The global cultural commons after Cancun: identity, diversity and citizenship

The cultural politics of global trade is a new and unexplored terrain because the public domain of culture has long been associated with national sovereignty. States everywhere have invested heavily in national identity. But in an age of globalization, culture and sovereignty have become more complex propositions, subject to global pressures and national constraints. This paper argues three main points. First, new information technologies increasingly destabilize traditional private sector models for disseminating culture. At the same time, international legal rules have become more restrictive with respect to investment and national treatment, two areas at the heart of cultural policy. Second, Doha has significant implications for the future of the cultural commons. Ongoing negotiations around TRIPS, TRIMS, GATS and dispute settlement will impose new restrictions on public authorities who wish to appropriate culture for a variety of public and private ends. Finally, there is a growing backlash against the WTO’s trade agenda for broadening and deepening disciplines in these areas. These issues have become highly politicized and fractious, and are bound to vex future rounds as the global south, led by Brazil, India and China flexes its diplomatic muscle

Canada’s Resource Curse: Too Much of a Good Thing

Canada has been both blessed and cursed by its vast resource wealth. Immense resource riches send the wrong message to the political class that thinking and planning for tomorrow is unnecessary when record high global prices drive economic development at a frenetic pace. Short-termism, the loss of manufacturing competitiveness ('the Dutch disease') and long term rent-seeking behavior from the corporate sector become, by default, the low policy standard. This article contends that Canada is not a simple offshoot ofAnglo-American, hyper-commercial capitalism, but is subject to the recurring dynamics of social Canada and for this reason the Northern market model of capitalism needs its own theoretical articulation. Its distinguishing characteristic is that there is a large and growing role formixed goods and non-negotiable goods in comparison to the United States even when the proactive role of the Canadian state had its wings clipped to a degree that stunned many observers. The article also examines the uncoupling of the Canadian and U.S. economies driven in part by the global resource boom. The downside of the new staples export strategy is that hundreds of thousands of jobs have disappeared fromOntario and Quebec. Ontario, once the rich "have" province of the Confederation, is now a poor cousin eligible for equalization payments. Unlike earlier waves of deindustrialization, there is little prospect for recovering many of these better paying positions. Without a focused government strategy, the future for Canada's factory economy is grim. The final section addresses the dynamics of growing income polarization and its lessons for the future. With a global slowdown or worse on the horizon, Canada's unique combination of mixed goods and orthodox market-based policies is likely to be unsustainable in its current form. For countries with a similar endowment, the Northern model is unexportable.Canadá ha sido tanto bendecida comomaldecida por la vasta riqueza de sus recursos. Tal riqueza envía el mensaje erróneo a la clase política de que pensar y planear para el mañana es innecesario cuando los precios globales, que se han elevado a niveles récord, llevan al desarrollo económico a un ritmo frenético. El hecho de que el sector corporativo considere los asuntos a corto plazo, junto con la pérdida de la competitividad manufacturera (la enfermedad holandesa) y el comportamiento de buscar una rentabilidad a largo plazo se han convertido en el estándar de la política práctica. Este artículo plantea que Canadá no es sólo una rama del capitalismo hípercomercial angloamericano, sino que es el sujeto de las dinámicas recurrentes del Canadá social y, por esta razón, el norteño modelo de mercado capitalista necesita su propia articulación teórica. Su característica particular es que los bienes mixtos y no negociables tienen un importante papel creciente en comparación con Estados Unidos, incluso cuando el rol proactivo del Estado canadiense ha plegado sus alas hasta el grado de asombrar a varios expertos. Este artículo también examina la disparidad de las economías estadunidense y canadiense, ambas arrastradas en parte por el boom de los recursos globales. El aspecto negativo de la nueva estrategia de exportación (the new staples export strategy) es que han desaparecido cientos de trabajos desde Ontario hasta Quebec. En el primer caso, la que alguna vez fue la provinciamás rica de la confederación ahora es el primo pobre elegible para la igualación de pagos (equalization payments). Adiferencia de las olas anteriores de industrialización, en la actual es poca la perspectiva de recuperar una mejor situación de pagos. Sin una estrategia gubernamental enfocada a ello, el futuro de la economía industrial de Canadá resulta sombrío. La sección final del artículo aborda la polarización de las dinámicas de crecimiento del ingreso y sus lecciones para el futuro. Con una desaceleración económica global, o incluso con algo peor en el horizonte, como la combinación económica única de Canadá de bienes mixtos con una política de mercado ortodoxa, el modelo no es sustentable en su forma actual. Para países que tienen una dotación similar de recursos, el modelo del norte no es exportable

Globalization: is there anything to fear?

