Search results for: Polish social economy

Authors: Khrystyna Pavlyk

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In the OECD countries, percentage of adults with higher education degrees has increased by 10 % during 2000-2010. Continuously increasing demand for higher education gives universities a chance of becoming key players in socio-economic development of a territory (region or city) via knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge spillovers. During previous decade, universities have tried to support spin-offs and start-ups, introduced courses on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. While much has been done, new trends are starting to emerge in search of better approaches. Recently a number of universities created centers that conduct research in a field social entrepreneurship, which in turn underpin educational programs run at these universities. The list includes but is not limited to the Centre for Social Economy at University of Liège, Institute for Social Innovation at ESADE, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford, Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Rosklide, Social Entrepreneurship Initiative at INSEAD. Existing literature already examined social entrepreneurship centers in terms of position in the institutional structure, initial and additional funding, teaching initiatives, research achievements, and outreach activities. At the same time, Universities can become social enterprises themselves. Previous research revealed that universities use both business and social entrepreneurship models. Universities which are mainly driven by a social mission are more likely to transform into social entrepreneurial institutions. At the same time, currently, there is no clear understanding of what social entrepreneurship in higher education is about and thus social entrepreneurship in higher education needs to be studied and promoted at the same time. Main roles which socially oriented university can play in city development include: buyer (implementation of socially focused local procurement programs creates partnerships focused on local sustainable growth.); seller (centers created by universities can sell socially oriented goods and services, e.g. in consultancy.); employer (Universities can employ socially vulnerable groups.); business incubator (which will help current student to start their social enterprises). In the paper, we will analyze these in more detail. We will also examine a number of indicators that can be used to assess the impact, both direct and indirect, that universities can have on city's economy. At the same time, originality of this paper mainly lies not in methodological approaches used, but in countries evaluated. Social entrepreneurship is still treated as a relatively new phenomenon in post-transitional countries where social services were provided only by the state for many decades. Paper will provide data and example’s both from developed countries (the US and EU), and those located in CIS and CEE region.

Keywords: social enterprise, university, regional economic development, comparative study

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Authors: Audie Daniel Wood

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In the spring of 2020, the country and the economy came to a halt due to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, SARS-2, virus known as COVID-19. One of the hardest hit sectors of the economy was the gig-sector, which includes Lyft, Uber, Door-Dash, and other services. In this study, we examined the effects of the independent contractor status of laborers in this field to see how a near-complete economic shut-down affected the lives of laborers who are denied access to health-care and unemployment benefits due to their status as independent contractors. What the study found was there was no 'life-altering' change to the lives of the workers who used gig-work as supplementary income during the economic shut-down, but those who relied on Lyft and Uber, etc. as their sole source of income were more heavily impacted by the economic shut-down than part-time workers. The second significant finding of the study was that across all genders and races, the idea of having to seek unemployment or help was something that none of the workers wanted. They all felt as if unemployment and social-insurance were for those who could not work. While the findings are not generalizable due to this being a small qualitative study consisting of 27 participants, the findings suggest that the economic and social impact of COVID-19 on those that work in the gig-industry warrants further discussion and research.

Keywords: gig-work, Covid-19, independent contractor, Uber

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Authors: Mohammad Enayet Hossain, Nur Farhah Mahadi

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The global COVID-19 pandemic has contaminated millions of people at a startling rate. The COVID-19 pandemic came out of mediocre and has since spread all over the world, causing to record 5 million deaths worldwide in just a few months. The economic crisis has triggered a global contraction, leading to an economic collapse expected over 2020-2021. This study examines whether Islamic social finance can effectively mitigate the dangers of humanitarian catastrophes. The study provides a multirange method for maximizing the advantage of Islamic social financings tools such as zakat and waqf. The information, documents, and data for this study are gathered using a qualitative method. The study employed ongoing research, literature review, news stories, reports, and trusted online sources. Eventually, this may add to knowledge by examining the role of Islamic social finance in the current Covid-19 crisis. The findings have consequences for governments and policymakers who want to solve the COVID-19 problem with Islamic social finance ideas and solutions, thereby enhancing people's social well-being and the global economy's development.

Keywords: covid-19 pandemic, Islamic social finance, zakat, waqf

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Authors: Agata Chudzicka-Czupała, Nadiya Hapon, Liudmyla Karamushka, Marta żywiołek-Szeja

