Making The Policy-Makers: Askesis, Or To Continuously Work On Oneself

This paper uses a Foucauldian discursive approach to shed light into how organisational actors are ‘made’ to act as strategists, incorporating into their work practices the demands and expectations of what it means to be a strategist in a specific context at a specific time. It draws on a Foucauldian understanding of governing and self formation to explore the ways in which actors work on themselves in order to act meaningfully as strategists. I argue that, rather than organisational identities being static or finished, organisational actors actively say and do things in their continual attempts to attain a more complete, acceptable and congruent identity. In contexts with high degrees of uncertainty and heavily power- and conflict-laden relationships, both discourses of how strategy is made and the practices involved in it can be seen as exercises (askesis) which strategists actively perform to better embrace their responsibility of rendering the future governable for others. The paper brings together the literatures on identity and on strategic practices to show the dialectic relationship between them

Governmentality and the information society: ICT policy practices in Greece under the influence of the European Union

The perceived socio-economic significance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has dramatically expanded the domains in which this cluster of technologies is being discussed and acted upon. Action to promote the ‘information society’ has made its way into government policy. National technology policy and action cannot however be adequately understood solely as the calculation of needs according to the development aspirations of the country concerned. Instead it needs to be placed in the intersection of simultaneous efforts by national and international organisations to shape technological developments. This research examines the nature of the efforts made to promote ICT innovation through national policies and programmes in the midst of international and regional influences. The thesis involves the historical analysis of the policies for ICT diffusion in Greece within the context of the European efforts to promote the information society. It examines how the Greek state undertook to implement a large-scale ICT programme, in the backdrop of hesitant attempts at modernisation and technological innovation. The research traces the emergence of the ICT programme and the European visions which framed it, and explores the discourses and practices through which it came to materialise. The research is theoretically informed by Foucault’s ideas on governmentality, focusing on the government and self-government of conduct. The study explores the discourses sustained through the European and Greek policies on the information society. Practices of funding, monitoring and reporting are also scrutinised to understand the forms of discipline and contestation they gave rise to. Through this theoretical analysis, the research engages in a context-sensitive examination of the taken-for-granted relationship between policies and their implementation. The main contribution of the thesis lies in illuminating the often neglected role of international and regional organisations in shaping technological agendas, and the material practices which allow them to operate effectively across distances

Exploring The Efforts Of The Greek State To Implement ICT Programmes: An Alternative Interpretation

Drawing from literature on the national responses to the information society, the paper builds on existing research on government intervention in response to ICT, in particular with reference to the continuing, if not always successful, efforts of the Greek state to implement ICT innovations. Appropriating Foucault’s notions of rationalities of government, regimes of truth and knowledge, the paper critically investigates the discourses invested in the Programme at the point of origin, in the negotiating table between the European Commission and the Greek central government policy-makers. The paper goes on to argue that the problems encountered during implementation can be analytically understood as the external manifestation of the clash between the dominant discourses and visions about the role of technology in European integration inscribed in the Programme, and a range of alternative forms of thinking and acting by a wide range of local actors in various implementation sites. These alternative interpretations, which show themselves in a range of subversive practices, uphold the supremacy of national contextual differences, and indirectly, but very effectively, challenge the rationale by which the plans for ICT innovation at the national and supranational level were constituted

Fusidic acid and clindamycin resistance in community-associated, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in children of Central Greece

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>In Greece, fusidic acid and clindamycin are commonly used for the empiric therapy of suspected staphylococcal infections.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The medical records of children examined at the outpatient clinics or admitted to the pediatric wards of the University General Hospital of Larissa, Central Greece, with community-associated staphylococcal infections from January 2003 to December 2009 were reviewed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 309 children (0-14 years old), 21 (6.8%) had invasive infections and 288 (93.2%) skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs). Thirty-five patients were ≤30 days of age. The proportion of staphylococcal infections caused by a community-associated methicillin-resistant <it>Staphylococcus aureus </it>(CA-MRSA) isolate increased from 51.5% (69 of 134) in 2003-2006 to 63.4% (111 of 175) in 2007-2009 (<it>P </it>= 0.037). Among the CA-MRSA isolates, 88.9% were resistant to fusidic acid, 77.6% to tetracycline, and 21.1% to clindamycin. Clindamycin resistance increased from 0% (2003) to 31.2% (2009) among the CA-MRSA isolates (<it>P </it>= 0.011). Over the 7-year period, an increase in multidrug-resistant CA-MRSA isolates was observed (<it>P </it>= 0.004). One hundred and thirty-one (93.6%) of the 140 tested MRSA isolates were Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive. Multilocus sequence typing of 72 CA-MRSA isolates revealed that they belonged to ST80 (n = 61), ST30 (n = 6), ST377 (n = 3), ST22 (n = 1), and ST152 (n = 1). Resistance to fusidic acid was observed in ST80 (58/61), ST30 (1/6), and ST22 (1/1) isolates.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In areas with high rate of infections caused by multidrug-resistant CA-MRSA isolates, predominantly belonging to the European ST80 clone, fusidic acid and clindamycin should be used cautiously as empiric therapy in patients with suspected severe staphylococcal infections.</p

