Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Networked Human, Network’S Human: Humans In Networks Inter-Asia, Eric Kerr, Connor Graham, Alfred Montoya

Alfred Montoya

This special issue explores the conceptions of the human that emerge out of the form and the design of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Geographically, our focus compares two countries with a relatively high level of ICT penetration—South Korea and Singapore—and two countries with a relatively low level—India and Vietnam. In each country we see how different forms of the human emerge, in part out of the ways in which technological infrastructure develop and intertwine with social order. In this introduction we reflect on the long genealogy of “human” and “humanity” and the more recent history of ICTs in Asia.

Waste And Waste Management, Joshua Reno

Joshua Reno

Discard studies have demonstrated that waste is more than just a symptom of an all-too-human demand for meaning or a merely technical problem for sanitary engineers and public health officials. The afterlife of waste materials and processes of waste management reveal the centrality of transient and discarded things for questions of materiality and ontology and marginal and polluting labor and environmental justice movements, as well as for critiques of the exploitation and deferred promises of modernity and imperial formations. There is yet more waste will tell us, especially as more studies continue to document the many ways that our wastes …

Value For Money In International Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Policies: Survey Of African States, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

The international evidence suggests that public private partnership (PPP) procurement methods using value for money evaluation criteria are delivering better infrastructure services at lower cost than traditional procurement methods. Central to the operation of public private partnerships is the systematic evaluation of the procurement options available to government, as well as an output specification to encourage private design, risk transfer, construction and operational innovation, the detailed analysis of projects over their operational life cycle, a rigorous and competitive bid process, and the selection of proposals that deliver value for money. Value for money is a measure that takes into account …

Value For Money In International Infrastructure Public Private Partnership Policies: Survey Of African States, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Jim Smith

The international evidence suggests that public private partnership (PPP) procurement methods using value for money evaluation criteria are delivering better infrastructure services at lower cost than traditional procurement methods. Central to the operation of public private partnerships is the systematic evaluation of the procurement options available to government, as well as an output specification to encourage private design, risk transfer, construction and operational innovation, the detailed analysis of projects over their operational life cycle, a rigorous and competitive bid process, and the selection of proposals that deliver value for money. Value for money is a measure that takes into account …

Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert Hockett, Saule Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

The recent financial crisis brought into sharp relief fundamental questions about the social function and purpose of the financial system, including its relation to the “real” economy. This Article argues that, to answer these questions, we must recapture a distinctively American view of the proper relations among state, financial market, and development. This programmatic vision – captured in what we call a “developmental finance state” – is based on three key propositions: (1) that economic and social development is not an “end-state” but a continuing national policy priority; (2) that the modalities of finance are the most potent means of …

Asean Public Private Partnership Guidelines, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

The ASEAN PPP Guidelines are designed for ASEAN nations and provide a common set of policy principles for member countries. The Guidelines offer a broad framework based on best practice standards that will help government departments to manage the processes and procedures that need to be taken when implementing PPP projects. In this respect, common policy principles provide consistency, confidence and certainty to foreign private investors and help facilitate cross-border PPP projects and enhance greater connectivity through harmonisation of member’s regulatory requirements. ASEAN nations will already have in place PPP laws and policies, and many international agencies provide financial assistance …

Financing Asean Connectivity, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

In line with the globalisation trend, it becomes inevitable for the South East Asian economies to prepare themselves to move towards the path of a more border-less and well-connected world. Evidence has shown that countries can gain a lot from internationalisation, especially from trade, knowledge and information exchanges, and flows of people and goods. One of the key targets of ASEAN in achieving a dynamic, vibrant, globally connected and strong region is to fully realise ASEAN Connectivity which consists of three pillars, namely, physical connectivity, people-to-people connectivity, and institutional connectivity. Physical connectivity is especially important because it is not only …

Understanding The Contribution Of Highway Investment To National Economic Growth: Comments On Mamuneas’S Study, Randall W. Eberts

Randall W. Eberts

This paper reviews and summarizes current literature by Theofanis P.Mamuneas (2008) and Mamuneas with M. Ishaq Nadiri (2003) on the returns to highway investments. This paper first provides an overview of the conceptual relationship between highways and output. The next section describes the highway capital stock estimated by Fraumeni and used by Mamuneas. Next, the paper describes the study conducted by Mamuneas and analyzes the results for consistency within the modeling framework and in context with other studies. The paper then briefly summarizes the broad range of estimates from the literature to offer additional context. Finally, the paper offers an …

