Collective Action in Plant Breeding

Olson (1965) formulated a "Logic of Collective Action". We investigate whether a logic of collective action in plant breeding - and research and development generally - can be constructed. Using a case study on the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) as well as other real-world institutions of collective action in R&D, we construct an expanded logic of collective action, which revolves around two core features: Impure public goods and the tragedy of the anticommons. Provisions of FLAR and other institutions are related to game theory and contract theory, and theoretical, methodological and policy implications are outlined.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

AFRICA'S UNFINISHED BUSINESS: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SYSTEMS

This paper addresses four questions: · What lessons can be drawn from the "rise and decline" of NARS in Africa? · What can African research managers learn from some of the successful reforms of NARS in Asia and Latin America over the past 10 to 15 years? · What are the major challenges facing the NARS in the ASARECA region in the coming 10-20 years? · What are the critical reforms and the incentives needed to develop pluralistic, accountable, productive and financially self-sustaining NARS in AFRICA?Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

(Zen And The Art Of) Post-Modern Philosophy: A Partially Interpreted Model

Wittgenstein once wrote, “a wheel that can be turned though nothing else moves with it, is not part of the mechanism,” and Nyberg’s explanation as to why Hilary Putnam’s answer to the question of whether we might intelligibly suppose ourselves to be “brains in a vat” is wrong takes us, by way of Wittgenstein’s statement, to the intersection of metaphysics and epistemology, i.e., to the very cornerstone of western philosophy, where we find, waiting for us, the absolute I of solipsism. Yet, it is the solipsistic I which in its articulation most obviously violates the private language argument’s stricture against criterionless reference, though the solipsist has available a reply of sorts – the reply of silence, a complete silence which shrouds equally the blank slates of absolute solipsism and pure realism. Through silence, the I of solipsism becomes the eye of realism and, no longer visible even to itself, vanishes from the realm of analytic discourse, only to be reborn at the correspondent point of each successive incarnation of the paradigm. Other methods of philosophy must, thus, be adopted if we are ever to escape the analytic paradigm’s cyclic limits. It is here, at the point where analysis alone can carry us no further, that “Zen” transitions from an unusually-structured but still traditional philosophic essay into something else entirely, with the incorporation into its closing pages of 15 poetic pieces, each drawn from Nyberg’s 100, a longer text of philosophical poetry which takes up where “Zen” leaves off. [email protected] Iowa City, Iowa/Palo Alto, California/New York, New York/Los Angeles, California/Rapid City, South Dakota June 1982-January 202

The Material Culture of Freemasonry:A Part of Things not a Thing Apart

Freemasonry is often seen as 'a thing apart' rather than 'a part of things'. This thesis applies well-established anthropological and sociological theories to the material culture of freemasonry, in particular Actor Network Theory. It establishes for the first time that this method binds freemasonry into the broader world of material culture and also provides unexpected insights into freemasonry itself.Centering the examination on my personal experience as Curator at the Museum of Freemasonry in London I consider how the collecting and display or failure to display objects used by, created by and commercially produced for freemasons provides insights in the round on how the material is regarded by society. The perceived secrecy of freemasonry is considered and I show that this is a contested and variable boundary between concealment and revelation. Most of the information needed to study the material culture of freemasonry is accessible to external researchers.I establish the nature of these objects and the way in which the inanimate material culture of freemasonry has innate properties that generate affect and agency on the freemasons and wider society. I show how this material culture is bound into the development of capitalism and consumerism from the early eighteenth century onwards. It forms the first and only continuous example of identity supporting material culture to arise ex nihilo and develop in parallel with the consumer society from the early eighteenth century. This has strong parallels with later material cultures reinforcing identity but is the paradigm and key point for comparison.I view freemasonry's material culture from different viewpoints, firstly its development and relevance to freemasons then establishing its relationship with the broader non-masonic world. I then de-contextualise it by examining its role as collectable giving the material a new agency not always related to its intended function or meaning.The thesis establishes for the first time that masonic material culture has a meaning and significance beyond the specifics of freemasonry studies. I show that a wide range of theories can be brought to bear on this topic and argue that there are multiple significant additional routes to study that have yet to be investigated.I conclude that the material culture of freemasonry is indeed 'a part of things' and if as researchers we fail to investigate the 'things' that freemasonry creates we lose a significant tool to investigate and analyse freemasonry as part of the wider social and anthropological world

