Ukraine’s Exports as a Global Challenge for Its Future

Exports are critical for the highly open Ukrainian economy which is characterized by the large trade deficit. Since independence the major consumers of the Ukrainian products have been the CIS and the EU. Conflict with Russia led to the significant decline of the volume of Ukraine’s export commodities. The export analysis, based on the data provided by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine for the period of 2010-2018 allowed to identify the problems and to come up with possible solutions focusing primarily on the role of the Government of Ukraine in strengthening cooperation with the EU. Firstly, it is suggested to take the institutional steps aimed at expanding and deepening the integration towards the common economic space with the EU, especially the common customs space. Secondly, to explore the opportunities of exporting goods to the countries, with which the EU has signed regional trade agreements. The third step is related to the changing role of Ukraine in the global model of the transformation of the world economy and requires the combination of close cooperation with the EU, on the one hand, and the powerful economies, on the other, thereby contributing to the formation of non-confrontational relations between East and West

The worlds of agriculture in Asia : agricultural and economic development

The agro-fundamentalists consider agriculture as the engine of growth while agro-pessimists argue that economic growth causes agricultural productivity. It is the main engine of growth in agriculture-based countries; less important in transforming economies; and plays the same role as other tradable sectors in urbanized countries (World Bank, 2008). This work revisits agriculture’s role in the development process within the experience of Asia where the majority of the population heavily depends on agriculture. Chapter 2 presents the results of causality tests between agriculture and economic growth in bivariate systems using the TYDL methodology. For some of agriculture-based Asia (Bhutan, Lao, Cambodia and Pakistan), there is evidence to support the agro-fundamentalists view. Mongolia’s economic growth drives agricultural growth. There is no causality running from either direction for Nepal, Vietnam and Bangladesh. No causal relationship between agriculture and economic growth is evident in the transforming economies of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. Indian and Chinese agriculture contribute to economic growth while the Malaysian economy shows evidence of bidirectional causality. Chapter 3 investigates the impact of agriculture on economic development in the context of an open economy, as measured by the accession to WTO and Trade Freedom Index, by employing an OLS method. The theory predicts that the openness of economies negatively affects the gains in the economic growth from improvement in agricultural productivity. However, this effect is not strong enough to cause a long-run negative relationship between economic growth and agricultural productivity. Further, the effect does not bring large differences in the gains from agricultural productivity between the open and closed economies in most of Asia. Chapter 4 examines the role of agriculture in the Korean economy as it transitioned from a predominantly agricultural to an urbanized economy by employing a VARX method. The impact of agriculture is significantly different between the transforming and urbanized stage with the former producing a greater impact. The effect of agriculture is also dependent on the country’s stages of economic growth, i.e., Korean agriculture contributes to economic growth in transforming Korea, but not in an agriculture-based and urbanized economy

Governance Through Participation: An Inquiry into the Social Relations of Community-Based Research

Community-based research (CBR) is consistently held up as a benchmark for socially just knowledge production. Calls for the intensification of and further institutionalization of CBR indicate the discursive value of community-engaged research, but its material effects are unclear. CBRs claims to egalitarian, emancipatory research relations and outcomes remain largely uninterrogated and the participative practices and collaborative relations under documented and theorized. This study of the social relations of CBR theorizes participatory research as a site of governance. Specifically, I inquire into how the social relations of CBR are governed through affect, participatory practices, colonial processes of subjectification, institutional arrangements, as well as resisted as counter governmental practices. I draw on poststructural, postcolonial and affect theories in dialogue with the critical reflections of twenty-nine academic, community-based professionals, and peer CBR collaborators to bring forth the complexity of governmental practices. I develop a methodology of Dialogic Theoretical Pluralism to produce five distinct strands of theoretical analyses, which trouble the discursive and material practices of collaborative research, while not foreclosing on its possibilities. I argue that conversants desires to do socially transformative research are unmet and reconfigure CBR as a site of scaffolding community collaborators toward social mobility. These desires activate participative practices of access to and appropriation of community knowledges and labour to produce a tertiary, low cost and precarious knowledge work force. Colonial subject-making practices of CBR, which are raced, gendered and classed, secure the benevolence and expertise of academe against community subjects Othered as lacking beneficiaries in need of capacity building. Institutional arrangements coordinate time, authorize who is a legitimate knower, and consign community collaborators and community benefit to the margins. These governmental practices are not total and institutionalized norms of CBR are resisted through unsettling affect, strategic subjectivities, dissent and distance, and revitalized commitments to social and epistemic transformation. Despite these transgressive practices, the reconfiguration of CBR as an individual intervention in a context of eroding support to social programming and social change warrants sustained attention to the ways in which participation colludes with the very neoliberal/colonial projects it aims to contest