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Objectives: The study is about the determinants of coping with stress connected with volunteer activity for Russo-Ukrainian war 2022 refugees. We examined the mental health reactions, chosen psychological traits, and motivational functions of volunteers working in Poland and Ukraine in relation to their coping with stress styles. The study was financed with funds from the Foundation for Polish Science in the framework of the FOR UKRAINE Programme. Material and Method: The study was conducted in 2022. The study was a quantitative, questionnaire-based survey. Data was collected through an online survey. The volunteers were asked to assess their propensity to use different styles of coping with stress connected with their activity for Russo-Ukrainian war refugees using The Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief-COPE) questionnaire. Depression, anxiety, and stress were measured using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DASS)-21 item scale. Chosen psychological traits, psychological capital and hardiness, were assessed by The Psychological Capital Questionnaire and The Norwegian Revised Scale of Hardiness (DRS-15R). Then The Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) was used. The significance of differences between the variable means of the samples was tested by the Student's t-test. We used multivariate linear regression to identify factors associated with coping with stress styles separately for each national sample. Results: The sample consisted of 720 volunteers helping war refugees (in Poland, 435 people, and 285 in Ukraine). The results of the regression analysis indicate variables that are significant predictors of the propensity to use particular styles of coping with stress (problem-focused style, emotion-focused style and avoidant coping). These include levels of depression and stress, individual psychological characteristics and motivational functions, different for Polish and Ukrainians. Ukrainian volunteers are significantly more likely to use all three coping with stress styles than Polish ones. The results also prove significant differences in the severity of anxiety, stress and depression, the selected psychological traits and motivational functions studied, which led volunteers to participate in activities for war refugees. Conclusions: The results show that depression and stress severity, as well as psychological capital and hardiness, and motivational factors are connected with coping with stress behavior. The results indicate the need for increased attention to the well-being of volunteers acting under stressful conditions. They also prove the necessity of guiding the selection of people for specific types of volu

Keywords: anxiety, coping with stress styles, depression, hardiness, mental health, motivational functions, psychological capital, resilience, stress, war, volunteer, civil society

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Authors: Adebayo J. Julius, Oluremi N. Iluyomade

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Livelihood in Nigeria is a paradox of poverty amidst plenty. The Country is endowed with a good climate for agriculture, naturally growing fruit trees and vegetables, and undomesticated water resources. In spite of all its endowment, Nigeria continues to live in poverty year in year out. This thus raises a very important question as to how can there be so much poverty in Nigeria with all its natural endowments. This study focused comparative analysis of the utilization of community informatics for sustainable livelihoods through agriculture. The idea projected in this study is that small strategic changes in the modus operandi of social informatics can have a significant impact on sustainability of livelihoods. This paper carefully explored the theories of community informatics and its efficacies in dealing with sustainability issues. This study identified, described and evaluates the roles of community informatics in some sectors of the economy, different analytical tools to benchmark the influence of social informatics in agriculture against what is obtainable in agricultural sectors of the economy were used. It further employed comparative analysis to build a case model for sustainable livelihood in agriculture through community informatics.

Keywords: informatics , model, rural community, livelihoods sustainability, Nigeria

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Authors: Ireneusz Majsterek, Karolina Przybylowska, Lukasz Dziki, Adam Dziki, Jacek Kabzinski

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the deadliest cancers. Every year we see an increase in the number of cases, and in spite of intensive research etiology of the disease remains unknown. For many years, researchers are seeking to associate genetic factors with an increased risk of CRC, so far it has proved to be a compelling link between the MMR system of DNA repair and hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancers (HNPCC). Currently, research is focused on finding the relationship between the remaining DNA repair systems and an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between gene polymorphisms Ser835Ser of XPF gene and Gly23Ala of XPA gene–elements of NER DNA repair system, and modulation of the risk of colorectal cancer in the Polish population. Determination of the molecular basis of carcinogenesis process and predicting increased risk will allow qualifying patients to increased risk group and including them in preventive program. We used blood collected from 110 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The control group consisted of equal number of healthy people. Genotyping was performed by TaqMan method. The obtained results indicate that the genotype 23Gly/Ala of XPA gene is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, while 23Ala/Ala as well as TCT allele of Ser835Ser of XPF gene may reduce the risk of CRC.

Keywords: NER, colorectal cancer, XPA, XPF, polymorphisms

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Authors: Bushra, Filza Akhtar

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As countries face increased pressure to address environmental issues and resource constraints, the need to implement sustainable waste management strategies grows. This research study investigates the concept of circular economy principles in the context of municipal waste management as a tool for achieving sustainability goals. Municipalities can reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and promote economic development by switching from traditional linear waste disposal prototypes to circular approaches prioritizing waste minimization, reuse, recycling, and resource recovery. Drawing on case studies and best practices worldwide, this study investigates the potential benefits, obstacles, and opportunities of incorporating circular economy principles into waste management methods. It also talks about the role of regulatory frameworks, technology advances, and stakeholder participation in driving the transformation.

