Eurocities and Their "Sisters": How Are They Close to Each Other?

The globalization process has led to the emergence of network of cities in which the cities have become more integrated to the new world system. ‘Eurocities’ or ‘Sister Cities’ are among the well known examples of network of cities which provide interaction and cooperation of the cities at the regional and global level. The ‘sister city movement’ can be defined as a further step of international relationships of the cities at the municipality level which is based on understanding the cultures of each other and aims to create common values. Additionally, sister city relationship provides international trade and economic development between two countries at the local level. Empirical findings show that there are 3 phases of sister city movement: i) the associative phase, ii) the reciprocative phase, and iii) the commercial phase. In this process, municipalities or local authorities have become ‘entrepreneurs’ in order to contribute to the economic and social dynamisms of cities. The present study investigates the relationships of Eurocities with their sister cities from the perspective of the development level or the degree of the relationship. Which factors are important in improving the mutual relationship? Which factors determine the development phases of the relationship? Under which conditions the mutual relationship creates business opportunities and reaches to the level of economic cooperation? What are the success measures of city-to-city affiliation? The study aims to compare and evaluate the current sister cities relationships of Eurocities on the basis of the actual performance in cultural dialogue, benchmarking and commercial activities. The data and information used for comparison and evaluation are based on extensive survey questionnaires filled out by relevant departments or experts of municipalities in Eurocities. As a rather novel methodological contribution, a recently developed artificial intelligence method, i.e. rough set analysis, is deployed to assess and identify the most important factors that are responsible for successes and failures of the relationships between sister cities.

The Love of My Sisters: Exploring Black Women Academics’ Narratives on the Uses and Benefits of Sister Circles

This study explored how Black women academics (BWA) use formal and informal networks to overcome cultural violence and social injustices within the academy. BWA documentation of the hegemonic pressures of the universal teacher myth in the classroom and troublesome interactions with fellow faculty members offer scholars the opportunity to question how BWA foster and maintain beneficial networks of support. The researcher used social capital theory evolution to fictive kin networks (FKN) to frame the study. The FKN framework allowed the researcher to understand how the strength of network ties helps BWA create and maintain beneficial systems. Through the lens of selected principles from Black feminist thought (BFT), intersectionality, and Critical Race Theory (CRT), I use personal narratives taken from my reflexive analytic autoethnography and fifteen interviews of BWA who are part of either formal or informal networks. Data analysis was conducted through a modified purposeful constant comparative method to fulfill the primary goal of the study to offer a realistic process of network creation. The findings of this study indicated BWA are part of diverse networks through deliberate interactions that create individual benefits. The findings challenged the notion that informal networks were more beneficial than a formal network. This exploratory study created a direct linkage to BWA and FKN, as well as introduced the concept of a network circle to aid BWA to overcome hegemonic pressures experienced in the academy

An assessment of the Sister Cities International Program as an international public relations entity

Going global is the business perspective for the 21st century. Unfortunately, global perspective from American business and organization is limited. With the world shrinking at an astonishing pace, organizations need to find their communication channels to their international publics. The purpose of this study was to learn if the techniques used in the Sister Cities International Program are effective for international public relations. The findings of this study would prove helpful to international public relations professionals in planning their own programs based on the effectiveness of the Sister Cities Program. Five cities were evaluated based on their activities, public relations techniques, promotion, planning, goals, objectives and evaluation procedures. Evaluation of the cities was done through research of news articles, brochures, reports and surveys. The five cities varied in economic, social, cultural and developed backgrounds. This was necessary to prove if the program worked on all levels of community development. Based on the information found, Sister Cities International effectively uses public relations and publicity techniques to promote its organization and activities. Positive media coverage of programs and events were found in all five cities with high concentrations of commitment and sponsorship from the media in two of the five cities

Exploring Membership in Black Greek-Letter Sororities and the Influence on Career Advancement for Black Women in Higher Education

The aim of this study was to explore membership in Black Greek-letter sororities and the influence on career advancement for Black women in higher education. Research has neglected to account for the role that Black Greek-letter organizations play in the development of Black women beyond their undergraduate experience. This research is motivated by two research questions: (1) How do Black women perceive that membership in Black Greek-letter sororities prepared them for career advancement in higher education?; and (2) How do Black women perceive that membership in Black Greek-letter sororities influenced their professional success in higher education? To examine these questions, the study explored the perceptions of 12 Black women holding a membership in one of four Black Greek-letter sororities on the influence these memberships had on career advancement using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings from the research show that the impact of Black-Greek letter sorority membership on the career advancement for Black women in higher education is more complex than previously thought. The results, implications for institutions of higher education and Black Greek-letter sororities, and future research are discussed

Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists

Documents and analyzes the environment of support for individual artists. Provides a framework for analysis of various dimensions of the support structure, nationally and in specific sites across the U.S. Includes support programs and policy initiatives

Farmer Equity a National Survey of Opportunities and Challenges

This a report style briefing on goals, objectives, outcomes, and conclusion of the Farm Equity National Scan Assessment project. In the knowledge product, we included a few quotes from producers, photos, and stories to highlight farmers that were interviewed

IUPESM: the international umbrella organisation for biomedical engineering and medical physics

An account of the development, aims and activities of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) is presented. Associations with the International Council of Science (ICSU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are leading to exciting new projects towards improving global health, healthcare, quality of life and support of health technologies in developing countries

Muslim Feminists and Transnational Networking in Asia: Upholding the Origin and Diaspora

