Technologie verplicht

Overheidsorganisaties maken in toenemende mate gebruik van geavanceerde technologie. Hierdoor zijn zij in staat gebleken de kwaliteit én de snelheid van hun werkzaamheden aanzienlijk te verbeteren en het eind van de nieuwe mogelijkheden lijkt nog lang niet in zicht. Veel overheidsorganisaties volgen de technologische ontwikkelingen dan ook op de voet. Moderne technologie schept naast mogelijkheden echter ook verplichtingen. Immers, als overheidsorganisaties hun werk beter kunnen doen met behulp van technologie, moeten zij dat ook doen. Dit zou wel eens een belangrijke nieuwe verplichting in het recht kunnen worden: de verplichting om technologie te gebruiken. De stelling wordt, wat het openbaar ministerie betreft, ondersteund door arresten van het Hof Amsterdam en van de Hoge Raad

Church, Economy and the Question of Horizons

This paper analyses why theology has to develop a concern with economy and economics and elaborates a perspective for a new debate between theologians and economists about socio-ethical problems in public life. The hermeneutically reflected relationship between church and economic life has been elaborated in a number of principles of community development. Church and economy are seen as two important ‘horizons of human life’. Economic developments, symptoms of crisis and symptoms of stagnation are mainly present in the Church’s social teaching owing to the fact that faith communities and their leaders are confronted with these social problems. This paper approaches the relationship between the two horizons in a perspective of public theology. An open conversation between theology and economics focuses on a new praxis-led theology. Whenever the meaning of ‘the good life’ is attached to the realisation of functions and capacities in the concrete markets within an actual economy, the actuality of the economic reality is placed within a horizon that expresses a sense of that life. It then becomes possible to state that a concrete set of functions and capacities are in service to humanity. Keywords:*community development, *'telos', *public theology, *spirituality, *institution *globalisation *contextualisation, *normative economics, *human dignity, *economics for the common good, *'bonum commune' *good lif

Deep into the Province:proposal for a comparative research project on the role of culture and art in peripheral regions across Europe

This paper presents a comparative research project on the role of art and culture in peripheral regions across Europe. It is informed by the growing inequalities between cities where the ‘winners of globalisation’ reside and the peripheral regions in Europe that are not so well-connected to the global economy. The project aims to assess the strategies of cultural agents outside major city centres by asking how the spheres of arts and culture, the local economy and ‘the social’ interact in peripheral regions. Do these interactions contribute to sustainable (local) cultural/artistic milieus and to regional development? And how can such a contribution be demonstrated? The research project will provide an understanding of the strategies and interactions of cultural agents in peripheral cultural ecologies. It will also provide a grounded framework for value assessment of art and culture in peripheral regions which can be used as, or to improve on existing frameworks for strategic management and/or public accountability of their operations