Globalization and Labour in the Twenty-First Century

Globalisation has adversely affected working-class organisation and mobilisation; but international labour movement demobilisation is not necessarily an irreversible trend. Globalisation has prompted workers and their organisations to find new ways to mobilise. This book examines international labour movement opposition to globalisation. It chronicles and critically scrutinizes the emergence of distinctively new forms of labour movement organisation and mobilisation that constitute creative initiatives on the part of labour, which present capitalism with fresh challenges. The author identifies eight characteristics of globalisation that have proven problematic to workers and their organisations and describes and analyses how they have responded to these challenges since 1990 and especially in the past decade. In particular, it focuses attention on new types of labour movement organisation and mobilisation that are not simply defensive reactions but are offensive and innovative responses that compel corporations to behave more responsively and responsibly towards employees and society at large. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of globalisation, political economy, labour politics, economics, Marxism and sociology of work

E-government in Europe

This book traces the development of e-government and its applications across Europe, exploring the effects of information and communication technology (ICTs) upon political action and processes. Explores a range of concepts and topics underpinning e-government in Europe: the degree to which e-government translates into genuine reform of government and public administration the dual role of the EU as both a provider of e-government through its own internal activities and also as a facilitator or aggregator in the way it seeks to engender change and promote its ethos in member states across the EU cyberterrorism and its use both by terrorists and governments to pursue political agendas. Featuring in-depth case studies on the progress of e-government in the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, and Estonia. These case studies address the above issues, whilst at the same time highlighting commonality and diversity in practice and the paradox between top-down strategies and the effort to engage wider civil participation via e-government. e-Government in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy, politics, media and communication studies, computing and information and communications technologies and European studies

Metaverse. Old urban issues in new virtual cities

Recent years have seen the arise of some early attempts to build virtual cities, utopias or affective dystopias in an embodied Internet, which in some respects appear to be the ultimate expression of the neoliberal city paradigma (even if virtual). Although there is an extensive disciplinary literature on the relationship between planning and virtual or augmented reality linked mainly to the gaming industry, this often avoids design and value issues. The observation of some of these early experiences - Decentraland, Minecraft, Liberland Metaverse, to name a few - poses important questions and problems that are gradually becoming inescapable for designers and urban planners, and allows us to make some partial considerations on the risks and potentialities of these early virtual cities

Brave New Wireless World: Mapping the Rise of Ubiquitous Connectivity from Myth to Market

This dissertation offers a critical and historical analysis of the myth of ubiquitous connectivity—a myth widely associated with the technological capabilities offered by “always on” Internet-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This myth proclaims that work and social life are optimized, made more flexible, manageable, and productive, through the use of these devices and their related services. The prevalence of this myth—whether articulated as commercial strategy, organizational goal, or mode of social mediation—offers repeated claims that the experience and organization of daily life has passed a technological threshold. Its proponents champion the virtues of the invisible “last mile” tethering individuals (through their devices) primarily to commercial networks. The purpose of this dissertation is to uncover the interaction between the proliferation of media artifacts and the political economic forces and relations occluded by this myth. To do this, herein the development of the BlackBerry, as a specific brand of devices and services, is shown to be intimately interrelated with the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. It demonstrates that the BlackBerry is a technical artifact whose history sheds light on key characteristics of our media environment and the political economic dynamics shaping the development of other technologies, workforce composition and management, and more general consumption proclivities. By pointing to the analytic significance of the BlackBerry, this work does not intend to simply praise its creators for their technical and commercial achievements. Instead, it aims to show how these achievements express a synthesis that represents the motivations of economic actors and prevailing modes of thought most particularly as they are drawn together in and through the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. The narrative arc of this dissertation is anchored by moments of harmonization among political economic interests as these shape (and are shaped by) prevailing modes of producing and relating through ubiquitous connectivity

Off and Online Journalism and Corruption

This book provides a new theoretical framework of determinants that interact together in five hierarchical levels to restrain or produce corruption. The theory suggests a multilevel analysis that tests hypotheses regarding the relations of journalism and corruption within each level and across levels in international comparative research designs. Corruption as the abuse of power for private gain is built into the journalistic, economic, political, and cultural structures of any society and is affected by its interaction within the international system. The important questions of how differences in corruption across countries can be explained or what makes it more or less in a particular society and how press freedom and social media contribute to the fight against corruption are still unanswered. This book represents a significant contribution on the way to answer these critical questions. It discusses a variety of journalism-corruption experiences that provide a wealth of results and analyses. The cases it examines extend from Cuba to Algeria, India, Saudi Arabia, Sub-Saharan African, Gulf Cooperation Countries, Arab World, and Japan. The primary contribution of this book is both theoretical and empirical. Its details as well as the general theoretical frameworks make it a useful book for scholars, academics, undergraduate and graduate students, journalists, and policy makers

