The role of international organisations and non-state actors in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and inclusive education

While inclusive education (IE) has been one of the most controversial issues in education policy for many decades, it has established itself as the preferred form for the education of persons with disabilities. This development has been further advanced not least by the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006. Despite its legal enforceability and the worldwide diffusion of IE as the general norm, there are still major differences in the implementation status of the CRPD and IE in the member states. To promote implementation, broad networks of various international organisations (IOs) and non-state actors such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and businesses are forming across multiple levels. Through the formation of such policy networks, the different actors can take on specific roles to support disability and IE policy in their respective spheres of action. However, a systematic examination of these networks, the actors involved and the roles they play is missing. The dissertation addresses this research gap by analysing the involvement of IOs and non-state actors in the implementation of the CRPD and IE at multiple levels, with a particular focus on the networks these actors form. The considerations are based on theories of education policy networks and are extended by social network theory. More specifically, two network theoretical approaches (i.e., the network flow and the network architecture model) are combined to capture the networked governance processes underlying the implementation. In this way, it is possible to conceptualise both the flow of information, the actors influencing this flow and the resulting structures, and to take into account the individual qualities of the actors embedded in these structures. Drawing on techniques of social network analysis, the first three studies analyse the global Twitter communication networks surrounding the CRPD and IE to describe the general structure, identify central actors and derive their roles in the implementation process. The fourth study uses a systematic literature review to examine the actors involved and their main forms of participation at the national level. A synthesis of the findings shows that a heterogenous set of actors – in particular IOs, NGOs, businesses and research actors – has emerged to influence disability and IE policy-making at multiple levels. IOs are primarily involved in the overall promotion of the CRPD and IE, with different focuses depending on the individual interests of the organisations, and in developing capacities to improve implementation in member states. Furthermore, they can be considered as knowledge brokers and boundary spanners, mediating between different sectors as well as actors with different thematic interests. NGOs also focus their efforts on general advocacy and capacity development, but put more emphasis on building advocacy coalitions with other NGOs and interest groups in creating network structures. Businesses limit their activities mainly to the active dissemination of information (e.g., on their own products), but show differences in terms of the thematic focus in the broader field of the CRPD: while multinational companies can be found in the issue-specific network on new technologies, smaller businesses are central in the network on inclusive education. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy between the engagement of businesses at the global and national level, as these are hardly represented at the national level according to the results. Research actors and experts, the fourth main group, show a broad range of activities, with a focus on policy formulation, monitoring and implementation on the ground. In summary, the findings contribute to a better understanding of networked governance processes in the context of the CRPD and IE, not only by describing the roles of different IOs and non-state actors involved in these processes, but also by shedding light on the network structures that emerge around these processes. In this way, the results support the theoretical assumptions of the network models employed and highlight the potential of a framework that integrates the models with existing theories of education policy networks. The theoretical framework developed in this dissertation thus opens up possibilities for both theoretical extensions of policy networks in education and for future research on the involvement of different actors in the implementation of the CRPD and IE. Furthermore, implications for the involvement of IOs and non-state actors in education policy and practice are derived from the findings.Während inklusive Bildung seit vielen Jahrzenten eines der am kontroversesten diskutierten Themen in der Bildungspolitik ist, hat sie sich in den letzten Jahren als bevorzugte Form für die Bildung von Menschen mit Behinderung etabliert. Diese Entwicklung wurde nicht zuletzt durch die Verabschiedung der Behindertenrechtskonvention (BRK) der Vereinten Nationen im Jahr 2006 weiter vorangetrieben. Trotz der