Wysgerige grondslae van die ekonomie vanuit vakwetenskap-like standpunt gesien*

In ons moderne tyd met sy belangstelling in tegniek en materialisme, is dit noodsaaklik om oor die grondbeginsels van die vakwetenskappe te besin. Versuim hiervan laat ons gevaar loop om die werklikheid uit verband te ruk

Agtergrond, persoonlikheid en ekonomiese denke

Dit is die bedoeling om hier, in ’n baie kort bestek en slegs in hooftrekke, aan te toon dat die ekonomiese denke onafskeidbaar verbonde is aan die persoonlikheid en agtergrond van die ekonoom

An external economic policy for South Africa

In a world of rapidly changing economic and political conditions, it is necessary to review the external economic policy of a country from time to time. On the one hand, we in South Africa should take note of the economic and political development taking place at such a rapid pace in Africa, and on the other hand, we should also pay attention to the modern tendency to form international trade blocs. The present state of affairs not only calls for protection and development of our international economic interests, but also for thorough planning of our future economic growth and development

Re-visiting the relevance of John Calvin’s values of self-denial and calling for new Learning Organisations

Modern organisations are subjected to increasing demands for the space employees and members need to find purpose, meaning and sense in what they do every day. This article aims to connect John Calvin’s ideas related to calling and self-denial with the needs of organisations to accommodate staff members’ wishes for meaningful engagement with the work they do in the context of the concept of Learning Organisations. This connection between Calvin and the aim of organisational renewal is made by briefly pointing to the disillusionment of postmodern society with modernistic forces of rationalism, linear thinking, bureaucratisation and standardisation which have led to the dehumanisation of organisations and, ultimately, the world of work. The argument is also made that the development of the Learning Organisation as concept is a new trend in organisational thinking.  The Learning Organisation represents a break with modern bureaucratic and hierarchical thinking. The aim is to link these relatively new two organisational trends with the principles which John Calvin articulated about the calling or vocation of the faithful and their relationship with their fellow humans. The conclusion is that, for Christian (Reformed) faithful, the Learning Organisation and acknowledgement of their spiritual contribution is an opportunity to claim the workplace as territory to be in the service of others (as explained in Chapter 7 of Book 3 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion) and, effectively in service of God, experience work as a true vocation and calling. Opsomming Herbesinning van die relevansie van Johannes Calvyn se waardes van selfverloëning en roeping vir bereiking van Lerende Organisasies se doelwitte. Moderne organisasies kry te doen met toenemende eise om ruimte te voorsien vir werknemers en lede van die organisasies waarin hulle doel, betekenis en waarde kan sien waarin hulle elke dag doen. Hierdie artikel poog om Johannes Calvyn se idees van roeping en selfverloëning as beginsel te verbind met die behoefte van organisasies om werknemers betekenisvol betrokke te maak in die werk wat hulle doen in die konteks van die idee van Lerende Organisasies. Die verband tussen Calvyn en die doel van organisatoriese vernuwing word getrek deur kortliks te wys op die teleurstelling van die postmoderne samelewing met die modernistiese kragte van rasionalisme, liniêre denke, burokratisering en standaardisering wat gelei het tot die ontmensliking van organisasies en uiteindelik die wêreld van werk. Die argument word ook aangebied dat ?n nuwe beweging in organisatoriese denke ontstaan het wat die ontwikkeling van die idee van die Lerende Organisasie voorstaan. Die Lerende Organisasie verteenwoordig ?n breuk met moderne burokraties en hiërargiese denke. Die doel is om hierdie relatief nuwe idees oor vernuwing in organisasies te verbind met die sienings wat Johannes Calvyn uitgedruk het oor die roeping van gelowiges in die werkplek en hulle verhouding met die medemens. Die gevolgtrekking is dat Christelike (Gereformeerde) gelowiges die Lerende Organisasie en erkenning van hulle geestelike bydrae as ?n geleentheid kan gebruik om die werkplek as terrein op te eis waar die naaste gedien kan word (soos verduidelik in Hoofstuk 7 van Boek 3 van Calvyn se Institusie van die Christelike Godsdiens) in diens van God. Op hierdie manier kan werk ervaar word as ?n ware uitlewingsgeleentheid van hulle roeping.   https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.82.2.235

Is Desimalisasie Geregverdig?