Globalization in its many different forms is the last grand narrative of the 20th century. It evokes a universal vision of frictionless adjustment, endlessly innovative corporations, infinite progress and unlimited abundance for all through the power of the world market. What is particular about the latest tidal wave ‘where all are interrelated through the global market' is that it is not a popular force capable of mobilizing millions in the way working class internationalism once did. It is not a foregone conclusion that the global economy will come undone and crash but what is clear is that financial deregulation has gotten out of hand. Despite the triumphant nature of markets in Anglo-Saxon economies that have irreversibly altered the fundaments of economic and social policy management in many jurisdictions, there are still strong grounds for claiming that the world price system does not automatically build a level playing field across nations as its rhetoric claims. So far, the price mechanism has not produced the expected convergence between social market, laissez-faire, developing economics and Asia-Pacific. Governments ought to be highly vigilant in times of speculative booms, quick fixes that turn bad and too much easy money flowing across borders. Significantly, they have misunderstood the importance of the regulatory need to organize the market. The collapse of the miracle economies (once touted to last for decades) -- Mexico in the early 80s and more recently the Asian Tigers along with the former Eastern Bloc countries -- underlines the fragility of the existing order. What the paper demonstrates is that divergence at all levels is increasingly becoming more important as a feature of globalization despite the powerful authority of elite international institutions to move the global agenda towards the market end of the spectrum. The bottom line is that stability at any cost is simply the wrong target. The paper argues the political market for social protection -- jobs and a higher standard of living -- promises to be a more potent force than the most arduous tenants imposed by the dynamics of a laissez-faire globally-directed free trade regime. The question is, can governments and policy experts learn to think in a reasoned and critical way about the limits of global free trade? Or, will they continue to fear what they do not understand, engage in unnecessary risk-taking and be unable to react strategically to such complex changes in the international economy

Synthesis, functionalization and characterization of zirconium - and hafnium based metal-organic frameworks and improved impact of modulators on water adsorption, catalytic and sensor applications

The object of this thesis is to get a deeper understanding of the role of modulator agents in the synthesis of Zr- and Hf-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their impact on framework properties, such as textural properties, stability, hydrophobicity, and catalytic activity. For this purpose, MOFs are investigated that are built up by the commercially available linker 2,5-thiophenedicarboxylate and the Zr6(µ3-O)4(µ3-OH)412+ cluster. With proper choice of the modulator a new structure, namely DUT-126 (DUT = Dresden University of Technology), could be presented in the course of this work, besides the already known polymorphs of DUT-67, DUT-68 and DUT-69. Furthermore, DUT-67 is chosen as a model structure to functionalise the metal cluster of the framework by exchanging the modulator post-synthetically with hydrophobic fluorinated monocarboxylic acids. With the introduction of these fluorinated molecules, the surface polarities and the stability against water removal can be tuned. In addition, the metal clusters of DUT-67 were modified with a complete removal of the pristine modulator molecules by means of an acidic treatment in order to generate open metal sites that can function as Lewis acid sites. The suitability of DUT-67 and its acid treated analogues as heterogenous catalyst was tested on the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction of cyclohexanone. Furthermore, the UiO-67 analogue DUT-122, which contains the luminescent linker 9-fluorenone-2,7-dicarboxylate, was tested as sensor material to detect solvent vapours. It could be shown that DUT-122 is sensitive to various solvent vapours, which induce photoluminescent shifts and intensity changes of the fluorescence emission profile depending on the polarity and the functionality of the respective solvent