Keywords: sustainable, waste, management, circular economy

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Authors: Reagan Rodriguez

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With a growing divide between political echo chambers in the United States, exacerbated by race and income inequality, it might seem to be unfathomable to draw connections that tie working class in an industrial city and a U.S. territory. Yet, in regions where either the economy has been hit due to dwindling job infrastructure or natural disasters have left indelible marks on an island already once marked by colonial imperialism, a larger social shared identity is at play. Fracking has long been an intergenerational and stable work opportunity for many in the Pittsburg PA, yet the rising severity of global climate change may soon impact the policy and even presidential elections which could result in the reduction of jobs in the industry. Cock-fighting, considered a cultural mainstay within the island of Puerto Rico, has already had legislation banning activity and thus cutting out one of the most lucrative aspects of a severely injured economy. Insecurity, infringement, and isolation while being tied to a working-class bracket with no other opportunities in proximity have left both groups expressing similar frustration and while another larger shared identity politic is giving little other options to develop social mobility. This paper utilizes a thematic analysis and compares convergent and divergent themes on internet forums amongst unionized fracking workers in Pittsburg and cockfighters in Puerto Rico. This research examines how group identity in relation to job and cultural identity is most strong and at which points its most malleable; when intergenerational job identity becomes a part of one’s cultural identity, its override may be strongest when it is perceived as threatened. Final findings and limitations were comprehensively outlined.

Keywords: identity threat, social psychology, group identity, culture and social mobility

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Authors: Ladaporn Pithuk

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This research attempts to explore the satisfaction of international tourists toward Thai economy and Bangkok attributes. Due to tourism industry provides high rate of revenue for Thailand, and the outcome from this business drives every sections of Thailand. Unfortunately, some incidents in the country, such as some turmoil, have ruined the city’s image which obviously impacts to tourism industry. Hence, this survey was established to better understand the tourist’s satisfaction in these matters. The size of this research was 400 international tourists who visit Bangkok, Thailand during the 1st – 20th March 2009 and age between 20 – 65 years. The results reveal that tourists satisfy with all of Bangkok’s attributes including general attractions, heritage attraction, maintenance factors and cultural attraction. Also, tourists’ perception toward Thai politics is significantly related to their satisfaction of Bangkok’s attributes but their perception toward Thai economy is not significantly correlated to their satisfaction of Bangkok’s attributes.

Keywords: Bangkok’s attributes, satisfaction of international tourists, Thai economy, and tourism industry

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Authors: A. Burakowska, M. Piotrowski, M. Kubicki, H. Trzaskowska, R. Sosnowiec, B. Myslek-Laurikainen

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The most important source of atmospheric radioactivity are radionuclides generated as a result of the impact of primary and secondary cosmic radiation, with the nuclei of nitrogen oxygen and carbon in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. This creates about thirty radioisotopes of more than twenty elements. For organisms, the four of them are most important: ³H, ⁷Be, ²²Na, ¹⁴C. The natural radionuclides, which are present in Earth crust, also settle on dust and particles of water vapor. By this means, the derivatives of uranium and thorium, and long-life 40K get into the air. ¹³⁷Cs is the most widespread isotope, that is implemented by humans into the environment. To determine the concentration of radionuclides in the atmosphere, high volume air samplers were used, where the aerosol collection took place on a special filter fabric (Petrianov filter tissue FPP-15-1.5). In 2002 the high volume air sampler AZA-1000 was installed at the Polish Polar Observatory of the Polish Academy of Science in Hornsund, Spitsbergen (77°00’N, 15°33’E), designed to operate in all weather conditions of the cold polar region. Since 1991 (with short breaks) the ASS-500 air sampler has been working, which is located in Swider at the Kalinowski Geophysical Observatory of Geophysics Institute of the Polish Academy of Science (52°07’N, 21°15’E). The following results of radionuclides concentrations were obtained from both stations using gamma spectroscopy analysis: ⁷Be, ¹³⁷Cs, ¹³⁴Cs, ²¹⁰Pb, ⁴⁰K. For gamma spectroscopy analysis HPGe (High Purity Germanium) detector were used. These data were compared with each other. The preliminary results gave evidence that radioactivity measured in aerosols is not proportional to the amount of dust for both studied regions. Furthermore, the results indicate annual variability (seasonal fluctuations) as well as a decrease in the average activity of ⁷Be with increasing latitude. The content of ⁷Be in surface air also indicates the relationship with solar activity cycles.

Keywords: aerosols, air filters, atmospheric beryllium, environmental radionuclides, gamma spectroscopy, mid-latitude regions radionuclides, polar regions radionuclides, solar cycles

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Authors: Fakhrul Anwar Zainol, Wan Norhayate Wan Daud, Zulhamri Abdullah, Mohd Rafi Yaacob

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Malaysia has made great strides in eradicating poverty. Based on the latest figures of the 9th Malaysian Plan Mid-term review, the overall hardcore poverty percentage is down to 0.7%, and only 3.6% of the Malaysian population is living below the overall poverty line. While in the past significant efforts had been taken by the government through various developmental project to alleviate poverty in rural area had proven successful. Today, urban poverty in Malaysia is an increasingly visible phenomenon due to rural-urban migration and the natural population growth in urban areas. Given the changing dimensions and emerging new forms of poverty as a result of unwanted effects of development there is a dire need to re-examine and re-visit urban poverty in Malaysia. Based on the leaders’ perceptions, this study affirmed that social entrepreneurship organizations in Malaysia have try to overcome the urban poverty through social entrepreneurship. The new framework has been developed from the results of this study. It shows that social entrepreneurship contributed to the organizational effectiveness. This result indicates that it is important to have social entrepreneurship in order to increase the socio economy and achieve the organization’s mission. Therefore, this study has proven that social entrepreneurship is beneficial to the Malaysian.

