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

The Development of Digital Human Rights in the European Union: How Key Interests Shape National and Regional Data Governance

The European Union has the most restrictive data protection policies among democracies today, having created a regime of digital human rights. Yet what contributed to the decision by EU policy-makers to place supranational constraints upon personal and cyber data use? At the national level, Member States’ preferences were influenced by three structural factors: domestic security threats, the growing digital economy, and the work of human rights advocates around data privacy. Law enforcement and security officials sought access to data for criminal prosecution and anti-terrorism purposes. Multinational firms asked for the freedom to transport data across borders, treating it as an economic commodity. Legal rights actors pressed for data privacy and protections. While none of these preferences have been mutually exclusive, EU policy convergence upon the digital human rights model is the result of pressure exerted by key states. Most particularly, epistemic experts and key political elites acted on behalf of the UK, Germany, and France to turn the EU Commission and the Council in the direction of their national preferences for data governance. However, whether the EU can successfully maintain digital human rights as it attempts to export these norms to the global community remains to be seen. What is framed as human rights protections for data continues to give considerable leverage to data brokers and law enforcement officials to use data as they wish

Solving productivity puzzles - on the nature of total factor productivity, technological change and the explanatory power of the mismeasurement hypothesis

Long-term economic development, productivity growth and technological progress are inevitably linked to each other. The present study tackles this nexus and elaborates on the declining rates of productivity growth in the recent past. As the field of study is the German economy and in order to avoid problems associated with structural changes, the point of departure for the analysis of productivity trends is 1991. The first part of the study is dedicated to the question, whether total factor productivity (TFP) is a suitable variable for depicting technological progress in the system of national accounts. Apart from providing insight into the evolution of the growth accounting framework, the study presents three views of how to interpret the connection between TFP and technology: a traditional view, which states an equivalence (the residual-view), a view that emphasizes the ignorance of the components of the residual and a third-way, which explains the occurence of the residual as a result from (technological) spill-over-effects. Usually, the birth point of the theory of growth accounting and the discussion about the residual, which form the traditional view, are associated with the works of Robert Solow (1956, 1957). However, it was Jan Tinbergen (1959 [1942]), who has originally set up such a framework, mathematically based on a Cobb-Douglas production function (1928). As a critical reaction on the traditional view, subsequent research has tackled the issue by promoting the ignorance-character of the residual. Moreover, it was tried to minimize this catch-all variable by trying to explain economic growth just with the input factors labour and capital and not a technology-labelled residual. A third possibilty of interpretation is provided mainly by Richard Lipsey and Kenneth Carlaw (2003), who interpret any changes in TFP as spill-over-effects from technology, but not technology per se. The second part of the study then tackles the German productivity puzzle declining rates of productivity growth from 1991 onwards. Accepting