Work Organisation and Innovation - Case Study: Volkswagen Poznań, Poland

[Excerpt] Volkswagen Poznań Sp. z o. o. (VWP) 1 was established in 1993. 2 It is part of the Volkswagen AG Corporation and is owned entirely by Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge (VW Utility Cars). VWP is a manufacturer of passenger cars. Currently, the company manufactures two types of utility cars: the Caddy, which constitutes the basis of production, and the T5 Transporter. The main target group for the products manufactured by the Poznań-based branch of Volkswagen are business clients, who use the utility cars for the transport of lighter goods. About 94% of manufactured vehicles are exported as part of the intra-Community supply of goods, as well as to third countries

Introduction to the research into the developmental challenges of contemporary cities

Współczesne miasta borykają się z wieloma problemami rozwojowymi, którestają się obecnie przedmiotem intensywnych badań w Polsce i za granicą,w środowisku naukowym i jednostkach samorządowych. Badania nad problemami rozwoju współczesnego miasta są aktualnie prowadzone w Urzędzie Miasta Poznania przy okazji realizacji projektu międzynarodowego Cities of change – cooperation of cities in the field of city development finansowanego przez Komisję Europejską w ramach programu „Europa dla Obywateli”.Badania nad problemami rozwoju współczesnego miasta zostały szczególnieukierunkowane na problemy związane z zarządzaniem miastem, w tym zwłaszcza te odnoszące się do monitoringu strategicznego, konsultacji społecznych oraz badań jakości życia. Zawężenie badań do tych trzech grup problemów w istotnym stopniu zostało zdeterminowane przez samych uczestników projektu Cities of change, którzy w trakcie wymiany wiedzy i doświadczeń zwrócili uwagę na ich aktualność i rosnące znaczenie, zarówno w wymiarze naukowym, jak i praktycznym. Należy podkreślić, że istotność poruszanych problemów w wymiarze międzynarodowym najlepiej odzwierciedla fakt, że uczestniczą w nim przedstawiciele środowisk samorządowych i naukowych wielu miast i regionów europejskich, jak: Bolonia, Bukareszt, Dyneburg, Dublin, Florencja, Haga, Hengelo, Kłajpeda, Murcja, Padwa, Poznań, Rennes, Wolverhampton, Region Metropolitalny Hanower-Brunszwik--Getynga-Wolfsburg.Celem przyświecającym badaniom nad wybranymi problemami współczesnegomiasta przy okazji realizacji projektu była integracja wysiłków badawczych możliwie szerokiego środowiska naukowego i praktyków zarządzania wokół wybranych kwestii o strategicznym znaczeniu dla rozwoju dzisiejszych miast oraz wydanie tego zeszytu. Osiągnięcie tego celu zachęciło do wykorzystania zasobów wiedzy profesorów o wielkim i uznanym autorytecie naukowym, a także ośmieliło do sięgnięcia do wyników badań młodych naukowców stawiających odważne pytania naukowe i ciągle poszukujących na nie odpowiedzi. Dodało jednocześnie odwagi do skorzystania z wiedzy i doświadczenia wybitnych przedstawicieli samorządu, którzy podjęli badania na kanwie praktycznych obserwacji.Dzięki integracji wysiłków badawczych tak szerokiego i zróżnicowanegospektrum autorów udało się osiągnąć efekty synergii w spojrzeniu na problemy rozwojowe współczesnych miast. Należy jednak podkreślić, że niektóre kwestie w artykułach zostały jedynie wywołane, a po lekturze innych można mieć odczucie o niedoskonałości pewnych treści, najczęściej w związku z nieprecyzyjnymi jeszcze rozstrzygnięciami w literaturze przedmiotu co do aparatu pojęciowego.Objęte badaniami problemy rozwojowe współczesnego miasta nie poddałysię grupowaniu w bloki tematyczne wynikające z nazwy czasopisma „RuchPrawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny”, a więc na problemy: prawnicze,ekonomiczne i socjologiczne. Niemożliwe okazało się również jednoznacznepogrupowanie problemów na związane z: monitoringiem strategicznym, konsultacjami społecznymi oraz badaniami jakości życia. W rezultacie niezbędne okazało się wprowadzenie nowej kategoryzacji problemów, wyodrębniono więc ostatecznie następujące obszary tematyczne: strategia rozwoju miasta, formy uspołecznienia planowania przestrzennego, partycypacyjne instrumenty zarządzania, gospodarka miasta, perspektywy rozwoju miasta. Takie pogrupowanie problemów rozwoju współczesnego miasta podkreśla, że badania zaprezentowane w zeszycie miały wielowymiarowy, a przez to nieszablonowy charakter – są interdyscyplinarne.Cities today are facing many developmental challenges which have recently become the subject of wide and detailed research in Poland and abroad by scientists as well as officials at units of territorial centres of local government. Studies on problems encountered by developing cities today are also being conducted at the City Office in Poznań, within an international project Citiesof change – cooperation of cities in the field of city development financed by the European Committee as part of the programme Europe for Citizens.The three groups of tasks on which contemporary cities focus in particular, are city management and strategic monitoring, social consultations, and surveys on the quality of life. This narrowing of the main focus of city development to three main issues has been largely the responsibilityof local authorities and scholars, participants of an international project Cities of change, representing many European cities and regions from Bologna, Bucharest, Dublin, Dyneburg, Florence, Hague, Hengelo, Klaipeda, Murcia, Padua, Poznań, Rennes, Wolverhampton, and the Metropolitan Region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg.The purpose of the research into selected problems facing today’s cities was to integrate the efforts and experiences of a wide circle of scientists and practitioners (city managers) in a debate on strategic issues of significant importance for the development of cities today leading to the publication of this volume. The successful accomplishment of this task meant, on the one hand, relying on the vast knowledge of recognised scholars, and on the other, involving in the research young academics who do not hesitate to ask daring questions and embark on a long quest to answer them. It also encouraged us to integrate the expertise and experience of leading members of local authorities who agreed to put down on paper and share findings of their research prompted by practical observations.This approach allowed to combine a broad and diverse spectrum of opinions and research results that together constitute a synergic view of the developmental challenges that face contemporary cities. And yet, certain issues have only been raised, others merely touched upon, thus leaving a certain feeling of incompleteness or imprecision, usually due to the still lingering need for clear solutions regarding the conceptual apparatus.The issues analysed, however, have failed to fall into the thematic blocks characteristic of the journal Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny, which are legal, economic and sociological. It also turned out impossible to draw clear-cut lines between issues related to strategic monitoring, social consultations, or a quality of life survey. As a result it became necessary to introduce a new ‘categorisation’ of issues, which now have been divided into the following thematic areas: strategy of city development, forms of participatory spatial planning and making it a social issue, participatory instruments of management, public administration, city economy and city  development prospects. Such grouping underlines the multi-dimensional, non-standard and interdisciplinary character of the research conducted and its results

