Local development and technological innovation in Algeria: experiences and perspectives

The starting point of the present paper is the idea that to define a regional development policy which should effectively respond to the new challenges of the future, in particular to the globalisation of the economy and the acceleration of technological changes, it is necessary to think about new methods that grant a privilege to the local solution, using to the maximum the local skills, the national technological strength, the creative and innovative capabilities existents. But, referring to the Mediterranean basin, there are major disparities between regions and countries in the field of innovation and R&D, as also in the level of diffusion of modern information and communication technologies. In particular some Third Mediterranean countries as also some regions of South Europe, if on the one hand have clear difficulties in developing modern forms of industrialisation capable to insure an access to the international markets, on the other need to increase the competitiveness of their firms, to improve their strengths and to compensate the disadvantages due to their periphericity by developing their international contacts with neighbouring countries in the Mediterranean Basin. This study identifies and analyses the policies adopted by Algeria in the development of technological and managerial capabilities to highlight the facilities and the constraints for implementing and managing advanced technology and innovation in the economic lagging regions and to explore ways of innovative co-operation in this field.

Immigration in Italy: An overview

The expansion and the rooting of non European immigrants which is taking place in the more advanced European countries, mirror a world context which is marked by imbalances both in terms of growth and welfare. A correct analysis of migration, of its structural characteristics and of the new dynamics of migration flows must consider the globalisation process as well as the effect that this is having with regard to the movement of people, in this context the pull and push factors mutually reinforce a phenomenon which can influence either in a positive or in a negative way the international relationships among countries. In the last quarter of the century, a steady increase of migrants have crossed Europe; this has generated a complex relationship made of integration and rejection, adaptation and conflicts, which has influenced all aspect of both economic and social life, producing new phenomenon, giving birth to new problems which require new approaches and solutions. Italy is part of such depiction since has witnessed in the last decades, a solid influx of immigrants which have increased with a high rate of growth. In fact in 2006 Italy with 2,938,922 legal immigrants, appears to be among the major destination of migrants in Europe, following Germany, Spain and France with 7,287,980, 3,371,394 and 3,263,186 immigrants respectively and just before Great Britain with 2,857,000 immigrants. Using the available statistical data, disaggregated at national, regional and provincial level, it will be possible to have an overall picture of the phenomenon described above and to compare the Italian case with the events in the other European countries. In this way we can have a better understanding of the process underlying migration in order to identify future scenariosInternational Migration, Europe, Italy

Governance through ?public utilities? models: a regional social interaction approach

Based on neo-regionalist literature, this paper put on the foreground the importance of public utilities in the “governance” processes. New economic and cultural trends need the abandon of a hierarchical model of government in favour of the governance model, based on organizational structures of partnership and/or of open market. A first step in governance process is the decentralization, or “decentralizing governance”, that is to restructure and to reorganize local authority with the creation of a system of co-responsibility among institutions at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of “subsidiarity”, and public, private or civil stakeholders. A typical public domain service, the public utilities management, become a crucial issue in order to identity and measure “governance” quality in different local contexts. The paper compares three different typologies in the public utilities market and their effects on the “governance” process. A first typology is based on tenders enhancing the concurrence among local and foreign actors for gaining the assets of the local services; a second one is based on the “project financing strategy”, involving a cooperation mechanism between public and private sector: this model is diffused all over the world; a third one is focused on the sharing of the whole local services branch among a number of contractors, each one assuring the best of efficiency in its field. Finally, the paper aims identifying “actors” and “items” of the governance model involved in public utilities management and giving also indications and suggestions for the implementation of local strategies and policies in order to enhance cooperative connections among suppliers, subcontractors and customers.

Intermediate Institutions for Interactive Learning Processes in a Governance Perspective: the Case of Aeronautic Industry in Campania Region.