Globalization, with both its banes and boons, poses certain threats to the episteme of the religions across the globe. Islam is no exception in this connection especially when it comes to its practices and popular discourses on gender. The Muslim feminists, at a global level, should tend to secure a transcultural and diasporic identity while also maintaining their territorialized affiliations with their respective virtual centers. The ideal can be materialized through the notion of transnational networking while exploiting the modern means of communication. The authors, in this paper, tends to articulate that in face of the starkly exploding spirit of postmodernist simulacra characterizing the present-day world order, the Muslim feminists in Asia are supposed to uphold both their origin and diaspora on the parallel if they intend to sustain their essential identity as Muslims while also enjoying the citizenship of a world order which has become most globalized, challenging and kaleidoscopic today. Keywords: globalization, transnational networking, simulacra, diaspora, Islam, feminism, Othe

New Technology, Innovation and Space

The new geography of the R&D activities As a rule, new technologies in today’s world are the result of a long R&D process. This includes basic theoretical and applied research, as well as repeated testing which ensures that the new techniques coming out of the previous processes are ready to be applied in production and/or to enrich the output-mix with new products. In a broader sense, R&D generates also new ideas and techniques that contribute to the introduction of more efficient methods in the organization of production. In that part in which the non-marketable results are significant, the R&D activity is primarily state funded or financed by international organizations. It manifests a wide spatial distribution, spreading practically to all countries, and includes mainly research aiming to improve public health and security conditions, and to raise agricultural efficiency. It aims also to increase environmental protection and to create positive external economies that promote the public interest. In many big countries a considerable amount of state funded research serves military purposes and the exploration of space, with some of it having spillover effects for peaceful purposes. In the remaining part of the R&D that is conducted in the private sector of the economy, the Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are the dominant players. In the era of globalization they have emerged as principal economic actors and are even more important in the application of new technologies. They dispose of large material resources and can recruit scientific and engineering talent from all over the world. It matters therefore where they locate their R&D. Given that the developed countries spend on R&D 2-3% of their GDP, amounting to the largest part of the world research expenditure, the traditional view has been that those countries account also for nearly all research activity. According to the UN World Investment Report 2005, however, the view of more complex production activities being undertaken in the North and simpler ones in the South is less and less a true reflection of reality. In some developing countries like China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, the state budget allocations for R&D expenses, including those for military research, has been high. The actual research output per unit of expense may be even higher, in comparison to that of the developed countries, because their wage levels and the cost of the basic infrastructure (building and various kinds of materials) are lower. Many of their researchers, however, are not less efficient and inventive than their homologues in the more developed countries. Further, MNEs now view parts of the developing world not only as key sources of cheap labour, but also of growth, skills and even new technologies. They have accelerated the pace of their direct investment in overseas R&D and the delocation of R&D activities in other countries, acquiring or establishing new laboratories abroad and integrating them into global R&D networks. They have many reasons to implement those policies: Their purpose is to source foreign technology, gain access to the local science base, hire foreign skilled engineers and benefit from local expertise and scientific excellence. They also want first, to utilize their subsidiaries in adapting the local market products to those developed in the research laboratories of the mother multinational company; and second, to adjust their own products to the local market and manufacturing processes. R&D activities of acquired subsidiaries are more concerned with applied research and scanning of local technologies, while new established subsidiaries generally focus on the suitable for the local market development of products based on technologies applied in the mother company. All told, small and less developed countries contribute now substantially to the world research output in three main ways: By running their own public and private research centers; as partners and employees of the subsidiaries of the MNEs established in them; and through their nationals doing research work in foreign universities and research centers. Despite its alleged detrimental effects, globalization, whatever its definition, appears to be reducing at a quick pace the spatial inequalities in research activities. The ways and means of those developments and their actual effects will be analyzed in the proposed paper. Policy implications Exploring the spatial allocation of the R&D activity may lead to useful conclusions for rational policy decisions. The establishment of MNEs in any country has overall positive labour market affects. It may, however, cause unemployment to the less qualified workers, in the usual cases that labour intensive processes are introduced in production lines carried out with traditional techniques. R&D activities established by the MNEs in a host country generate also positive spillovers in it, by strengthening its policies designed to attract FDI in research and innovation, as well as through an increase in the local demand for highly qualified persons. The more pronounced the presence of foreign R&D subsidiaries in a host country, the higher the demand for domestic researchers. It follows that well trained and with appropriate work attitudes graduates of tertiary education in any country can find satisfactory employment, at home or abroad. The national borders are also open for the highly skilled. Far from causing a brain drain, their emigration develops, as a rule, into a brain gain because it creates incentives for more and better training in the sending country. Eventually, it develops also into a brain exchange between sending and receiving countries, for their mutual benefit. In the last fifteen years, for example, the Chinese and Indian researchers in the universities and the technological parks of many developed countries have contributed considerably to the economic development of their respective countries. Up until very recently, in Greece as well about nine out of ten persons with responsible positions in the academia, the research centers and practically in all walks of life had some research experience abroad. The hypothesis which will also be tested in the proposed paper is that, higher degrees of R&D internalization are associated with minimal negative effects of any brain drain Main Bibliography Bein M. and Docquier Fr 2004 “Skilled Migrationâ€, Brussels Economic Review, Vol. 47-No1, Spring, Special Issue Cornelius W., EspenshadeT. J. and Salehyan I. 2001 “The International Migration of the Highly Skilled: Demand, Supply, and Development Consequences in Sending and Receiving Countries†La Jolla, Uni. of California, San Diego United Nations 2005 “World Investment Report 2005. Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of R&Dâ€, New York and Geneva Various publications in English and Greek by Lambrianidis L., Liargovas P., Liberaki Ant., Petrakos G., Pournarakis M. and Thardanidis Ch.