Critical fluid limit of a gated processor sharing queue

We consider a sequence of single-server queueing models operating under a service policy that incorporates batches into processor sharing: arriving jobs build up behind a gate while waiting to begin service, while jobs in front of the gate are served according to processor sharing. When they have been completed, the waiting jobs move in front of the gate and the cycle repeats. We model this system with a pair of measure valued processes describing the jobs in front of and behind the gate. Under mild asymptotically critical conditions and a law-of-large-numbers scaling, we prove that the pair of measure-valued processes converges in distribution to an easily described limit, which has an interesting periodic dynamics

Sustainability and conflict in small-scale fisheries

Small-scale fisheries account for one third of the global fisheries catch and employ the majority of fishers, yet they are under-represented in terms of the science focused on fisheries management and the application of this. The sustainability of small-scale fisheries is crucial to end the global fisheries crisis and ensure food security in coastal areas. This thesis aimed at contributing to the better integration of the ecological and social side of small-scale fisheries in order to move towards sustainability. Using a quantitative linguistic approach, the meanings of sustainability were explored across the fisheries science literature and a holistic and unambiguous definition of sustainability was proposed as “the continuous existence of the socio-ecological fishery system, in such a way that it provides goods and services now and in the future, without depleting natural resources, and the sustainable processes that make both possible”. The thesis compared the meaning and breadth of the sustainability concept in fisheries science literature with the criteria used in fisheries sustainability standards. Twelve core criteria were identified. While a consensus on criteria contributes to transparency towards the consumer, it is also cause for concern because the sustainability standards largely ignored human and social aspects. To assess fisheries from the human or social perspective, this thesis adapted a formal conflict analysis approach from research on peace and war and applied it to an English small-scale fishery with co-management arrangements in place and a UK offshore fishery that is centrally managed. The analysis was based on the line of thinking that the understanding of and way towards sustainability is determined by a societal dialogue and that conflict indicates that this dialogue is facing difficulties. Conflict, which is omnipresent in fisheries but not used as an analytical tool, proved to be a multifaceted phenomenon and an informative indicator to study and assess social sustainability in fisheries, albeit it was not correlated to biological sustainability of fish stocks. The thesis finally integrates the review of the sustainability meanings, the comparison of eco-certification schemes, and the insights from the conflict analysis to determine and discuss their suitability for assessing sustainability of small-scale fisheries. It is finally concluded that sustainability of small-scale fisheries could be furthered by moving away from managing outcomes towards enabling cooperative relationships

Fishers’ Perspectives: the Drivers Behind the Decline in Fish Catch in Laguna Lake, Philippines

