3,416 research outputs found
Rethinking higher education and its relationship with social inequalities: Past knowledge, present state and future potential
The purposes and impact of higher education on the economy and the broader society have been transformed through time in various ways. Higher education institutional and policy dynamics differ across time, but also between countries and political regimes and therefore context cannot be neglected. This article reviews the purpose of higher education and its institutional characteristics juxtaposing two, allegedly rival, conceptual frameworks; the instrumental and the intrinsic one. Various pedagogical traditions are critically reviewed and used as examples, which can potentially inform today’s policy making. Since, higher education cannot be seen as detached from all other lower levels of education appropriate conceptual links are offered throughout this article. Its significance lies on the organic synthesis of literature across social science, suggesting ways of going forward based on the traditions that already exist but seem underutilized so far because of overdependence in market-driven practices. This offers a new insight on how theories can inform policy making, through conceptual “bridging” and reconciliation. The debate on the purpose of higher education is placed under the context of the most recent developments of increasing social inequalities in the western world and its relation to the mass model of higher education and the relevant policy decisions for a continuous increase in participation. This article suggests that the current policy focus on labor market driven policies in higher education have led to an ever growing competition transforming this social institution to an ordinary market-place, where attainment and degrees are seen as a currency that can be converted to a labour market value. Education has become an instrument for economic progress moving away from its original role to provide context for human development. As a result, higher education becomes very expensive and even if policies are directed towards openness, in practice, just a few have the money to afford it. A shift toward a hybrid model, where the intrinsic purpose of higher education is equally acknowledged along with its instrumental purpose should be seen by policy makers as the way forward to create educational systems that are more inclusive and societies that are more knowledgeable and just
Chinese dialects, revolutionary war & economic performance
In this paper, we explore the effects of dialectal diversity on economic performance by
drawing evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities. Our dataset is a panel of 5-year average data
over the period from 2001 to 2015 including 274 cities. We compute five indices of Chinese dialectal
diversity: 1. Dialectal fractionalization; 2. Adjusted dialectal fractionalization; 3. Dialectal polarization;
4. Adjusted dialectal polarization and 5. Periphery heterogeneity. We find that dialectal
fractionalization and dialectal polarization as well as periphery heterogeneity have a positive effect
on both income per capita and economic growth. Adjusted dialectal fractionalization exhibits a
positive effect only on the change in economic growth over time. However, adjusted dialectal
polarization does not show any robust effects. Furthermore, the experience of being governed by the
Chinese Communist Party during the revolutionary war inhibits the negative effects of dialectal
diversity in eastern China, while it has persistent negative effects in central and north-eastern regions
of the country
persistent regions, rising nations
In this paper, we examine the economic and political effects of the breakup of East
Prussia into what is today Poland, Russia and Lithuania. We explore the dissolution
of imperial regions into the boundaries of modern states, adding new insights to the
research on the imperial legacies. We expect that German imperial legacies in the
form of advanced economic institutions, and specifically East Prussian legacies of
nationalistic and conservative political preferences, persist in the territories of former
East Prussia in Poland, Russia and Lithuania compared to neighboring regions in
their respective countries. We find no pattern of persistence in former East Prussian
territories of contemporary Poland, whereas East Prussian persistence appears to
be robust in Lithuania. We find strong evidence for the comparative persistence
of political preferences in the Kaliningrad region, whereas we observe no economic
spillovers. Drawing evidence from West German electoral data in the aftermath of
World War II, we find that the presence of East Prussian refugees is conducive to
conservative and nationalist support in the FRG. Hence, the East Prussian legacy
relates primarily to the persistence of political preferences and migrating agents
Self-induced topological transition in phononic crystals by nonlinearity management
A new design paradigm of topology has recently emerged to manipulate the flow
of phonons. At its heart lies a topological transition to a nontrivial state
with exotic properties. This framework has been limited to linear lattice
dynamics so far. Here we show a topological transition in a nonlinear regime
and its implication in emerging nonlinear solutions. We employ nonlinearity
management such that the system consists of masses connected with two types of
nonlinear springs, "stiffening" and "softening" types, alternating along the
length. We show, analytically and numerically, that the lattice makes a
topological transition simply by changing the excitation amplitude and invoking
nonlinear dynamics. Consequently, we witness the emergence of a new family of
finite-frequency edge modes, not observed in linear phononic systems. We also
report the existence of kink solitons at the topological transition point.
These correspond to heteroclinic orbits that form a closed curve in the phase
portrait separating the two topologically-distinct regimes. These findings
suggest that nonlinearity can be used as a strategic tuning knob to alter
topological characteristics of phononic crystals. These also provide fresh
perspectives towards understanding a new family of nonlinear solutions in light
of topology.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
Dynamics of ring dark solitons in Bose-Einstein condensates and nonlinear optics
Quasiparticle approach to dynamics of dark solitons is applied to the case of
ring solitons. It is shown that the energy conservation law provides the
effective equations of motion of ring dark solitons for general form of the
nonlinear term in the generalized nonlinear Schroedinger or Gross-Pitaevskii
equation. Analytical theory is illustrated by examples of dynamics of ring
solitons in light beams propagating through a photorefractive medium and in
non-uniform condensates confined in axially symmetric traps. Analytical results
agree very well with the results of our numerical simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
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