Bridging the Equity Gap: Driving Community Health Outcomes Through the Green Jobs Movement

The fundamental link between poverty and health mandates a new approach to both, one capable of raising community health standards by lifting individuals, families and communities out of poverty.Merely providing access to healthcare does not address fundamental societal inequities that translate into greater health risks and more extensive exposure to environmental hazards for low-income communities and communities of color -- risks aggravated by climate change.In Bridging the Equity Gap: Driving Community Health Outcomes Through the Green Jobs Movement, Green For All makes the case that the Green Jobs Movement -- a broad, progressive coalition of environmental and health advocates, social justice and civil rights organizations, labor and community-based groups, and business -- can bring about a systems change to improve economic, environmental and health conditions for low-income communities

Bridging the gap between work and education in vocational education and training. A study of Norwegian apprenticeship training offices and e-portfolio systems

This article explores the effect that the use of e-portfolios initiated and organized by apprenticeship training offices has had on the learning processes and assessment practices of apprentices in Norwegian vocational education and training. Although these intermediate structures have the potential to bridge the gap between work and education, they seem to maintain a system of two parallel learning arenas. However, the article summarizes the innovative effects of these transformations as supportive structures for expansive apprenticeship. The study is based on data from a national project on quality assessment, which is supported by documentary evidence from e-portfolios in three different trades: plumbing, industrial mechanics and sales. (DIPF/orig.

Bridging the Technology-Gap in Economic Transition, the J-curve of Growth and Unemployment

The macroeconomic experience has been somewhat ambiguous during the historic experiment of economic transition in the former centrally-planed countries in Central and East Europe (CEE). The economic restructuring produced a notable catching-up in terms of productivity but also a J-curve shape of output growth accompanied by an increase in unemployment on a large scale. This paper models the transformation progress which leads to these contradictory outcomes. Before transition initiated catching-up, the economies suffered from two limits to growth: a gap of usable capital and a gap of technologies. Accordingly, a rapid technology transfer from the advanced Western economies led to a significant technological and structural change combined with high rates of labor reallocation. If we include frictions in the consequent matching between job seekers and jobs, the model reproduces the pattern of productivity, growth and unemployment that we find in the CEE countries.catching-up, growth, unemployment, technological change, transition economies

Standardization Framework for Sustainability from Circular Economy 4.0

The circular economy (CE) is widely known as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution towards the separation of biological and technical nutrients under cyclic industrial metabolism. The incorporation of the principles of the CE in the links of the value chain of the various sectors of the economy strives to ensure circularity, safety, and efficiency. The framework proposed is aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding the orientation towards the mitigation and regeneration of the metabolic rift by considering a double perspective. Firstly, it strives to conceptualize the CE as a paradigm of sustainability. Its principles are established, and its techniques and tools are organized into two frameworks oriented towards causes (cradle to cradle) and effects (life cycle assessment), and these are structured under the three pillars of sustainability, for their projection within the proposed framework. Secondly, a framework is established to facilitate the implementation of the CE with the use of standards, which constitute the requirements, tools, and indicators to control each life cycle phase, and of key enabling technologies (KETs) that add circular value 4.0 to the socio-ecological transition

A Critical Evaluation of Indian Government’s Strategies to bridge Digital Divide

Emergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been a landmark for India. In one way, this sunshine sector has been instrumental in the economic growth of country and has glorified its image in the whole world but on the other end, it has also created a digital divide in our society. BBC's Jill McGivering reports that the IT revolution is only changing some lives in the world's largest democracy. (Bagla,2005) A small section of society is harnessing it fully for their advantage while the masses are even not aware of it. UNESCO report 1998 also stated that for the majority of the world’s population, telephones are a technology beyond reach; food, sanitation and literacy are more urgent needs. How can we reconcile major commitments of energy and funds to ICTs when more basic human needs remain unfulfilled? The conventional, even formulaic, answer to the alleged conflict between investment in ICTs and investment in meeting basic human needs is, "We need to do both. There is no contradiction between ICTs and other critical human and social goals." (Keniston, 2002) ICT sector has potential of reviving the hopes and fortunes of these deprived and hatred section of society. Application of ICT in the form of E-Governance possess the potential to bridge the gulf between the urban 'technology haves' and rural ‘have nots', within and among the countries. (Annan, 2002)

Culture and Urban Revitalization: A Harvest Document

Advocates have long argued that the economic benefits of the arts and culture provide a firm rationale for public support. Recent scholarship on the "creative class" and "creative economy" is simply the latest effort to link cultural expression to community prosperity. In contrast, the social benefits of cultural engagement have received relatively little attention, even though -- as we shall see -- they provide a stronger case.We need to avoid a simplistic either-or choice between the economic and social impacts of the arts. People who live in our cities, suburbs, and countryside are simultaneously consumers, workers, residents, citizens, and participants. Culture's role in promoting community capacity and civic engagement is central to its potential for generating vital cultural districts. To separate the economic and the social impacts of the arts makes each more difficult to understand.This document provides an overview of the state-of-the-art literature on culture and urban revitalization. In Part 2, we place the creative sector in contemporary context with a discussion of three social dynamics. The "new urban reality" has restructured our cities by increasing social diversity -- fueled by new residential patterns, the emergence of young adult districts, and immigration; expanding economic inequality; and changing urban form. Shifts in the economic and political environment have changed the structure of the creative sector. Finally, the changing balance of government, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions in social policy development -- the shift to transactional policymaking -- has profound implications for cultural policy and the creative sector broadly defined. These three forces -- the new urban reality, the changing structure of the creative sector, and the emergence of transactional policy-making -- define the context within which culture-based revitalization takes place

Exploring the significance of domestic investment for foreign direct investment in China: a city-network approach

This paper uses a network approach and a negative binomial regression model (NBRM) to shed light on the association between Domestic Investment (DI) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in interlinking Chinese cities in a space of flows. The empirical analysis is based on 2743 FDI and 9315 DI projects covering 77 Chinese cities. We address the question of what is the association between DI network measures and city attractiveness for FDI, and does the geographic distance of DI matter? While the physical distance of DI activity is found to have a negative association with FDI, city functional proximity and structural position in the DI network are found to have a positive association. We conclude that strategic policies to stimulate cross-territorial economic ties between Chinese cities should be advantageous in attracting inward foreign investment