a connection between technology and producitivity, decreasing productivity growth rates imply less technological progress a confusing result in course of the wave of technological innovations of the 21st century. Two strands of explanations are provided. As a first possibility, there is the so-called mismeasurement hypothesis. If measurement errors occur and/or if the system of national accounts is an inaccurate measurement framework, then this could explain the missing portion of output in the data. Potential for mismeasurement exists, i.e. by the problem of capturing quality effects or by the general problem of accurately measuring developments in the ICT-sectors of modern service economies like Germany. In order to evaluate the magnitude of potential mismeasurement, a study by Chad Syverson (2016, 2017) is chosen and applied on Germany. The results of the German application and the base study converge there is potential mismeasurement, its magnitude however is simply too small to account for the entire bulk of the missing data. In contrast to potential mismeasurement, a second strand of explanation is discussed, implying real economic problems. Applying the theory of secular stagnation, any decline in productivity growth then is the result from insufficient economic conditions. The present study adopts the supply side argumentation, revived and mainly formed by Larry Summers (2012, 2015). Summers argumentation is separated into a major argument of less technological innovations (less significant innovations) and potential headwinds, which falter economic growth. The present study analyses the German economy in the light of potential headwinds and finds different headwinds and impacts, compared to Summers original analysis, which is set up for the US. Demographic aspects, insufficient capital spending (especially in infrastructure) and rising inequality are the major headwinds for Germany. In comparison to the US, Germany performs better regarding the educational system and public (and private) debt.Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Bedeutung des Technischen Fortschritts, den damit verbundenen Produktivitätstrends und den Implikationen für den Entwicklungspfad einer Volkswirtschaft - mit Hauptaugenmerk auf der deutschen Ökonomie. Um etwaige Strukturbrüche zu vermeiden, liegt der Fokus der Arbeit vornehmlich auf den gesamtwirtschaftlichen Produktivitätstrends ab 1991. Dabei befasst sich die Arbeit im ersten Teil mit der Frage, ob die gängige Messgröße zur Abbildung des Technischen Fortschritts - die Totale Faktorproduktivität (TFP) - diesen im Rahmen der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung (VGR) akkurat abbilden kann. Neben der Entstehungsgeschichte der Messgröße und der Entwicklung der dazugehörigen Methodik (Wachstumsbeitragsrechnung, engl. growth accounting), diskutiert die Dissertation drei mögliche Interpretationen der Technologie-Produktivitäts-Relation: die klassische Sichtweise, die quasi eine 1:1-Beziehung konstatiert, eine dazu konträre Meinung (ignorance-Sichtweise) und eine Art spill-over-Sichtweise. Als Startpunkt für den chronologischen Aufbau des ersten Teils wurden die Arbeiten von Paul Douglas und Howard Cobb (1928) zur mathematischen Abbildung einer Produktionsfunktion gewählt. Daran anknüpfend gilt das Werk von Jan Tinbergen (1959 [1942]) als Geburtsstunde der Wachstumsbeitragsrechnung, wenngleich als deren Gründungsvater meist Robert Solow (1956, 1957) gesehen wird. Als Reaktion auf das sogenannte Solow-Residuum entstand eine Gegenbewegung, die die Äquivalenz von Technologie und TFP infrage stellte (measure of ignorance, Abramovitz (1956)). Sie war bemüht, Technologieeffekte nicht durch ein unerklärtes Residuum darzustellen, und versuchte diese vollständig den Inputfaktoren Arbeit und Kapital zuzuordnen. Als dritte Interpretationsmöglichkeit