Child Care Enterprise, Community Development, and Work

Child care enterprise can be a vehicle for community-based economic development. Beyond the critical goal of child care service, day care as an enterprise can help build capacity for job creation and entrepreneurship in the inner city and in disadvantaged communities. Stable child care institutions with quality jobs can sound a counterpoint to the feminization of poverty. The demand for child care services is substantial and growing. In single parent families and in households with two working parents, day care is essential to enable parents to work or go to school. Further, high quality early childhood programs can have a positive impact on child development. But child care teachers face the dual obstacle of a public attitude that devalues their work and a harsh economic environment that relegates child care enterprise to the margin. The economic and social reality for day care centers too often means low-wage jobs for women, with few benefits and little opportunity for advancement. In any child care enterprise, the quality of care for the children substantially depends on the caregivers and on the quality of their work life. The quality of work, in turn, requires respect for the workers and sufficient resources to provide them with decent wages, benefits, and job security. The challenge, then, for a community economic development approach is two-fold. First, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, child care centers need to forge linkages beyond their own enterprises to external institutions with available resources. Second, they need to transform those resources into a corporate culture that values the work force and balances staff interests with the needs of the children and parents. Part I of this article describes the contours of the child care industry and underlying societal values that keep it at the economic margin. Part II locates child care in a community economic development context, with attention to child care employment and theories about women and work. Part III describes selected enterprise models, all of which involve child care centers strengthened by creative linkage with other institutions and one model that empowers staff through a participatory culture and worker ownership

The ShaRInK framework: a holistic perspective on key categories of influences shaping individual perceptions of knowledge sharing

Purpose – This paper aims to present a holistic framework, termed ShaRInK (Sharer, Relations, Institution, Knowledge), that depicts key categories of influences that shape individual perceptions of knowledge sharing within an organisational setting. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory and qualitative case study strategy in which empirical data were gathered from 24 interviewees that were based in four different branches (i.e. China, The Netherlands, the UK and the USA) of a single information technology services organisation. Findings – The findings led to a holistic framework that depicts four key categories of influences that shape knowledge sharing from an individual perspective: attitudes and characteristics of the sharers, relations between the sharers, institutions which act as a united entity on sharer perceptions and knowledge itself. Furthermore, the four key influences not only shape knowledge sharing independently but are intertwined and have a synergistic effect. The ShaRInK framework is formed by combining these. Originality/value – The findings indicate that knowledge sharing from an individual-level perspective is a more complex phenomenon than currently portrayed in the literature. All four key influences, each being fundamentally different in nature, and their relationships should be taken into account. Equally, the ShaRInK framework can be applied by organisations when developing a knowledge-sharing strategy or auditing existing strategies

Higher aspirations: an agenda for reforming European universities

Since the introduction of the Shanghai ranking of the worldâ??s universities it has been clear that European universities are underperforming. This blueprint discusses the potential explanations and points at different reform priorities for higher education in Europe.

Global value chains and the impact of COVID-19 crisis: the case of the Italian gold jewellery

