Computer ethics in a different voice

This paper argues that the potential of writing on computer ethics to contribute to a deeper understanding of inequalities surrounding the use of information and communications technologies is threatened by forms of technological determinism and liberalism. Such views are prevalent in professional and more popular literature, and even in policy documents, albeit expressed tacitly. Adopting this standpoint substantially reduces explanatory power in relation to certain computer ethics topics, especially equality and participation, particularly in relation to gender. Research on gender and information and communications technologies has analyzed inequalities between men and women both inside and outside the workplace, drawing heavily from feminist theory. The paper argues that feminist ethics, coupled with aspects of feminist legal and political theory, may offer a fruitful, novel direction for analyzing computer ethics problems, and certainly those that contain substantial differences, and therefore inequalities, in men's and women's experiences on-line. Furthermore, feminist ethics can offer a more collectivist approach toward computer ethics problems. Emerging themes in existing research on gender and computer ethics are discussed before exploring some of the outcomes of applying feminist theory to a problem of privacy in the extreme form of Internet-based harassment known as “cyberstalking”, where traditional liberal and determinist views have proved problematic.     

产业集群的演化和阶段性成因探讨

产业集群以其独特的集群优势成为区域经济发展和中小企业成长的一条捷径。产业集群现象是市场、产业活动和政府战略选择等因素综合作用的结果,随着约束因素的变化,其存在的状态也必然发生相应的变化。虽然我国的产业集群近几年在政府倡导和推动下有了长足的发展,但也存在许多亟待解决的问题。在处理这些问题时,要区分不同发展阶段的产业集群,解决关键因子,将收到事半功倍的效果。本文分析了产业集群的演化过程及其各个阶段的生存条件,在此基础上讨论了我国产业集群的现状和发展策略。     

The Twenty‐First‐Century Quest for Feminism and the Global Urban

The purpose of this essay is to initiate a conversation about the production and analysis of knowledge on women and the urban. Starting with a brief overview of how women have been addressed in the field of urban studies, I turn to their treatment in works by critical urban scholars, revealing how women fall away from urban theories. The dismissal of women from theory construction and the impact on women's lives of the imbrication of the gendered subject into neoliberal discourses about the city adds urgency to a feminist intervention. A feminist analytic requires the promotion of a new kind of global urban studies that takes seriously women's struggles, strategies and everyday desires.     

Is It Time To Createa New Theoryof the Firm? Discussion

In this comment on James Emshoff's (1993) paper, ¹ I will begin by briefly summarizing the paper. Then I will give my reaction to the issues raised in the paper from the perspective of an economist and professor of business strategy. As I discuss later, it is the work of Alfred Chandler, Jr., rather than work of economists, that is most relevant to the issues raised by Emshoff. In my view economists must understand the limitations of standard economic approaches to organizational issues in order to begin to make progress on issues raised by Chandler and Emshoff.     

Is This What The Democratic City Looks Like? Local Democracy,Housing Rights and Homeownership in the Portuguese Context

This article analyses the creation of a normative framework for the democratic city during the regime change in Portugal in 1975—the answers that were given to the question, ‘What should a city be like in a democratic regime?’ While I critically discuss post‐democracy and its use of post‐foundational contributions, I review the post‐revolution Portuguese constitutional debate, contending that the call for democratization brought by urban popular organizations was answered with a political compromise that exchanged expectations of a participatory city for a commitment to a social rights city, enhanced with a promise of homeownership for urban popular segments. In light of this, in this article I question post‐democratic proposals, arguing that when this approach implicitly establishes equivalence between democracy and ‘the political’, it has difficulties in interpreting how the grammar of democracy is ‘organized’ in conflictual and contingent processes of democratic institutionalization. As an alternative, I contend that a critical debate concerning democracy and the urban must address how democratic expectations of emancipation have been translated into institutions and rights through interwoven and situated processes of politicization and depoliticization that allow both politicization of the urban and the production of consent .     

