International Political Competition in the Post-Soviet Central Asian Space

The article analyzes the innovations that determine the main directions and specific characteristics of international political competition in Central Asia. Particular attention is paid to political alternatives presented by the leading partners of the Central Asian countries – Russia, China, Turkey and Iran. In the context of the rivalry unfolding in the post-Soviet Central Asian space, the multi-vector policy of the five Central Asian states opens up a “window of opportunity” for various external forces to influence political and economic processes in the region in such a way that its states become objects of multilateral contention. Russia, which has the most powerful economic and military-political resource in the CIS, has a serious potential to promote its interests in Central Asia. They are primarily aiming at maintaining political stability in the Asian part of the post-Soviet space. Russia is also initiating many integration innovations in Central Asia, developing military cooperation with the countries of the region. At the same time, in Central Asia, Russia is confronted by rival forces. In the forefront is China. This great power has significantly expanded its influence in Central Asia, especially within the framework of the One Belt, One Road initiative. Economic, political, and cultural structures operating in Central Asia under the aegis of Turkey act often as alternatives to Russian integration projects. But Turkey, like Iran, has restrictions on its activities in Central Asia. Therefore, the effectiveness of the policy of these large Middle Eastern states is lower than that of Russia and China. China, Russia, and Iran are motivated to limit US influence in Eurasia, which occasionally drives them closer. In a sense, Turkey agrees with the idea of reducing the political presence of non-regional states in Central Asia. But when the US ceases to be a priority in the foreign policy of all four states, the rivalry between them may re-emerge. This will inevitably lead to a clash of interests, an increase in competition of ideas, integration projects, political and military strategies.

Steven Freidman, Power in Action: Democracy, Citizenship and Social Justice. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2018, 271pp.

Professor Steven Freidman’s book on the challenges facing South Africa’s democracy comes at a time when the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) just hosted the highly contested national elections since 1994. Again, the book comes at a period where cut-throat power struggle politics of coalition governments at local government level are at their peak. The momentum and growth of opposition parties after 25 years of democracy in South Africa signal the growth and maturing of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ democracy. Opposition parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are in an expedition to influence the African National Congress (ANC) led government to amend or review the South African Constitution of 1996; aimed at addressing the triple-headed monster (unemployment, income inequality and poverty). This book is also released at a time when troubled African states such as Sudan and Zimbabwe had undergone coup d’état and violent national protests over democracy upliftment. This premise rightly coincides with Freidman’s contention that authoritative leaders particularly in Africa deploy democracy to win elections but they are unable to ostensibly operate within democratic norms (pp vii-ix). This reflection can be well aligned to the assertion of Kenyan public intellectual, legal expert and scholar, Professor Patrick Lumumba “democracy is a competition of ideas, sustained by the constant dialogue where the minority have their say and the majority have their way.”

About the International Conference for the 5th issue of Sophia Journal

The International Conference on the 5th issue of Sophia Journal, which took place at FAUP, opened a new cycle of international forums, henceforth to be held annually, and taking up the theme and topics examined in Sophia for each year. Sophia Journal’s International Conference presented both a live and videoconference program organized by CEAU / FAUP, in partnership with UNIZAR and DECA / ID - U. Aveiro. The event was broadcast live online, encompassing a rich and diverse program: (i) a series of videoconferences; (ii) the roundtable launch and presentation of the 4th issue of the peer reviewed journal Sophia: “Visual Spaces of Change: Unveiling the Publicness of Urban Space through Photography and Image”; (iii) the presentations of articles of the 5th issue of Sophia Journal: “Visual Spaces of Change: Designing Interiority - shelter, shape, place, atmosphere”; (iv) the launch of the open call for papers for the 6th issue of Sophia Journal: “Visual Spaces Of Change: photographic documentation of environmental transformations”; (v) the announcement of the awards of the International Competition of Ideas: Exhibition and Mobile Projector and the Visual Spaces of Change exhibition, developed for this conference and for the spaces of FAUP, where new contemporary photography projects will be communicated, as well as a new exhibition structure that was awarded with the first prize in the International Competition of Ideas: Exhibition and Mobile Projector. The objective of these international forums is to promote the reflection and debate on the universes of Architecture, Art and Image, addressing various issues transversal to the worlds of Photography and Architecture, and exploring how the image can be a means to cross borders and shift boundaries between different disciplines. This event provided the opportunity to visit the exhibition of the Visual Spaces of Change Projects developed for this conference using FAUP’s interior and outdoor spaces, featuring novel projects in the new exhibition modular structure, which awarded the first prize to Sérgio Magalhães representing studium.creative studio. The Visual Spaces of Change research project proposes a visual communication strategy based on the development of contemporary photography projects that reflect upon different dynamics of urban change to open new horizons of public intervention in the public space. Wilfried Wang (UTSOA) O’Neil Ford Centennial Professor in Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and Guest Editor of Issue #6 of Sophia journal: “Visual Spaces of Change: photographic documentation of environmental transformations” announced the open call for this 6th issue of Sophia journal. This issue will bring together photographers and researchers who make significant contributions to these discussions, including the material processes of creating, managing and interpreting sets of documents. We are interested in material processes where photography is explored as a significant research tool for critical and innovative views on architecture and urban transformation in their expanded fields and contextualized by larger systems: cultural, political, artistic, technical, and historical dimensions. Finally, some words about the published content in Sophia’s other sections besides the peer reviewed articles, with the former having been integrated into the journal’s structure as a way of enrichening the publication with diverse viewpoints from experts in the field and other types of readings apart from the articles from the call. [...]