der TFP im Lichte des Technologischen Fortschritts wählen die Arbeiten von (v.a.) Richard Lipsey und Kenneth Carlaw (insb. 2003) die Variante, dass das TFP-Residuum nicht Technologischen Fortschritt per se, sondern lediglich spill-over-Effekte und damit eine Art free-lunch ökonomischer Aktivität enthält. Im zweiten Teil analysiert die Dissertation dann das Phänomen des Rückgangs der deutschen Produktivitätswachstumsraten von 1991 bis heute. Die negativen Entwicklungen der deutschen gesamtwirtschaftlichen Produktivität implizieren dabei geringere Wirkungskräfte des Technischen Fortschritts. Der Analyse der Bestimmungsfaktoren liegen dabei zwei konträre Erklärungsstränge bzw. Erklärungshypothesen zugrunde. So bildet die sogenannte Messfehlerhypothese (mismeasurement hypothesis) einen ersten Argumentationsstrang. Nach ihr bestehen Messungenauigkeiten im Rahmen der VGR, die zu einer zu geringeren, quantitativen Abbildung der wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten in den nationalen Statistiken führen. Gründe für potentielle Messungenauigkeiten liefern beispielsweise die Problematik der Abbildung von Qualitätseffekten oder die Schwierigkeit der Erfassung moderner Dienstleistungen im Rahmen der zunehmenden Bedeutung des Informations- und Kommunikationssektors (IKT). Rückläufige Zahlen in den Produktivitätsstatistiken wären, unter der Annahme der Gültigkeit der Messfehlerhypothese, damit rein illusorisch. Bei der Evaluierung der Messfehlerhypothese für Deutschland bedient sich die Dissertation vor allem einer Studie von Chad Syverson (2016, 2017), der für die USA entsprechende Berechnungen anstellte. Zwar finden sich diverse Ansatzpunkte und Hinweise auf Messfehler im IKT-Bereich, jedoch in unzureichendem Ausmaß - dies gilt sowohl für die USA durch die Basisstudie von Syverson, als auch für Deutschland durch die vorliegende Dissertation. Somit sind die Gründe für den Produktivitätsrückgang, zumindest für das Gros, abseits der Messfehlerhypothese zu suchen. Dem Messfehlerargument gegenüber steht die Hypothese, dass reale Gründe für den Produktivitätsabschwung (productivity puzzle) verantwortlich sind. Hierbei orientiert sich die Dissertation an der sogenannten Säkularen Stagnationshypothese. Für die Analyse des deutschen Produktivitätsrückgangs fokussiert sich die Dissertation hauptsächlich auf die Angebotsseite der Theorie, dessen Hauptvertreter in diesem Kontext Robert Gordon ist (insb. 2012, 2015). Er gliedert seine Erklärungen in ein major argument (weniger technische Entwicklungen bzw. ein geringeres Gewicht gegenwärtiger Entwicklungen) und sogenannte headwinds (minor arguments), also Gegenwinde, die die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung blockieren und abschwächen. Die vorliegende Dissertation wendet die headwind-Struktur an und untersucht dabei potentielle angebotsseitige Hindernisse in Deutschland, wie z.B. die demographische Entwicklung, die zunehmende Ungleichheit oder unzureichend ausgestattetes Humankapital. Bei der Analyse der headwinds fällt auf, dass - im Vergleich zu Gordons Arbeiten für die USA - andere Gegenwinde für Deutschland relevant sind. So lässt sich bswp. für das deutsche Bildungssystem, durch größere Vielseitigkeit und geringere finanzielle Belastungen, ein besseres Zeugnis ausstellen, als für den Gegenpart der USA. Auch bläst ein schwächerer deutscher Gegenwind in den Bereichen der Staatsverschuldung, zumindest im Vergleich zu den USA und weiteren Ländern auf einer ähnlichen Entwicklungsstufe. Nachholbedarf bzw. Probleme sieht die vorliegende Dissertation dagegen vor allem in den Bereichen der Investitionstätigkeit (im Speziellen der staatlichen), der Infrastruktur (sowohl der klassischen, als auch der digitalen), der zunehmenden (Einkommens- und Vermögens-) Ungleichheit sowie den Herausforderungen des demographischen Wandels