In Search of Theory Development in Grounded Investigations: Doctors' Experiences of Managing as an Example of Fitted and Prospective Theorizing

This article draws on a study of doctors’ experiences of clinical managing to highlight research conventions that limit the development and use of middle range theories in grounded studies. Using sensemaking and the psychological contract as example frameworks, we illustrate how customary deductive evaluations of middle range theories turn grounded researchers away from theory building. As a correction to these conventions, we offer an inductive approach to building existing theory in grounded investigations that does not depend solely on working with frameworks under different empirical conditions. We suggest that forward theorizing is most likely to progress from a synthesis of fitted explanation and prospective thinking that presses at the limits of the data's usefulness. To illustrate this approach, trialled thinking about novel theoretical juxtapositions and alternative sources was used in conjunction with our clinical director data. The value of this approach was supported in two ways. First, a number of fitted and prospective conjectures are offered about how social identity articulates with psychological contracts and sensemaking in role change situations. Second, new light is shed on the process by which particular social conditions differentially modify employees’ social categorizations, and how these inform employee responses to the evolving experience of role change. The article concludes with some tentative proposals for promoting more discussion of theory building in grounded investigations.     

Reconciling Domestication Techniques,the Notion of Re-exports and Some Comments on Regional Accounting

Recent work by Jackson (1998) subtly pointed out a means of forming direct input coefficient matrices from national technology that is different from that published elsewhere. In this paper, I rationalize his approach and also point out that prior approaches may still be useful in certain applications where the phenomenon of re-exports (imports that satisfy exports) are explicit in exports accounts. In the second half of this paper, I show some means of developing regional accounts, currently being used in the US, that are more elaborate than those Jackson discussed. For example, I substitute regional shares of employment with earnings shares to obtain productivity adjusted regional output. I also suggest using available regional value added and regional labour income when producing regional Use matrices.     

From feminism to FemInc.ism: On the uneasy relationship between feminism,entrepreneurship and the Nordic welfare state

Feminism in the Nordic countries was primarily formulated in terms of ‘state feminism’. The women’s movement cooperated with feminist government officials and politicians, resulting in societies that can be considered to be the most gender-equal societies in the world. Historically, the state provided for a large publicly-financed welfare sector which made it possible for many women to combine work and family through the state’s implementation of family-friendly policies, while simultaneously providing employment opportunities for many women. However, since the financial crisis of the 1990s, there has been a political change influenced by neo-liberal thought, in which politicians have handed over the welfare state’s responsibilities to the market, and, instead, the politicians have encouraged entrepreneurship, not least among women. Further to this development, there has been a change in emphasis from entrepreneurship (understood as starting and running a business) to entrepreneurialism which, in addition to a belief in the efficacy of market forces, also contains a social dimension where individuals are supposed to be flexible and exercise choice. In this article, we ask whether this entails a change in the feminist project in the Nordic countries, and if so, what the likely consequences are for this project, both in practice and in research. In order to answer this question, we reviewed existing Nordic research on women’s entrepreneurship and examined how this body of work conceptualizes entrepreneurship, gender, the state, and equality. We also considered whether any trends could be identified. We relate our findings to recent changes in government policy and conclude that the current discourse on entrepreneurship challenges, and possibly weakens, state feminism, but we also conclude that this discourse may also provide space for new forms of feminist action, in market terms. We coin the term FemInc.ism to denote feminist action through enterprise and we discuss a number of important challenges that research on this phenomenon is faced with.     

Postcolonializing Berlin and The Fabrication of The Urban

Postcolonializing Berlin is an experiment in rethinking (Western) cities from the South. It embraces conceptual innovations from thinkers in African, Latin American and Asian urban studies to complicate the stories we tell about contemporary Berlin. My argument proceeds in four steps. I begin by asking what makes the North–South division in urban studies so problematic, and what needs to happen to shake up those categories. Then I share some of my own trials and errors in looking at Berlin‐Neukölln through the lens of ‘the South', before offering an alternative frame, which I call ‘urban fabricating', as a way of inquiring into and perceiving changing urban settings. In the final part, gambling parlours in Berlin‐Neukölln move into focus, where different forms of fabrication are at work: the regeneration officials' vision for the future of the neighbourhood, the inspectors' improvisations on the casino law, and the casino owners' ways of muddling through at the edges of the law. Rather than searching for the one new theory to shake up urban studies, fabricating is, I suggest, an unagitated approach to the actual processes through which cities are made.     