openThis thesis aim consists in analysing, throughout the international lenses of Global Value Chains, the reactions and the responses of the three main Italian gold jewellery industrial districts - namely, Arezzo, Valenza Po and Vicenza - against Covid-19 crisis. Thanks to the blend of two important frameworks such as GVCs and IDs, the contribution that the thesis wants to offer consists in an empirical quantitative analysis that embrace the local and the global dimensions of jewellery IDs. After a review of the related literature and on the main effects of Covid-19 crisis on the Italian economy and on the jewellery industry, the research proceeds with the definition of three hypotheses. The first is related to the ability of firms pertaining to IDs of being more performing against crises with respect to other non-district firms: in order to test this hypothesis, a statistical model was built. The second hypothesis refers to the ability of IDs embedded within GVCs suffered more the initial phase of Covid-19 crisis of being more able to quickly recover from recession periods. To verify this hypothesis, a deep analysis of import and export official data (found on Coeweb, ISTAT) has been done. The third hypothesis wants to make a comparison between the current crisis and other past crises that IDs faced. What has emerged, referring to the first hypothesis, is that a "district effect" across cluster firms and non-district firms is not statistically significant within the model utilized. What resulted for the second hypothesis and also according to second sources, is that the jewellery IDs showed a considerable degree of resilience and adaptation during crisis periods. For the last hypothesis, some interesting points have emerged: even though the performance, import and export trends of 2020 show similarities with data referring to the Great Recession and the globalization crisis (De Marchi et al., 2014), the reactions of IDs have been different and mainly related to higher diversification of export markets. The most adaptive district, Arezzo, also re-focused its core business concentrating its production during crisis in gold bars in order to mitigate the negative effects of the economic downturn, reducing at the same time the production of jewels.This thesis aim consists in analysing, throughout the international lenses of Global Value Chains, the reactions and the responses of the three main Italian gold jewellery industrial districts - namely, Arezzo, Valenza Po and Vicenza - against Covid-19 crisis. Thanks to the blend of two important frameworks such as GVCs and IDs, the contribution that the thesis wants to offer consists in an empirical quantitative analysis that embrace the local and the global dimensions of jewellery IDs. After a review of the related literature and on the main effects of Covid-19 crisis on the Italian economy and on the jewellery industry, the research proceeds with the definition of three hypotheses. The first is related to the ability of firms pertaining to IDs of being more performing against crises with respect to other non-district firms: in order to test this hypothesis, a statistical model was built. The second hypothesis refers to the ability of IDs embedded within GVCs suffered more the initial phase of Covid-19 crisis of being more able to quickly recover from recession periods. To verify this hypothesis, a deep analysis of import and export official data (found on Coeweb, ISTAT) has been done. The third hypothesis wants to make a comparison between the current crisis and other past crises that IDs faced. What has emerged, referring to the first hypothesis, is that a "district effect" across cluster firms and non-district firms is not statistically significant within the model utilized. What resulted for the second hypothesis and also according to second sources, is that the jewellery IDs showed a considerable degree of resilience and adaptation during crisis periods. For the last hypothesis, some interesting points have emerged: even though the performance, import and export trends of 2020 show similarities with data referring to the Great Recession and the globalization crisis (De Marchi et al., 2014), the reactions of IDs have been different and mainly related to higher diversification of export markets. The most adaptive district, Arezzo, also re-focused its core business concentrating its production during crisis in gold bars in order to mitigate the negative effects of the economic downturn, reducing at the same time the production of jewels

The Corporate Power of the British Monarchy:Capital(ism), Wealth and Power in Contemporary Britain

This article offers a critical analysis of the British monarchy within wider political economies of wealth and power. While sociology has renewed its interest in ‘the elites’, the British monarchy is often positioned as an archaic institution, an anachronism in relation to corporate forms of wealth and power, and therefore irrelevant. This article counters this framing by revealing the mechanics, technologies and actors ‘behind the scenes’, in order to expose and demystify the relationship between the symbolic and political-economic functions of the monarchy. To do this, I (re)conceptualise the monarchy as a corporation, ‘The Firm’, oriented towards, and historically entrenched in, processes of capital accumulation, profit extraction and other forms of exploitation. The article maps out The Firm’s labour relations, financial arrangements, inter/national relationships and networks, and the legal status of The Crown and its components in order to demonstrate how ‘old’ and ‘new’ forms of wealth intersect and converge in contemporary Britain. This article is intended as a provocation to sociological studies of elites to suggest that, in overlooking monarchy, we are overlooking a key component of contemporary capitalism, and a key component in the reproduction of inequalities today