4,392 research outputs found
Processes of Colonisation through the Mechanism of the Architectural Pattern. The Crucial Role Played by the Architectural Patterns in the British Colonial Expansion, 1750-1901
This research analyses the phenomenon of architectural pattern as an instrument of colonisation and a statement of cultural hegemony in the British overseas dominions during the 1750–1901 period. Colonialism effectively expanded the spread of British architectural forms and triggered the introduction of building and planning regulations across the empire. This examination provides an integrated account of Britain's political, ideological, and cultural situation and the consequences for its colonies
Illuminating Hidden Harvests – The contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development
Small-scale fisheries account for at least 40 percent of the global catch from capture fisheries and provide employment across the value chain for an estimated 60.2 million people, about 90 percent of the total number employed in fisheries globally. The economic value of these fisheries, however, is only a part of their importance: for example, nearly 53 million additional people were estimated to be engaged in subsistence activities in 2016. Rightly considered from a holistic and integrated perspective, small-scale fisheries define the livelihoods, nutrition and culture of a substantial and diverse segment of humankind. This study, Illuminating Hidden Harvests: the contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development (hereinafter Illuminating Hidden Harvests, or IHH), uncovers the contributions and impacts of small-scale fisheries through a multidisciplinary approach to data collection and analysis. The study provides information that quantifies and improves understanding of the crucial role of small-scale fisheries in the areas of food security and nutrition, sustainable livelihoods, poverty eradication and healthy ecosystems. It also examines gender equality as well as the nature and scope of governance in small-scale fisheries, and how this differs between different countries and fishery units. The IHH study was carried out in support of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), themselves developed in recognition of the plight of small-scale fishers, fishworkers and associated communities. The SSF Guidelines provide advice and direction for the enhancement of responsible and sustainable small-scale fisheries, through the development and implementation of participatory, ecosystem-friendly policies, strategies and legal frameworks
The Failure of Market Efficiency
Recent years have witnessed the near total triumph of market efficiency as a regulatory goal. Policymakers regularly proclaim their devotion to ensuring efficient capital markets. Courts use market efficiency as a guiding light for crafting legal doctrine. And scholars have explored in great depth the mechanisms of market efficiency and the role of law in promoting it. There is strong evidence that, at least on some metrics, our capital markets are indeed more efficient than they have ever been. But the pursuit of efficiency has come at a cost. By focusing our attention narrowly on economic efficiency concerns—such as competition, friction, and transaction costs—we have lost sight of other, deeper values within our economic system, including wider conceptions of duty, fairness, and morality. And while regulators sometimes pay lip service to these values, they often treat them as merely a subset of efficiency: the best way to treat investors fairly, to promote equality, and to prevent immoral, exploitative behavior, in this view, is simply to create an efficient market. We have seen the consequences of this emphasis play out in spectacular fashion in the last decade. New market structures and technologies—from special purpose acquisition companies to social-media oriented trading apps to cryptocurrencies—have emerged to eliminate barriers to trade and compete with institutional incumbents. These strategies may well lead to more efficient markets insomuch as they facilitate access to capital, but they also have the side effect of placing unsophisticated individuals into complex contractual arrangements with sophisticated market actors. The result is an “efficient” market, but one with steep moral and social costs. This Article examines the limits of market efficiency as a regulatory goal and suggests a set of structural and substantive reforms aimed at better balancing efficiency with the other goals of markets. It concludes that regulators, courts, and scholars alike need to adopt a more comprehensive understanding of the proper ends of market regulation, one that emphasizes the purpose and spirit of finance over the false promise of efficiency
LegalBench: A Collaboratively Built Benchmark for Measuring Legal Reasoning in Large Language Models
The advent of large language models (LLMs) and their adoption by the legal
community has given rise to the question: what types of legal reasoning can
LLMs perform? To enable greater study of this question, we present LegalBench:
a collaboratively constructed legal reasoning benchmark consisting of 162 tasks
covering six different types of legal reasoning. LegalBench was built through
an interdisciplinary process, in which we collected tasks designed and
hand-crafted by legal professionals. Because these subject matter experts took
a leading role in construction, tasks either measure legal reasoning
capabilities that are practically useful, or measure reasoning skills that
lawyers find interesting. To enable cross-disciplinary conversations about LLMs
in the law, we additionally show how popular legal frameworks for describing
legal reasoning -- which distinguish between its many forms -- correspond to
LegalBench tasks, thus giving lawyers and LLM developers a common vocabulary.
This paper describes LegalBench, presents an empirical evaluation of 20
open-source and commercial LLMs, and illustrates the types of research
explorations LegalBench enables.Comment: 143 pages, 79 tables, 4 figure
Water, Waste, and Disease: Struggles of Chinese communities and environmental racism in California, 1870-1910
This study takes a fresh look at the anti-Chinese movement in California in the late 19th century through the lens of environmental humanities, with a focus on environmental justice and environmental racism. The dissertation examines the complex role that water played in the history of Chinese immigration to the United States in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. This includes various forms of water, such as sewage and different methods of controlling and managing water resources. Drawing on contemporary understandings of the connections between water, pollution, and disease, this research shows how built environments contributed to environmental injustice against Chinese communities
The Complexity of Engineering Education in a Mission Driven PBL University
In this extended abstract, we will argue that education in a mission driven university holds particularities that call for the transformation of not only the research base of education but also the way in which education is conceptualised and practiced. Following a PBL approach, we put the students in the centre of educational activity and propose a conceptual framework for engineering education in a mission driven PBL university.<br/
Exploring the Transition to Senior Leadership for Women: A Comparative Study of Female Senior Leaders from South Africa and Mauritius
This study explores the lived experiences of 28 women from South Africa and Mauritius women who have successfully transitioned from middle management into senior leadership roles. From the data, “The Pathways into Leadership model was developed and illustrates that career transitions were a continuous process within three interrelated contexts: the broad societal context, the organizational context, and the individual context. Each phase of the model represents the critical enablers and roadblocks for women’s career success in leadership
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