Humanistic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial career commitment

Although the crucial role of entrepreneurs in the process of establishing firms is common knowledge in SME research, a major theoretical problem has been how to combine theories of ‘persons’ (entrepreneurs) with theories of ‘organizations’ (firms).

In this study I suggest that what is missing is a dynamic or processual approach to the study of entrepreneurs. Just as organizations change during their development, so do persons. In order to understand how in particular new firms come about, we should look more closely into the dynamics of personal change that lead certain individuals to commit themselves to entrepreneurial careers.

A study of humanistic entrepreneurs in Denmark indicates that the process of becoming an entrepreneur can be seen as a particular kind of career commitment. The emergence of such career commitments is analysed. Different patterns of entrepreneurial career commitments are presented and explained in terms of both structural conditions and biographical self–narratives.     

Offshore Outsourcing: Implications for International Business and Strategic Management Theory and Practice

abstract    In this essay, I discuss the implications of the debate over offshoring for our collective understanding of international business and management theories. I review several core theories in international business expansion and management strategy to assess which elements of these theories may need to be re-specified in light of the offshoring phenomenon and which aspects remain relevant. I then present normative implications and recommendations for public policy and corporate strategy, drawing from emerging insights regarding the global responsibilities of corporations. I suggest that international labour and environmental standards and corporate codes of conduct could mitigate some of the most intense concerns raised about offshoring but conclude that offshoring is likely to present challenges to societies, corporations, and stakeholders for many decades.     

Scalar Narratives in Bilbao: A Cultural Politics of Scales Approach to the Study of Urban Policy

In this article I explore how theoretical metaphors about the contemporary rescaling of the capitalist economy are used by local policy actors to justify an entrepreneurial urban policy. I develop a new theoretical concept (scalar narrative), suggest an analytical approach (cultural politics of scales) and give evidence of a particular case (Bilbao). The article is structured in the following way. First, I briefly review the literature on politics of scales and contribute to the debate with an approach that incorporates elements from cultural political economy and interpretative policy analysis. Within this approach I mobilize the concept of ‘scalar narrative’ that has already been suggested in the literature but not fully explored. I then put this approach into practice with a particular case study, Bilbao, a city in the north of Spain, which has recently gone through extensive urban regeneration, where I describe the appropriation of three scalar narratives by the policymakers. To show this I draw from empirical work done in Bilbao that looks at statutory and strategic planning documents as well as urban marketing literature and interviews with key informants.     

Populism in South America: Democratic Panacea or Pitfall?

Populism has become a buzz word in recent years, used widely by journalists, political pundits, and academics. Much of the discussion presents the global phenomenon as a recent one. However, one version or another has existed in South America for nearly a century. In this article, I put forth a political strategic definition of populism that includes an actor's political style, relationship with followers, political organization, and political history. Using this conceptualization, I score several presidential candidates’ campaign behavior during recent elections, between the years 2011 and 2015. I also consider the democratic consequences of two of the continents’ most visible and longest‐serving populists, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador. I examine the change over time in both countrie's political systems regarding the respect for civil liberties and political rights, changes in citizens’ attitudes towards the democratic quality of their respective countries, and the variation in socioeconomic inequality. I conclude with an assessment of each populist's democratic consequence and discuss potential for future research.     

Drivers of change in the European youth employment: a comparative structural decomposition analysis

This paper uses a structural decomposition approach to examine the proximate causes of change in the EU15 youth workforce from 1995 to 2011. Besides the traditional sources considered by the literature, I include age-specific factors: a labor utilization index that accounts for the hours that employed youth work by showing the extent of part-time contracts; an age mix factor that indicates the share that youth comprise of total employment and, finally, changes in the inverse of the overall sectoral labor productivity, which describes variations in total labor demand. By applying this approach, I identify the core drivers behind the recent changes in the evolution of youth employment in each of the 15 countries; this is crucial for tailoring policy strategies. Results suggest that to foster youth employment, most Mediterranean countries should implement youth-specific measures while other EU15 countries could do so by enhancing overall employment.     