The Urban, Infrastructural Geography Of ‘The Cloud’ Looking At Where Data Moves, Where It *Lives*, Alan Wiig

Alan Wiig

Primary Health Centres And Patients Satisfaction Level In Haripad Community Development Block Of Kerala, India, Pankaj Roy

Pankaj Roy

Rail Track Infrastructure For Enhanced Speed - Analysis Design And Construction Challenges, Buddhima Indraratna, Sanjay Shrawan Nimbalkar, Jayan Sylaja J S Vinod

Buddhima Indraratna

Rail is one of the largest transportation modes offering freight and passenger traffic in rapidly developing nations, including India. Conscious efforts to improve productivity, modernization and technology upgrading have led to an impressive growth in railways. Large-scale physical modeling, sophisticated numerical modeling and full-scale field monitoring often provide significant knowledge to better understand track performance and to extend the current state-of-the-art in design. A series of large-scale laboratory tests were conducted to establish relationships between (i) ballast breakage and train speed, (ii) ballast fouling and strength and (iii) interface strength and geogrids. Comprehensive field trials were carried out on instrumented …

Does The Quality Of Electricity Matter? Evidence From Rural India, Ujjayant Chakravorty, Martino Pelli, Beyza Ural Marchand

Ujjayant Chakravorty

This paper estimates the returns to household income due to improved access to electricity in rural India. We examine the effect of connecting a household to the grid and of the quality of electricity, defined as hours of daily supply. The analysis is based on two rounds of a representative panel of more than 10,000 households. We use the district-level density of transmission cables as instrument for the electrification status of the household. We find that a grid connection increases non-agricultural incomes of rural households by about 9 percent during the study period (1994-2005). However, a grid connection and a …

Everyday Landmarks Of Networked Urbanism: Cellular Antenna Sites And The Infrastructure Of Mobile Communication In Philadelphia, Alan Wiig

Alan Wiig

Don't Blame Faculty For High Tuition: The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession, 2003-04, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The bottom line is that although faculty and staff salary in-creases obviously contribute to increases in tuition, other factors have played more important roles during the last quarter century. These factors include the escalating costs of benefits for all employees, reductions in state support of public institutions, growing institutional financial-aid costs, expansion of the science and research infrastructure at research universities, and the increasing costs of information technology. If tuition and fee increases had been held to the rate of average faculty salary increases during this period, average tuition and fees would be substantially lower today in both the …

Unequal Progress: The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession 2002-03, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Most colleges and universities adopted budgets for the 2002-03 academic year in the spring and early summer of 2002. At that time, a pessimist might have cited several factors – negative rates of return from institutional endowments, a rising unemployment rate, an economic recession, and large increases in college and university enrollments, for example - to predict that faculty members would not see their earnings increase substantially in real terms in the coming year. The good news is that, overall and on average, the pessimists' worst fears proved incorrect. The bad news is that the overall aver-ages don't tell …

Challenges For Development In 21st Century (B.R. Publications, Delhi, 2011), A Book Authored By Dr. Ruby Ojha & Book Review By Prof. Vibhuti Patel, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

This book makes a path-breaking contribution to encourage discourse on some of the most neglected areas in the mainstream economics. This scholarly contribution towards understanding of the macro-economic parameters affecting development economics goes beyond economic history and examines wide range of contemporary development problems. The provides up-to-date reference material for development economics, gender economics, International Trade and Economics of infrastructure. The scholar has examined wide range of contemporary concerns in development studies using prism of economics. She has touched specialized areas such as gender economics, environmental economics and inter-disciplinary work on social sector of the economy. International Trade and Economics …

Converging And Coexisting Systems Towards Smart Surveillance, Katina Michael, Mg Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Tracking and monitoring people as they operate within their personal networks benefits service providers and their constituents but involves hidden risks and costs.