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission

Essays on Economic Inequalities

This work relates to income inequalities studied from two different perspectives: ICT innovation (Chapter 1-2) and bargaining among social groups (Chapter 3-4). ICT innovation affects the number of jobs but also the structure of the labor market, with important consequences on income distribution. ICT innovation could destroy more jobs than it creates, for the first time since the beginning of industrialization; meanwhile the advanced ICT softwares are reducing that professions typically associated with the middle class, in favor of those that lies to the extremes of pays. On the other hand, the ability of each social group to attract resources is a second source of movements in income distribution; in particular, bargaining can take place within each company (firms versus trade-unions) and within the government (political parties competing to impose welfare regime). In Chapter 1 we estimate the effect of internet revolution on the number of jobs. The fourth industrial revolution, which began with the rise of internet technology, is now seeing the development of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence software. One consequence of such development is the ever-more serious risk posed for jobs. Chapter 1 shall examine this phenomenon in three steps; first, we shall empirically show that productivity growth over the last two decades was led by ICT; secondly, we shall discuss whether these productivity gains have affected the structure of employment by examining the data coming from 16 OECD countries and how such outcomes may be linked to innovation in ICT. Finally, a forecasting logistic model on the evolution of employment will be provided, projecting that by 2040-50 unemployment and atypical forms of work will affect 60% of the workforce in most of the countries observed. In Chapter 2 we observe the structure of job market over the last 25 years in order to find which professions have expanded and which ones have reduced and then we link this outcome to middle class thinning and the consequent income inequality growth. The underlying hypothesis is that ICT innovations are changing job structures, at least in the most industrialized countries. Firstly, this chapter takes the studies of Acemoglu and Autor (2010) and Goos et al. (2009) as a starting point and then updates their results for 16 European countries. The outcome we have found is an accentuation of the dynamics already observed in the literature. On the one hand, the number of non-routine jobs has increased while routine ones (both skilled and non-skilled) have become fewer; on the other hand, while the number of both low-paid and high-paid jobs has risen, those with average compensation have fallen almost everywhere. The consequence is a progressive thinning of the middle class and a change in income distribution among Western populations. Secondly, Chapter 2 links these findings with the recent intensification of the populist phenomenon. We shall be discussing an original theory, consistent both with the literature and with the empirical evidence, which describes the populist origins and its future prospects. In Chapter 3 shift our consideration to the social dynamic of inequalities. Income inequalities increase and decrease according to the capability of each social group in appropriating the national added value. The final outcome of this partition may be seen reflected on the price level. The lasting debate about the origins of inflation has determined two opposing approaches: monetarism and bargaining. The aim of Chapter 3 is to put these aspects together in an innovative synthesis. To investigate this item, we used an Input-Output (IO) approach and we developed an original mathematical process to define the real price index variations. After that, we tested this theoretical definition with an empirical study on Italian inflation over 30 years where we elaborated 31 official I-O tables compiled by the Italian statistics bureau (ISTAT). By this verified definition, inflation is strictly due to the level of wages and profits. This level, in turn, depends both on monetary government intervention (monetarist approach) and on collective bargaining among trade-unions and stakeholders (classic bargaining approach). Finally, by this model, theoretical implications are derived and summed up in six different settings ceteris paribus. Finally, in Chapter 4 we link income inequalities to Health Systems in a European perspective. With a sociological slant, we compare European countries in the context of neoliberal era, focusing on healthy life years for elderly (HLY65+). Firstly, we outline the theoretical state of the art in the literature on health inequalities, stressing the important relationship that links health inequalities to geographic area. In the second part of Chapter 4 we observe data relating to the changes of HLY65+ in the European member states and we correlate these results with the income inequality measured by the Gini index. The last part of Chapter 4 advance some comments on health inequalities in the context of the neoliberal era and in relation to geographic place and welfare policies

Challenges of rapid migration to fully virtual education in the age of the Corona virus pandemic: experiences from across the world