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship, Organizational Effectiveness, Urban Poverty, Malaysia.

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Authors: Phusit Phukamchanoad

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The research studies the behaviors based on sufficiency economy philosophy at individual and community levels as well as the satisfaction of the urban community leaders by collecting data with purposive sampling technique. For in-depth interviews with 26 urban community leaders, the result shows that the urban community leaders have good knowledge and understanding about sufficiency economy philosophy. Especially in terms of money spending, they must consider the need for living and be economical. The activities in the community or society should not take advantage of the others as well as colleagues. At present, most of the urban community leaders live in a sufficient way. They often spend time with public service, but many families are dealing with debt. Many communities have some political conflict and high family allowances because of living in the urban communities with rapid social and economic changes. However, there are many communities that leaders have applied their wisdom in development for their people by gathering and grouping the professionals to form activities such as making chili sauce, textile organization, making artificial flowers worshipping the sanctity. The most prominent group is the foot massage business in Wat Pracha Rabue Tham. This professional group is supported continuously by the government. One of the factors in terms of satisfaction used for evaluating community leaders is the customary administration in brotherly, interdependent way rather than using the absolute power or controlling power, but using the roles of leader to perform the activities with their people intently, determinedly and having a public mind for people.

Keywords: performance and activities, sufficiency economy, urban communities leader, Dusit district

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Authors: Adam Bereczk

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Due to persistent socioeconomic problems regarding sustainability and labour market equilibrium in Europe, the subjects of social economy gained considerable academic attention recently. At the meantime, social enterprises pursuing the double bottom line criteria, struggling to find the proper management philosophies and strategies to make their social purpose business financially sustainable. Despite the strategic management literature was developed mainly on the bases of large corporations, in the past years, the interpretation of strategy concepts became a frequent topic in scientific discussions in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises also. The topic of strategic orientations is a good example of the trend. However, less is known about the case of social enterprises, despite the fact, the majority of them are small businesses engaged in real business activities. The main purpose of this work is to give a comprehensive summary of different perspectives regarding the interpretations of strategic orientations of social enterprises. The novelty of this work is it shows the previous outcomes and models of scholars from various fields of economic science who tried to intertwine the two spheres in different forms, methodize the findings and draw attention to the shortcomings.

Keywords: social enterprises, business sustainability, strategic orientations, literature review

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Authors: Kerryn Krige, Kerrin Myers

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Social entrepreneurship offers the opportunity to simultaneously address both social and economic inequality in South Africa. Its appeal across racial groups, its attractiveness to young people, its applicability in rural and peri-urban markets, and its acceleration in middle income, large-business economies suits the South African context. However, the potential to deliver much-needed developmental benefits has not been realised because the social entrepreneurship debate lacks evidence as to who social entrepreneurs are, their goals and operations and the socio-economic results they achieve. As a result, policy development has been stunted, and legislative barriers and red tape remain. Social entrepreneurs are isolated from the mainstream economy, and struggle to access funding because of limitations in legislative and organisational structures. The objective of the study is to strengthen the ecosystem for social entrepreneurship in South Africa by producing robust, policy-rich information from and about social enterprises currently in operation across the country. The study employs a quantitative survey methodology, using online and telephonic data collection methods. A purposive sample of 1000 social enterprises was included in the first large-scale study of social entrepreneurship in South Africa. The results offer deep insight into the characteristics of social enterprises; the activities they undertake and the markets they serve; their modes of operation and funding sources as well as key challenges and support systems. The results contribute towards developing a model of social enterprise in the African context.

Keywords: social enterprise, key characteristics, challenges and enablers, towards an African model

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Authors: Tissa Ravinda Perera