Assessing the impacts of 1.5 °C global warming – simulation protocol of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP2b)

In Paris, France, December 2015, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) invited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide a "special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways". In Nairobi, Kenya, April 2016, the IPCC panel accepted the invitation. Here we describe the response devised within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) to provide tailored, cross-sectorally consistent impact projections to broaden the scientific basis for the report. The simulation protocol is designed to allow for (1) separation of the impacts of historical warming starting from pre-industrial conditions from impacts of other drivers such as historical land-use changes (based on pre-industrial and historical impact model simulations); (2) quantification of the impacts of additional warming up to 1.5°C, including a potential overshoot and long-term impacts up to 2299, and comparison to higher levels of global mean temperature change (based on the low-emissions Representative Concentration Pathway RCP2.6 and a no-mitigation pathway RCP6.0) with socio-economic conditions fixed at 2005 levels; and (3) assessment of the climate effects based on the same climate scenarios while accounting for simultaneous changes in socio-economic conditions following the middle-of-the-road Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP2, Fricko et al., 2016) and in particular differential bioenergy requirements associated with the transformation of the energy system to comply with RCP2.6 compared to RCP6.0. With the aim of providing the scientific basis for an aggregation of impacts across sectors and analysis of cross-sectoral interactions that may dampen or amplify sectoral impacts, the protocol is designed to facilitate consistent impact projections from a range of impact models across different sectors (global and regional hydrology, lakes, global crops, global vegetation, regional forests, global and regional marine ecosystems and fisheries, global and regional coastal infrastructure, energy supply and demand, temperature-related mortality, and global terrestrial biodiversity)

Governmentality and the information society: ICT policy practices in Greece under the influence of the European Union

The perceived socio-economic significance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has dramatically expanded the domains in which this cluster of technologies is being discussed and acted upon. Action to promote the 'information society' has made its way into governmental policy. National technology policy and action cannot however be adequately understood solely as the calculation of needs according to the development aspirations of the country concerned. Instead it needs to be placed in the intersection of simultaneous efforts by national and international organisations to shape technological developments. This research examines the nature of efforts made to promote ICT innovation through national policies and programmes in the midst of international and regional influences. The thesis involves the historical analysis of the policies for ICT diffusion in Greece within the context of the European efforts to promote the information society. It examines how the Greek state undertook to implement a large-scale ICT programme, in the backdrop of hesitant attempts at modernisation and technological innovation. The research traces the emergence of the ICT programme and the European visions which framed it, and explores the discourses and practices through which it came to materialise. The research is theoretically infomred by Foucault's ideas on governmentality, focusing on the government and self-government of conduct. The study explores the discourses sustained through the European and Greek policies on the information society. Practices of funding, monitoring and reporting are also scrutinised to understand the forms of discipline and contestation they gave rise to. Through this theoretical analysis, the research engages in a context-sensitive examination of the taken-for-granted relationship between policies and their implementation. The main contribution of the thesis lies in illuminating the often neglected role of international and regional organisations in shaping technological agendas, and the material practices which allow them to operate effectively across distances

Government and self-government in the information society

Research on the information society and the policies and strategies for its creation has tended to discuss them rationally as the national, and occasionally international or regional, responses to changes in the competitive environment. The predominant notion of the information society in various levels of governance has only rarely been critically examined. The paper provides a Foucauldian analysis of the constitution of the information society as a political and policy imperative at the level of the European Union and the multiple effects it had for its member states. Drawing on ideas on governmentality and regimes of truth, I argue that the European Commission continually shaped the rationality and identity of the information society it heralded, by managing to set itself as the legitimate locus of policy for the information society. In revealing the dominant discursive truths about the European information society, the research discusses how the truth claims about the construction of a particular version of the information society and the legitimate loci of its government shaped the degrees of freedom of the Greek policy makers through a range of disciplining and selfdisciplining practices

Government and self-government in in the information society

Research on the information society and the policies and strategies for its creation has tended to discuss them rationally as the national, and occasionally international or regional, responses to changes in the competitive environment. The predominant notion of the information society in various levels of governance has only rarely been critically examined. The paper provides a Foucauldian analysis of the constitution of the information society as a political and policy imperative at the level of the European Union and the multiple effects it had for its member states. Drawing on ideas on governmentality and regimes of truth, I argue that the European Commission continually shaped the rationality and identity of the information society it heralded, by managing to set itself as the legitimate locus of policy for the information society. In revealing the dominant discursive truths about the European information society, the research discusses how the truth claims about the construction of a particular version of the information society and the legitimate loci of its government shaped the degrees of freedom of the Greek policy makers through a range of disciplining and self- disciplining practice

ICT policy as a governance domain: the case of Greece and the European Commission

This chapter explores ICT policy as a domain that emerges out of the interplay of national and supra-national efforts. Against this backdrop, the chapter investigates the case study of Greek ICT policy, under the important influences of the European Commission. Foucault's concept of governmentality is constructively used as a theoretical lens to inform the analysis of the empirical data. I argue that ICT policy in Greece has been constituted as a governable domain. An array of techniques which embody the rationale of the Commission's outlook of ICT policy is traditionally viewed as the product of rational deliberation of a country