Promoting innovation in developing countries: a conceptual framework

The author provides a conceptual framework for approaching the promotion of technological innovation and its diffusion in developing countries. Innovation climates in developing countries are, by nature, problematic, characterized by poor business and governance conditions, low educational levels, and mediocre infrastructure. This raises particular challenges for the promotion of innovation. The latter should be understood as the diffusion of technologies-and related practices-which are new to a given context (not in absolute terms). What matters first is to provide the necessary package of support-technical, financial, commercial, legal, and so on-with flexible, autonomous agencies adapting their support and operations to the different types of concerned enterprises. Facilitating and responding to the emergence of grass-root needs at the local level is also essential. Support to entrepreneurs and local communities should be primarily provided in matching grant forms to facilitate the mobilization of local resources and ownership. It is of primary importance to pay the greatest attention to country specificities, not only in terms of development level, size, and specialization, but also in terms of administrative and cultural traditions. At the global level, major issues need also to be considered and dealt with by appropriate incentives and regulations: the role of foreign direct investment in developing countries'technological development, conditions of technologies'patenting and licensing, the North-South research asymmetry, and brain drain trends.Innovation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Research,Poverty Assessment,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Конкурентна відповідь гібридної бізнес-моделі КНР на тиск глобалізації

The article considers the phenomenon of China's social market economy. The features of the economic system that combines socialist governance with liberalization of the market are highlighted. The mechanism of interaction of stakeholders within this system is described in detail. The comparative table of the Anglo-Saxon, communitarian and hybrid Chinese economic systems is given. A tool was formed to support the functioning of the hybrid economic system of the PRC in the form of a macroeconomic business model, and new challenges of the country were taken into account when continuing this path. The need for structural changes in the Chinese corporate governance system was emphasized, increasing business transparency and the degree of investor confidence in the future of Chinese firms. It is proved that the path chosen by the PRC created an economic "miracle" and took a dominant position in the world, which is a catalyst for all global changes.В статті розглянуто феномен соціально-ринкової економіки Китаю. Висвітлено особливості економічної системи, яка поєднує соціалістичне управління країною з лібералізацією ринку. Детально охарактеризовано механізм взаємодії стейкхолдерів всередині даної системи. Наведена порівняльна таблиця англосаксонської, комунітаристичної та гібридної китайської економічних систем. Сформовано інструмент підтримки функціонування гібридної економічної системи КНР у вигляді макроекономічної бізнес-моделі та враховано нові виклики країни при продовженні даного шляху. Підкреслено необхідність структурних змін у китайській системі корпоративного управління, що збільшить прозорість бізнесу та ступінь впевненості інвесторів у майбутньому китайських фірм. Доведено, що обраний КНР шлях створив економічне «диво» та зайняв домінантне становище в світі, яке є каталізатором усіх глобальних зрушень

Workshop series on the role of institutions in East Asian development: Institutional foundations of innovation and competitiveness in East Asia

The discussion paper summarizes the results of a workshop that focussed on the institutional foundations of innovation and competitiveness in East Asia. The following papers are contained: 'Transitional Institutions, Institutional Complementarities and Economic Performance in China. A "Varieties of Capitalism" Approach', 'The Current State of Research on Networks in China's Business System', 'Recent Changes to Korea's Innovation Governance', 'Standardization and Institutional Complementarities in Japan - Empirical Results from SAP R/3 Implementations in Japanese Automotive Suppliers'. --East Asia,Japan,China,Korea,institutional change,competitiveness,innovation

Uneven and combined development: modernity, modernism, revolution

Trotsky’s theory of Uneven and Combined Development was born out of his experience of the Russian Revolution. To mark the centenary of the revolution, we are publishing a series of five pieces by Neil Davidson that explore the theory’s wider contribution to how we understand capitalist modernity. These articles show how ideas that began life in the revolution continue to inspire new ways of grasping the world, and that we are very much engaging in a living 21st century world when reflecting on the previous century. The series published here are extracts of his forthcoming book Violating all the Laws of History that will be published in the Haymarket Historical Materialism series in 2018

Civil society in East Asian countries: contributions to democracy, peace and sustainable development: proceedings of the conference

This publication is dedicated to research on East Asian civil society with special attention given to composition, development and activities of non-governmental sector. The publication gathers research of authors from Lithuania, Germany, UK, South Korea and the Czech Republic who analyze not only general situation in East Asia but also provide detailed case studies. This allows to learn more about political and socioeconomic circumstances that determine particular characteristics of civil society in China, Korea and Japan. The collection of articles will be useful both for specialists of East Asia and researchers coming from the fields of political science, history, sociology and anthropology who would like to know more about familiar topics, such as labor movements, environmental organizations or democratization processes, in the context of less known countries

Social policy, state legitimacy and strategic actors: governmentality and counter-conduct in authoritarian regime

Far from acting defensively to preserve the social relations and red ideologies that originally gave it power, the Chinese Communist Party is leading a social and economic transformation that could be expected to lead to direct challenges to its authority. The surprising degree of change in the Chinese socio-economic transformation and the fact that this transformation has been going on for forty years now and has not yet resulted in fundamental challenges subverting its rule have inspired my study. The overarching theoretical enquiry in my dissertation resonates with one of the most important theoretical questions in political sociology: how does the state maintain compliance from the governed in periods of rapid social and economic transformation, and how does the logic of its governmentality change along with its priorities? My work is built on the Weberian and Gramscian tradition of understanding state rule and highlights the individual’s rationale of “believing” and “consent”, but also takes account of the Foucaudian “governmentality” the state uses to maintain its rule and investigates the underlined rationality. Empirically, I take advantage of the pension changes among China’s social welfare reforms, decipher a two-way story of statecraft in authoritarian regimes and explore whether there may be room for cognitional counter-conduct from the public. My work demonstrates that the Chinese state works through benefit allocation, propaganda, experimentation with policy and many other approaches, in order to shape public expectations and justify its rule. However, the state’s well-designed statecraft needs to enable individuals to make sense of their experience and must resonate with their “common sense”. Individuals can update their knowledge from personal interest, information from government policies, signals from current society (their peers) to decide whether to stay loyal or choose non-compliance. In a situation when active counter-conduct such as resistance is not possible, individuals may choose cognitional rebellion and falsify their public compliance

Bridging Bays, Bridging Borders: Global Justice and Community Organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area

We offer this document as our own effort to build the inclusion and understandings that will help both communities and leaders recognize the grassroots wisdom and issues that could help us realize the positive impacts from globalization and minimize the negative aspects that have concerned us all. Another world is possible, but it is up to us to build it