Is the World After All Just a Dream?

DocPerform is a multi and interdisciplinary research project based at City, University of London. Led by members of the Department of Library & Information Science, it comprises scholars and practitioners from the fields of performing arts and library & information science. The project concerns conceptual, methodological and technological innovations in the documentation of performance, and the extent to which performance may itself be considered to be a document. The collection of papers in this special issue of Proceedings from the Document Academy are selected from the second DocPerform Symposium, held at City, University of London, 6–7 November 2017. This editorial introduces those papers and provides disciplinary and historical context for DocPerform

Military Keynesianism: An Assessment

The recent recession has seen something of resurgence in the debate over military Keynesianism. Recent commentators who should no better have claimed that it would make sense to stimulate the US economy through increases in military spending, as though this has not been a commonly contested view over the last 40 years. A large literature has debated the economic effects of military spending and while it has reached no consensus, there is also little support for any belief that military spending is a good way of stimulating the economy. This paper makes a contribution to the debate by assessing the theoretical perspectives and the empirical approaches used. It then undertakes an analysis of the US using a number of approaches and the results suggest that the simple Military Keynesian arguments still lack empirical support.Military Spending; economic growth; VAR; CVAR

Large Gauge Ward Identity

We study the question of the Ward identity for "large" gauge invariance in 0+1 dimensional theories. We derive the relevant Ward identities for a single flavor fermion and a single flavor complex scalar field interacting with an Abelian gauge field. These identities are nonlinear. The Ward identity for any other complicated theory can be derived from these basic sets of identities. However, the structure of the Ward identity changes since these are nonlinear identities. In particular, we work out the "large" gauge Ward identity for a supersymmetric theory involving a single flavor of fermion as well as a complex scalar field. Contrary to the effective action for the individual theories, the solution of the Ward identity in the supersymmetric theory involves an infinity of Fourier component modes. We comment on which features of this analysis are likely/unlikely to generalize to the 2+1 dimensional theory.Comment: 13page

Arms Trade Offsets and Development

Offsets, arrangements that obligate the arms seller to reinvest (“offset”) arms sales proceeds in the purchasing country, are an increasingly important facet of the international trade in arms. They are used to justify spending on imports by promises that there will be significant benefits to the economy, through the promotion and development of local industry, technology and employment. Until recently, however, there has been little research on how well offsets work in practice. This paper is a ‘state-of-the-art’ review of our empirical knowledge regarding arms trade offsets. We find virtually no case where offset arrangements have yielded unambiguous net benefits for a country’s economic development. As a general rule arms trade offset deals are more costly than ‘off-the-shelf’ arms purchases, create little by way of new or sustainable employment, do not appear to contribute in any substantive way to general economic development, and with very few exceptions do not result in significant technology transfers, not even within the military sector.

POLICY options

End of project reportThe incomes of Irish cattle farmers benefited greatly from the reform of the CAP for beef and cereals in 1992 and more recently under Agenda 2000. In both of these reforms the institutional support prices were reduced and animal-based direct payments (DPs) were used to compensate farmers for the anticipated market price reductions

Macroeconomics and Violence

This chapter considers macroeconomic aspects of violence. It moves beyond the usual focus on war to argue the economic importance of all forms and aspects of armed and unarmed violence. Violence refers to acts of self-harm, interpersonal violence, and collective violence. Self-harm includes suicide; interpersonal violence includes organized criminal violence as well as domestic and workplace violence. Collective violence generally denotes political entities that are in, or at risk of, internal or external violent conflict as well as those that are in an insecure postwar predicament or wracked by pervasive armed criminal violence. In the past these different aspects of violence have been studied by different academic disciplines, with political scientists and defense economists tending to study the causes, consequences, and, lately, potential remedies of large-scale collective violence; and criminologists, public health experts, and crime economists tending to study interpersonal violence and self harm. Recognizing the economic importance of all aspects of violence means that macroeconomic policy cannot be considered in isolation from microeconomic developments or from regional, sectoral, distributional, and other economic policies, nor from the social contexts in which violence takes place. The increasing complexity and interrelatedness of the various aspects of the economics of violence means that any discussion of the macroeconomic issues has to consider the cost of conflict and violence more broadly conceived. The chapter reviews violence, measures and measurements of the cost of violence, the economic causes and consequences of violence, some macroeconomic aspects of recovery from violence and postwar reconstruction, and some of the necessary framework conditions for recovery from violence.Keywords: Violence, macroeconomics, postconflict recovery, conflict-affected states

Military Spending and Development

This paper considers the link between arms spending and economic growth for developing countries, in particular whether high spending on arms is likely to have a negative effect on economic growth and what benefits that might be gained by reducing it. The literature is complex and difficult to summarize, with studies differing theoretically, in the empirical methods they use, in the coverage of countries and time series, and in their quality and significance. Nevertheless, the paper argues that the empirical analyses suggests that there is little or no evidence for a positive effect on economic growth and that it is more likely to have a negative effect, or at best no significant impact at all. Thus, reducing arms and military spending need not be costly and can contribute to, or at the very least provide the opportunity for, improved economic performance in developing countries.Military Spending; Development; growth

Good night, sleep tight (remix)

Good Night, Sleep Tight is an interactive virtual reality performance created by theatre and digital arts company ZU-UK. It was previewed at Gerry’s Kitchen in July 2017. Combining VR and binaural technologies, participants are put to bed and transported to a dreamscape composed of childhood imagery and aerial cityscapes. This artistic position remixes the audience’s experience and the artistic processes of Good Night, Sleep Tight to proffer a critical engagement with the aesthetics of VR. Theories pertaining to VR and theatre are emerging but not yet fully established. The discourse between technologists and artists is key to understanding how VR is a new artistic medium requiring a language not solely redolent of gaming or theatre. The format of this article reflects ZU-UK’s contention that VR experiences are best designed as collaborations between artists and audiences who construct an imaginary world through interactive media. The seven scenes below concentrate on different aspects of the rehearsal process and the final performance from the perspectives of the ZU-UK directors, VR technologists, and participants. Interspersed throughout the article are fragments from the Good Night, Sleep Tight script and a description of the piece from the reader’s perspective, who acts as ZU-UK’s imaginary audience member

On the Cost of Violence and the Benefits of Peace

Wars can be immensely damaging to economies, and they can leave long-lasting scars on society. What are considered to be postwar or postviolence situations can see ongoing nonwar political, domestic, and criminal violence, with war economies not ending with the formal cessation of hostilities. Unarmed violence can have important effects and even forms of nonviolent conflict can carry substantial, measurable economic consequences. Surprisingly little substantive economics work on the subject is done particularly work that would deal with the possible paths countries can take from crises and there seems to exist an unfortunate lack of understanding among economists of the complexities of war and violence and its impact on economy and society, leaving a sometimes unrecognized legacy of violence and loss. This essay deals with some of the issues involved.Macroeconomics; violence; costs and benefits; peace; conflict-affected states

Development of a Strategic Approach for a Single EU Beef Market. Extensification. An Analysis of National and Competitive Issues

Working paperThe economic merits of the two Options for extensification under Agenda 2000 were evaluated in relation to their ability to generate revenue and their impact on the competitiveness of Irish cattle farming