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An open economic policy was introduced by Sri Lanka in 1977, before many other countries in Asia to align her economy to world economic trends and it was affected indigenous businesses since they had to compete with foreign products, processes, technology, innovations and businesses. The year 2010 was a milestone in Sri Lankan history to achieve the developmental goals when Foxbuisness rated Sri Lanka as the best performing global economy. However, Sri Lanka missed her chances of achieving development with the political and social chaos, consequent the regime change in 2015. This paper argues that to support the development of the country, Sri Lanka must develop an entrepreneurial culture. In this endeavor, creativity and innovation will play a pivotal role to achieve the desired level of development. In this study, it was used secondary data from various local and international sources to understand and explore the existing scenario of Sri Lankan economy, state of entrepreneurial culture and innovation, and challenges and competencies for the development of an entrepreneurial culture in Sri Lanka. The data was collected from secondary sources were depicted in tables in this paper in a meaningful manner. Based on the tables many findings were aroused and conclusions were made to support the argument in this paper. This paper revealed that the development of an entrepreneurial culture has to be associated with creativity and innovation to gain a competitive advantage over the development strategies of other countries. It is exposed that an entrepreneurial culture will help minorities, women and underprivileged societies to empower themselves. This product will help to confront and manage youth unrest which has created anarchy in the country from time to time. Throughout this paper, it was highlighted the past, present and future scenario of Sri Lankan economy along with modification to be done to it through the development of an entrepreneur culture in light of innovation and creativity to achieve the desired level of development.

Keywords: economy, industry, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial culture

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Authors: B. Sudhakara Reddy

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The transition to a clean and green energy system is an economic and social transformation that is exciting as well as challenging. The world today faces a formidable challenge in transforming its economy from being driven primarily by fossil fuels, which are non-renewable and a major source of global pollution, to becoming an economy that can function effectively using renewable energy sources and by achieving high energy efficiency levels. In the present study, a green economy scenario is developed for India using a bottom-up approach. The results show that the penetration rate of renewable energy resources will reduce the total primary energy demand by 23% under GE. Improvements in energy efficiency (e.g. households, industrial and commercial sectors) will result in reduced demand to the tune of 318 MTOE. The volume of energy-related CO2 emissions decline to 2,218 Mt in 2030 from 3,440 under the BAU scenario and the per capita emissions will reduce by about 35% (from 2.22 to 1.45) under the GE scenario. The reduction in fossil fuel demand and focus on clean energy will reduce the energy intensity to 0.21 (TOE/US$ of GDP) and carbon intensity to 0.42 (ton/US$ of GDP) under the GE scenario. total import bill (coal and oil) will amount to US$ 334 billion by 2030 (at 2010/11 prices), but as per the GE scenario, it would be US$ 194.2 billion, a saving of about US$ 140 billion. The building of a green energy economy can also serve another purpose: to develop new ‘pathways out of poverty’ by creating more than 10 million jobs and thus raise the standard of living of low-income people. The differences between the baseline and green energy scenarios are not so much the consequence of the diffusion of various technologies. It is the result of the active roles of different actors and the drivers that become dominant.

Keywords: emissions, green energy, fossil fuels, green jobs, renewables, scenario

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Authors: Daurenbek Kuleimenov, Elmira Otar

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Market institutions extension within transit societies contributes to constituting the new type of middle class and households livelihood strategies. The middle class households as an example of prosperity in many cases encourage the ordinary ones to do the same economic actions. Therefore, practices of using market institutions by middle class households in transit societies, which are mostly characterized by huge influence of traditional attitudes, can carry habitual features for the whole society. Market institutions consumption habit of the middle class households makes them trendsetters of economic habits of other households while adapting to the market economy. Moreover different social-economic positions of households lead them to different consuming results such as worsening or improving household economy due to indebtedness.

Keywords: middle class, households, market institutions, transition

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Authors: Christopher E. A. Ramsey, Halia Valladares Montemayor

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This study examined whether the dissemination of information about the circular economy (CE) has any bearing on the likelihood of the implementation of its concepts on an individual basis. Specifically, the goal of this research study was to investigate the impact of consumer knowledge about the circular economy on their behavior in applying such concepts. Given that our current linear supply chains are unsustainable, it is of great importance that we understand what mechanisms are most effective in encouraging consumers to embrace CE. The theoretical framework employed was the theory of planned behavior (TPB). TPB, with its analysis of how attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control affect intention, provided an adequate model for testing the effects of increased information about the CE on the implementation of its recommendations. The empirical research consisted of a survey distributed among university students, faculty, and staff at a Canadian University in British Columbia.

Keywords: circular economy, consumer behavior, sustainability, theory of planned behavior

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Authors: Aldona Guzik

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Experts have always played a special role in society. Drawing on their opinions was and most certainly is one of the most important strategies that direct people when they make decisions; something often used with the aim of exerting influence and ensuring social conformism. Many factors decide on who becomes an expert. The most important of these have hitherto been: the possession of extensive knowledge, charisma, authority as well as experience. Increasingly, however, these factors are insufficient and may even be deemed unnecessary. This state of affairs has been brought about (among other things) by the development of the media and the media’s influence on our lives. The inspiration to write the present article has its grounding in the book by Tom Nichols The Death of Expertise. The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters, in which the author claims that in our present-day open society experts and their expertise count for increasingly less for everyone who has unlimited access to the Internet and education. This has, in turn, resulted in the creation of so-called ‘collective wisdom,’ which is placed higher than any of the specialist knowledge proclaimed by experts. However, this is an incomplete picture, because admittedly, access to knowledge is nowadays unlimited, but on the other hand, the ubiquitous risk causes that the expert is someone who allows them to minimize it. Therefore, a modern society so readily refers to their opinion; from the smallest matters, eg home appliance, to important political issues. Hence, many information services include numerous experts (scientists, journalists, specialists, celebrities), whose task is to explain to the viewers in a simple way the presented reality. However, more and more often their role is also to give credence to what they explain. Hence the questions arise: who are the experts, what is their typology and what roles they play in Polish information services? To answer them, quantitative and qualitative research was used, such as analysis of lists of 100 most influential experts, analysis of expert profiles and their statements in three differentiated information services (TVN - commercial, TVP1 - public, TV Trwam - non-commercial/religious). They will be the basis for answering the above-mentioned questions and, above all, determining their role in information services in Poland.