The political economy of dissent: global publics after Cancun

This paper examines the realignment of forces that derailed the Cancun meeting to broaden and deepen the WTO’s world trade agenda held in September 2003, which according to conventional wisdom was supposed to be a done deal. The growing disjuncture between global cultural flows of people and ideas, and the rules and practices of globalization has created a highly unstable environment with many opportunities but at the same time significant political costs. Regardless of what EU and US may admit in public, at Cancun global dissent and its publics acquired visible agenda-setting power. The growth in influence of the ‘nixers’ and ‘fixers’ has contributed to a tectonic shift in the international economy that has immediate and far-reaching consequences for destabilizing globalization and its narrow economic agenda. The second argument is that global cultural flows of ideas, texts and wealth have deepened the global environment of dissent at the WTO. Many of these flows are the consequence of free trade itself. They have accelerated as economic barriers have fallen facilitating the movement of ideas, people and texts driven by new technologies and the appetite for mass culture. Increased trade has increased cultural interaction globally. These concentrated movements of peoples and ideas beget other flows triggering a cyclical movement of dissent and are highly disjunctive for the goals of economic globalization. When these global cultural flows function as catalysts for change, they become both a conduit and channel for the global movement of social forces. They set new agendas and, it is this agenda-setting capacity that challenges state authority globally no less locally. So far there is no single over-riding vision that addresses the collective problem of diversity at the global level. Nonetheless, the global dissent movement intends to have a prominent role in defining public culture and in shaping it in inherently democratic ways

Reform at the top: What’s next for the WTO? A second life? A socio-political analysis

A fundamental change is taking place in the global economy, and the standoff in the Doha Round has raised many questions about the World Trade Organization’s troubled architecture (Khor, 2009). So far, the quest for renewed policy coherence in the rules-based multilateral system has produced stalemate rather than reform. The analysis that follows explores the proposition that, without the metaphoric ‘knife at its throat’ to shock it to its senses, the WTO will continue in the short term to be trapped by its existing architecture. There is no coherent reform-minded movement supported by a critical number of states to instigate a change in the way the WTO does business. The paper looks at the following idea: with many states pursuing new policy frames to enhance their strategic interests, the second life of the WTO will be dramatically different from the present configuration. A lengthy trade pause is a certainty. Four options of what the WTO will become are examined. The conclusion is that as a governance body the WTO faces gradual and likely irreversible decline. It will have a smaller remit, be prone to mini-multilateralism and have to learn to live with a proliferation of regional trade agreements

The short but significant life of the International Trade Organization: lessons for our time

Along with the World Bank and the IMF, the International Trade Organization (ITO) formed the centrepiece of new kind of international organization in the late 40s. At the time, what was particularly novel about the Havana Charter was that it was not simply or mainly a trade organization like the WTO, its latter day descendent. At its core, the countries of the world rejected the idea that it was possible to maintain a firewall between trade, development, employment standards and domestic policy. Its most distinctive feature was the integration of an ambitious and successful program to reduce traditional trade barriers, with a wide-angled agreement that addressed investment, employment standards, development, business monopolies and the like. It pioneered the idea that trade disputes had to be settled by consultation and mediation rather than with legal clout. Further it established an institutional linkage between trade and labour standards that would effect a major advance in global governance. Finally it embedded the full employment obligation, along with "a commitment to free markets" as the cornerstone of multilateralism. Despite these accomplishments, the US Congress refused to ratify the Havana Charter even though it had signed it. As a direct consequence, the ITO's collapse represented a significant closure of the full employment era internationally. In the end, it's demise made possible the rapid return of the free trade canon that increasingly, would impose its authority and ideology on all international organizations and on the practice of multilateralism. As this essay concludes, its history compelling because whatever its apparent shortcomings, governments, economists and ordinary people demanded that trade, employment goals and developmental needs should reinforce each other in the world trading system

Investigations about the cardioprotective effect of pyruvate in isolated hemoperfused pig-hearts under ischemic conditions