rechtlichen Durchsetzbarkeit und der weltweiten Verbreitung inklusiver Bildung als allgemeiner Norm gibt es noch große Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Umsetzung der BRK und inklusiver Bildung in den Mitgliedsstaaten. Um die Umsetzung zu fördern, bilden sich auf verschiedenen Ebenen breite Netzwerke aus verschiedenen internationalen Organisationen (IO) und nicht-staatlichen Akteur*innen, wie beispielsweise Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NRO) und Unternehmen. Durch die Bildung solcher politischer Netzwerke können die verschiedenen Akteur*innen spezifische Rollen übernehmen, um die Politik in den Bereichen Behindertenrechte und inklusive Bildung in ihren jeweiligen Handlungsbereichen zu unterstützen. Bislang fehlt jedoch eine systematische Untersuchung dieser Netzwerke, der beteiligten Akteur*innen und der Rollen, die sie spielen. Die Dissertation adressiert diese Forschungslücke, indem sie die Beteiligung von IO und nicht-staatlichen Akteur*innen an der Umsetzung der BRK und inklusiver Bildung auf mehreren Ebenen analysiert, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf den Netzwerken liegt, die diese Akteure bilden. Die Überlegungen stützen sich auf Theorien zu bildungspolitischen Netzwerken und werden durch die soziale Netzwerktheorie erweitert. Genauer gesagt werden zwei netzwerktheoretische Ansätze (nämlich das network flow model und das network architecture model) kombiniert, um die Governance-Prozesse, die der Umsetzung zugrunde liegen, zu erfassen. Auf diese Weise ist es möglich, sowohl den Informationsfluss, die Akteur*innen, die diesen Fluss beeinflussen und die daraus resultierenden Strukturen zu konzeptualisieren, als auch die individuellen Eigenschaften der in diesen Strukturen eingebetteten Akteur*innen zu berücksichtigen. Die ersten drei Studien analysieren mit Hilfe von Techniken der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse die globalen Twitter-Kommunikationsnetzwerke rund um die BRK und inklusive Bildung, um die allgemeine Struktur zu beschreiben, zentrale Akteur*innen zu identifizieren und daraus ihre Rollen in diesen Prozessen abzuleiten. Die vierte Studie untersucht anhand eines systematischen Literatur-Reviews die beteiligten Akteur*innen und ihre wichtigsten Beteiligungsformen auf nationaler Ebene. Eine Synthese der Ergebnisse zeigt, dass sich eine heterogene Gruppe von Akteur*innen – insbesondere IO, NRO, Unternehmen und Forschungsakteur*innen – herausgebildet hat, die auf verschiedenen Ebenen Einfluss auf die Politik in den Bereichen Behinderung und inklusiver Bildung nehmen. IO sind in erster Linie an der allgemeinen Förderung der BRK und inklusiver Bildung beteiligt, mit unterschiedlichen Schwerpunkten je nach den individuellen Interessen der Organisationen, sowie an der Entwicklung von Kapazitäten, die die Umsetzung in den Mitgliedsstaaten verbessern. Darüber hinaus können sie als Wissensvermittler und Boundary-Spanner betrachtet werden, die zwischen verschiedenen Sektoren sowie Akteur*innen mit unterschiedlichen thematischen Interessen vermitteln. NRO konzentrieren sich ebenfalls auf allgemeine Advocacy und die Kapazitätsentwicklung, legen aber in der Schaffung von Netzwerkstrukturen mehr Wert auf den Aufbau homogener Advocacy-Koalitionen mit anderen NRO und Interessensgruppen. Unternehmen beschränken ihre Aktivitäten hauptsächlich auf die aktive Verbreitung von Informationen (bspw. zu eigenen Produkten), zeigen aber Unterschiede in Bezug auf thematische Schwerpunkte im Themenfeld der BRK: Während multinationale Unternehmen im themenspezifischen Netzwerk zu neuen Technologien zu finden sind, sind im Netzwerk zu inklusiver Bildung kleinere Unternehmen zentral. Daneben gibt es außerdem eine Diskrepanz zwischen dem Engagement von Unternehmen auf globaler und nationaler Ebene, da diese den Ergebnissen zufolge auf nationaler Ebene kaum vertreten sind. Forschungsakteur*innen und Expert*innen als vierte Hauptgruppe weisen ein breites Spektrum an Aktivitäten auf, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf der Formulierung und Überwachung politischer Maßnahmen sowie der Umsetzung vor Ort liegt. Insgesamt tragen die Ergebnisse zu einem besseren Verständnis von Netzwerk-Governance-Prozessen im Kontext der BRK und inklusiver Bildung bei, indem sie nicht nur die Rollen verschiedener IO und nicht-staatlicher Akteur*innen beschreiben, die an diesen Prozessen beteiligt sind, sondern auch die Netzwerkstrukturen beleuchten, die um diese Prozesse herum entstehen. Auf diese Weise stützen die Ergebnisse die theoretischen Annahmen der verwendeten Netzwerkmodelle und zeigen das Potenzial des Rahmens auf, der die Modelle mit bestehenden Theorien zu bildungspolitischen Netzwerken verbindet. Der in dieser Dissertation entwickelte theoretische Rahmen eröffnet somit Möglichkeiten sowohl zu theoretischen Erweiterungen von Politiknetzwerken im Bildungswesen als auch zu künftiger Forschung zur Beteiligung verschiedener Akteur*innen an der Umsetzung der BRK und inklusiver Bildung. Darüber hinaus werden aus den Ergebnisse Implikationen für die Einbindung von IO und nicht-staatlichen Akteur*innen in die Bildungspolitik und -praxis präsentiert

