The big picture:the future role of gas

There are a plethora of drivers of change in energy systems until 2015. The role of social and political actors is likely to be more noticeable. In Europe, locally, high-impact ideas like green consumerism and limited acceptance of energy systems that result in trade-offs will be important. Nationally, the empowerment of individuals and communities and the politicization of energy-related issues will be drivers of change. Internationally, energy issues will become more important in the foreign and security policies of state and non-state actors

Structural Transformation in South Africa: The Challenges of Inclusive Industrial Development in a Middle-Income Country

Taking South Africa as an important case study of the challenges of structural transformation, the book offers a new micro-meso level framework and evidence linking country-specific and global dynamics of change, with a focus on the current challenges and opportunities faced by middle-income countries. Detailed analyses of industry groupings and interests in South Africa reveal the complex set of interlocking country-specific factors which have hampered structural transformation over several decades, but also the emerging productive areas and opportunities for structural change. The structural transformation trajectory of South Africa presents a unique country case, given its industrial structure, concentration, and highly internationalized economy, as well as the objective of black economic empowerment. The book links these micro-meso dynamics to the global forces driving economic, institutional, and social change. These include digital industrialization, global value-chain consolidation, financialization, and environmental and other sustainability challenges which are reshaping structural transformation dynamics across middle-income countries like South Africa. While these new drivers of change are disrupting existing industries and interests in some areas, in others they are reinforcing existing trends and configurations of power. The book analyses the ways in which both the domestic and global drivers of structural transformation shape—and, in some cases, are shaped by—a country’s political settlement and its evolution. By focusing on the political economy of structural transformation, the book disentangles the specific dynamics underlying the South African experience of the middle-income country conundrum. In so doing, it brings to light the broader challenges faced by similar countries in achieving structural transformation via industrial policies

Structural Transformation in South Africa

Taking South Africa as an important case study of the challenges of structural transformation, the book offers a new micro-meso level framework and evidence linking country-specific and global dynamics of change, with a focus on the current challenges and opportunities faced by middle-income countries. Detailed analyses of industry groupings and interests in South Africa reveal the complex set of interlocking country-specific factors which have hampered structural transformation over several decades, but also the emerging productive areas and opportunities for structural change. The structural transformation trajectory of South Africa presents a unique country case, given its industrial structure, concentration, and highly internationalized economy, as well as the objective of black economic empowerment. The book links these micro-meso dynamics to the global forces driving economic, institutional, and social change. These include digital industrialization, global value-chain consolidation, financialization, and environmental and other sustainability challenges which are reshaping structural transformation dynamics across middle-income countries like South Africa. While these new drivers of change are disrupting existing industries and interests in some areas, in others they are reinforcing existing trends and configurations of power. The book analyses the ways in which both the domestic and global drivers of structural transformation shape—and, in some cases, are shaped by—a country’s political settlement and its evolution. By focusing on the political economy of structural transformation, the book disentangles the specific dynamics underlying the South African experience of the middle-income country conundrum. In so doing, it brings to light the broader challenges faced by similar countries in achieving structural transformation via industrial policies

Towards Our Common Digital Future. Flagship Report.

In the report “Towards Our Common Digital Future”, the WBGU makes it clear that sustainability strategies and concepts need to be fundamentally further developed in the age of digitalization. Only if digital change and the Transformation towards Sustainability are synchronized can we succeed in advancing climate and Earth-system protection and in making social progress in human development. Without formative political action, digital change will further accelerate resource and energy consumption, and exacerbate damage to the environment and the climate. It is therefore an urgent political task to create the conditions needed to place digitalization at the service of sustainable development

Satellite communications: the political determination of technological development, 1961-1975

The thesis sets forth a model relating political contention to technological development. The selective realisation of a technical potentiality is shown to have been determined by conflict and negotiation among shifting alliances of state and private-industrial entities, each attempting to impose its requirements upon an emergent technology and thereby to dictate the precise form and pace of technical development. The 'course of communications satellite development is examined during the technology's formative period from 1961 to 1975--as the product of struggles over technological control. Negotiation centered upon control, and contending modes of technical development were promoted and opposed on the basis of their perceived consequences upon the distribution of effective control over the technology. The initial mode of satellite development lasted from 1961 to 1971 and is characterised as pre-emptive underdevelopment; urgency and haste were combined with tight constraints on the qualitative breadth allowed to technological articulation. Pre-emptive underdevelopment derived from an uneasy political accommodation struck among constituencies dominant during this phases the U.S. government, American communications carrier industry and a Western European intergovernmental bloc. The reigning compromise was directed toward expediting satellite development sufficiently to forestall rival deployments without endangering existing and anticipated interests in both satellite and competitive technologies. Technical development beneath a minimum level risked undermining the regime of control by leaving open the possibility of rival satellite systems; but development beyond a maximum level would have harmed the outstanding industrial and political interests in whose defence control was sought, while subverting the control regime by widening the legitimate scope for multinational participation in authority over the technology. Pre-emptive underdevelopment, it is argued, was succeeded largely by the products of its own success in meeting the policy requirements of initially dominant entities and in thus reducing the continued importance of satellite technology as a political arena and instrumentality. Restraints upon development could therefore, in the post-1971 period, be relaxed, while the growing demand for a wider array of satellite services encouraged emergence of a more intensive mode of technological development under the auspices of a de-cartelised, quasi-federal and multinational political regime