An Investigation of the Social and Academic Uses of Digital Technology by University Students

Aquest estudi ens presenta una perspectiva diferent de què és el que pensen els alumnes de la URV sobre l’ús de les tecnologies digitals amb finalitat acadèmica i social; i com es senten sobre el fenomen “natiu digital”. L’objecte central d’aquest estudi és entendre com els estudiants universitaris utilitzen les tecnologies digitals i quines són les implicacions del seu ús en l’educació superior. Per abordar aquest objectiu, el investigador va adoptar un enfocament interpretatiu i va desenvolupar una estratègia d’investigació de mètodes mixtes. Les principals tècniques de recollida de dades utilitzades van ser la revisió integradora de la literatura, els qüestionaris en línia i les entrevistes semi-estructurades. L’estudi es va realitzar a la Facultat de Ciències de l’Educació i Psicologia de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) de Tarragona, Espanya. La comunicació cara a cara, les xarxes socials, el correu electrònic personal, els missatges de text i el telèfon mòbil són les formes preferides de comunicació i connexió amb els altres. La majoria dels estudiants es comuniquen en grups via Facebook i WhatsApp que estan inclosos com part del seu procés d’aprenentatge per compartir informació relacionada amb la classe. Els resultats ens suggereixen que el seu coneixement tecnològic no és el que s’esperaria per els representants de la generació de natius digitals. Els resultats no confirmen l’afirmació que existeix una bretxa tecnològica entre els estudiants més joves i els seus companys de major edat. De fet, ambdós utilitzen les mateixes tecnologies en la seva vida quotidiana, com el ordenador, els telèfons mòbils (WhatsApp), el Internet, el correu electrònic i el Facebook; però això no ha de portar a la conclusió que la nova generació d’estudiants ha desenvolupat sofisticades habilitats tecnològiques.Este estudio nos presenta una perspectiva diferente de qué es lo que piensan los alumnos de la URV acerca del uso de las tecnologías digitales con fines académicos y sociales; y cómo se sienten sobre el fenómeno "nativo digital". El objetivo central de este estudio es entender cómo los estudiantes universitarios utilizan las tecnologías digitales y cuáles son las implicaciones de su uso en la educación superior. Para abordar este objetivo, el investigador adoptó un enfoque interpretativo y desarrolló una estrategia de investigación de métodos mixtos. Las principales técnicas de recogida de datos utilizados fueron la revisión integradora de la literatura, cuestionarios en línea y entrevistas semi-estructuradas. El estudio se realizó en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación y Psicología de la Universidad Rovira i Virgili (URV) de Tarragona, España. Comunicación cara a cara, redes sociales, correo electrónico personal, mensajes de texto y el teléfono móvil son los modos preferidos de comunicación y conexión con los demás. La mayoría de los estudiantes se comunica en grupos vía Facebook y WhatsApp que son incluidas como parte de su proceso de aprendizaje para compartir información relacionada con la clase. Los resultados nos sugieren que su conocimiento tecnológico no es lo que se esperaría para los representantes de la generación de nativos digitales. Los resultados no confirman la afirmación de que existe una brecha tecnológica entre los estudiantes más jóvenes y sus compañeros de mayor edad. De hecho, ambos utilizan las mismas tecnologías en su vida cotidiana, como el ordenador, teléfonos móviles (WhatsApp), Internet, correo electrónico y Facebook; pero esto no debe llevar a la conclusión de que la nueva generación de estudiantes ha desarrollado sofisticadas habilidades tecnológicas.This study presents a different perspective of what URV learners think about their use of digital technologies for academic and social purposes and how they feel about the “Digital Native Generation” phenomenon. The central aim of the study is to understand how university learners use digital technologies and what are the implications of their use for higher education. To address this aim, the researcher adopted an interpretivist approach and developed a mixed-method research strategy. The main data collection techniques used were integrative literature review, online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The study was conducted in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona, Spain. Face-to-face interaction, social networks, personal email, text message and mobile cellphone were the preferred modes of communicating and connecting with others. Most of students’ communication is in groups via Facebook and WhatsApp and had integrated them as part of the learning process to share class-related information. The results suggest that their technological knowledge is not what would be expected for representatives of the digital native generation. The findings do not support the claim that there is a substantial gap between more technologically adept younger students and their older classmates. Indeed, both used many of the same technologies in their everyday lives, with computer, mobile phones (WhatsApp), the Internet, e-mail (personal and institutional account) and Facebook; but this should not lead to the conclusion that the new generation of students has developed sophisticated technological abilities