Keywords: experts, media, public discours, symbolic elites

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Authors: Phusit Phukamchanoad

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This research was to analyze personality’s activities based on sufficiency economy philosophy of people and community leaders in urban communities. The data were collected through questionnaires administered to 392 people and interviewed with community leaders. It was found that most people revealed that their lives depend on activities in accordance with the sufficiency economy philosophy in high level especially, being honest and aware on sufficiency, occupations, peacefulness in the community leaders’ side, they reported on extravagant reduction, planting home vegetable garden, having household accounting, expense planning by dividing into 3 categories; 1) saving for illness cover 2) saving for business cover, and 3) household daily expense. The samples were also adjusted their livings quite well with the rapid change of urbanization. Although those people have encountered with any hardships, their honesty in occupations and awareness on sufficiency remain to survive happily.

Keywords: sufficiency economy philosophy, individual and household activities, urban community

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Authors: Kangrij Roeksiripat

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Street vending is one of the informal economy activities which considered significance to Thai people in the economic and the day-to-day social life. It had been believed that the street vendor is a group of the poor and uneducated people. With the increasing numbers of the street vendor occupying space on public sidewalks especially in central business districts, it becomes unclear whether street vending continues as a solution to unemployment for access labors. This research attempts to study and analyze types of street vendors in Bangkok under the informal economy framework. The debate on the heterogeneous informal economy has categorized into four schools; the dualism, the structuralism, the legalism and the voluntarism. The examination also embodies with market concept with Porter’s Five Forces of Competitive Position Model analysis and the interviews with the street vendors in three case study areas: Inner zone (Pathumwan district - the sidewalk on the opposite side of Siam Paragon mall), Middle zone (Ramkhamhaeng district - the sidewalk on the opposite side of Ramkhamhaeng University) and Outer zone (Minburi district- the sidewalk of Sriburanukit Road). The result indicates that most of street vendors in Siam square are voluntarily choose to make a living in vending on a sidewalk and tend to take it as a long-term occupation even though they can be in formal wage employment. Moreover, average income and positive attitude towards self-employed are the important factors that drive them to operate street vending businesses. Meanwhile, street vending is often a family enterprise in Ramkhamhaeng area and most vendors do not wish to transform their businesses into the formal sectors. Whereas the survey conducted in Sriburankit Road reveals that almost all of street vendors migrated from other provinces and were previously paid as the unskilled workers in formal sectors. They moved to informal trades because of the uncertainty of employment in the mainstream sectors and the inconsistent income with knowledge support of friends and relatives from the same hometown. In particular, the result reveals a common pattern that street vending is the very first occupation of some group of vendors and they will continue to engage in this activity. Thus, it is important for the government to design optimal policy which not only integrating informal workers into the formal economy but also monitoring the enforcement of regulations on the modern informal economy.

Keywords: informal economy, sidewalks, street vendors, occupation

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Authors: Hiroki Yoshikai, Shin’ichi Arakawa, Tetsuya Takine, Masayuki Murata

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API (Application Programming Interface) economy is expected to create new value by converting corporate services such as information processing and data provision into APIs and using these APIs to connect services. Understanding the dynamics of a market of API economy under the strategies of participants is crucial to fully maximize the values of the API economy. To capture the behavior of a market in which the number of participants changes over time, we present a time-evolving market model for a platform in which API providers who provide APIs to service providers participate in addition to service providers and consumers. Then, we use the market model to clarify the role API providers play in expanding market participants and forming ecosystems. The results show that the platform with API providers increased the number of market participants by 67% and decreased the cost to develop services by 25% compared to the platform without API providers. Furthermore, during the expansion phase of the market, it is found that the profits of participants are mostly the same when 70% of the revenue from consumers is distributed to service providers and API providers. It is also found that when the market is mature, the profits of the service provider and API provider will decrease significantly due to their competition, and the profit of the platform increases.

