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Operationalising conceptual structure
Get PDFWhen discussing the structure of political and social concepts, writers in the humanities and social sciences often make use of metaphors that suggest structured and networked representations. Perhaps responding to these metaphors, or perhaps simply because of the striking nature of the images that can be produced, researchers in digital humanities have begun to produce network diagrams in order to illustrate the connections among concepts. Since at least the work of WB Gallie on essentially contested concepts, writers often described concepts as having a “common core” shared among multiple “conceptions” — possible versions of concepts that may be held at different times or in different cultures, sharing a core meaning but differing in their “periphery” or their “topography”1. Working in the same area of political theory, Michael Freeden allows that particular descriptions are not only normative but “empirically ascertainable and describable
Britain in fragments: why things are falling apart
No full textBook synopsis: Britain today is falling apart. One of the most dominant states in world history finds itself confronted with growing demands for nationalist secessionism. Brexit has already secured its break from the European Union while looming Scottish independence threatens to undermine the integrity of the British state. Meanwhile, class, gender, regional and generational inequalities are deepening while endemic racism has been re-invigorated. How has it come to this?
Britain in fragments traces how the historic pillars sustaining the democratic settlement have begun to crumble. This stability was constructed amid a century of imperial expansion abroad and working-class struggles for justice at home. The post-war welfare state was the apex of this historic arrangement; however, the ground beneath it began to shake as the processes of decolonisation and neoliberalism unfolded.
This book traces how successive Labour and Conservative governments have incrementally dismantled the democratic settlement. A bipartisan commitment to neoliberalism has culminated in a historic crisis of representation and legitimacy, opening the door to competing nationalist forces
Citizens’ acceptance of Artificial Intelligence in public services: evidence from a conjoint experiment about processing permit applications
Get PDFCitizens’ acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) in public service delivery is important for its legitimate and effective use by government. Human involvement in AI systems has been suggested as a way to boost citizens’ acceptance and perceptions of these systems’ fairness. However, there is little empirical evidence to assess these claims. To address this gap, we conducted a pre-registered conjoint experiment in the UK regarding acceptance of AI in processing public permits: for immigration visas and parking permits. We hypothesise that greater human involvement boosts acceptance of AI in decision-making and associated perceptions of its fairness. We further hypothesise that greater human involvement mitigates the negative impact of certain AI features, such as inaccuracy, high cost, or data sharing. From our study, we find that more human involvement tends to increase acceptance, and that perceptions of fairness were less influenced. Yet, when substantial human discretion was introduced in parking permit scenarios, respondents preferred more limited human input. We found little evidence that human involvement moderates the impact of AI’s unfavourable attributes. System-level factors such as high accuracy, the presence of an appeals system, increased transparency, reduced cost, non-sharing of data, and the absence of private company involvement all boost both acceptance and perceived procedural fairness. We find limited evidence that individual characteristics affect these results. The findings show how the design of AI systems can increase its acceptability to citizens for use in public services
The Mysterious California Mansion that Spawned a Haunted House Craze
No full textMore than a hundred rooms. Stairs leading nowhere. A maze of empty corridors. The eerie Winchester House was one of the first to draw tourists seeking spine-chilling thrills
Unlocking co-creation for green innovation: 10 international case studies
Get PDFDocument associated with policy paper titled "Unlocking co-creation for green innovation : an exploration of the diverse contributions of universities." OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers #163, ISSN 2307-495
Consumer perception and willingness to pay for packaged Asaana: a traditional drink in Ghana
Get PDFPurpose - In view of the increasing trend in food policies targeting the promotion of consumer interest in locally produced foods and growing developments in Willingness to Pay (WTP) methodologies, 8 we investigate consumer preference for packaged traditional drink Asaana.
Design/methodology/approach – The study used a simple random sample of 336 consumers to draw on perception index and contingent valuation methods to evaluate consumers' perception of the attributes of packaged Asaana - a traditional maize-based beverage produced in Ghana (also known as Ghana Coca Cola). Tobit regression model was employed to analyse consumers’ willingness to pay for the product.
Findings – Analysing the factors that influence consumers' WTP for packaged Asaana using Tobit regression model, the study established the existence of positive health and nutrition, economic benefits and purchasing decision making perceptions for Asaana. While the results further showed that consumers are willing to pay a premium for well packaged Asaana, demographics such as age, income level, labelling, price of the product and savings were found to exert significant influence on consumers’ WTP for packaged Asaana. Salient recommendations for food processors and relevant government agencies and food policy implications are identified.
Research limitations/implications – Comprehending WTP provides valuable understanding regarding consumer qualms, actions, and willingness to pay for more secure traditional drinks. In addition, examination of how the different factors influence willingness to pay for local beverages help to boost local beverage production and guarantee employment.
Practical implications – Analysing WTP data for traditional drinks reveals important implications for production, marketing, and public health policies. Certification systems for traditional beverages may be beneficial, and the findings can be used to create public awareness campaigns about the safety of local drinks.
Originality/value – Assessing the WTP among Ghanaian consumers for traditional drinks, specifically Asaana is a ground breaking study. The contingent evaluation (CE) and Tobit regression approaches utilized in this research are strong and the results obtained can guide decisions related to traditional drink production, marketing, and the development of public health policies
Human capital and financial development: firm-level interactions and macroeconomic implications
Get PDFCapital-skill complementarity in production implies non-trivial interactions between the
availability of human capital and financial constraints. Firms that are constrained in their
access to finance hire a lower proportion of skilled workers than do unconstrained firms. Conversely, a lack of human capital increases skilled wages, reducing firms’ desired capital intensity
and thus loosening firms’ effective financial constraints. To assess the macroeconomic implications of such firm-level interactions, we build an occupational-choice model with capital-skill
complementarity in production, which we calibrate to US data. We vary financial frictions,
educational attainment, and total factor productivity across countries, and we quantify how
aggregate output, wage inequality, and entrepreneurship are affected by these variations. For
aggregate output, the joint effect of both factors is, on average 30 % larger than the sum of the
individual effects. Taking the educational attainment of the population as given, in countries
with a negligible share of tertiary educated workers and low TFP, financial development has
only small effects on aggregate output
Jewerye, Juerie (Jewry)
No full textA brief entry on the idea of the jewry (an urban area of Jewish settlement) in medieval Englan
Retract this!
No full textToday’s big news is that Crossref has acquired the Retraction Watch database of expressions of concerns and retractions and has made it openly accessible to anyone who wants to use it. I’m waiting for full confirmation of the license or public domain dedication under which it will be released, but this is still a great commitment of Crossref to the POSI principles. The liberation of this database is good for science and scholarship in general. It means that Crossref now knows about approximately 50,000 retractions
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