Small media, big network: alternative media and social movements on the internet

This thesis explores alternative media on the Internet by drawing on a range of theoretical literatures - particularly in the areas of the public sphere, social movements and globalisation. Parallel to this theoretical exploration, a significant body of published research is reviewed on Internet use by social movements and groups in global, national, and local contexts. From this review and analysis, an original conceptual framework for analysing alternative media on the Internet is developed. A range of methodological approaches were designed to empirically develop the research issues. Empirical research on women’s organisations and the Internet in Ireland was conducted over a four-year period. The original work is significant because there have been few previous attempts to systematically devise an operational framework for research on alternative media. The framework contains seven elements. The first three are characteristics of alternative media forms or processes on the Internet - the participants, the production process and the content. The last four elements concern the wider social, political and cultural context of the media activity. The framework categorises the main areas of concern to researchers of alternative media on the Internet. Research questions are intended to develop a full scope of structural, social political and cultural factors involved in the production and use of alternative media forms and processes on the Internet and to resist superficial interpretations. The empirical research was conducted in two phases and employed a range of methods. In the first phase, the methods included postal and telephone surveys of a wide spectrum of women’s organisations in Ireland and a focus group with participants from women’s organisations in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The second phase of the research focused on Womenslink, an Internet mailing list linking women’s organisations in Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic. A central methodological approach was the researcher’s participatory involvement with Womenslink and its member organisations during a two-and-a-half year period. Research methods included a content analysis of all the Womenslink messages produced during this period, and in-depth interviews and a feedback session with Womenslink participants. The final chapter in the thesis brings together the various research concerns and makes suggestions for future research on alternative media and social movements on the Internet

Citizens as the engine of transformations: An investigation of the effects of the new forms of government-citizen interaction on the organisational structure and dynamics of public administrations

L'objectiu de la tesi és respondre si la intensificació de la interacció basada en TIC entre el govern i els ciutadans en relació amb els serveis públics que generen gran quantitat d'informació condueix a la transformació organitzativa de les administracions públiques de São Paulo i Rio de Janeiro. La resposta electrònica (e-feedback) dels ciutadans és el motor de la transformació governamental? Basant-se en la tradició del constructivisme social, l'enfocament analític considera les diferències en les tecnologies pràctiques, les condicions associades amb la implantació i l'ús, i les seves conseqüències. Aquesta recerca arriba a la conclusió que, tot i que tenen condicions interpretatives i tecnològiques similars, les condicions institucionals d'ambdós casos són diferents i, per tant, afecten de manera diferent els interessos dels governs a l'hora d¿utilitzar les dades proporcionades pels ciutadans. És precisament l'ús d'aquesta informació el que explica el grau de transformació de les dinàmiques organitzatives i les estructures administratives. En segon lloc, la participació dels ciutadans per mitjà de les TIC genera dades massives (big data) que poden tenir més importància que la purament política en la implantació de polítiques públiques.El objetivo de la tesis es responder si la intensificación de la interacción basada en TIC entre el gobierno y los ciudadanos con relación a los servicios públicos que generan gran cantidad de información conduce a la transformación organizativa de las administraciones públicas de São Paulo y Río de Janeiro. ¿Es la respuesta electrónica (e-feedback) de los ciudadanos el motor de la transformación gubernamental? Basándose en la tradición del constructivismo social, el enfoque analítico considera las diferencias en las tecnologías prácticas, las condiciones asociadas a la implementación y el uso, y sus consecuencias. Esta investigación llega a la conclusión de que, aunque tienen condiciones interpretativas y tecnológicas similares, las condiciones institucionales de ambos casos son distintas y, por lo tanto, afectan de manera diferente a los intereses de los gobiernos a la hora de utilizar los datos proporcionados por los ciudadanos. Es precisamente el uso de esta información lo que explica el grado de transformación de las dinámicas organizativas y las estructuras administrativas. En segundo lugar, la participación de los ciudadanos mediante las TIC genera macrodatos (big data) que pueden tener más importancia que la puramente política en la implantación de políticas públicas.The thesis aims to answer whether the intensification of ICT-based interaction between government and citizens related to public services, which generate voluminous quantities of information, are leading to organizational transformations in the public administrations in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Is citizen e-feedback the engine of government transformation? Building upon the social constructivist tradition, the analytical approach considers the differences in technologies-in-practice, the conditions associated with their implementation and use, and their consequences. This research concludes that, albeit having similar interpretive and technological conditions, the institutional conditions of both cases are different and, therefore, affect differently the interest governments have in using the data provided by citizens. It is precisely the use of this information that explains the degree of transformation of organizational dynamics and administrative structures. Second, participation of citizens via ICTs generate data ("big data") that may be of greater than realized political importance in implementing public policies

THE ROLE OF JAVANESE CULTURE IN CHARACTER BUILDING AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Nowadays, character education becomes a major concern in Indonesia. Character development has been done by various strategy, but the results is yet to be seen. Character development should beginin elementary school in order that the children's charactercould formed early so that it could be developed until they are mature. One of the efforts of character building is integrating the local wisdom in learning. One of them is the Javanese culture. Javanese culture has a variety of rules called the "unggah-ungguh" that always give good models to the public community, especially to the Javanese. Along with the times, the Javanese culture that upholds ethics began to degraded and replaced by foreign cultures that came later. The parents’ roles in instilling the Javanese culture to their children also decreased gradually. This paper will examine the Javanese culture’s roles toward the character building in elementary schools’ students. Descriptive method supported by a depth review of the literature and the previous studies is used in this paper as a method. Based on the results of these reviews, we obtain some information about the types and mechanisms of Javanese culture in character building of students, especially elementary school students

The Influence of International Organisations on the Realisation of Disability Mainstreaming in Turkey

This thesis examines the role of international organisations in disability mainstreaming policies in Turkey. Turkey is a particularly interesting case study, as it combines traditional values coupled with ambitions to be an internationally respected European state. International organisations include the European Union, the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and Organization of Islamic Cooperation. A multidisciplinary approach was taken which involved social policy, history, disability studies, international relations, and politics. The research used a case study based on analysis of 275 policy documents, 47 semi-structured and two focus group interviews. The participants have all been directly involved in decision-making processes at international and/or local level. The thesis argues that disability mainstreaming is partial and selective as a result of the interaction between the traditional values and structures in Turkey and the aims and practices of international organisations