Aquatic ecosystems are strongly affected by global change. Fishers hold local ecological knowledge (LEK) that is especially relevant for improving our understanding of aquatic ecosystems that experience major environmental changes while also providing crucial ecosystem services. This research explores the perceptions of the ecological changes in Laguna Lake (Philippines) among local fisherfolks. In 2019, we conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with fisherfolks with up to 60 years' experience. They reported catching 31 fish species and one shrimp genus as a staple food and income source, with more than one-third of the species being exotic or introduced. The fisherfolks noted repeated fish kill events and dramatic changes in their catch such as fewer and smaller fish. Also noticeable were the widespread catch of knifefish, a comparably newly introduced species, and the fact that all native fish species were reported to be less often caught now than in the past. This included the reduced catch of talilong (mullet), dalag (snakehead), and ayungin (silver perch). Locals emphasized various drivers behind these changes, which are linked to one another in complex interrelationships. Invasive species, the deterioration of fish habitats, and increased water turbidity were cited as the main drivers. Interviewees highlighted an additional link between declining catches and the loss of aquatic plant diversity, which has been understudied in Laguna Lake and has not been the focus of regional policy efforts. The empirical evidence provided by the fisherfolks enhances earlier existing scientific evidence of this aquatic ecosystem as well as highlights the importance of contributions coming from different knowledge systems

“Wild fish are a blessing”: changes in fishing practices and folk fish cuisine around Laguna Lake, Northern Philippines

Several coastal communities rely heavily on wild-caught fish for personal consumption and their livelihoods, thus being sensitive to the rapid global change affecting fish availability. However, in the last century, aquaculture has been increasingly adopted. To understand the uses and changes of wild-caught fish, we conducted 30 semistructured interviews with fishers of Laguna Lake, Philippines. Fishermen, with up to 60 years’ experience, reported catching 31 fish species as a staple food. The taxa with the greatest variety of food uses were the farmed Oreochromis aureus, and the wild Channa striata and Cyprinus carpio. Fish was boiled, fried, grilled and dried, and over 20 different local dishes were reported. Fishers reported that local communities previously relied more on wild fish, while today a greater proportion of consumed fish comes from aquaculture fish species such as Oreochromis aureus and Hypophthalmichthys nobilis. Wild fish remains a crucial aspect of local gastronomic diversity, underpinning the biodiversity of the Laguna Lake, while also representing an important element for food sovereignty. The study stresses the need to sustain local ecological knowledge to ensure the ecological, social and economic sustainability of the communitie

Medicinal plant use at the beginning of the 21st century among the religious minority in Latgale region, Latvia

Background: As identified by scholars, even when communities co-habit the same natural environment, there may be visible differences due to cultural factors, and thus local knowledge on medicinal plants evolves along with the culture. This paper addresses the complexity of medicinal plant use across different social groups situated in the same natural environment with a focus on a distinct religious minority: Old Believers. Methods: This paper covers ethnobotanical data from 27 villages and populated areas in Dagda Municipality of Latgale, Latvia. The region is highly diverse, especially in terms of language and ethnic groups. In total, seventy-three interviewees were interviewed, of which nineteen represented Old Believers. Results: The number of used taxa among Old Believers (40 taxa) was half of that used by the other local community members such as Latgalians (81) and the multi-ethnic group (77). Because of the scarcity of available materials on plant uses by Old Believers, we speculate that religious characteristics such as self-isolation from other cultures might be one of the reasons for such a difference. On the other hand, historical aspects such as migration and the subsequent need for adaptation to the local flora could also partly explain the low number of medicinal taxa in comparison to the other groups. Conclusions: The study indicates that self-isolation, being a characteristic of Old Believers, potentially plays a role in medicinal plant use. We recommend further research to study in detail aspects of medicinal plant use in self-isolated communities within highly literate societies

Words matter: a systematic review of communication in non-native aquatic species literature

How scientists communicate can influence public viewpoints on invasive species. In the scientific litera-ture, some invasion biologists adopt neutral language, while others use more loaded language, for example by emphasizing the devastating impacts of invasive species and outlining consequences for policy and practice. An evaluation of the use of language in the invasion biology literature does not exist, preventing us from understanding which frames are used and whether there are correlations between message framing in scientific papers and local environmental impacts associated with invasive species. Thus, we conducted a systematic literature review of 278 peer-reviewed articles published from 2008-2018 to understand communication styles adopted by social and natural scientists while reporting on aquatic non-native spe-cies research. Species-centered frames (45%) and human-centered frames (55%) were adopted to nearly equal degrees. Negative valence was dominant in that 81.3% of articles highlighted the negative risks and impacts of invasive species. Additionally, the use of terminology was found to broadly align with the stage of invasion, in that "invasive" was most commonly used except when the research was conducted at early stages of invasion, when "non-native" was most commonly used. Terminology use therefore enables readers of scientific papers to infer the status and severity of ongoing invasions. Given that science communication within the peer-reviewed literature affects public understanding of research outcomes, these findings provide an important point of reflection for researchers

Status Quo and Future Development of Sustainability Reporting in Central and Eastern Europe

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Reporting on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has broadened widely within the last decade. A great deal of research on sustainability reporting (SR) has focused on American and Western Europe companies. Only fragmentary studies exist that compare reporting patterns of CEE countries. There is substantial room for investigating how and to what extend companies in CEE disclose sustainability information. This study examined the reporting behaviour of the 50 largest companies in nine CEE countries and two WE countries in order to investigate the practice and divergence of sustainability reporting in CEE countries