemaking, domestic wine sales, international wine exports, cellar-door sales, providing accommodation on the vineyard (holiday house), and restaurant/cafe facilities. All wineries had achieved some form of growth over time, but most of them still remained small-scale. This was mainly due to reasons such as the desire to retain control and hands-on involvement. For a few wineries, the lifestyle orientation had changed over the course of time. Even though maintaining lifestyle objectives were still important to them, economic motivations now took precedence in their business. This was mainly due to factors such as having stimulated significant growth, changing market environment, increase in competition, or the need to ensure the viability of the business.</p>

Generating Profits out of Passion: A Study of New Zealand Wineries

<p>Lifestyle entrepreneurship is associated with entrepreneurs who operate businesses primarily for reasons associated with non-economic motives such as pursuit of passion, work-life balance, quality of life, and/or achieving other personal goals and objectives. Although non-economic motives are usually assumed to take precedence in such businesses, economic objectives are also important to lifestyle entrepreneurs, as they provide the means to sustain the business and support the lifestyle sought by the entrepreneur. This study aims to examine two key aspects of lifestyle entrepreneurship. Firstly, it investigates the challenges encountered by lifestyle entrepreneurs in their pursuit of economic and non-economic motivations simultaneously. And secondly, it looks at the strategies employed by lifestyle entrepreneurs to cope with those challenges. Data for this study were collected qualitatively, through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. A set of open ended questions were used to explore the perceptions and experiences of entrepreneurs. All interviews were conducted face-to-face and were averaged 60 minutes in duration. The sample comprised of 14 lifestyle entrepreneurs from the wine industry of New Zealand, a sector which has been associated with lifestyle entrepreneurship in previous literature. The participants were purposefully selected from three wine regions, namely Nelson, Martinborough and Waiheke Island, to add to the generalizability of the findings depending on whether regional differences were apparent. This study indicates that the main challenges encountered by the selected sample were issues pertaining to simultaneously growing the business, as well as their ability to achieve or maintain desired work-life balance. The strategies adopted by the respondents to cope with these challenges included maintaining their business small-scale, diversification of the business operations, addressing seasonality in business operations, personal engagement with the customers, delegating responsibility and re-prioritizing economic over non-economic objectives. More specifically, the respondents’ activities covered a range of business operations including grape growing, winemaking, domestic wine sales, international wine exports, cellar-door sales, providing accommodation on the vineyard (holiday house), and restaurant/cafe facilities. All wineries had achieved some form of growth over time, but most of them still remained small-scale. This was mainly due to reasons such as the desire to retain control and hands-on involvement. For a few wineries, the lifestyle orientation had changed over the course of time. Even though maintaining lifestyle objectives were still important to them, economic motivations now took precedence in their business. This was mainly due to factors such as having stimulated significant growth, changing market environment, increase in competition, or the need to ensure the viability of the business.</p>

Misrepresentation of Orientals in Dave Eggers’s A Hologram for The King

This study deals with the colonial perspectives in Dave Eggers’s A Hologram for The King (2012), according to the postcolonial approach. Although colonialism era is over by now, colonial perspectives remain strong in some literary works. Since its advent in the second half of the twentieth century, postcolonial theory confronts colonial attitudes and experiences as colonialism has been justified in many works of Western writers and scholars who have distorted the real image of non-Europeans and non-Westerners via different means and techniques in masquerade of orientalism. Postcolonial discourse opposes the misrepresentation of non-Europeans and argues that such falsification is driven by political, social, religious and economic motives. In the current study, the researcher aims at explaining the notions of colonialism, otherization and other falsified images of non-Westerners in A Hologram for the King. This paper mainly questions Eggers’s portrayal of the protagonist, Alan Clay, who after bankruptcy and failure at home, flies to Saudi Arabia and capitalizes on the physical and moral assets of the Orientals in this country to convert his story of failure to a success. The characterization of the oriental world and its setting show Eggers’s being biased against the Eastern world and ironically mirror clear hints of colonialism and eurocentrism.

Effectiveness of Arms Control: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Using a four-level dashboard, this chapter offers a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia. The chapter elaborates on the question as to how political, security and economic motives have impacted the (un)willingness of major arms selling states to join the arms embargo against Saudi Arabia.

