Towards a data-driven military: a multi-disciplinary perspective

Towards a data-driven military. A multi-disciplinary perspective assesses the use of data and information on modern conflict from different scientific and methodological disciplines, aiming to generate valuable contributions to the ongoing discourse on data, the military and modern warfare. Military Systems and Technology approaches the theme empirically by researching how data can enhance the utility of military materiel and subsequently accelerate the decision-making process. War Studies take a multidisciplinary approach to the evolution of warfare, while Military Management Studies take a holistic organisational and procedural approach. Based on their scientific protocols and research methods, the three domains put forward different research questions and perspectives, providing the unique character of this book

Competition in World Politics: Knowledge, Strategies and Institutions

The "return of great power competition" between (among others) the US, China, Russia and the EU is a major topic in contemporary public debate. But why do we think of world politics in terms of "competition"? Which information and which rules enable states and other actors in world politics to "compete" with one another? Which competitive strategies do they pursue in the complex environment of modern world politics? This cutting-edge edited collection discusses these questions from a unique interdisciplinary perspective. It offers a fresh account of competition in world politics, looking beyond its military dimensions to questions of economics, technology and prestige

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

Cyber Ethics 4.0 : Serving Humanity with Values

Cyber space influences all sectors of life and society: Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Blockchain, Self-Driving Cars and Autonomous Weapons, Cyberbullying, telemedicine and cyber health, new methods in food production, destruction and conservation of the environment, Big Data as a new religion, the role of education and citizens’ rights, the need for legal regulations and international conventions. The 25 articles in this book cover the wide range of hot topics. Authors from many countries and positions of international (UN) organisations look for solutions from an ethical perspective. Cyber Ethics aims to provide orientation on what is right and wrong, good and bad, related to the cyber space. The authors apply and modify fundamental values and virtues to specific, new challenges arising from cyber technology and cyber society. The book serves as reading material for teachers, students, policy makers, politicians, businesses, hospitals, NGOs and religious organisations alike. It is an invitation for dialogue, debate and solution

The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 1

Alena Ledeneva invites you on a voyage of discovery, to explore society’s open secrets, unwritten rules and know-how practices. Broadly defined as ‘ways of getting things done’, these invisible yet powerful informal practices tend to escape articulation in official discourse. They include emotion-driven exchanges of gifts or favours and tributes for services, interest-driven know-how (from informal welfare to informal employment and entrepreneurship), identity-driven practices of solidarity, and power-driven forms of co-optation and control. The paradox, or not, of the invisibility of these informal practices is their ubiquity. Expertly practised by insiders but often hidden from outsiders, informal practices are, as this book shows, deeply rooted all over the world, yet underestimated in policy. Entries from the five continents presented in this volume are samples of the truly global and ever-growing collection, made possible by a remarkable collaboration of over 200 scholars across disciplines and area studies. By mapping the grey zones, blurred boundaries, types of ambivalence and contexts of complexity, this book creates the first Global Map of Informality. The accompanying database is searchable by region, keyword or type of practice, so do explore what works, how, where and why

Esa 12th Conference: Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination: Abstract Book

Esa 12th Conference: Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination: Abstract Boo

Exchange and environment : local officials and poverty alleviation policy in South India

This thesis examines the local development officials’ implementation in Tamil Nadu of a rural poverty alleviation policy--the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP)--using resource exchange theory. Resource exchange has not been used previously in the context of local administration. I argue, however, that it offers a good explanation of the local administrator’s allocation of policy resources because it sees this allocation in terms of his political and socio-economic environment. The official’s environment in the community development block gives rise to many, sometimes conflicting, demands for the resources under his control (thus severely his time). He exchanges policy resources with the resource rich to satisfy as many of these demands as possible, and to gain valuable resources in return, such as help in implementing other policies. By exchanging resources the administrator more easily satisfies demands for resource allocations from politicians (who have some control over administrative transfers and promotions), and from senior administrators who want program targets achieved. Importantly, he also minimises the time he needs to spend with each policy. I argue that the current, "management-style" development policy and administration literature, which also reflects the attitudes of many senior administrators in India, is both a historical and a contextual. Its authors fail to explain the local official’s implementation of rural development policy, largely because they view him as acting either "pathologically" or "irrationally," rather than as responding as best he can to the most important demands arising from his environment. In terms of IRDP, which seeks to raise people’s incomes above the "poverty line" through subsidised loans for "productive assets," the block officials have of necessity ignored most of its time consuming rules of implementation. They have met IRDP’s targets by trading a large percentage of its resources to "loan brokers" who choose the program beneficiaries and complete program minutiae for the officials in exchange for other administratively-controlled resources. These brokers, many of whom have profited handsomely from IRDP, are little concerned with the poor beneficiaries’ welfare, and the latter have seldom benefited from taking ERDP loans