Dystopian Realities : Investigating the Perception of and Interaction with Surveillance Practices

This article seeks to sketch out how the field of surveillance studies has conceptualized surveillance practices, and how cultural and technological shifts have prompted scholars to re-imagine these theoretical frameworks. The article investigates the interplay of (dystopian) popular cultural representations of surveillance cultures and the perception of and attitude towards contemporary surveillance practices, as well as how individuals react to and interact with them. The article also outlines a study regarding the aforementioned issues that was conducted among a sample of 150 university students, which focused especially on each participant’s subjective ability to distinguish between fictional scenarios and real-life surveillance practices

South American Expert Roundtable : increasing adaptive governance capacity for coping with unintended side effects of digital transformation

This paper presents the main messages of a South American expert roundtable (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of digital transformation. The input of the ERT comprised 39 propositions from 20 experts representing 11 different perspectives. The two-day ERT discussed the main drivers and challenges as well as vulnerabilities or unseens and provided suggestions for: (i) the mechanisms underlying major unseens; (ii) understanding possible ways in which rebound effects of digital transformation may become the subject of overarching research in three main categories of impact: development factors, society, and individuals; and (iii) a set of potential action domains for transdisciplinary follow-up processes, including a case study in Brazil. A content analysis of the propositions and related mechanisms provided insights in the genesis of unseens by identifying 15 interrelated causal mechanisms related to critical issues/concerns. Additionally, a cluster analysis (CLA) was applied to structure the challenges and critical developments in South America. The discussion elaborated the genesis, dynamics, and impacts of (groups of) unseens such as the digital divide (that affects most countries that are not included in the development of digital business, management, production, etc. tools) or the challenge of restructuring small- and medium-sized enterprises (whose service is digitally substituted by digital devices). We identify specific issues and effects (for most South American countries) such as lack of governmental structure, challenging geographical structures (e.g., inclusion in high-performance transmission power), or the digital readiness of (wide parts) of society. One scientific contribution of the paper is related to the presented methodology that provides insights into the phenomena, the causal chains underlying “wanted/positive” and “unwanted/negative” effects, and the processes and mechanisms of societal changes caused by digitalization

Social Media’s impact on Intellectual Property Rights

This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in Handbook of Research on Counterfeiting and Illicit Trade, edited by Peggy E. Chaudhry, published in 2017 by Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785366451. This material is for private use only, and cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher.Peer reviewe

Fearsquare: hacking open crime data to critique, jam and subvert the 'aesthetic of danger'

We present a critical evaluation of a locative media application, Fearsquare, which provocatively invites users to engage with personally contextualized risk information drawn from the UK open data crime maps cross-referenced with geo-located user check-ins on Foursquare. Our analysis of user data and a corpus of #Fearsquare discourse on Twitter revealed three cogent appraisals ('Affect', 'Technical' and 'Critical') reflecting the salient associations and aesthetics that were made between different components of the application and interwoven issues of technology, risk, danger, emotion by users. We discuss how the varying strength and cogency of these public responses to Fearsquare call for a broader imagining and analysis of how risk and danger are interpreted; and conclude how our findings reveal important challenges for researchers and designers wishing to engage in projects that involve the computer-mediated communication of risk

"Test me and treat me" - attitudes to vitamin D deficiency and supplementation: a qualitative study

© 2015 BMJ Open, "Test me and treat me"-attitudes to vitamin D deficiency and supplementation: a qualitative study. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

The perks and downsides of being a digital prosumer: optimistic and pessimistic approaches to digital prosumption

The recent evolution of users’ position and agency in digital environments absorbs the attention of several scholars in different fields of study. Users’ new ontological status as prosumers, simultaneously producers and consumers, and their role regarding productive paradigms has raised a lot of contrasting opinions. Different discursive techniques are employed to investigate production practices in digital worlds and are often crafted with the conventions of utopian and anti-utopian approaches. Nevertheless, the adoption of optimistic or pessimistic analytical and rhetorical strategies appears to be prejudiced towards the study of emerging online practices. In reality, the analysis of positive and negative approaches to productive paradigms in digital environments results in the detection of their limitations in reaching a comprehensive understanding of the investigated phenomena. Therefore, the adoption of a more neutral perspective is suggested, one that could potentially foster a holistic approach and therefore a broader and deeper comprehension of the analyzed phenomena

The effects of public transfers on productivity

This paper attempts to establish empirically the effects of transfers to household on labour productivity growth. In particular, I investigate the effects of health and social security expenditure on the rate of growth of GDP per labour units in 19 sectors and 13 OECD countries in the period 1976-2000. The main result is that transfers such as health expenditure and social security spending have positive and significant effects on labour productivity in the sectors that require low skilled workers, such as manufacturing of non-durable goods, energy supply, construction and services. This research shows that these results could be due to a "risk insuring" mechanism: employees with low wages (on average low skilled and high labour intensive jobs are less paid than high tech ones) find in higher government spending a guarantee of safety and wellbeing, otherwise difficult to achieve with their own resources. Moreover the increased security allows them to divert resources towards higher saving and investment in education. These results are consistent with the assumption that fiscal variables affect growth by means of total factor productivity and robust to the test of a possible spurious correlation between public transfers and growth, due to openness to trade.public transfers, productivity growth

