47,654 research outputs found
Four futures of Europe
Europe is at a crossroads. The enlargement with ten new members forces the European Union to reform its decision making process and to reconsider its policies. At the same time, developments such as ageing force EU member states to reform their welfare states. Read also the accompanying press release .Where will this bring the European Union and its members states ten or twenty years from now? And how should policy makers deal with this uncertainty when deciding about policies with long-lasting consequences? This study develops four scenarios on the future of Europe. They serve as tools for analysing these questions. Moreover, the study elaborates on the policy agenda of international organisations and European governments in response to the various challenges during the next two decades.
Supporting the management of electronic engineering design teams through a dynamic contingency approach
The contribution to knowledge presented in this thesis is the dynamic contingency
approach, supported through software, which supports the management of the early,
conceptual stages of electronic engineering team design. 1he term contingency
pertains to the design environment being in a contingent state, that is "dependent on
uncertain issues" (Hayward & Sparkes, 1991). These issues are typically dynamic,
that is ''pertaining to forces not in equilibrium, forces that produce motion" (Hayward
& Sparkes, 1991).
The concept for the dynamic contingency approach was developed through a soft
systems analysis. This analysis drew upon an ethnographic study conducted in
parallel with the present work by another researcher. Both the present work and the
ethnographic study were carried out within a multidisciplinary research team in
collaboration with an industrial partner (company A). This thesis discusses the
evolution of this multidisciplinary research method, including the development of a
software prototype (EDAPT), which enabled the requirements for the dynamic
contingency approach to be established. Through this research method key issues
were identified which affect the ability of design managers, and to a lesser extent
design engineers, to adequately perceive the current situation of a design project; and
to determine appropriate corrective responses to potential problem situations. The
work indicates that this is particularly true when under pressure in such a complex,
interdependent and dynamic environment. This thesis illustrates how the environment
of design can be dependent upon these key issues which are often uncertain, that is,
the environment is in a contingent state. Furthermore, the thesis depicts the dynamic
nature of these issues.
The dynamic contingency approach was developed in response to these issues in
partnership with the industrial collaborator. The approach synthesises a variety of
such issues to support the coordination of interdependencies, provide a view of the
current project situation, alert stakeholders to potential problem situations, and present
possible responses to potential problem situations. In short, what has been achieved is
a design management worldview with sufficient detail to help people expect and
anticipate what might happen, and how others may behave in a team design
environment, together with the foundations for a system which enables and supports
this perspective. In essence the approach provides a way of conceptualising the
design environment which should enable improvements in the management of design
teams at the early, conceptual stages of electronic engineering design projects
From Contracts to Networks: New Directions in the Study of Governance of AgroâFoodâEnergy Networks
The debate about the governance of complex systems of production represents a rich branch of the literature of applied organization theory. The particular application to agrorelated networks is a relevant example since agriculture plays new roles in modern society. The core of the analysis is centered in the rationale for allocation of residual decision rights and distribution of the rights regarding the value created. Contributions based in transaction cost economics, resource based view, dynamic competences, and incomplete contract theory explore different dimensions related to the allocation of property rights. (more.....
Public Good Theory and the 'Added Value' of the EU's Counterterrorism Policy
This paper develops a deductive theoretical framework for assessing the EU's added value in the fight against terrorism. The first part argues that public good theory helps to conceptualize objectives of international counterterrorism cooperation and the respective role of international organizations. It critically evaluates existing discussions of security cooperation from this theoretical perspective and sets out a typology of policies according to three aggregation technologies (weaker links, summation, better shot), each of which is linked to a specific set of governance challenges. The second part surveys the EU's counterterrorism efforts on this basis. Weaker link issues - such as the protection of the movement of people, goods and capital - and the related problem of mutual assurance have been quite successfully addressed, even if there is increasing uncertainty over the boundaries of cooperation. In contrast, the EU fell short with regard to joint efforts in the fight against terrorism due to the non-excludable nature of benefits, as in the case of foreign policy, or (partial) rivalry of consumption, as in the case of intelligence sharing or disaster response capacities. Finally, the EU increasingly supports better shot initiatives to develop new instruments and technologies to combat terrorism, but is often overtaken by mini-lateral forms of cooperation.counterterrorism, public good theory, international organisations, European Union
Global Risks 2014, Ninth Edition.
The Global Risks 2014 report highlights how global risks are not only interconnected but also have systemic impacts. To manage global risks effectively and build resilience to their impacts, better efforts are needed to understand, measure and foresee the evolution of interdependencies between risks, supplementing traditional risk-management tools with new concepts designed for uncertain environments. If global risks are not effectively addressed, their social, economic and political fallouts could be far-reaching, as exemplified by the continuing impacts of the financial crisis of 2007-2008
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A Survey on Cooperative Longitudinal Motion Control of Multiple Connected and Automated Vehicles
Applications of Negotiation Theory to Water Issues
The purpose of the paper is to review the applications of non-cooperative bargaining theory to water related issues â which fall in the category of formal models of negotiation. The ultimate aim is that to, on the one hand, identify the conditions under which agreements are likely to emerge, and their characteristics; and, on the other hand, to support policy makers in devising the ârules of the gameâ that could help obtain a desired result. Despite the fact that allocation of natural resources, especially of trans-boundary nature, has all the characteristics of a negotiation problem, there are not many applications of formal negotiation theory to the issue. Therefore, this paper first discusses the non-cooperative bargaining models applied to water allocation problems found in the literature. Particular attention will be given to those directly modelling the process of negotiation, although some attempts at finding strategies to maintain the efficient allocation solution will also be illustrated. In addition, this paper will focus on Negotiation Support Systems (NSS), developed to support the process of negotiation. This field of research is still relatively new, however, and NSS have not yet found much use in real life negotiation. The paper will conclude by highlighting the key remaining gaps in the literature.Negotiation theory, Water, Agreeements, Stochasticity, Stakeholders
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