Keywords: API economy, ecosystem, platform, API providers

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Authors: Grichting Anna, Al Sada Sara, Caccayam Angelica, Khan Urshi

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The Qatar Museums Authority recently announced a series of public art initiatives in Doha with the purpose of 'bringing art out of the walls of the museum' to make it accessible to the public on a daily basis and to encourage discussion and debate. While the installation of sculptures in public spaces is not new in Doha, the practice of integrating art in public spaces and architectural projects is reaching a new dimension as internationally renowned artists – such as Damien Hirst and Richard Serra - are being commissioned to install their works in the public spaces and buildings of the city of Doha as well as in more remote desert locations. This research discusses the changing presence, role and context of public art in Doha, both from a historical and cultural overview, and the different forms and media as well as the typologies of urban and public spaces in which the art is installed. It examines the process of implementing site-specific artworks, looking at questions of scale, history, social meaning and formal aesthetics. The methodologies combine theoretical research on the understanding of public art and its role and placement in public space, as well as empirical research on contemporary public art projects in Doha, based on documentation and interviews and as well as site and context analysis of the urban or architectural spaces within which the art is situated. Surveys and interviews – using social media - in different segments of the contemporary Qatari society, including all nationalities and social groups, are used to measure and qualify the impacts and effects on the population.

Keywords: public space, public art, urban design, knowledge economy

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Authors: Erez Yerushalmi, Sani Ziv

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The rising demand for healthcare services, without a corresponding rise in public supply, led to a debate on whether to increase private healthcare provision - especially in hospital services and second-tier healthcare. Proponents for increasing private healthcare highlight gains in efficiency, while opponents its risk to social welfare. None, however, provide a measure of the social value and its impact on the economy in terms of a monetary value. In this paper, we impute a minimum social value of public healthcare that corresponds to indifference between gains in efficiency, with losses to social welfare. Our approach resembles contingent valuation methods that introduce a hypothetical market for non-commodities, but is different from them because we use numerical simulation techniques to exploit certain market failure conditions. In this paper, we develop a general equilibrium model that distinguishes between public-private healthcare services and public-private financing. Furthermore, the social value is modelled as a by product of healthcare services. The model is then calibrated to our unique health focused Social Accounting Matrix of Israel, and simulates the introduction of a hypothetical health-labour market - given that it is heavily regulated in the baseline (i.e., the true situation in Israel today). For baseline parameters, we estimate the minimum social value at around 18% public healthcare financing. The intuition is that the gain in economic welfare from improved efficiency, is offset by the loss in social welfare due to a reduction in available social value. We furthermore simulate a deregulated healthcare scenario that internalizes the imputed value of social value and searches for the optimal weight of public and private healthcare provision.

Keywords: contingent valuation method (CVM), general equilibrium model, hypothetical market, private-public healthcare, social value of public healthcare

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Authors: A. Yakub AbdurRaheem

Abstract:

Urban violence in the form of ethnic and religious conflicts have been on the increase in many African cities in the recent years of which most of them are the result of intense and bitter competition for political power, the control of limited economic, social and environmental resources. In Nigeria, the emergence of the Boko Haram insurgency in most parts of the northeastern parts have ignited violence, bloodshed, refugee exodus and internal migration. Not only do the persistent attacks of the sect create widespread insecurity and fear, but it has also stifled normal processes of trade and investments most especially real property investment which is acclaimed to accelerate the economic cycle, thus the need to evolve strategies for an improved property market in such areas. This paper, therefore, examines the impact of this social crisis on effective and efficient utilization of real properties as a resource towards the development of the economy, using a descriptive analysis approach where particular emphasis was based on trends in residential housing values; volume of estimated property transactions and real estate investment decisions by affected individuals. Findings indicate that social crisis in the affected areas have been a clog on the wheels of property development and investment as properties worth hundreds of millions have been destroyed thereby having great impact on property values. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to include the need to strategically continue investing in property during such times, the need for Nigerian government to establish an active conflict monitoring and management unit for the prompt response, encourage community and neighborhood policing to ameliorate security challenges in Nigeria.

Keywords: social crisis, economy, resources, property market

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Authors: Michał Jaśkiewicz

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The relation between walkability, place adherence, social relations and quality of life was explored in a Polish context. A considerable number of studies have suggested that environmental factors may influence the quality of life through indirect pathways. The list of possible psychological mediators includes social relations and identity-related variables. Based on the results of Study 1, local identity is a significant mediator in the relationship between neighbourhood walkability and quality of life. It was assumed that pedestrian-oriented neighbourhoods enable residents to interact and that these spontaneous interactions can help to strengthen a sense of local identity, thus influencing the quality of life. We, therefore, conducted further studies, testing the relationship experimentally in studies 2a and 2b. Participants were exposed to (2a) photos of walkable/non-walkable neighbourhoods or (2b) descriptions of high/low-walkable neighbourhoods. They were then asked to assess the walkability of the neighbourhoods and to evaluate their potential social relations and quality of life in these places. In both studies, social relations with neighbours turned out to be a significant mediator between walkability and quality of life. In Study 3, we implemented the measure of overlapping individual and communal identity (fusion with the neighbourhood) and willingness to collective action as mediators. Living in a walkable neighbourhood was associated with identity fusion with that neighbourhood. Participants who felt more fused expressed greater willingness to engage in collective action with other neighbours. Finally, this willingness was positively related to the quality of life in the city. In Study 4, we used commuting time (an aspect of walkability related to the time that people spend travelling to work) as the independent variable. The results showed that a shorter average daily commuting time was linked to more frequent social interactions in the neighbourhood. Individuals who assessed their social interactions as more frequent expressed a stronger city identification, which was in turn related to quality of life. To sum up, our research replicated and extended previous findings on the association between walkability and well-being measures. We introduced potential mediators of this relationship: social interactions in the neighbourhood and identity-related variables.