Foreign Direct Investment and Shadow Economy: A Causality Analysis Using Panel Data

The present paper investigates the link between the shadow economy and FDI using the Granger panel causality test. For that purpose we use the shadow economy and FDI data for 145 countries of five data points 1999/2000, 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2003/2004 and 2004/2005. The system GMM estimation results show that FDI causes the shadow economy and vice versa. The empirical evidence supports the hypotheses that higher FDI causes lower shadow economy and higher shadow economy causes higher FDI.Shadow economy, FDI, panel causality

Consecuencias previstas y no previstas de la adopción de innovación : adopción de datos abiertos por parte del gobierno de Distrito Federal de Brasil

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir as consequências pretendidas e não pretendidas em relação à adoção de inovações. Partindo das premissas apresentadas no trabalho seminal de Everett M. Rogers (Diffusion of Innovations), uma estrutura para a análise das consequências da adoção de inovações foi desenvolvida e depois aplicada ao caso da adoção de dados abertos pelo Governo do Distrito Federal do Brasil. O modelo é útil, pois demonstra que diferentes partes interessadas de uma inovação podem perceber de forma inversa os efeitos da mesma consequência, o que traz novas perspectivas na gestão do processo de inovação dentro de uma sociedade de viés pró-inovação. Com o modelo é possível analisar que alguns grupos exercem pressão contra a adoção da inovação não pela resistência à mudança, mas por perceber consequências negativas relacionadas à adoção da inovação. O estudo apresenta duas contribuições principais. Primeira teórica, apresentando um modelo para análise das consequências da adoção de inovações com base em revisão de literatura e entrevistas com especialistas. Segundo empírica, fornecendo uma maneira de mapear o processo de adoção de inovações em relação à visão dos diferentes papéis exercidos pelas partes interessadas, podendo ser utilizado tanto no setor privado quanto no setor público.The purpose of this paper is to discuss intended and unintended consequences regarding innovation adoption. Starting with the assumptions presented on the seminal work of Everett M. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations, a framework to the analysis of the consequences of innovation adoption has been developed and then applied to the case of the open government data adoption by the Federal District Government of Brazil. The model is useful because it shows that different stakeholders of an innovation can perceive inversely the effects of the very same consequence, which brings new perspectives in the management of the innovation process inside a pro-innovation bias society. With the model, it is possible to analyze that some groups put pressure against innovation adoption, not because of resistance to change but because they are perceiving negative consequences related to the innovation adoption. The study presents two major contributions. First theoretical, presenting a model for analysis of the consequences of innovation adoption based on literature review and interview of specialists. Second empirical, providing a way to map the innovation adoption process regarding the view of the different stakeholders’ roles and can be used by the private and public sector.El propósito de este documento es discutir las consecuencias previstas y no previstas de la adopción de innovaciones. A partir de los supuestos presentados en el trabajo fundacional de Everett M. Rogers “Diffusion of Innovations”, se ha desarrollado un marco de trabajo para el análisis de las consecuencias de la adopción de la innovación y luego se ha aplicado al caso de la adopción de datos abiertos por parte del Gobierno del Distrito Federal de Brasil. El modelo es útil porque muestra que las diferentes partes interesadas de un proceso de innovación pueden percibir de manera opuesta los efectos de una misma consecuencia, lo que aporta nuevas perspectivas en la gestión del proceso de innovación en el contexto de una sociedad con un sesgo favorable a la innovación. Con el modelo, es posible analizar que algunos grupos presionan en contra la adopción de la innovación, no por la resistencia al cambio, sino porque perciben consecuencias negativas relacionadas con la adopción de la innovación. El estudio presenta dos grandes contribuciones. La primera teórica, presentando un modelo para el análisis de las consecuencias de la adopción de la innovación basado en la revisión de la literatura y entrevistas a especialistas. El segundo empírico, al proporcionar una manera de mapear el proceso de adopción de la innovación con respecto a la visión de los diferentes papeles de las partes interesadas ​​y que puede ser utilizado por el sector privado y el sector público

High-scale validity of a two Higgs doublet scenario: metastability included

We make an attempt to identify regions in a Type II Two-Higgs Doublet Model, which correspond to a metastable electroweak vacuum with lifetime larger than the age of the universe. We analyse scenarios which retain perturbative unitarity up to Grand unification and Planck scales. Each point in the parameter space is restricted using Data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as well as flavor and precision electroweak constraints. We find that substantial regions of the parameter space are thus identified as corresponding to metastability, which compliment the allowed regions for absolute stability, for top quark mass at the high as well as low end of its currently allowed range. Thus, a two-Higgs doublet scenario with the electroweak vacuum, either stable or metastable, can sail through all the way up to the Planck scale without facing any contradictions