The present paper presents the results of the empirical analysis on fifteen enterprises and twenty no-industrial organizations involved at different level in the Aeronautical Cluster in the Campania Region. Information and data on the selected sample are colleted both by a study of the industrial sector, and also by suitable questionnaires and interviews, that the authors have submitted to the entrepreneurs and to the top managers of either the enterprises or the no-industrial organizations. The authors have focalized their study by applying the SWOT analysis on the following issues: • the cluster’s structure by analysing the relational skill developed by single actors of the cluster and by their impact on the innovation capacity of the enterprises; • the effectiveness of cluster’s governance strategies and how different actors actually participate to the local development processes of the aeronautical industrial sector. On these bases the authors wanted to deduce possible policy options for different kind of actors to optimize the cluster’s governance. Particularly they will describe in the present paper some indications to: 1) the SME’s that present strong relations with customers but low integration with large part of the others actors, i.e. with no-customers enterprises; 2) the large enterprises related to the industrial policies and to the suppliers' governance; 3) the policy makers at local level and the intermediate institutions for a better support of the local enterprises. In fact, the research results are based on the conscientious awareness that the analyzed sector is at a critical point, for which it is necessary that all the actors involved put together their efforts in order to steer and to direct the development process, both by identifying participative mechanisms at local level and also by strengthening those exogenous elements which are able to promote local development. Obviously only part of the criticisms can be solved at local and national level and some of them can be solved only partially. This observation opens the question of policy at the international level which can be determinate only with a more exhaustive integration into transnational networks. The research described in the present paper has been undertaken within the framework of the project: “IKINET – International Knowledge and Innovation Network†(EU FP6, N° CIT2-CT-2004-506242).

Environmental migration in the Mediterranean area: the case of the MENA countries

The study offer a contribution to the analysis of the problems linked to the environmental migration focusing on a specific Mediterranean area, that of the Middle East and Northern Africa. After a brief analysis of the socio-economic and environmental context, used to describe the vulnerability features of the area, the studies will assess the regional migration system particularly the so called "forced migrants". Due to the lack of an accepted common international definition of environmental refugees, following the most recent literature in this study we have used the definition of forded migration to assess the environmental migration. This in fact, among the causes of migration considers not only the "physical environment" but a plethora of socio economic factors which interact among themselves and force people to migrate. In this definitions we include: Internal Displaced Persons, forced to move for the modification of the habitat where they live caused by natural or human disasters but also Migrants and IDPs forced to move due to the implementation of developmental project such as the construction of mega infrastructure such as dams, or the mining and deforestation activities, as well as the the migrants who sick asylum due to conflicts, civil wars or internal persecutionMigration, Environment, DEvelopment

Resistance to frost and tuber soft rot in near-pentaploid Solanum tuberosum - S. commersonii hybrids

The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the tolerance to low temperatures and tuber soft rot in sexual near-pentaploid hybrids between incongruent 2x (1EBN) Solanum commersonii (CMM) and 4x (4EBN) S. tuberosum (TBR). For freezing resistance, killing temperatures both under non-acclimated and un- der acclimated conditions were determined using the ion leakage procedure. Values for the hybrids were dis- tributed between the wild and cultivated parental values. Some hybrids displayed an acclimation capacity close to 2.5°C, typical of hardy species. Artificial inoculation of tubers with Pectobacterium carotovorum ssp. carotovorum (formerly Erwinia carotovora ssp. carotovora) provided evidence of variability in disease response. Highly resistant hybrids were identified. After conventional phenotypic selection, wild genome content was estimated based on the presence of CMM-specific AFLP fragments. Seven primer combinations were used (Eco-AGG/Mse-CAA; Eco-ACC/Mse-CAT; Eco-ACT/Mse-CAC; Eco-ACT/Mse-CAG; Eco- ACT/Mse-CAA; Eco-ACT/Mse-CAT; Eco-AGG/Mse-CAG). The percentages of CMM-specific AFLPs ranged from 4.3% to 56.7%, with an average value of 28.1%. AFLP analysis was employed for the selection of the hybrids to be used for further breeding objectives

