SOCIAL ACCULTURATION, WORKPLACE INCIVILITY AND DIVERSITY

The advent and dissemination of technology had made it possible for people to move from one region to another. The movement of people from one geographical area to another resulted in the transfer and exchange of cultures and ways of life. When individuals move from one location to another, they often experience culture shock, given that the culture they are used to is different from the one they have gone to. To adapt, these individuals had to learn and accept the new way of life so as to successfully live and work in a new environment. The process by which an individual acquire, adjusts, and adapts to a new culture is known as social acculturation. In this article, an analysis is made on the impact of social acculturation on the efforts to fight workplace incivility and in the promotion of diversity and inclusivity. The analysis showed that. Through social acculturation, individuals who visited a new environment for the first time experienced acculturative stress. The stress caused those affected to behave in a way that fostered incivility at the workplace. Some of the incivil behaviors expressed by immigrant workers include absenteeism, laziness at work, depression, among others. Social acculturation had also played a role in the assimilation of bad behaviors carried from one culture into a new one by replacing them with the most dominant culture, thus eliminating work-related incivility among new immigrants. Social acculturation had also been crucial in enhancing inclusivity and diversity. Social acculturation enabled the sharing of different cultures through the exchange of food, language, and religion. These cultural phenomenon played important roles in bringing people from diverse backgrounds together, thus fostering diversity and inclusivity regardless among global populations regardless of individual culture and social backgrounds. Acculturation had also played a key role in enhancing globalization which is the most significant arena where diversity and inclusivity play out. By exchanging and adapting to a new culture, people were able to work and live together in peace and harmony.

The Role of European Funds in the Economic Development

European Union was created for enhancing the cooperation and economic development of country members. This very complex initiative is a long-term process that contributes to reduction of inequalities due to the expansion of trade relations, increased mobility of factors of production and dissemination of technology and gradually added more freedoms between countries and common policies in this respect. Among the main objectives of EU are economic and social cohesion, which must be achieved mainly by promoting the conditions for economic growth and reducing disparities between the levels of development of EU regions, ensuring a high level of employment and a balanced and sustainable economical growth. The European Funds are the financial instruments of the common policies, being significantly diversified and improved in the last decades. The EU enlargement implied new challenges and higher efforts to support such common policies from a very limited common budget. For new members from Eastern Europe that joined EU, these European Funds were seen as a very important and reliable support for boosting their economic development. This paper will discuss, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, the possible impact of these funds on the economic development, with a specific focus on the Eastern European Countries (EEC).

Itaipu Technology Park: An Eco-Innovative Niche for Renewable Energies

Technology parks are considered innovative environments for the development of new technologies, in a dynamic that can be explained by the micro level of multilevel analysis of the theory of sociotechnical transition, by contributing to explain the actors responsible for the process of development and dissemination of technology. The cases analyzed were composed of companies and eco-innovative projects in the renewable energy area of the Itaipu Technological Park. The methodology was based on a study of multiple cases of qualitative nature, supported by content analysis and triangulation of information. The main results showed that the ITP, with the support of its maintainer Itaipu Binacional, created an environment conducive to the development of eco-innovative companies in renewable energies, stimulating the exchange of knowledge between companies and favoring partnerships with national and international companies for technological development.

Reductionist Intellectual Property Protection and Expansionist (and “Prodevelopment”) Competition Rules as a Human Rights Imperative? Enhancing Technology Transfer to the Global South

Increasingly, the economy of industrialised countries moves away from being based on a multiplicity of independent innovators to one characterised by cross-licensing and the pooling of intellectual property (IP) rights. Competition law is accorded a more limited role. Refusals to license or restrictive licence terms are tolerated. This paradigm emphasises the innovation at the expense of the dissemination rationale of IP and competition law. The pressure on developing countries is to follow suit. However, this approach jeopardises overcoming the technology dependence of these states. Yet, the political consensus underlying the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was that, in exchange for IP rights protection, a transfer and dissemination of technology benefiting the global South would occur. This has not taken place so far. Taking this promise seriously requires according an enhanced, more social role to competition law. Articles 8(2), 31 and 40 of TRIPS – the TRIPS competition rules – could be interpreted in a way to accomplish this. This article argues in favour of a “prodevelopment” approach to IP-related competition law. This could be viewed as a demand of the rule of law at the international level. On the one hand, treaties such as TRIPS are to be interpreted in good faith. On the other, public interest and human rights considerations justify, as it were, require, such an approach. Articles 7 and 8 of TRIPS can play a crucial role in this regard. They reflect such public interest considerations as “object and purpose” of TRIPS. They also provide a link to international human rights law (IHRL). IHRL protects a (group) right to development, confirming “policy space” for World Trade Organization (WTO) members and the freedom to opt for a competition law model that facilitates dissemination. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) further protects various economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications (REBSPA). These rights may be said to give rise to “transfer and dissemination of technology” as a human right. Duties under the right to development and “territorial” and “extraterritorial” human rights obligations (ETOs) under the ICESCR support an understanding of competition law which is pro development, which takes account of local access and welfare needs. The article concludes with a set of 10 consolidated considerations for a “prodevelopment” IP-related competition law.