The social disruption caused by the sudden eruption of the Corona Virus pandemic has shaken the whole world, influencing all levels of education immensely. Notwithstanding there was a lack of preparedness for this global public health emergency which continues to affect all aspects of work and life. The problem is, naturally, multifaceted, fast evolving and complex, affecting everyone, threatening our well-being, the global economy, the environment and all societal and cultural norms and our everyday activities. In a recent UNESCO report it is noted that nearly a billion and a quarter (which is 67,7 % of the total number) of learners have been affected by the Corona Virus pandemic worldwide. The education sector at all levels has been one of the hardest hit sectors particularly as the academic/school year was in full swing. The impact of the pandemic is widespread, representing a health hazard worldwide. Being such, it profoundly affects society as a whole, and its members that are, in particular, i) individuals (the learners, their parents, educators, support staff), ii) schools, training organisations, pedagogical institutions and education systems, iii) quickly transformed policies, methods and pedagogies to serve the newly appeared needs of the latter. Lengthy developments of such scale usually take years of consultation, strategic planning and implementation. In addition to raising awareness across the population of the dangers of the virus transmission and instigating total lockdown, it has been necessary to develop mechanisms for continuing the delivery of education as well as demanding mechanisms for assuring the quality of the educational experience and educational results. There is often scepticism about securing quality standards in such a fast moving situation. Often in the recent past, the perception was that courses and degrees leading to an award are inferior if the course modules (and sometimes its assessment components) were wholly online. Over the last three decades most Higher Education institutions developed both considerable infrastructure and knowhow enabling distance mode delivery schools (Primary and Secondary) had hardly any necessary infrastructure nor adequate knowhow for enabling virtual education. In addition, community education and various training providers were mainly delivered face-to-face and that had to either stop altogether or rapidly convert materials, exercises and tests for online delivery and testing. A high degree of flexibility and commitment was demanded of all involved and particularly from the educators, who undertook to produce new educational materials in order to provide online support to pupils and students. Apart from the delivery mode of education, which is serving for certificated programmes, it is essential to ensure that learners’ needs are thoroughly and continuously addressed and are efficiently supported throughout the Coronavirus or any other future lockdown. The latter can be originated by various causes and reasons that vary in nature, such as natural or socioeconomical. Readiness, thus, in addition to preparedness, is the primary key question and solution when it comes to quality education for any lockdown. In most countries, the compulsory primary and secondary education sectors have been facing a more difficult challenge than that faced by Higher Education. The poor or in many cases non-existent technological infrastructure and low technological expertise of the teachers, instructors and parents, make the delivery of virtual education difficult or even impossible. The latter, coupled with phenomena such as social exclusion and digital divide where thousands of households do not have adequate access to broadband Internet, Wi-Fi infrastructure and personal computers hamper the promising and strenuous virtual solutions. The shockwaves of the sudden demands on all sectors of society and on individuals required rapid decisions and actions. We will not attempt to answer the question “Why was the world unprepared for the onslaught of the Coronavirus pandemic” but need to ascertain the level of preparedness and readiness particularly of the education sector, to effect the required rapid transition. We aimed to identify the challenges, and problems faced by the educators and their institutions. Through first-hand experiences we also identify best practices and solutions reached. Thus we constructed a questionnaire to gather our own responses but also experiences from colleagues and members of our environment, family, friends, and colleagues. This paper reports the first-hand experiences and knowledge of 33 co-authors from 27 institutions and from 13 different countries from Europe, Asia, and Africa. The communication technologies and development platforms used are identified; the challenges faced as well as solutions and best practices are reported. The findings are consolidated into the four areas explored i.e. Development Platforms, Communications Technologies, Challenges/Problems and Solutions/Best Practices. The conclusion summarises the findings into emerging themes and similarities. Reflections on the lasting impact of the effect of Coronavirus on education, limitations of study, and indications of future work complete the paper

Dispute resolution and technology : revisiting the justification of conflict management

Verkkoversio: Helsingin yliopisto, 2023The rapid increase in e-commerce transactions has led to the emergence of new dispute resolution models, e.g. online dispute resolution (ODR). Simultaneously, public courts embrace new information and communication technologies in order to overcome the shortcomings of the public court system. Technological redress is more and more often sought within the private regimes of e-commerce instead of through public courts. But what exactly does this shift to technology in dispute resolution entail? In this book Koulu examines the multifaceted phenomenon of dispute resolution technology, using private enforcement as an example, and the impact it has on justifying dispute resolution. The implementation of technology in dispute resolution reveals the hidden justificatory narratives of procedural law and thus provides possibilities for their critical examination. Koulu argues that the privatisation of enforcement – as it is enabled by different forms of technology from the direct enforcement of e-commerce market leaders to self-executing smart contracts in the blockchain – brings the inherent violence of law out into the open. This increase in private enforcement, in turn, challenges the nationstate’s monopoly on violence, which has traditionally formed the main source of justification for dispute resolution and the enforcement of judicial decisions. After examining the possibilities of finding justification for private enforcement from other sources, e.g. from private autonomy or from human rights discourse, Koulu claims that private enforcement constitutes a new grey area of conflict management. Koulu’s doctoral dissertation gives unique insight into contemporary debates both in global procedural law and law and technology studies.peerReviewe