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By webmaster, on May 2nd, 2013
Arno Tausch, Corvinus University, Innsbruck University
Almas Heshmati, Korea University
Boğaziçi Journal Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Vol. 26, no. 2 (2012), pp. 27-89.
Abstract
We present a first empirical reflection on smart development,’ its measurement, possible drivers and bottlenecks.’ We first provide cross-national data on how much ecological footprint is used in the nations of the world system to deliver a given amount of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. To this end, we first developed UNDP-type performance indicators on these six main dimensions of development and on their combined performance. We then show the non-linear regression trade-offs between ecological footprints per capita on these six dimensions of development and their combined performance index. The residuals from these regressions are our new measures of smart development (a country experiences smart development, if it achieves a maximum development with a minimum of ecological footprint). We then look at the cross-national drivers and bottlenecks of this smart development and compare their predictive power using stepwise regression procedures. Apart from important variables and indicators, derived from sociological dependency and world systems theories, we also test the predictive power of several other predictors as well. Our estimates underline the enormous importance of the transfer of resources from the center to the periphery, brought about by migration, with huge statistical observed positive effects of received worker remittances on smart human development, Happy Life Years, smart gender justice, smart R&D, and both formulations of the smart development index. Continue reading Migration, Openness and the Global Preconditions of Smart Development
By webmaster, on June 12th, 2010
By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Social science research should lead to a better understanding of current societal developments and enable policy makers to propose solutions to problems and design policies that can serve the public more effectively. Governments are increasingly aware of the need and opportunities to improve the contribution of social science knowledge to policy making and are keen to realise this potential. Can the social sciences act as an agent of societal change? How can they contribute to social practice? How can their policy relevance be increased? Can best practice in other research fields and economic sectors be a source of inspiration on new approaches to sharing knowledge? And how can the divide between the two communities – social scientists and decision makers – be narrowed? These are some of the enduring questions tackled by academics and policy makers at the Workshop on the Contribution of Social Sciences to Knowledge and Decision Making, Bruges, 26-28 June 2000. Continue reading Social sciences for knowledge and decision making
By webmaster, on June 12th, 2010
By Johann Mouton, H. C. Marais
What is social sciences research? 3
Towards problem formulation 29
Conceptualization and operationa…57
By webmaster, on January 23rd, 2010
Researchers find social aspects of learning important at all ages
According to recent studies, young children learn best through social interaction. Andrew Meltzoff and his colleagues at the University of Washington are studying an emerging field called the “Science of Learning,” which re-evaluates how children learn in formal and informal settings. Continue reading Discovery: The New Science of Learning
By webmaster, on January 1st, 2010
Its Role in Conflict and Peace
Series: USIP Special Reports
This paper addresses the potentially positive role of religion in peacemaking and conflict resolution, commenting on the United States Institute of Peace’s (USIP) field work experiences. It examines the link between religion and conflict, reviews the experiences with religious activism, mediation and facilitation and discusses the importance of interfaith dialogue. Subsequently, the paper points to the US government’s neglect of the religious dimension of conflicts. The author argues that the nature of the religious dimension of international conflict is sometimes neglected, often misunderstood and frequently exaggerated. Continue reading Religion in World Affairs
By webmaster, on December 30th, 2009
The PEW Forum December 2009
Executive Summary
For more than half a century, the United Nations and numerous international organizations have affirmed the principle of religious freedom.1 For just as many decades, journalists and human rights groups have reported on persecution of minority faiths, outbreaks of sectarian violence and other pressures on religious individuals and communities in many countries. But until now, there has been no quantitative study that reviews an extensive number of sources to measure how governments and private actors infringe on religious beliefs and practices around the world. Continue reading Global Restrictions on Religion
By webmaster, on December 13th, 2009
Excerpts from: To the Right 
The Transformation of American Conservatism
Jerome L. Himmelstein
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley · Los Angeles · Oxford ( 1989 The Regents of the University of California)
Part One, Chapter 3:
By the mid-1950s several waves of political reaction to the New Deal and its legacy had left American conservatism a significant political voice but still disorganized and powerless. The second act in the drama of postwar American conservatism was the steady growth of an organized conservative movement as both an independent entity and a dominating presence in the Republican party. I divide this process into two phases: Continue reading The Growth of a Movement: Old Right and New
By webmaster, on November 29th, 2009
Hans Radder
At issue in this paper is the question of the appropriate relationship between the philosophy and history of science. The discussion starts with a brief sketch of Kuhn’s approach, followed by an analysis of the so-called ‘testing-theories-of scientific- change programme’. This programme is an attempt at a more rigorous approach to the historical philosophy of science. Since my conclusion is that, by and large, this attempt has failed, I proceed to examine some more promising approaches. First, I deal with Hacking’s recent views on the issues in question, particularly his notion of a ‘style of reasoning’. Next, Nickles’s reconstructionist interpretation of the development of science and his views on Whig history are addressed. Finally, I propose an account of philosophy as a theoretical, an interpretative and explanatory, enterprise. Continue reading Beyond the Kuhnian Paradigm
By webmaster, on November 15th, 2009
 David Harvey
Future historians may well look upon the years 1978–80 as a revolutionary turning-point in the world’s social and economic history. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping took the first momentous steps towards the liberalization of a communist-ruled economy in a country that accounted for a fifth of the world’s population. The path that Deng defined was to transform China in two decades from a closed backwater to an open centre of capitalist dynamism with sustained growth rates unparalleled in human history. On the other side of the Pacific, and in quite different circumstances, a relatively obscure (but now renowned) figure named Paul Volcker took command at the US Federal Reserve in July 1979, and within a few months dramatically changed monetary policy. The Fed thereafter took the lead in the fight against inflation no matter what its consequences (particularly as concerned unemployment). Across the Atlantic, Margaret Thatcher had already been elected Prime Minister of Britain in May 1979, with a mandate to curb trade union power and put an end to the miserable inflationary stagnation that had enveloped the country for the preceding decade. Continue reading A Brief History of Neoliberalism
By webmaster, on November 15th, 2009
Arnold I. Davidson
In presenting the topic of Michel Foucault’s significance as a writer of the history of ethics, I have two main goals. First, I hope to be able to elucidate Foucault’s own aims in shifting his attention, in his last , writings, to what he himself called “ethics.” These aims, in my opinion, have been widely misinterpreted and even more widely ignored, and the result has been a failure to come to terms with the conceptual and philosophical distinctiveness of Foucault’s last works. Volumes z and of The His-t-o r-y- of- S-e -xu-a lity are about sex in roughly the way that Discipline and Punish is about the-prison. As the modem prison serves as a reference point for Foucault to work out his analytics of power, so ancient sex functions as the material around which Foucault elaborates his conception of ethics. Although the history of sex is, obviously, sexier than the history of ethics, it is this latter history that oriented Foucault’s last writings. Continue reading Ethics as ascetics: Foucault, the history of ethics, and ancient thought
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