The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Labour and Education in Europe

In summer 2007, the US subprime crisis emerged and economic growth in industrialised countries started to slow down. The situation deteriorated after the default of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and despite massive government interventions, the United States and most European countries slid into recession. We investigate the influence of the recent economic and financial crisis on European labour market perspectives and educational attainment decisions. Furthermore we disentangle the differential impacts of the crisis on various demographic subgroups. We find that young male workers have been hit hardest, while older workers and women have been partially protected by non-redeemable contracts and the fact that they work in sectors which have been less severely hit by the crisis. Focusing on the education sector, it seems that the demand for education increases because individuals try to circumvent the tight labour market, while the supply of education suffers because of the increased pressures on federal budgets in most European countries. However, we conclude that it is too early to make a definite statement because the full impact of the crisis on the education sector is still to come.Economic crisis, labour market, education

Scattering into the fifth dimension of N=4 super Yang-Mills

We study an alternative to dimensional regularisation of planar scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory by going to the Coulomb phase of the theory. The infrared divergences are regulated by masses obtained from a Higgs mechanism, allowing us to work in four dimensions. The corresponding string theory set-up suggests that the amplitudes have an exact dual conformal symmetry. The latter acts on the kinematical variables of the amplitudes as well as on the Higgs masses in an effectively five dimensional space. We confirm this expectation by an explicit calculation in the gauge theory. A consequence of this exact dual conformal symmetry is a significantly reduced set of scalar basis integrals that are allowed to appear in an amplitude. For example, triangle sub-graphs are ruled out. We argue that the study of exponentiation of amplitudes is simpler in the Higgsed theory because evanescent terms in the mass regulator can be consistently dropped. We illustrate this by showing the exponentiation of a four-point amplitude to two loops. Finally, we also analytically compute the small mass expansion of a two-loop master integral with an internal mass.Comment: 35 pages, many figures. v2: typos and references fixed. v3: minor changes, version to be published in JHE

All tree-level amplitudes in massless QCD

We derive compact analytical formulae for all tree-level color-ordered gauge theory amplitudes involving any number of external gluons and up to three massless quark-anti-quark pairs. A general formula is presented based on the combinatorics of paths along a rooted tree and associated determinants. Explicit expressions are displayed for the next-to-maximally helicity violating (NMHV) and next-to-next-to-maximally helicity violating (NNMHV) gauge theory amplitudes. Our results are obtained by projecting the previously-found expressions for the super-amplitudes of the maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (N=4 SYM) onto the relevant components yielding all gluon-gluino tree amplitudes in N=4 SYM. We show how these results carry over to the corresponding QCD amplitudes, including massless quarks of different flavors as well as a single electroweak vector boson. The public Mathematica package GGT is described, which encodes the results of this work and yields analytical formulae for all N=4 SYM gluon-gluino trees. These in turn yield all QCD trees with up to four external arbitrary-flavored massless quark-anti-quark-pairs.Comment: 40 pages, Mathematica package GGT.m and example notebook is included in submission, v2: QCD four fermion line translations provided; GGT version 1.1 update with a numerical evaluation function; comments on computer speed optimizations, v3: Minor changes, version to be published in JHEP, v4: published version in JHE

Fabrication and characterization of superconducting circuit QED devices for quantum computation

We present fabrication and characterization procedures of devices for circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED). We have made 3 GHz cavities with quality factors in the range 10^4--10^6, which allow access to the strong coupling regime of cQED. The cavities are transmission line resonators made by photolithography. They are coupled to the input and output ports via gap capacitors. An Al-based Cooper pair box is made by ebeam lithography and Dolan bridge double-angle evaporation in superconducting resonators with high quality factor. An important issue is to characterize the quality factor of the resonators. We present an RF-characterization of superconducting resonators as a function of temperature and magnetic field. We have realized different versions of the system with different box-cavity couplings by using different dielectrics and by changing the box geometry. Moreover, the cQED approach can be used as a diagnostic tool of qubit internal losses.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Applied Superconductivity Conference 200

The Global Diffusion of Social Innovations – An Analysis of Twitter Communication Networks Related to Inclusive Education

In recent decades, different social innovations – such as lifelong learning, inclusion or Education for Sustainable Development – have had a huge impact on domestic education systems. In an increasingly globalized world, innovations diffuse across national borders. At the same time, diffusion processes seem to be highly influenced by public and private actors, e.g., international organizations (IOs) or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Both state and non-state actors use social networks and digital communication platforms, such as Twitter, as channels for the diffusion of social innovations and practices. Inclusive education, which has become the main alternative to special schools for the schooling of children with disabilities, is a widely discussed innovation in education and, hence, represents a suitable case for the study of global diffusion processes and the involved actors. Thus, drawing on social network theory (SNT), the aim of this paper is to examine the structure of the Twitter communication network forming around the social innovation of inclusive education. Empirically, we use social network analysis (SNA) to map the communication network; identify central actors; and infer assumptions about the role of different actor groups. Our results show, for instance, that especially NGOs and IOs hold central positions in the network, which enables them to exert influence on the diffusion of innovative ideas. Overall, the findings of our study indicate how the online communication tool Twitter can play a crucial role for actors who seek to influence the global diffusion of social innovations in education and effect education policies, norms and systems at the global, national and regional levels as such