Deckblatt-Impressum persönlicher Dank Inhaltsverzeichnis Tabellen- und Abbildungsverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis Einleitung und Zielstellung Literaturübersicht Material und Methoden Ergebnisse Diskussion Zusammenfassung Summary Literaturverzeichnis Danksagung SelbständigkeitserklärungZiel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, die kardioprotektive Wirkung des glykolytischen Zwischenproduktes Pyruvat während normothermer Perfusion und einer Ischämie an isoliert hämoperfundierten Schweineherzen darzustellen. Die Untersuchungen wurden im Rahmen des BMBF-Projektes Physiologische Hämoperfusion von isolierten Organen und ihr Einsatz zum Ersatz von Tierversuchen durchgeführt. Die Herzen entstammten von insgesamt 28 Schweinen, welche auf dem Schlachthof Eberswalde und im Tier-OP der tierexperimentellen Abteilung der Charité und Campus Virchow-Klinikum gewonnen wurden. Zur Perfusion der Herzen wurde ein System benutzt, welches einen extrakorporalen Kreislauf darstellt. Über ein Dialysemodul wurde das verwendete Blut-Perfusionsgemisch oxygeniert und dialysiert, sowie über einen Wärmekreislauf konstant temperiert. Die Perfusion der Kontrollherzen (n=6) diente zur Überprüfung der Stabilität des Perfusionsaufbaus und soll die experimentelle Brauchbarkeit der Organe im Anschluß eines Tierversuches darstellen. Es erfolgte die Messung von folgenden Parametern: Herzfrequenz (HR), linker systolischer Ventrikeldruck (LVPmax), linker enddiastolischer Ventrikeldruck (LVEDP), entwickelter Druck im zeitlichen Verlauf (dP/dtmax), koronarer Perfusionsdruck (CPP) und koronarer Blutfluß (CBF). Die Bewertung erfolgte durch den Vergleich der Messwerte ausgewählter Versuchsparameter mit ihren physiologischen oder experimentell bestätigten Referenzwerten. Die Versuchsgruppe bestand aus n=10 Herzen. Vor Versuchsbeginn erfolgte eine Stabilisierung der hämodynamischen Parameter, sowie die Äquilibrierung des pH- Wertes. Ausschlaggebende Parameter für den Beginn der Versuchsphase waren das Erreichen eines physiologischen Perfusionsdruckes von 80-120 mmHg bzw. 10,64-15,96 kPa und eines hämodynamischen und rhythmologisch stabilen Perfusionsverlaufes. Gemessen wurden globale (LVP) und regionale ( IMP und Wth) mechanische Parameter. Außerdem wurden koronarer Perfusionsdruck (CPP), Herzfrequenz (HR), koronarer Blutfluß (CBF) und die regionale Herzarbeit (Wanddicken-Druck-Schleifen) erfasst. Unter der Zufuhr einer überphysiologischen Konzentration von Pyruvat (5mMol/l) unter nicht ischämischen Bedingungen konnte kein signifikanter Einfluß von Pyruvat auf die globale und regionale Herzfunktion nachgewiesen werden. Durch Unterbrechung der Blutzufuhr des RIVA der linken Koronararterie wurde eine Ischämie induziert. Die unter der Okklusion 1 gewonnenen Messdaten dienten als Referenzwerte. Während einer zweiten vergleichbaren Ischämiephase wurde eine überphysiologische Konzentration von Pyruvat (5mMol/l) dem Dialysat zugeführt. In dieser Versuchsphase konnte eine signifikante Steigerung (p=0,005) der globalen Funktionsparameter (LVPmax um 58,8 % und LVPdev um 80,1 %) nachgewiesen werden. Die Messungen der regionalen myokardialen Funktion unter dem Einfluß von Pyruvat ergaben signifikante Verbesserungen (p=0,005) des intramyokardialen Druckes (IMPsys mit 91,3 % und IMPdev mit 79,1 %) in der ischämischen Region. Die Wanddickenänderung (Wth1%) dokumentiert unter Pyruvateinfluß eine signifikante Zunahme (p=0,017) des lokalen Funktionsparameters in der ischämischen Region. Diese Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Applikation einer überphysiologischen Konzentration von Pyruvat während einer Ischämie die Kontraktilität des Myokards signifikant verbessert. Der nachgewiesene positiv inotrope Effekt lässt sich durch die gesteigerte Ca2+-Freisetzung aus dem sarkoplasmatischen Retikulum und dem Anstieg des cytosolischen Phosphorylierungspotentials erklären. Desweiteren hat Pyruvat eine höhere Affinität zum Monocarboxylat-Transporter als Laktat und fungiert somit als ein effektiver und natürlicher Inhibitor zur myokardialen Laktataufnahme. Die Ergebnisse am isoliert hämoperfundierten Schweineherzen sind zum großen Teil mit den Resultaten aus in-vivo-Experimenten in Tieren vergleichbar. Daher eignet sich das beschriebene Modell als Alternative zum Ganztierversuch und kann damit zu einer wesentlichen Reduktion von Tierversuchen beitragen.The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the cardioprotective effect of the glycolytic intermediate product pyruvate during normothermic perfusion and under ischemic conditions in isolated hemoperfused pig-hearts. These experiments were made possible by a BMBF-project Physiologic Hemoperfused Organs and Their Applicability to Replace Animal Experiments . The hearts (n=28) were harvested from