I flussi migratori: Rifugio e asilo nei paesi euro-mediterranei

The current economic crisis does and will have in future effects both on the life of the migrants and more in general on the migration flows. It is clear that the redefinition of the rules of governance will not only regard the financial markets but will also have an impact on the system of control of migration. In the past all economic crisis have had a strong negative impact on the migrants movements. After the 1929 crisis, together with the "New Deal" about half a million of Mexicans were expelled from the US often with their children who were born there. The economic crisis of the early seventy was instead tackled by the German government with so-called "Anwerbestoppthe" by stopping the recruitment of migrant workers and the development of programs for the repatriation of the workers in excess. Similar patterns can now be found in many other European countries; in the efforts to revisit the legislation on migration many norms regulate migration in a restrictive sense. On the other hand despite that migration flows have not diminished of intensity. There is, in fact profound differences in the current economic system compared with the New Deal, hence it is sensibly to assume that even in a period of economic turmoil the demand for migrants workers remains stable. For this reason the legislation pertaining migration will continue to be dominated by the needs of ensuring economic growth, the demand of the labor market and the control of the illegal immigrants. There is however the risk that in the net of the control of illegal migration will also fall that part of migrants representing the category of the refugees and asylum seekers. Those are in fact are assimilated to the illegal immigrants and are deprived from the protection of the international law. Based on that we are going to analyse the situation of the refugees and asylum seekers in the different Europe countries in order to better define the dimension of such category often underestimated or neglected by the scholar

I flussi migratori: Immigrazione in Europa: analisi della legislazione

Migration movements registered in Europe since post World War II have resulted to be, as in the previous period of structural and permanent nature even in presence of diminishing demand of labor such as during the seventies. Following this period, the increase number influx of migrants has determined the development of new migration policies and concurrently the redefinition of the accompanying laws. The interest of the European government has progressively moved to pay more attention to issues such as family movements, returnee migration, the integration of the migrants and the problems of the refugees and the asylum seekers. Illegal immigration particularly in countries such as Italy and Spain has pushed the national governments to focus on actions to strengthen the controls at the borders and to fight illegal entries. More in general it has emerged among the European countries the needs for concerted actions to deal with migration movement increasing the cooperation and adjusting the legislation in order to adhere to the requirements of the European Councils, in the area of security and immigration,while at the same time developing a new coherent policy accordingly to the European Neighboring Policy. In this chapter we are going to consider the current legislation in use in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy in the areas of entry and residence of the non European citizens aiming at highlighting, where possible, the differences and the common elements in the different national legislation

I flussi migratori Le migrazioni di transito nel Mediterraneo

This paper considers the new concept of transit Migration using the migration movements which occur in the Mediterranean basin as a case to analyse the phenomenon. The viewpoints of both the countries where the transit migrants first arrive and sojourn and that of the countries of final destination are considered her

Le migrazioni ambientali nel Mediterraneo: il caso studio dei paesi del Medio Oriente e del Nord Africa

The study offer a contribution to the analysis of the problems linked to the environmental migration focusing on a specific Mediterranean area, that of the Middle East and Northern Africa. After a brief analysis of the socio-economic and environmental context, used to describe the vulnerability features of the area, the studies will assess the regional migration system particularly the so called "forced migrants". Due to the lack of an accepted common international definition of environmental refugees, following the most recent literature in this study we have used the definition of forded migration to assess the environmental migration. This in fact, among the causes of migration considers not only the "physical environment" but a plethora of socio economic factors which interact among themselves and force people to migrate. In this definitions we include: Internal Displaced Persons, forced to move for the modification of the habitat where they live caused by natural or human disasters but also Migrants and IDPs forced to move due to the implementation of developmental project such as the construction of mega infrastructure such as dams, or the mining and deforestation activities, as well as the the migrants who sick asylum due to conflicts, civil wars or internal persecutio