FLDs on Turmeric (Rajendra sonia) in Muzaffarpur, Bihar: Adoption Horizontal Spread and Satisfaction Level

Keeping in view of effective extension approach of Frontline demonstrations (FLDs) for dissemination of technology FLDs on turmeric conducted by KVK, Turki, Bihar. The yield and economic performance of frontline demonstration, horizontal spread of technology, extent of adoption level and extent of satisfaction of respondent farmer over extension services and performance of demonstration was measured. It was observed that there was 15.0 to 19.6 per cent increase in fresh rhizome yield over local check and the average benefit cost ratio was higher under demonstration 3.3 as compared to control plots 2.5 during the all years of the study. The horizontal spread of turmeric cv. Rajendra sonali was estimated from about 13 ha during 2015-16 to 43 ha during the year 2019-20. The findings of the study also revealed that there was increase in adoption level ranging from 9.4 per cent of sowing time and method to 46.9 per cent of improved and quality seed after the FLD programmes. The majority of the respondent farmers expressed high extent (51.2%) to the medium (34.4%) extent of satisfaction from extension services and performance of technology under demonstrations. It can be concluded that frontline demonstrations are one of the important tool to demonstrate newly released crop production and protection technologies and its management practices in the farmer’s field under different agro-climatic region and farming situations.

Caste, Social Networks and Variety Adoption

Social networks influence technology diffusion but targeting formal leaders (institutional central nodes) may lead to distributional consequences. This paper analyzes the role of informal social networks in technology diffusion in a socially hierarchical caste-based society. Often, information flow and technology diffusion are constrained by social and economic boundaries where informal nodes such as caste play a very decisive role in everyday life. Proper targeting and dissemination of technology to the marginalized sections of society are very important for their development. We observed that only one-fourth of farmers cultivate newer varieties which include hybrids and recently released high yielding varieties. The results showed that individuals belonging to marginal groups are influential and act as informal leaders when they are the dominant caste in the village. Progressive farmers are found to fail in disseminating new varieties, and targeting influential informal leaders who belong to the dominant caste of the village appears to be a better strategy. Among non-dominant caste members, influential leaders belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) or Scheduled Tribes (STs) are more desirable targets than other caste groups. The more concentrated a network is in terms of its caste composition, the faster will be the spread of any technology.

Ch.12 Control of Restrictive Practices in Contractual Licences

This chapter discusses Article 40 of the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, which is the outcome of a proposal originally made by developing countries, which were concerned about the impact of strengthened intellectual property rights (IPRs) on the conditions of voluntary licenses. Article 40.1 recognizes that some licensing practices pertaining to intellectual property rights which restrain competition ‘may have adverse effects on trade and impede the transfer and dissemination of technology’. Meanwhile, unlike most provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, Article 40.2 does not contain specific obligations. It expressly allows countries to adopt measures to control or prevent certain practices or conditions relating to licensing agreements. Judgement of whether they should be controlled or prevented is based on three elements. Contractual practices or conditions should: be examined in each particular case; constitute an ‘abuse’ of intellectual property rights; and have an ‘adverse effect on competition in the relevant market’.

Ch.4 Objectives and Principles

This chapter looks at the objectives and principles of the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. The primary objective of the proponents of the Agreement was to secure the rights of intellectual property owners to exploit their protected assets in the jurisdiction of all parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). They emphasized the role of the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) as incentives for innovation, and were keen to leave issues relating to the exploitation of the rights to the discretion of title-holders. In contrast, developing countries feared that a strengthened IPR protection would give too much power to title-holders and limit access to, and transfer of, technology to those countries. Article 7 of the Agreement, based on a proposal submitted by developing countries, represents a compromise between these two positions. It states that IPRs should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology.

Censorship In Social Media: Political Satire and the Internet’s “Oppositionists”

Censorship has been prevalent through time in various forms, at different historical periods all over the world. It is negatively perceived, and it is considered to undermine democracy and violate human rights. As a rule, it is a feature that characterises conservative societies, totalitarian regimes, as well as individuals with ideological preconceptions. The areas mostly affected by it include freedom of expression and free movement of ideas. Governments try to ward themselves against this phenomenon in various manners, in particular by establishing laws that protect human goods and moral values, as those have been shaped from the Age of Enlightenment onwards. However, in recent years, in the midst of the rapid dissemination of technology and the swift development of social media, a tendency has emerged consisting in trying to influence the unsuspecting public opinion and resulting in excluding from the public sphere opinions which are not pleasant to part of the media users, often serving “external” interests. Therefore, the online medium, free par excellence and offering, in principle, the possibility to everyone to publicly and courageously express their opinions, hinders and becomes an obstacle to the dissemination of “another” opinion, in spite of this dissemination being the ultimate intellectual feature of contemporary societies. This type of censorship has now been included in the long list of the many aspects of the phenomenon seen to this day.

IPRs and Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Economic Welfare

The TRIPS agreement states that Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) protection should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation, economic welfare, and to the transfer and dissemination of technology. However, there is still no consensus on whether IPRs protection has achieved its goal. Thus, the chapter provides a discussion on how the impact of IPRs on innovation, technology transfer, and economic welfare is affected by the difference in the income level of the countries. The results suggest that in high-income and upper middle-income countries, IPRs have a positive impact in these variables. Nevertheless, it seems that in lower middle-income and low-income countries, IPRs have not increased innovation, spurred transfer of technology. or created economic welfare.