Automatic identification technologies, CCTV cameras, pervasive and mobile networks, wearable computing, location-based services and social networks have traditionally served distinct purposes. However, we have observed patterns of integration, convergence and coexistence among all these innovations within the information and communication technology industry.1For example, ‘location-based social networking’ can draw on a smart phone's capacity to identify a user uniquely, locate him within 1–2m and share this information across his social network in real time. The resulting ability to …

Unearthing The Infrastructure: Humans And Sensors In Field-Based Scientific Research, Matthew S. Mayernik, Jillian C. Wallis, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

Distributed sensing systems for studying scientific phenomena are critical applications of information technologies. By embedding computational intelligence in the environment of study, sensing systems allow researchers to study phenomena at spatial and temporal scales that were previously impossible to achieve. We present an ethnographic study of field research practices among researchers in the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation Science & Technology Center devoted to developing wireless sensing systems for scientific and social applications. Using the concepts of boundary objects and trading zones, we trace the processes of collaborative research around sensor technology development and adoption …

Australia's Hybrid Approach To Project Finance, Pierre Tapper, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Extract: Project finance generally refers to long-term, limited recourse debt structured to meet the specific requirements of capital-intensive resource and infrastructure projects. Project finance is designed to the strength of future cash flow and there is less reliance on more traditional credit benchmarks such as the credit standing of the borrower and the security value of the asset being financed.

Infrastructure For Economic Growth And Development: The Financing Gap, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Extract: Infrastructure is one of the most important tools for accelerating economic development in developing and transition economies. However, the benefits are not always uniform across nations; the results vary significantly between industries, and improved social returns from additional investment have more to do with the procurement method and operational efficiencies than the amount of money that is employed. This article provides a review of the role that infrastructure plays in strengthening economic development and poverty reduction and reducing trade costs to support improved regional cooperation and integration in Commonwealth countries.

Public-Private Collaborations: The Case Of Atlanta Metro Community Improvement District Alliance, Andrew Ewoh, Ulf Zimmermann

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Globally business improvement districts have proliferated as the most influential public-private mechanisms for revitalizing business districts and promoting infrastructure improvement projects. Community improvement districts in Georgia share the same characteristics of business improvement districts (BIDs) as in other states or countries. The Georgia constitution enables the state legislature to create BIDs, called community improvement districts (CIDs) in Georgia, in any city or county or any combination thereof to deliver public services. This analysis explores the CIDs' governance structures, financing mechanisms, and promotion strategies through CIDs' provision in various projects and their impacts in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The paper begins …

Implementation Issues For Mobile-Wireless Infrastructure And Mobile Health Care Computing Devices For A Hospital Ward Setting, Liza Heslop, Stephen Weeding, Linda Dawson, Julie Fisher, Andrew Howard

Associate Professor Linda Dawson

mWard is a project whose purpose is to enhance existing clinical and administrative decision support and to consider mobile computers, connected via wireless network, for bringing clinical information to the point of care. The mWard project allowed a limited number of users to test and evaluate a selected range of mobile-wireless infrastructure and mobile health care computing devices at the neuroscience ward at Southern Health’s Monash Medical Centre, Victoria, Australia. Before the project commenced, the ward had two PC’s which were used as terminals by all ward-based staff and numerous multidisciplinary staff who visited the ward each day. The first …

Critical Foundations: Providing Australia’S 21st Century Infrastructure, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

Extract:

Infrastructure is undoubtedly the least understood of the major asset classes in Australia. A tradition of public ownership and operation, its status as a public good and a lack of information about its investment characteristics in both public and private hands has contributed to limited recognition of its role in national and regional economies. However, this situation is changing. A coincidence of political, economic and financial events in the lead up to the worldwide economic recession of the late 1980s and Australia's microeconomic reforms of the 1990s b[r]ought into sharper focus the central role that infrastructure plays in both …

Water Allocation Under Distribution Losses: Comparing Alternative Institutions, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Eithan Hochman, Chieko Umetsu, David Zilberman

Ujjayant Chakravorty

The distribution of water resources is characterized by increasing returns to scale. Distribution links water generation to its end-use. Standard economic analysis overlooks the interaction among these micro-markets - generation, distribution and end-use. We compare water allocation when there is market power in each micro-market. These outcomes are compared with benchmark cases - social planning and a competitive business-as-usual regime. Simulations suggest that institutions with market power in generation and end-use generate significantly higher welfare than the distribution monopoly and the competitive regime. However, if the policy goal is to maximize the size of the grid, a distribution monopoly is …

A Documentary Of Innovation Support Among New World Wine Industries, D. K. Aylward

David K. Aylward

During the past two decades, the international wine industry has undergone a ‘seismic shift’. Old World producers no longer dominate production, export and marketing of wine to the extent that they once did. Instead, New World producers such as California, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have successfully married production, management, marketing and innovation to emerge as a new force on the global wine landscape. It is the innovation supports within these selected New World industries that this paper seeks to document, in order to highlight different approaches and outcomes and how they may or may not contribute to an …