Proceedings of the Fifth International Mobile Satellite Conference 1997

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial communications services. While previous International Mobile Satellite Conferences have concentrated on technical advances and the increasing worldwide commercial activities, this conference focuses on the next generation of mobile satellite services. The approximately 80 papers included here cover sessions in the following areas: networking and protocols; code division multiple access technologies; demand, economics and technology issues; current and planned systems; propagation; terminal technology; modulation and coding advances; spacecraft technology; advanced systems; and applications and experiments

A new approach? : the impact of China's development aid on Kenya

vii, 172 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-172).Kenya has increasingly been the focus of China's development assistance over the last decade. Thus, the country has received billions of dollars worth of aid from China to develop industries, expand infrastructure and encourage trade. Indeed, 'China's approach' to development assistance, as it has been termed, has been welcomed by the Kenyan government because it is viewed as a means to help the country improve its dire social and economic standing. However, the consequences have yet to be studied and the negative impact of China's approach has yet to be analyzed. As a result, the objectives this thesis include empirically establishing the implications of China's approach to official development assistance, merging trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and bilateral assistance, is having on Kenya. This thesis utilized a variety of complimentary methodological approaches in order to ascertain the implications of China's approach. The evidence to support this qualitative thesis is based on both primary and secondary sources. Throughout this thesis, I will argue that current trends all point to China's economic and geo-strategic needs rather than Kenya's developmental needs

The Elements of Big Data Value

This open access book presents the foundations of the Big Data research and innovation ecosystem and the associated enablers that facilitate delivering value from data for business and society. It provides insights into the key elements for research and innovation, technical architectures, business models, skills, and best practices to support the creation of data-driven solutions and organizations. The book is a compilation of selected high-quality chapters covering best practices, technologies, experiences, and practical recommendations on research and innovation for big data. The contributions are grouped into four parts: · Part I: Ecosystem Elements of Big Data Value focuses on establishing the big data value ecosystem using a holistic approach to make it attractive and valuable to all stakeholders. · Part II: Research and Innovation Elements of Big Data Value details the key technical and capability challenges to be addressed for delivering big data value. · Part III: Business, Policy, and Societal Elements of Big Data Value investigates the need to make more efficient use of big data and understanding that data is an asset that has significant potential for the economy and society. · Part IV: Emerging Elements of Big Data Value explores the critical elements to maximizing the future potential of big data value. Overall, readers are provided with insights which can support them in creating data-driven solutions, organizations, and productive data ecosystems. The material represents the results of a collective effort undertaken by the European data community as part of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the European Commission and the Big Data Value Association (BDVA) to boost data-driven digital transformation

The Political Dynamics of Electricity Sector Performance in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire

What factors drive variation in policy choices related to the electricity sector and, ultimately, in sectoral performance over time? This dissertation argues that differences in the form and intensity of competitive political pressures affect the choice and implementation of electricity sector policies and thus sectoral performance. First, I explore bivariate relationships between commonly cited external factors – natural resource endowments, economic shocks, investment climate, droughts, and civil wars – and sectoral performance across Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings confirm associations between these factors and sectoral performance. Yet they indicate considerable unexplained variation in sectoral performance, which requires qualitative analysis. Second, I analyze the politics of electricity sector management in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. In the 1980s and 1990s, these two countries faced similar economic and climatic crises that brought the electricity sector to its knees. Yet when the World Bank and the IMF pushed neoliberal policies as solutions for sectoral challenges, they responded differently. Liberalization and privatization policies moved forward more quickly in Côte d’Ivoire than in Ghana. Moreover, electricity sector performance differed in the two countries during 1990-2019. Electrification rates accelerated in Ghana, but they slowed in Côte d’Ivoire. Côte d’Ivoire improved the reliability of electricity supply more than Ghana. Electricity prices also reflected costs of service in Côte d’Ivoire but not in Ghana. The comparative political analysis traces how different forms and intensity of competitive political pressures, especially coups d’état, electoral threats, civil wars, and risks of civil wars, affect the implementation of electricity sector policies and then sectoral performance in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. I argue that intense political competition encourages Ghanaian politicians to extend electricity access to rural areas to mobilize political support and to set artificially low tariffs to appease urban residents and swing voters. Politically motivated low tariffs, coupled with unpaid subsidies and governments’ failure to pay their own electricity bills, result in inadequate investments in power utilities and, in turn, recurrent power shortages and outages. On the other hand, I argue that existential threats, mainly contestations over Ivorian identity and citizenship and civil war, slowed electrification programs with governments prioritizing regime and national stability. My study shows that (the risks of) civil wars crowd out ordinary concerns like electricity provision. However, when political life returns to normal, high competition drives governments to mollify voters by extending access to electricity and setting below-cost tariffs. Low competition allows governments to make policy changes they view as solutions for sectoral challenges but might defer short-term voter gratification. I demonstrate that low electoral threats encouraged the privatization of the state-owned electricity company in Côte d’Ivoire. In contrast, intense political competition discouraged ruling elites from privatizing the national electricity distributor in Ghana