Extension of the Innovation Life Cycle Based on the Industry Market Regulator of Innovative Market Products

The article proposes to consider the innovation life cycle by the innovation marketing method from the perspective of a systematic approach as part of a complex system of the innovation process. The authors have offered a digital service named ‘Market regulator of innovative products’ which has industry market monitoring and commercial intermediary functions, unifying innovators and investors on the same platform with the assistance of market experts in the areas such as marketing, information technology, scientific analysis, and investment. In case of sales decline, industry-specific customer, a commercial customer, or a small business market product can receive a service aimed at extending the innovation life cycle of its high-tech product. This additional stage of the life cycle of an innovative high-tech product the authors call the innovations diffusion stage where a high degree of uncertainty is compensated by the market mechanism of the competition of ideas and investments.

5th International Postgraduate Conference on Pharmaceutical Sciences 2017 (iPoPS 2017)

WELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE VICE CHANCELLOR OF UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UiTM)Assalamualaikum wbt I would like to congratulate the Postgraduate Society of Faculty of Pharmacy, UiTM Puncak Alam for organising the 5th International Postgraduate Conference on Pharmaceutical Sciences 2017 (iPoPS 2017).This conference has been successfully organised since 2012 by the postgraduate students together with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Japan without fail. This symbolises the strong collaboration between UiTM and TUS towards academic excellence, which enhances our academic visibility. UiTM has been ranked top 200 in the QS World University Ranking by subject 2017 for Pharmacy & Pharmacology. This is a big achievement for a young faculty of 14 years.On that note, contributions from the postgraduates play an important role in the development of human capital headed for a personified nation with humanistic values, forward thinking with an edge in entrepreneurship. Postgraduate students nowadays not only face challenges in completing their studies but also competing with the fast pace of ever changing technology. Therefore, we need to allow their full integration into the global knowledge society together with international collaboration to advance the quality of higher education worldwide.Participation in event with different cultures and background like iPoPS 2017 helps develop articulate thinking and inspire healthy competition of ideas among the young, budding research generation in Malaysia. Hopefully, by continuing to invite eminent speakers from all over the world, the Conference will gain its recognition in the international research community and make UiTM soar upwards. We trust this Conference will be a success and carry on for years to come. Congratulations!EMERITUS PROFESSOR DATO’ DR. HASSAN SAIDVice-Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

The competition and evolution of ideas in the public sphere: a new foundation for institutional theory

This paper advances and defends the proposition that the basis for the evolution of institutions is the evolution and competition of ideas in the public sphere. This is based on a deeper proposition that institutions are ideas and ideas become institutions. We draw on the ‘Brisbane School’ of evolutionary/institutional economics and of behavioural/psychological economics to investigate the microdynamics of the competition of ideas in the public sphere, which has been studied at a macroscopic level by Isabel Almudi, Francisco Fatas-Villafranca and Jason Potts. The theory we develop gives us a new vision of institutional evolution as emerging from the microdynamics of the evolution and competition of ideas in the public sphere, and a new foundation for institutional theory. It gives us a new vision of the microdynamics of institutional evolution, the evolutionary fitness of ideas for competition in the public sphere and the likely path of institutional evolution.

5. The Triumph of Community Europe

This chapter examines the competition of ideas in France for intra-European cooperation in the 1950s, ranging from traditional intergovernmental arrangements to the sharing of national sovereignty. In particular, it considers how strong political leadership and the formation of crosscutting coalitions that commanded a majority of parliamentary support at critical junctures contributed to the triumph of Community Europe, in the form of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC). The chapter argues that the future of European integration, which followed the Community model, hinged on electoral outcomes and parliamentary manoeuvrings in France that had less to do with the forcefulness of the ideas at issue than with unrelated political developments. It also looks at the demise of the European Defence Community (EDC) that paved the way for the ECSC and EEC projects.