Sublattice synchronization of chaotic networks with delayed couplings

Synchronization of chaotic units coupled by their time delayed variables are investigated analytically. A new type of cooperative behavior is found: sublattice synchronization. Although the units of one sublattice are not directly coupled to each other, they completely synchronize without time delay. The chaotic trajectories of different sublattices are only weakly correlated but not related by generalized synchronization. Nevertheless, the trajectory of one sublattice is predictable from the complete trajectory of the other one. The spectra of Lyapunov exponents are calculated analytically in the limit of infinite delay times, and phase diagrams are derived for different topologies

Nocturnal nitrogen oxides at a rural mountain-site in south-western Germany

A new, two-channel instrument for simultaneous NO3 and N2O5 monitoring was used to make the first comprehensive set of nocturnal NOx measurements (NO, NO2, NO3 and N2O5) at the Taunus Observatory, a rural mountain site (Kleiner Feldberg) in South-western Germany. In May 2008, NO3 and N2O5 mixing ratios were well above the instrumental detection limit (a few ppt) on all nights of the campaign and were characterised by large variability. The concentrations of NO3, N2O5 and NO2 were consistent with the equilibrium constant, K2, defining the rates of formation and thermal dissociation of N2O5. A steady-state lifetime analysis is consistent with the loss of nocturnal NOx being dominated by the reaction of NO3 with volatile organic compounds in this forested region, with N2O5 uptake to aerosols of secondary importance. Analysis of a limited dataset obtained at high relative humidity indicated that the loss of N2O5 by reaction with water vapour is less efficient (>factor 3) than derived using laboratory kinetic data. The fraction of NOx present as NO3 and N2O5 reached ~20% on some nights, with night-time losses of NOx competing with daytime losses

Collaborative Localization and Mapping for Autonomous Planetary Exploration : Distributed Stereo Vision-Based 6D SLAM in GNSS-Denied Environments

Mobile robots are a crucial element of present and future scientific missions to explore the surfaces of foreign celestial bodies such as Moon and Mars. The deployment of teams of robots allows to improve efficiency and robustness in such challenging environments. As long communication round-trip times to Earth render the teleoperation of robotic systems inefficient to impossible, on-board autonomy is a key to success. The robots operate in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-denied environments and thus have to rely on space-suitable on-board sensors such as stereo camera systems. They need to be able to localize themselves online, to model their surroundings, as well as to share information about the environment and their position therein. These capabilities constitute the basis for the local autonomy of each system as well as for any coordinated joint action within the team, such as collaborative autonomous exploration. In this thesis, we present a novel approach for stereo vision-based on-board and online Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for multi-robot teams given the challenges imposed by planetary exploration missions. We combine distributed local and decentralized global estimation methods to get the best of both worlds: A local reference filter on each robot provides real-time local state estimates required for robot control and fast reactive behaviors. We designed a novel graph topology to incorporate these state estimates into an online incremental graph optimization to compute global pose and map estimates that serve as input to higher-level autonomy functions. In order to model the 3D geometry of the environment, we generate dense 3D point cloud and probabilistic voxel-grid maps from noisy stereo data. We distribute the computational load and reduce the required communication bandwidth between robots by locally aggregating high-bandwidth vision data into partial maps that are then exchanged between robots and composed into global models of the environment. We developed methods for intra- and inter-robot map matching to recognize previously visited locations in semi- and unstructured environments based on their estimated local geometry, which is mostly invariant to light conditions as well as different sensors and viewpoints in heterogeneous multi-robot teams. A decoupling of observable and unobservable states in the local filter allows us to introduce a novel optimization: Enforcing all submaps to be gravity-aligned, we can reduce the dimensionality of the map matching from 6D to 4D. In addition to map matches, the robots use visual fiducial markers to detect each other. In this context, we present a novel method for modeling the errors of the loop closure transformations that are estimated from these detections. We demonstrate the robustness of our methods by integrating them on a total of five different ground-based and aerial mobile robots that were deployed in a total of 31 real-world experiments for quantitative evaluations in semi- and unstructured indoor and outdoor settings. In addition, we validated our SLAM framework through several different demonstrations at four public events in Moon and Mars-like environments. These include, among others, autonomous multi-robot exploration tests at a Moon-analogue site on top of the volcano Mt. Etna, Italy, as well as the collaborative mapping of a Mars-like environment with a heterogeneous robotic team of flying and driving robots in more than 35 public demonstration runs