Keywords: walkability, quality of life, social relations, analysis of mediation

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Authors: Lei Liu

Abstract:

Since the famous opening up and reform strategy of China, lots of migrants have flowed from rural areas to urban areas. In this paper, the author investigates the rural elderly left behind, which are defined aged people left alone at home while their adult children have to migrant outside. This phenomenon is a quite general and serious social problem that cannot be ignored, accompanied by the process of urbanization and regional transferring of rural labor. The Chinese internal migration not only exerts great influence to China’s economy and urbanization but also obviously reduces the labor and care to rural aged people. Contrary to assumptions in some migration and aging studies, which show the inevitable negative effects of migration upon the old age care, the author highlights unique features in their daily strategies of house holding to integrate into society with the analysis of the conception of social inclusion. Through life history interviews with elderly left behind in one rural village, this article sheds light on three different factors of social inclusion, namely, economic inclusion, social identity and political inclusion and shows its necessaries to fully understand the status of the social wellbeing of rural elderly left behind.

Keywords: labor migration, elderly left behind, social inclusion, rural China

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Authors: Adebayo J. Julius, Oluremi N. Iluyomade

Abstract:

Livelihood in Nigeria is a paradox of poverty amidst plenty. The Country is endowed with a good climate for agriculture, naturally growing fruit trees and vegetables, and undomesticated water resources. In spite of all its endowment, Nigeria continues to live in poverty year in year out. Rural communities adopted for this study are Ido, Omi-Adio, Onigambari, Okija and Lambata, 500 questionnaires were administered to solicit information from the respondents. This study focused on comparative analysis of the utilization of community informatics for sustainable livelihoods through agriculture. The idea projected in this study is that small strategic changes in the modus operandi of social informatics can have a significant impact on the sustainability of livelihoods. This paper carefully explored the theories of community informatics and its efficacies in dealing with sustainability issues. This study identified, described and evaluates the roles of community informatics in some sectors of the economy, different analytical tools to benchmark the influence of social informatics in agriculture against what is obtainable in agricultural sectors of the economy were used. It further employed comparative analysis to build a case model for sustainable livelihood in agriculture through community informatics.

Keywords: informatics, model, rural community, livelihood, Nigeria

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Authors: Obaid Alotaibi

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Tourism and recreation have become one of the important and influential sectors in most of the modern economies. This sector has been accepted as one of the alternative sources of national income, employment, and foreign exchange. Kuwait has many potentialities in tourism and recreation, and exploitation of this leads to more diversification of the economy besides augmenting its contribution to the GDP. It is an import-oriented economy; it requires hard currencies (foreign exchange) to meet the import costs as well as to maintain stability in the international market. To compensate for the revenue fall stemmed from fluctuations in oil prices -where the agriculture, fisheries, and industrial sectors are too immune and inelastic- the only alternative solution is the regeneration of the tourism and recreation to surface. This study envisages the characteristics of tourism and recreation, the economic and social importance for the society, the physical and human endowments, as well as the tourist pattern and plans for promoting and sustaining tourism in the country. The study summarizes many recommendations, including the necessity of establishing authority or a council for tourism, linking the planning of tourism development with the comprehensive planning for economic and social development in Kuwait in the shadow of 2035 vision, and to encourage the investors to develop new tourist and recreation projects.

Keywords: Kuwait, public-private, partnership, tourism, 2035 vision

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Authors: Denis Ushakov

Abstract:

Cities are the main actors of global production and trade, and dominant share of international business activity is now concentrating within a frame of global urban net. This trend transforms mechanisms and patterns of market economy institutes’ (such as competition, division of labor, international movement of capital and labor force) functioning; stimulates an appearance of new economical (development of rural areas), social (urbanization) and political (political and economical unity of the big countries) problems. All these reasons identified relevance and importance of purpose of this study – to consider a modern role of cities’ business systems in the global economy, to identify sources for global urban competitive advantages, to clear inter-cities economic relationships and patterns of cities’ positioning within a frame of global net.

Keywords: globalization, urban business system, global city, transnationalization, networking

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