slaughterhouse-pigs and from pigs after an other animal experiment at the Charité-Hospital and Campus Virchow-Clinicum. The rate of successful hemoperfused hearts were about 75 %. It was used a system to perfusion the hearts which presented an extracorporal circulation. The blood-perfusion solution was oxygenated and dialyzed and constant tempered Control hearts (n=6) were necessary to proof the stability of the perfusion system and the experimental ability of hearts after an animal experiment. Measurements were made of heartrate (HR), systolic left ventricular pressure (LVPmax), enddiastolic left ventricular pressure (LVEDP), developed pressure (dP/dtmax), coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) and coronary blood-flow (CBF). Arterial blood was analysed (pO2, pCO2, pH, K+) at the beginning, after 20, 40 and 60 minutes. These hearts were perfused over 60 minutes. The valuation of measurements were compared with choosen parameters with their physiological or experimental confirmed reference values. Before the beginning of experiments hemodynamic parameters were stabilized and pH-values were calibrated. The experimental group contained n=10 hearts. Before analysis of data it was necessary to reach a physiological perfusion pressure of 80-120 mmHg (10,64-15,96 kPa) and physiological conditions with regards to hemodynamics and rhythmological stabilitiy. Measurements were made of global (LVP) and regional (IMP and Wth) mechanical parameters. Additional there were made measurements of coronary perfusion pressure (CPP), heartrate (HR), coronary bloodflow (CBF) and regional heartwork (pressure-length-loops). The application of supraphysiological concentrations of pyruvate (5 mMol/l) under non ischemic conditions during normothermic perfusion, presented no significant influence of pyruvate on global and regional functional parameters. Because of short time interruption of bloodflow by occlusion of the Ramus interventicularis paraconalis (RIVA) an ischemia was induced. Standard values derived under a first occlusion was essentiell for the assessment of changes that occurred in consequence of a second occlusion. Before a second period of ischemia there was supraphysiological concentrations of pyruvate (5 mMol/l) applicated. Addition of pyruvate resulted in significant (p=0,005) increase of global functional parameters (LVPmax by 58,8 % and LVPdev by 80,1 %). The measurements of regional myocardial function demonstrated, under influence of pyruvate, significant (p=0,005) improvements of intramyocardial pressure (IMPsys by 91,3 % and IMPdev by 79,1 %). In addition of pyruvate the wallthickness (Wth1%) showed a significantly enhancement (p=0,017) of local functional parameter in ischemic region. The results demonstrated, that application of supraphysiological concentrations of pyruvate under ischemic conditions improve contractile parameters significantly. Previous work has suggested that pyruvates positive inotropic effect acts in part through thermodynamic stimulation of the SR calcium pump due to an increase of phosphorylation potential. Besides pyruvate has the greater affinity to the monocarboxylate-transporter than lactate and resulted as an effective and natural inhibitor of the myocardial lactate uptake. The results of the isolated pig-heart are mostly comparable to conditions of in- vivo-experiments. Therefore, it has been shown that this model is suitable to replace experiments of animals and could substantial reduce laboratory animals in experimental studies

The New Fordism in Canada: Capital\u27s Offensive, Labour\u27s Opportunity

The breakdown in the links of mass production and mass consumption poses problems throughout the advanced industrial world. In each nation-state the ensuing struggles will take different forms. In postwar Canada, the link between mass consumption and mass production did not lead to the same kind of trade union participation in decision-making as it did in much of Europe. Workers were unable to establish embedded rights of worker participation. What was known as the fordist model in Europe did not have deep roots in Canada. Canadian workers are now being attacked by employers whose bargaining powers were never seriously blunted, aided by a state which has never had to accord even a junior partnership role to organized labour. The arrival of the new technologies is not likely to lead to more enriching work or better pay conditions for much of the workforce given the logic of the imperatives of an export-led growth economy in which state planning takes the form of encouraging private ordering. This paper concludes by looking at some ways by which Canadian workers may be able to resist the downward pressure on wages and working conditions created by employers seeking to take advantage of their newfound power