EXPANDING EXTRACTIONS

In this paper, we generalize hypothetical extraction techniques. We suggest that the effect of certain economic phenomena can be measured by removing them from an input–output (I–O) table and by rebalancing the set of I–O accounts. The difference between the two sets of accounts yields the phenomenon's effect (or importance). We suggest that the approach can be used to measure the effect of changes in intermediate output, which are otherwise not easily rationalized within a Leontief framework. Of course, it can also be used to estimate the possible effects of the shutdown of a particular establishment or other identifiable segment of an economy. We demonstrate some properties and potential of the approach using the annual 2006 US I–O accounts.     

Assessing social identity and collective efficacy as theories of group motivation at work

The increasing reliance globally on teams raises the question whether existing theories of work motivation remain applicable as bases for inspiring people to perform. There is some support for the view that well-known theories of work motivation were conceived with individuals as the unit of analysis, and that they may not apply for groups at work. Some authors have added a cultural dimension to this argument, contending that existing theories have ignored cultural practice in eastern countries, where collectivism at work is the normal mode. In light of arguments of this nature, this article critically examines the merits of two theories, social identity, and collective efficacy, as bases of group work motivation, and provides a model that can serve to organize studies on teamwork processes and outcomes, and for designing studies that compare the two types of groups, or that look individually at the workings of a particular type. The model includes four types of variables, namely contextual, independent, moderator, and dependent.     

Cost‐ and Income‐based Measures of Human Capital

Human capital is increasingly believed to play an important role in the growth process, however, adequately measuring its stock remains controversial. In this paper three general approaches to measurement are identified; cost‐based, income‐based and educational stock‐based. This survey focuses on the first two approaches and provides a critical review of the theories and their applications to data from a range of countries. Particular emphasis is placed upon the work of Jorgenson and Fraumeni (1989, 1992) and some new results for New Zealand based upon their approach are also presented.     

Contracts,compacts and the common law Some problems with New Right theories of human resource management Contracts,compacts and the common law

The study of HRM in Spain is flourishing. We have seen the major international journals begin to reflect the work of Spanish academics in this area. The standard is high and the international network of Spanish scholars is increasingly developed. This paper attempts to review the work that is published in English and to see how Spanish HRM systems are represented externally. It tries to locate the discussion of the HRM research in Spain within its academic and social context. The authors argue that there are some characteristics marking this debate and development, which suggest that the study of HRM in Spain is hugely Americanized in terms of methods and content. The lack of synergies with sociology and political economy are evident. Moreover, the shortage of rigorous qualitative research, apart from that on employment relations and the sociology of work, raise some serious issues. The manner in which a discourse of HRM in Spain has evolved leaves many questions and issues unaddressed. While evaluating what we believe to be a relevant selection from HRM publications on Spain in English by Spanish authors in the last 15 years we do not attempt to present them all here. Instead, we try to isolate some representative articles. In sum, the paper aims to fill a gap in the Spanish HRM literature by studying the main debates, the research issues that are given priority and the methodological options. As a conclusion, we can say that it is necessary to encourage academic discussions regarding the features of the management of HR in Spain. In this sense it should be noted that the mainstream HRM approaches formulated in American Business Schools do not necessarily fit within the Spanish context.     

Let Their Voices Be Seen: Exploring Mental Mapping as a Feminist Visual Methodology for the Study of Migrant Women

This article explores how mental mapping can be used as a critical methodology for feminist migration studies. In a case study of female marriage migrants who settle in rural areas in South Korea from other Asian countries, I attempt to develop mental mapping to supplement verbal interviews. Mental maps of hometowns and current neighborhoods drawn by my interviewees represent their geographical imaginations and complex identity negotiations that mirror the change in their social locations. In order to understand multilayered meanings embedded in the images and the way in which power relations existent between the researcher and the researched affect the map production, I suggest a critical reading of the maps. The article shows how a reflexive and intertextual reading makes a difference to the interpretation of the maps. It argues that the maps are not mere reflections of the women's cognition, but rather socially constructed texts through which their desires, emotions, feelings and internal contradictions are expressed and negotiated. My research suggests that mental mapping, if ethically performed and critically evaluated, has potential as a means to convey the unheard voices of the marginalized to diverse audiences.