'Exporting Paradise'? EU Development Policy Towards Afica Since the End of the Cold War

The central aim of the thesis is to define the approach of EU development policy towards Africa since the end of the Cold War. It focuses on the unexplored areas of the available literature on the subject, specifically the impact of EU development policy on the domain of international development and the objective of the EU to become a prominent international actor. The thesis relies on Martha Finnemore’s Social Constructivist research. It concentrates on the dynamics maintained by the EU with the normative basis that characterises the structure and agents of international development, and assesses how it affected EU behaviour, as expressed through its development policy towards Africa in the considered timeframe.1 By doing so, the thesis exposes both the marked effect of EU development policy in the domain of international development, and the form of ‘paradise’ (model of development) the EU promoted in Africa. The empirical support in the thesis is comprised of archived data, official documents, press releases, published reports, speeches, and personally conducted interviews. Following the method of research, the thesis focuses on tracing the norms that characterise EU development policy towards Africa over time. Therein, the thesis largely confirms the identified agents as the source of the norms that define the structure of international development, and the EU as its derivative. It argues that EU development policy is currently a general projection of the normative structure of international development, specifically regarding the policy orientation of its identified agents. As a result, it contends that the EU fell short of its efforts to export its form of ‘paradise’ to Africa in the proposed timeframe as a corollary of its limitations to stand as a distinct and leading actor in the domain of international development. Thus, the thesis makes a fresh contribution to the understanding of EU development policy towards Africa and the objective of the EU to become a prominent international actor in the twenty-first century.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Експериментальна економіка та машинне навчання для прогнозування динаміки емерджентної економіки: матеріали вибраних робіт 8-ї Міжнародної конференції з моніторингу, моделювання та управління емерджентною економікою (M3E2 2019)

This volume represents the proceedings of the selected papers of the 8th International Conference on Monitoring, Modeling & Management of Emergent Economy (M3E2 2019), held in Odessa, Ukraine, on May 22-24, 2019. It comprises 38 papers dedicated to the experimental economics and machine learning that were carefully peer-reviewed and selected from 71 submissions.Цей том представляє вибрані матеріали 8-ої Міжнародної конференції "Моніторинг, моделювання та менеджмент емерджентної економіки" (M3E2 2019), що відбулася в Одесі, Україна, 22-24 травня 2019 року. Він містить 38 робіт, присвячених експериментальній економіці та машинному навчанню, які були ретельно прорецензовані та відібрані з 71 подання

8 Міжнародна конференція "Моніторинг, моделювання та менеджмент емерджентної економіки" (M3E2 2019)

Матеріали конференції.Proceedings