Comparison of the Health Cost of Organic and Conventional Vegetable Cultivation in Getasan Sub-district, Semarang, Indonesia

Environmental damage will disrupt the ecosystem to support life. Unsustainable agriculture can be a source of environmental degradation. Conventional agriculture may have an effect on the environment, thus the participation of various parties in sustainable agriculture is needed. Organic agriculture is developed as an environmentally friendly agricultural cultivation with many benefits. Compared to the attention on occupational health, safety and environmental problems, economic motives receive less attention. This study aims to calculate the costs arising from the health impacts of vegetable cultivation. There were 314 respondents interviewed in this study. There were significant differences in the sickness complaints felt by respondents; organic farmer groups have the potential to incur health costs of Rp. 30,333.33, while the conventional group is higher, with a cost of Rp. 103.303.57 (US$ 7.38). Organic farming has a better impact because it uses natural ingredients and is not bad for health. The potential losses arising from health cases also show a high and significant number (p <0.001).

The Art Form of Wedha’s Pop Art Portrait (WPAP)

Wedha's Pop Art Portrait (WPAP) has become one of the most popular visual arts in Indonesia since Wedha Abdul Rasyid decided on this style in 2010. A decade later, WPAP became part of visual arts in Indonesia, used by many millennial designers, sheltered by the chapter community in regions; Jakarta chapter, Jogjakarta chapter, Surabaya chapter, etc. Visual arts-based on faces is a strong characteristic of WPAP. Only a few have achieved the WPAP form in accordance with the art form that Wedha first brought up. Economic motives became the biggest influence on the change in orientation from WPAP art to commodity. Therefore, the art form in WPAP tends to follow market trends. This paper tries to define the existing art in WPAP, with the formulation of the problem: what is the art form in WPAP in Indonesia? The formal approach to art is an important part of knowing art in WPAP. Through descriptive-analytic, an explanation of the art form in WPAP according to the Wedha’s experience is presented in this paper. The analysis is using an analysis of interactions between members of the WPAP community in several chapters which already have a "chapter" community. The art form in WPAP has almost the same characteristics as Wedha's work in the early appearance of WPAP. Wedha had a past that grapples with artwork; making illustrations, making magazine covers, making comics, and so on. The makers of WPAP in the WPAP community also have an art form in WPAP that is the same in pattern, because it is based on WPAP that was initiated by Wedha at the beginning of its appearance. The art form in WPAP has characteristics in color and line drawing. Bentuk Seni dari Wedha’s Pop Art Portrait (WPAP) Abstrak Wedha's Pop Art Portrait (WPAP) menjadi salah satu seni visual yang banyak digemari sejak Wedha Abdul Rasyid memutuskan gaya ini pada tahun 2010. Satu dekade berikutnya, WPAP menjadi bagian dari seni visual di Indonesia, digunakan oleh banyak desainer milenial, dinaungi oleh komunitas chapter yang ada di wilayah-wilayah; chapter Jakarta, chapter Jogjakarta, chapter Surabaya, dll. Seni visual berbasis pada wajah, menjadi ciri khas yang kuat pada WPAP. Hanya sedikit yang mencapai bentuk WPAP yang sesuai dengan bentuk seni yang Wedha munculkan pertama kali. Motif ekonomi menjadi pengaruh terbesar pada perubahan orientasi dari seni WPAP menjadi komoditi. Sehingga bentuk seni dalam WPAP cenderung untuk mengikuti tren pasar. Tulisan ini mencoba untuk mendefinisikan seni yang ada dalam WPAP, dengan rumusan masalah: Bagaimana bentuk seni dalam WPAP menurut komunitasnya di Indonesia? Pendekatan formal seni menjadi bagian penting untuk mengetahui seni dalam WPAP. Melalui diskriptif-analitik, penjelasan tentang bentuk seni dalam WPAP menurut komunitasnya disajikan dalam tulisan ini. Analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis interaksi antar anggota komunitas WPAP di beberapa chapter yang telah memiliki komunitas “chapter”. Bentuk seni dalam WPAP memiliki ciri khas yang hampir sama dengan karya Wedha pada awal-awal kemunculan WPAP pertama kali. Wedha memiliki masa lalu yang bergulat dengan pekerjaan seni; membuat ilustrasi, membuat cover majalah, membuat komik, dan lain sebagainya. Pembuat WPAP di komunitas WPAP juga memiliki bentuk seni dalam WPAP yang sama secara pola, karena memang berbasis pada WPAP yang dicetuskan oleh Wedha pada awal kemunculannya. Bentuk seni dalam WPAP memiliki ciri khas dalam warna, tarikan garis, pemilihan pallet, konstruksi wajah.