Alhoewel die Suid-Afrikaanse regering hom in beginsel ten gunste van die oorskakeling van ons £.s.d.-stelsel na ’n desimale stelsel uitgespreek het, is die uiteindelike beslissing aan die volk oorgelaat. Ons moet dus tussen twee geldstelsels kies en dit is geen vreemde keuse nie — ’n keuse waarvoor elke ontwikkelende volk met ’n eie nasionale strewe op een of ander stadium te staan kom. Voordat ons egter kan beslis moet ons presies weet waaroor ons besluit. Wat behels die oorskakeling na ’n nuwe geldstelsel eintlik

Investigating alternative governance systems for the South African mohair supply chain

Mohair is an exclusive natural animal fibre with niche market appeal. It is, however, questionable whether it is inherently suited to a commodity-based marketing system in a marketing environment that requires marketing systems to convey far more information than commodity-based systems do. Historically, mohair has been considered a commodity and the marketing system for mohair has been structured accordingly. It is, however, argued that, the exchange between mohair growers and the buyers of greasy mohair requires increased levels of coordination to govern the exchange in a transaction costs efficient manner. The inefficiencies created by an inappropriate or incomplete marketing system for South African mohair are expected to lead to a loss of consumer value and a loss of potential profit throughout the mohair supply chain if a more coordinated governance structure is not implemented to curb these costs and augment the current spot market exchange.Mohair, marketing, governance structure, supply chain,

Finite System Size Correction to the Effective Coupling in ϕ4\phi^4 Scattering

We compute and explore numerically the finite system size correction to NLO $2\to2$ scattering in massive scalar $\phi^4$ theory. The derivation uses "denominator regularization" (instead of the usual dimensional regularization) on a spacetime with spatial directions compactified to a torus, with characteristic lengths not necessarily of equal size. We determine a useful analytic continuation of the generalized Epstein zeta function to isolate the usual UV divergence. Self-consistently, the renormalized finite system size correction reduces to zero as the system size goes to infinity and, further, satisfies the optical theorem. One of our checks of unitarity leads to a generalization of a number theoretic result from Hardy and Ramanujan. Precise numerical exploration of the finite system size correction to the amplitude and coupling when two spatial dimensions are finite requires the exploitation of the analytic structure of the finite system size result via a dispersion relation. We find that the finite system size scattering amplitude exhibits "geometric" bound states. Even away from these bound states, the finite system size correction to the effective coupling can be large.Comment: 34 pages, 24 figure

A Cosine Rule-Based Discrete Sectional Curvature for Graphs

How does one generalize differential geometric constructs such as curvature of a manifold to the discrete world of graphs and other combinatorial structures? This problem carries significant importance for analyzing models of discrete spacetime in quantum gravity; inferring network geometry in network science; and manifold learning in data science. The key contribution of this paper is to introduce and validate a new estimator of discrete sectional curvature for random graphs with low metric-distortion. The latter are constructed via a specific graph sprinkling method on different manifolds with constant sectional curvature. We define a notion of metric distortion, which quantifies how well the graph metric approximates the metric of the underlying manifold. We show how graph sprinkling algorithms can be refined to produce hard annulus random geometric graphs with minimal metric distortion. We construct random geometric graphs for spheres, hyperbolic and euclidean planes; upon which we validate our curvature estimator. Numerical analysis reveals that the error of the estimated curvature diminishes as the mean metric distortion goes to zero, thus demonstrating convergence of the estimate. We also perform comparisons to other existing discrete curvature measures. Finally, we demonstrate two practical applications: (i) estimation of the earth's radius using geographical data; and (ii) sectional curvature distributions of self-similar fractals